Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/70

 50 the " poor snail," " snail," or " your loving snail." He rushes off to the duke of Queensberry, another of the claimants of the child's being and reads to him Selwyn's letter on Mie Mie. But it was perhaps not the first occasion on which he had wearied " old Q " with such strains, for by his want of interest in the communication the Doctor rushed away in a huff. Warner's name crops up repeatedly in the letters of George Selwyn in the Carlisle manuscripts. The peer was very grateful for the services which Warner had rendered to him and Selwyn was very anxious that the doctor should receive some preferment in return for his exertions. The witty George with his great talents and abundant acuteness, had formed a just opinion of his friend's literary style and of his character. He loved " too much ornament in his writing." The letter which he had written to lord Carlisle was so full of compliments that it had been torn up, and conciseness had been recommended. " Parsons, University men and Templars," says Selwyn in his jargon of French and English, " r envoy ent bien loin la simplicity and when they would talk agreeably or write to obtain approbation give you such a hash of all their reading and such quaint compliments as make me sick. But one ought not to be angry with them. Cest le ton du corps and when ycu would set them right you have leur esprit d decroter before you can make them compre- hend that all their attempts to be notable are ridiculous." But Warner was a perfectly honest man, " uncommonly human and friendly and most actively so." He had too great a flow of spirits for his profession; "there is more buckram in that than he can digest or submit to. The archbishop who has been applied to in his favour by the late Mr. Townshend said he was too lively, but it was the worst he could say of him." Lord Bessborough had on one occasion rendered him an essential service and held him in great