My Bucks affair is not settled, and I much fear that it will
occasion me more trouble than I at first expected. Mr. Lovegrove's
difficulty--not to call it by a harsher name--turns on a point
of fact not of law, and is so very unreasonable that he must be
condemned either in the more eligible way of arbitration (which
I hope will be settled) or in the Court of Chancery, should I be
reduced to the sad necessity of calling it to my aid. The uneasy
suspense that it has kept and will keep me in for some time, defers
my intended visit to Bath, and disappoints Mrs. Porten, as well as
myself, of a pleasure which we had assured ourselves of enjoying.
I am at present engaging in two other tasks of a very different
nature, the receiving one friend and the comforting another.
d'Eyverdun arrived in Bentinck Street last Tuesday, and will I
believe go abroad again in about a month with Lord Middleton.[230]
I dined with him to-day at Tommy Townshend's,[231] his pupil's
guardian. It's an unworthy office for him; but Lord M. appears a
very tame bear, and if we can fix a quiet annuity, he may after this
Tour enjoy ease and independence for the rest of his life. Upon
recollection this paragraph must seem very unintelligible to you, as
I do not believe that I mentioned to you, his having been forced to
quit Lord C[hesterfield], by the little peer's strange behaviour, the
uncertainty that he could be of any use to him or to himself, &c.
[Sidenote: HIS FRIEND GODFREY CLARKE.]
My other occupation, which claims at present the far greater part
of my time, is attending my poor friend Clarke, who has just lost a
very excellent father by a very sudden and terrible stroke. The old
gentleman, who was perfectly well, died of a stroke of apoplexy in
his coach as he was going out to dinner. Clarke feels it severely,
and as he seems pleased with my company, I seldom leave him, except
when he goes to his sister.
Is not Mr. Eliot at Bath? How does he do at present? Is Mrs. E. with
him? Do they think of coming to town? Be so good as to say everything
proper in my name, and
Believe me, Dear Madam,
Most truly yours,
E. G.
[230] Lord Midleton was the son of the third Lord Midleton and
his wife, Albinia, eldest daughter of the Hon. Thomas Townshend.
[231] Thomas Townshend (1733-1800), son of the Hon. Thomas
Townshend and grandson of the second Viscount Townshend, was
the "Tommy Townsend" of Goldsmith's _Retaliation_, in which he
describes Edmund Burke as--
"Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat,
To persuade Tommy Townsend to lend him a vote."
He was M.P. for Whitchurch in four successive Parliaments, and
held a series of important or lucrative offices. He was created
Baron Sydney in 1783, and Viscount Sydney in 1789.
194.
_To J. B. Holroyd, Esq._
April 13th, 1774.