I shall give you a biographical
sketch--sketch, do you hear?--of Lady Hervey, and notes on her letters,
in which I shall endeavour to enliven a little the _sameness_ of my
author. Don't think that I say _sameness_ in derogation of dear Mary
Lepel's _powers_ of entertainment. I have been _in love_ with her a long
time; which, as she was dead twenty years before I was born, I may
without indiscretion avow; but all these letters being written in a
journal style and to one person, there is a want of that variety which
Lady Hervey's mind was capable of giving. I have applied to her family
for a little assistance; hitherto without success; and I think, as a
_lover_ of Lady Hervey's, I might reasonably resent the little
enthusiasm I find that her descendants felt about her. In order to
enable me to do this little job for you, I wish you would procure for me
a file, if such a thing exists, of any newspaper from about 1740 to
1758, at which latter date the _Annual Register_ begins, as I remember.
So many little circumstances are mentioned in letters, and forgotten in
history, that without some such guide, I shall make but blind work of
it.
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