miliating Convention of Schoenbrunn, whereby
Prussia agreed to make certain cessions of territory on condition of
acquiring Hanover. About Christmastide Frederick William decided to
close with this offer, which involved the expulsion of the Anglo-Russian
force from the Electorate. Premonitory signs of this change of front
were soon visible at Berlin. Indeed, the trend of Prussian policy during
the last decade prepared the British Ministry for the ruin of their
hopes. Pitt must have been racked with anxiety lest Prussia should doff
the lion's skin and don that of the jackal; for he alone knew of the
nervous breakdown of Harrowby.

Perhaps it was the hope of helping on that negotiation from Downing
Street, added to the verdict of Sir Walter Farquhar that the Bath waters
were now of no avail, which induced him on 9th January to set out on his
homeward journey. He was believed to be in better health than at the
time of his arrival; such at least was the announcement of the "Bath
Herald" on the 11th; and his hopeful outlook appears in a curious detail
which afterwards came to light. In order to beguile the tedium of the
journey he had taken out from a circulating library in Bath the
following works, each in two volumes, "The Secret History of the Court
of Petersburg," and Schiller's "History of the Thirty Years' War."[773]
A man who believes death to be near does not undertake a study of the
manifold intrigues of Catharine II, or of the Thirty Years' War. He also
had the prospect of seeing the liveliest and most devoted of friends,
Canning, at his country home, South Hill, Bracknell, in Windsor Forest.
Canning sent the invitation on the 5th, and it was accepted on the 8th
in terms which implied a sojourn of some days. He offered to accompany
him from Bath, if he felt strong enough to converse on the way; but Pitt
declined this offer, and it is doubtful whether he stayed at South Hill;
for Malmesbury declares that he had to remain a long time in bed at
Reading. On the other hand the Bishop of Lincoln declared that the
journey took only two days, and that at its close Pitt showed no very
marked signs of fatigue. Lady Hester Stanhope, however, was shocked by
his wasted appearance on reaching his home, Bowling Green House, on
Putney Heath.

Some eighteen months earlier he had leased that residence. It stands on
the (old) Portsmouth Road, and had earlier been an inn frequented by
lovers of that game and patrons of cockfighting.