in. Miladi seems highly
literary,--to which, and your honour's acquaintance with the family,
I attribute the pleasure of having seen them. She is also very
pretty, even in a morning,--a species of beauty on which the sun of
Italy does not shine so frequently as the chandelier. Certainly,
English-women wear better than their continental neighbours of the
same sex. M---- seems very good-natured, but is much tamed, since I
recollect him in all the glory of gems and snuff-boxes, and uniforms,
and theatricals, and speeches in our house--'I mean, of peers,'--(I
must refer you to Pope--who you don't read and won't appreciate--for
that quotation, which you must allow to be poetical,) and sitting to
Stroeling, the painter, (do you remember our visit, with Leckie, to
the German?) to be depicted as one of the heroes of Agincourt, 'with
his long sword, saddle, bridle, Whack fal de, &c. &c.'

"I have been unwell--caught a cold and inflammation, which menaced a
conflagration, after dining with our ambassador, Monsieur Hill,--not
owing to the dinner, but my carriage broke down in the way home, and
I had to walk some miles, up hill partly, after hot rooms, in a very
bleak, windy evening, and over-hotted, or over-colded myself. I have
not been so robustious as formerly, ever since the last summer, when
I fell ill after a long swim in the Mediterranean, and have never
been quite right up to this present writing. I am thin,--perhaps
thinner than you saw me, when I was nearly transparent, in 1812,--and
am obliged to be moderate of my mouth; which, nevertheless, won't
prevent me (the gods willing) from dining with your friends the day
after to-morrow.

"They give me a very good account of you, and of your nearly
'Emprisoned Angels.' But why did you change your title?--you will
regret this some day. The bigots are not to be conciliated; and, if
they were--are they worth it? I suspect that I am a more orthodox
Christian than you are; and, whenever I see a real Christian, either
in practice or in theory, (for I never yet found the man who could
produce either, when put to the proof,) I am his disciple. But, till
then, I cannot truckle to tithe-mongers,--nor can I imagine what has
made _you_ circumcise your Seraphs.

"I have been far more persecuted than you, as you may judge by my
present decadence,--for I take it that I am as low in popularity and
book-selling as any writer can be. At least, so my friends assure
me--blessings on their ben