as I may not have time, Dr. Berkenhout proposes to do it, and will write mine into the bargain, if I will but be so good as to write it first and send it him, and give him advice for the conduct of his work, and point out materials, and furnish him with anecdotes. “My dear madam, what if you should send him this letter as a specimen of my life! Alas, alas! I have already lost my lilac tide. I have heard but one nightingale this year, and my farmer cut my hay last Tuesday morning without telling me, just as I was going to London. Is it to be borne? O for the _sang-froid_ of an Almackian, who pursues his delights, “‘Though in the jaws of ruin and codille!’” CHAPTER VI. Lord Nuneham.--Madame de Sévigné.--Charles Fox.--Mrs. Clive and Cliveden.--Goldsmith and Garrick.--Dearth of News.--Madame de Trop.--A Bunch of Grapes.--General Election.--Perils by Land and Water.--Sir Horace Mann.--Lord Clive.--The History of Manners.--A Traveller from Lima.--The Sçavoir Vivre Club.--Reflections on Life.--The Pretender’s Happiness.--Paris Fashions.--Madame Du Deffand ill.--Growth of London.--Sir Joshua Reynolds.--Change in Manners.--Our Climate. The following letter is a specimen of Horace’s gossiping style at its best. It is addressed to Lord Nuneham, who was in Ireland with his father, Simon Earl Harcourt, the then Lord-Lieutenant. Elsewhere Walpole salutes his correspondent as “Your O’Royal Highness”: “Strawberry Hill, Dec. 6, 1773.