Your brother is determined to go to Bristol in ten days: our summer, which nobody but the almanack has the confidence to say is not winter, is so cold that he does not advance at all. If his temper was at all in the power of accidents, it would be affected enough just now to affect his health! What a figure we would make in a catalogue of philosophers or martyrs! His wife's aunt, Mrs. Forth, who has always promised him the half of her fortune, which is at least thirty thousand pounds, is dead, and has left him only two thousand pounds. He sent for your brother Ned this morning to talk to him upon some other business, and it was with such unaffected cheerfulness, that your eldest brother concluded he was reserving the notification of a legacy of at least ten thousand pounds for the bonne bouche; but he can bear his wife, and then what are disappointments? Pray, my dear child, be humble, and don't imagine that yours is the only best temper in the world. I pretend so little to a good one, that it is no merit in me to be out of all patience.
My uncle's ambition and dirt are crowned at last: he is a peer.(686) Lord Chief Justice Ryder, who was to have kissed hands with him on Monday, was too ill, and died on Tuesday;(687) but I believe his son will save the peerage.
We know nothing yet of Minorca, and seem to think so little of our war, that to pass away his time, Mars is turned Impresario: in short, the Duke has taken the Opera-house for the ensuing season. There has been a contest between the manager Vanneschi and the singers Mingotti and Ricciarelli;(688) the Duke patronizes the Mingotti and lists under her standard. She is a fine singer, an admirable actress; I cannot say her temper is entirely so sweet as your brother's.
May 30th, Arlington Street,
See what a country gentleman I am! One cannot stir ten miles from London without coming to believe what one hears, and without supposing that whatever should be done, will be done. The Opera-house is still in dispute between Signor Guglielmo and Signor Vanneschi—and Mr. Ryder(689) will not get the peerage; for coronets are not forfeited by worthlessness, but by misfortune. My lord Chief Justice misses one by only dying, my uncle gets one by living!
I this moment receive your letter of the 15th. We had picked up by scrambling accounts pretty much what you tell me of Minorca; but hitherto we only live on comparing dates.
I can add nothing to what I have said in the article of your brother. I am going to send the papers to Lord Macclesfield.(690) Adieu!
P. S. It is uncertain who will be Chief Justice; Murray could have no competitor, but the Duke of Newcastle cannot part with him from the House of Commons.(691)
(686) Through the zeal of his friend Lord Hardwicke, and the influence of the Cavendish party, the repugnance of the King was overcome, and Horatio Walpole, on the 1st of June, was elevated to the peerage, by the title of Lord Walpole of Wolterton.-E.
(687) On the 24th of May, the King signed a warrant for raising Sir Dudley Ryder to the peerage, but he died before the patent was completed.-E.