Madame d'Arblay to Dr. Burney.

Bookham, December 16, 1796.

WHAT cruel and most unnecessary disturbance might I have been spared if accident had not twice stood my enemy! All's well that ends well, however; and I will forget the inquietude, and all else that is painful, to dwell upon the sweet meeting in store, and the sight that my eye's mind, equally with my mind's eye, presents to me continually, of my innocent Alic restoring, by his playful spirits, the smiles of his dearest grandfather, whose heart, were it as hard as it is soft, could not resist what all mankind consent to find irresistible-the persuasive gaiety of happy childhood.

M. le Comte de Lally Tolendal, who has been on a visit to Norbury Park, says he can never forgive me the laugh I have brought against him by the scene of Sir Hugh on the birthday, 'tis so exactly the description of himself when an amiable child comes in his way. He left an only daughter in Paris, where she is now at school, under the superintendence of la Princesse de Poix, whose infirmities and constant illness have detained her in that wretched city during the whole Revolution, though under the compulsion of a pretended divorce from le Prince, who is in London. M. de Lally had just received, by a private hand, a letter from his daughter, now eleven years old, extremely pretty and touching, half in French, half in broken English, which language he has particularly ordered she may study, and enclosed a ribbon

with her height and breadth. She tells him she has just learnt by heart his translation of Pope's Universal Prayer,' and she hopes, when he comes to fetch her, he will meet her upon the Terrace, where she walks with her companions, and know her at once from everybody.

I, too, thought the prose of the Pursuits of Literature' too spirited and good for Mr. Mason, when compared with what I have seen of his general letters; but he has two styles, in prose as well as poetry, and I have seen compositions, rather than epistles, which he wrote formerly to Mrs. Delany, so full of satire, point, and epigrammatic severity and derision, upon those of their mutual acquaintance whom he confidentially named, that I feel not the least scruple for my opinion. In those letters with which that revered old friend intrusted me, when her eye-sight failed for reading them herself, there were also many ludicrous sketches of certain persons, and caricatures as strong of the pencil as of the pen. They were written in his season of democracy, and my dear Mrs. Delany made me destroy all that were mischievous. The highest personages, with whom she was not then peculiarly, as afterwards, connected, were held up to so much ridicule, that her early regard and esteem diminished as her loyalty increased; and immediately upon taking possession of the house given her at Windsor by the King, she struck the name of Mr. Mason from her will, in which she had bequeathed him her Sacharissa,' which he had particularly admired, and left it to me. I did not know this till she was no more, when Mrs. Agnew informed me of the period of the altera

tion.

My little man waits for your lessons to get on in elo

We agree this is to avoid

cution: he has made no further advance but that of calling out, as he saw our two watches hung on two opposite hooks over the chamber chimney-piece, "Watch, papa,-watch, mamma;" so, though his first speech is English, the idiom is French. any heartburning in his parents. He is at this moment so exquisitely enchanted with a little penny trumpet, and finding he can produce such harmony his own self, that he is blowing and laughing till he can hardly stand. If you could see his little swelling cheeks, you would not accuse yourself of a misnomer in calling him cherub. I try to impress him with an idea of pleasure in going to see grandpapa, but the short visit to Bookham is forgotten, and the permanent engraving remains, and all his concurrence consists in pointing up to the print over the chimney-piece, and giving it one of his concise little bows.

Are not people a little revived in the political world by this unexampled honour paid to Mr. Pitt? Mr. Lock

has subscribed 3000l.

How you rejoiced me by what you say of poor Mr. Burke! for I had seen the paragraph of his death with most exceeding great concern.

The Irish reports are, I trust, exaggerated; few things come quite plainly from Hibernia: yet what a time, in all respects, to transport thither, as you too well term it, our beloved Susan! She writes serenely, and Norbury seems to repay a world of sufferings: it is delightful to see her so satisfied there, at least; but they have all, she says, got the brogue.

Our building is to be resumed the 1st of March; it will then soon be done, as it is only of lath and plaster, and the roof and wood-work are already prepared. My

indefatigable superintendent goes every morning for two, three, or four hours to his field, to work at a sunk fence that is to protect his garden from our cow. I have sent Mrs. Boscawen, through Miss Cambridge, a history of our plan. The dwelling is destined by M. d'Arblay to be called the Camilla Cottage.

F. D'A.