who despairs of being enabled to do any essential good, and would indeed be grieved to do hurt, as far as his lights carry him. Accept then, my Lord, the sincere wishes of a Somersetshire by-stander, that the course of affairs may be so fortunate and happy in your hands, as to make your Grace as full of ardour for business, as I am of disrelish for the political scene, for which I am on so many accounts so very unfit. I have the honour to be, with the truest sentiments of esteem and respect, Your Grace's most obedient, and most humble servant, W. PITT. Inclosed I return Mr. Hopkins's letter to your Grace. THE DUKE OF GRAFTON TO MR. PITT. Bond Street, September 16, 1765, at night. DEAR SIR, As I received the inclosed from Mr. Fraser, one of my secretaries, who had it from the hereditary Prince of Brunswick, with an express desire that it might be conveyed to you by the most secure method, I chose to send it by a messenger, as most suitable to the Prince who sent it, as well as to the person to whom it is directed. Give me leave only to add, that I have made no other use of the letter I was honoured with from you last, but to say to Mr. Hopkins, that he might declare from me, that there must be necessarily some misrepresentation of what had really passed between us at Hayes. I flatter myself that you will not disapprove of this step; which, considering the accusation against me, is but slight. I have the honour to be, with every sentiment of the most perfect esteem and respect, Dear Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, GRAFTON. PRINCE CHARLES OF BRUNSWICK TO MR. PITT. MONSIEUR, Londres, ce 13e Septembre, 1765. Je ne puis me dispenser de vous marquer notre arrivée en Angleterre; qui me fait un plaisir d'autant plus sensible, que je me flatte de jouir, durant ce séjour d'avantage qu'au dernier, de la satisfaction de vous voir, et de vous dire combien nous prenons d'intérêt à tout ce qui vous touche; que la nation Anglaise n'est pas la seule qui vous rend justice et qui vous admire, mais que le reste de l'Europe observe vos démarches depuis que vous avez quitté le ministère, avec ce même intérêt qu'elle le faisoit lors que vous décidiez du sort des états: ce qui prouve, que le vrai grand homme ne dépend jamais des événemens. Il ne vous sera pas difficile, Monsieur, de juger quelles sont nos vœux quant à vous, dans la situation présente des affaires de ce pays-ci. Je saiserai le premier instant qui vous raprochera de Londres, pour vous rendre mes devoirs. Attendant ce moment avec l'empressement le plus vif, je ne désire rien d'avantage que de vous prouver, que c'est avec l'estime et la considération la plus distinguée, que j'ai l'honneur d'être, Monsieur, votre, &c. CHARLES, PRINCE HÉRÉDITAIRE DE BRUNSWIC. La Princesse, mon épouse, me charge de ses complimens pour vous. MR. PITT TO THOMAS NUTHALL, ESQ. (1) Burton Pynsent, September 15, 1765. DEAR NUTHALL, ENCLOSED I trouble you with a letter for Count Algarotti (2), which I beg the favour of you to put (1) In the preceding July, Mr. Nuthall was appointed solicitor of the Treasury, by Lord Rockingham. In announcing the appointment to Mr. Pitt, he says, "I am very sensible, however widely removed you are at present from the great scene of action, that not my merits, but the friendship with which you have honoured me, has produced to me this promotion, and therefore I look up to you, as I always have done and always will do, as my great benefactor and patron; begging leave to add this assurance, that I shall be more ready to resign this office, than I was to accept it, whenever I shall see it necessary, for my support in it, to do any thing that I can even surmise to be repugnant to your generous and constitutional principles." (2) Count Bonomo Algarotti, brother and executor of FranSee p. 291. ceso. into Signor Zuccarelli's (1) own hand, desiring him, with a compliment from me, to forward it, under a proper direction, to Count Algarotti, and recommend particular care to him. I had written this letter to the Count, before I had received Zuccarelli's request on that head; which he might as well have spared, after leaving me in ignorance, for several months, that he was charged with a Jetter from the Count to me. So much for Italy. As to this place, I have nothing to boast of the present state of the inhabitants. Lady Chatham has been attacked with a feverish complaint, but is, thank God, better. My accident (2) is attended with some return of gout, but not violent. I am, however, from the bruise, extremely lame, and reduced back again to the crutches I had got rid of. I make a shift, notwithstanding, to enjoy the fine weather, and a pleasing scene about me (3), in a one-horse chair, (1) On the arrival of Signor Zuccarelli in England, he was entrusted, by the executors of Algarotti, to deliver to Mr. Pitt an antique cameo of the head of Hercules, &c., which the count had bequeathed to him; but being precluded, by Mr. Pitt's severe illness, from having a personal interview, he was desirous that a letter should be written to the executors, acknowledging the receipt of the bequest. This distinguished landscape painter, who was born at Florence in 1710, met with considerable encouragement in England and became a member of the Royal Academy. He afterwards returned with a competency to his native city, and died there in 1788. (2) A fall from his horse. (3) Of Burton-Pynsent, and the surrounding scenery, Collinson, in his History of Somerset, published in 1791, gives the following description: "The north side of the parish of and trust I shall soon be able to try my luck again upon a horse. As for the political scene, far removed from my corporeal eye, it is too much involved in darkness as yet, for the mental eye to pretend to pry into it('); Curry-Rivel is a bold ridge of hills, which rises, with a steep ascent, four hundred feet from West-Sedgmoor; the slope being finely waved, indented, and clothed with beautiful hanging woods: these woods alternately swell into bold projections, and recede into fine hollows, forming a grand profile, when viewed from the east or west. Within a cove, open to Sedgmoor, on the very top of this ridge, is Burton-Pynsent. The house is a large, irregular building, erected at different periods, and composed of various materials. The apartments are elegant, and contain some excellent pictures. The principal front is to the north, commanding a rich and very extensive prospect of all the flat country between Mendip and the Quantock hills, the channel, and Welch mountains. Immediately under the eye is a beautiful moor, level as a bowling-green, and covered with the finest verdure, to the extent of nearly six miles in length, and one to three miles in width, skirted thick with villages. From this point more than thirty churches may be distinctly seen. On the north-west point, at the distance of about two furlongs from the house, is a fine column of white stone, one hundred and forty feet high, built on a smooth green projecting knoll, with a steep declivity of more than three hundred feet down to the edge of the moor. This pillar was erected by the Earl of Chatham, to the memory of Sir William Pynsent. On one side of the pedestal, is the following inscription: 'Sacred to the Memory of Sir William Pynsent. "The south or back front of the house, looks into a park, perfectly level, finely wooded with large elm and other trees, and commanding a very fine view to the south, south-east, and south-west, bounded by that high ridge of land, which stretching from pleasure-grounds on the brow of the hill are elegantly disposed, and admit of great variety." (1) "I never remember in all my time," says Lord Chesterfield, writing in this month to his son, "to have seen so proble |