[39] Afterwards Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland.
[40] The old Bedlam stood in Moorfields.
[41] The substance of this petition, and the grave answer which the King was advised to give to such a ludicrous appeal, are preserved in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1765, p. 95; where also we learn that Mr. Walpole’s idea of the Carpenters’ petition was put in practice, and his Majesty was humbly entreated to wear a wooden leg himself, and to enjoin all his servants to do the same. It may, therefore, be presumed that this jeu d’esprit was from the pen of Mr. Walpole.
[42] “Their women are the first in the world in everything but beauty; sensible, agreeable, and infinitely informed. The philosophes, except Buffon, are solemn, arrogant, dictatorial coxcombs—I need not say superlatively disagreeable.”—Walpole to Mann.
[43] He alludes to his Roman Eagle at Strawberry Hill.
[44] The installation of the Duke of Grafton as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Gray wrote the Ode for the occasion.
[45] The proceedings of the House of Commons against Wilkes had just produced a Ministerial crisis.
[46] Maria Walpole, Countess Dowager of Waldegrave, who had now secretly married William Henry, Duke of Gloucester.
[47] Sons of Francis, Earl of Hertford, Mr. Walpole’s cousin-german.
[48] Mr. Walpole’s nephews.