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spending a fortnight with you under his roof, and 

 have promised him to do so whenever you come. 

 To contemplate his pictures and statues, to rum- 

 mage among his books, drawings, manuscripts, and 

 prints, (where we every day find treasures unknown 

 before,) is extremely agreeable, and he kindly en- 

 trusts all his keys to me in full confidence. I found 

 a case of the earliest printed books, which no one 

 had examined since the time of his great-uncle Lord 

 Leicester. Such MSS. of Dante, drawings of the 

 old Italian masters, treasures of European history, 

 — you have no idea! The house is one of the finest 

 in Europe, and its riches are inexhaustible. But 

 of all things its owner is the best worth your seeing 

 and knowing. He is so amiable, with all the first 

 gloss of human affection and feeling; upon his heart; 

 so devoid of all selfishness that, with the early and 

 constant prosperity he has experienced, his cha- 

 racter is next to a miracle ; and he has such an 

 agreeable liveliness and playfulness of manners, that 

 nobody is more entertaining. You would exactly 

 suit in all your ideas of men and things. Do give 

 me some hopes that you will come over this autumn 

 with Mrs. Roscoe or some of your family. We 

 will meet at Holkham; and if you can descend 

 (without breaking your neck) to our " low estate," 

 we will strive to rival even Holkham in the hearti- 

 ness of our welcome. I shall show you the Lin- 

 naean reliques, and we shall consult you about a 

 new botanic garden now projecting. Do, my dear 

 friend, think of all this ;— but do not let it be in 



