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292 Toward the end of 1806, a visit from his friend Jephson and family from Gibraltar, deranged the systematic quietude of an old bachelor. “My whole time,” he writes, “has been taken up. Shakspeare is at a stand. On his account alone, I shall not be sorry when they are settled in their own house. However, I have the pleasure of reflecting that though inconvenient in housekeeping details, I have done a kind thing.”

“I am still,” he writes again to his elder sister, “as you see, in town, though I had thought of going to Taplow Court for a few days. Lady Thomond is a good deal here, attending her aunt, who is very ill and not likely to live long. Lord Thomond is uneasy without her society, so she does as well as she can, going to and fro occasionally. This matter might be adjusted by removing Mrs. Reynolds to the country, were she not confined to bed, and near eighty years old. However, if I find Lord Thomond at home the latter end of next week, I believe I shall then go to them.

“The Windhams are still in town, but are positively to set off for his house in Norfolk next Monday. I dined with them twice this week. As usual, old Mrs. Cholmondeley, who is grown quite foolish, was there, and tiresome enough. I met there the two Miss Berrys, renewed our acquaintance, and dined with them and their father in North Audley Street last week. They have a pretty little place in the country, on the banks of the Thames, which Lord Orford gave them, called little Strawberry Hill;