(1781,) April 24, Tuesday noon, 1 o'clock.--. . . . . .
P.S. Tuesday afternoon, 3 o'clock.--. . . Vary has just dropped in
upon me, and says that news is come from Arthburnot (sic), that
there has been a skirmish with the Fr(ench) Adm[iral], and it was a
kind of drawn battle; that General Phillips has joined Arnold with
2,000 men. He came to ask after George; il ne scait pas encore, a
quel point le monde s'interesse pour lui. My best and most
affectionate respects to Lady Carlisle, and my love to Caroline, and
to her sisters, not forgetting Louisa, chi gia non sovra di me.

Two balls! very fine, Caroline. Mie Mie will have seen but one, and
that is Mr. Wills's annual ball. But we are very well feathered for
that, a la Uestris. I had not the ordering so much ornament, and
when it is over, and we have had our diversion, I shall read a
lecture upon heads, which I wish not to be filled with so many
thoughts about dress. But she coaxed Mrs. Webb into all this a mon
inscu, and then I cannot be Mr. Killjoy; so pour le moment I seem to
approve of it.

We have been at one opera, and| instead of other spectacles, I
propose to go for the first part of the evening to Ranelagh, quand
la presse n'y sera pas. Lady Craufurd's new chair is, as Sir C.
Williams said of Dicky's, the charming'st thing in town, et les deux
laquais qui la precedent attirent les yeux de tous les envieux et
envieuses.

Sir Alexander comes and dines here with March, and is as easy as
ever was Sir Jos. Vanheck, and lives with his friends now upon the
same foot as before this acquisition of honour. I am told that you
have a receipt as Lord Lieutenant to make knights yourself. But I