afterward succeeded to the peerage. The first impressions of the spot are addressed by Malone to his father, December 3, 1766:—
It gave me great pleasure to hear by a letter which received yesterday from my brother, that your affairs in England were at length settled to your mind, and that you were soon likely to be freed from the disagreeable task of court solicitation. I take it for granted that before this time your patent is passed, and that this letter will find you safe arrived in Dublin.
I have been here near a month. Mr. Southwell, when we arrived, had no thoughts of staying longer than one day, but his son unhappily was seized with illness, which has continued upon him ever since. He was so miserably weak previously, that this new attack was very near destroying him; but as he has borne it so long, he may perhaps get through, and it may possibly be of service by carrying off the cause of the disorder that has afflicted him so many months. We were for a good while in a very disagreeable way in an inn; but for the last week have been in private lodgings, where probably they will remain for the winter; for they seem to have no hope of being able to reach Marseilles. It is unlucky that we were not able to reach that town, as by all accounts it is a lively and agreeable place, which is of no little consequence to an invalid.
Avignon is very far from being a place one would wish to settle in. It has no sort of trade or business, no public entertainments, and is besides an old, straggling, ugly town. It was rendered famous for some time by the residence of the old Pretender, and in the year 1746 his son retired hither after the rebellion. He lived very magnificently, but so void of gratitude, or even common decency, as to give a grand ball, at which he danced, at the very time he well knew his party, Lords Balmarino and Kilmallock, were losing their heads in London.
The Duke of Ormond spent the last twenty years of his life in this town; and at this time it is the residence of two or three
