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8 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY,

to meet me, kissed me on both sides with all the ease
of one, who receives an acquaintance just come out of
the country, squatted me into a Fauteuil, begun to
tali of the town and this and that and t'other, and
continued with little interruption for three hours,
when I took my leave very indifferently pleased, but
treated with wondrous good breeding. I supped with
him next night (as he desired), Ashton was there,
whose formalities tickled rne inwardly, for I found he
was to be angry about the letter I had wrote him.
However in going home together our hackney-coach
jumbled us into a sort of reconciliation: he hammered
out somewhat like an excuse; and I received it very
readily, because I cared not twopence, whether it were
true or not. So we grew the best acquaintance
imaginable, and I sat with him on Sunday some
hours alone, when he informed me of abundance of
anecdotes much to my satisfaction, and in short
opened (I really believe) his heart to me with that
sincerity, that I found I had still less reason to have
a good opinion of him, than (if possible) I ever had
before/³

We know by a note of Mitford's to this letter,
that Mr Isaac Reed heard from Mr Roberts of the
Pell-office, in 1799, "That the quarrel between Gray
and Walpole was occasioned by a suspicion Mr Walpole
entertained, that Mr Gray had spoken ill of him to
some friends in England. To ascertain this, he



	8 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, to meet me, kissed me on both sides with all the ease of one, who receives an acquaintance just come out of the country, squatted me into a Fauteuil, begun to tali of the town and this and that and t'other, and continued with little interruption for three hours, when I took my leave very indifferently pleased, but treated with wondrous good breeding. I supped with him next night (as he desired), Ashton was there, whose formalities tickled rne inwardly, for I found he was to be angry about the letter I had wrote him. However in going home together our hackney-coach jumbled us into a sort of reconciliation: he hammered out somewhat like an excuse; and I received it very readily, because I cared not twopence, whether it were true or not. So we grew the best acquaintance imaginable, and I sat with him on Sunday some hours alone, when he informed me of abundance of anecdotes much to my satisfaction, and in short opened (I really believe) his heart to me with that sincerity, that I found I had still less reason to have a good opinion of him, than (if possible) I ever had before/³ We know by a note of Mitford's to this letter, that Mr Isaac Reed heard from Mr Roberts of the Pell-office, in 1799, "That the quarrel between Gray and Walpole was occasioned by a suspicion Mr Walpole entertained, that Mr Gray had spoken ill of him to some friends in England. To ascertain this, he