“Lord Shelburne called here the other day to invite me to Bowood, to meet l’Abbé Raynal, who I knew at Paris, and two French countesses who brought letters to me from some of the _beaux esprits_ there; so to them I shall have an opportunity of expressing my regret at being out of town. But there is a Spanish Baron de Castile and some others who were also recommended to me, who I fear will depart with a bad opinion of my hospitality; for, twenty to one, my English porter in Hill Street could not make them understand, when they delivered their letters, that I was in the country. At present my scheme is to go to London for the melancholy pleasure of taking leave of the Lord Primate and my friend Mrs. Vesey.... When these friends leave London, I believe I shall set out for Mount Edgecumbe, having long promised Lady Edgecumbe a visit, and shall carry Montagu with me, who is a schoolfellow of Mr. Edgecumbe, and is much invited.... Mr. and Mrs. Vesey are going to Mr. Burke’s, at Beaconsfield, who has kindly asked me to be of the party; but I shall be a good while absent from Sandleford, and have many domestick matters to settle before I depart. I had a most polite, entertaining letter the other day from my Brother Robinson. I wish we two honest farmers lived nearer together with brotherly love and rural sincerity. I flatter myself we should be very happy; but in this short life, how short a time does one enjoy the friends one loves. “... In spite of my cure and Doctor Fothergill’s skill, I have made but a poor progress towards health.... My nerves mend, but I cannot better bear the noise of a cannon now than I could the report of a pistol when I first return’d to Hill Street. My doctor keeps me very quiet. He will not allow me to see the wise, the witty, or the fashionable world. I have not dined below stairs these four or five days. The doctor has to-day begun to try a new medicine; but I have as little faith in doctors of physick as some of my family have in doctors of divinity. I imagine my fever at Canterbury was the influenza, which has lately raged so much. It leaves people very weak, and much affects the nerves. Some have lost their speech for a few days; others their hearing. My Northumberland steward and my brother who left London when I did, were both taken ill on the road. I believe fatigue of preparation for my foreign journey did me some harm; but I believe my principal illness was owing to contagion in the air. My servants have all been sick. None of my family have escaped but Miss Gregory and Matt. “The patriots are rather in despair of changing the ministry. This may damp their ambition, but will keep their patriotism in its vigour. There is something so mortal to patriotism in a place, that one can never wish those who have assumed that character to sacrifice it to the emoluments of an employment....