try to make myself as deaf as possible, yet not from conceit of the excellence of my talent-do not think that, for you would wrong me-merely from agreeing with you in the scarcity of the "sixth sense." I desire that I may have the hat you bought for me, whether it be "frightful" or not. Farewell, however I may wish to hear from you on the route, I will not, indeed, make myself uneasy if I do not. I know that you will write to me when you can and sometimes think of me when you cannot. } wish to God Mr. W[alpole] would come. It would, I am sure, be better for him, and I should then know always when he heard, at least, how far you were on your journey and guess how prosperously. I hope that you will continue not to tell him all. Save that till after you return. Remember my entreaty about the Dutch vessel, and that it is the only thing of the sort that I have pretended to entreat. Farewell, farewell, and God bless you. I shall probably write again next Friday to Brussels. One letter was sent to Augsburg. Once more God bless you.1 The Berrys arrived at Paris on October 28, and put up at the Hôtel de Bourbon in the Rue Jacob, and there they stayed until November 7, when they made their way, via Calais and Dover, to their house in North Audley Street, which they reached on November 11. 1 Add. MSS. 37727, f. 28. SECTION III THE BERRYS AT LITTLE STRAWBERRY HILL (1792-1794) The Berrys return to England-Horace Walpole desires them to live at Little Strawberry Hill-Kitty Clive-Walpole's lines to her-A newspaper attack on the Berrys-Mary Berry thereupon decides not to live at Little Strawberry Hill-Walpole eventually persuades her to do so-Walpole succeeds to the earldom of Orford-His distress thereat-A false rumour that he proposed marriage to Mary Berry-A proposal of marriage to Anne Seymour Damer-William Augustus Fawkener-Correspondence between Mary Berry and Mrs. Damer concerning the proposed marriage -The Berrys at Sir George Cayley's-Lord Orford unwell-Lady Aylesbury - The Berrys at Scarborough - Lord Harrington-FieldMarshal Conway-Jerningham's play, The Siege of Berwick-" Pretty Mrs. Stanhope"-Captain Nugent-Lord Moira and the expedition to Brittany -Admiral Lord Howe-Mrs. Damer's bust of Miss Berry-William Combe-The Berrys in Yorkshire-They return to Little Strawberry Hill-Agnes Berry at Cheltenham-Mary and Mr. Berry at Park Place -The Berrys at Prospect House, Isle of Thanet-The Greatheads-Mrs. Damer at Goodwood-Her new town house-Professor Playfair-Miss Berry's play.. H ORACE Walpole was delighted at the return of the Berrys to England, and was overjoyed when he succeeded in persuading them to take possession of Little Strawberry Hill, on the lower road to Teddington, near his own house. After Kitty Clive retired from the stage in 1769, she had resided there, whereupon Walpole nicknamed it Cliveden, or Clivesden. The actress lived at Little Strawberry Hill until her death in 1785, when she was buried in the parish church. Walpole wrote an inscrip RESIDENCE OF MRS. CLIVE AT TWICKENHAM (CLIVEDEN OR LITTLE STRAWBERRY HILL) From an engraving in the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esq., by H. S. Storer from the original drawing by the same artist tion to her memory on an urn placed in the shrubbery of "Cliveden": - "Ye smiles and jests still hover round; And shed a tear when she expir'd." When it became known that the Berrys had accepted the loan of Strawberry Hill, some anonymous scribblers in the newspapers cast aspersions upon the young women as cruel as they were unwarrantable, whereupon the elder sister told Walpole that she could not go to his house. Walpole was in despair, and pleaded with her to ignore such disgraceful insinuations. "I thought my age would allow me to have a friendship that consisted in nothing but distinguishing merit-you allow the vilest of all tribunals, the newspapers, to decide how short a way friendship may go! Where is your good sense in this conduct? and will you punish me, because what you nor mortal being can prevent, a low anonymous scribbler pertly takes a liberty with your name? I cannot help repeating that you have hurt me!" So Walpole put his case to Mary Berry, who, however, felt so strongly on the subject that she could not at first give way. "If our seeking your society is supposed by those ignorant of its value, to be with some view beyond its enjoyment, and our situation represented as one which will aid the belief of this to a mean and interested world, I shall think we shall have perpetual reason to regret the only circumstance in our lives that could be called fortunate," she wrote to him on October 12. "Excuse the manner in which I write, and |