Whilst this correspondence would seem to show that Sir Robert was not altogether disinclined to enter into secret negotiations with the Pretender, it must be remembered that up to comparatively recent times statesmen at the head of affairs were much given to employing secret agents for the purpose of obtaining information—very often without the knowledge of the Government over which they presided. Cavour, I believe, was about the last to employ these methods, and it is said that though he was very much given to this sort of thing, he never obtained any good by it, as the agents he employed never reported anything of the slightest value, most of their communications being absolutely unreliable and untrue. Mr. Carte, however, appears to have really enjoyed the confidence of the Pretender, and the whole correspondence is somewhat interesting as showing the great amount of intrigue and love of secret negotiation which prevailed at the period of the eighteenth century when this memorandum was drawn up. ----- [2] The site of Sir Robert’s house in Chelsea is now covered by Walpole Street, which traverses the ground upon which his mansion stood. INDEX Advertisement, a curious, 305 Agnew, Sir William, 212 Aidé, Mr. Hamilton, and his paintings, 191 Ailesbury, Maria, Marchioness of, her appearance, economies, and one extravagance, 39 Ainsworth, Harrison, 42 Airlie, Countess of, and her garden of friendship, 244-245 Albert Gate, Hudson’s house at, 293; stone stags at, 164 Aldershot in 1860, Bernal Osborne’s criticism on, 66 Alexandra, Queen, 155; her dogs, 233 Algerian corsairs, a prisoner of, alive in 1854, 89 Algiers in 1861, a letter on, from Cobden, 240 Amelia, Princess, statue of George III. erected by, in Berkeley Square, 150 American girl, the, her conquest of English society, 33 invasion, the, 30, 33 Amusements and entertainments, recollections of, 246 _et seq._ Anglo-American marriages, 30, 33 Angoulème, Duchesse de, and her brother’s escape, 116, 119; her Memoirs, 119 Annesley, Lady (_née_ Grant), famous portrait of, 188 Apethorpe, needlework carpet at, 50 Apsley House entertainments, forbidden ground to the Press, 27-28 Aquarium, 249 Architecture in London, eccentricities of, 140-141, 144-145 Art in the Victorian era, 40 Artist acquaintances, 188 _et seq._ Ashburnham Iron Furnace, extinction of (1825), 282 Ashburton, Lord, the late, and the English truffle, 131 Ashley, Hon. Evelyn, and the _Owl_, 16 Astley, Miss, and the customs, 120 Atheism, Russian, story of, 302 Atkyns, Mrs. (_née_ Charlotte Walpole), her efforts to save the Dauphin (Louis XVII.), 110; ingratitude of Louis XVIII., 111; her Memorial at Ketteringham, a print of her in character, 112-113; a letter from her to Mr. Perceval, 113-114 Author, the, her bad handwriting, 71; her long ride in the ’thirties, 233; portraits of, and of her sister, 188, 189