[27] Walpole had given this Chinese name to a pond of gold-fish at Strawberry Hill. [28] It was written by Mrs. Halket of Wardlaw. Mr. Lockhart states, that on the blank leaf of his copy of Allan Ramsay’s “Evergreen,” Sir Walter Scott has written, “Hardyknute was the first poem that I ever learnt, the last that I shall forget.” [29] The “Siege of Aquileia,” a tragedy, by John Home, produced at Drury Lane, 21st February, 1760. [30] The living of Coxwold, in Yorkshire. [31] “My flatterers here are all mutes. The oaks, the beeches, the chestnuts, seem to contend which best shall please the Lord of the Manor. They cannot deceive, they will not lie.”--_Sir Robert Walpole to General Churchill_, Houghton, June 24th, 1743. [32] “Queen Charlotte had always been if not ugly, at least ordinary, but in her later years her want of personal charms became of course less observable, and it used to be said that she was grown better looking. I one day said something to this effect to Colonel Disbrowe, her Chamberlain. ‘Yes,’ replied he, ‘I do think that the _bloom_ of her ugliness is going off.’”--CROKER. [33] “The recluse life led here at Richmond, which is carried to such an excess of privacy and economy, that the Queen’s friseur waits on them at dinner, and that four pounds only of beef are allowed for their soup, disgusts all sorts of people.”--_Walpole to Lord Hertford, Sep. 9, 1764._ [34] Walpole was thinking of an anecdote he had told in a previous letter. “The old Maréchale de Villars gave a vast dinner [at Paris] to the Duchess of Bedford. In the middle of the dessert, Madame de Villars called out, ‘Oh dear! they have forgot! yet I bespoke them, and I am sure they are ready; you English love hot rolls--bring the rolls.’ There arrived a huge dish of hot rolls, and a sauce-boat of melted butter.” [35] “The Duc de Nivernois [the French ambassador] called here the other day in his way from Hampton Court; but, as the most sensible French never have eyes to see anything, unless they see it every day and see it in fashion, I cannot say he flattered me much, or was much struck with Strawberry. When I carried him into the Cabinet, which I have told you is formed upon the idea of a Catholic chapel, he pulled off his hat, but perceiving his error, he said, ‘_Ce n’est pas une chapelle pourtant_,’ and seemed a little displeased.”--_Walpole to Mann, April 30, 1763._ [36] “Esher’s peaceful grove Where Kent and Nature vie for Pelham’s love.”--_Pope._ “Esher’s groves, Where, in the sweetest solitude, embraced By the soft windings of the silent Mole, From courts and senates Pelham finds repose.”--_Thomson._ [37] Mrs. Anne Pitt, sister of Lord Chatham. [38] Miss Chudleigh. [39] Afterwards Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland. [40] The old Bedlam stood in Moorfields.