FROM PRINCE AND PRINCESSE DE CRAON 9 JULY 1742 NS 39 davoir a mander a mon fils les nouvelles marques damitie dont vous lhonorez, jen suis penetre de reconnoissance ainsy que du plus par- fait attachement avec le quel on puisse etre

Monsieur Votre tres humble et tres obeissant servateur

LE PRINCE DE CRAON

From , Friday 16 July 1742 OS

Printed for the first time from the MS now WSL. Damer-Waller; the MS was sold Sotheby's 5 Dec. 1921 (first Waller Sale), lot 61, bought in; resold Christie's 15 Dec. 1947 (second Waller Sale), lot 49, to Maggs for WSL. On the second leaf of the letter HW copied the revised text of his Lesson for the Day, 1742 (Hazen, Bibl. of HW 19; Toynbee Supp. ii. 78).

July the 16, 1742. Dear Sir, I HOPE you will forgive the trouble I am obliged to give you at the request of several friends. I am told Mr Ashton, the gentle­ man you recommended to the for a living in Lan­ cashire,1 is at present a Fellow of King's in Cambridge.2 He can't keep it long, and if he makes his resignation now, it will be of great service to some young gentlemen at Eton,3 that the Speaker* and the Chancellor of the Exchequer5 are concerned for. The only objection, as I understand, is on account of a young Paxton6 and Mr Naylor

1. Pelham had doubtless forwarded 5. Samuel Sandys (1695-1770), cr. (1743) HW's .request (ante 17 May 1742 OS) to Bn Sandys; M.P.; chancellor of the Ex­ his brother, the Duke of Newcastle. chequer Feb. 1742-Dec. 1743. 2. Ashton was a fellow of King's 1737- 6. Probably William Paxton (1723-95), 42. Having been instituted as rector of Eton 1735-42; admitted as a scholar at Aldingham, Lanes, on 12 July, he prob­ King's College, Cambridge, 3 Nov. 1742 ably resigned his fellowship at King's (B.A. 1746/7; M.A. 1750); fellow of King's soon after this date on Pelham's urging 1745-51; vicar of Padstow, , and (see below). of Buckland, Devon, 1752, through presen­ 3. Scholars were preferred from Eton to tation of the Earl of Orford; rector of King's College as scholarships became va­ Taplow, Bucks, 1788 (Eton Coll. Reg.) cant there (Henry Maiden, An Account of His father, Nicholas Paxton (d. 1744), King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 1769, solicitor to the Treasury 1730-42, had P- 5)- been taken into custody for refusing to 4. Arthur Onslow (1691-1768), M.P.; answer the Committee of Secrecy's ques­ Speaker of the House of Commons 1728- tions about Sir Walpole's conduct, 61. on the grounds that 'it may tend to accuse