taken with a man drawing of a picture, and two pieces of architecture, one of St. Peter's church, and another of an amphitheater. There are some of Sheep and Goats, good in their kind, I beHeve, but not so agreable as the rest. The D. of Buckingham carried a cause yesterday in the house against Lord Conway, which hath extreamly enlivcnd him, not having much of the favour of the house, and he was thanking every body to day, as if they had considered him more than his cause.
[Lady Strafford.]
St. James's Square, March 21, 1712.
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We have at last got rid of Prince Eugene, I fancy you wont make so great a rout with him as was made hear. I believe Mrs. Marshall was very sorry to leave London so soon, for she seemed to like it very well. I think her pretty but aukward and simple ; and her husband is the formallest disagreeable peece that ever was seen, tho' I am very ungrat- fuU in saying all this, for they made the greatest rout with me in the world, and he cam the night before he went away to know if I had any service to you. I have been at Mr. Jervises to see our pickturs ; I think he has mended them both extremly and has made yours a good deal taller and the robes are well of them both.* The Queen has a Drawing room to-night, so I goe as soon as I have dined to
the Cock Pitt to wait on Lady W and then I goe to
Court ; and I have made sister Betty goe, for I think there
- Kneller as well as Jervas appears occasionally in the correspondence,
thus on February 28 Lady Wentvvorth wrote :— " Sir Godferry has made a good picture of Neic Hanbury and is drawing Peter Batthurst wife- pray let Sir Godferry Nelloe draw your Lady's picture, whoe is the best panter we have, nether of her picturs dus her justiss." In January, it appears, ten guineas were paid to Benjamin Arland for a portrait ot Lady Strafford, about which she writes to her husband :— " I believe you'll thinke this man has made me as much to handsom as Gervise did to ugley, tho' you know I never want for vanity about my own person, so I must confess I thinke it somthing like." Later in the year another artist, " De Garr," is at work on a " picture on horseback."
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