LETTERS

OF

HORACE WALPOLE

SELECTED AND EDITED BY

CHARLES DUKE YONGE, M. A. 

AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF FRANCE UNDER THE BOURBONS, " "A LIFE OF MARIEANTOINETTE, " ETC. , ETC. 

WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME I

London

T. FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE

NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

MDCCCXC

CONTENTS. 

1736-1764. 

1. TO MONTAGU, _May_ 2, 1736. --Marriage of the Princess of Wales--Verylively

2. TO THE SAME, _May_ 6, 1736. --Fondness for Old Stories--Reminiscencesof Eton, etc. 

3. TO THE SAME, _March_ 20, 1737. --Wish to Travel--Superiority of FrenchManners to English in their manner to Ladies

4. TO WEST, _April_ 21, 1739. --Theatres at Paris--St. Denis--Fondness ofthe French for Show, and for Gambling--Singular Signs--The Army the onlyProfession for Men of Gentle Birth--Splendour of the Public Buildings

5. TO THE SAME, 1739. --Magnificence of Versailles--The Chartreux Relics

6. TO THE SAME, _February_ 27, 1740. --The Carnival--The FlorentinesCivil, Good-natured, and Fond of the English--A Curious Challenge

7. TO THE SAME, _June_ 14, 1740. --Herculaneum--Search should be made forother Submerged Cities--Quotations from Statius

8. TO CONWAY, _July_ 5, 1740. --Danger of Malaria--Roman CatholicRelics--"Admiral Hosier's Ghost"--Contest for the Popedom

9. TO THE SAME, _July_ 9, 1740

10. TO WEST, _Oct. _ 2, 1740. --A Florentine Wedding--Addison'sDescriptions are Borrowed from Books--A Song of Bondelmonti's, with aLatin Version by Gray, and an English One by the Writer

11. TO MANN, _Jan. _ 22, 1742. --Debate on Pulteney's Motion for aCommittee on Papers Relating to the War--Speeches of Pulteney, Pitt, SirR. Walpole, Sir W. George, etc. --Smallness of the Ministerial Majority

12. TO THE SAME, _May_ 26, 1742. --Ranelagh Gardens Opened--Garrick, "AWine-merchant turned Player"--Defeat of the Indemnity Bill

13. TO THE SAME, _Dec. _ 9, 1742. --Debate on Disbanding the HanoverianTroops--First Speech of Murray (afterwards Earl of Mansfield)--_Bon Mot_of Lord Chesterfield

14. TO THE SAME, _Feb. _ 24, 1743. --King Theodore--Handel IntroducesOratorios

15. TO THE SAME, _July_ 4, 1743. --Battle of Dettingen--Death of LordWilmington

16. TO THE SAME, _Sept. _ 7, 1743. --French Actors at Clifden--A new RomanCatholic Miracle--Lady Mary Wortley

17. TO THE SAME, _March_ 29, 1745. --Death of his Father--Matthews andLestock in the Mediterranean--Thomson's "Tancred andSigismunda"--Akenside's Odes--Conundrums in Fashion

18. TO THE SAME, _May_ 11, 1745. --Battle of Fontenoy--The Ballad of thePrince of Wales

19. TO MONTAGU, _August_ 1, 1745. --M. De Grignan--Livy's Patavinity--TheMaréchal De Belleisle--Whiston Prophecies the Destruction of theWorld--The Duke of Newcastle

20. TO MANN, _Sept. _ 6, 1745. --Invasion of Scotland by the YoungPretender--Forces are said to be Preparing in France to join him

21. TO THE SAME, _Sept. _ 20, 1745. --This and the following Letters givea Lively Account of the Progress of the Rebellion till the Retreat fromDerby, after which no particular interest attaches to it

22. TO THE SAME, _Sept. _ 27, 1745. --Defeat of Cope

23. TO THE SAME, _Oct. _ 21, 1745. --General Wade is Marching toScotland--Violent Proclamation of the Pretender

24. TO THE SAME, _Nov. _ 22, 1745. --Gallant Resistance of Carlisle--Mr. Pitt attacks the Ministry

25. TO THE SAME, _Dec. _ 9, 1745. --The Rebel Army has Retreated fromDerby--Expectation of a French Invasion

26. TO THE SAME, _April_ 25, 1746. --Battle of Culloden

27. TO THE SAME, _Aug. _ 1, 1746. --Trial of the Rebel Lords Balmerino andKilmarnock

28. TO THE SAME, _Oct. _ 14, 1746. --The Battle of Rancoux

29. TO CONWAY, _Oct. _ 24, 1746. --On Conway's Verses--No Scotch_man_ iscapable of such Delicacy of Thought, though a Scotchwoman maybe--Akenside's, Armstrong's, and Glover's Poems

30. TO THE SAME, _June_ 8, 1747. --He has bought Strawberry Hill

31. TO THE SAME, _Aug. _ 29, 1748. --His Mode ofLife--Planting--Prophecies of New Methods and New Discoveries in aFuture Generation

32. TO MANN, _May_ 3, 1749. --Rejoicings for the Peace--Masquerade atRanelagh--Meeting of the Prince's Party and the Jacobites--Prevalence ofDrinking and Gambling--Whitefield

33. TO THE SAME, _March_ 11, 1750. --Earthquake in London--GeneralPanic--Marriage of Casimir, King of Poland

34. TO THE SAME, _April_ 2, 1750. --General Panic--Sherlock's PastoralLetter--Predictions of more Earthquakes--A General Flight fromLondon--Epigrams by Chute and Walpole himself--French Translation ofMilton

35. TO THE SAME, _April_ 1, 1751. --Death of Walpole's Brother, and ofthe Prince of Wales--Speech of the young Prince--Singular Sermon on HisDeath

36. TO THE SAME, _June_ 18, 1751. --Changes in the Ministry andHousehold--The Miss Gunnings--Extravagance in London--Lord Harcourt, Governor of the Prince of Wales

37. TO THE SAME, _June_ 12, 1753. --Description of Strawberry Hill--Billto Prevent Clandestine Marriages

38. TO MONTAGU, _May_ 19, 1756. --No News from France but what isSmuggled--The King's Delight at the Vote for the Hanover Troops--_BonMot_ of Lord Denbigh

39. TO THE SAME, _Oct. _ 17, 1756. --Victory of the King of Prussia atLowositz--Singular Race--Quarrel of the Pretender with the Pope

40. TO THE SAME, _Nov. _ 4, 1756. --Ministerial Negotiations--Loss ofMinorca--Disaster in North America

41. TO THE EARL OF STRAFFORD, _July_ 4, 1757. --The King of Prussia'sVictories--Voltaire's "Universal History"

42. TO ZOUCH, _August_ 3, 1758. --His own "Royal and Noble Authors"

43. TO THE SAME, _Oct. _ 21, 1758. --His "Royal and Noble Authors"--LordClarendon--Sir R. Walpole and Lord Bolingbroke--The Duke of Leeds

44. TO MANN, _Oct. _ 24, 1758. --Walpole's Monument to Sir Horace'sBrother--Attempted Assassination of the King of Portugal--Courtesy ofthe Duc D'Aiguillon to his English Prisoners

45. TO ZOUCH, _Dec. _ 9, 1758. --A New Edition of Lucan--Comparison of"Pharsalea"--Criticism on the Poet, with the Aeneid--Helvetius's Work, "De L'Esprit"

46. TO CONWAY, _Jan. _ 19, 1759. --State of the House of Commons

47. TO DALRYMPLE, _Feb. _ 25, 1759. --Robertson's "History ofScotland"--Comparison of Ramsay and Reynolds as Portrait-Painters--SirDavid's "History of the Gowrie Conspiracy"

48. TO THE SAME, _July_ 11, 1759. --Writers of History: Goodall, Hume, Robertson--Queen Christina

49. TO CONWAY, _Aug. _ 14, 1759. --The Battle of Minden--Lord G. Sackville

50. TO MANN, _Sept. _ 13, 1759. --Admiral Boscawen's Victory--Defeat ofthe King of Prussia--Lord G. Sackville

51. TO MONTAGU, _Oct. _ 21, 1759. --A Year of Triumphs

52. TO THE SAME, _Nov. _ 8, 1759. --French Bankruptcy--French Epigram

53. TO THE SAME, _Jan. _ 7, 1760. --He lives amongst Royalty--Commotionsin Ireland

54. TO THE SAME, _Jan. _ 14, 1760. --Severity of the Weather--Scarcity inGermany--A Party at Prince Edward's--Charles Townsend's Comments on LaFontaine

55. TO MANN, _Feb. _ 28, 1760. --Capture of Carrickfergus

56. TO DALRYMPLE, _April_ 4, 1760. --The Ballad of "Hardyknute"--Mr. Home's "Siege of Aquileia"--"Tristram Shandy"--Bishop Warburton's Praiseof it

57. TO THE SAME, _June_ 20, 1760. --Erse Poetry--"The Dialogues of theDead"--"The Complete Angler"

58. TO MONTAGU, _Sept. _ 1, 1760. --Visits in the MidlandCounties--Whichnovre--Sheffield--The new Art ofPlating--Chatsworth--Haddon Hall--Hardwicke--Apartments of Mary Queen ofScots--Newstead--Althorp

59. TO THE SAME, _April_ 16, 1761. --Gentleman's Dress--Influence of LordBute--Ode by Lord Middlesex--G. Selwyn's Quotation

60. TO THE SAME, _May_ 5, 1761. --Capture of Belleisle--Gray'sPoems--Hogarth's Vanity

61. TO THE SAME, _May_ 22, 1761. --Intended Marriage of the King--Battlesin Germany--Capture of Pondicherry--Burke

62. TO MANN, _Sept. _ 10, 1761. --Arrival of the Princess ofMecklenburgh--The Royal Wedding--The Queen's Appearance and Behaviour

63. TO THE COUNTESS OF AILESBURY, _Sept. _ 27, 1761. --The Coronation andsubsequent Gaieties

64. TO THE SAME, _Nov. _ 28, 1761. --A Court Ball--Pamphlets on Mr. Pitt--A Song by Gray

65. TO MANN, _Jan. _ 29, 1762. --Death of the Czarina Elizabeth--TheCock-lane Ghost--Return to England of Lady Mary Wortley

66. TO ZOUCH, _March_ 20, 1762. --His own "Anecdotes of Painting"--HisPicture of the Wedding of Henry VII. --Burnet's Comparison of Tiberiusand Charles II. --Addison's "Travels"

67. TO MANN, _Aug. _ 12, 1762. --Birth of the Prince of Wales--TheCzarina--Voltaire's Historical Criticisms--Immense Value of theTreasures brought over in the _Hermione_

68. TO CONWAY, _Sept. _ 9, 1762. --Negotiations for Peace--Christening ofthe Prince of Wales

69. TO MANN, _Oct. _ 3, 1762. --Treasures from the Havannah--The RoyalVisit to Eton--Death of Lady Mary--Concealment of Her Works--Voltaire's"Universal History"

70. TO THE SAME, _April_ 30, 1763. --Resignation of Lord Bute--FrenchVisitors--Walpole and No. 45

71. TO MONTAGU, _May_ 17, 1763. --A Party at "Straberri"--Work of hisPrinting Press--Epigrams--A Garden Party at Esher

72. TO CONWAY, _May_ 21, 1763. --General Character of theFrench--Festivities on the Queen's Birthday

73. TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD, _Dec. _ 29, 1763. --The ordinary way of Lifein England--Wilkes--C. Townshend--Count Lally--Lord Clive--LordNorthington--Louis Le Bien Aimé--The Drama in France

74. TO MONTAGU, _Jan. _11, 1764. --A New Year's Party at LadySuffolk's--Lady Temple, Poetess Laureate to the Muses

75. TO MANN, _Jan. _ 18, 1764. --Marriage of the Prince of Brunswick: HisPopularity

76. TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD, _Feb. _ 6, 1764. --Gambling Quarrels--Mr. Conway's Speech

77. TO THE SAME, _Feb. _ 15, 1764. --Account of the Debate on the GeneralWarrant

78. TO MANN, _June_ 8, 1764. --Lord Clive--Mr. Hamilton, Ambassador toNaples--Speech of Louis XV. 

79. TO THE SAME, _Aug. _ 13, 1764. --The King of Poland--Catherine ofRussia

80. TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD, _Oct. _ 5, 1764. --Madame De Boufflers'Writings--King James's Journal

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

I. HORACE WALPOLE

From an engraving after a sketch by Sir THOS. LAWRENCE, P. R. A. 

II. SIR HORACE MANN

III. STRAWBERRY HILL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST

IV. GEORGE MONTAGU

V. THE LIBRARY, STRAWBERRY HILL

VI. HORACE WALPOLE

From a picture in the National Portrait Gallery, by NATHANIEL HONE, R. A. 

INTRODUCTION. 

It is creditable to our English nobility, and a feature in theircharacter that distinguishes them from their fellows of most othernations, that, from the first revival of learning, the study ofliterature has been extensively cultivated by men of high birth, even bymany who did not require literary fame to secure them a lastingremembrance; and they have not contented themselves with showing theirappreciation of intellectual excellence by their patronage of humblerscholars, but have themselves afforded examples to other labourers inthe hive, taking upon themselves the toils, and earning no small norundeserved share of the honours of authorship. The very earliest of ourpoets, Chaucer, must have been a man of gentle birth, since he wasemployed on embassies of importance, and was married to the daughter ofa French knight of distinction, and sister of the Duchess of Lancaster. The long civil wars of the fifteenth century prevented his having anyimmediate followers; but the sixteenth opened more propitiously. Theconqueror of Flodden was also "Surrey of the deathless lay";[1] and fromhis time to the present day there is hardly a break in the long line ofauthors who have shown their feeling that noble birth and high positionare no excuses for idleness, but that the highest rank gains additionalillustration when it is shown to be united with brilliant talentsworthily exercised. The earliest of our tragic poets was Sackville Earlof Dorset. The preux chevalier of Elizabeth's Court, the accomplishedand high-minded Sidney, took up the lyre of Surrey: Lord St. Albans, more generally known by his family name of Bacon, "took all learning forhis province"; and, though peaceful studies were again for a whilerudely interrupted by the "dark deeds of horrid war, " the restoration ofpeace was, as it had been before, a signal for the resumption of theirstudies by many of the best-born of the land. Another Earl of Dorsetdisplayed his hereditary talent not less than his martial gallantry. Lord Roscommon well deserved the praises which Dryden and Pope, afterhis death, liberally bestowed. The great Lord Chancellor Clarendondevoted his declining years to a work of a grander class, leaving us aHistory which will endure as long as the language itself; while ladiesof the very highest rank, the Duchess of Newcastle and Lady Mary WortleyMontague, vindicated the claims of their sex to share with theirbrethren the honours of poetical fame. 

[Footnote 1: "Lay of the Last Minstrel, " vi. 14. ]

Among this noble and accomplished brotherhood the author of theseletters is by general consent allowed to be entitled to no low place. Horace Walpole, born in the autumn of 1717, was the youngest son of thatwise minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who, though, as Burke afterwardsdescribed him, "not a genius of the first class, " yet by his adoptionof, and resolute adherence to a policy of peace throughout the greaterpart of his administration, in which he was fortunately assisted by theconcurrence of Fleury of France, contributed in no slight degree to thepermanent establishment of the present dynasty on the throne. Hereceived his education at the greatest of English schools, Eton, towhich throughout his life he preserved a warm attachment; and where hegave a strong indication of his preference for peaceful studies and hisjudicious appreciation of intellectual ability, by selecting as his mostintimate friend Thomas Gray, hereafter to achieve a poetical immortalityby the Bard and the Elegy. From Eton they both went to Cambridge, and, when they quitted the University, in 1738, joined in a travelling tourthrough France and Italy. They continued companions for something morethan two years; but at the end of that time they separated, and in thespring of 1741 Gray returned to England. The cause of their parting wasnever distinctly avowed; Walpole took the blame, if blame there was, onhimself; but, in fact, it probably lay in an innate difference ofdisposition, and consequently of object. Walpole being fond of society, and, from his position as the Minister's son, naturally courted by manyof the chief men in the different cities which they visited; while Graywas of a reserved character shunning the notice of strangers, and fixinghis attention on more serious subjects than Walpole found attractive. 

In the autumn of the same year Walpole himself returned home. He hadbecome a member of Parliament at the General Election in the summer, andtook his seat just in time to bear a part in the fierce contest whichterminated in the dissolution of his father's Ministry. His maidenspeech, almost the only one he ever made, was in defence of thecharacter and policy of his father, who was no longer in the House ofCommons to defend himself. [1] And the result of the conflict made noslight impression on his mind; but gave a colour to all his politicalviews. 

He began almost immediately to come forward as an author: not, however, as--

 Obliged by hunger and request of friends;

for in his circumstances he was independent, and even opulent; butseeking to avenge his father by squibs on Mr. Pulteney (now Lord Bath), as having been the leader of the attacks on him, and on the new Ministrywhich had succeeded him. In one respect that age was a happy one forministers and all connected with them. Pensions and preferments weredistributed with a lavish hand; and, even while he was a schoolboy, hehad received more than one "patent place, " as such were called, in theExchequer, to which before his father's resignation others were added, which after a time raised his income to above £5, 000 a year, a fortunewhich in those times was exceeded by comparatively few, even of thoseregarded as wealthy. So rich, indeed, was he, that before he was thirtyhe was able to buy Strawberry Hill, "a small house near Twickenham, " ashe describes it at first, but which he gradually enlarged andembellished till it grew into something of a baronial castle on a smallscale, somewhat as, under the affectionate diligence of a greater man, Abbotsford in the present century became one of the lions of the Tweed. 

[Footnote 1: The speech was made March 23, 1742; but Sir Robert hadresigned office, and been created Earl of Orford in the Februarypreceding. ]

From this time forth literary composition, with the acquisition ofantiques and curiosities for the decoration of "Strawberry" occupied thegreater part of his life. He erected a printing press, publishing notonly most of his own writings, but some also of other authors, such aspoems of Gray, with whom he kept up uninterrupted intercourse. But, infact, his own works were sufficiently numerous to keep his printersfully employed. He was among the most voluminous writers of a voluminousage. In the course of the next twenty years he published seven volumesof memoirs of the last ten years of the reign of George II. And thefirst ten of George III. ; five volumes of a work entitled "Royal andNoble Authors;" several more of "Anecdotes of Painting;" "The MysteriousMother, " a tragedy; "The Castle of Otranto, " a romance; and a smallvolume to which he gave the name of "Historic Doubts on Richard III. " Ofall these not one is devoid of merit. He more than once explains thatthe "Memoirs" have no claim to the more respectable title of "History";and he apologises for introducing anecdotes which might be thoughtinconsistent with what Macaulay brands as "a vile phrase, " the dignityof history. He excuses this, which he looked on as a new feature inhistorical composition, on the ground that, if trifles, "they aretrifles relating to considerable people; such as all curious people haveever loved to read. " "Such trifles, " he says, "are valued, if relatingto any reign one hundred and fifty years ago; and, if his book shouldlive so long, these too might become acceptable. " Readers of the presentday will not think such apology was needed. The value of his "trifles"has been proved in a much shorter time; for there is no subsequenthistorian of that period who has not been indebted to him for manyparticulars of which no other trustworthy record existed. Walpole had ina great degree a historical mind; and perhaps there are few works whichshow a keener critical insight into the value of old traditions than the"Historic Doubts, " directed to establish, not, indeed, Richard'sinnocence of the crimes charged against him, but the fact that, withrespect to many of them, his guilt has never been proved by any evidencewhich is not open to the gravest impeachment. His "Royal and NobleAuthors, " and his "Anecdotes of Painting" are full of entertainment, notunmixed with instruction. "The Mysterious Mother" was never performed onthe stage, nor is it calculated for representation; since he himselfadmits that the subject is disgusting. But dramas not intended forrepresentation, and which therefore should perhaps be more fitly calleddramatic poems, were a species of composition to which more than onewriter of reputation had lately begun to turn their attention; thoughdramas not designed for the stage seem to most readers defective intheir very conception, as lacking the stimulus which the intention ofsubmitting them to the extemporaneous ocular judgement of the public canalone impart. Among such works, however, "The Mysterious Mother" isadmitted to rank high for vigorous description and poetic imagery. Agreater popularity, which even at the present day has not wholly passedaway, since it is still occasionally reprinted, was achieved by "TheCastle of Otranto, " which, as he explains it in one of his letters, owedits origin to a dream. Novels had been a branch of literature which hadslumbered for several years after the death of Defoe, but which thegenius of Fielding and Smollett had again brought into fashion. Buttheir tales purported to be pictures of the manners of the day. This wasrather the forerunner of Mrs. Radcliffe's[1] weird tales of supernaturalmystery, which for a time so engrossed the public attention as to leadthat "wicked wag, " Mr. George Coleman, to regard them as representativesof the class, and to describe how--

 A novel now is nothing more Than an old castle and a creaking door; A distant hovel; Clanking of chains, a gallery, a light, Old armour, and a phantom all in white, And there's a novel. 

[Footnote 1: "'The Castle of Otranto' was the father of that marvellousseries which once overstocked the circulating library, and closed withMrs. Radcliffe. "--D'Israeli, "Curiosities of Literature, " ii. 115. ]

He had published it anonymously as a tale that had been found in thelibrary of an ancient family in the North of England; but it was notindebted solely to the mystery of its authorship for its favourablereception--since, after he acknowledged it as his own work in a secondedition, the sale did not fall off. And it deserved success, for, thoughthe day had passed when even the most credulous could place any faith inswords that required a hundred men to lift, and helmets which could onlyfit the champion whose single strength could wield such a weapon, thestyle was lively and attractive, and the dialogue was eminently dramaticand sparkling. 

But the interest of all these works has passed away. The "Memoirs" haveserved their turn as a guide and aid to more regular historians, and thecomposition which still keeps its author's fame alive is hisCorrespondence with some of his numerous friends, male and female, inEngland or abroad, which he maintained with an assiduity which showedhow pleasurable he found the task, while the care with which he securedthe preservation of his letters, begging his correspondents to retainthem, in case at any future time he should desire their return, provesthat he anticipated the possibility that they might hereafter be foundinteresting by other readers than to those to whom they were addressed. 

But he did not suffer either his writings or the enrichment of"Strawberry" with antiquarian treasures to engross the whole of hisattention. For the first thirty years and more of his public life he wasa zealous politician. And it is no slight proof how high was thereputation for sagacity and soundness of judgement which he enjoyed, that in the ministerial difficulties caused by Lord Chatham's illness, he was consulted by the leaders of more than one section of the Whigparty, by Conway, the Duke of Bedford, the Duke of Grafton, LordHolland, and others; that his advice more than once influenced theirdeterminations; and that he himself drew more than one of the letterswhich passed between them. Even the King himself was not ignorant of theweight he had in their counsels, and, on one occasion at least, condescended to avail himself of it for a solution of some of theembarrassments with which their negotiations were beset. 

But after a time his attendance in Parliament, which had never been veryregular, grew wearisome and distasteful to him. At the General Electionof 1768 he declined to offer himself again as a candidate for Lynn, which he had represented for several years. And henceforth his morningswere chiefly occupied with literature; the continuation of his Memoirs;discussion of literary subjects with Gibbon, Voltaire, Mason, andothers, while his evenings were passed in the society of his friends, amode of enjoying his time in which he was eminently calculated to shine, since abundant testimony has come down to us from many competent judgesof the charm of his conversation; the liveliness of his dispositionacting as a most attractive frame to the extent and variety of hisinformation. 

Among his distractions were his visits to France, which for some timewere frequent. He had formed a somewhat singular intimacy with a blindold lady, the Marquise du Deffand, a lady whose character in her youthhad been something less than doubtful, since she had been one of theRegent Duc d'Orléans's numerous mistresses; but who had retained in herold age much of the worldly acuteness and lively wit with which she hadborne her part in that clever, shameless society. Her _salon_ was nowthe resort of many personages of the highest distinction, even of ladiesthemselves of the most unstained reputation, such as the Duchesse deChoiseul; and the rumours or opinions which he heard in their companyenabled him to enrich his letters to his friends at home with commentson the conduct of the French Parliament, of Maupéon, Maurepas, Turgot, and the King himself, which, in many instances, attest the shrewdnesswith which he estimated the real bearing of the events which were takingplace, and anticipated the possible character of some of those whichwere not unlikely to ensue. 

Thus, with a mind which, to the end, was so active and so happilyconstituted as to be able to take an interest in everything around him, and, even when more than seventy years old, to make new friends toreplace those who had dropped off, he passed a long, a happy, and farfrom an useless life. When he was seventy-four he succeeded to hisfather's peerage, on the death of his elder brother; but he did not longenjoy the title, by which, indeed, he was not very careful to bedistinguished, and in the spring of 1797 he died, within a few monthsof his eightieth birthday. 

A great writer of the last generation, whose studies were of a severercast, and who, conscious perhaps of his own unfitness to shine at thetea-table of fashionable ladies, was led by that feeling to undervaluethe lighter social gifts which formed conspicuous ingredients inWalpole's character, has denounced him not only as frivolous in histastes, but scarcely above mediocrity in his abilities (a sentence towhich Scott's description of him as "a man of great genius" may besuccessfully opposed); and is especially severe on what he terms hisaffectation in disclaiming the compliments bestowed on his learning bysome of his friends. The expressed estimate of his acquirements andworks which so offended Lord Macaulay was that "there is nobody sosuperficial, that, except a little history, a little poetry, a littlepainting, and some divinity, he knew nothing; he had always lived in thebusy world; had always loved pleasure; played loo till two or three inthe morning; haunted auctions--in short, did not know so much astronomyas would carry him to Knightsbridge; not more physic than a physician;nor, in short, anything that is called science. If it were not that helaid up a little provision in summer, like the ant, he should be asignorant as the people he lived with. "[1] In Lord Macaulay's view, Walpole was never less sincere than when pronouncing such a judgement onhis works. He sees in it nothing but an affectation, fishing forfurther praises; and, fastening on his account of his ordinaryoccupations, he pronounces that a man of fifty should be ashamed ofplaying loo till after midnight. 

[Footnote 1: Letter to Mann, Feb. 6, 1760. ]

In spite, however, of Lord Macaulay's reproof, something may be said infavour of a man who, after giving his mornings to works which display nolittle industry as well as talent, unbent his bow in the evening atlively supper-parties, or even at the card-table with fair friends, where the play never degenerated into gambling. And his disparagement ofhis learning, which Lord Macaulay ridicules as affectation, a morecandid judgement may fairly ascribe to sincere modesty. For it is plainfrom many other passages in his letters, that he really did undervaluehis own writings; and that the feeling which he thus expressed wasgenuine is to a great extent proved by the patience, if notthankfulness, with which he allowed his friend Mann to alter passages in"The Mysterious Mother, " and confessed the alterations to beimprovements. It may be added that Lord Macaulay's disparagement of hisjudgement and his taste is not altogether consistent with his admissionthat Walpole's writings possessed an "irresistible charm" that "no manwho has written so much is so seldom tiresome;" that, even in "TheCastle of Otranto, " which he ridicules, "the story never flags for amoment, " and, what is more to our present purpose, he adds that "hisletters are with reason considered his best performance;" and that thoseto his friend at Florence, Sir H. Mann, "contain much informationconcerning the history of that time: the portion of English History ofwhich common readers know the least. "

Of these letters it remains for us now to speak. The value of such _pourservir_, to borrow a French expression, that is to say, to serve asmaterials to supply the historian of a nation or an age with anacquaintance with events, or persons, or manners, which would be soughtfor in vain among Parliamentary records, or ministerial despatches, haslong been recognised. [1] Two thousand years ago, those of the greatestof Roman orators and statesmen were carefully preserved; and moderneditors do not fear to claim for them a place "among the most valuableof all the remains of Roman literature; the specimens which they give offamiliar intercourse, and of the public and private manners of society, drawing up for us the curtain from scenes of immense historicalinterest, and laying open the secret workings, the complications, andschemes of a great revolution period. "[2] Such a description issingularly applicable to the letters of Walpole; and the care which hetook for their preservation shows that he was not without a hope thatthey also would be regarded as interesting and valuable by futuregenerations. He praises one of his correspondents for his diligence incollecting and publishing a volume of letters belonging to the reigns ofJames I. And Charles I. , on the express ground that "nothing gives sojust an idea of an age as genuine letters; nay, history waits for itslast seal from them. " And it is not too much to say that they aresuperior to journals and diaries as a mine to be worked by the judicioushistorian; while to the general public they will always be moreattractive, from the scope they afford to elegance of style, at whichthe diary-keeper does not aim; and likewise from their frequentlyrecording curious incidents, fashions, good sayings, and other thingswhich, from their apparently trifling character, the grave diarist wouldnot think worth preserving. 

[Footnote 1: D'Israeli has remarked that "the _gossiping_ of a profoundpolitician, or a vivacious observer, in one of their letters, often by aspontaneous stroke reveals the individual, or by a simple incidentunriddles a mysterious event;" and proceeds to quote Bolingbroke'sestimate of the importance, from this point of view, of "that valuablecollection of Cardinal d'Ossat's Memoirs" ("Curiosities of Literature, "iii. P. 381). ]

[Footnote 2: The Rev. J. E. Yonge, Preface to an edition of "Cicero'sLetters. "]

He, however, was not the first among the moderns to achieve a reputationby his correspondence. In the generation before his birth, a Frenchlady, Madame de Sévigné, had, with an affectionate industry, found herchief occupation and pleasure in keeping her daughters in the provincesfully acquainted with every event which interested or entertained LouisXIV. And his obsequious Court; and in the first years of the eighteenthcentury a noble English lady, whom we have already mentioned, did inlike manner devote no small portion of her time to recording, for theamusement and information of her daughter, her sister, and her otherfriends at home, the various scenes and occurrences that came under herown notice in the foreign countries in which for many years her lot wascast, as the wife of an ambassador. In liveliness of style, Lady MaryMontague is little if at all inferior to her French prototype; while, since she was endowed with far more brilliant talents, and, from herforeign travels, had a wider range of observation, her letters have afar greater interest than could attach to those of a writer, howeveraccomplished and sagacious, whose world was Paris, with bounds scarcelyextending beyond Versailles on one side, and Compiègne on the other. Tothese fair and lively ladies Walpole was now to succeed as a thirdcandidate for epistolary fame; though, with his habit of underrating hisown talents, he never aspired to equal the gay Frenchwoman; (the Englishlady's correspondence was as yet unknown). There is evident sincerity inhis reproof of one of his correspondents who had expressed a mostflattering opinion: "You say such extravagant things of my letters, which are nothing but gossiping gazettes, that I cannot bear it; youhave undone yourself with me, for you compare them to Madame deSévigné's. Absolute treason! Do you know there is scarcely a book in theworld I love so much as her letters?"

Yet critics who should place him on an equality with her would not bewithout plausible grounds for their judgement. Many circumstancescontributed to qualify him in a very special degree for the task which, looking at his letters in that light, he may be said to have undertaken. His birth, as the son of a great minister; his comparative opulence;even the indolent insignificance of his elder brothers, which caused himto be looked upon as his father's representative, and as such to beconsulted by those who considered themselves as the heirs of his policy, while the leader of that party in the House of Commons, General Conway, was his cousin, and the man for whom he ever felt the strongest personalattachment, --were all advantages which fell to the lot of but few. Andto these may be added the variety of his tastes, as attested by thevariety of his published works. He was a man who observed everything, who took an interest in everything. His correspondents, too, were sovarious and different as to ensure a variety in his letters. Some werepoliticians, ministers at home, or envoys abroad; some were femaleleaders of fashion, planning balls and masquerades, summoning him tojoin an expedition to Ranelagh or Vauxhall; others were scholars, poets, or critics, inviting comments on Gray's poems, on Robertson's style, onGibbon's boundless learning; or on the impostures of Macpherson andChatterton; others, again, were antiquarians, to whom the helmet ofFrancis, or a pouncet-box of the fair Diana, were objects of far greaterinterest than the intrigues of a Secretary of State, or the expedientsof a Chancellor of the Exchequer; and all such subjects are discussed byhim with evidently equal willingness, equal clearness, and liveliness. 

It would not be fair to regard as a deduction from the value of thoseletters which bear on the politics of the day the necessity ofconfessing that they are not devoid of partiality--that they arecoloured with his own views, both of measures and persons. Not only werepolitical prejudices forced upon him by the peculiarities of hisposition, but it may be doubted whether any one ever has written, or canwrite, of transactions of national importance which are passing underhis own eyes, as it were, with absolute impartiality. It may even be aquestion whether, if any one did so, it would not detract from his owncharacter, at least as much as it might add to the value of hiswritings. In one of his letters, Byron enumerates among the merits ofMitford's "History of Greece, " "wrath and partiality, " explaining thatsuch ingredients make a man write "in earnest. " And, in Walpole's case, the dislike which he naturally felt towards those who had overthrown hisfather's administration by what, at a later day, they themselvesadmitted to have been a factious and blamable opposition, was sharpenedby his friendship for his cousin Conway. At the same time we may remarkin passing that his opinions and prejudices were not so invincible as toblind him to real genius and eminent public services; and the admirersof Lord Chatham may fairly draw an argument in favour of his policy fromWalpole's admission of its value in raising the spirit of the people; anadmission which, it may be supposed, it must have gone against his grainto make in favour of a follower of Pulteney. 

But from his letters on other topics, on literature and art, no suchdeduction has to be made. His judgement was generally sound anddiscriminating. He could appreciate the vast learning and statelygrandiloquence of Gibbon, and the widely different style of Robertson. Nor is it greatly to his discredit that his disgust at what he considersHume's needless parade of scepticism and infidelity, which did honourto his heart, blinded him in a great degree to the historian'sunsurpassed acuteness and insight, and (to borrow the eulogy of Gibbon)"the careless inimitable felicities" of his narrative. He was among thefirst to recognize the peculiar genius of Crabbe, and to detect theimpostures of Macpherson and Chatterton, while doing full justice to"the astonishing prematurity" of the latter's genius. And in matters ofart, so independent as well as correct was his taste, that he not only, in one instance, ventured to differ from Reynolds, but also proved to beright in his opinion that a work extolled by Sir Joshua, was but a copy, and a poor one. 

On his qualifications to be a painter of the way of life, habits, andmanners (_quorum pars magna fuit_) of the higher classes in his day, itwould be superfluous to dwell. Scott, who was by no means a warm admirerof his character, does not hesitate to pronounce him "certainly the bestletter-writer in the English language;" and the great poet who, next toScott, holds the highest place in the literary history of the last twocenturies, adds his testimony not only to the excellence of his letters, but also to his general ability as that of a high order. "It is thefashion to underrate Horace Walpole, firstly, because he was a nobleman, and, secondly, because he was a gentleman; but, to say nothing of thecomposition of his incomparable letters and of 'The Castle of Otranto, 'he is the 'Ultimus Romanorum, ' the author of 'The Mysterious Mother, ' atragedy of the highest order, and not a puling love-play. He is thefather of the first romance, and the last tragedy in our language; andsurely worthy of a higher place than any living writer, be he who hemay. "[1]

[Footnote 1: Byron, Preface to "Marino Faliere. " But in the lastsentence the poet certainly exaggerated his admiration for Walpole;since it is sufficiently notorious from his own letters, and from morethan one passage in his works, as where he ranks Scott as second toShakespeare alone, that he deservedly admired him more than all theircontemporaries put together. ]

And it seems not unnatural to entertain a hope that a selection from acorrespondence which extorted such an eulogy from men whose own lettersform no small part of the attraction of Lockhart's and Moore'sbiographies, will be acceptable to many who, while lacking courage, orperhaps leisure, to grapple with publications in many volumes, maywelcome the opportunity thus here afforded them of forming anacquaintance, however partial, with works which, in their entire body, are deservedly reckoned among the masterpieces of our literature. [1]

[Footnote 1: It may be proper to point out that, in some few instances, a letter is not given in its entirety; but, as in familiarcorrespondence, it must constantly happen that, while the incidentsmentioned in one portion of a letter are full of interest, ofothers--such as marriages, deaths, &c. --the importance is of the mosttemporary and transitory character. It may be hoped that the libertytaken of leaving out such portions will be regarded as, if notcommendable, at the least excusable. ]

A SELECTION

FROM THE

LETTERS OF HORACE WALPOLE. 

_MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS OF WALES--VERY LIVELY. _[1]

[Footnote 1: This letter, written before he was nineteen, is worthnoticing as a proof how innate was his liveliness of style, since inthat respect few of the productions of his maturer age surpasses it. Italso shows how strong already was his expectations that his letterswould hereafter be regarded as interesting and valuable. ]

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. [1]

[Footnote 1: George Montagu, Esq. , of Roel, in the county of Gloucester, son of Brigadier-General Edward Montagu, and long M. P. For Northampton. He was the grandnephew of the first Earl of Halifax of the Montagufamily, the statesman and poet, and was the contemporary at Eton ofWalpole and Gray. When his cousin, the Earl of Halifax, wasLord-Lieutenant of Ireland, he was his secretary; and when Lord Northwas Chancellor of the Exchequer, he occupied the same position with him. He died May 10, 1780, leaving the bulk of his fortune to Lord North. Walpole's letters to him, 272 in number, and dating between 1736 and1770, were first published in 1818, "from the Originals in thepossession of the Editor. " There was a coolness between Walpole andMontagu several years before the latter's death, the correspondencedropping very abruptly. The cause is explained by Walpole in a letter toCole, dated May 11, 1780. Mr. Montagu's brother, Edward, was killed atFontenoy. His sister, Arabella, was married to a Mr. Wetenhall--arelation of the Wetenhall mentioned in De Grammont. "Of Mr. Montagu, itis only remembered that he was a gentleman-like body of the _vieillecour_, and that he was usually attended by his brother John (the LittleJohn of Walpole's correspondence), who was a midshipman at the age ofsixty, and found his chief occupation in carrying about his brother'ssnuff-box" (_Quarterly Rev. _ for _April_, 1818, p. 131). ]

KING'S COLLEGE, _May_ 2, 1736. 

Dear Sir, --Unless I were to be married myself, I should despair everbeing able to describe a wedding so well as you have done: had I knownyour talent before, I would have desired an epithalamium. I believe thePrincess[1] will have more beauties bestowed on her by the occasionalpoets, than even a painter would afford her. They will cook up a newPandora, and in the bottom of the box enclose Hope, that all they havesaid is true. A great many, out of excess of good breeding, having heardit was rude to talk Latin before women, propose complimenting her inEnglish; which she will be much the better for. I doubt most of them, instead of fearing their compositions should not be understood, shouldfear they should: they write they don't know what, to be read by theydon't know who. You have made me a very unreasonable request, which Iwill answer with another as extraordinary: you desire I would burn yourletters: I desire you would keep mine. I know but of one way of makingwhat I send you useful, which is, by sending you a blank sheet: sureyou would not grudge threepence for a halfpenny sheet, when you give asmuch for one not worth a farthing. You drew this last paragraph on youby your exordium, as you call it, and conclusion. I hope, for thefuture, our correspondence will run a little more glibly, with dearGeorge, and dear Harry [Conway]; not as formally as if we were playing agame at chess in Spain and Portugal; and Don Horatio was to have thehonour of specifying to Don Georgio, by an epistle, whither he wouldmove. In one point I would have our correspondence like a game at chess;it should last all our lives--but I hear you cry check; adieu!

Dear George, yours ever. 

[Footnote 1: Augusta, younger daughter of Frederic II. , Duke ofSaxe-Gotha, married (27th April, 1736) to Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III. 

In 1736, I wrote a copy of Latin verses, published in the "GratulatioAcad. Cantab. , " on the marriage of Frederick, Prince ofWales. --_Walpole_ (_Short Notes_). ]

_FONDNESS FOR OLD STORIES--REMINISCENCES OF ETON, ETC. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

KING'S COLLEGE, _May_ 6, 1736. 

Dear George, --I agree with you entirely in the pleasure you take intalking over old stories, but can't say but I meet every day with newcircumstances, which will be still more pleasure to me to recollect. Ithink at our age 'tis excess of joy, to think, while we are running overpast happinesses, that it is still in our power to enjoy as great. Narrations of the greatest actions of other people are tedious incomparison of the serious trifles that every man can call to mind ofhimself while he was learning those histories. Youthful passages of lifeare the chippings of Pitt's diamond, set into little heart-rings withmottoes; the stone itself more worth, the filings more gentle andagreeable. --Alexander, at the head of the world, never tasted the truepleasure that boys of his own age have enjoyed at the head of a school. Little intrigues, little schemes, and policies engage their thoughts;and, at the same time that they are laying the foundation for theirmiddle age of life, the mimic republic they live in furnishes materialsof conversation for their latter age; and old men cannot be said to bechildren a second time with greater truth from any one cause, than theirliving over again their childhood in imagination. To reflect on theseason when first they felt the titillation of love, the buddingpassions, and the first dear object of their wishes! how unexperiencedthey gave credit to all the tales of romantic loves! Dear George, werenot the playing fields at Eton food for all manner of flights? No oldmaid's gown, though it had been tormented into all the fashions fromKing James to King George, ever underwent so many transformations asthose poor plains have in my idea. At first I was contented with tendinga visionary flock, and sighing some pastoral name to the echo of thecascade under the bridge. How happy should I have been to have had akingdom only for the pleasure of being driven from it, and livingdisguised in an humble vale! As I got further into Virgil and Clelia, Ifound myself transported from Arcadia to the garden of Italy; and sawWindsor Castle in no other view than the _Capitoli immobile saxum_. Iwish a committee of the House of Commons may ever seem to be the senate;or a bill appear half so agreeable as a billet-doux. You see how deepyou have carried me into old stories; I write of them with pleasure, butshall talk of them with more to you. I can't say I am sorry I was neverquite a schoolboy: an expedition against bargemen, or a match atcricket, may be very pretty things to recollect; but, thank my stars, Ican remember things that are very near as pretty. The beginning of myRoman history was spent in the asylum, or conversing in Egeria'shallowed grove; not in thumping and pummelling king Amulius's herdsmen. I was sometimes troubled with a rough creature or two from the plough;one, that one should have thought, had worked with his head, as well ashis hands, they were both so callous. One of the most agreeablecircumstances I can recollect is the Triumvirate, composed of yourself, Charles, and

Your sincere friend. 

_WISH TO TRAVEL--SUPERIORITY OF FRENCH MANNERS TO ENGLISH IN THEIRMANNER TO LADIES. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

KING'S COLLEGE, _March_ 20, 1737. 

Dear George, --The first paragraph in my letter must be in answer to thelast in yours; though I should be glad to make you the return you ask, by waiting on you myself. 'Tis not in my power, from more circumstancesthan one, which are needless to tell you, to accompany you and LordConway to Italy: you add to the pleasure it would give me, by asking itso kindly. You I am infinitely obliged to, as I was capable, my dearGeorge, of making you forget for a minute that you don't proposestirring from the dear place you are now in. Poppies indeed are thechief flowers in love nosegays, but they seldom bend towards the lady;at least not till the other flowers have been gathered. PrinceVolscius's boots were made of love-leather, and honour leather; insteadof honour, some people's are made of friendship: but since you have beenso good to me as to draw on this, I can almost believe you are equippedfor travelling farther than Rheims. 'Tis no little inducement to make mewish myself in France, that I hear gallantry is not left off there; thatyou may be polite, and not be thought awkward for it. You know thepretty men of the age in England use the women with no more deferencethan they do their coach-horses, and have not half the regard for themthat they have for themselves. The little freedoms you tell me you usetake off from formality, by avoiding which ridiculous extreme we aredwindled into the other barbarous one, rusticity. If you had been atParis, I should have inquired about the new Spanish ambassadress, who, by the accounts we have thence, at her first audience of the queen, satdown with her at a distance that suited respect and conversation. 

Adieu, dear George, Yours most heartily. 

_THEATRES AT PARIS--ST. DENIS--FONDNESS OF THE FRENCH FOR SHOW, AND FORGAMBLING--SINGULAR SIGNS--THE ARMY THE ONLY PROFESSION FOR MEN OF GENTLEBIRTH--SPLENDOUR OF THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS. _

TO RICHARD WEST, ESQ. 

PARIS, _April_ 21, N. S. 1739. [1]

[Footnote 1: He is here dating according to the French custom. InEngland the calendar was not rectified by the disuse of the "Old Style"till 1752. ]

Dear West, --You figure us in a set of pleasures, which, believe me, wedo not find; cards and eating are so universal, that they absorb allvariation of pleasures. The operas, indeed, are much frequented threetimes a week; but to me they would be a greater penance than eatingmaigre: their music resembles a gooseberry tart as much as it doesharmony. We have not yet been at the Italian playhouse; scarce any onegoes there. Their best amusement, and which, in some parts, beats ours, is the comedy; three or four of the actors excel any we have: but thento this nobody goes, if it is not one of the fashionable nights; andthen they go, be the play good or bad--except on Molière's nights, whosepieces they are quite weary of. Gray and I have been at the Avareto-night: I cannot at all commend their performance of it. Last night Iwas in the Place de Louis le Grand (a regular octagon, uniform, and thehouses handsome, though not so large as Golden Square), to see what theyreckoned one of the finest burials that ever was in France. It was theDuke de Tresmes, governor of Paris and marshal of France. It began onfoot from his palace to his parish-church, and from thence in coaches tothe opposite end of Paris, to be interred in the church of theCelestins, where is his family-vault. About a week ago we happened tosee the grave digging, as we went to see the church, which is old andsmall, but fuller of fine ancient monuments than any, except St. Denis, which we saw on the road, and excels Westminster; for the windows areall painted in mosaic, and the tombs as fresh and well preserved as ifthey were of yesterday. In the Celestins' church is a votive column toFrancis II. , which says, that it is one assurance of his beingimmortalized, to have had the martyr Mary Stuart for his wife. Afterthis long digression, I return to the burial, which was a most vilething. A long procession of flambeaux and friars; no plumes, trophies, banners, led horses, scutcheons, or open chariots; nothing but

 friars, White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery. 

This godly ceremony began at nine at night, and did not finish tillthree this morning; for, each church they passed, they stopped for ahymn and holy water. By the bye, some of these choice monks, who watchedthe body while it lay in state, fell asleep one night, and let thetapers catch fire of the rich velvet mantle lined with ermine andpowdered with gold flower-de-luces, which melted the lead coffin, andburnt off the feet of the deceased before it wakened them. The Frenchlove show; but there is a meanness reigns through it all. At the housewhere I stood to see this procession, the room was hung with crimsondamask and gold, and the windows were mended in ten or a dozen placeswith paper. At dinner they give you three courses; but a third of thedishes is patched up with salads, butter, puff-paste, or some suchmiscarriage of a dish. None, but Germans, wear fine clothes; but theircoaches are tawdry enough for the wedding of Cupid and Psyche. You wouldlaugh extremely at their signs: some live at the Y grec, some at Venus'stoilette, and some at the sucking cat. You would not easily guess theirnotions of honour: I'll tell you one: it is very dishonourable for anygentleman not to be in the army, or in the king's service as they callit, and it is no dishonour to keep public gaming-houses: there are atleast a hundred and fifty people of the first quality in Paris who liveby it. You may go into their houses at all hours of the night, and findhazard, pharaoh, &c. The men who keep the hazard-table at the Duke deGesvres' pay him twelve guineas each night for the privilege. Even theprincesses of the blood are dirty enough to have shares in the bankskept at their houses. We have seen two or three of them; but they arenot young, nor remarkable but for wearing their red of a deeper dye thanother women, though all use it extravagantly. 

The weather is still so bad, that we have not made any excursions to seeVersailles and the environs, not even walked in the Tuileries; but wehave seen almost everything else that is worth seeing in Paris, thoughthat is very considerable. They beat us vastly in buildings, both innumber and magnificence. The tombs of Richelieu and Mazarin at theSorbonne and the College de Quatre Nations are wonderfully fine, especially the former. We have seen very little of the peoplethemselves, who are not inclined to be propitious to strangers, especially if they do not play and speak the language readily. There aremany English here: Lord Holdernesse, Conway and Clinton, and Lord GeorgeBentinck; Mr. Brand, Offley, Frederic, Frampton, Bonfoy, &c. Sir JohnCotton's son and a Mr. Vernon of Cambridge passed through Paris lastweek. We shall stay here about a fortnight longer, and then go to Rheimswith Mr. Conway for two or three months. When you have nothing else todo, we shall be glad to hear from you; and any news. If we did notremember there was such a place as England, we should know nothing ofit: the French never mention it, unless it happens to be in one of theirproverbs. Adieu!

Yours ever. 

To-morrow we go to the Cid. They have no farces, but _petites pièces_like our 'Devil to Pay. '

_MAGNIFICENCE OF VERSAILLES--THE CHARTREUX RELICS. _

TO RICHARD WEST, ESQ. 

FROM PARIS, 1739. 

Dear West, --I should think myself to blame not to try to divert you, when you tell me I can. From the air of your letter you seem to wantamusement, that is, you want spirits. I would recommend to you certainlittle employments that I know of, and that belong to you, but that Iimagine bodily exercise is more suitable to your complaint. If you wouldpromise me to read them in the Temple garden, I would send you a littlepacket of plays and pamphlets that we have made up, and intend todispatch to "Dick's"[1] the first opportunity. --Stand by, clear the way, make room for the pompous appearance of Versailles le Grand!----But no:it fell so short of my idea of it, mine, that I have resigned to Graythe office of writing its panegyric. He likes it. They say I am to likeit better next Sunday; when the sun is to shine, the king is to be fine, the water-works are to play, and the new knights of the Holy Ghost areto be installed! Ever since Wednesday, the day we were there, we havedone nothing but dispute about it. They say, we did not see it toadvantage, that we ran through the apartments, saw the garden _enpassant_, and slubbered over Trianon. I say, we saw nothing. However, wehad time to see that the great front is a lumber of littleness, composedof black brick, stuck full of bad old busts, and fringed with goldrails. The rooms are all small, except the great gallery, which isnoble, but totally wainscoted with looking-glass. The garden is litteredwith statues and fountains, each of which has its tutelary deity. Inparticular, the elementary god of fire solaces himself in one. Inanother, Enceladus, in lieu of a mountain, is overwhelmed with manywaters. There are avenues of water-pots, who disport themselves much insquirting up cascadelins. In short, 'tis a garden for a great child. Such was Louis Quatorze, who is here seen in his proper colours, wherehe commanded in person, unassisted by his armies and generals, and leftto the pursuit of his own puerile ideas of glory. 

[Footnote 1: A celebrated coffee-house, near the Temple Gate in FleetStreet, where quarto poems and pamphlets were taken in. ]

We saw last week a place of another kind, and which has more the air ofwhat it would be, than anything I have yet met with: it was the conventof the Chartreux. All the conveniences, or rather (if there was such aword) all the _adaptments_ are assembled here, that melancholy, meditation, selfish devotion, and despair would require. But yet 'tispleasing. Soften the terms, and mellow the uncouth horror that reignshere, but a little, and 'tis a charming solitude. It stands on a largespace of ground, is old and irregular. The chapel is gloomy: behind it, through some dark passages, you pass into a large obscure hall, whichlooks like a combination-chamber for some hellish council. The largecloister surrounds their burying-ground. The cloisters are very narrowand very long, and let into the cells, which are built like little hutsdetached from each other. We were carried into one, where lived amiddle-aged man not long initiated into the order. He was extremelycivil, and called himself Dom Victor. We have promised to visit himoften. Their habit is all white: but besides this he was infinitelyclean in his person; and his apartment and garden, which he keeps andcultivates without any assistance, was neat to a degree. He has fourlittle rooms, furnished in the prettiest manner, and hung with goodprints. One of them is a library, and another a gallery. He has severalcanary-birds disposed in a pretty manner in breeding-cages. In hisgarden was a bed of good tulips in bloom, flowers and fruit-trees, andall neatly kept. They are permitted at certain hours to talk tostrangers, but never to one another, or to go out of their convent. Butwhat we chiefly went to see was the small cloister, with the history ofSt. Bruno, their founder, painted by Le Soeur. It consists of twenty-twopictures, the figures a good deal less than life. But sure they areamazing! I don't know what Raphael may be in Rome, but these picturesexcel all I have seen in Paris and England. The figure of the dead manwho spoke at his burial, contains all the strongest and horridest ideas, of ghastliness, hypocrisy discovered, and the height of damnation, painand cursing. A Benedictine monk, who was there at the same time, said tome of this picture: _C'est une fable, mais on la croyoit autrefois. _Another, who showed me relics in one of their churches, expressed asmuch ridicule for them. The pictures I have been speaking of are illpreserved, and some of the finest heads defaced, which was done at firstby a rival of Le Soeur's. Adieu! dear West, take care of your health;and some time or other we will talk over all these things with morepleasure than I have had in seeing them. 

Yours ever. 

_THE CARNIVAL--THE FLORENTINES CIVIL, GOOD-NATURED, AND FOND OF THEENGLISH--A CURIOUS CHALLENGE. _

TO RICHARD WEST, ESQ. 

FLORENCE, _February_ 27, 1740, N. S. 

Well, West, I have found a little unmasqued moment to write to you; butfor this week past I have been so muffled up in my domino, that I havenot had the command of my elbows. But what have you been doing all themornings? Could you not write then?--No, then I was masqued too; I havedone nothing but slip out of my domino into bed, and out of bed into mydomino. The end of the Carnival is frantic, bacchanalian; all the mornone makes parties in masque to the shops and coffee-houses, and all theevening to the operas and balls. _Then I have danced, good gods! howhave I danced!_ The Italians are fond to a degree of our country dances:_Cold and raw_ they only know by the tune; _Blowzybella_ is almostItalian, and _Buttered peas_ is _Pizelli al buro_. There are but threedays more; but the two last are to have balls all the morning at thefine unfinished palace of the Strozzi; and the Tuesday night amasquerade after supper: they sup first, to eat _gras_, and not encroachupon Ash-Wednesday. What makes masquerading more agreeable here than inEngland, is the great deference that is showed to the disguised. Herethey do not catch at those little dirty opportunities of saying anyill-natured thing they know of you, do not abuse you because they may, or talk gross bawdy to a woman of quality. I found the other day, by aplay of Etheridge's, that we have had a sort of Carnival even since theReformation; 'tis in _She would if She could_, they talk of goinga-mumming in Shrove-tide. --

After talking so much of diversions, I fear you will attribute to themthe fondness I own I contract for Florence; but it has so many othercharms, that I shall not want excuses for my taste. The freedom of theCarnival has given me opportunities to make several acquaintances; andif I have not found them refined, learned, polished, like some othercities, yet they are civil, good-natured, and fond of the English. Theirlittle partiality for themselves, opposed to the violent vanity of theFrench, makes them very amiable in my eyes. I can give you a comicalinstance of their great prejudice about nobility; it happened yesterday. While we were at dinner at Mr. Mann's, word was brought by hissecretary, that a cavalier demanded audience of him upon an affair ofhonour. Gray and I flew behind the curtain of the door. An elderlygentleman, whose attire was not certainly correspondent to the greatnessof his birth, entered, and informed the British minister, that oneMartin, an English painter, had left a challenge for him at his house, for having said Martin was no gentleman. He would by no means have spokeof the duel before the transaction of it, but that his honour, hisblood, his &c. Would never permit him to fight with one who was nocavalier; which was what he came to inquire of his excellency. Welaughed loud laughs, but unheard: his fright or his nobility had closedhis ears. But mark the sequel: the instant he was gone, my very Englishcuriosity hurried me out of the gate St. Gallo; 'twas the place and hourappointed. We had not been driving about above ten minutes, but outpopped a little figure, pale but cross, with beard unshaved and hairuncombed, a slouched hat, and a considerable red cloak, in which waswrapped, under his arm, the fatal sword that was to revenge the highlyinjured Mr. Martin, painter and defendant. I darted my head out of thecoach, just ready to say, "Your servant, Mr. Martin, " and talk about thearchitecture of the triumphal arch that was building there; but he wouldnot know me, and walked off. We left him to wait for an hour, to growvery cold and very valiant the more it grew past the hour ofappointment. We were figuring all the poor creature's huddle ofthoughts, and confused hopes of victory or fame, of his unfinishedpictures, or his situation upon bouncing into the next world. You willthink us strange creatures; but 'twas a pleasant sight, as we knew thepoor painter was safe. I have thought of it since, and am inclined tobelieve that nothing but two English could have been capable of such ajaunt. I remember, 'twas reported in London, that the plague was at ahouse in the city, and all the town went to see it. 

I have this instant received your letter. Lord! I am glad I thought ofthose parallel passages, since it made you translate them. 'Tisexcessively near the original; and yet, I don't know, 'tis very easytoo. --It snows here a little to-night, but it never lies but on themountains. Adieu!

Yours ever. 

P. S. --What is the history of the theatres this winter?

_HERCULANEUM--SEARCH SHOULD BE MADE FOR OTHER SUBMERGEDCITIES--QUOTATIONS FROM STATIUS. _

TO RICHARD WEST, ESQ. 

NAPLES, _June_ 14, 1740, N. S. 

Dear West, --One hates writing descriptions that are to be found in everybook of travels; but we have seen something to-day that I am sure younever read of, and perhaps never heard of. Have you ever heard of asubterraneous town? a whole Roman town, with all its edifices, remainingunder ground? Don't fancy the inhabitants buried it there to save itfrom the Goths: they were buried with it themselves; which is a cautionwe are not told that they ever took. You remember in Titus's time therewere several cities destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius, attended withan earthquake. Well, this was one of them, not very considerable, andthen called Herculaneum. Above it has since been built Portici, aboutthree miles from Naples, where the King has a villa. This undergroundcity is perhaps one of the noblest curiosities that ever has beendiscovered. It was found out by chance, about a year and half ago. Theybegan digging, they found statues; they dug further, they found more. Since that they have made a very considerable progress, and findcontinually. You may walk the compass of a mile; but by the misfortuneof the modern town being overhead, they are obliged to proceed withgreat caution, lest they destroy both one and t'other. By this occasionthe path is very narrow, just wide enough and high enough for one man towalk upright. They have hollowed, as they found it easiest to work, andhave carried their streets not exactly where were the ancient ones, butsometimes before houses, sometimes through them. You would imagine thatall the fabrics were crushed together; on the contrary, except somecolumns, they have found all the edifices standing upright in theirproper situation. There is one inside of a temple quite perfect, withthe middle arch, two columns, and two pilasters. It is built of brickplastered over, and painted with architecture: almost all the insides ofthe houses are in the same manner; and, what is very particular, thegeneral ground of all the painting is red. Besides this temple, theymake out very plainly an amphitheatre: the stairs, of white marble, andthe seats are very perfect; the inside was painted in the same colourwith the private houses, and great part cased with white marble. Theyhave found among other things some fine statues, some human bones, somerice, medals, and a few paintings extremely fine. These latter arepreferred to all the ancient paintings that have ever been discovered. We have not seen them yet, as they are kept in the King's apartment, whither all these curiosities are transplanted; and 'tis difficult tosee them--but we shall. I forgot to tell you, that in several places thebeams of the houses remain, but burnt to charcoal; so little damagedthat they retain visibly the grain of the wood, but upon touchingcrumble to ashes. What is remarkable, there are no other marks orappearance of fire, but what are visible on these beams. 

There might certainly be collected great light from this reservoir ofantiquities, if a man of learning had the inspection of it; if hedirected the working, and would make a journal of the discoveries. But Ibelieve there is no judicious choice made of directors. There is nothingof the kind known in the world; I mean a Roman city entire of that age, and that has not been corrupted with modern repairs. Besidesscrutinising this very carefully, I should be inclined to search forthe remains of the other towns that were partners with this in thegeneral ruin. [1] 'Tis certainly an advantage to the learned world, thatthis has been laid up so long. Most of the discoveries in Rome were madein a barbarous age, where they only ransacked the ruins in quest oftreasure, and had no regard to the form and being of the building; or toany circumstances that might give light into its use and history. Ishall finish this long account with a passage which Gray has observed inStatius, and which directly pictures out this latent city:--

 Haec ego Chalcidicis ad te, Marcelle, sonabam Littoribus, fractas ubi Vestius egerit iras, Aemula Trinacriis volvens incendia flammis. Mira fides! credetne virûm ventura propago, Cum segetes iterum, cum jam haec deserta virebunt, Infra urbes populosque premi?

 SYLV. Lib. Iv. Epist. 4. 

Adieu, my dear West! and believe me yours ever. 

[Footnote 1: It was known from the account of Pliny that other towns hadbeen destroyed by the same eruption as Herculaneum, and eight yearsafter the date of this letter some fresh excavations led to thediscovery of Pompeii. Matthews, in his "Diary of an Invalid, " describesboth, and his account explains why Pompeii, though the smaller town, presents more attractions to the scholar or the antiquarian. "On our wayhome we explored Herculaneum, which scarcely repays the labour. Thistown is filled up with lava, and with a cement caused by the largemixture of water with the shower of earth and ashes which destroyed it;and it is choked up as completely as if molten lead had been poured intoit. Besides, it is forty feet below the surface, and another town is nowbuilt over it.... Pompeii, on the contrary, was destroyed by a shower ofcinders in which there was a much less quantity of water. It lay forcenturies only twelve feet below the surface, and, these cinders beingeasily removed, the town has been again restored to the light of day"(vol. I. P. 254). ]

_DANGER OF MALARIA--ROMAN CATHOLIC RELICS--"ADMIRAL HOSIER'SGHOST"--CONTEST FOR THE POPEDOM. _

TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. 

RÈ DI COFANO, vulg. RADICOFANI, _July_ 5, 1740, N. S. 

You will wonder, my dear Hal, to find me on the road from Rome: why, intend I did to stay for a new popedom, but the old eminences are crossand obstinate, and will not choose one, the Holy Ghost does not knowwhen. There is a horrid thing called the malaria, that comes to Romeevery summer, and kills one, and I did not care for being killed so farfrom Christian burial. We have been jolted to death; my servants let uscome without springs to the chaise, and we are wore threadbare: to addto our disasters, I have sprained my ancle, and have brought it along, laid upon a little box of baubles that I have bought for presents inEngland. Perhaps I may pick you out some little trifle there, but don'tdepend upon it; you are a disagreeable creature, and may be I shall notcare for you. Though I am so tired in this devil of a place, yet I havetaken it into my head, that it is like Hamilton's Bawn, [1] and I mustwrite to you. 'Tis the top of a black barren mountain, a vile littletown at the foot of an old citadel: yet this, know you, was theresidence of one of the three kings that went to Christ's birthday; hisname was Alabaster, Abarasser, or some such thing; the other two werekings, one of the East, the other of Cologn. 'Tis this of Cofano, whowas represented in an ancient painting, found in the Palatine Mount, nowin the possession of Dr. Mead; he was crowned by Augustus. Well, butabout writing--what do you think I write with? Nay, with a pen; therewas never a one to be found in the whole circumference _but one_, andthat was in the possession of the governor, and had been used time outof mind to write the parole with: I was forced to send to borrow it. Itwas sent me under the conduct of a serjeant and two Swiss, with desireto return it when I should have done with it. 'Tis a curiosity, andworthy to be laid up with the relics which we have just been seeing in asmall hovel of Capucins on the side of the hill, and which were allbrought by his Majesty from Jerusalem. Among other things of greatsanctity there is a set of gnashing of teeth, the grinders very entire;a bit of the worm that never dies, preserved in spirits; a crow of St. Peter's cock, very useful against Easter; the crisping and curling, frizzling and frowncing of Mary Magdalen, which she cut off on growingdevout. The good man that showed us all these commodities was got intosuch a train of calling them the blessed this, and the blessed that, that at last he showed us a bit of the blessed fig-tree that Christcursed. 

[Footnote 1: Hamilton's Bawn is an old building near Richhill, in theCounty of Armagh, the subject of one of Swift's burlesque poems. ]

FLORENCE, _July_ 9. 

My dear Harry, --We are come hither, and I have received another letterfrom you with "Hosier's Ghost. "[1] Your last put me in pain for you, when you talked of going to Ireland; but now I find your brother andsister go with you, I am not much concerned. Should I be? You have butto say, for my feelings are extremely at your service to dispose as youplease. Let us see: you are to come back to stand for some place; thatwill be about April. 'Tis a sort of thing I should do, too; and then weshould see one another, and that would be charming: but it is a sort ofthing I have no mind to do; and then we shall not see one another, unless you would come hither--but that you cannot do: nay, I would nothave you, for then I shall be gone. --So, there are many _ifs_ that justsignify nothing at all. Return I must sooner than I shall like. I amhappy here to a degree. I'll tell you my situation. I am lodged with Mr. Mann, the best of creatures. I have a terreno all to myself, with anopen gallery on the Arno, where I am now writing to you. Over against meis the famous Gallery: and, on either hand, two fair bridges. Is notthis charming and cool? The air is so serene, and so secure, that onesleeps with all the windows and doors thrown open to the river, and onlycovered with a slight gauze to keep away the gnats. Lady Pomfret has acharming conversation once a week. She has taken a vast palace and avast garden, which is vastly commode, especially to the cicisbeo-part ofmankind, who have free indulgence to wander in pairs about the arbours. You know her daughters: Lady Sophia is still, nay she must be, thebeauty she was: Lady Charlotte is much improved, and is the cleverestgirl in the world; speaks the purest Tuscan, like any Florentine. ThePrincess Craon has a constant pharaoh and supper every night, where oneis quite at one's ease. I am going into the country with her and theprince for a little while, to a villa of the Great Duke's. The peopleare good-humoured here and easy; and what makes me pleased with them, they are pleased with me. One loves to find people care for one, whenthey can have no view in it. 

[Footnote 1: "Admiral Hosier's Ghost" is the title of a ballad by Gloveron the death of Admiral Hosier, a distinguished admiral, who had beensent with a squadron to blockade the Spanish treasure-ships in PortoBello, but was prohibited from attacking them in the harbour. He died in1727, according to the account that the poet adopted, of mortificationat the inaction to which his orders compelled him; but according toanother statement, more trustworthy if less poetical, of fever. ]

You see how glad I am to have reasons for not returning; I wish I had nobetter. 

As to "Hosier's Ghost, " I think it very easy, and consequently pretty;but, from the ease, should never have guessed it Glover's. I delight inyour, "the patriots cry it up, and the courtiers cry it down, and thehawkers cry it up and down, " and your laconic history of the King andSir Robert, on going to Hanover, and turning out the Duke of Argyle. Theepigram, too, you sent me on the same occasion is charming. 

Unless I sent you back news that you and others send me, I can send younone. I have left the Conclave, which is the only stirring thing in thispart of the world, except the child that the Queen of Naples is to bedelivered of in August. There is no likelihood the Conclave will end, unless the messages take effect which 'tis said the Imperial and Frenchministers have sent to their respective courts for leave to quit theCorsini for the Albani faction: otherwise there will never be a pope. Corsini has lost the only one he could have ventured to make pope, andhim he designed; 'twas Cenci, a relation of the Corsini's mistress. Thelast morning Corsini made him rise, stuffed a dish of chocolate down histhroat, and would carry him to the scrutiny. The poor old creature went, came back, and died. I am sorry to have lost the sight of the Pope'scoronation, but I might have staid for seeing it till I had been oldenough to be pope myself. [1]

[Footnote 1: The contest was caused by the death of Clement XII. Thesuccessful candidate was Benedict XIV. ]

Harry, what luck the Chancellor has! first, indeed, to be in himself sogreat a man; but then in accident: he is made Chief Justice and peer, when Talbot is made Chancellor and peer. Talbot dies in a twelvemonth, and leaves him the seals at an age when others are scarce madeSolicitors:--then marries his son into one of the first families ofBritain, obtains a patent for a Marquisate and eight thousand pounds ayear after the Duke of Kent's death: the Duke dies in a fortnight, andleaves them all! People talk of Fortune's wheel, that is alwaysrolling: troth, my Lord Hardwicke has overtaken her wheel, and rolledaway with it.... Yours ever. 

_A FLORENTINE WEDDING--ADDISON'S DESCRIPTIONS ARE BORROWED FROM BOOKS--ASONG OF BONDELMONTI'S, WITH A LATIN VERSION BY GRAY, AND AN ENGLISH ONEBY THE WRITER. _

TO RICHARD WEST, ESQ. 

FLORENCE, _Oct. _ 2, 1740, N. S. 

Dear West, --T'other night as we (you know who _we_ are) were walking onthe charming bridge, just before going to a wedding assembly, we said, "Lord, I wish, just as we are got into the room, they would call us out, and say, West is arrived! We would make him dress instantly, and carryhim back to the entertainment. How he would stare and wonder at athousand things, that no longer strike us as odd!" Would not you? Oneagreed that you should have come directly by sea from Dover, and be setdown at Leghorn, without setting foot in any other foreign town, and soland at _Us_, in all your first full amaze; for you are to know, thatastonishment rubs off violently; we did not cry out Lord! half so muchat Rome as at Calais, which to this hour I look upon as one of the mostsurprising cities in the universe. My dear child, what if you were totake this little sea-jaunt? One would recommend Sir John Norris's convoyto you, but one should be laughed at now for supposing that he is everto sail beyond Torbay. [1] The Italians take Torbay for an English townin the hands of the Spaniards, after the fashion of Gibraltar, andimagine 'tis a wonderful strong place, by our fleet's having retiredfrom before it so often, and so often returned. 

[Footnote 1: Sir John Norris was one of the most gallant and skilfulseamen of his time; but an expedition in which he had had the commandhad lately proved fruitless. He had been instructed to cruise about theBay of Biscay, in the hope of intercepting some of the Spanishtreasure-ships; but the weather had been so uninterruptedly stormy thathe had been compelled to return to port without having even seen anenemy. The following lines were addressed to him upon this occasion:

 Homeward, oh! bend thy course; the seas are rough; To the Land's End who sails, has sailed enough. ]

We went to this wedding that I told you of; 'twas a charming feast: alarge palace finely illuminated; there were all the beauties, all thejewels, and all the sugar-plums of Florence. Servants loaded with greatchargers full of comfits heap the tables with them, the women fall onwith both hands, and stuff their pockets and every creek and cornerabout them. You would be as much amazed at us as at anything you saw:instead of being deep in the liberal arts, and being in the Galleryevery morning, as I thought of course to be sure I would be, we are inall the idleness and amusements of the town. For me, I am grown so lazy, and so tired of seeing sights, that, though I have been at Florence sixmonths, I have not seen Leghorn, Pisa, Lucca, or Pistoia; nay, not somuch as one of the Great Duke's villas. I have contracted so great anaversion to inns and post-chaises, and have so absolutely lost allcuriosity, that, except the towns in the straight road to Great Britain, I shall scarce see a jot more of a foreign land; and trust me, when Ireturn, I will not visit Welsh mountains, like Mr. Williams. After MountCenis, the Boccheto, the Giogo, Radicofani, and the Appian Way, one hasmighty little hunger after travelling. I shall be mighty apt to set upmy staff at Hyde-park-corner: the alehouseman there at Hercules'sPillars[1] was certainly returned from his travels into foreign parts. 

[Footnote 1: The sign of the Hercules' Pillars remained in Piccadillytill very lately. It was situated on part of the ground now [1798]occupied by the houses of Mr. Drummond Smith and his brother. --MISSBERRY. That is, on the space between Hamilton Place and Apsley House. Itwas the inn mentioned in Fielding's "Tom Jones, " and was notorious as afavourite resort of the Marquis of Granby. ]

Now I'll answer your questions. 

I have made no discoveries in ancient or modern arts. Mr. Addisontravelled through the poets, and not through Italy; for all his ideasare borrowed from the descriptions, and not from the reality. He sawplaces as they were, not as they are. [1] I am very well acquainted withDoctor Cocchi;[2] he is a good sort of man, rather than a great man; heis a plain honest creature, with quiet knowledge, but I dare say all theEnglish have told you, he has a very particular understanding: I reallydon't believe they meant to impose on you, for they thought so. As toBondelmonti, he is much less; he is a low mimic; the brightest cast ofhis parts attains to the composition of a sonnet: he talks irreligionwith English boys, sentiment with my sister [Lady Walpole], and badFrench with any one that will hear him. I will transcribe you a littlesong that he made t'other day; 'tis pretty enough; Gray turned it intoLatin, and I into English; you will honour him highly by putting it intoFrench, and Ashton into Greek. Here 'tis. 

 Spesso Amor sotto la forma D'amistà ride, e s'asconde; Poi si mischia, e si confonde Con lo sdegno e col rancor. 

 In pietade ei si trasforma, Par trastullo e par dispetto, Ma nel suo diverso aspetto, Sempre egli è l'istesso Amor. 

 Risit amicitiae interdùm velatus amictu, Et benè compositâ veste fefeliit Amor: Mox irae assumpsit cultus faciemque minantem, Inque odium versus, versus et in lacrymas: Sudentem fuge, nec lacrymanti aut crede furenti; Idem est dissimili semper in ore Deus. 

 Love often in the comely mien Of friendship fancies to be seen; Soon again he shifts his dress, And wears disdain and rancour's face. 

 To gentle pity then he changes; Thro' wantonness, thro' piques he ranges; But in whatever shape he move, He's still himself, and still is Love. 

[Footnote 1: Compare Letter to Zouch, March 20th, 1762. Fielding says("Voyage to Lisbon") that Addison, in his "Travels, " is to be lookedupon rather as a commentator on the classics, than as a writer oftravels. ]

[Footnote 2: Antonio Cocchi, a learned physician and author at Florence, a particular friend of Mr. Mann. --WALPOLE. He died in 1758. ]

See how we trifle! but one can't pass one's youth too amusingly; for onemust grow old, and that in England; two most serious circumstanceseither of which makes people grey in the twinkling of a bed-staff; forknow you, there is not a country upon earth where there are so many oldfools and so few young ones. 

Now I proceed with my answers. 

I made but small collections, and have only bought some bronzes andmedals, a few busts, and two or three pictures; one of my busts is to bementioned; 'tis the famous Vespasian in touchstone, reckoned the best inRome, except the Caracalla of the Farnese: I gave but twenty-two poundsfor it at Cardinal Ottoboni's sale. One of my medals is as great acuriosity: 'tis of Alexander Severus, with the amphitheatre in brass;this reverse is extant on medals of his, but mine is a _medagliuncino_, or small medallion, and the only one with this reverse known in theworld: 'twas found by a peasant while I was in Rome, and sold by him forsixpence to an antiquarian, to whom I paid for it seven guineas and ahalf; but to virtuosi 'tis worth any sum. 

As to Tartini's[1] musical compositions, ask Gray; I know but little inmusic. 

[Footnote 1: Giuseppe Tartini, of Padua, the celebrated composer of theDevil's Sonata: in which he attempted to reproduce an air which hedreamt that Satan had played to him while he was asleep; but, in his ownopinion, he failed so entirely, that he declared that if he had anyother means of livelihood he would break his violin and give up music. ]

But for the Academy, I am not of it, but frequently in company with it:'tis all disjointed. Madame ----, who, though a learned lady, has notlost her modesty and character, is extremely scandalised with the othertwo dames, especially with Moll Worthless [Lady Mary Wortley], who knowsno bounds. She is at rivalry with Lady W[alpole] for a certain Mr. ----, whom perhaps you knew at Oxford. If you did not, I'll tell you: he is agrave young man by temper, and a rich one by constitution; a shallowcreature by nature, but a wit by the grace of our women here, whom hedeals with as of old with the Oxford toasts. He fell into sentimentswith my Lady W[alpole] and was happy to catch her at Platonic love: butas she seldom stops there, the poor man will be frightened out of hissenses when she shall break the matter to him; for he never dreamt thather purposes were so naught. Lady Mary is so far gone, that to get himfrom the mouth of her antagonist she literally took him out to dancecountry dances last night at a formal ball, where there was no measurekept in laughing at her old, foul, tawdry, painted, plastered personage. She played at pharaoh two or three times at Princess Craon's, where shecheats horse and foot. She is really entertaining: I have been readingher works, which she lends out in manuscript, but they are too womanish:I like few of her performances. I forgot to tell you a good answer ofLady Pomfret to Mr. ----, who asked her if she did not approve Platoniclove? "Lord, sir, " says she, "I am sure any one that knows me neverheard that I had any love but one, and there sit two proofs of it, "pointing to her two daughters. 

So I have given you a sketch of our employments, and answered yourquestions, and will with pleasure as many more as you have about you. 

Adieu! Was ever such a long letter? But 'tis nothing to what I shallhave to say to you. I shall scold you for never telling us any news, public or private, no deaths, marriages, or mishaps; no account of newbooks: Oh, you are abominable! I could find it in my heart to hate you, if I did not love you so well; but we will quarrel now, that we may bethe better friends when we meet: there is no danger of that, is there?Good-night, whether friend or foe! I am most sincerely

Yours. 

_DEBATE ON PULTENEY'S MOTION FOR A COMMITTEE ON PAPERS RELATING TO THEWAR--SPEECHES OF PULTENEY, PITT, SIR R. WALPOLE, SIR W. GEORGE, ETC. --SMALLNESS OF THE MINISTERIAL MAJORITY. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. [1]

[Footnote 1: Sir H. Mann was an early friend of Walpole; and wasMinister at Florence from 1740-1786. ]

[Illustration: SIR HORACE MANN. ]

_Friday, Jan. _ 22, 1742. 

Don't wonder that I missed writing to you yesterday, my constant day:you will pity me when you hear that I was shut up in the House ofCommons till one in the morning. I came away more dead than alive, andwas forced to leave Sir R. At supper with my brothers: he was all aliveand in spirits. [1] He says he is younger than me, and indeed I thinkso, in spite of his forty years more. My head aches to-night, but werose early; and if I don't write to-night, when shall I find a moment tospare? Now you want to know what we did last night; stay, I will tellyou presently in its place: it was well, and of infinite consequence--sofar I tell you now. 

[Footnote 1: Sir Robert Wilmot also, in a letter to the Duke ofDevonshire, written on the 12th, says, "Sir Robert was to-day observedto be more naturally gay and full of spirits than he has been for sometime past. "]

Our recess finished last Monday, and never at school did I enjoyholidays so much--but, _les voilà finis jusqu'au printems_! Tuesday (foryou see I write you an absolute journal) we sat on a Scotch election, adouble return; their man was Hume Campbell[1], Lord Marchmont's brother, lately made solicitor to the Prince, for being as troublesome, asviolent, and almost as able as his brother. They made a great point ofit, and gained so many of our votes, that at ten at night we were forcedto give it up without dividing. Sandys, who loves persecution, _evenunto death_, moved to punish the sheriff; and as we dared not divide, they ordered him into custody, where by this time, I suppose, Sandys haseaten him. 

[Footnote 1: Hume Campbell, twin brother of Hugh, third Earl ofMarchmont, the friend of Pope, and one of his executors. They were sonsof Alexander, the second earl, who had quarrelled with Sir RobertWalpole at the time of the excise scheme in 1733. Sir Robert, inconsequence, prevented him from being re-elected one of the sixteenrepresentative Scotch peers in 1734; in requital for which, the oldearl's two sons became the bitterest opponents of the minister. Theywere both men of considerable talents; extremely similar in theircharacters and dispositions, and so much so in their outward appearance, that it was very difficult to know them apart. ]

On Wednesday Sir Robert Godschall, the Lord Mayor, presented theMerchant's petition, signed by three hundred of them, and drawn up by_Leonidas_ Glover. [1] This is to be heard next Wednesday. Thisgold-chain came into parliament, cried up for his parts, but proves sodull, one would think he chewed opium. Earle says, "I have heard anoyster speak as well twenty times. "... 

[Footnote 1: Mr. Glover, a London merchant, was the author of a poementitled "Leonidas"; of a tragedy, "Boadicea"; and of the ode on"Admiral Hosier's Ghost, " which is mentioned in the letter to Conway atp. 23. ]

On this Thursday, of which I was telling you, at three o'clock, Mr. Pulteney rose up, and moved for a secret committee of twenty-one. Thisinquisition, this council of ten, was to sit and examine whateverpersons and papers they should please, and to meet when and where theypleased. He protested much on its not being intended against _anyperson_, but merely to give the King advice, and on this foot theyfought it till ten at night, when Lord Perceval blundered out what theyhad been cloaking with so much art, and declared that he should vote forit as a committee of accusation. Sir Robert immediately rose, andprotested that he should not have spoken, but for what he had heardlast; but that now, he must take it to himself. He pourtrayed the maliceof the Opposition, who, for twenty years, had not been able to touchhim, and were now reduced to this infamous shift. He defied them toaccuse him, and only desired that if they should, it might be in an openand fair manner; desired no favour, but to be acquainted with hisaccusation. He spoke of Mr. Dodington, who had called his administrationinfamous, as of a person of great self-mortification, who, for sixteenyears, had condescended to bear part of the odium. For Mr. Pulteney, whohad just spoken a second time, Sir R. Said, he had begun the debate withgreat calmness, but give him his due, he had made amends for it in theend. In short, never was innocence so triumphant!

There were several glorious speeches on both sides; Mr. Pulteney's two, W. Pitt's [Chatham's] and George Grenville's, Sir Robert's, Sir W. Yonge's, Harry Fox's [Lord Holland's], Mr. Chute's, and theAttorney-General's [Sir Dudley Ryder]. My friend Coke [Lovel], for thefirst time, spoke vastly well, and mentioned how great Sir Robert'scharacter is abroad. Sir Francis Dashwood replied that he had foundquite the reverse from Mr. Coke, and that foreigners always spoke withcontempt of the Chevalier de Walpole. This was going too far, and he wascalled to order, but got off well enough, by saying, that he knew it wascontrary to rule to name any member, but that he only mentioned it asspoken by an impertinent Frenchman. 

But of all speeches, none ever was so full of wit as Mr. Pulteney'slast. He said, "I have heard this committee represented as a mostdreadful spectre; it has been likened to all terrible things; it hasbeen likened to the King; to the inquisition; it will be a committee ofsafety; it is a committee of danger; I don't know what it is to be! Onegentleman, I think, called it _a cloud_! (this was the Attorney) _acloud_! I remember Hamlet takes Lord Polonius by the hand shows him _acloud_, and then asks him if he does not think it is like a whale. "Well, in short, at eleven at night we divided, and threw out this famouscommittee by 253 to 250, the greatest number that ever was in the house, and the greatest number that ever _lost_ a question. [1]

[Footnote 1: Lord Stanhope ("History of England, " i. 24) gives a longaccount of this debate, mainly derived from this letter. ]

It was a most shocking sight to see the sick and dead brought in on bothsides! Men on crutches, and Sir William Gordon from his bed, with ablister on his head, and flannel hanging out from under his wig. I couldscarce pity him for his ingratitude. The day before the Westminsterpetition, Sir Charles Wager gave his son a ship, and the next day thefather came down and voted against him. The son has since been castaway; but they concealed it from the father, that he might not absenthimself. However, as we have our good-natured men too on our side, oneof his own countrymen went and told him of it in the House. The old man, who looked like Lazarus at his resuscitation, bore it with greatresolution, and said, he knew _why_ he was told of it, but when hethought his country in danger, he would not go away. As he is so neardeath, that it is indifferent to him whether he died two thousand yearsago or to-morrow, it is unlucky for him not to have lived when suchinsensibility would have been a Roman virtue. 

There are no arts, no menaces, which the Opposition do not practise. They have threatened one gentleman to have a reversion cut off from hisson, unless he will vote with them. To Totness there came a letter tothe mayor from the Prince, and signed by two of his lords, to recommenda candidate in opposition to the Solicitor-General [Strange]. The mayorsent the letter to Sir Robert. They have turned the Scotch to the bestaccount. There is a young Oswald, who had engaged to Sir R. But hasvoted against us. Sir R. Sent a friend to reproach him; the moment thegentleman who had engaged for him came into the room, Oswald said, "Youhad like to have led me into a fine error! did you not tell me that SirR. Would have the majority?"

When the debate was over, Mr. Pulteney owned that he had never heard sofine a debate on our side; and said to Sir Robert, "Well, nobody can dowhat you can!" "Yes, " replied Sir R. , "Yonge did better. " Mr. Pulteneyanswered, "It was fine, but not of that weight with what you said. " Theyall allow it; and now their plan is to persuade Sir Robert to retirewith honour. All that evening there was a report about the town, that heand my uncle [_old_ Horace] were to be sent to the Tower, and peoplehired windows in the City to see them pass by--but for this time Ibelieve we shall not exhibit so historical a parade.... 

Sir Thomas Robinson [Long] is at last named to the government ofBarbadoes; he has long prevented its being asked for, by declaring thathe had the promise of it. Luckily for him, Lord Lincoln liked his house, and procured him this government on condition of hiring it. 

I have mentioned Lord Perceval's speeches; he has a set who has arostrum at his house, and harangue there. A gentleman who came thitherone evening was refused, but insisting that he was engaged to come, "Oh, Sir, " said the porter, "what are you one of those who play at members ofparliament?"... 

_RANELAGH GARDENS OPENED--GARRICK, "A WINE-MERCHANT TURNEDPLAYER"--DEFEAT OF THE INDEMNITY BILL. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

DOWNING STREET, _May_ 26, 1742. 

To-day calls itself May the 26th, as you perceive by the date; but I amwriting to you by the fire-side, instead of going to Vauxhall. If wehave one warm day in seven, "we bless our stars, and think it luxury. "And yet we have as much water-works and fresco diversions, as if we layten degrees nearer warmth. Two nights ago Ranelagh-gardens were openedat Chelsea; the Prince, Princess, Duke, much nobility, and much mobbesides, were there. There is a vast amphitheatre, finely gilt, painted, and illuminated, into which everybody that loves eating, drinking, staring, or crowding, is admitted for twelvepence. The building anddisposition of the garden cost sixteen thousand pounds. Twice a-weekthere are to be Ridottos, at guinea-tickets, for which you are to have asupper and music. I was there last night, but did not find the joy ofit. Vauxhall is a little better; for the garden is pleasanter, and onegoes by water. Our operas are almost over; there were butthree-and-forty people last night in the pit and boxes. There is alittle simple farce at Drury Lane, called "Miss Lucy in Town, " in whichMrs. Clive mimics the Muscovita admirably, and Beard, Amorevolitolerably. But all the run is now after Garrick, a wine-merchant, who isturned player, at Goodman's fields. He plays all parts, and is a verygood mimic. His acting I have seen, and may say to you, who will nottell it again here, I see nothing wonderful in it; but it is heresy tosay so: the Duke of Argyll says, he is superior to Betterton. Now I talkof players, tell Mr. Chute, that his friend Bracegirdle breakfasted withme this morning. As she went out, and wanted her clogs, she turned tome, and said, "I remember at the playhouse, they used to call Mrs. Oldfield's chair! Mrs. Barry's clogs! and Mrs. Bracegirdle's pattens!"

I did, indeed, design the letter of this post for Mr. Chute; but I havereceived two such charming long ones from you of the 15th and 20th ofMay (N. S. ), that I must answer them, and beg him to excuse me tillanother post; so must the Prince [Craon], Princess, the Grifona, andCountess Galli. For the Princess's letter, I am not sure I shall answerit so soon, for hitherto I have not been able to read above every thirdword; however, you may thank her as much as if I understood it all. I amvery happy that _mes bagatelles_ (for I still insist they were so)pleased. You, my dear child, are very good to be pleased with thesnuff-box. I am much obliged to the superior _lumières_ of old Sarasinabout the Indian ink: if she meant the black, I am sorry to say I had itinto the bargain with the rest of the Japan: for coloured, it is only acuriosity, because it has seldom been brought over. I remember Sir HansSloane was the first who ever had any of it, and would on no accountgive my mother the least morsel of it. She afterwards got a good deal ofit from China; and since that, more has come over; but it is even lessvaluable than the other, for we never could tell how to use it; however, let it make its figure. 

I am sure you hate me all this time, for chatting about so many trifles, and telling you no politics. I own to you, I am so wearied, so worn withthem, that I scarce know how to turn my hand to them; but you shall knowall I know. I told you of the meeting at the Fountain tavern: Pulteneyhad promised to be there, but was not; nor Carteret. As the Lords hadput off the debate on the Indemnity Bill, [1] nothing material passed;but the meeting was very Jacobite. Yesterday the bill came on, and LordCarteret took the lead against it, and about seven in the evening itwas flung out by almost two to one, 92 to 47, and 17 proxies to 10. To-day we had a motion by the new Lord Hillsborough (for the father isjust dead), and seconded by Lord Barrington, to examine the Lords'votes, to see what was become of the bill; this is the form. TheChancellor of the Exchequer, and all the new ministry, were with usagainst it; but they carried it, 164 to 159. It is to be reportedto-morrow, and as we have notice, we may possibly throw it out; elsethey will hurry on to a breach with the Lords. Pulteney was not in theHouse: he was riding the other day, and met the King's coach;endeavouring to turn out of the way, his horse started, flung him, andfell upon him: he is much bruised; but not at all dangerously. On thisoccasion, there was an epigram fixed to a list, which I will explain toyou afterwards: it is not known who wrote it, but it was addressed tohim:

 Thy horse does things by halves, like thee: Thou, with irresolution, Hurt'st friend and foe, thyself and me, The King and Constitution. 

[Footnote 1: A previous letter describes this as a Bill "to indemnifyall persons who should accuse themselves of any crime, provided theyaccuse Lord Orford [Sir R. W. ]. " It was carried in the House of Commonsby 251 to 228, but, as this letter mentions, was thrown out by the Lordsby 109 to 57. Lord Stanhope (c. 24) describes it as "a Bill which brokethrough the settled forms and safeguards of law, to strike at oneobnoxious head. "]

 * * * * *

I must tell you an ingenuity of Lord Raymond, an epitaph on theIndemnifying Bill--I believe you would guess the author:--

 Interr'd beneath this marble stone doth lie The Bill of Indemnity; To show the good for which it was design'd, It died itself to save mankind. 

 * * * * *

There has lately been published one of the most impudent things thatever was printed; it is called "The Irish Register, " and is a list ofall the unmarried women of any fashion in England, ranked in order, duchesses-dowager, ladies, widows, misses, &c. , with their names atlength, for the benefit of Irish fortune-hunters, or as it is said, forthe incorporating and manufacturing of British commodities. Miss Edwardsis the only one printed with a dash, because they have placed her amongthe widows. I will send you this, "Miss Lucy in Town, " and themagazines, by the first opportunity, as I should the other things, butyour brother tells me you have had them by another hand. I received thecedrati, for which I have already thanked you: but I have been so muchthanked by several people to whom I gave some, that I can very wellafford to thank you again.... 

P. S. --I unseal my letter to tell you what a vast and, probably, finalvictory we have gained to-day. They moved, that the Lords flinging outthe Bill of Indemnity was an obstruction of justice, and might provefatal to the liberties of this country. We have sat till this moment, seven o'clock, and have rejected this motion by 245 to 193. The call ofthe House, which they have kept off from fortnight to fortnight, to keeppeople in town, was appointed for to-day. The moment the division wasover, Sir John Cotton rose and said, "As I think the inquiry is at anend, you may do what you will with the call. " We have put it off for twomonths. There's a noble postscript!

_DEBATE ON DISBANDING THE HANOVERIAN TROOPS--FIRST SPEECH OF MURRAY(AFTERWARDS EARL OF MANSFIELD)--BON MOT OF LORD CHESTERFIELD. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Dec. _ 9, 1742. 

I shall have quite a partiality for the post of Holland; it brought metwo letters last week, and two more yesterday, of November 20th and27th; but I find you have your perpetual headaches--how can you say thatyou shall tire me with talking of them? you may make me suffer by yourpains, but I will hear and insist upon your always telling me of yourhealth. Do you think I only correspond with you to know the posture ofthe Spaniards or the _épuisements_ of the Princess! I am anxious, too, to know how poor Mr. Whithed does, and Mr. Chute's gout. I shall lookupon our sea-captains with as much horror as the King of Naples can, ifthey bring gouts, fits, and headaches. 

You will have had a letter from me by this time, to give up sending theDominichin by a man-of-war, and to propose its coming in a Dutch ship. Ibelieve that will be safe. 

We have had another great day in the House on the army in Flanders, which the Opposition were for disbanding; but we carried it by a hundredand twenty. Murray spoke for the first time, with the greatest applause;Pitt answered him with all his force and art of language, but on anill-founded argument. In all appearances, they will be great rivals. Shippen was in great rage at Murray's apostacy; if anything can reallychange his principles, possibly this competition may. To-morrow we shallhave a tougher battle on the sixteen thousand Hanoverians. _Hanover_ isthe word given out for this winter: there is a most bold pamphlet comeout, said to be Lord Marchmont's, which affirms that in every treatymade since the accession of this family, England has been sacrificed tothe interests of Hanover, and consequently insinuates theincompatibility of the two. Lord Chesterfield says "that if we have amind effectually to prevent the Pretender from ever obtaining thiscrown, we should make him Elector of Hanover, for the people of Englandwill never fetch another king from thence. "

Adieu! my dear child. I am sensible that I write you short letters, butI write you all I know. I don't know how it is, but _the wonderful_seems worn out. In this our day, we have no rabbit-women--noelopements--no epic poems, finer than Milton's--no contest aboutHarlequins and Polly Peachems. Jansen[1] has won no more estates, andthe Duchess of Queensberry has grown as tame as her neighbours. Whisthas spread an universal opium over the whole nation; it makes courtiersand patriots sit down to the same pack of cards. The only thingextraordinary, and which yet did not seem to surprise anybody, was theBarbarina's being attacked by four men masqued, the other night, as shecame out of the Opera House, who would have forced her away; but shescreamed, and the guard came. Nobody knows who set them on, and Ibelieve nobody inquired. 

[Footnote 1: H. Jansen, a celebrated gamester, who cheated the Duke ofBedford of an immense sum: Pope hints at that affair in this line, Or when a duke to Jansen punts at White's. ]

The Austrians in Flanders have separated from our troops a little out ofhumour, because it was impracticable for them to march without anypreparatory provision for their reception. They will probably march intwo months, if no peace prevents it. Adieu!

_KING THEODORE--HANDEL INTRODUCES ORATORIOS. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Feb. _ 24, 1743. 

I write to you in the greatest hurry in the world, but write I will. Besides, I must wish you joy: you are warriors; nay, conquerors[1]; twothings quite novel in this war, for hitherto it has been armies withoutfighting, and deaths without killing. We talk of this battle as of acomet; "Have you heard of _the_ battle?" it is so strange a thing, thatnumbers imagine you may go and see it at Charing Cross. Indeed, ourofficers, who are going to Flanders, don't quite like it; they areafraid it should grow the fashion to fight, and that a pair of coloursshould no longer be a sinecure. I am quite unhappy about poor Mr. Chute:besides, it is cruel to find that abstinence is not a drug. Ifmortification ever ceases to be a medicine, or virtue to be a passportto carnivals in the other world, who will be a self-tormentor anylonger--not, my child, that I am one; but, tell me, is he quiterecovered?

[Footnote 1: This alludes to an engagement, which took place on the 8thof February, near Bologna, between the Spaniards under M. De Gages, andthe Austrians under General Traun, in which the latter were successful. ]

I thank you for King Theodore's declaration, [1] and wish him successwith all my soul. I hate the Genoese; they make a commonwealth the mostdevilish of all tyrannies!

[Footnote 1: With regard to Corsica, of which he had declared himselfking. By this declaration, which was dated January 30, Theodorerecalled, under pain of confiscation of their estates, all the Corsicansin foreign service, except that of the Queen of Hungary, and the GrandDuke of Tuscany. (See vol. Ii. P. 74. )]

We have every now and then motions for disbanding Hessians andHanoverians, [1] alias mercenaries; but they come to nothing. To-day theparty have declared that they have done for this session; so you willhear little more but of fine equipages for Flanders: our troops areactually marched, and the officers begin to follow them--I hope theyknow whither! You know in the last war in Spain, Lord Peterborough[2]rode galloping about to inquire for his army. 

[Footnote 1: The employment of Hessian and Hanoverian troops in this warwas not only the subject of frequent complaints in Parliament, but wasalso the cause of very general dissatisfaction in the country, where itwas commonly regarded as one of the numerous instances in which theMinisters sacrificed the interests of England from an unworthy desire tomaintain their places by humouring the king's preference for his nativeland. ]

[Footnote 2: Lord Peterborough is celebrated by Pope as

 taming the genius of the arid plain Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain:

not that he did conquer Spain; but by an extraordinary combination ofhardihood and skill he took Barcelona, which had defied all previousattacks; and, in the confidence inspired by this important success, heoffered Archduke Charles to escort him to Madrid, so that he might becrowned King of Spain in that capital. But the Archduke, under theadvice of some of his own countrymen, who were jealous of his influence, rejected the plan. ]

But to come to more _real_ contests; Handel has set up an Oratorioagainst the Operas, and succeeds. He has hired all the goddesses fromfarces and the singers of _Roast Beef_[1] from between the acts at boththeatres, with a man with one note in his voice, and a girl without everan one; and so they sing, and make brave hallelujahs; and the goodcompany encore the recitative, if it happens to have any cadence likewhat they call a tune. I was much diverted the other night at the opera;two gentlewomen sat before my sister, and not knowing her, discoursed attheir ease. Says one, "Lord! how fine Mr. W. Is!" "Yes, " replied theother, with a tone of saying sentences, "some men love to beparticularly so, your _petit-maîtres_--but they are not always thebrightest of their sex. "--Do thank me for this period! I am sure youwill enjoy it as much as we did. 

[Footnote 1: It was customary at this time for the galleries to call fora ballad called "The Roast Beef of Old England" between the acts, orbefore or after the play. --WALPOLE. ]

I shall be very glad of my things, and approve entirely of yourprecautions; Sir R. Will be quite happy, for there is no telling you howimpatient he is for his Dominchin. Adieu!

_BATTLE OF DETTINGEN--DEATH OF LORD WILMINGTON. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

HOUGHTON, _July_ 4, 1743. 

I hear no particular news here, and I don't pretend to send you thecommon news; for as I must have it first from London, you will have itfrom thence sooner in the papers than in my letters. There have beengreat rejoicings for the victory; which I am convinced is veryconsiderable by the pains the Jacobites take to persuade it is not. MyLord Carteret's Hanoverian articles have much offended; his express hasbeen burlesqued a thousand ways. By all the letters that arrive, theloss of the French turns out more considerable than by the firstaccounts: they have dressed up the battle into a victory forthemselves--I hope they will always have such! By their not havingdeclared war with us, one should think they intended a peace. It isallowed that our fine horse did us no honour: the victory was gained bythe foot. Two of their princes of the blood, the Prince de Dombes, andthe Count d'Eu his brother, were wounded, and several of their firstnobility. Our prisoners turn out but seventy-two officers, besides theprivate men; and by the printed catalogue, I don't think many of greatfamily. Marshal Noailles' mortal wound is quite vanished, and Ducd'Aremberg's shrunk to a very slight one. The King's glory remains inits first bloom. 

Lord Wilmington is dead. [1] I believe the civil battle for his post willbe tough. Now we shall see what service Lord Carteret's Hanoverians willdo him. You don't think the crisis unlucky for him, do you? If youwanted a Treasury, should you choose to have been in Arlington Street, or driving by the battle of Dettingen? You may imagine our Court wishesfor Mr. Pelham. I don't know any one who wishes for Lord Bath buthimself--I believe that is a pretty substantial wish. 

[Footnote 1: Formerly Sir Spencer Compton, and successor of Sir R. Walpole at the Treasury. He was succeeded by Mr. Pelham, a brother ofthe Duke of Newcastle. ]

I have got the Life of King Theodore, but I don't know how to conveyit--I will inquire for some way. 

We are quite alone. You never saw anything so unlike as being here fivemonths out of place, to the congresses of a fortnight in place; but youknow the "Justum et tenacem propositi virum"[1] can amuse himselfwithout the "Civium ardor!" As I have not so much dignity of characterto fill up my time, I could like a little more company. With all thisleisure, you may imagine that I might as well be writing an ode or soupon the victory; but as I cannot build upon the Laureate's[2] placetill I know whether Lord Carteret or Mr. Pelham will carry theTreasury, I have bounded my compliments to a slender collection ofquotations against I should have any occasion for them. Here are somefine lines from Lord Halifax's[3] poem on the battle of the Boyne--

 The King leads on, the King does all inflame, The King;--and carries millions in the name. 

[Footnote 1: A quotation from Horace, Odes iii. 3. ]

[Footnote 2: The Poet Laureate was Colley Cibber. ]

[Footnote 3: The celebrated Chancellor of the Exchequer, CharlesMontagu, was raised to the peerage as Earl of Halifax. In conjunctionwith Prior, he wrote the "Country and City Mouse, " in ridicule ofDryden's "Hind and Panther. "]

Then follows a simile about a deluge, which you may imagine; but thenext lines are very good:

 So on the foe the firm battalions prest, And he, like the tenth wave, drove on the rest. Fierce, gallant, young, he shot through ev'ry place, Urging their flight, and hurrying on the chase, He hung upon their rear, or lighten'd in their face. 

The next are a magnificent compliment, and, as far as verse goes, to besure very applicable. 

 Stop, stop! brave Prince, allay that generous flame; Enough is given to England and to Fame. Remember, Sir, you in the centre stand; Europe's divided interests you command, All their designs uniting in your hand. Down from your throne descends the golden chain Which does the fabric of our world sustain, That once dissolved by any fatal stroke, The scheme of all our happiness is broke. 

Adieu! my dear Sir; pray for peace!

_FRENCH ACTORS AT CLIFDEN--A NEW ROMAN CATHOLIC MIRACLE--LADY MARYWORTLEY. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

HOUGHTON, _Sept. _ 7, 1743. 

My letters are now at their _ne plus ultra_ of nothingness; so you mayhope they will grow better again. I shall certainly go to town soon, formy patience is worn out. Yesterday, the weather grew cold; I put on _anew_ waistcoat for its being winter's birthday--the season I am forcedto love; for summer has no charms for me when I pass it in the country. 

We are expecting another battle, and a congress at the same time. Ministers seem to be flocking to Aix la Chapelle: and, what will muchsurprise you, unless you have lived long enough not to be surprised, is, that Lord Bolingbroke has hobbled the same way too--you will suppose, asa minister for France; I tell you, no. My uncle [_old_ Horace], who ishere, was yesterday stumping along the gallery with a very politicalmarch: my Lord asked him whither he was going. Oh, said I, to Aix laChapelle. 

You ask me about the marrying Princesses. I know not a tittle. PrincessLouisa seems to be going, her clothes are bought; but marrying ourdaughters makes no conversation. For either of the other two, allthoughts seem to be dropped of it. The Senate of Sweden designthemselves to choose a wife for their man of Lubeck. 

The City, and our supreme governors, the mob, are very angry that thereis a troop of French players at Clifden. One of them was latelyimpertinent to a countryman, who thrashed him. His Royal Highness sentangrily to know the cause. The fellow replied, "he thought to havepleased his Highness in beating one of them, who had tried to kill hisfather and had wounded his brother. " This was not easy to answer. 

I delight in Prince Craon's exact intelligence! For his satisfaction, Ican tell him that numbers, even here, would believe any story full asabsurd as that of the King and my Lord Stair; or that very one, ifanybody will write it over. Our faith in politics will match anyNeapolitan's in religion. A political missionary will make more convertsin a county progress than a Jesuit in the whole empire of China, andwill produce more preposterous miracles. Sir Watkin Williams, at thelast Welsh races, convinced the whole principality (by reading a letterthat affirmed it), that the King was not within two miles of the battleof Dettingen. We are not good at hitting off anti-miracles, the only wayof defending one's own religion. I have read an admirable story of theDuke of Buckingham, who, when James II. Sent a priest to him to persuadehim to turn Papist, and was plied by him with miracles, told the doctor, that if miracles were proofs of a religion, the Protestant cause was aswell supplied as theirs. We have lately had a very extraordinary onenear my estate in the country. A very holy man, as you might be, Doctor, was travelling on foot, and was benighted. He came to the cottage of apoor dowager, who had nothing in the house for herself and daughter buta couple of eggs and a slice of bacon. However, as she was a piouswidow, she made the good man welcome. In the morning, at taking leave, the saint made her over to God for payment, and prayed that whatever sheshould do as soon as he was gone she might continue to do all day. Thiswas a very unlimited request, and, unless the saint was a prophet too, might not have been very pleasant retribution. The good woman, whominded her affairs, and was not to be put out of her way, went about herbusiness. She had a piece of coarse cloth to make a couple of shifts forherself and child. She no sooner began to measure it but the yard fella-measuring, and there was no stopping it. It was sunset before the goodwoman had time to take breath. She was almost stifled, for she was up toher ears in ten thousand yards of cloth. She could have afforded to havesold Lady Mary Wortley a clean shift, of the usual coarseness she wears, for a groat halfpenny. 

I wish you would tell the Princess this story. Madame Riccardi, or thelittle Countess d'Elbenino, will doat on it. I don't think it will beout of Pandolfini's way, if you tell it to the little Albizzi. You see Ihave not forgot the tone of my Florentine acquaintance. I know I shouldhave translated it to them: you remember what admirable work I used tomake of such stories in broken Italian. I have heard old Churchill tellBussy English puns out of jest-books: particularly a reply about eatinghare, which he translated, "j'ai mon ventre plein de poil. " Adieu!

_DEATH OF HIS FATHER--MATTHEWS AND LESTOCK IN THEMEDITERRANEAN--THOMSON'S "TANCRED AND SIGISMUNDA"--AKENSIDE'SODES--CONUNDRUMS IN FASHION. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _March_ 29, 1745. 

I begged your brother to tell you what it was impossible for me to tellyou. You share nearly in our common loss! Don't expect me to enter atall upon the subject. After the melancholy two months that I havepassed, and in my situation, you will not wonder I shun a conversationwhich could not be bounded by a letter--a letter that would grow into apanegyric, or a piece of moral; improper for me to write upon, and toodistressful for us both!--a death is only to be felt, never to be talkedover by those it touches!

I had yesterday your letter of three sheets: I began to flatter myselfthat the storm was blown over, but I tremble to think of the danger youare in! a danger, in which even the protection of the great friend youhave lost could have been of no service to you. How ridiculous it seemsfor me to renew protestations of my friendship for you, at an instantwhen my father is just dead, and the Spaniards just bursting intoTuscany! How empty a charm would my name have, when all my interest andsignificance are buried in my father's grave! All hopes of presentpeace, the only thing that could save you, seem vanished. We expectevery day to hear of the French declaration of war against Holland. Thenew Elector of Bavaria is French, like his father; and the King of Spainis not dead. I don't know how to talk to you. I have not even a beliefthat the Spaniards will spare Tuscany. My dear child, what will becomeof you? whither will you retire till a peace restores you to yourministry? for upon that distant view alone I repose!

We are every day nearer confusion. The King is in as bad humour as amonarch can be; he wants to go abroad, and is detained by theMediterranean affair; the inquiry into which was moved by a MajorSelwyn, a dirty pensioner, half-turned patriot, by the Court beingoverstocked with votes. This inquiry takes up the whole time of theHouse of Commons, but I don't see what conclusion it can have. Myconfinement has kept me from being there, except the first day; and allI know of what is yet come out is, as it was stated by a Scotch memberthe other day, "that there had been one (Matthews)[1] with a bad head, another (Lestock) with a worse heart, and four (the captains of theinactive ships) with na heart at all. " Among the numerous visits of formthat I have received, one was from my Lord Sandys: as we two could onlyconverse upon general topics, we fell upon this of the Mediterranean, and I made _him_ allow, "that, to be sure, there is not so bad a courtof justice in the world as the House of Commons; and how hard it is uponany man to have his cause tried there!"... 

[Footnote 1: Admiral Matthews, an officer of great courage and skill, was Commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean fleet. Lestock, his secondin command, was also a skilful officer; but the two were on bad terms, and when, in February, 1744, Matthews attacked the Spanish fleet, Lestock disobeyed his signals, and by his misconduct deprived Matthewsof a splendid victory, which was clearly within his grasp. Court-martials were held on the conduct of both officers; but theAdmiralty was determined to crush Matthews, as being a member of theHouse of Commons and belonging to the party of Opposition, and theconsequence was that, though Lestock's misconduct was clearly proved, hewas acquitted, and Matthews was sentenced to be cashiered, and declaredincapable of any further employment in his Majesty's service. The wholeis perhaps the most disgraceful transaction in the history of the navyor of the country. (See the Editor's "History of the British Navy, " i. 203-214. )]

The town flocks to a new play of Thomson's called "Tancred andSigismunda:" it is very dull; I have read it. I cannot bear modernpoetry; these refiners of the purity of the stage, and of theincorrectness of English verse, are most wofully insipid. I had ratherhave written the most absurd lines in Lee, than "Leonidas" or "TheSeasons;" as I had rather be put into the round-house for a wrong-headedquarrel, than sup quietly at eight o'clock with my grandmother. There isanother of these tame genius's, a Mr. Akenside, who writes Odes: in onehe has lately published, he says, "Light the tapers, urge the fire. "[1]Had not you rather make gods "jostle in the dark, " than light thecandles for fear they should break their heads? One Russel, a mimic, hasa puppet-show to ridicule Operas; I hear, very dull, not to mention itsbeing twenty years too late: it consists of three acts, with foolishItalian songs burlesqued in Italian. 

[Footnote 1: Walpole's quotation, however, is incorrect; the poet wrote:

 Urge the warm bowl, and ruddy fire. ]

There is a very good quarrel on foot between two duchesses: she ofQueensberry sent to invite Lady Emily Lenox to a ball: her Grace ofRichmond, who is wonderfully cautious since Lady Caroline's elopement[with Mr. Fox], sent word, "she could not determine. " The other sentagain the same night: the same answer. The Queensberry then sent word, that she had made up her company, and desired to be excused from havingLady Emily's: but at the bottom of the card wrote, "too great a trust. "You know how mad she is, and how capable of such a stroke. There is nodeclaration of war come out from the other Duchess; but, I believe itwill be made a national quarrel of the whole illegitimate royal family. 

It is the present fashion to make conundrums: there are books of themprinted, and produced at all assemblies: they are full silly enough tobe made a fashion. I will tell you the most renowned: "Why is my uncleHorace like two people conversing?--Because he is both teller andauditor. " This was Winnington's.... 

I will take the first opportunity to send Dr. Cocchi his translatedbook; I have not yet seen it myself. 

Adieu! my dearest child! I write with a house full of relations, andmust conclude. Heaven preserve you and Tuscany. 

_BATTLE OF FONTENOY--THE BALLAD OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _May_ 11, 1745. 

I stayed till to-day, to be able to give you some account of the battleof Tournay: the outlines you will have heard already. We don't allow itto be a victory on the French side: but that is, just as a woman is notcalled _Mrs. _ till she is married, though she may have had half-a-dozennatural children. In short, we remained upon the field of battle threehours; I fear, too many of us remain there still! without palliating, itis certainly a heavy stroke. We never lost near so many officers. I pitythe Duke [of Cumberland], for it is almost the first battle ofconsequence that we ever lost. By the letters arrived to-day, we findthat Tournay still holds out. There are certainly killed Sir JamesCampbell, General Ponsonby, Colonel Carpenter, Colonel Douglas, youngRoss, Colonel Montagu, Gee, Berkeley, and Kellet. Mr. Vanburgh is sincedead. Most of the young men of quality in the Guards are wounded. I havehad the vast fortune to have nobody hurt, for whom I was in the leastinterested. Mr. Conway, in particular, has highly distinguished himself;he and Lord Petersham, who is slightly wounded, are most commended;though none behaved ill but the Dutch horse. There has been but verylittle consternation here: the King minded it so little, that being setout for Hanover, and blown back into Harwich roads since the news came, he could not be persuaded to return, but sailed yesterday with the fairwind. I believe you will have the _Gazette_ sent to-night; but lest itshould not be printed time enough, here is a list of the numbers, as itcame over this morning:

British foot 1237 killed. Ditto horse 90 ditto. Ditto foot 1968 wounded. Ditto horse 232 ditto. Ditto foot 457 missing. Ditto horse 18 ditto. Hanoverian foot 432 killed. Ditto horse 78 ditto. Ditto foot 950 wounded. Ditto horse 192 ditto. Ditto horse and foot 53 missing. Dutch 625 killed and wounded. Ditto 1019 missing. 

So the whole _hors de combat_ is above seven thousand three hundred. TheFrench own the loss of three thousand; I don't believe many more, for itwas a most rash and desperate perseverance on our side. The Duke behavedvery bravely and humanely; but this will not have advanced the peace. 

However coolly the Duke may have behaved, and coldly his father, atleast his brother [the Prince of Wales] has outdone both. He not onlywent to the play the night the news came, but in two days made a ballad. It is in imitation of the Regent's style, and has miscarried in nothingbut the language, the thoughts, and the poetry. Did not I tell you in mylast that he was going to act Paris in Congreve's "Masque"? The song isaddressed to the goddesses. 

 I. 

 Venez, mes chères Déesses, Venez calmer mon chagrin; Aidez, mes belles Princesses, A le noyer dans le vin. Poussons cette douce Ivresse Jusqu'au milieu de la nuit, Et n'écoutons que la tendresse D'un charmant vis-à-vis. 

 II. 

 Quand le chagrin me dévore, Vite à table je me mets, Loin des objets que j'abhorre, Avec joie j'y trouve la paix. Peu d'amis, restes d'un naufrage Je rassemble autour de moi, Et je me ris de l'étalage Qu'a chez lui toujours un Roi. 

 III. 

 Que m'importe, que l'Europe Ait un, ou plusieurs tyrans? Prions seulement Calliope, Qu'elle inspire nos vers, nos chants Laissons Mars et toute la gloire; Livrons nous tous à l'amour; Que Bacchus nous donne à boire; A ces deux faisons la cour. 

 IV. 

 Passons ainsi notre vie, Sans rêver à ce qui suit; Avec ma chère Sylvie Le tems trop vîte me fuit. Mais si, par un malheur extrême, Je perdois cet objet charmant, Oui, cette compagnie même Ne me tiendroit un moment. 

 V. 

 Me livrant à ma tristesse, Toujours plein de mon chagrin, Je n'aurois plus d'allégresse Pour mettre Bathurst en train: Ainsi pour vous tenir en joie Invoquez toujours les Dieux, Qu'elle vive et qu'elle soit Avec nous toujours heureuse!

Adieu! I am in great hurry. 

_M. DE GRIGNAN--LIVY'S PATAVINITY--THE MARÉCHAL DE BELLEISLE--WHISTONPROPHECIES THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD--THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

[_August_ 1, 1745. ]

Dear George, --I cannot help thinking you laugh at me when you say suchvery civil things of my letters, and yet, coming from you, I would fainnot have it all flattery:

 So much the more, as, from a little elf, I've had a high opinion of myself, Though sickly, slender, and not large of limb. 

With this modest prepossession, you may be sure I like to have youcommend me, whom, after I have done with myself, I admire of all menliving. I only beg that you will commend me no more: it is veryruinous; and praise, like other debts, ceases to be due on being paid. One comfort indeed is, that it is as seldom paid as other debts. 

I have been very fortunate lately: I have met with an extreme good printof M. De Grignan;[1] I am persuaded, very like; and then it has his_touffe ébourifée_; I don't, indeed, know what that was, but I am sureit is in the print. None of the critics could ever make out what Livy'sPatavinity is; though they are all confident it is in his writings. Ihave heard within these few days what, for your sake, I wish I couldhave told you sooner--that there is in Belleisle's suite the AbbéPerrin, who published Madame Sévigné's letters, and who has theoriginals in his hands. How one should have liked to have known him! TheMarshal[2] was privately in London last Friday. He is entertained to-dayat Hampton Court by the Duke of Grafton. Don't you believe it was tosettle the binding the scarlet thread in the window, when the Frenchshall come in unto the land to possess it? I don't at all wonder at anyshrewd observations the Marshal has made on our situation. The bringinghim here at all--the sending him away now--in short, the whole series ofour conduct convinces me, that we shall soon see as silent a change asthat in "The Rehearsal, " of King Usher and King Physician. It may wellbe so, when the disposition of the drama is in the hands of the Duke ofNewcastle--those hands that are always groping and sprawling, andfluttering, and hurrying on the rest of his precipitate person. Butthere is no describing him but as M. Courcelle, a French prisoner, didt'other day: "Je ne scais pas, " dit il, "je ne scaurois m'exprimer, maisil a un certain tatillonage. " If one could conceive a dead body hung inchains, always wanting to be hung somewhere else, one should have acomparative idea of him. 

[Footnote 1: M. De Grignan son-in-law to Mme. De Sévigné, the greaterpart of whose letters are to his wife. ]

[Footnote 2: The Maréchal de Belleisle and his younger brother, theComte de Belleisle, were the grandsons of Fouquet, the Finance Ministertreated with such cruelty and injustice by Louis XIV. The Parisiansnicknamed the two brothers "Imagination" and "Common Sense. " The Marshalwas joined with the Marshal de Broglie in the disastrous expeditionagainst Prague in the winter of 1742; when, though they succeeded intaking and occupying the city for a time, they were afterwards forced toevacuate it; and though Belleisle conducted the retreat with greatcourage and skill, the army, which had numbered fifty thousand men whenit crossed the Rhine, scarcely exceeded twelve thousand when it regainedthe French territory. (See the Editor's "History of France under theBourbons, " c. Xxv. )]

For my own part, I comfort myself with the humane reflection of theIrishman in the ship that was on fire--I am but a passenger! If I werenot so indolent, I think I should rather put in practice the lateDuchess of Bolton's geographical resolution of going to China, whenWhiston told her the world would be burnt in three years. Have you anyphilosophy? Tell me what you think. It is quite the fashion to talk ofthe French coming here. Nobody sees it in any other light but as a thingto be talked of, not to be precautioned against. Don't you remember areport of the plague being in the City, and everybody went to the housewhere it was to see it? You see I laugh about it, for I would not forthe world be so unenglished as to do otherwise. I am persuaded thatwhen Count Saxe, [1] with ten thousand men, is within a day's march ofLondon, people will be hiring windows at Charing-cross and Cheapside tosee them pass by. 'Tis our characteristic to take dangers for sights, and evils for curiosities. 

[Footnote 1: The great Maréchal Saxe, Commander-in-chief of the Frencharmy in Flanders during the war of the Austrian succession. ]

Adieu! dear George: I am laying in scraps of Cato against it may benecessary to take leave of one's correspondents _à la Romaine_, andbefore the play itself is suppressed by a _lettre de cachet_ to thebook-sellers. 

P. S. --Lord! 'tis the first of August, [1] 1745, a holiday that is goingto be turned out of the almanack!

[Footnote 1: August 1 was the anniversary of the accession of George I. ]

_INVASION OF SCOTLAND BY THE YOUNG PRETENDER--FORCES ARE SAID TO BEPREPARING IN FRANCE TO JOIN HIM. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Sept. _ 6, 1745. 

It would have been inexcusable in me, in our present circumstances, andafter all I have promised you, not to have written to you for this lastmonth, if I had been in London; but I have been at Mount Edgecumbe, andso constantly upon the road, that I neither received your letters, hadtime to write, or knew what to write. I came back last night, and foundthree packets from you, which I have no time to answer, and but justtime to read. The confusion I have found, and the danger we are in, prevent my talking of anything else. The young Pretender, at the head ofthree thousand men, has got a march on General Cope, who is not eighteenhundred strong; and when the last accounts came away, was fifty milesnearer Edinburgh than Cope, and by this time is there. The clans willnot rise for the Government: the Dukes of Argyll and Athol are come postto town, not having been able to raise a man. The young Duke of Gordonsent for his uncle, and told him he must arm their clan. "They are inarms. "--"They must march against the rebels. "--"They will wait on thePrince of Wales. " The Duke flew in a passion; his uncle pulled out apistol, and told him it was in vain to dispute. Lord Loudon, LordFortrose, and Lord Panmure have been very zealous, and have raised somemen; but I look upon Scotland as gone! I think of what King William saidto Duke Hamilton, when he was extolling Scotland: "My Lord, I only wishit was a hundred thousand miles off, and that you was king of it!"

There are two manifestoes published, signed Charles Prince, Regent forhis father, King of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland. By one, hepromises to preserve everybody in their just rights; and orders allpersons who have public monies in their hands to bring it to him; and bythe other dissolves the union between England and Scotland. But all thisis not the worst! Notice came yesterday, that there are ten thousandmen, thirty transports, and ten men-of-war at Dunkirk. Against thisforce we have--I don't know what--scarce fears! Three thousand Dutch wehope are by this time landed in Scotland; three more are coming hither. We have sent for ten regiments from Flanders, which may be here in aweek, and we have fifteen men-of-war in the Downs. I am grieved to tellyou all this; but when it is so, how can I avoid telling you? Yourbrother is just come in, who says he has written to you--I have not timeto expiate. 

My Lady O[rford] is arrived; I hear she says, only to endeavour to get acertain allowance. Her mother has sent to offer her the use of herhouse. She is a poor weak woman. I can say nothing to Marquis Ricardi, nor think of him; only tell him that I will when I have time. 

My sister [Lady Maria Walpole] has married herself, that is, declaredshe will, to young Churchill. It is a foolish match; but I have nothingto do with it. Adieu! my dear Sir; excuse my haste, but you must imaginethat one is not much at leisure to write long letters--hope if you can!

_THIS AND THE FOLLOWING LETTERS GIVE A LIVELY ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OFTHE REBELLION TILL THE RETREAT FROM DERBY, AFTER WHICH NO PARTICULARINTEREST ATTACHES TO IT. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Sept. _ 20, 1745. 

One really don't know what to write to you: the accounts from Scotlandvary perpetually, and at best are never very certain. I was just goingto tell you that the rebels are in England; but my uncle [_old_ Horace]is this moment come in, and says, that an express came last night withan account of their being at Edinburgh to the number of five thousand. This sounds great, to have walked through a kingdom, and takenpossession of the capital! But this capital is an open town; and thecastle impregnable, and in our possession. There never was soextraordinary a sort of rebellion! One can't tell what assurances ofsupport they may have from the Jacobites in England, or from the French;but nothing of either sort has yet appeared--and if there does not, never was so desperate an enterprise. One can hardly believe that theEnglish are more disaffected than the Scotch; and among the latter, nopersons of property have joined them: both nations seem to profess aneutrality. Their money is all gone, and they subsist merely by levyingcontributions. But, sure, banditti can never conquer a kingdom! On theother hand, what cannot any number of men do, who meet no opposition?They have hitherto taken no place but open towns, nor have they anyartillery for a siege but one-pounders. Three battalions of Dutch arelanded at Gravesend, and are ordered to Lancashire: we expect everymoment to hear that the rest are got to Scotland; none of our own arecome yet. Lord Granville and his faction persist in persuading the King, that it is an affair of no consequence; and for the Duke of Newcastle, he is glad when the rebels make any progress, in order to confute LordGranville's assertions. The best of our situation is, our strength atsea: the Channel is well guarded, and twelve men-of-war more are arrivedfrom Rowley. Vernon, that simple noisy creature, has hit upon a schemethat is of great service; he has laid Folkstone cutters all round thecoast, which are continually relieved, and bring constant notice ofeverything that stirs. I just now hear that the Duke of Bedford declaresthat he will be amused no longer, but will ask the King's leave to raisea regiment. The Duke of Montagu has a troop of horse ready, and the Dukeof Devonshire is raising men in Derbyshire. The Yorkshiremen, headed bythe Archbishop [Herring] and Lord Malton, meet the gentlemen of thecounty the day after to-morrow, to defend that part of England. Unlesswe have more ill fortune than is conceivable, or the general supinenesscontinues, it is impossible but we must get over this. You desire me tosend you news: I confine myself to tell you nothing but what you maydepend upon; and leave you in a fright rather than deceive you. Iconfess my own apprehensions are not near so strong as they were; and ifwe get over this, I shall believe that we never can be hurt; for wenever can be more exposed to danger. Whatever disaffection there is tothe present family, it plainly does not proceed from love to the other. 

My Lady O[rford] makes little progress in popularity. Neither theprotection of my Lady Pomfret's prudery, nor of my Lady Townshend'slibertinism, do her any service. The women stare at her, think herugly, awkward, and disagreeable; and what is worse, the men think sotoo. For the height of mortification, the King has declared publicly tothe Ministry, that he has been told of the great civilities which he wassaid to show to her at Hanover; that he protests he showed her only thecommon civilities due to any English lady that comes thither; that henever intended to take any particular notice of her; nor had, nor wouldlet my Lady Yarmouth. In fact, my Lady Yarmouth peremptorily refused tocarry her to court here; and when she did go with my Lady Pomfret, theKing but just spoke to her. She declares her intention of staying inEngland, and protests against all lawsuits and violences; and says sheonly asks articles of separation, and to have her allowance settled byany two arbitrators chosen by my brother and herself. I have met hertwice at my Lady Townshend's, just as I used at Florence. She dressesEnglish and plays at whist. I forgot to tell a _bon-mot_ of Leheup onher first coming over; he was asked if he would not go and see her? Hereplied, "No, I never visit modest women. " Adieu! my dear child! Iflatter myself you will collect hopes from this letter. 

_DEFEAT OF COPE. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Sept. _ 27, 1745. 

I can't doubt but the joy of the Jacobites has reached Florence beforethis letter. Your two or three Irish priests, I forget their names, will have set out to take possession of abbey lands here. I feel forwhat you will feel, and for the insulting things that will be said toyou upon the battle we lost in Scotland; but all this is nothing to whatit prefaces. The express came hither on Tuesday morning, but the Papistsknew it on Sunday night. Cope lay in face of the rebels all Friday; hescarce two thousand strong, they vastly superior, though we don't knowtheir numbers. The military people say that he should have attackedthem. However, we are sadly convinced that they are not such rawragamuffins as they were represented. The rotation that has beenestablished in that country, to give all the Highlanders the benefit ofserving in the independent companies, has trained and disciplined them. Macdonald (I suppose, he from Naples), who is reckoned a veryexperienced able officer, is said to have commanded them, and to bedangerously wounded. One does not hear the Boy's personal valour criedup; by which I conclude he was not in the action. Our dragoons mostshamefully fled without striking a blow, and are with Cope, who escapedin a boat to Berwick. I pity poor him, who with no shining abilities, and no experience, and no force, was sent to fight for a crown! He neversaw a battle but that of Dettingen, where he got his red ribbon:Churchill, whose led-captain he was, and my Lord Harrington, had pushedhim up to his misfortune. We have lost all our artillery, five hundredmen taken--and _three_ killed, and several officers, as you will see inthe papers. This defeat has frightened everybody but those it rejoices, and those it should frighten most; but my Lord Granville still buoys upthe King's spirits, and persuades him it is nothing. He uses hisMinisters as ill as possible, and discourages everybody that would risktheir lives and fortunes with him. Marshal Wade is marching against therebels; but the King will not let him take above eight thousand men; sothat if they come into England, another battle, with no advantage on ourside, may determine our fate. Indeed, they don't seem so unwise as torisk their cause upon so precarious an event; but rather to design toestablish themselves in Scotland, till they can be supported fromFrance, and be set up with taking Edinburgh Castle, where there is tothe value of a million, and which they would make a stronghold. It isscarcely victualled for a month, and must surely fall into their hands. Our coasts are greatly guarded, and London kept in awe by the arrival ofthe guards. I don't believe what I have been told this morning, thatmore troops are sent for from Flanders, and aid asked of Denmark. 

Prince Charles has called a Parliament in Scotland for the 7th ofOctober; ours does not meet till the 17th, so that even in the show ofliberty and laws they are beforehand with us. With all this, we hear ofno men of quality or fortune having joined him but Lord Elcho, whom youhave seen at Florence; and the Duke of Peith, a silly race horsing boy, who is said to be killed in this battle. But I gather no confidencefrom hence: my father always said, "If you see them come again, theywill begin by their lowest people; their chiefs will not appear till theend. " His prophecies verify every day!

The town is still empty; on this point only the English act contrary totheir custom, for they don't throng to see a Parliament, though it islikely to grow a curiosity!... 

_GENERAL WADE IS MARCHING TO SCOTLAND--VIOLENT PROCLAMATION OF THEPRETENDER. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Oct. _ 21, 1745. 

I had been almost as long without any of your letters as you had withoutmine; but yesterday I received one, dated the 5th of this month, N. S. 

The rebels have not left their camp near Edinburgh, and, I suppose, willnot now, unless to retreat into the Highlands. General Wade was to marchyesterday from Doncaster for Scotland. By their not advancing, Iconclude that either the Boy and his council could not prevail on theHighlanders to leave their own country, or that they were not strongenough, and still wait for foreign assistance, which, in a newdeclaration, he intimates that he still expects. One only ship, Ibelieve, a Spanish one, is got to them with arms, and Lord John Drummondand some people of quality on board. We don't hear that the younger Boyis of the number. Four ships sailed from Corunna; the one that got toScotland, one taken by a privateer of Bristol, and one lost on the Irishcoast; the fourth is not heard of. At Edinburgh and thereabouts theycommit the most horrid barbarities. We last night expected as bad here:information was given of an intended insurrection and massacre by thePapists; all the Guards were ordered out, and the Tower shut up atseven. I cannot be surprised at anything, considering the supineness ofthe Ministry--nobody has yet been taken up!

The Parliament met on Thursday. I don't think, considering the crisis, that the House was very full. Indeed, many of the Scotch members cannotcome if they would. The young Pretender had published a declaration, threatening to confiscate the estates of the Scotch that should come toParliament, and making it treason for the English. The only points thathave been before the House, the address and the suspension of the HabeasCorpus, met with obstructions from the Jacobites. By this we may expectwhat spirit they will show hereafter. With all this, I am far fromthinking that they are so confident and sanguine as their friends atRome. I blame the Chutes extremely for cockading themselves: why take apart, when they are only travelling? I should certainly retire toFlorence on this occasion. 

You may imagine how little I like our situation; but I don't despair. The little use they made, or could make of their victory; their nothaving marched into England; their miscarriage at the Castle ofEdinburgh; the arrival of our forces, and the non-arrival of any Frenchor Spanish, make me conceive great hopes of getting over this uglybusiness. But it is still an affair wherein the chance of battles, orperhaps of one battle, may decide. 

I write you but short letters, considering the circumstances of thetime; but I hate to send you paragraphs only to contradict them again: Istill less choose to forge events; and, indeed, am glad I have so few totell you. 

My Lady O[rford] has forced herself upon her mother, who receives hervery coolly: she talks highly of her demands, and quietly of hermethods: the fruitlessness of either will, I hope, soon send her back--Iam sorry it must be to you!

You mention Holdisworth:[1] he has had the confidence to come and visitme within these ten days; and (I suppose, from the overflowing of hisjoy) talked a great deal and quick--with as little sense as when he wasmore tedious. 

[Footnote 1: A nonjuror, who travelled with Mr. George Pitt. --WALPOLE. ]

Since I wrote this, I hear the Countess [of Orford] has told her mother, that she thinks her husband the best of our family, and me theworst--nobody so bad, except you! I don't wonder at my being so ill withher; but what have you done? or is it, that we are worse than anybody, because we know more of her than anybody does? Adieu!

_GALLANT RESISTANCE OF CARLISLE--MR. PITT ATTACKS THE MINISTRY. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Nov. _ 22, 1745. 

For these two days we have been expecting news of a battle. Wade marchedlast Saturday from Newcastle, and must have got up with the rebels ifthey stayed for him, though the roads are exceedingly bad and greatquantities of snow have fallen. But last night there was some notice ofa body of rebels being advanced to Penryth. We were put into greatspirits by an heroic letter from the Mayor of Carlisle, who had fired onthe rebels and made them retire; he concluded with saying, "And so Ithink the town of Carlisle has done his Majesty more service than thegreat city of Edinburgh, or than all Scotland together. " But this hero, who was grown the whole fashion for four-and-twenty hours, had chosen tostop all other letters. The King spoke of him at his _levée_ with greatencomiums; Lord Stair said, "Yes, sir, Mr. Patterson has behaved verybravely. " The Duke of Bedford interrupted him; "My lord, his name is not_Paterson_; that is a Scotch name; his name is _Patinson_. " But, alack!the next day the rebels returned, having placed the women and childrenof the country in waggons in front of their army, and forcing thepeasants to fix the scaling-ladders. The great Mr. Pattinson, orPatterson (for now his name may be which one pleases), instantlysurrendered the town, and agreed to pay two thousand pounds to save itfrom pillage. Well! then we were assured that the citadel could hold outseven or eight days; but did not so many hours. On mustering themilitia, there were not found above four men in a company; and for twocompanies, which the ministry, on a report of Lord Albemarle, who saidthey were to be sent from Wade's army, thought were there, and did notknow were not there, there was nothing but two of invalids. ColonelDurand, the governor, fled, because he would not sign the capitulation, by which the garrison, it is said, has sworn never to bear arms againstthe house of Stuart. The Colonel sent two expresses, one to Wade, andanother to Ligonier at Preston; but the latter was playing at whist withLord Harrington at Petersham. Such is our diligence and attention! Allmy hopes are in Wade, who was so sensible of the ignorance of ourgovernors, that he refused to accept the command, till they consentedthat he should be subject to no kind of orders from hence. The rebelsare reckoned up at thirteen thousand; Wade marches with about twelve;but if they come southward, the other army will probably be to fightthem; the Duke is to command it, and sets out next week with anotherbrigade of Guards, the Ligonier under him. There are great apprehensionsfor Chester from the Flintshire-men, who are ready to rise. Aquartermaster, first sent to Carlisle, was seized and carried to Wade;he behaved most insolently; and being asked by the general, how many therebels were, replied, "Enough to beat any army you have in England. " AMackintosh has been taken, who reduces their formidability, by beingsent to raise two clans, and with orders, if they would not rise, atleast to give out they had risen, for that three clans would leave thePretender, unless joined by those two. Five hundred new rebels arearrived at Perth, where our prisoners are kept. 

I had this morning a subscription-book brought me for our parish; LordGranville had refused to subscribe. This is in the style of his friendLord Bath, who has absented himself whenever any act of authority was tobe executed against the rebels. 

Five Scotch lords are going to raise regiments _à l'Angloise_! residentin London, while the rebels were in Scotland; they are to receivemilitary emoluments for their neutrality!

The _Fox_ man-of-war of 20 guns is lost off Dunbar. One Beavor, thecaptain, has done us notable service: the Pretender sent to commend hiszeal and activity, and to tell him, that if he would return to hisallegiance, he should soon have a flag. Beavor replied, "He nevertreated with any but principals; that if the Pretender would come onboard him, he would talk with him. " I must now tell you of our greatVernon: without once complaining to the Ministry, he has written to SirJohn Philipps, a distinguished Jacobite, to complain of want ofprovisions; yet they do not venture to recall him! Yesterday they hadanother baiting from Pitt, who is ravenous for the place of Secretary atWar: they would give it him; but as a preliminary, he insists on adeclaration of our having nothing to do with the continent. He musteredhis forces, but did not notify his intention; only at two o'clockLyttelton said at the Treasury, that there would be business at theHouse. The motion was, to augment our naval force, which, Pitt said, wasthe only method of putting an end to the rebellion. Ships built a yearhence to suppress an army of Highlanders, now marching through England!My uncle [_old_ Horace] attacked him, and congratulated his country onthe wisdom of the modern young men; and said he had a son oftwo-and-twenty, who, he did not doubt, would come over wiser than any ofthem. Pitt was provoked, and retorted on his negotiations and_grey-headed_ experience. At those words, my uncle, as if he had been atBartholomew fair, snatched off his wig, and showed his grey hairs, whichmade the _august senate_ laugh, and put Pitt out, who, after laughinghimself, diverted his venom upon Mr. Pelham. Upon the question, Pitt'sparty amounted but to thirty-six: in short, he has nothing left but hiswords, and his haughtiness, and his Lytteltons, and his Grenvilles. Adieu!

_THE REBEL ARMY HAS RETREATED FROM DERBY--EXPECTATION OF A FRENCHINVASION. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Dec. _ 9, 1745. 

I am glad I did not write to you last post as I intended; I should havesent you an account that would have alarmed you, and the danger wouldhave been over before the letter had crossed the sea. The Duke, fromsome strange want of intelligence, lay last week for four-and-twentyhours under arms at Stone, in Staffordshire, expecting the rebels everymoment, while they were marching in all haste to Derby. The news of thisthrew the town into great consternation; but his Royal Highness repairedhis mistake, and got to Northampton, between the Highlanders and London. They got nine thousand pounds at Derby, and had the books brought tothem, and obliged everybody to give them what they had subscribedagainst them. Then they retreated a few miles, but returned again toDerby, got ten thousand pounds more, plundered the town, and burnt ahouse of the Countess of Exeter. They are gone again, and go back toLeake, in Staffordshire, but miserably harassed, and, it is said, haveleft all their cannon behind them, and twenty waggons of sick. The Dukehas sent General Hawley with the dragoons to harass them in theirretreat, and despatched Mr. Conway to Marshal Wade, to hasten his marchupon the back of them. They must either go to North Wales, where theywill probably all perish, or to Scotland, with great loss. We dread themno longer. We are threatened with great preparations for a Frenchinvasion, but the coast is exceedingly guarded; and for the people, thespirit against the rebels increases every day. Though they have marchedthus into the heart of the kingdom, there has not been the least symptomof a rising, nor even in the great towns of which they possessedthemselves. They have got no recruits since their first entry intoEngland, excepting one gentleman in Lancashire, one hundred and fiftycommon men, and two parsons, at Manchester, and a physician from York. But here in London, the aversion to them is amazing: on some thoughts ofthe King's going to an encampment at Finchley, [1] the weavers not onlyoffered him a thousand men, but the whole body of the Law formedthemselves into a little army, under the command of Lord Chief JusticeWilles, and were to have done duty at St. James's, to guard the royalfamily in the King's absence. 

[Footnote 1: The troops which were being collected for the Duke ofCumberland, as soon as he should arrive from the Continent, to marchwith against the Pretender, were in the meantime encamped on FinchleyCommon near London. The march of the Guards to the camp is the subjectof one of Hogarth's best pictures. ]

But the greatest demonstration of loyalty appeared on the prisonersbeing brought to town from the Soleil prize: the young man is certainlyMr. Radcliffe's son; but the mob, persuaded of his being the youngestPretender, could scarcely be restrained from tearing him to pieces allthe way on the road, and at his arrival. He said he had heard of Englishmobs, but could not conceive they were so dreadful, and wished he hadbeen shot at the battle of Dettingen, where he had been engaged. Thefather, whom they call Lord Derwentwater, said, on entering the Tower, that he had never expected to arrive there alive. For the young man, hemust only be treated as a French captive; for the father, it issufficient to produce him at the Old Bailey, and prove that he is theindividual person condemned for the last Rebellion, and so to Tyburn. 

We begin to take up people, but it is with as much caution and timidityas women of quality begin to pawn their jewels; we have not venturedupon any great stone yet! The Provost of Edinburgh is in custody of amessenger; and the other day they seized an odd man, who goes by thename of Count St. Germain. He has been here these two years, and willnot tell who he is, or whence, but professes that he does not go by hisright name. He sings, plays on the violin wonderfully, composes, is mad, and not very sensible. He is called an Italian, a Spaniard, a Pole; asomebody that married a great fortune in Mexico, and ran away with herjewels to Constantinople; a priest, a fiddler, a vast nobleman. ThePrince of Wales has had unsatiated curiosity about him, but in vain. However, nothing has been made out against him;[1] he is released; and, what convinces me that he is not a gentleman, stays here, and talks ofhis being taken up for a spy. 

[Footnote 1: In the beginning of the year 1755, on rumours of a greatarmament at Brest, one Virette, a Swiss, who had been a kind oftoad-eater to this St. Germain, was denounced to Lord Holdernesse for aspy; but Mr. Stanley going pretty surlily to his lordship, on hissuspecting a friend of his, Virette was declared innocent, and thepenitent secretary of state made him the _amende honorable_ of a dinnerin form. About the same time, a spy of ours was seized at Brest, but, not happening to be acquainted with Mr. Stanley, was broken upon thewheel. --WALPOLE. ]

I think these accounts, upon which you may depend, must raise yourspirits, and figure in Mr. Chute's loyal journal. --But you don't get myletters: I have sent you eleven since I came to town; how many of thesehave you received? Adieu!

_BATTLE OF CULLODEN. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _April_ 25, 1746. 

You have bid me for some time to send you good news--well! I think Iwill. How good would you have it? must it be a total victory over therebels; with not only the Boy, that is here, killed, but the other, thatis not here, too; their whole army put to the sword, besides an infinitenumber of prisoners; all the Jacobite estates in England confiscated, and all those in Scotland--what would you have done with them?--or couldyou be content with something much under this? how much will you abate?will you compound for Lord John Drummond, taken by accident? or forthree Presbyterian parsons, who have very poor livings, stoutly refusingto pay a large contribution to the rebels? Come, I will deal as wellwith you as I can, and for once, but not to make a practice of it, willlet you have a victory! My friend, Lord Bury, arrived this morning fromthe Duke, though the news was got here before him; for, with all ourvictory, it was not thought safe to send him through the heart ofScotland; so he was shipped at Inverness, within an hour after the Dukeentered the town, kept beating at sea five days, and then put on shoreat North Berwick, from whence he came post in less than three days toLondon; but with a fever upon him, for which he had been twice bloodedbut the day before the battle; but he is young, and high in spirits, andI flatter myself will not suffer from this kindness of the Duke: theKing has immediately ordered him a thousand pound, and I hear will makehim his own aide-de-camp. My dear Mr. Chute, I beg your pardon; I haveforgot you have the gout, and consequently not the same patience to waitfor the battle, with which I, knowing the particulars, postpone it. 

On the 16th, the Duke, by forced marches, came up with the rebels, alittle on this side Inverness--by the way, the battle is not christenedyet; I only know that neither Prestonpans nor Falkirk are to begodfathers. The rebels, who fled from him after their victory, and durstnot attack him, when so much exposed to them at his passage of the Spey, now stood him, they seven thousand, he ten. They broke through Barril'sregiment, and killed Lord Robert Kerr, a handsome young gentleman, whowas cut to pieces with above thirty wounds; but they were soon repulsed, and fled; the whole engagement not lasting above a quarter of an hour. The young Pretender escaped; Mr. Conway says, he hears, wounded: hecertainly was in the rear. They have lost above a thousand men in theengagement and pursuit; and six hundred were already taken; among whichlatter are their French ambassador and Earl Kilmarnock. The Duke ofPerth and Lord Ogilvie are said to be slain; Lord Elcho was in asalivation, and not there. Except Lord Robert Kerr, we lost nobody ofnote: Sir Robert Rich's eldest son has lost his hand, and about ahundred and thirty private men fell. The defeat is reckoned total, andthe dispersion general; and all their artillery is taken. It is a braveyoung Duke! The town is all blazing round me, as I write, with fireworksand illuminations: I have some inclination to wrap up half a dozensky-rockets, to make you drink the Duke's health. Mr. Dodington, on thefirst report, came out with a very pretty illumination; so pretty, thatI believe he had it by him, ready for _any_ occasion.... 

_TRIAL OF THE REBEL LORDS BALMERINO AND KILMARNOCK. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Aug. _ 1, 1746. 

I am this moment come from the conclusion of the greatest and mostmelancholy scene I ever yet saw! You will easily guess it was the Trialsof the rebel Lords. As it was the most interesting sight, it was themost solemn and fine: a coronation is a puppet-show, and all thesplendour of it idle; but this sight at once feasted one's eyes andengaged all one's passions. It began last Monday; three parts ofWestminster Hall were inclosed with galleries, and hung with scarlet;and the whole ceremony was conducted with the most awful solemnity anddecency, except in the one point of leaving the prisoners at the bar, amidst the idle curiosity of some crowd, and even with the witnesseswho had sworn against them, while the Lords adjourned to their own Houseto consult. No part of the royal family was there, which was a properregard to the unhappy men, who were become their victims. One hundredand thirty-nine Lords were present, and made a noble sight on theirbenches _frequent and full_! The Chancellor [Hardwicke] was Lord HighSteward; but though a most comely personage with a fine voice, hisbehaviour was mean, curiously searching for occasion to bow to theminister [Mr. Pelham] that is no peer, and consequently applying to theother ministers, in a manner, for their orders; and not even ready atthe ceremonial. To the prisoners he was peevish; and instead of keepingup to the humane dignity of the law of England, whose character it is topoint out favour to the criminal, he crossed them, and almost scolded atany offer they made towards defence. I had armed myself with all theresolution I could, with the thought of their crimes and of the dangerpast, and was assisted by the sight of the Marquis of Lothian in weepersfor his son who fell at Culloden--but the first appearance of theprisoners shocked me! their behaviour melted me! Lord Kilmarnock andLord Cromartie are both past forty, but look younger. Lord Kilmarnock istall and slender, with an extreme fine person: his behaviour a most justmixture between dignity and submission; if in anything to bereprehended, a little affected, and his hair too exactly dressed for aman in his situation; but when I say it is not to find fault with him, but to show how little fault there was to be found. Lord Cromartie isan indifferent figure, appeared much dejected, and rather sullen: hedropped a few tears the first day, and swooned as soon as he got back tohis cell. For Lord Balmerino, he is the most natural brave old fellow Iever saw: the highest intrepidity, even to indifference. At the bar hebehaved like a soldier and a man; at the intervals of form, withcarelessness and humour. He pressed extremely to have his wife, hispretty Peggy, with him in the Tower. Lady Cromartie only sees herhusband through the grate, not choosing to be shut up with him, as shethinks she can serve him better by her intercession without: she is bigwith child and very handsome: so are their daughters. When they were tobe brought from the Tower in separate coaches, there was some dispute inwhich the axe must go--old Balmerino cried, "Come, come, put it withme. " At the bar, he plays with his fingers upon the axe, while he talkswith the gentleman-gaoler; and one day somebody coming up to listen, hetook the blade and held it like a fan between their faces. During thetrial, a little boy was near him, but not tall enough to see; he maderoom for the child and placed him near himself. 

When the trial began, the two Earls pleaded guilty; Balmerino notguilty, saying he could prove his not being at the taking of the castleof Carlisle, as was laid in the indictment. Then the King's counselopened, and Serjeant Skinner pronounced the most absurd speechimaginable; and mentioned the Duke of Perth, "who, " said he, "I see bythe papers is dead. " Then some witnesses were examined, whom afterwardsthe old hero shook cordially by the hand. The Lords withdrew to theirHouse, and returning, demanded of the judges, whether one point notbeing proved, though all the rest were, the indictment was false? towhich they unanimously answered in the negative. Then the Lord HighSteward asked the Peers severally, whether Lord Balmerino was guilty!All said, "guilty upon honour, " and then adjourned, the prisoner havingbegged pardon for giving them so much trouble. While the Lords werewithdrawn, the Solicitor-General Murray (brother of the Pretender'sminister) officiously and insolently went up to Lord Balmerino, andasked him, how he could give the Lords so much trouble, when hissolicitor had informed him that his plea could be of no use to him?Balmerino asked the bystanders who this person was? and being told hesaid, "Oh, Mr. Murray! I am extremely glad to see you; I have been withseveral of your relations; the good lady, your mother, was of great useto us at Perth. " Are not you charmed with this speech? how just it was!As he went away, he said, "They call me Jacobite; I am no more aJacobite than any that tried me: but if the Great Mogul had set up hisstandard, I should have followed it, for I could not starve. " The worstof his case is, that after the battle of Dumblain, having a company inthe Duke of Argyll's regiment, he deserted with it to the rebels, andhas since been pardoned. Lord Kilmarnock is a Presbyterian, with fourearldoms in him, but so poor since Lord Wilmington's stopping a pensionthat my father had given him, that he often wanted a dinner. LordCromartie was receiver of the rents of the King's second son inScotland, which, it was understood, he should not account for; and bythat means had six-hundred a-year from the Government: Lord Elibank, avery prating, impertinent Jacobite, was bound for him in nine thousandpounds, for which the Duke is determined to sue him. 

When the Peers were going to vote, Lord Foley withdrew, as too well awisher; Lord Moray, as nephew of Lord Balmerino--and Lord Stair, --as, Ibelieve, uncle to his great-grandfather. Lord Windsor, very affectedly, said, "I am sorry I must say, _guilty upon my honour_. " Lord Stamfordwould not answer to the name of _Henry_, having been christened_Harry_--what a great way of thinking on such an occasion! I wasdiverted too with old Norsa, the father of my brother's concubine, anold Jew that kept a tavern; my brother [Orford], as Auditor of theExchequer, has a gallery along one whole side of the court; I said, "Ireally feel for the prisoners!" old Issachar replied, "Feel for them!pray, if they had succeeded, what would have become of _all us_?" Whenmy Lady Townsend heard her husband vote, she said, "I always knew _my_Lord was _guilty_, but I never thought he would own it _upon hishonour_. " Lord Balmerino said, that one of his reasons for pleading _notguilty_, was that so many ladies might not be disappointed of theirshow. 

On Wednesday they were again brought to Westminster Hall, to receivesentence; and being asked what they had to say, Lord Kilmarnock, with avery fine voice, read a very fine speech, confessing the extent of hiscrime, but offering his principles as some alleviation, having hiseldest son (his second unluckily with him), in the Duke's army, _fighting for the liberties of his country at Culloden, where hisunhappy father was in arms to destroy them_. He insisted much on histenderness to the English prisoners, which some deny, and say that hewas the man who proposed their being put to death, when GeneralStapleton urged that _he_ was come to fight, but not to butcher; andthat if they acted any such barbarity, he would leave them with all hismen. He very artfully mentioned Van Hoey's letter, and said how much hewould scorn to owe his life to such intercession. [1] Lord Cromartiespoke much shorter, and so low, that he was not heard but by those whosat very near him; but they prefer his speech to the other. He mentionedhis misfortune in having drawn in his eldest son, who is prisoner withhim; and concluded with saying, "If no part of this bitter cup must passfrom me, not mine, O God, but thy will be done!" If he had pleaded _notguilty_, there was ready to be produced against him a paper signed withhis own hand, for putting the English prisoners to death. 

[Footnote 1: In a subsequent letter Walpole attributes Lord Kilmarnock'scomplicity in the rebellion partly to the influence of his mother, theCountess of Errol, and partly to his extreme poverty. He says: "I don'tknow whether I told you that the man at the tennis-court protests thathe has known him dine with the man that sells pamphlets at Storey'sGate; 'and, ' says he, 'he would often have been glad if I would havetaken him home to dinner. ' He was certainly so poor, that in one of hiswife's intercepted letters she tells him she has plagued their stewardfor a fortnight for money, and can get but three shillings. " One cannothelp remembering, _Ibit eo quo vis qui zonam perdidit_. And afterwards, in relating his execution, he mentions a report that the Duke ofCumberland charging him (certainly on misinformation) with havingpromoted the adoption of "a resolution taken the day before the battleof Culloden" to put the English prisoners to death, "decided thisunhappy man's fate" by preventing his obtaining a pardon. ]

Lord Leicester went up to the Duke of Newcastle, and said, "I neverheard so great an orator as Lord Kilmarnock? if I was your grace I wouldpardon him, and make him _paymaster_. "[1]

[Footnote 1: "_I would make him paymaster. _" The paymaster at this timewas Mr. Pitt. ]

That morning a paper had been sent to the lieutenant of the Tower forthe prisoners; he gave it to Lord Cornwallis, the governor, who carriedit to the House of Lords. It was a plea for the prisoners, objectingthat the late act for regulating the trials of rebels did not take placetill after their crime was committed. The Lords very tenderly andrightly sent this plea to them, of which, as you have seen, the twoEarls did not make use; but old Balmerino did, and demanded council onit. The High Steward, almost in a passion, told him, that when he hadbeen offered council, he did not accept it. Do but think on the ridiculeof sending them the plea, and then denying them council on it! The Dukeof Newcastle, who never let slip an opportunity of being absurd, took itup as a ministerial point, in defence of his creature the Chancellor[Hardwicke]; but Lord Granville moved, according to order, to adjourn todebate in the chamber of Parliament, where the Duke of Bedford and manyothers spoke warmly for their having council; and it was granted. I said_their_, because the plea would have saved them all, and affected ninerebels who had been hanged that very morning; particularly one Morgan, apoetical lawyer. Lord Balmerino asked for Forester and Wilbraham; thelatter a very able lawyer in the House of Commons, who, the Chancellorsaid privately, he was sure would as soon be hanged as plead such acause. But he came as council to-day (the third day), when LordBalmerino gave up his plea as invalid, and submitted, without anyspeech. The High Steward [Hardwicke] then made his, very long and verypoor, with only one or two good passages; and then pronounced sentence!

Great intercession is made for the two Earls: Duke Hamilton, who hasnever been at Court, designs to kiss the King's hand, and ask LordKilmarnock's life. The King is much inclined to some mercy; but theDuke, who has not so much of Caesar after a victory, as in gaining it, is for the utmost severity. It was lately proposed in the city topresent him with the freedom of some company; one of the aldermen saidaloud, "Then let it be of the _Butchers_!"[1] The Scotch and his RoyalHighness are not at all guarded in their expressions of each other. Whenhe went to Edinburgh, in his pursuit of the rebels, they would notadmit his guards, alleging that it was contrary to their privileges; butthey rode in, sword in hand; and the Duke, very justly incensed, refusedto see any of the magistrates. He came with the utmost expedition totown, in order for Flanders; but found that the Court of Vienna hadalready sent Prince Charles thither, without the least notification, atwhich both King and Duke are greatly offended. When the latter waited onhis brother, the Prince carried him into a room that hangs over the wallof St. James's Park, and stood there with his arm about his neck, tocharm the gazing mob. 

[Footnote 1: "The Duke, " says Sir Walter Scott, "was received with allthe honours due to conquest; and all the incorporated bodies of thecapital, from the Guild brethren to the Butchers, desired the acceptanceof the freedom of their craft, or corporation. " Billy the Butcher wasone of his by-names. ]

Murray, the Pretender's secretary, has made ample confessions: the Earlof Traquair, and Mr. Barry, a physician, are apprehended, and morewarrants are out; so much for rebels! Your friend, Lord Sandwich, isinstantly going ambassador to Holland, to pray the Dutch to build moreships. I have received yours of July 19th, but you see have no more roomleft, only to say, that I conceive a good idea of my eagle, though theseal is a bad one. Adieu!

P. S. --I have not room to say anything to the Tesi till next post; but, unless she will sing gratis, would advise her to drop this thought. 

_THE BATTLE OF RANCOUX. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Oct. _ 14, 1746. 

You will have been alarmed with the news of another battle lost inFlanders, where we have no Kings of Sardinia. We make light of it; donot allow it to be a battle, but call it "the action near Liege. " Thenwe have whittled down our loss extremely, and will not allow a man morethan three hundred and fifty English slain out of the four thousand. Thewhole of it, as it appears to me, is, that we gave up eight battalionsto avoid fighting; as at Newmarket people pay their forfeit when theyforesee they should lose the race; though, if the whole army had fought, and we had lost the day, one might have hoped to have come off for eightbattalions. Then they tell you that the French hadfour-and-twenty-pounders, and that they must beat us by the superiorityof their cannon; so that to me it is grown a paradox, to war with anation who have a mathematical certainty of beating you; or else it isstill a stranger paradox, why you cannot have as large cannon as theFrench. [1] This loss was balanced by a pompous account of the triumphsof our invasion of Bretagne; which, in plain terms, I think, is reducedto burning two or three villages and reimbarking: at least, two or threeof the transports are returned with this history, and know not what isbecome of Lestock and the rest of the invasion. The young Pretender islanded in France, with thirty Scotch, but in such a wretched conditionthat his Highland Highness had no breeches. 

[Footnote 1: Marshal Saxe had inspired his army with confidence that aday of battle was sure to be a day of victory, as was shown by thetheatrical company which accompanied the camp. After the performance onthe evening of October 10th the leading actress announced that therewould be no performance on the morrow, because there was to be a battle, but on the 12th the company would have the honour of presenting "TheVillage Clock. " (See the Editor's "France under the Bourbons, " iii. 26. )]

I have received yours of the 27th of last month, with the capitulationof Genoa, and the kind conduct of the Austrians to us their allies, soextremely like their behaviour whenever they are fortunate. Pray, by theway, has there been any talk of my cousin, the Commodore, beingblameable in letting slip some Spanish ships?--don't mention it as fromme, but there are whispers of court-martial on him. They are all thefashion now; if you miss a post to me, I will have you tried by acourt-martial. Cope is come off most gloriously, his courageascertained, and even his conduct, which everybody had given up, justified. Folkes and Lascelles, two of his generals, are come off too;but not so happily in the opinion of the world. Oglethorpe's sentence isnot yet public, but it is believed not to be favourable. He was always abully, and is now tried for cowardice. Some little dash of the same sortis likely to mingle with the judgment on _il furibondo_ Matthews; thoughhis party rises again a little, and Lestock's acquittal begins to passfor a party affair. In short, we are a wretched people, and have seenour best days!

I must have lost a letter, if you really told me of the sale of theDuke of Modena's pictures, as you think you did; for when Mr. Chute toldit me, it struck me as quite new. They are out of town, good souls; andI shall not see them this fortnight; for I am here only for two or threedays, to inquire after the battle, in which not one of my friends were. Adieu!

_ON CONWAY'S VERSES--NO SCOTCH_MAN_ IS CAPABLE OF SUCH DELICACY OFTHOUGHT, THOUGH A SCOTCHWOMAN MAY BE--AKENSIDE'S, ARMSTRONG'S, ANDGLOVER'S POEMS. _

TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. 

WINDSOR, _Oct. _ 24, 1746. 

Well, Harry, Scotland is the last place on earth I should have thoughtof for turning anybody poet: but I begin to forgive it half its treasonsin favour of your verses, for I suppose you don't think I am the dupe ofthe Highland story that you tell me: the only use I shall make of it isto commend the lines to you, as if they really were a Scotchman's. Thereis a melancholy harmony in them that is charming, and a delicacy in thethoughts that no Scotchman is capable of, though a _Scotchwoman_ mightinspire it. [1] I beg, both for Cynthia's sake and my own, that youwould continue your De Tristibus till I have an opportunity of seeingyour muse, and she of rewarding her: _Reprens la musette, bergeramoureux_! If Cynthia has ever travelled ten miles in fairy-land, shemust be wondrous content with the person and qualifications of herknight, who in future story will be read of thus: Elmedorus was tall andperfectly well made, his face oval, and features regularly handsome, butnot effeminate; his complexion sentimentally brown, with not muchcolour; his teeth fine, and forehead agreeably low, round which hisblack hair curled naturally and beautifully. His eyes were black too, but had nothing of fierce or insolent; on the contrary, a certainmelancholy swimmingness, that described hopeless love rather than anatural amorous languish. His exploits in war, where he always fought bythe side of the renowned Paladine William of England, have endeared hismemory to all admirers of true chivalry, as the mournful elegies whichhe poured out among the desert rocks of Caledonia in honour of thepeerless lady and his heart's idol, the incomparable Cynthia, will forever preserve his name in the flowery annals of poesy. 

[Footnote 1: Walpole could not foresee the genius of Burns, that beforehis own death was to shed such glory on Scotland. His compliment to aScotchwoman was an allusion to Lady Aylesbury (_née_ Miss CarolineCampbell), whom Conway married after her husband's death, which tookplace a few months after the date of this letter. Lady Aylesbury was nopoetess, but his estimate of what might be accomplished by Scotch ladieswas afterwards fully borne out by Lady Anne Lindsay, the authoress of"Auld Gray, " and Lady Nairn. ]

What a pity it is I was not born in the golden age of Louis theFourteenth, when it was not only the fashion to write folios, but toread them too! or rather, it is a pity the same fashion don't subsistnow, when one need not be at the trouble of invention, nor of turningthe whole Roman history into romance for want of proper heroes. Yourcampaign in Scotland, rolled out and well be-epitheted, would make apompous work, and make one's fortune; at sixpence a number, one shouldhave all the damsels within the liberties for subscribers: whereas now, if one has a mind to be read, one must write metaphysical poems in blankverse, which, though I own to be still easier, have not half theimagination of romances, and are dull without any agreeable absurdity. Only think of the gravity of this wise age, that have exploded"Cleopatra and Pharamond, " and approve "The Pleasures of theImagination, " "The Art of Preserving Health, " and "Leonidas!" I beg theage's pardon: it has done approving these poems, and has forgot them. 

Adieu! dear Harry. Thank you seriously for the poem. I am going to townfor the birthday, and shall return hither till the Parliament meets; Isuppose there is no doubt of our meeting then. 

Yours ever. 

P. S. --Now you are at Stirling, if you should meet with Drummond'sHistory of the five King Jameses, pray look it over. I have lately readit, and like it much. It is wrote in imitation of Livy; the stylemasculine, and the whole very sensible; only he ascribes the misfortunesof one reign to the then king's loving architecture and

 In trim gardens taking pleasure. 

_HE HAS BOUGHT STRAWBERRY HILL. _

TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. 

TWICKENHAM, _June_ 8, 1747. 

You perceive by my date that I am got into a new camp, and have left mytub at Windsor. It is a little plaything-house that I got out of Mrs. Chenevix's shop, and is the prettiest bauble you ever saw. It is set inenamelled meadows, with filigree hedges:

 A small Euphrates through the piece is told, And little finches wave their wings in gold. 

Two delightful roads, that you would call dusty, supply me continuallywith coaches and chaises: barges as solemn as Barons of the Exchequermove under my window; Richmond Hill and Ham walks bound my prospect;but, thank God! the Thames is between me and the Duchess of Queensberry. Dowagers as plenty as flounders inhabit all around, and Pope's ghost isjust now skimming under my window by a most poetical moonlight. I haveabout land enough to keep such a farm as Noah's, when he set up in theark with a pair of each kind; but my cottage is rather cleaner than Ibelieve his was after they had been cooped up together forty days. TheChenevixes had tricked it out for themselves: up two pair of stairs iswhat they call Mr. Chenevix's library, furnished with three maps, oneshelf, a bust of Sir Isaac Newton, and a lame telescope without anyglasses. Lord John Sackville _predecessed_ me here, and institutedcertain games called _cricketalia_, which have been celebrated thisvery evening in honour of him in a neighbouring meadow. 

You will think I have removed my philosophy from Windsor with mytea-things hither; for I am writing to you in all this tranquillity, while a Parliament is bursting about my ears. You know it is going to bedissolved: I am told, you are taken care of, though I don't know where, nor whether anybody that chooses you will quarrel with me because hedoes choose you, as that little bug the Marquis of Rockingham did; oneof the calamities of my life which I have bore as abominably well as Ido most about which I don't care. They say the Prince has taken up twohundred thousand pounds, to carry elections which he won't carry:--hehad much better have saved it to buy the Parliament after it is chosen. A new set of peers are in embryo, to add more dignity to the silence ofthe House of Lords. 

I made no remarks on your campaign, because, as you say, you do nothingat all; which, though very proper nutriment for a thinking head, doesnot do quite so well to write upon. If any one of you can but contriveto be shot upon your post, it is all we desire, shall look upon it as agreat curiosity, and will take care to set up a monument to the personso slain; as we are doing by vote to Captain Cornewall, who was killedat the beginning of the action in the Mediterranean four years ago. Inthe present dearth of glory, he is canonized; though, poor man! he hadbeen tried twice the year before for cowardice. 

I could tell you much election news, none else; though not beingthoroughly attentive to so important a subject, as to be sure one oughtto be, I might now and then mistake, and give you a candidate for Durhamin place of one for Southampton, or name the returning officer insteadof the candidate. In general, I believe, it is much as usual--those soldin detail that afterwards will be sold in the representation--theministers bribing Jacobites to choose friends of their own--the name ofwell-wishers to the present establishment, and patriots outbiddingministers that they may make the better market of their ownpatriotism:--in short, all England, under some name or other, is justnow to be bought and sold; though, whenever we become posterity andforefathers, we shall be in high repute for wisdom and virtue. Mygreat-great-grandchildren will figure me with a white beard down to mygirdle; and Mr. Pitt's will believe him unspotted enough to have walkedover nine hundred hot ploughshares, without hurting the sole of hisfoot. How merry my ghost will be, and shake its ears to hear itselfquoted as a person of consummate prudence! Adieu, dear Harry!

Yours ever. 

_HIS MODE OF LIFE--PLANTING--PROPHECIES OF NEW METHODS AND NEWDISCOVERIES IN A FUTURE GENERATION. _

TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _Aug. _ 29, 1748. 

Dear Harry, --Whatever you may think, a campaign at Twickenham furnishesas little matter for a letter as an abortive one in Flanders. I can'tsay indeed that my generals wear black wigs, but they have longfull-bottomed hoods which cover as little entertainment to the full. 

[Illustration: STRAWBERRY HILL, FROM THE SOUTH EAST. ]

There's General my Lady Castlecomer, and General my Lady Dowager Ferris!Why, do you think I can extract more out of them than you can out ofHawley or Honeywood? Your old women dress, go to the Duke's levée, seethat the soldiers cock their hats right, sleep after dinner, and soakwith their led-captains till bed-time, and tell a thousand lies of whatthey never did in their youth. Change hats for head-clothes, the roundsfor visits, and led-captains for toad-eaters, and the life is the verysame. In short, these are the people I live in the midst of, though notwith; and it is for want of more important histories that I have wroteto you seldom; not, I give you my word, from the least negligence. Mypresent and sole occupation is planting, in which I have made greatprogress and talked very learnedly with the nurserymen, except that nowand then a lettuce run to seed overturns all my botany, as I have morethan once taken it for a curious West Indian flowering shrub. Then thedeliberation with which trees grow, is extremely inconvenient to mynatural impatience. I lament living in so barbarous an age, when we arecome to so little perfection in gardening. I am persuaded that a hundredand fifty years hence it will be as common to remove oaks a hundred andfifty years old, as it is now to transplant tulip roots. [1] I have evenbegun a treatise or panegyric on the great discoveries made by posterityin all arts and sciences, wherein I shall particularly descant on thegreat and cheap convenience of making trout-rivers--one of theimprovements which Mrs. Kerwood wondered Mr. Hedges would not make athis country-house, but which was not then quite so common as it will be. I shall talk of a secret for roasting a wild boar and a whole pack ofhounds alive, without hurting them, so that the whole chase may bebrought up to table; and for this secret, the Duke of Newcastle'sgrandson, if he can ever get a son, is to give a hundred thousandpounds. Then the delightfulness of having whole groves of humming-birds, tame tigers taught to fetch and carry, pocket spying-glasses to seeall that is doing in China, with a thousand other toys, which we nowlook upon as impracticable, and which pert posterity would laugh inone's face for staring at, while they are offering rewards forperfecting discoveries, of the principles of which we have not the leastconception! If ever this book should come forth, I must expect to haveall the learned in arms against me, who measure all knowledge backward:some of them have discovered symptoms of all arts in Homer; andPineda, [2] had so much faith in the accomplishments of his ancestors, that he believed Adam understood all sciences but politics. But as thesegreat champions for our forefathers are dead, and Boileau not alive tohitch me into a verse with Perrault, I am determined to admire thelearning of posterity, especially being convinced that half our presentknowledge sprung from discovering the errors of what had formerly beencalled so. I don't think I shall ever make any great discoveries myself, and therefore shall be content to propose them to my descendants, likemy Lord Bacon, [3] who, as Dr. Shaw says very prettily in his preface toBoyle, "had the art of inventing arts:" or rather like a Marquis ofWorcester, of whom I have seen a little book which he calls "A Centuryof Inventions, "[4] where he has set down a hundred machines to doimpossibilities with, and not a single direction how to make themachines themselves. 

[Footnote 1: It is worth noting that these predictions that "it will becommon to remove oaks a hundred and fifty years old" has been verifiedmany years since; at least, if not in the case of oaks, in that of largeelms and ashtrees. In 1850 Mr. Paxton offered to a Committee of theHouse of Commons to undertake to remove the large elm which was standingon the ground proposed for the Crystal Palace of the Exhibition of 1851, and his master, the Duke of Devonshire, has since that time removed manytrees of very large size from one part of his grounds to another; andsimilarly the "making of trout rivers" has been carried out in manyplaces, even in our most distant colonies, by Mr. Buckland's method ofraising the young fish from roe in boxes and distributing them in placeswhere they were needed. ]

[Footnote 2: Pineda was a Spanish Jesuit of the seventeenth century, anda voluminous writer. ]

[Footnote 3: It is a singular thing that this most eminent man should beso constantly spoken of by a title which he never had. His first titlein the peerage was Baron Verulam; his second, on a subsequent promotion, was Viscount St. Albans; yet the error is as old as Dryden, and isdefended by Lord Macaulay in a sentence of pre-eminent absurdity:"Posterity has felt that the greatest of English philosophers couldderive no accession of dignity from any title which power could bestow, and, in defiance of letters-patent, has obstinately refused to degradeFrancis Bacon into Viscount St. Albans. " But, without stopping todiscuss the propriety of representing a Britiph peerage, honestlyearned, and, in his case as Lord Chancellor, necessarily conferred, as a"degradation, " the mistake made is not that of continuing to call himFrancis Bacon, a name by which at one time he was known, but that ofcalling him "Lord Bacon, " a title by which he was never known for asingle moment in his lifetime; while, if a great philosopher was really"degraded" by a peerage, it is hard to see how the degradation wouldhave been lessened by the title being Lord Bacon, which it was not, rather than Viscount St. Albans, which it was. ]

[Footnote 4: The "Biographie Universelle" (art. _Newcomen_) says of theMarquis: "Longtemps avant lui [Neucomen] on avait remarqué la grandeforce expansive de la vapeur, et on avait imaginé de l'employer commepuissance. On trouve déja cetté application proposée et même executéedans un ouvrage publié en 1663, par le Marquis de Worcester, sous letitre bizarre, 'A Century of Inventions. '"]

If I happen to be less punctual in my correspondence than I intend tobe, you must conclude I am writing my book, which being designed for apanegyric, will cost me a great deal of trouble. The dedication withyour leave, shall be addressed to your son that is coming, or, with LadyAilesbury's leave, to your ninth son, who will be unborn nearer to thetime I am writing of; always provided that she does not bring three atonce, like my Lady Berkeley. 

Well! I have here set you the example of writing nonsense when one hasnothing to say, and shall take it ill if you don't keep up thecorrespondence on the same foot. Adieu!

_REJOICINGS FOR THE PEACE--MASQUERADE AT RANELAGH--MEETING OF THEPRINCES PARTY AND THE JACOBITES--PREVALENCE OF DRINKING ANDGAMBLING--WHITEFIELD. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _May_ 3, 1749. 

I am come hither for a few days, to repose myself after a torrent ofdiversions, and am writing to you in my charming bow-window with atranquillity and satisfaction which, I fear, I am grown old enough toprefer to the hurry of amusements, in which the whole world has livedfor this last week. We have at last celebrated the Peace, and that asmuch in extremes as we generally do everything, whether we have reasonto be glad or sorry, pleased or angry. Last Tuesday it was proclaimed:the King did not go to St. Paul's, but at night the whole town wasilluminated. The next day was what was called "a jubilee-masquerade inthe Venetian manner" at Ranelagh: it had nothing Venetian in it, but wasby far the best understood and the prettiest spectacle I ever saw:nothing in a fairy tale ever surpassed it. One of the proprietors, whois a German, and belongs to Court, had got my Lady Yarmouth to persuadethe King to order it. It began at three o'clock, and, about five, peopleof fashion began to go. When you entered, you found the whole gardenfilled with masks and spread with tents, which remained all night _verycommodely_. In one quarter, was a May-pole dressed with garlands, andpeople dancing round it to a tabor and pipe and rustic music, allmasqued, as were all the various bands of music that were disposed indifferent parts of the garden; some like huntsmen with French horns, some like peasants, and a troop of harlequins and scaramouches in thelittle open temple on the mount. On the canal was a sort of gondola, adorned with flags and streamers, and filled with music, rowing about. All round the outside of the amphitheatre were shops, filled withDresden china, japan, &c. , and all the shopkeepers in mask. Theamphitheatre was illuminated; and in the middle was a circular bower, composed of all kinds of firs in tubs, from twenty to thirty feet high:under them orange-trees, with small lamps in each orange, and below themall sorts of the finest auriculas in pots; and festoons of naturalflowers hanging from tree to tree. Between the arches too were firs, andsmaller ones in the balconies above. There were booths for tea and wine, gaming-tables and dancing, and about two thousand persons. In short, itpleased me more than anything I ever saw. It is to be once more, andprobably finer as to dresses, as there has since been a subscriptionmasquerade, and people will go in their rich habits. The next day werethe fireworks, which by no means answered the expense, the length ofpreparation, and the expectation that had been raised; indeed, for aweek before, the town was like a country fair, the streets filled frommorning to night, scaffolds building wherever you could or could notsee, and coaches arriving from every corner of the kingdom. This hurryand lively scene, with the sight of the immense crowd in the Park and onevery house, the guards, and the machine itself, which was verybeautiful, was all that was worth seeing. The rockets, and whatever wasthrown up into the air, succeeded mighty well; but the wheels, and allthat was to compose the principal part, were pitiful and ill-conducted, with no changes of coloured fires and shapes: the illumination was mean, and lighted so slowly that scarce anybody had patience to wait thefinishing; and then, what contributed to the awkwardness of the whole, was the right pavilion catching fire, and being burnt down in the middleof the show. The King, the Duke, and Princess Emily saw it from theLibrary, with their courts: the Prince and Princess, with theirchildren, from Lady Middlesex's; no place being provided for them, norany invitation given to the library. The Lords and Commons had galleriesbuilt for them and the chief citizens along the rails of the Mall: theLords had four tickets a-piece, and each Commoner, at first, but two, till the Speaker bounced and obtained a third. Very little mischief wasdone, and but two persons killed: at Paris, there were forty killed andnear three hundred wounded, by a dispute between the French and Italiansin the management, who, quarrelling for precedence in lighting thefires, both lighted at once and blew up the whole. Our mob was extremelytranquil, and very unlike those I remember in my father's time, when itwas a measure in the Opposition to work up everything to mischief, theExcise and the French players, the Convention and the Gin Act. We are asmuch now in the opposite extreme, and in general so pleased with thepeace, that I could not help being struck with a passage I read latelyin Pasquier, an old French author, who says, "that in the time ofFrancis I. The French used to call their creditors 'Des Anglois, ' fromthe facility with which the English gave credit to them in all treaties, though they had broken so many. " On Saturday we had a serenta at theOpera-house, called Peace in Europe, but it was a wretched performance. On Monday there was a subscription masquerade, much fuller than that oflast year, but not so agreeable or so various in dresses. The King waswell disguised in an old-fashioned English habit, and much pleased withsomebody who desired him to hold their cup as they were drinking tea. The Duke had a dress of the same kind, but was so immensely corpulentthat he looked like Cacofogo, the drunken captain, in "Rule a Wife andhave a Wife. " The Duchess of Richmond was a Lady Mayoress in the time ofJames I. ; and Lord Delawarr, Queen Elizabeth's porter, from a picture inthe guard-chamber at Kensington: they were admirable masks. LordRochford, Miss Evelyn, Miss Bishop, Lady Stafford, and Mrs. Pitt, werein vast beauty; particularly the last, who had a red veil, which madeher look gloriously handsome. I forgot Lady Kildare. Mr. Conway was theDuke in "Don Quixote, " and the finest figure I ever saw. Miss Chudleighwas Iphigenia, but so naked that you would have taken her for Andromeda;and Lady Betty Smithson [Seymour] had such a pyramid of baubles upon herhead, that she was exactly the Princess of Babylon in Grammont. 

You will conclude that, after all these diversions, people begin tothink of going out of town--no such matter: the Parliament continuessitting, and will till the middle of June; Lord Egmont told us we shouldsit till Michaelmas. There are many private bills, no public ones of anyfame. We were to have had some chastisement for Oxford, where, besidesthe late riots, the famous Dr. King, [1] the Pretender's great agent, made a most violent speech at the opening of the Ratcliffe Library. Theministry denounced judgment, but, in their old style, have grownfrightened, and dropped it. However, this menace gave occasion to ameeting and union between the Prince's party and the Jacobites whichLord Egmont has been labouring all the winter. They met at the St. Alban's tavern, near Pall Mall, last Monday morning, a hundred andtwelve Lords and Commoners. The Duke of Beaufort opened the assemblywith a panegyric on the stand that had been made this winter against socorrupt an administration, and hoped it would continue, and desiredharmony. Lord Egmont seconded this strongly, and begged they would comeup to Parliament early next winter. Lord Oxford spoke next; and thenPotter with great humour, and to the great abashment of the Jacobites, said he was very glad to see this union, and from thence hoped, that ifanother attack like the last Rebellion should be made on the RoyalFamily, they would all stand by them. No reply was made to this. ThenSir Watkyn Williams spoke, Sir Francis Dashwood, [2] and Tom Pitt, andthe meeting broke up. I don't know what this coalition may produce: itwill require time with no better heads than compose it at present, though the great Mr. Dodington had carried to the conference theassistance of his. In France a very favourable event has happened forus, the disgrace of Maurepas, [3] one of our bitterest enemies, and thegreatest promoter of their marine. Just at the beginning of the war, ina very critical period, he had obtained a very large sum for thatservice, but which one of the other factions, lest he should gain gloryand credit by it, got to be suddenly given away to the King of Prussia. 

[Footnote 1: Dr. King was Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, and oneof the chief supports of the Jacobite party after 1745. ]

[Footnote 2: Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1761, through the influenceof the Earl of Bute. He was the owner of Medmenham Abbey, on the Thames, and as such, the President of the profligate Club whose doings were madenotorious by the proceedings against Wilkes, and who, in compliment tohim, called themselves the Franciscans. ]

[Footnote 3: The Comte de Maurepas was the grandson of the Chancellor ofFrance, M. De Pontchartrain. When only fourteen years old Louis had madehim Secretary of State for the Marine, as a consolation to hisgrandfather for his dismissal; and he continued in office till theaccession of Louis XVI. , when he was appointed Prime Minister. He wasnot a man of any statesmanlike ability; but Lacretelle ascribes to him"les graces d'un esprit aimable et frivole qui avait le don d'amuser unvieillard toujours porté à un elegant badinage" (ii. 53); and in asubsequent letter speaks of him as a man of very lively powers ofconversation. ]

Sir Charles Williams[1] is appointed envoy to this last King: here is anepigram which he has just sent over on Lord Egmont's opposition to theMutiny Bill:

 Why has Lord Egmont 'gainst this bill So much declamatory skill So tediously exerted? The reason's plain: but t'other day He mutinied himself for pay, And he has twice deserted. 

[Footnote 1: Sir Charles Hanbury Williams had represented Monmouth inParliament, but in 1744 was sent as ambassador to Berlin, and fromthence to St. Petersburg. He was more celebrated in the fashionableworld as the author of lyrical odes of a lively character. ]

I must tell you a _bon-mot_ that was made the other night at theserenata of "Peace in Europe" by Wall, [1] who is much in fashion, and akind of Gondomar. Grossatesta, the Modenese minister, a very low fellow, with all the jackpuddinghood of an Italian, asked, "Mais qui est ce quireprésente mon maître?" Wall replied, "Mais, mon Dieu! L'abbé, ne sçavezvous pas que ce n'est pas un opéra boufon?" and here is another_bon-mot_ of my Lady Townshend: we were talking of Methodists; somebodysaid, "Pray, Madam, is it true that Whitfield[2] has _recanted_?" "No, sir, he has only _canted_. "

[Footnote 1: General Wall was the Spanish ambassador, as Gondomar hadbeen in the reign of James I. ]

[Footnote 2: Whitefield, while an undergraduate at Oxford, joinedWesley, who had recently founded a sect which soon became known as theMethodists. But, after a time, Whitefield, who was of a less moderatetemper than Wesley, adopted the views known as Calvinistic, and, breaking off from the Wesleyans, established a sect more rigid and lessfriendly to the Church. ]

If you ever think of returning to England, as I hope it will be longfirst, you must prepare yourself with Methodism. I really believe thatby that time it will be necessary: this sect increases as fast as almostever any religious nonsense did. Lady Fanny Shirley has chosen this wayof bestowing the dregs of her beauty; and Mr. Lyttelton is very nearmaking the same sacrifice of the dregs of all those various charactersthat he has worn. The Methodists love your big sinners, as propersubjects to work upon--and indeed they have a plentiful harvest--I thinkwhat you call flagrancy was never more in fashion. Drinking is at thehighest wine-mark; and gaming joined with it so violent, that at thelast Newmarket meeting, in the rapidity of both, a bank-bill was throwndown, and nobody immediately claiming it, they agreed to give it to aman that was standing by.... 

_EARTHQUAKE IN LONDON--GENERAL PANIC--MARRIAGE OF CASIMIR, KING OFPOLAND. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _March_ 11, 1750. 

 Portents and prodigies are grown so frequent, That they have lost their name. 

My text is not literally true; but as far as earthquakes go towardslowering the price of wonderful commodities, to be sure we areoverstocked. We have had a second, much more violent than the first; andyou must not be surprised if by next post you hear of a burning mountainsprung up in Smithfield. In the night between Wednesday and Thursdaylast (exactly a month since the first shock), the earth had a shiveringfit between one and two; but so slight that, if no more had followed, Idon't believe it would have been noticed. I had been awake, and hadscarce dozed again--on a sudden I felt my bolster lift up my head; Ithought somebody was getting from under my bed, but soon found it was astrong earthquake, that lasted near half a minute, with a violentvibration and great roaring. I rang my bell; my servant came in, frightened out of his senses: in an instant we heard all the windows inthe neighbourhood flung up. I got up and found people running into thestreets, but saw no mischief done: there has been some; two old housesflung down, several chimneys, and much chinaware. The bells rung inseveral houses. Admiral Knowles, who has lived long in Jamaica, and feltseven there, says this was more violent than any of them: Francescoprefers it to the dreadful one at Leghorn. The wise say, [1] that if wehave not rain soon, we shall certainly have more. Several people aregoing out of town, for it has nowhere reached above ten miles fromLondon: they say, they are not frightened, but that it is such fineweather, "Lord! one can't help going into the country!" The only visibleeffect it has had, was on the Ridotto, at which, being the followingnight, there were but four hundred people. A parson, who came intoWhite's the morning of earthquake the first, and heard bets laid onwhether it was an earthquake or the blowing up of powder mills, wentaway exceedingly scandalized, and said, "I protest, they are such animpious set of people, that I believe if the last trumpet was to sound, they would bet puppet-show against Judgment. " If we get any nearerstill to the torrid zone, I shall pique myself on sending you a presentof cedrati and orange-flower water: I am already planning a _terreno_for Strawberry Hill. 

[Footnote 1: In an earlier letter Walpole mentions that Sir I. Newtonhad foretold a great alteration in the English climate in 1750. ]

The Middlesex election is carried against the Court: the Prince, in agreen frock (and I won't swear, but in a Scotch plaid waistcoat), satunder the Park-wall in his chair, and hallooed the voters on toBrentford. The Jacobites are so transported, that they are openingsubscriptions for all boroughs that shall be vacant--this is wise! Theywill spend their money to carry a few more seats in a Parliament wherethey will never have the majority, and so have none to carry the generalelections. The omen, however, is bad for Westminster; the High Bailiffwent to vote for the Opposition. 

I now jump to another topic; I find all this letter will be detachedscraps; I can't at all contrive to hide the seams: but I don't care. Ibegan my letter merely to tell you of the earthquake, and I don't piquemyself upon doing any more than telling you what you would be glad tohave told you. I told you too how pleased I was with the triumphs ofanother old beauty, our friend the Princess. Do you know, I have found ahistory that has great resemblance to hers; that is, that will be verylike hers, if hers is but like it. I will tell it you in as few words asI can. Madame la Maréchale l'Hôpital was the daughter of a seamstress; ayoung gentleman fell in love with her, and was going to be married toher, but the match was broken off. An old fermier-general, who hadretired into the province where this happened, hearing the story, had acuriosity to see the victim; he liked her, married her, died, and lefther enough not to care for her inconstant. She came to Paris, where theMaréchal de l'Hôpital married her for her riches. After the Maréchal'sdeath, Casimir, the abdicated King of Poland, who was retired intoFrance, fell in love with the Maréchale, and privately married her. Ifthe event ever happens, I shall certainly travel to Nancy, to hear hertalk of _ma belle fille la Reine de France_. What pains my Lady Pomfretwould take to prove that an abdicated King's wife did not take place ofan English countess; and how the Princess herself would grow stillfonder of the Pretender for the similitude of his fortune with that of_le Roi mon mari_! Her daughter, Mirepoix, was frightened the othernight, with Mrs. Nugent's calling out, _un voleur! un voleur_! Theambassadress had heard so much of robbing, that she did not doubt but_dans ce pais cy_, they robbed in the middle of an assembly. It turnedout to be a _thief in the candle_! Good night!

GENERAL PANIC--SHERLOCK'S PASTORAL LETTER--PREDICTIONS OF MOREEARTHQUAKES--A GENERAL FLIGHT FROM LONDON--EPIGRAMS BY CHUTE AND WALPOLEHIMSELF--FRENCH TRANSLATION OF MILTON. 

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _April_ 2, 1750. 

You will not wonder so much at our earthquakes as at the effects theyhave had. All the women in town have taken them up upon the foot of_Judgments_; and the clergy, who have had no windfalls of a long season, have driven horse and foot into this opinion. There has been a shower ofsermons and exhortations: Seeker, the Jesuitical Bishop of Oxford, beganthe mode. He heard the women were all going out of town to avoid thenext shock; and so, for fear of losing his Easter offerings, he sethimself to advise them to await God's good pleasure in fear andtrembling. But what is more astonishing, Sherlock, who has much bettersense, and much less of the Popish confessor, has been running a racewith him for the old ladies, and has written a pastoral letter, of whichten thousand were sold in two days; and fifty thousand have beensubscribed for, since the two first editions. 

I told you the women talked of going out of town: several families areliterally gone, and many more going to-day and to-morrow; for what addsto the absurdity, is, that the second shock having happened exactly amonth after the former, it prevails that there will be a third onThursday next, another month, which is to swallow up London. I am almostready to burn my letter now I have begun it, lest you should think I amlaughing at you: but it is so true, that Arthur of White's told me lastnight, that he should put off the last ridotto, which was to be onThursday, because he hears nobody would come to it. I have advisedseveral, who are going to keep their next earthquake in the country, totake the bark for it, as it is so periodic. [1] Dick Leveson and Mr. Rigby, who had supped and stayed late at Bedford House the other night, knocked at several doors, and in a watchman's voice cried, "Past fouro'clock, and a dreadful earthquake!"... 

[Footnote 1: "I remember, " says Addison, in the 240th _Tatler_, "whenour whole island was shaken with an earthquake some years ago, thatthere was an impudent mountebank who sold pills, which, as he told thecountry people, were 'very good against an earthquake. '"]

This frantic terror prevails so much, that within these three days sevenhundred and thirty coaches have been counted passing Hyde Park corner, with whole parties removing into the country. Here is a goodadvertisement which I cut out of the papers to-day:--

 "On Monday next will be published (price 6_d. _) A true and exact List of all the Nobility and Gentry who have left, or shall leave, this place through fear of another Earthquake. "

Several women have made earthquake gowns; that is, warm gowns to sit outof doors all to-night. These are of the more courageous. One woman, still more heroic, is come to town on purpose: she says, all her friendsare in London, and she will not survive them. But what will you think ofLady Catherine Pelham, Lady Frances Arundel, and Lord and Lady Galway, who go this evening to an inn ten miles out of town, where they are toplay at brag till five in the morning, and then come back--I suppose, tolook for the bones of their husbands and families under the rubbish. Theprophet of all this (next to the Bishop of London) is a trooper of LordDelawar's, who was yesterday sent to Bedlam. His _colonel_ sent to theman's wife, and asked her if her husband had ever been disorderedbefore. She cried, "Oh dear! my lord, he is not mad now; if your_lordship_ would but get any _sensible_ man to examine him, you wouldfind he is quite in his right mind. "... 

I shall now go and show you Mr. Chute in a different light fromheraldry, and in one in which I believe you never saw him. He will shineas usual; but, as a little more severely than his good-nature isaccustomed to, I must tell you that he was provoked by the mostimpertinent usage. It is an epigram on Lady Caroline Petersham, whosepresent fame, by the way, is coupled with young Harry Vane. 

 WHO IS THIS?

 Her face has beauty, we must all confess, But beauty on the brink of ugliness: Her mouth's a rabbit feeding on a rose; With eyes--ten times too good for such a nose! Her blooming cheeks--what paint could ever draw 'em? That paint, for which no mortal ever saw 'em. Air without shape--of royal race divine-- 'Tis Emily--oh! fie!--'tis Caroline. 

Do but think of my beginning a third sheet! but as the Parliament isrising, and I shall probably not write you a tolerably long letter againthese eight months, I will lay in a stock of merit with you to last meso long. Mr. Chute has set me too upon making epigrams; but as I havenot his art mine is almost a copy of verses: the story he told me, andis literally true, of an old Lady Bingley:

 Celia now had completed some thirty campaigns, And for new generations was hammering chains; When whetting those terrible weapons, her eyes, To Jenny, her handmaid, in anger she cries, "Careless creature! did mortal e'er see such a glass! Who that saw me in this, could e'er guess what I was! Much you mind what I say! pray how oft have I bid you Provide me a new one? how oft have I chid you?" "Lord, Madam!" cried Jane, "you're so hard to be pleased! I am sure every glassman in town I have teased: I have hunted each shop from Pall Mall to Cheapside: Both Miss Carpenter's man, and Miss Banks's I've tried. " "Don't tell me of those girls!--all I know, to my cost, Is, the looking-glass art must be certainly lost! One used to have mirrors so smooth and so bright, They did one's eyes justice, they heightened one's white, And fresh roses diffused o'er one's bloom--but, alas! In the glasses made now, one detests one's own face; They pucker one's cheeks up and furrow one's brow, And one's skin looks as yellow as that of Miss Howe!"

After an epigram that seems to have found out the longitude, I shalltell you but one more, and that wondrous short. It is said to be made bya cow. You must not wonder; we tell as many strange stories as Baker andLivy:

 A warm winter, a dry spring, A hot summer, a new King. 

Though the sting is very epigrammatic, the whole of the distich has moreof the truth than becomes prophecy; that is, it is false, for the springis wet and cold. 

There is come from France a Madame Bocage, [1] who has translated Milton:my Lord Chesterfield prefers the copy to the original; but that is notuncommon for him to do, who is the patron of bad authors and bad actors. She has written a play too, which was damned, and worthy my lord'sapprobation. You would be more diverted with a Mrs. Holman, whosepassion is keeping an assembly, and inviting literally everybody to it. She goes to the drawing-room to watch for sneezes; whips out a curtsey, and then sends next morning to know how your cold does, and to desireyour company next Thursday. 

[Footnote 1: Madame du Boccage published a poem in imitation of Milton, and another founded on Gesner's "Death of Abel. " She also translatedPope's "Temple of Fame;" but her principal work was "La Columbiade. " Itwas at the house of this lady, at Paris, in 1775, that Johnson wasannoyed at her footman's taking the sugar in his fingers and throwing itinto his coffee. "I was going, " says the Doctor, "to put it aside, buthearing it was made on purpose for me, I e'en tasted Tom's fingers. " Shedied in 1802. ]

Mr. Whithed has taken my Lord Pembroke's house at Whitehall; a glorioussituation, but as madly built as my lord himself was. He has bought somedelightful pictures too, of Claude, Caspar and good masters, to theamount of four hundred pounds. 

Good night! I have nothing more to tell you, but that I have lately seena Sir William Boothby, who saw you about a year ago, and adores you, asall the English you receive ought to do. He is much in my favour. 

_DEATH OF WALPOLE'S BROTHER, AND OF THE PRINCE OF WALES--SPEECH OF THEYOUNG PRINCE--SINGULAR SERMON ON HIS DEATH. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _April_ 1, 1751. 

How shall I begin a letter that will--that must--give you as much painas I feel myself? I must interrupt the story of the Prince's death, totell you of _two_ more, much more important, God knows! to you and me!One I had prepared you for--but how will you be shocked to hear that ourpoor Mr. Whithed is dead as well as my brother!... 

I now must mention my own misfortune. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdaymornings, the physicians and _all the family of painful death_ (to alterGray's phrase), were persuaded and persuaded me, that the bark, whichtook great place, would save my brother's life--but he relapsed at threeo'clock on Thursday, and died last night. He ordered to be drawn andexecuted his will with the greatest tranquillity and satisfaction onSaturday morning. His spoils are prodigious--not to his own family!indeed I think his son the most ruined young man in England. My loss, Ifear, may be considerable, which is not the only motive of my concern, though, as you know, I had much to forgive, before I could regret: butindeed I do regret. It is no small addition to my concern, to fear orforesee that Houghton and all the remains of my father's glory will bepulled to pieces! The widow-Countess immediately marries--not Richcourt, but Shirley, and triumphs in advancing her son's ruin by enjoying herown estate, and tearing away great part of his. 

Now I will divert your private grief by talking to you of what is calledthe public. The King and Princess are grown as fond as if they had neverbeen of different parties, or rather as people who always had been ofdifferent. She discountenances all opposition, and he _all ambition_. Prince George, who, with his two eldest brothers, is to be lodged at St. James's, is speedily to be created Prince of Wales. Ayscough, his tutor, is to be removed with her entire inclination as well as with everybody'sapprobation. They talk of a Regency to be established (in case of aminority) by authority of Parliament, even this session, with thePrincess at the head of it. She and Dr. Lee, the only one she consultsof the late cabal, very sensibly burned the late Prince's papers themoment he was dead. Lord Egmont, by seven o'clock the next morning, summoned (not very decently) the faction to his house: all was whisper!at last he hinted something of taking the Princess and her childrenunder their protection, and something of the necessity of harmony. Noanswer was made to the former proposal. Somebody said, it was verylikely indeed they should agree now, when the Prince could never bringit about; and so everybody went away to take care of himself. Theimposthumation is supposed to have proceeded, not from his fall lastyear, but from a blow with a tennis-ball some years ago. The grief forthe dead brother is affectedly displayed. They cried about an elegy, [1]and added, "Oh, that it were but his brother!" On 'Change they said, "Oh, that it were but the butcher[2]!"

[Footnote 1: The elegy alluded to, was probably the effusion of someJacobite royalist. That faction could not forgive the Duke of Cumberlandhis excesses or successes in Scotland; and, not contented with brandingthe parliamentary government of the country as usurpation, indulged infrequent unfeeling and scurrilous personalities on every branch of thereigning family:

 Here lies Fred, Who was alive and is dead: Had it been his father, I had much rather; Had it been his brother, Still better than another; Had it been his sister, No one would have missed her; Had it been the whole generation, Still better for the nation: But since 'tis only Fred, Who was alive and is dead-- There's no more to be said. 

Walpole's _Memoirs of George II. _]

[Footnote 2: A name given to the Duke of Cumberland for his severitiesto his prisoners after the battle of Culloden. ]

The Houses sit, but no business will be done till after the holidays. Anstruther's affair will go on, but not with much spirit. One wants tosee faces about again! Dick Lyttelton, one of the patriot officers, hadcollected depositions on oath against the Duke for his behaviour inScotland, but I suppose he will now throw his papers into Hamlet'sgrave?

Prince George, who has a most amiable countenance, behaved excessivelywell on his father's death. When they told him of it, he turned pale, and laid his hand on his breast. Ayscough said, "I am afraid, Sir, youare not well!"--he replied, "I feel something here, just as I did when Isaw the two workmen fall from the scaffold at Kew. " Prince Edward is avery plain boy, with strange loose eyes, but was much the favourite. Heis a sayer of things! Two men were heard lamenting the death inLeicester Fields: one said, "He has left a great many smallchildren!"--"Ay, " replied the other, "and what is worse, they belong toour parish!" But the most extraordinary reflections on his death wereset forth in a sermon at Mayfair chapel. "He had no great parts (praymind, this was the parson said so, not I), but he had great virtues;indeed, they degenerated into vices: he was very generous, but I hearhis generosity has ruined a great many people: and then hiscondescension was such, that he kept very bad company. "

Adieu! my dear child; I have tried, you see, to blend so much publichistory with our private griefs, as may help to interrupt your too greatattention to the calamities in the former part of my letter. You will, with the properest good-nature in the world, break the news to the poorgirl, whom I pity, though I never saw. Miss Nicoll is, I am told, extremely to be pitied too; but so is everybody that knew Whithed! Bearit yourself as well as you can!

_CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY AND HOUSEHOLD--THE MISS GUNNINGS--EXTRAVAGANCEIN LONDON--LORD HARCOURT, GOVERNOR OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _June_ 18, 1751. 

I send my letter as usual from the Secretary's office, but of whatSecretary I don't know. Lord Sandwich last week received his dismission, on which the Duke of Bedford resigned the next day, and Lord Trenthamwith him, both breaking with old Gower, who is entirely in the hands ofthe Pelhams, and made to declare his quarrel with Lord Sandwich (whogave away his daughter to Colonel Waldegrave) the foundation ofdetaching himself from the Bedfords. Your friend Lord Fane comforts LordSandwich with an annuity of a thousand a-year--scarcely for his handsomebehaviour to his sister; Lord Hartington is to be Master of the Horse, and Lord Albemarle Groom of the Stole; Lord Granville[1] is actuallyLord President, and, by all outward and visible signs, somethingmore--in short, if he don't overshoot himself, the Pelhams have; theKing's favour to him is visible, and so much credited, that all theincense is offered to him. It is believed that Impresario Holdernessewill succeed the Bedford in the foreign seals, and Lord Halifax inthose for the plantations. If the former does, you will have ampleinstructions to negotiate for singers and dancers! Here is an epigrammade upon his directorship:

[Footnote 1: Lord Granville, known as Lord Carteret during the lifetimeof his mother, was a statesman of the very highest ability, and wasregarded with special favour by the King for his power of conversing inGerman, then a very rare accomplishment. ]

 That secrecy will now prevail In politics, is certain; Since Holdernesse, who gets the seals, Was bred behind the curtain. 

The Admirals Rowley and Boscawen are brought into the Admiralty underLord Anson, who is advanced to the head of the board. Seamen aretractable fishes! especially it will be Boscawen's case, whose name inCornish signifies obstinacy, and who brings along with him a goodquantity of resentment to Anson. In short, the whole present system isequally formed for duration!

Since I began my letter, Lord Holdernesse has kissed hands for theseals. It is said that Lord Halifax is to be made easy, by theplantations being put under the Board of Trade. Lord Granville comesinto power as boisterously as ever, and dashes at everything. Hislieutenants already beat up for volunteers; but he disclaims allconnexions with Lord Bath, who, he says, forced him upon the famousministry of twenty-four hours, and by which he says he paid all hisdebts to him. This will soon grow a turbulent scene--it is notunpleasant to sit upon the beach and see it; but few people have thecuriosity to step out to the sight. You, who knew England in othertimes, will find it difficult, to conceive what an indifference reignswith regard to ministers and their squabbles. The two Miss Gunnings, [1]and a late extravagant dinner at White's, are twenty times more thesubject of conversation than the two brothers [Newcastle and Pelham] andLord Granville. These are two Irish girls, of no fortune, who aredeclared the handsomest women alive. I think their being two so handsomeand both such perfect figures is their chief excellence, for singly Ihave seen much handsomer women than either; however, they can't walk inthe park or go to Vauxhall, but such mobs follow them that they aregenerally driven away. The dinner was a folly of seven young men, whobespoke it to the utmost extent of expense: one article was a tart madeof duke cherries from a hot-house; and another, that they tasted but oneglass out of each bottle of champagne. The bill of fare is got intoprint, and with good people has produced the apprehension of anotherearthquake. Your friend St. Leger was at the head of these luxuriousheroes--he is the hero of all fashion. I never saw more dashing vivacityand absurdity, with some flashes of parts. He had a cause the other dayfor ducking a sharper, and was going to swear: the judge said to him, "Isee, Sir, you are very ready to take an oath. " "Yes, my lord, " repliedSt. Leger, "my father was a judge. "

[Footnote 1: One of the Miss Gunnings had singular fortune. She wasmarried to two Dukes--the Duke of Hamilton, and, after his death, theDuke of Argyll. She refused a third, the Duke of Bridgewater; and shewas the mother of four--two Dukes of Hamilton and two Dukes of Argyll. Her sister married the Earl of Coventry. In his "Memoirs of George III. "Walpole mentions that they were so poor while in Dublin that they couldnot have been presented to the Lord-Lieutenant if Peg Woffington, thecelebrated actress, had not lent them some clothes. ]

We have been overwhelmed with lamentable Cambridge and Oxford dirges onthe Prince's death: there is but one tolerable copy; it is by a youngLord Stormont, a nephew of Murray, who is much commended. You mayimagine what incense is offered to Stone by the people of Christchurch:they have hooked in, too, poor Lord Harcourt, and call him _Harcourt theWise_! his wisdom has already disgusted the young Prince; "Sir, prayhold up your head. Sir, for God's sake, turn out your toes!" Such areMentor's precepts!

I am glad you receive my letters; as I knew I had been punctual, itmortified me that you should think me remiss. Thank you for thetranscript from _Bubb[1] de tristibus_! I will keep your secret, thoughI am persuaded that a man who had composed such a funeral oration on hismaster and himself fully intended that its flowers should not bloom andwither in obscurity. 

[Footnote 1: Bubb means Mr. Bubb Doddington, afterwards Lord Melcombe, who had written Mr. Mann a letter of most extravagant lamentation on thedeath of the Prince of Wales. He was member for Winchelsea, and leftbehind him a diary, which was published some years after his death, andwhich throws a good deal of light on the political intrigues of theday. ]

We have already begun to sell the pictures that had not found place atHoughton: the sale gives no great encouragement to proceed (though Ifear it must come to that!); the large pictures were thrown away; thewhole-length Vandykes went for a song! I am mortified now at havingprinted the catalogue. Gideon the Jew, and Blakiston the independentgrocer, have been the chief purchasers of the pictures soldalready--there, if you love moralizing!

Adieu! I have no more articles to-day for my literary gazette. 

_DESCRIPTION OF STRAWBERRY HILL--BILL TO PREVENT CLANDESTINE MARRIAGES. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _June_ 12, 1753. 

I could not rest any longer with the thought of your having no idea of aplace of which you hear so much, and therefore desired Mr. Bentley todraw you as much idea of it as the post would be persuaded to carry fromTwickenham to Florence. The enclosed enchanted little landscape, then, is Strawberry Hill; and I will try to explain so much of it to you aswill help to let you know whereabouts we are when we are talking to you;for it is uncomfortable in so intimate a correspondence as ours not tobe exactly master of every spot where one another is writing, orreading, or sauntering. This view of the castle is what I have justfinished, and is the only side that will be at all regular. Directlybefore it is an open grove, through which you see a field, which isbounded by a serpentine wood of all kind of trees, and flowering shrubs, and flowers. The lawn before the house is situated on the top of a smallhill, from whence to the left you see the town and church of Twickenhamencircling a turn of the river, that looks exactly like a seaport inminiature. The opposite shore is a most delicious meadow, bounded byRichmond Hill, which loses itself in the noble woods of the park to theend of the prospect on the right, where is another turn of the river, and the suburbs of Kingston as luckily placed as Twickenham is on theleft: and a natural terrace on the brow of my hill, with meadows of myown down to the river, commands both extremities. Is not this atolerable prospect? You must figure that all this is perpetuallyenlivened by a navigation of boats and barges, and by a road below myterrace, with coaches, post-chaises, waggons, and horsemen constantly inmotion, and the fields speckled with cows, horses, and sheep. Now youshall walk into the house. The bow-window below leads into a littleparlour hung with a stone-colour Gothic paper and Jackson's Venetianprints, which I could never endure while they pretended, infamous asthey are, to be after Titian, &c. , but when I gave them this air ofbarbarous bas-reliefs, they succeeded to a miracle: it is impossible atfirst sight not to conclude that they contain the history of Attila orTottila, done about the very aera. From hence, under two gloomy arches, you come to the hall and staircase, which it is impossible to describeto you, as it is the most particular and chief beauty of the castle. Imagine the walls covered with (I call it paper, but it is really paperpainted in perspective to represent) Gothic fretwork: the lightestGothic balustrade to the staircase, adorned with antelopes (oursupporters) bearing shields; lean windows fattened with rich saints inpainted glass, and a vestibule open with three arches on thelanding-place, and niches full of trophies of old coats of mail, Indianshields made of rhinoceros's hides, broadswords, quivers, longbows, arrows, and spears--all _supposed_ to be taken by Sir Terry Robsart inthe holy wars. But as none of this regards the enclosed drawing, I willpass to that. The room on the ground-floor nearest to you is abedchamber, hung with yellow paper and prints, framed in a new manner, invented by Lord Cardigan; that is, with black and white bordersprinted. Over this is Mr. Chute's bedchamber, hung with red in the samemanner. The bow-window room one pair of stairs is not yet finished; butin the tower beyond it is the charming closet where I am now writing toyou. It is hung with green paper and water-colour pictures; has twowindows; the one in the drawing looks to the garden, the other to thebeautiful prospect; and the top of each glutted with the richest paintedglass of the arms of England, crimson roses, and twenty other pieces ofgreen, purple, and historic bits. I must tell you, by the way, that thecastle, when finished, will have two-and-thirty windows enriched withpainted glass. In this closet, which is Mr. Chute's college of Arms, aretwo presses with books of heraldry and antiquities, Madame Sévigné'sLetters, and any French books that relate to her and her acquaintance. Out of this closet is the room where we always live, hung with a blueand white paper in stripes adorned with festoons, and a thousand plumpchairs, couches, and luxurious settees covered with linen of the samepattern, and with a bow-window commanding the prospect, and gloomedwith limes that shade half each window, already darkened with paintedglass in chiaroscuro, set in deep blue glass. Under this room is a coollittle hall, where we generally dine, hung with paper to imitate Dutchtiles. 

I have described so much, that you will begin to think that all theaccounts I used to give you of the diminutiveness of our habitation werefabulous; but it is really incredible how small most of the rooms are. The only two good chambers I shall have are not yet built: they will bean eating-room and a library, each twenty by thirty, and the latterfifteen feet high. For the rest of the house I could send it you in thisletter as easily as the drawing, only that I should have nowhere to livetill the return of the post. The Chinese summer-house, which you maydistinguish in the distant landscape, belongs to my Lord Radnor. Wepique ourselves upon nothing but simplicity, and have no carvings, gildings, paintings, inlayings, or tawdry businesses. 

You will not be sorry, I believe, by this time to have done withStrawberry Hill, and to hear a little news. The end of a very dreamingsession has been extremely enlivened by an accidental bill which hasopened great quarrels, and those not unlikely to be attended withinteresting circumstances. A bill to prevent clandestine marriages, [1]so drawn by the Judges as to clog all matrimony in general, wasinadvertently espoused by the Chancellor; and having been stronglyattacked in the House of Commons by Nugent, the Speaker, Mr. Fox, andothers, the last went very great lengths of severity on the whole bodyof the law, and on its chieftain in particular, which, however, at thelast reading, he softened and explained off extremely. This did notappease: but on the return of the bill to the House of Lords, where ouramendments were to be read, the Chancellor in the most personal termsharangued against Fox, and concluded with saying that "he despised hisscurrility as much as his adulation and recantation. " As Christiancharity is not one of the oaths taken by privy-counsellors, and as it isnot the most eminent virtue in either of the champions, this quarrel isnot likely to be soon reconciled. There are natures whose disposition itis to patch up political breaches, but whether they will succeed, or tryto succeed in healing this, can I tell you?

[Footnote 1: These clandestine marriages were often called "Fleetmarriages. " Lord Stanhope, describing this Act, states that "there wasever ready a band of degraded and outcast clergymen, prisoners for debtor for crime, who hovered about the verge of the Fleet prison solicitingcustomers, and plying, like porters, for employment.... One of thesewretches, named Keith, had gained a kind of pre-eminence in infamy. Onbeing told there was a scheme on foot to stop his lucrative traffic, hedeclared, with many oaths, he would still be revenged of the Bishops, that he would buy a piece of ground and outbury them!" ("History ofEngland, " c. 31). ]

The match for Lord Granville, which I announced to you, is notconcluded: the flames are cooled in that quarter as well as in others. 

I begin a new sheet to you, which does not match with the other, for Ihave no more of the same paper here. Dr. Cameron is executed, and diedwith the greatest firmness. His parting with his wife the night beforewas heroic and tender: he let her stay till the last moment, when beingaware that the gates of the Tower would be locked, he told her so; shefell at his feet in agonies: he said, "Madam, this was not what youpromised me, " and embracing her, forced her to retire: then with thesame coolness looked at the window till her coach was out of sight, after which he turned about and wept. His only concern seemed to be atthe ignominy of Tyburn: he was not disturbed at the dresser for hisbody, or at the fire to burn his bowels. [1] The crowd was so great, thata friend who attended him could not get away, but was forced to stay andbehold the execution; but what will you say to the minister or priestthat accompanied him? The wretch, after taking leave, went into alandau, where, not content with seeing the Doctor hanged, he let downthe top of the landau for the better convenience of seeing himembowelled! I cannot tell you positively that what I hinted of thisCameron being commissioned from Prussia was true, but so it is believed. Adieu! my dear child; I think this is a very tolerable letter forsummer!

[Footnote 1: "The populace, " says Smollett, "though not very subject totender emotions, were moved to compassion, and even to tears, by hisbehaviour at the place of execution; and many sincere well-wishers ofthe present establishment thought that the sacrifice of this victim, atsuch a juncture, could not redound either to its honour or security. "]

[Illustration: GEORGE MONTAGU. ]

_NO NEWS FROM FRANCE BUT WHAT IS SMUGGLED--THE KING'S DELIGHT AT THEVOTE FOR THE HANOVER TROOPS--BON MOT OF LORD DENBIGH. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _May_ 19, 1756. 

Nothing will be more agreeable to me than to see you at Strawberry Hill;the weather does not seem to be of my mind, and will not invite you. Ibelieve the French have taken the sun. Among other captures, I hear theKing has taken another English mistress, a Mrs. Pope, who took herdegrees in gallantry some years ago. She went to Versailles with thefamous Mrs. Quon: the King took notice of them; he was told they werenot so rigid as _all_ other English women are--mind, I don't give youany part of this history for authentic; you know we can have no newsfrom France but what we run. [1] I have rambled so that I forgot what Iintended to say; if ever we can have spring, it must be soon: I proposeto expect you any day you please after Sunday se'nnight, the 30th: letme know your resolution, and pray tell me in what magazine is theStrawberry ballad? I should have proposed an earlier day to you, butnext week the Prince of Nassau is to breakfast at Strawberry Hill, and Iknow your aversion to clashing with grandeur. 

[Footnote 1: "During the winter England was stirred with constantlyrecurring alarms of a French invasion.... Addresses were moved in bothHouses entreating or empowering the King to summon over for our defencesome of his Hanoverian troops, and also some of hired Hessians--anignominious vote, but carried by large majorities" (Lord Stanhope, "History of England, " c. 22). ]

As I have already told you one mob story of a King, I will tell youanother: _they say_, that the night the Hanover troops were voted, _he_sent Schutz for his German cook, and said, "Get me a very good supper;get me all de varieties; I don't mind expense. "

I tremble lest his Hanoverians should be encamped at Hounslow;Strawberry would become an inn; all the Misses would breakfast there, togo and see the camp!

My Lord Denbigh is going to marry a fortune, I forget her name; my LordGower asked him how long the honey-moon would last? He replied, "Don'ttell me of the honey-moon; it is harvest moon with me. " Adieu!

_VICTORY OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA AT LOWOSITZ--SINGULAR RACE--QUARREL OFTHE PRETENDER WITH THE POPE. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _Oct. _ 17, 1756. 

Lentulus (I am going to tell you no old Roman tale; he is the King ofPrussia's aid-de-camp) arrived yesterday, with ample confirmation of thevictory in Bohemia. [1]--Are not you glad that we have got a victory thatwe can at least call _Cousin_? Between six and seven thousand Austrianswere killed: eight Prussian squadrons sustained the _acharnement_, whichis said to have been extreme, of thirty-two squadrons of Austrians: thepursuit lasted from Friday noon till Monday morning; both ourcountrymen, Brown and Keith, performed wonders--we seem to flourish muchwhen transplanted to Germany--but Germans don't make good manure here!The Prussian King writes that both Brown and Piccolomini are toostrongly intrenched to be attacked. His Majesty ran _to_ this victory;not _à la_ Molwitz. He affirms having found in the King of Poland'scabinet ample justification of his treatment of Saxony--should not onequery whether he had not these proofs in his hands antecedent to thecabinet? The Dauphiness[2] is said to have flung herself at the King ofFrance's feet and begged his protection for her father; that he promised"qu'il le rendroit au centuple au Roi de Prusse. "

[Footnote 1: On the 1st of the month Frederic II. Had defeated theAustrian general, Marshal Brown, at Lowositz. It was the first battle ofthe Seven Years' War, and was of great political importance as leadingto the capture of Dresden and of laying all Saxony at the mercy of theconqueror. "_À la_ Molwitz" is an allusion to the first battle in thewar of the Austrian Succession, April 10, 1741, in which Frederic showedthat he was not what Voltaire and Mr. Pitt called "a heaven-borngeneral;" since on the repulse of his cavalry he gave up all for lost, and rode from the field, to learn at night that, after his flight, hissecond in command, the veteran Marshal Schwerin, had rallied the brokensquadrons, and had obtained a decisive victory. ]

[Footnote 2: The Dauphiness was the daughter of Augustus, King of Polandand Elector of Saxony. ]

Peace is made between the courts of Kensington and Kew:[1] Lord Bute, who had no visible employment at the latter, and yet whose office wascertainly no _sinecure_, is to be Groom of the Stole to the Prince ofWales; which satisfies. The rest of the family will be named before thebirthday--but I don't know how, as soon as one wound is closed, anotherbreaks out! Mr. Fox, extremely discontent at having no power, noconfidence, no favour (all entirely engrossed by the old monopolist), has asked leave to resign. It is not yet granted. If Mr. Pitt will--orcan, accept the seals, probably Mr. Fox will be indulged, --if Mr. Pittwill not, why then, it is impossible to tell you what will happen. Whatever happens on such an emergency, with the Parliament so near, withno time for considering measures, with so bad a past, and so much worsea future, there certainly is no duration or good in prospect. Unless theKing of Prussia will take our affairs at home as well as abroad tonurse, I see no possible recovery for us--and you may believe, when adoctor like him is necessary, I should be full as willing to die of thedistemper. 

[Footnote 1: "The courts of Kensington and Kew"--in other words, of theKing and the Prince of Wales and his mother, to whom George II. Was notvery friendly. A scandal, which had no foundation, imputed to thePrincess undue intimacy with the Earl of Bute, who, however, did standhigh in her good graces, and who probably was indebted to them for hisappointment in the next reign to the office of Prime Minister, for whichhe had no qualification whatever. ]

Well! and so you think we are undone!--not at all; if folly andextravagance are symptoms of a nation's being at the height of theirglory, as after-observers pretend that they are forerunners of its ruin, we never were in a more flourishing situation. My Lord Rockingham and mynephew Lord Orford have made a match of five hundred pounds, betweenfive turkeys and five geese, to run from Norwich to London. Don't youbelieve in the transmigration of souls? And are not you convinced thatthis race is between Marquis Sardanapalus and Earl Heliogabalus? Anddon't you pity the poor Asiatics and Italians who comforted themselveson their resurrection with their being geese and turkeys?

Here's another symptom of our glory! The Irish Speaker Mr. Ponsonby hasbeen _reposing_ himself at _Newmarket_: George Selwyn, seeing him tossabout bank-bills at the hazard-table said, "How easily the Speakerpasses the money-bills!"

You, who live at Florence among vulgar vices and tame slavery, willstare at these accounts. Pray be acquainted with your own country, whileit is in its lustre. In a regular monarchy the folly of the Prince givesthe tone; in a downright tyranny, folly dares give itself no airs; it isin a wanton overgrown commonwealth that whim and debauchery intriguebest together. Ask me which of these governments I prefer--oh! thelast--only I fear it is the least durable. 

I have not yet thanked you for your letter of September 18th, with theaccounts of the Genoese treaty and of the Pretender's quarrel with thePope--it is a squabble worthy a Stuart. Were he, here, as absolute asany Stuart ever wished to be, who knows with all his bigotry but hemight favour us with a reformation and the downfall of the mass? Theambition of making a Duke of York vice-chancellor of holy church wouldbe as good a reason for breaking with holy church, as Harry the Eighth'swas for quarrelling with it, because it would not excuse him from goingto bed to his sister after it had given him leave. 

I wish I could tell you that your brother mends! indeed I don't think hedoes: nor do I know what to say to him; I have exhausted both argumentsand entreaties, and yet if I thought either would avail, I would gladlyrecommence them. Adieu!

_MINISTERIAL NEGOTIATIONS--LOSS OF MINORCA--DISASTER IN NORTH AMERICA. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Nov. _ 4, 1756. 

I desired your brother last week to tell you that it was in vain for meto write while everything was in such confusion. The chaos is just asfar from being dispersed now; I only write to tell you what has been itsmotions. One of the Popes, I think, said soon after his accession, hedid not think it had been so easy to govern. What would he have thoughtof such a nation as this, engaged in a formidable war, without anygovernment at all, literally, for above a fortnight! The foreignministers have not attempted to transact any business since yesterdayfortnight. For God's sake, what do other countries say of us?--but hearthe progress of our interministerium. 

When Mr. Fox had declared his determination of resigning, great offerswere sent to Mr. Pitt; his demands were much greater, accompanied with atotal exclusion of the Duke of Newcastle. Some of the latter's friendswould have persuaded him, as the House of Commons is at his devotion, tohave undertaken the government against both Pitt and Fox; but fearspreponderated. Yesterday se'nnight his grace declared his resolution ofretiring, with all that satisfaction of mind which must attend a manwhom not one man of sense will trust any longer. The King sent for Mr. Fox, and bid him try if Mr. Pitt would join him. The latter, without anyhesitation, refused. In this perplexity the King ordered the Duke ofDevonshire to try to compose some Ministry for him, and sent him toPitt, to try to accommodate with Fox. Pitt, with a list of terms alittle modified, was ready to engage, but on condition that Fox shouldhave no employment in the cabinet. Upon this plan negotiations have beencarrying on for this week. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge, whose whole partyconsists of from twelve to sixteen persons, exclusive of Leicester House(of that presently), concluded they were entering on the government asSecretary of State and Chancellor of the Exchequer: but there is sogreat unwillingness to give it up totally into their hands, that allmanner of expedients have been projected to get rid of their proposals, or to limit their power. Thus the case stands at this instant: theParliament has been put off for a fortnight, to gain time; the Lordknows whether that will suffice to bring on any sort of temper! In themeantime the government stands still; pray Heaven the war may too! Youwill wonder how fifteen or sixteen persons can be of such importance. Inthe first place, their importance has been conferred on them, and hasbeen notified to the nation by these concessions and messages; next, Minorca[1] is gone; Oswego gone;[2] the nation is in a ferment; somevery great indiscretions in delivering a Hanoverian soldier from prisonby a warrant from the Secretary of State have raised great difficulties;instructions from counties, boroughs, especially from the City ofLondon, in the style of 1641, and really in the spirit of 1715 and 1745, have raised a great flame; and lastly, the countenance of LeicesterHouse, which Mr. Pitt is supposed to have, and which Mr. Legge thinks hehas, all these tell Pitt that he may command such numbers without doorsas may make the majorities within the House tremble. 

[Footnote 1: Minorca had been taken by the Duc de Richelieu; AdmiralByng, after an indecisive action with the French fleet, having adoptedthe idea that he should not be able to save it, for which, as is toowell known, he was condemned to death by a court-martial. ]

[Footnote 2: "_Oswego gone. _" "A detachment of the enemy was defeated byColonel Broadstreet on the river Onondaga; on the other hand, the smallforts of Ontario and Oswego were reduced by the French" (Lord Stanhope, "History of England, " c. 33). ]

Leicester House[1] is by some thought inclined to more pacific measures. Lord Bute's being established Groom of the Stole has satisfied. Theyseem more occupied in disobliging all their new court than in disturbingthe King's. Lord Huntingdon, the new Master of the Horse to the Prince, and Lord Pembroke, one of his Lords, have not been spoken to. Alas! ifthe present storms should blow over, what seeds for new! You must guessat the sense of this paragraph, which it is difficult, at leastimproper, to explain to you; though you could not go into a coffee-househere where it would not be interpreted to you. One would think all thoselittle politicians had been reading the Memoirs of the minority of LouisXIV. 

[Footnote 1: Leicester House was the London residence of the youngPrince of Wales. ]

There has been another great difficulty: the season obliging all campsto break up, the poor Hanoverians have been forced to continue soakingin theirs. The county magistrates have been advised that they are notobliged by law to billet foreigners on public-houses, and have refused. Transports were yesterday ordered to carry away the Hanoverians! Thereare eight thousand men taken from America; for I am sure we can sparenone from hence. The negligence and dilatoriness of the ministers athome, the wickedness of our West Indian governors, and the little-mindedquarrels of the regulars and irregular forces, have reduced our affairsin that part of the world to a most deplorable state. Oswego, of tentimes more importance even than Minorca, is so annihilated that wecannot learn the particulars. 

My dear Sir, what a present and future picture have I given you! Thedetails are infinite, and what I have neither time, nor, for manyreasons, the imprudence to send by the post: your good sense will buttoo well lead you to develop them. The crisis is most melancholy andalarming. I remember two or three years ago I wished for more activetimes, and for events to furnish our correspondence. I think I couldwrite you a letter almost as big as my Lord Clarendon's History. What abold man is he who shall undertake the administration! How much shall webe obliged to him! How mad is he, whoever is ambitious of it! Adieu!

_THE KING OF PRUSSIA'S VICTORIES--VOLTAIRE'S "UNIVERSAL HISTORY. "_

TO THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _July_ 4, 1757. 

My Dear Lord, --It is well I have not obeyed you sooner, as I have oftenbeen going to do: what a heap of lies and contradictions I should havesent you! What joint ministries and sole ministries! What acceptancesand resignations!--Viziers and bowstrings never succeeded one anotherquicker. Luckily I have stayed till we have got an administration thatwill last a little more than for ever. There is such content and harmonyin it, that I don't know whether it is not as perfect as a plan which Iformed for Charles Stanhope, after he had plagued me for two days fornews. I told him the Duke of Newcastle was to take orders, and have thereversion of the bishopric of Winchester; that Mr. Pitt was to have aregiment, and go over to the Duke; and Mr. Fox to be chamberlain to thePrincess, in the room of Sir William Irby. Of all the new system Ibelieve the happiest is Offley; though in great humility he says he onlytakes the bedchamber _to accommodate_. Next to him in joy is the Earl ofHoldernesse--who has not got the garter. My Lord Waldegrave has; andthe garter by this time I believe has got fifty spots. 

Had I written sooner, I should have told your lordship, too, of the Kingof Prussia's triumphs[1]--but they are addled too! I hoped to have had afew bricks from Prague to send you towards building Mr. Bentley'sdesign, but I fear none will come from thence this summer. Thank God, the happiness of the menagerie does not depend upon administrations orvictories! The happiest of beings in this part of the world is my LadySuffolk: I really think her acquisition and conclusion of her law-suitwill lengthen her life ten years. You may be sure I am not so satisfied, as Lady Mary [Coke] has left Sudbroke. 

[Footnote 1: On the 6th of May Frederic defeated the Austrian army underPrince Charles of Lorraine and Marshal Brown in the battle of Prague. Brown was killed, as also was the Prussian Marshal, Schwerin; indeed, the King lost eighteen thousand men--nearly as many as had fallen on theside of the enemy; and the Austrian disaster was more than retrieved bythe great victory of Kolin, gained by Marshal Daun, June 18th, to whichWalpole probably alludes when he says Frederic's "triumphs are addled. "]

Are your charming lawns burnt up like our humble hills? Is your sweetriver as low as our deserted Thames?--I am wishing for a handful or twoof those floods that drowned me last year all the way from WentworthCastle. I beg my best compliments to my lady, and my best wishes thatevery pheasant egg and peacock egg may produce as many colours as aharlequin-jacket. 

_Tuesday, July 5th. _

Luckily, my good lord, my conscience had saved its distance. I had writthe above last night, when I received the honour of your kind letterthis morning. You had, as I did not doubt, received accounts of all ourstrange histories. For that of the pretty Countess [of Coventry], I fearthere is too much truth in all you have heard: but you don't seem toknow that Lord Corydon and Captain Corydon his brother have been mostabominable. I don't care to write scandal; but when I see you, I willtell you how much the chits deserve to be whipped. Our favourite general[Conway] is at his camp: Lady Ailesbury don't go to him these threeweeks. I expect the pleasure of seeing her and Miss Rich and Fred. Campbell here soon for a few days. I don't wonder your lordship likesSt. Philippe better than Torcy:[1] except a few passages interesting toEnglishmen, there cannot be a more dry narration than the latter. Thereis an addition of seven volumes of Universal History to Voltaire'sWorks, which I think will charm you: I almost like it the best of hisworks. It is what you have seen extended, and the Memoirs of Louis XIV. _refondues_ in it. He is a little tiresome with contradicting LaBeaumelle and Voltaire, one remains with scarce a fixed idea about thattime. I wish they would produce their authorities and proofs; withoutwhich, I am grown to believe neither. From mistakes in the English part, I suppose there are great ones in the more distant histories; yetaltogether it is a fine work. He is, as one might believe, worstinformed on the present times. --He says eight hundred persons were putto death for the last Rebellion--I don't believe a quarter of the numberwere: and he makes the first Lord Derwentwater--who, poor man! was in nosuch high-spirited mood--bring his son, who by the way was not above ayear and a half old, upon the scaffold to be sprinkled with hisblood. --However, he is in the right to expect to be believed: for hebelieves all the romances in Lord Anson's Voyage, and how AdmiralAlmanzor made one man-of-war box the ears of the whole empire ofChina!--I know nothing else new but a new edition of Dr. Young's Works. If your lordship thinks like me, who hold that even in his most franticrhapsodies there are innumerable fine things, you will like to have thisedition. Adieu, once more, my best lord!

[Footnote 1: Torcy had been Secretary of State in the time of LouisXIV. , and was the diplomatist who arranged the details of the FirstPartition Treaty with William III. ]

_HIS OWN "ROYAL AND NOBLE AUTHORS. "_

TO THE REV. HENRY ZOUCH. [1]

[Footnote 1: Mr. Zouch was the squire and vicar of Sandhill, inYorkshire. ]

STRAWBERRY HILL, _August_ 3, 1758. 

Sir, --I have received, with much pleasure and surprise, the favour ofyour remarks upon my Catalogue; and whenever I have the opportunity ofbeing better known to you, I shall endeavour to express my gratitude forthe trouble you have given yourself in contributing to perfect a work, which, notwithstanding your obliging expressions, I fear you found verylittle worthy the attention of so much good sense and knowledge, Sir, asyou possess. 

I am extremely thankful for all the information you have given me; I hadalready met with a few of the same lights as I have received, Sir, fromyou, as I shall mention in their place. The very curious accounts ofLord Fairfax were entirely new and most acceptable to me. If I declinemaking use of one or two of your hints, I believe I can explain myreasons to your satisfaction. I will, with your leave, go regularlythrough your letter. 

As Caxton[1] laboured in the monastery of Westminster, it is not at allunlikely that he should wear the habit, nor, considering how vague ourknowledge of that age is, impossible but he might enter the order. 

[Footnote 1: Mr. Zouch had expressed a doubt whether a portrait of a manin a clerical garb could possibly be meant for Caxton, and Mr. Cole andthree of Walpole's literary correspondents suggested that it wasprobably a portrait of Jehan de Jeonville, Provost of Paris. ]

I have met with Henry's institution of a Christian, and shall give youan account of it in my next edition. In that, too, I shall mention, thatLord Cobham's allegiance professed at his death to Richard II. , probablymeans to Richard and his right heirs whom he had abandoned for the houseof Lancaster. As the article is printed off, it is too late to sayanything more about his works. 

In all the old books of genealogy you will find, Sir, that young RichardDuke of York was solemnly married to a child of his own age, AnneMowbray, the heiress of Norfolk, who died young as well as he. 

The article of the Duke of Somerset is printed off too; besides, Ishould imagine the letter you mention not to be of his own composition, for, though not illiterate, he certainly could not write anything likeclassic Latin. I may, too, possibly have inclusively mentioned the veryletter; I have not Ascham's book, to see from what copy the letter wastaken, but probably from one of those which I have said is in BennetLibrary. 

The Catalogue of Lord Brooke's works is taken from the volume of hisworks; such pieces of his as I found doubted, particularly the tragedyof Cicero, I have taken notice of as doubtful. 

In my next edition you will see, Sir, a note on Lord Herbert, who, besides being with the King at York, had offended the peers by a speechin his Majesty's defence. Mr. Wolseley's preface I shall mention, fromyour information. Lord Rochester's letters to his son are letters to achild, bidding him mind his book and his grandmother. I had already beentold, Sir, what you tell me of Marchmont Needham. 

Matthew Clifford I have altered to Martin, as you prescribed; theblunder was my own, as well as a more considerable one, that of LordSandwich's death--which was occasioned by my supposing, at first, thatthe translation of Barba was made by the second Earl, whose death I hadmarked in the list, and forgot to alter, after I had writ the account ofthe father. I shall take care to set this right, as the second volumeis not yet begun to be printed. 

Lord Halifax's Maxims I have already marked down, as I shall LordDorset's share in Pompey. 

The account of the Duke of Wharton's death I had from a very goodhand--Captain Willoughby; who, in the convent where the Duke died, saw apicture of him in the habit. If it was a Bernardine convent, thegentleman might confound them; but, considering that there is no life ofthe Duke but bookseller's trash, it is much more likely that theymistook. 

I have no doubts about Lord Belhaven's speeches; but unless I couldverify their being published by himself, it were contrary to my rule toinsert them. 

If you look, Sir, into Lord Clarendon's account of Montrose's death, youwill perceive that there is no probability of the book of his actionsbeing composed by himself. 

I will consult Sir James Ware's book on Lord Totness's translation; andI will mention the Earl of Cork's Memoirs. 

Lord Leppington is the Earl of Monmouth, in whose article I have takennotice of his Romulus and Tarquin. 

Lord Berkeley's book I have actually got, and shall give him an article. 

There is one more passage, Sir, in your letter, which I cannot answer, without putting you to new trouble--a liberty which all your indulgencecannot justify me in taking; else I would beg to know on what authorityyou attribute to Laurence Earl of Rochester[1] the famous preface tohis father's history, which I have always heard ascribed to Atterbury, Smallridge, and Aldridge. [2] The knowledge of this would be anadditional favour; it would be a much greater, Sir, if coming this way, you would ever let me have the honour of seeing a gentleman to whom I amso much obliged. 

[Footnote 1: The Earl of Rochester was the second son of the Earl ofClarendon. He was Lord Treasurer under James II. , but was dismissedbecause he refused to change his religion (Macaulay's "History ofEngland, " c. 6). ]

[Footnote 2: Atterbury was the celebrated Bishop of Rochester, Smallridge was Bishop of Bristol, and Aldridge (usually written Aldrich)was Dean of Christchurch, Oxford, equally well known for his treatise onLogic and his five reasons for drinking--

 Good wine, a friend, or being dry; Or lest you should be by and by, Or any other reason why--]

_HIS "ROYAL AND NOBLE AUTHORS"--LORD CLARENDON--SIR R. WALPOLE AND LORDBOLINGBROKE--THE DUKE OF LEEDS. _

TO THE REV. HENRY ZOUCH. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _Oct. _ 21, 1758. 

Sir, --Every letter I receive from you is a new obligation, bringing menew information: but, sure, my Catalogue was not worthy of giving you somuch trouble. Lord Fortescue is quite new to me; I have sent him to thepress. Lord Dorset's[1] poem it will be unnecessary to mentionseparately, as I have already said that his works are to be found amongthose of the minor poets. 

[Footnote 1: Lord Dorset, Lord Chamberlain under Charles II. , author ofthe celebrated ballad "To all you ladies now on land, " and patron ofDryden and other literary men, was honourably mentioned as such byMacaulay in c. 8 of his "History, " and also for his refusal, asLord-Lieutenant of Essex, to comply with some of James's illegalorders. ]

I don't wonder, Sir, that you prefer Lord Clarendon to Polybius[1]; norcan two authors well be more unlike: the _former_ wrote a generalhistory in a most obscure and almost unintelligible style; the _latter_, a portion of private history, in the noblest style in the world. Whoevermade the comparison, I will do them the justice to believe that theyunderstood bad Greek better than their own language in its elevation. For Dr. Jortin's[2] Erasmus, which I have very nearly finished, it hasgiven me a good opinion of the author, and he has given me a very badone of his subject. By the Doctor's labour and impartiality, Erasmusappears a begging parasite, who had parts enough to discover truth, andnot courage enough to profess it: whose vanity made him always writing;yet his writings ought to have cured his vanity, as they were the mostabject things in the world. _Good Erasmus's honest mean_ was alternatetime-serving. I never had thought much about him, and now heartilydespise him. 

[Footnote 1: "_You prefer Lord Clarendon to Polybius. _" It is hard tounderstand this sentence. Lord Clarendon did _not_ write a generalhistory, but an account of a single event, "The Great Rebellion. " It wasPolybius who wrote a "Universal History, " of which, however, only fivebooks have been preserved, the most interesting portion of which is anarrative of Hannibal's invasion of Italy and march over the Alps in theSecond Punic War. ]

[Footnote 2: Dr. Jortin was Archdeacon of London; and, among otherworks, had recently published a life of the celebrated Erasmus, themention of whom by Pope, which Walpole presently quotes, is not veryunfairly interpreted by Walpole. ]

When I speak my opinion to you, Sir, about what I dare say you care aslittle for as I do, (for what is the merit of a mere man of letters?) itis but fit I should answer you as sincerely on a question about whichyou are so good as to interest yourself. That my father's life is likelyto be written, I have no grounds for believing. I mean I know nobodythat thinks of it. For, myself, I certainly shall not, for many reasons, which you must have the patience to hear. A reason to me myself is, thatI think too highly of him, and too meanly of myself, to presume I amequal to the task. They who do not agree with me in the former part ofmy position, will undoubtedly allow the latter part. In the next place, the very truths that I should relate would be so much imputed topartiality, that he would lose of his due praise by the suspicion of myprejudice. In the next place, I was born too late in his life to beacquainted with him in the active part of it. Then I was at school, atthe university, abroad, and returned not till the last moments of hisadministration. What I know of him I could only learn from his own mouthin the last three years of his life; when, to my shame, I was so idle, and young, and thoughtless, that I by no means profited of his leisureas I might have done; and, indeed, I have too much impartiality in mynature to care, if I could, to give the world a history, collectedsolely from the person himself of whom I should write. With the utmostveneration for his truth, I can easily conceive, that a man who hadlived a life of party, and who had undergone such persecution fromparty, should have had greater bias than he himself could be sensibleof. The last, and that a reason which must be admitted, if all theothers are not--his papers are lost. Between the confusion of hisaffairs, and the indifference of my elder brother to things of thatsort, they were either lost, burnt, or what we rather think, were stolenby a favourite servant of my brother, who proved a great rogue, and wasdismissed in my brother's life; and the papers were not discovered to bemissing till after my brother's death. Thus, Sir, I should want vouchersfor many things I could say of much importance. I have another personalreason that discourages me from attempting this task, or any other, besides the great reluctance that I have to being a voluminous author. Though I am by no means the learned man you are so good as to call me incompliment; though, on the contrary, nothing can be more superficialthan my knowledge, or more trifling than my reading, --yet, I have somuch strained my eyes, that it is often painful to me to read even anewspaper by daylight. In short, Sir, having led a very dissipated life, in all the hurry of the world of pleasure, I scarce ever read but bycandlelight, after I have come home late at nights. As my eyes havenever had the least inflammation or humour, I am assured I may stillrecover them by care and repose. I own I prefer my eyes to anything Icould ever read, much more to anything I could write. However, afterall I have said, perhaps I may now and then, by degrees, throw togethersome short anecdotes of my father's private life and particular story, and leave his public history to more proper and more able hands, if suchwill undertake it. Before I finish on this chapter, I can assure you hedid forgive my Lord Bolingbroke[1]--his nature was forgiving: after allwas over, and he had nothing to fear or disguise, I can say with truth, that there were not _three_ men of whom he ever dropped a word withrancour. What I meant of the clergy not forgiving Lord Bolingbroke, alluded not to his doctrines, but to the direct attack and war he madeon the whole body. And now, Sir, I will confess my own weakness to you. I do not think so highly of that writer, as I seem to do in my book; butI thought it would be imputed to prejudice in me, if I appeared toundervalue an author of whom so many persons of sense still thinkhighly. My being Sir Robert Walpole's son warped me to praise, insteadof censuring Lord Bolingbroke. With regard to the Duke of Leeds, [2] Ithink you have misconstrued the decency of my expression. I said, _Burnet_[3] _had treated him severely_; that is, I chose that Burnetshould say so, rather than myself. I have never praised where my heartcondemned. Little attentions, perhaps, to worthy descendants, wereexcusable in a work of so extensive a nature, and that approached sonear to these times. I may, perhaps, have an opportunity, at one day orother of showing you some passages suppressed on these motives, whichyet I do not intend to destroy. 

[Footnote 1: Sir R. Walpole was so far from having any personal quarrelwith Bolingbroke, that he took off so much of his outlawry as banishedhim, though he would not allow him to take his seat in the House ofPeers. ]

[Footnote 2: This celebrated statesman was originally Sir ThomasOsborne. On the dissolution of the Cabal Ministry he was raised to thepeerage as Earl of Danby, and was appointed Lord Treasurer. An attemptto impeach him, which was prompted by Louis XIV. , was baffled byCharles. Under William III. He was appointed President of the Council, being the recognised leader of the Tory section of the Ministry; and inthe course of the reign he was twice promoted--first to be Marquis ofCarmarthen, and subsequently to be Duke of Leeds. ]

[Footnote 3: Burnet, the Bishop of Salisbury, to whose "Memoirs of HisOwn Time" all subsequent historians are greatly indebted. He accompaniedWilliam to England as his chaplain. ]

Crew, [1] Bishop of Durham, was as abject a tool as possible. I would bevery certain he is an author before I should think him worth mentioning. If ever you should touch on Lord Willoughby's sermon, I should beobliged for a hint of it. I actually have a printed copy of verses byhis son, on the marriage of the Princess Royal; but they are soridiculously unlike measure, and the man was so mad and so poor, that Idetermined not to mention him. 

[Footnote 1: Crew was Bishop of Durham. He is branded by Macaulay (c. 6)as "mean, vain, and cowardly. " He accepted a seat on James'sEcclesiastical Commission, and when "some of his friends represented tohim the risk which he ran by sitting on an illegal tribunal, he was notashamed to answer that he could not live out of the royal smile. "]

If these details, Sir, which I should have thought interesting to nomortal but myself, should happen to amuse you, I shall be glad; if theydo not, you will learn not to question a man who thinks it his duty tosatisfy the curiosity of men of sense and honour, and who, being of toolittle consequence to have secrets, is not ambitious of the lessconsequence of appearing to have any. 

P. S. --I must ask you one question, but to be answered entirely at yourleisure. I have a play in rhyme called "Saul, " said to be written by apeer. I guess Lord Orrery. If ever you happen to find out, be so good totell me. 

_WALPOLE'S MONUMENT TO SIR HORACE'S BROTHER--ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OFTHE KING OF PORTUGAL--COURTESY OF THE DUC D'AIGUILLON TO HIS ENGLISHPRISONERS. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _Oct. _ 24, 1758. 

It is a very melancholy present I send you here, my dear Sir; yet, considering the misfortune that has befallen us, perhaps the mostagreeable I could send you. You will not think it the bitterest tear youhave shed when you drop one over this plan of an urn inscribed with thename of your dear brother, and with the testimonial of my eternalaffection to him! This little monument is at last placed over the pew ofyour family at Linton [in Kent], and I doubt whether any tomb was evererected that spoke so much truth of the departed, and flowed from somuch sincere friendship in the living. The thought was my own, adoptedfrom the antique columbaria, and applied to Gothic. The execution of thedesign was Mr. Bentley's, who alone, of all mankind, could unite thegrace of Grecian architecture and the irregular lightness and solemnityof Gothic. Kent and many of our builders sought this, but have neverfound it. Mr. Chute, who has as much taste as Mr. Bentley, thinks thislittle sketch a perfect model. The soffite is more beautiful thananything of either style separate. There is a little error in theinscription; it should be _Horatius Walpole posuit_. The urn is ofmarble, richly polished; the rest of stone. On the whole, I think thereis simplicity and decency, with a degree of ornament that destroysneither. 

What do you say in Italy on the assassination of the King ofPortugal?[1] Do you believe that Portuguese subjects lift their handagainst a monarch for gallantry? Do you believe that when a slavemurders an absolute prince, he goes a walking with his wife the nextmorning and murders her too? Do you believe the dead King is alive? andthat the Jesuits are as _wrongfully_ suspected of this assassination asthey have been of many others they have committed? If you do believethis, and all this, you are not very near turning Protestants. It isscarce talked of here, and to save trouble, we admit just what thePortuguese Minister is ordered to publish. The King of Portugalmurdered, throws us two hundred years back--the King of Prussia _not_murdered, carries us two hundred years forward again. 

[Footnote 1: The Duke of Aveiro was offended with the King of Portugalfor interfering to prevent his son's marriage, and, in revenge, heplotted his assassination. He procured the co-operation of some othernobles, especially the Marquis and Marchioness of Tavora, and also ofsome of the chief Jesuits in the country, who promised absolution to anyassassin. The attempt was made on September 3rd, when the King was firedat and severely wounded. The conspirators were all convicted andexecuted, and the Jesuits were expelled from the country. ]

Another King, I know, has had a little blow: the Prince de Soubise hasbeat some Isenbourgs and Obergs, and is going to be Elector of Hanoverthis winter. There has been a great sickness among our troops in theother German army; the Duke of Marlborough has been in great danger, andsome officers are dead. Lord Frederick Cavendish is returned fromFrance. He confirms and adds to the amiable accounts we had received ofthe Duc d'Aiguillon's[1] behaviour to our prisoners. You yourself, thepattern of attentions and tenderness, could not refine on what he hasdone both in good-nature and good-breeding: he even forbad any ringingof bells or rejoicings wherever they passed--but how your representativeblood will curdle when you hear of the absurdity of one of yourcountrymen: the night after the massacre at St. Cas, the Duc d'Aiguillongave a magnificent supper of eighty covers to our prisoners--a ColonelLambert got up at the bottom of the table, and asking for a bumper, called out to the Duc, "My Lord Duke, here's the Roy de Franse!" Youmust put all the English you can crowd into the accent. _My Lord Duke_was so confounded at this preposterous compliment, which it wasimpossible for him to return, that he absolutely sank back into hischair and could not utter a syllable: our own people did not seem tofeel more. 

[Footnote 1: The Duc d'Aiguillon was governor of Brittany when thedisastrous attempt of the Duke of Marlborough on St. Cast was repulsed. But he did not get much credit for the defeat. Lacretelle mentions that:"Les Bretons qui le considérent comme leur tyran prétendent qu'ill'était tenu caché pendant le combat" (iii. 345). He was subsequentlyprosecuted on charges of peculation and subornation, which theParliament declared to be fully established, but Mme. De Barri persuadedLouis to cancel their resolution. ]

You will read and hear that we have another expedition sailing, somewhither in the West Indies. Hobson, the commander, has in his wholelife had but one stroke of a palsy, so possibly may retain half of hisunderstanding at least. There is a great tranquillity at home, but Ishould think not promising duration. The disgust in the army on the latefrantic measures will furnish some warmth probably to Parliament--and ifthe French should think of returning our visits, should you wonder?There are even rumours of some stirring among your little neighbours atAlbano--keep your eye on them--if you could discover anything in time, it would do you great credit. _Apropos_ to _them_, I will send you anepigram that I made the other day on Mr. Chute's asking why Taylor theoculist called himself Chevalier?[1]

[Footnote 1: Walpole was proud of the epigram, for the week before hehad sent it to Lady Hervey. It was--

 Why Taylor the quack calls himself Chevalier 'Tis not easy a reason to render, Unless blinding eyes that he thinks to make clear Demonstrates he's but a _Pretender_. 

Le Chevalier was the name commonly given in courtesy by both parties toPrince Charles Edward in 1745. Colonel Talbot says: "'Well, I neverthought to have been so much indebted to the Pretend--' 'To the Prince, 'said Waverley, smiling. 'To the Chevalier, ' said the Colonel; 'it is agood travelling name which we may both freely use'" ("Waverley, " c. 55). ]

_A NEW EDITION OF LUCAN--COMPARISON OF "PHARSALEA"--CRITICISM ON THEPOET, WITH THE AENEID--HELVETIUS'S WORK, "DE L'ESPRIT. "_

TO THE REV. HENRY ZOUCH. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Dec. _ 9, 1758. 

Sir, --I have desired Mr. Whiston to convey to you the second edition ofmy Catalogue, not so complete as it might have been, if great part hadnot been printed before I received your remarks, but yet more correctthan the first sketch with which I troubled you. Indeed, a thing of thisslight and idle nature does not deserve to have much more pains employedupon it. 

I am just undertaking an edition of Lucan, my friend Mr. Bentley havingin his possession his father's notes and emendations on the first sevenbooks. Perhaps a partiality for the original author concurs a littlewith this circumstance of the notes, to make me fond of printing, atStrawberry Hill, the works of a man who, alone of all the classics, wasthought to breathe too brave and honest a spirit for the perusal of theDauphin and the French. I don't think that a good or bad taste in poetryis of so serious a nature, that I should be afraid of owning too, that, with that great judge Corneille, and with that, perhaps, _no_ judgeHeinsius, I prefer Lucan to Virgil. To speak fairly, I prefer greatsense, to poetry with little sense. There are hemistichs in Lucan thatgo to one's soul and one's heart;--for a mere epic poem, a fabuloustissue of uninteresting battles that don't teach one even to fight, Iknow nothing more tedious. The poetic images, the versification andlanguage of the Aeneid are delightful; but take the story by itself, andcan anything be more silly and unaffecting? There are a few gods withoutpower, heroes without character, heaven-directed wars without justice, inventions without probability, and a hero who betrays one woman with akingdom that he might have had, to force himself upon another woman andanother kingdom to which he had no pretensions, and all this to show hisobedience to the gods! In short, I have always admired his numbers somuch, and his meaning so little, that I think I should like Virgilbetter if I understood him less. 

Have you seen, Sir, a book which has made some noise--"Helvetius del'Esprit"[1]? The author is so good and moral a man, that I grieve heshould have published a system of as relaxed morality as can well beimagined: 'tis a large quarto, and in general a very superficial one. His philosophy may be new in France, but it greatly exhausted here. Hetries to imitate Montesquieu, [2] and has heaped common-places uponcommon-places, which supply or overwhelm his reasoning; yet he hasoften wit, happy allusions, and sometimes writes finely: there is meritenough to give an obscure man fame; flimsiness enough to depreciate agreat man. After his book was licensed, they forced him to retract it bya most abject recantation. Then why print this work? If zeal for hissystem pushed him to propagate it, did not he consider that arecantation would hurt his cause more than his arguments could supportit?

[Footnote 1: Helvetius was the son of the French king's physician. Hisbook was condemned by the Parliament of Paris as derogatory to thenature of man. ]

[Footnote 2: Montesquieu was President of the Parliament of Bordeaux. Hewas a voluminous writer, his most celebrated work being his "L'Espritdes Lois. " Burke described him as "A genius not born in every country, or every time: with a Herculean robustness of mind; and nerves not to bebroken by labour. "]

We are promised Lord Clarendon in February from Oxford, but I hear shallhave the surreptitious edition from Holland much sooner. 

You see, Sir, I am a sceptic as well as Helvetius, but of a moremoderate complexion. There is no harm in telling mankind that there isnot so much divinity in the Aeneid as they imagine; but, even if Ithought so, I would not preach that virtue and friendship are merenames, and resolvable into self-interest; because there are numbers thatwould remember the grounds of the principle, and forget what was to beengrafted on it. Adieu!

_STATE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. _

TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Jan. _ 19, 1759. 

I hope the treaty of Sluys[1] advances rapidly. Considering that yourown court is as new to you as Monsieur de Bareil and his, you cannot bevery well entertained: the joys of a Dutch fishing town and theincidents of a cartel will not compose a very agreeable history. In themean time you do not lose much; though the Parliament is met, nopolitics are come to town; one may describe the House of Commons likethe price of stocks--Debates, nothing done. Votes, under par. Patriots, no price. Oratory, books shut. Love and war are as much at a stand;neither the Duchess of Hamilton, nor the expeditions are gone off yet. Prince Edward has asked to go to Quebec, and has been refused. If I wassure they would refuse me, I would ask to go thither too. I should notdislike about as much laurel as I could stick in my window at Christmas. 

[Footnote 1: Treaty of Sluys. Conway was engaged at Sluys negotiatingwith the French envoy, M. De Bareil, for an exchange of prisoners. ]

We are next week to have a serenata at the Opera-house for the King ofPrussia's birthday; it is to begin, "Viva Georgio, e Frederigo viva!" Itwill, I own, divert me to see my Lord Temple whispering _for_ thisalliance, on the same bench on which I have so often seen him whisper_against_ all Germany. The new opera pleases universally, and I hopewill yet hold up its head. Since Vanneschi is cunning enough to make ussing _the roast beef of old Germany_, I am persuaded it will revive;politics are the only hot-bed for keeping such a tender plant as Italianmusic alive in England. 

You are so thoughtless about your dress, that I cannot help giving you alittle warning against your return. Remember, everybody that comes fromabroad is _censé_ to come from France, and whatever they wear at theirfirst reappearance immediately grows the fashion. Now if, as is verylikely, you should through inadvertence change hats with a master of aDutch smack, Offley will be upon the watch, will conclude you took yourpattern from M. De Bareil, and in a week's time we shall all be equippedlike Dutch skippers. You see I speak very disinterestedly; for, as Inever wear a hat myself, it is indifferent to me what sort of hat Idon't wear. Adieu! I hope nothing in this letter, if it is opened, willaffect _the conferences_, nor hasten our rupture with Holland. Lest itshould, I send it to Lord Holdernesse's office; concluding, like LadyBetty Waldegrave, that the Government never suspect what they send undertheir own covers. 

_ROBERTSON'S "HISTORY OF SCOTLAND"--COMPARISON OF RAMSAY AND REYNOLDS ASPORTRAIT-PAINTERS--SIR DAVID'S "HISTORY OF THE GOWRIE CONSPIRACY. "_

TO SIR DAVID DALRYMPLE. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _Feb. _ 25, 1759. 

I think, Sir, I have perceived enough of the amiable benignity of yourmind, to be sure that you will like to hear the praises of yourfriend. [1] Indeed, there is but one opinion about Mr. Robertson's"History [of Scotland]. " I don't remember any other work that ever metuniversal approbation. Since the Romans and the Greeks, who have _now_an exclusive charter for being the best writers in every kind, he is thehistorian that pleases me best; and though what he has been so indulgentas to say of me ought to shut my mouth, I own I have been unmeasured inmy commendations. I have forfeited my own modesty rather than not dojustice to him. I did send him my opinion some time ago, and hope hereceived it. I can add, with the strictest truth, that he is regardedhere as one of the greatest men that this island has produced. I say_island_, but you know, Sir, that I am disposed to say _Scotland_. Ihave discovered another very agreeable writer among your countrymen, andin a profession where I did not look for an author; it is Mr. Ramsay, the painter, whose pieces being anonymous, have been overlooked. He hasa great deal of genuine wit, and a very just manner of reasoning. In hisown walk, he has great merit. He and Mr. Reynolds are our favouritepainters, and two of the very best we ever had. Indeed, the number ofgood has been very small, considering the numbers there are. A very fewyears ago there were computed two thousand portrait-painters in London;I do not exaggerate the computation, but diminish it; though I think itmust have been exaggerated. Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Ramsay can scarce berivals; their manners are so different. The former is bold, and has akind of tempestuous colouring, yet with dignity and grace; the latter isall delicacy. Mr. Reynolds seldom succeeds in women; Mr. Ramsay isformed to paint them. 

[Footnote 1: Sir David was himself a historical writer of someimportance. Macaulay was greatly indebted to his "Memoirs of GreatBritain and Ireland from the Restoration to the Battle of La Hogue. " Thesecret history and object of the strange attempt on James VI. (afterwards James I. Of England) have been discussed by many writers, but without any of them succeeding in any very clear or certainelucidation of the transaction. ]

I fear I neglected, Sir, to thank you for your present of the history ofthe "Conspiracy of the Gowries"; but I shall never forget all theobligations I have to you. I don't doubt but in Scotland you approvewhat is liked here almost as much as Mr. Robertson's History; I mean themarriage of Colonel Campbell and the Duchess of Hamilton. If her fortuneis singular, so is her merit. Such uncommon noise as her beauty made hasnot at all impaired the modesty of her behaviour. Adieu!

_WRITERS OF HISTORY: GOODALL, HUME, ROBERTSON--QUEEN CHRISTINA. _

TO SIR DAVID DALRYMPLE. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _July_ 11, 1759. 

You will repent, Sir, I fear, having drawn such a correspondent uponyourself. An author flattered and encouraged is not easily shaken offagain; but if the interests of my book did not engage me to trouble you, while you are so good as to write me the most entertaining letters inthe world, it is very natural for me to lay snares to inveigle more ofthem. However, Sir, excuse me this once, and I will be more modest forthe future in trespassing on your kindness. Yet, before I break out onmy new wants, it will be but decent, Sir, to answer some particulars ofyour letter. 

I have lately read Mr. Goodall's[1] book. There is certainly ingenuityin parts of his defence; but I believe one seldom thinks a defence_ingenious_ without meaning that it is unsatisfactory. His work left mefully convinced of what he endeavoured to disprove; and showed me, thatthe piece you mention is not the only one that he has written againstmoderation. 

[Footnote 1: Mr. Goodall had published an Essay on the letters putforward as written by Queen Mary to Bothwell, branding them asforgeries. The question of their genuineness has been examined withgreat acuteness by more than one subsequent writer, and the argumentsagainst their genuineness are certainly very strong. ]

I have lately got Lord Cromerty's "Vindication of the legitimacy of KingRobert [the Third], " and his "Synopsis Apocalyptica, " and thank youmuch, Sir, for the notice of any of his pieces. But if you expect thathis works should lessen my esteem for the writers of Scotland, you willplease to recollect, that the letter which paints Lord Cromerty's piecesin so ridiculous a light, is more than a counterbalance in favour of thewriters of your country; and of all men living, Sir, you are the lastwho will destroy my partiality for Scotland. 

There is another point, Sir, on which, with all your address, you willpersuade me as little. Can I think that we want writers of history whileMr. Hume and Mr. Robertson are living? It is a truth, and not acompliment, that I never heard objections made to Mr. Hume's Historywithout endeavouring to convince the persons who found fault with it, of its great merit and beauty; and for what I saw of Mr. Robertson'swork, it is one of the purest styles, and of the greatest impartiality, that I ever read. It is impossible for me to recommend a subject to him;because I cannot judge of what materials he can obtain. His presentperformance will undoubtedly make him so well known and esteemed, thathe will have credit to obtain many new lights for a future history; butsurely those relating to his own country will always lie most open tohim. This is much my way of thinking with regard to myself. Though theLife of Christina[1] is a pleasing and a most uncommon subject, yet, totally unacquainted as I am with Sweden and its language, how could Iflatter myself with saying anything new of her? And when originalletters and authentic papers shall hereafter appear, may not theycontradict half one should relate on the authority of what is alreadypublished? for though Memoirs _written_ nearest to the time are likelyto be the truest, those _published_ nearest to it are generally thefalsest. 

[Footnote 1: Queen Christina of Sweden was the daughter and heiress ofthe great Gustavus Adolphus. After a time she abdicated the throne andlived for some time in Paris, where she acted in one respect as if stillpossessed of royal authority, actually causing her equerry, Monaldeschi, to be hung in one of her sitting-rooms. ]

But, indeed, Sir, I am now making you only civil excuses; the real oneis, I have no kind of intention of continuing to write. I could notexpect to succeed again with so much luck, --indeed, I think it so, --as Ihave done; it would mortify me more now, after a little success, to bedespised, than it would have done before; and if I could please as muchas I should wish to do, I think one should dread being a voluminousauthor. My own idleness, too, bids me desist. If I continued, I shouldcertainly take more pains than I did in my Catalogue; the trouble wouldnot only be more than I care to encounter, but would probably destroywhat I believe the only merit of my last work, the ease. If I couldincite you to tread in steps which I perceive you don't condemn, and forwhich it is evident you are so well qualified, from your knowledge, thegrace, facility, and humour of your expression and manner, I shall havedone a real service, where I expected at best to amuse. 

_THE BATTLE OF MINDEN--LORD G. SACKVILLE. _

TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Aug. _ 14, 1759. 

I am here in the most unpleasant way in the world, attending poor Mrs. Leneve's death-bed, a spectator of all the horrors of tedious sufferingand clear sense, and with no one soul to speak to--but I will not tireyou with a description of what has quite worn me out. 

Probably by this time you have seen the Duke of Richmond or Fitzroy--butlest you should not, I will tell you all I can learn, and a wonderfulhistory it is. Admiral Byng was not more unpopular than Lord GeorgeSackville. [1] I should scruple repeating his story if Betty and thewaiters at Arthur's did not talk of it publicly, and thrust PrinceFerdinand's orders into one's hand. 

[Footnote 1: Lord George was brought to court-martial for disobedienceof orders, and most deservedly cashiered--a sentence which was, not verybecomingly, oveilooked some years afterwards, when, having changed hisname to Germaine on succeeding to a large fortune, and having become amember of the House of Commons, he was made a Secretary of State by LordNorth. ]

You have heard, I suppose, of the violent animosities that have reignedfor the whole campaign between him and Lord Granby--in which some otherwarm persons have been very warm too. In the heat of the battle, thePrince, finding thirty-six squadrons of French coming down upon ourarmy, sent Ligonier to order our thirty-two squadrons, under LordGeorge, to advance. During that transaction, the French appeared towaver; and Prince Ferdinand, willing, as it is supposed, to give thehonour to the British horse of terminating the day, sent Fitzroy to bidLord George bring up only the British cavalry. Ligonier had but justdelivered his message, when Fitzroy came with his. --Lord George said, "This can't be so--would he have me break the line? here is somemistake. " Fitzroy replied, he had not argued upon the orders, but thosewere the orders. "Well!" said Lord George, "but I want a guide. " Fitzroysaid, he would be his guide. Lord George, "Where is the Prince?"Fitzroy, "I left him at the head of the left wing, I don't know where heis now. " Lord George said he would go seek him, and have this explained. Smith then asked Fitzroy to repeat the orders to him; which being done, Smith went and whispered Lord George, who says he then bid Smith carryup the cavalry. Smith is come, and says he is ready to answer anybodyany question. Lord George says, Prince Ferdinand's behaviour to him hasbeen most infamous, has asked leave to resign his command, and to comeover, which is granted. Prince Ferdinand's behaviour is summed up in theenclosed extraordinary paper: which you will doubt as I did, but whichis certainly genuine. I doubted, because, in the military, I thoughtdirect disobedience of orders was punished with an immediate arrest, andbecause the last paragraph seemed to me very foolish. The going out ofthe way to compliment Lord Granby with what he would have done, seems totake off a little from the compliments paid to those that have donesomething; but, in short, Prince Ferdinand or Lord George, one of them, is most outrageously in the wrong, and the latter has much the leastchance of being thought in the right. 

The particulars I tell you, I collected from the most _accurate_authorities. --I make no comments on Lord George, it would look like alittle dirty court to you; and the best compliment I can make you, is tothink, as I do, that you will be the last man to enjoy this revenge. 

You will be sorry for poor M'Kinsey and Lady Betty, who have lost theironly child at Turin. Adieu!

_ADMIRAL BOSCAWEN'S VICTORY--DEFEAT OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA--LORD G. SACKVILLE. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Sept. _ 13, 1759. 

With your unathletic constitution I think you will have a greater weightof glory to represent than you can bear. You will be as _épuisé_ asPrincess Craon with all the triumphs over Niagara, Ticonderoga, Crown-point, and such a parcel of long names. You will ruin yourself inFrench horns, to exceed those of Marshal Botta, who has certainly foundout a pleasant way of announcing victories. Besides, _all_ the WestIndies, which we have taken by a panic, there is Admiral Boscawen hasdemolished the Toulon squadron, and has made _you_ Viceroy of theMediterranean. I really believe the French will come hither now, forthey can be safe nowhere else. If the King of Prussia should be totallyundone in Germany, [1] we can afford to give him an appanage, as ayounger son of England, of some hundred thousand miles on the Ohio. Sureuniversal monarchy was never so put to shame as that of France! What afigure do they make! They seem to have no ministers, no generals, nosoldiers! If anything could be more ridiculous than their behaviour inthe field, it would be in the cabinet! Their invasion appears not tohave been designed against us, but against their own people, who, theyfear, will mutiny, and to quiet whom they disperse expresses, withaccounts of the progress of their arms in England. They actually haveestablished posts, to whom people are directed to send their letters fortheir friends _in England_. If, therefore, you hear that the French haveestablished themselves at Exeter or at Norwich, don't be alarmed, norundeceive the poor women who are writing to their husbands for Englishbaubles. 

[Footnote 1: Frederic the Great had sustained a severe defeat atHochkirch in October, 1758, and a still more terrible one in August ofthis year from Marshals Laudon and Soltikof at Kunersdorf. It seemed soirreparable that for a moment he even contemplated putting an end to hislife; but he was saved from the worst consequences of the blow byjealousies which sprang up between the Austrian and Russian commanders, and preventing them from profiting by their victory as they might havedone. ]

We have lost another Princess, Lady Elizabeth. [1] She died of aninflammation in her bowels in two days. Her figure was so veryunfortunate, that it would have been difficult for her to be happy, buther parts and application were extraordinary. I saw her act in "Cato" ateight years old, (when she could not stand alone, but was forced to leanagainst the side-scene, ) better than any of her brothers and sisters. She had been so unhealthy, that at that age she had not been taught toread, but had learned the part of Lucia by hearing the others studytheir parts. She went to her father and mother, and begged she mightact. They put her off as gently as they could--she desired leave torepeat her part, and when she did, it was with so much sense, that therewas no denying her. 

[Footnote 1: Second daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales. --WALPOLE. ]

I receive yours of August 25. To all your alarms for the King ofPrussia I subscribe. With little Brandenburgh he could not exhaust allthe forces of Bohemia, Hungary, Austria, Muscovy, Siberia, Tartary, Sweden, &c. , &c. , &c. --but not to politicize too much, I believe theworld will come to be fought for somewhere between the North of Germanyand the back of Canada, between Count Daun and Sir William Johnson. [1]

[Footnote 1: Our General in America--WALPOLE. ]

You guessed right about the King of Spain; he is dead, and the QueenDowager may once more have an opportunity of embroiling the little ofEurope that remains unembroiled. 

Thank you, my dear Sir, for the Herculaneum and Caserta that you aresending me. I wish the watch may arrive safe, to show you that I am notinsensible to all your attentions for me, but endeavour, at a greatdistance, to imitate you in the execution of commissions. 

I would keep this letter back for a post, that I might have but onetrouble of sending you Quebec too; but when one has taken so manyplaces, it is not worth while to wait for one more. 

Lord George Sackville, the hero of all conversation, if one can be sofor not being a hero, is arrived. He immediately applied for aCourt-Martial, but was told it was impossible now, as the officersnecessary are in Germany. This was in writing from Lord Holdernesse--butLord Ligonier in words was more squab--"If he wanted a Court-Martial, hemight go seek it in Germany. " All that could be taken from him, is, hisregiment, above two thousand pounds a year: commander in Germany at tenpounds a day, between three and four thousand pounds: lieutenant-generalof the ordnance, one thousand five hundred pounds: a fort, three hundredpounds. He remains with a patent place in Ireland of one thousand twohundred pounds, and about two thousand pounds a year of his own andwife's. With his parts and ambition it cannot end here; he calls himselfruined, but when the Parliament meets, he will probably attempt somesort of revenge. 

They attribute, I don't know with what grounds, a sensible kind of planto the French; that De la Clue was to have pushed for Ireland, Thurotfor Scotland, and the Brest fleet for England--but before they lay suchgreat plans, they should take care of proper persons to execute them. [1]

[Footnote 1: De la Clue and the French were this year making unusualefforts to establish a naval superiority over us, which they never haddone, and never will do. As is mentioned in this letter, one powerfulfleet was placed under De la Clue, another under Conflans, and a strongsquadron under Commodore Thurot. De la Clue, however, for many weekskept close in Toulon, resisting every endeavour of Boscawen to tempt himout, till the English admiral was compelled to retire to Gibraltar forthe repair of some of his ships. De la Clue, not knowing which way hehad gone, thought he could steal through the Straits to join Conflans, according to his original orders. But Boscawen caught him off CapeLagos, and gave him a decisive defeat, capturing five sail of the line, and among them the flagship _L'Océan_ (80). Before the end of the yearHawke almost destroyed the fleet of Conflans, capturing five and drivingthe rest on shore; while Thurot, who at first had a gleam of success, making one or two descents on the northern coast of Ireland, and evencapturing Carrickfergus, had, in the end, worse fortune than either ofhis superior officers, being overtaken at the mouth of Belfast Lough byCaptain Elliott with a squadron of nearly equal force, when the whole ofthe French squadron was taken and he himself was killed (the Editor's"History of the British Navy, " c. 12). ]

I cannot help smiling at the great objects of our letters. We neverconverse on a less topic than a kingdom. We are a kind of citizens ofthe world, and battles and revolutions are the common incidents of ourneighbourhood. But that is and must be the case of distantcorrespondences: Kings and Empresses that we never saw, are the onlypersons we can be acquainted with in common. We can have no morefamiliarity than the _Daily Advertiser_ would have if it wrote to the_Florentine Gazette_. Adieu! My compliments to any monarch that liveswithin five hundred miles of you. 

_A YEAR OF TRIUMPHS. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _Oct. _ 21, 1759. 

Your pictures shall be sent as soon as any of us go to London, but Ithink that will not be till the Parliament meets. Can we easily leavethe remains of such a year as this? It is still all gold. [1] I have notdined or gone to bed by a fire till the day before yesterday. Instead ofthe glorious and ever-memorable year 1759, as the newspapers call it, Icall it this ever-warm and victorious year. We have not had moreconquest than fine weather: one would think we had plundered East andWest Indies of sunshine. Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing forvictories. I believe it will require ten votes of the House of Commonsbefore people will believe it is the Duke of Newcastle that has donethis, and not Mr. Pitt. One thing is very fatiguing--all the world ismade knights or generals. Adieu! I don't know a word of news less thanthe conquest of America. Adieu! yours ever. 

[Footnote 1: The immediate cause of this exultation was the battle(September 14th) and subsequent capture of Quebec. On the other side ofthe world Colonel Forde had inflicted severe defeats on the French andDutch, and had taken Masulipatam; and besides these triumphs there wereour naval successes mentioned in the last letter, and the battle ofMinden. ]

P. S. --You shall hear from me again if we take Mexico or China beforeChristmas. 

2nd P. S. --I had sealed my letter, but break it open again, having forgotto tell you that Mr. Cowslade has the pictures of Lord and Lady Cutts, and is willing to sell them. 

_FRENCH BANKRUPTCY--FRENCH EPIGRAM. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Nov. _ 8, 1759. 

Your pictures will set out on Saturday; I give you notice, that you mayinquire for them. I did not intend to be here these three days, but myLord Bath taking the trouble to send a man and horse to ask me to dinneryesterday, I did not know how to refuse; and besides, as Mr. Bentleysaid to me, "you know he was an old friend of your father. "

The town is empty, but is coming to dress itself for Saturday. My LadyCoventry showed George Selwyn her clothes; they are blue, with spots ofsilver, of the size of a shilling, and a silver trimming, and cost--mylord will know what. She asked George how he liked them; he replied, "Why, you will be change for a guinea. "

I find nothing talked of but the French bankruptcy;[1] Sir Robert Brown, I hear--and am glad to hear--will be a great sufferer. They put gravelyinto the article of bankrupts in the newspaper, "Louis le Petit, of thecity of Paris, peace-breaker, dealer, and chapman;" it would have beenstill better if they had said, "Louis Bourbon of petty France. " We don'tknow what is become of their Monsieur Thurot, of whom we had still alittle mind to be afraid. I should think he would do like Sir ThomasHanmer, make a faint effort, beg pardon of the Scotch for theirdisappointment, and retire. Here are some pretty verses just arrived. 

 Pourquoi le baton à Soubise, Puisque Chevert est le vainqueur?[2] C'est de la cour une méprise, Ou bien le but de la faveur. Je ne vois rien là qui m'étonne, Repond aussitot un railleur; C'est à l'aveugle qu'on le donne, Et non pas au conducteur. 

[Footnote 1: In 1759 M. Bertin was Finance Minister--the fourth who hadheld that office in four years; and among his expedients for raisingmoney he had been compelled to have recourse to the measure of stoppingthe payment of the interest on a large portion of the National Debt. ]

[Footnote 2: "_Chevert est le vainqueur. _" He was one of the mostbrilliant officers in the French army. It was he who, under the ordersof Saxe, surprised Prague in 1744, and it was to him that Maréchald'Estrées was principally indebted for his victory of Hastenbeck. ]

Lady Meadows has left nine thousand pounds in reversion after herhusband to Lord Sandwich's daughter. _Apropos_ to my Lady Meadows'smaiden name, a name I believe you have sometimes heard; I was divertedt'other day with a story of a lady of that name, [1] and a lord, whoseinitial is no farther from hers than he himself is sometimes supposed tobe. Her postillion, a lad of sixteen, said, "I am not such a child but Ican guess something: whenever my Lord Lyttelton comes to my lady, sheorders the porter to let in nobody else, and then they call for a penand ink, and say they are going to write history. " Is not this _finesse_so like him? Do you know that I am persuaded, now he is parted, that hewill forget he is married, and propose himself in form to some woman orother. 

[Footnote 1: Mrs. Montagu was the foundress of "The Blue-stocking Club. "She was the authoress of three "Dialogues of the Dead, " to which Walpoleis alluding here, and which she published with some others by LordLyttelton. ]

When do you come? if it is not soon, you will find a new town. I staredto-day at Piccadilly like a country squire; there are twenty new stonehouses: at first I concluded that all the grooms, that used to livethere, had got estates, and built palaces. One young gentleman, who wasgetting an estate, but was so indiscreet as to step out of his way torob a comrade, is convicted, and to be transported; in short, one of thewaiters at Arthur's. George Selwyn says, "What a horrid idea he willgive of us to the people in Newgate!"

I was still more surprised t'other day, than at seeing Piccadilly, byreceiving a letter from the north of Ireland from a clergyman, withviolent encomiums on my "Catalogue of Noble Authors"--and this when Ithought it quite forgot. It puts me in mind of the queen[1] that sunk atCharing Cross and rose at Queenhithe. 

[Footnote 1: Queen Eleanor, wife of Edward I. , who erected the cross atCharing, and others at the different places where her body had stoppedon the way from the North to Westminster. ]

Mr. Chute has got his commission to inquire about your Cutts, but hethinks the lady is not your grandmother. You are very ungenerous tohoard tales from me of your ancestry: what relation have I spared? Ifyour grandfathers were knaves, will your bottling up their bad bloodmend it? Do you only take a cup of it now and then by yourself, and thencome down to your parson, and boast of it, as if it was pure oldmetheglin? I sat last night with the Mater Gracchorum--oh! 'tis a MaterJagorum; if her descendants taste any of her black blood, they surelywill make as wry faces at it as the servant in Don John does when theghost decants a corpse. Good night! I am just returning to Strawberry, to husband my two last days and to avoid all the pomp of the birthday. Oh! I had forgot, there is a Miss Wynne coming forth, that is to behandsomer than my Lady Coventry; but I have known one threatened withsuch every summer for these seven years, and they are always addled bywinter!

_HE LIVES AMONGST ROYALTY--COMMOTIONS IN IRELAND. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Jan. _ 7, 1760. 

You must not wonder I have not written to you a long time; a person ofmy consequence! I am now almost ready to say, _We_, instead of _I_. Inshort, I live amongst royalty--considering the plenty, that is no greatwonder. All the world lives with them, and they with all the world. Princes and Princesses open shops, in every corner of the town, and thewhole town deals with them. As I have gone to one, I chose to frequentall, that I might not be particular, and seem to have views; and yet itwent so much against me, that I came to town on purpose a month ago forthe Duke's levée, and had engaged Brand to go with me--and then couldnot bring myself to it. At last, I went to him and Princess Emilyyesterday. It was well I had not flattered myself with being still in mybloom; I am grown so old since they saw me, that neither of them knewme. When they were told, he just spoke to me (I forgive him; he is notout of my debt, even with that): she was exceedingly gracious, andcommended Strawberry to the skies. To-night, I was asked to their partyat Norfolk House. These parties are wonderfully select and dignified:one might sooner be a knight of Malta than qualified for them; I don'tknow how the Duchess of Devonshire, Mr. Fox, and I, were forgiven someof our ancestors. There were two tables at loo, two at whist, and aquadrille. I was commanded to the Duke's loo; he was sat down: not tomake him wait, I threw my hat upon the marble table, and broke fourpieces off a great crystal chandelier. I stick to my etiquette, andtreat them with great respect; not as I do my friend, the Duke of York. But don't let us talk any more of Princes. My Lucan appears to-morrow; Imust say it is a noble volume. Shall I send it to you--or won't you comeand fetch it?

There is nothing new of public, but the violent commotions inIreland, [1] whither the Duke of Bedford still persists in going. Aeolusto quell a storm!

[Footnote 1: "In 1759 reports that a Legislative Union was contemplatedled to some furious Protestant riots in Dublin. The Chancellor and someof the Bishops were violently attacked. A judge in a law case warned theRoman Catholics that 'the laws did not presume a Papist to exist in thekingdom'; nor could they breathe without the connivance of theGovernment" (Lecky, "History of England, " ii. 436). Gray, in a letter toDr. Wharton, mentions that they forced their way into the House ofLords, and "placed an old woman on the throne, and called for pipes andtobacco. " He especially mentions the Bishops of Killaloe and Waterfordas exposed to ardent ill-treatment, and concludes: "The notion that hadpossessed the crowd was that an union was to be voted between the twonations, and they should have no more Parliaments in Dublin. "]

I am in great concern for my old friend, poor Lady Harry Beauclerc; herlord dropped down dead two nights ago, as he was sitting with her andall their children. Admiral Boscawen is dead by this time. Mrs. Osborn[1] and I are not much afflicted: Lady Jane Coke too is dead, exceedingly rich; I have not heard her will yet. 

[Footnote 1: Boscawen had been a member of the court martial which hadfound Admiral Byng guilty. Mrs. Osborn was Byng's sister. ]

If you don't come to town soon, I give you warning, I will be a lord ofthe bedchamber, or a gentleman usher. If you will, I will be nothing butwhat I have been so many years--my own and yours ever. 

_SEVERITY OF THE WEATHER--SCARCITY IN GERMANY--A PARTY AT PRINCEEDWARD'S--CHARLES TOWNSEND'S COMMENTS ON LA FONTAINE. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Jan. _ 14, 1760. 

How do you contrive to exist on your mountain in this rude season? Sureyou must be become a snowball! As I was not in England in forty-one, Ihad no notion of such cold. The streets are abandoned; nothing appearsin them: the Thames is almost as solid. Then think what a campaign mustbe in such a season! Our army was under arms for fourteen hours on thetwenty-third, expecting the French; and several of the men were frozenwhen they should have dismounted. What milksops the Marlboroughs andTurennes, the Blakes and the Van Tromps appear now, who whipped intowinter quarters and into port, the moment their noses looked blue. SirCloudesley Shovel said that an admiral would deserve to be broke, whokept great ships out after the end of September, and to be shot if afterOctober. There is Hawke in the bay weathering _this_ winter, afterconquering in a storm. For my part, I scarce venture to make a campaignin the Opera-house; for if I once begin to freeze, I shall be frozenthrough in a moment. I am amazed, with such weather, such ravages, anddistress, that there is anything left in Germany, but money; forthither, half the treasure of Europe goes: England, France, Russia, andall the Empress can squeeze from Italy and Hungary, all is sent thither, and yet the wretched people have not subsistence. A pound of bread sellsat Dresden for eleven-pence. We are going to send many more troopsthither; and it is so much the fashion to raise regiments, that I wishthere were such a neutral kind of beings in England as abbés, [1] thatone might have an excuse for not growing military mad, when one hasturned the heroic corner of one's age. I am ashamed of being a youngrake, when my seniors are covering their grey toupees with helmets andfeathers, and accoutering their pot-bellies with cuirasses and martialmasquerade habits. Yet rake I am, and abominably so, for a person thatbegins to wrinkle reverendly. I have sat up twice this week till betweentwo and three with the Duchess of Grafton, at loo, who, by the way, hasgot a pam-child this morning, and on Saturday night I supped with PrinceEdward at my Lady Rochford's, and we stayed till half an hour pastthree. My favour with that Highness continues, or rather increases. Hemakes everybody make suppers for him to meet me, for I still hold outagainst going to court. In short, if he were twenty years older, or Icould make myself twenty years younger, I might carry him to CampdenHouse, and be as impertinent as ever my Lady Churchill was; but, as Idread being ridiculous, I shall give my Lord Bute no uneasiness. My LadyMaynard, who divides the favour of this tiny court with me, supped withus. Did you know she sings French ballads very prettily? Lord Rochfordplayed on the guitar, and the Prince sung; there were my two nieces, andLord Waldegrave, Lord Huntingdon, and Mr. Morrison the groom, and theevening was pleasant; but I had a much more agreeable supper last nightat Mrs. Clive's, with Miss West, my niece Cholmondeley, and Murphy, thewriting actor, who is very good company, and two or three more. Mrs. Cholmondeley is very lively; you know how entertaining the Clive is, andMiss West is an absolute original. 

[Footnote 1: French chroniclers remark that the title Abbé had longsince ceased in France to denote the possession of any ecclesiasticalpreferment, but had become a courteous denomination of unemployedecclesiastics; and they compare it to the use of the term "Esquire" inEngland. ]

There is nothing new, but a very dull pamphlet written by Lord Bath, andhis chaplain Douglas, called a "Letter to Two Great Men. " It is a planfor the peace, and much adopted by the City, and much admired by all whoare too humble to judge for themselves. 

I was much diverted the other morning with another volume on birds byEdwards, who has published four or five. The poor man, who is grown veryold and devout, begs God to take from him the love of naturalphilosophy; and having observed some heterodox proceedings among bantamcocks, he proposes that all schools of girls and boys should bepromiscuous, lest, if separated, they should learn wayward passions. Butwhat struck me most were his dedications, the last was to God; this isto Lord Bute, as if he was determined to make his fortune in one worldor the other. 

Pray read Fontaine's fable of the lion grown old; don't it put you inmind of anything? No! not when his shaggy majesty has borne the insultsof the tiger and the horse, &c. , and the ass comes last, kicks out hisonly remaining fang, and asks for a blue bridle? _Apropos_, I will tellyou the turn Charles Townshend gave to this fable. "My lord, " said he, "has quite mistaken the thing; he soars too high at first: people oftenmiscarry by not preceding by degrees; he went and at once asked for my_Lord_ Carlisle's garter--if he would have been contented to ask firstfor my _Lady_ Carlisle's garter, I don't know but he would have obtainedit!" Adieu!

_CAPTURE OF CARRICKFERGUS. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Feb. _ 28, 1760. 

The next time you see Marshal Botta, and are to act King of GreatBritain, France, and Ireland, you must abate about a hundredththousandth part of the dignity of your crown. You are no more monarchof _all_ Ireland, than King O'Neil, or King Macdermoch is. Louis XV. Issovereign of France, Navarre, and Carrickfergus. You will be mistaken ifyou think the peace is made, and that we cede this Hibernian town, inorder to recover Minorca, or to keep Quebec and Louisbourg. To be sure, it is natural you should think so: how should so victorious and heroic anation cease to enjoy any of its possessions, but to save Christianblood? Oh! I know you will suppose there has been another insurrection, and that it is King John of Bedford, and not King George of Brunswick, that has lost this town. Why, I own you are a great politician, and seethings in a moment--and no wonder, considering how long you have beenemployed in negotiations; but for once all your sagacity is mistaken. Indeed, considering the total destruction of the maritime force ofFrance, and that the great mechanics and mathematicians of this age havenot invented a flying bridge to fling over the sea and land from thecoast of France to the north of Ireland, it was not easy to conceive howthe French should conquer Carrickfergus--and yet they have. But how Irun on! not reflecting that by this time the old Pretender must havehobbled through Florence on his way to Ireland, to take possession ofthis scrap of his recovered domains; but I may as well tell you at once, for to be sure you and the loyal body of English in Tuscany will slipover all this exordium to come to the account of so extraordinary arevolution. Well, here it is. Last week Monsieur Thurot--oh! now youare _au fait_!--Monsieur Thurot, as I was saying, landed last week inthe isle of Islay, the capital province belonging to a great ScotchKing, who is so good as generally to pass the winter with his friendshere in London. Monsieur Thurot had three ships, the crews of whichburnt two ships belonging to King George, and a house belonging to hisfriend the King of Argyll--pray don't mistake; by _his friend_, I meanKing George's, not Thurot's friend. When they had finished thiscampaign, they sailed to Carrickfergus, a poorish town, situate in theheart of the Protestant cantons. They immediately made a moderate demandof about twenty articles of provisions, promising to pay for them; foryou know it is the way of modern invasions to make them cost as much aspossible to oneself, and as little to those one invades. If this was notcomplied with, they threatened to burn the town, and then march toBelfast, which is much richer. We were sensible of this civilproceeding, and not to be behindhand, agreed to it; but somehow or otherthis capitulation was broken; on which a detachment (the whole invasionconsists of one thousand men) attack the place. We shut the gates, butafter the battle of Quebec, it is impossible that so great a peopleshould attend to such trifles as locks and bolts, accordingly there werenone--and as if there were no gates neither, the two armies firedthrough them--if this is a blunder, remember I am describing an _Irish_war. I forgot to give you the numbers of the Irish army. It consisted offour companies--indeed they consisted but of seventy-two men, underLieut. -colonel Jennings, a wonderful brave man--too brave, in short, tobe very judicious. Unluckily our ammunition was soon spent, for it isnot above a year that there have been any apprehensions for Ireland, andas all that part of the country are most protestantly loyal, it was notthought necessary to arm people who would fight till they die for theirreligion. When the artillery was silenced, the garrison thought the bestway of saving the town was by flinging it at the heads of the besiegers;according they poured volleys of brickbats at the French, whosecommander, Monsieur Flobert, was mortally knocked down, and his troopsbegan to give way. However, General Jennings thought it most prudent toretreat to the castle, and the French again advanced. Four or five rawrecruits still bravely kept the gates, when the garrison, finding nomore gunpowder in the castle than they had had in the town, and not nearso good a brick-kiln, sent to desire to surrender. General Thurotaccordingly made them prisoners of war, and plundered the town. 

_THE BALLAD OF "HARDYKNUTE"--MR. HOME'S "SIEGE OF AQUILEIA"--"TRISTRAMSHANDY"--BISHOP WARBURTON'S PRAISE OF IT. _

TO SIR DAVID DALRYMPLE. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _April_ 4, 1760. 

Sir, --As I have very little at present to trouble you with myself, Ishould have deferred writing till a better opportunity, if it were notto satisfy the curiosity of a friend; a friend whom you, Sir, will beglad to have made curious, as you originally pointed him out as a likelyperson to be charmed with the old Irish poetry you sent me. It is Mr. Gray, who is an enthusiast about those poems, and begs me to put thefollowing queries to you; which I will do in his own words, and I maysay truly, _Poeta loquitur_. 

"I am so charmed with the two specimens of Erse poetry, that I cannothelp giving you the trouble to inquire a little farther about them, andshould wish to see a few lines of the original, that I may form someslight idea of the language, the measure, and the rhythm. 

"Is there anything known of the author or authors, and of what antiquityare they supposed to be?

"Is there any more to be had of equal beauty, or at all approaching toit?

"I have been often told, that the poem called Hardykanute[1] (which Ialways admired and still admire) was the work of somebody that lived afew years ago. This I do not at all believe, though it has evidentlybeen retouched in places by some modern hand; but, however, I amauthorised by this report to ask, whether the two poems in question arecertainly antique and genuine. I make this inquiry in quality of anantiquary, and am not otherwise concerned about it; for if I were surethat any one now living in Scotland had written them, to divert himselfand laugh at the credulity of the world, I would undertake a journeyinto the Highlands only for the pleasure of seeing him. "

[Footnote 1: "Hardyknute" was an especial favourite of Sir W. Scott. Inhis "Life of Mr. Lockhart" he mentions having found in one of his booksa mention that "he was taught 'Hardyknute' by heart before he could readthe ballad itself; it was the first poem he ever learnt, the last heshould ever forget" (c. 2). And in the very last year of his life, whileat Malta, in a discussion on ballads in general, "he greatly lamentedhis friend Mr. Frere's heresy in not esteeming highly enough that of'Hardyknute. ' He admitted that it was not a veritable old ballad, but'just old enough, ' and a noble imitation of the best style. " In fact, itwas the composition of a lady, Mrs. Hachet, of Wardlaw. ]

You see, Sir, how easily you may make our greatest southern bard travelnorthward to visit a brother. The young translator has nothing to do butto own a forgery, and Mr. Gray is ready to pack up his lyre, saddlePegasus, and set out directly. But seriously, he, Mr. Mason, my LordLyttelton, and one or two more, whose taste the world allows, are inlove with your Erse elegies: I cannot say in general they are so muchadmired--but Mr. Gray alone is worth satisfying. 

The "Siege of Aquileia, " of which you ask, pleased less than Mr. Home'sother plays. [1] In my own opinion, "Douglas" far exceeds both theother. Mr. Home seems to have a beautiful talent for painting genuinenature and the manners of his country. There was so little of nature inthe manners of both Greeks and Romans, that I do not wonder at hissuccess being less brilliant when he tried those subjects; and, to saythe truth, one is a little weary of them. At present, nothing is talkedof, nothing admired, but what I cannot help calling a very insipid andtedious performance: it is a kind of novel, called "The Life andOpinions of Tristram Shandy;"[2] the great humour of which consists inthe whole narration always going backwards. I can conceive a man sayingthat it would be droll to write a book in that manner, but have nonotion of his persevering in executing it. It makes one smile two orthree times at the beginning, but in recompense makes one yawn for twohours. The characters are tolerably kept up, but the humour is for everattempted and missed. The best thing in it is a Sermon, oddly coupledwith a good deal of coarseness, and both the composition of a clergyman. The man's head, indeed, was a little turned before, now topsy-turvy withhis success and fame. Dodsley has given him six hundred and fifty poundsfor the second edition and two more volumes (which I suppose will reachbackwards to his great-great-grandfather); Lord Fauconberg, a donativeof one hundred and sixty pounds a-year; and Bishop Warburton[3] gave hima purse of gold and this compliment (which happened to be acontradiction), "that it was quite an original composition, and in thetrue Cervantic vein:" the only copy that ever was an original, except inpainting, where they all pretend to be so. Warburton, however, notcontent with this, recommended the book to the bench of bishops, andtold them Mr. Sterne, the author, was the English Rabelais. They hadnever heard of such a writer. Adieu!

[Footnote 1: "_Mr. Home's other plays. _" Mr. Home was a Presbyterianminister. His first play was "The Tragedy of Douglas, " which D'Israelidescribes as a drama which, "by awakening the piety of domesticaffections with the nobler passions, would elevate and purify the mind;"and proceeds, with no little indignation, to relate how nearly it costthe author dear. The "Glasgow divines, with the monastic spirit of thedarkest ages, published a paper, which I abridge for the contemplationof the reader, who may wonder to see such a composition written in theeighteenth century: 'On Wednesday, February 2, 1757, the Presbytery ofGlasgow came to the following resolution: They, having seen a printedpaper intituled an admonition and exhortation of the reverend Presbyteryof Edinburgh, which, among other evils prevailing, observed thefollowing _melancholy_ but _notorious_ facts, that one who is a ministerof the Church of Scotland did _himself_ write and compose _a stageplay_, intituled 'The Tragedy of Douglas, ' and got it to be acted at thetheatre of Edinburgh; and that he, with several other ministers of theChurch, were present, and _some_ of them _oftener than once_, at theacting of the said play before a numerous audience. The presbytery being_deeply affected_ with this new and strange appearance, do publish thesesentiments, '" &c. , &c. --sentiments with which I will not disgust thereader. ]

[Footnote 2: Walpole's criticism is worth preserving as a singular proofhow far prejudice can obscure the judgement of a generally shrewdobserver, and it is the more remarkable since he selects as its especialfault the failure of the author's attempts at humour; while all othercritics, from Macaulay to Thackeray, agree in placing it among thoseworks in which the humour is most conspicuous and most attractive. EvenJohnson, when Boswell once, thinking perhaps that his "illustriousfriend" might be offended with its occasional coarseness, pronouncedSterne to be "a dull fellow, " was at once met with, "Why no, Sir. "]

[Footnote 3: Bishop Warburton was Bishop of Gloucester, a prelate whosevast learning was in some degree tarnished by unepiscopal violence oftemper. He was a voluminous author; his most important work being anessay on "The Divine Legation of Moses. " In one of his letters toGarrick he praises "Tristram Shandy" highly, priding himself on havingrecommended it to all the best company in town. ]

_ERSE POETRY--"THE DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD"--"THE COMPLETE ANGLER. "_

TO SIR DAVID DALRYMPLE. 

_June_ 20, 1760. 

I am obliged to you, Sir, for the volume of Erse poetry: all of it hasmerit; but I am sorry not to see in it the six descriptions of nightwith which you favoured me before, and which I like as much as any ofthe pieces. I can, however, by no means agree with the publisher, thatthey seem to be parts of an heroic poem; nothing to me can be moreunlike. I should as soon take all the epitaphs in Westminster Abbey, andsay it was an epic poem on the History of England. The greatest part areevidently elegies; and though I should not expect a bard to write by therules of Aristotle, I would not, on the other hand, give to any work atitle that must convey so different an idea to every common reader. Icould wish, too, that the authenticity had been more largely stated. Aman who knows Dr. Blair's character will undoubtedly take his word; butthe gross of mankind, considering how much it is the fashion to besceptical in reading, will demand proofs, not assertions. 

I am glad to find, Sir, that we agree so much on "The Dialogues of theDead;"[1] indeed, there are very few that differ from us. It is well forthe author, that none of his critics have undertaken to ruin his bookby improving it, as you have done in the lively little specimen you sentme. Dr. Brown has writ a dull dialogue, called "Pericles and Aristides, "which will have a different effect from what yours would have. One ofthe most objectionable passages in Lord Lyttelton's book is, in myopinion, his apologising for the _moderate_ government of Augustus. Aman who had exhausted tyranny in the most lawless and unjustifiableexcesses is to be excused, because, out of weariness or policy, he growsless sanguinary at last!

[Footnote 1: "The Dialogues of the Dead" were by Lord Lyttelton. In anearlier letter Walpole pronounces them "not very lively or striking. "]

There is a little book coming out, that will amuse you. It is a newedition of Isaac Walton's "Complete Angler, "[1] full of anecdotes andhistoric notes. It is published by Mr. Hawkins, [2] a very worthygentleman in my neighbourhood, but who, I could wish, did not thinkangling so very _innocent_ an amusement. We cannot live withoutdestroying animals, but shall we torture them for our sport--sport intheir destruction? I met a rough officer at his house t'other day, whosaid he knew such a person was turning Methodist; for, in the middle ofconversation, he rose, and opened the window to let out a moth. I toldhim I did not know that the Methodists had any principle so good, andthat I, who am certainly not on the point of becoming one, always did sotoo. One of the bravest and best men I ever knew, Sir Charles Wager, Ihave often heard declare he never killed a fly willingly. It is acomfortable reflection to me, that all the victories of last year havebeen gained since the suppression of the Bear Garden and prize-fighting;as it is plain, and nothing else would have made it so, that our valourdid not singly and solely depend upon these two Universities. Adieu!

[Footnote 1: "The Complete Angler" is one of those rare books whichretain its popularity 250 years after its publication--not for the valueof its practical instructions to fishermen, for in this point of view itis valueless (Walton himself being only a worm or livebait fisherman, and the chapters on fly-fishing being by Cotton), but for its healthytone and love of country scenery and simple country amusements which areseldom more attractively displayed. ]

[Footnote 2: Afterwards Sir John Hawkins, the executor and biographer ofDr. Johnson. ]

_VISITS IN THE MIDLAND COUNTIES--WHICHNOVRE--SHEFFIELD--THE NEW ART OFPLATING--CHATSWORTH--HADDON HALL--HARDWICKE--APARTMENTS OF MARY QUEEN OFSCOTS--NEWSTEAD--ALTHORP. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Sept. _ 1, 1760. 

I was disappointed at your not being at home as I returned from myexpedition. 

My tour has been extremely agreeable. I set out with winning a good dealat Loo at Ragley; the Duke of Grafton was not so successful, and hadsome high words with Pam. I went from thence to Offley's atWhichnovre[1], the individual manor of the flitch of bacon, which hasbeen growing rusty for these thirty years in his hall. I don't wonder; Ihave no notion that one could keep in good humour with one's wife for ayear and a day, unless one was to live on the very spot, which is one ofthe sweetest scenes I ever saw. It is the brink of a high hill; theTrent wriggles through at the foot; Lichfield and twenty other churchesand mansions decorate the view. Mr. Anson has bought an estate[Shugborough] close by, whence my Lord used to cast many a wishful eye, though without the least pretensions even to a bit of lard. 

[Footnote 1: The manor of Whichnovre, near Lichfield, is held (like thebetter-known Dunmow, in Essex) on the singular custom of the Lord of theManor "keeping ready, all times of the year but Lent, one bacon-flykehanging in his hall, to be given to every man or woman who demanded it ayear and a day after marriage, upon their swearing that they would nothave changed for none other, fairer nor fouler, richer nor poorer, norfor no other descended of great lineage sleeping nor waking at notime. "]

I saw Lichfield Cathedral, which has been rich, but my friend LordBrooke and his soldiery treated poor St. Chad[1] with so littleceremony, that it is in a most naked condition. In a niche at the verysummit they have crowded a statue of Charles the Second, with a specialpair of shoe-strings, big enough for a weathercock. As I went to LordStrafford's I passed through Sheffield, which is one of the foulesttowns in England in the most charming situation; there aretwo-and-twenty thousand inhabitants making knives and scissors: theyremit eleven thousand pounds a week to London. One man there hasdiscovered the art of plating copper with silver; I bought a pair ofcandlesticks for two guineas that are quite pretty. Lord Strafford haserected the little Gothic building, which I got Mr. Bentley to draw; Itook the idea from Chichester Cross. It stands on a high bank in themenagerie, between a pond and a vale, totally bowered over with oaks. Iwent with the Straffords to Chatsworth and stayed there four days; therewere Lady Mary Coke, Lord Besborough and his daughters, Lord Thomond, Mr. Boufoy, the Duke, the old Duchess, and two of his brothers. Wouldyou believe that nothing was ever better humoured than the ancientGrace? She stayed every evening till it was dark in the skittle-ground, keeping the score; and one night, that the servants had a ball for LadyDorothy's birthday, we fetched the fiddler into the drawing-room, andthe dowager herself danced with us! I never was more disappointed thanat Chatsworth, [2] which, ever since I was born, I have condemned. It isa glorious situation; the vale rich in corn and verdure, vast woods hangdown the hills, which are green to the top, and the immense rocks onlyserve to dignify the prospect. The river runs before the door, andserpentises more than you can conceive in the vale. The Duke is wideningit, and will make it the middle of his park; but I don't approve an ideathey are going to execute, of a fine bridge with statues under a noblecliff. If they will have a bridge (which by the way will crowd thescene), it should be composed of rude fragments, such as the giant ofthe Peak would step upon, that he might not be wetshod. The expense ofthe works now carrying on will amount to forty thousand pounds. A heavyquadrangle of stables is part of the plan, is very cumbrous, andstanding higher than the house, is ready to overwhelm it. The principalfront of the house is beautiful, and executed with the neatness ofwrought plate; the inside is most sumptuous, but did not please me; theheathen gods, goddesses, Christian virtues, and allegoric gentlefolks, are crowded into every room, as if Mrs. Holman had been in heaven andinvited everybody she saw. The great apartment is first; paintedceilings, inlaid floors, and unpainted wainscots make every room_sombre_. The tapestries are fine, but not fine enough, and there arefew portraits. The chapel is charming. The great _jet d'eau_ I like, norwould I remove it; whatever is magnificent of the kind in the time itwas done, I would retain, else all gardens and houses wear a tiresomeresemblance. I except that absurdity of a cascade tumbling down marblesteps, which reduces the steps to be of no use at all. I saw Haddon, anabandoned old castle of the Rutlands, in a romantic situation, but whichnever could have composed a tolerable dwelling. The Duke sent Lord John[Cavendish] with me to Hardwicke, where I was again disappointed; but Iwill not take relations from others; they either don't see forthemselves, or can't see for me. How I had been promised that I shouldbe charmed with Hardwicke, [3] and told that the Devonshires ought tohave established there! never was I less charmed in my life. The houseis not Gothic, but of that betweenity, that intervened when Gothicdeclined and Paladian was creeping in--rather, this is totally naked ofeither. It has vast chambers--aye, vast, such as the nobility of thattime delighted in, and did not know how to furnish. The great apartmentis exactly what it was when the Queen of Scots was kept there. Hercouncil-chamber, the council-chamber of a poor woman, who had only twosecretaries, a gentleman-usher, an apothecary, a confessor, and threemaids, is so outrageously spacious, that you would take it for KingDavid's, who thought, contrary to all modern experience, that in themultitude of counsellors there is wisdom. At the upper end is the state, with a long table, covered with a sumptuous cloth, embroidered andembossed with gold, --at least what was gold; so are all the tables. Round the top of the chamber runs a monstrous frieze, ten or twelve feetdeep, representing stag-hunting in miserable plastered relief. The nextis her dressing-room, hung with patch-work on black velvet; then herstate bedchamber. The bed has been rich beyond description, and nowhangs in costly golden tatters. The hangings, part of which they say herMajesty worked, are composed of figures as large as life, sewed andembroidered on black velvet, white satin, &c. , and represent the virtuesthat were necessary for her, or that she was forced to have, as Patienceand Temperance, &c. The fire-screens are particular; pieces of yellowvelvet, fringed with gold, hang on a cross-bar of wood, which is fixedon the top of a single stick, that rises from the foot. The onlyfurniture which has any appearance of taste are the table and cabinets, which are all of oak, richly carved. There is a private chamber within, where she lay, her arms and style over the door; the arras hangs overall the doors; the gallery is sixty yards long, covered with badtapestry, and wretched pictures of Mary herself, Elizabeth in a gown ofsea-monsters, Lord Darnley, James the Fifth and his Queen, curious, anda whole history of Kings of England, not worth sixpence a-piece. Thereis an original of old Bess of Hardwicke herself, who built the house. Her estates were then reckoned at sixty thousand pounds a-year, and nowlet for two hundred thousand pounds. Lord John Cavendish told me, thatthe tradition in the family is, that it had been prophesied to her thatshe should never die as long as she was building; and that at last shedied in a hard frost, when the labourers could not work. There is a finebank of old oaks in the park over a lake; nothing else pleased me there. However, I was so diverted with this old beldam and her magnificence, that I made this epitaph for her:--

 Four times the nuptial bed she warm'd, And every time so well perform'd, That when death spoil'd each husband's billing, He left the widow every shilling. Fond was the dame, but not dejected; Five stately mansions she erected With more than royal pomp, to vary The prison of her captive Mary. When Hardwicke's towers shall bow their head, Nor mass be more in Worksop said; When Bolsover's fair fame shall tend Like Olcotes, to its mouldering end; When Chatsworth tastes no Ca'ndish bounties, Let fame forget this costly countess. 

[Footnote 1: Scott alludes to Lord Brooke's violation of St. Chad'sCathedral in "Marmion, " whose tomb

 Was levelled when fanatic Brooke The fair cathedral stormed and took, But thanks to Heaven and good St. Chad A guerdon meet the spoiler had (c. Vi. 36). 

And the poet adds in a note that Lord Brooke himself, "who commanded theassailants, was shot with a musket-ball through the visor of his helmet;and the royalists remarked that he was killed by a shot fired from St. Chad's Cathedral on St. Chad's Day, and received his wound in the veryeye with which, he had said, he hoped to see the ruin of all thecathedrals in England. "]

[Footnote 2: "_Disappointed with Chatsworth. _" In a letter, however, toLord Strafford three days afterwards he says: "Chatsworth surpassed hisexpectations; there is such richness and variety of prospect. "]

[Footnote 3: Hardwicke was one of what Home calls "the gentleman'shouses, " to which the unfortunate Queen was removed between the times ofher detention at Tutbury and Fotheringay. It is not mentioned byBurton. ]

As I returned, I saw Newstead[1] and Althorpe: I like both. The formeris the very abbey. The great east window of the church remains, andconnects with the house; the hall entire, the refectory entire, thecloister untouched, with the ancient cistern of the convent, and theirarms on it; a private chapel quite perfect. The park, which is stillcharming, has not been so much unprofaned; the present Lord has lostlarge sums, and paid part in old oaks, five thousand pounds of whichhave been cut near the house. In recompense he has built two baby forts, to pay his country in castles for the damage done to the navy, andplanted a handful of Scotch firs, that look like ploughboys dressed inold family liveries for a public day. In the hall is a very goodcollection of pictures, all animals; the refectory, now the greatdrawing-room, is full of Byrons; the vaulted roof remaining, but thewindows have new dresses making for them by a Venetian tailor. Althorpehas several very fine pictures by the best Italian hands, and a galleryof all one's acquaintance by Vandyke and Lely. I wonder you never sawit; it is but six miles from Northampton. Well, good night; I have writyou such a volume, that you see I am forced to page it. The Duke [ofCumberland] has had a stroke of the palsy, but is quite recovered, except in some letters, which he cannot pronounce; and it is stillvisible in the contraction of one side of his mouth. My compliments toyour family. 

[Footnote 1: Newstead, since Walpole's time immortalised as the seat ofthe illustrious Byron. Evelyn had compared it, for its situation, toFontainebleau, and particularly extolled "the front of a glorious AbbeyChurch" and its "brave woods and streams;" and Byron himself has givenan elaborate description of it under the name of "Norman Abbey, " notoverlooking its woods:

 It stood embosomed in a happy valley Crowned by high woodlands, where the Druid-oak Stood like Caractacus in act to rally His host, with broad arms, 'gainst the thunderstroke--

nor the streams:

 Before the mansion lay a lucid lake Broad as transparent, deep, and freshly fed By a river, which its softened way did take In currents through the calmer waters spread Around--

nor the abbey front:

 A glorious remnant of the Gothic pile While yet the church was Rome's, stood half apart In a grand arch, which once screened many an angle. 

("Don Juan, " xiii. 56-59. )]

_GENTLEMAN'S DRESS--INFLUENCE OF LORD BUTE--ODE BY LORD MIDDLESEX--G. SELWYN'S QUOTATION. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _April_ 16, 1761. 

You are a very mule; one offers you a handsome stall and manger inBerkeley Square, and you will not accept it. I have chosen your coat, aclaret colour, to suit the complexion of the country you are going tovisit; but I have fixed nothing about the lace. Barrett had none ofgauze, but what were as broad as the Irish Channel. Your tailor found avery reputable one at another place, but I would not determine rashly;it will be two or three-and-twenty shillings the yard; you might have avery substantial real lace, which would wear like your buffet, fortwenty. The second order of gauzes are frippery, none above twelveshillings, and those tarnished, for the species is out of fashion. Youwill have time to sit in judgment upon these important points; forHamilton your secretary told me at the Opera two nights ago, that he hadtaken a house near Bushy, and hoped to be in my neighbourhood for fourmonths. 

I was last night at your plump Countess's, who is so shrunk, that shedoes not seem to be composed of above a dozen hassocs. Lord Guildfordrejoiced mightily over your preferment. The Duchess of Argyle wasplaying there, not knowing that the great Pam was just dead, to wit, her brother-in-law. He was abroad in the morning, was seized with apalpitation after dinner and was dead before the surgeon could arrive. There's the crown of Scotland too fallen upon my Lord Bute's head![1]Poor Lord Edgecumbe is still alive, and may be so for some days; thephysicians, who no longer ago than Friday se'nnight persisted that hehad no dropsy, in order to prevent his having Ward, on Monday lastproposed that Ward should be called in, and at length they owned theythought the mortification begun. It is not clear it is yet; at times heis in his senses, and entirely so, composed, clear, and rational; talksof his death, and but yesterday, after such a conversation with hisbrother, asked for a pencil to amuse himself with drawing. What parts, genius, and agreeableness thrown away at a hazard table, and notpermitted the chance of being saved by the villainy of physicians!

[Footnote 1: Lord Bute used his influence in favour of Scotchmen with solittle moderation that he raised a prejudice against the whole nation, which found a vent in Wilkes's _North Briton_ and Churchill's bitter andpowerful satire, "The Prophecy of Famine. "]

You will be pleased with the Anacreontic, written by Lord Middlesex uponSir Harry Bellendine: I have not seen anything so antique for ages; ithas all the fire, poetry, and simplicity of Horace. 

 Ye sons of Bacchus, come and join In solemn dirge, while tapers shine Around the grape-embossed shrine Of honest Harry Bellendine. 

 Pour the rich juice of Bourdeaux's wine, Mix'd with your falling tears of brine, In full libation o'er the shrine Of honest Harry Bellendine. 

 Your brows let ivy chaplets twine, While you push round the sparkling wine, And let your table be the shrine Of honest Harry Bellendine. 

He died in his vocation, of a high fever, after the celebration of someorgies. Though but six hours in his senses, he gave a proof of his usualgood humour, making it his last request to the sister Tuftons to bereconciled; which they are. His pretty villa, in my neighbourhood, Ifancy he has left to the new Lord Lorn. I must tell you an admirable_bon mot_ of George Selwyn, though not a new one; when there was amalicious report that the eldest Tufton was to marry Dr. Duncan, Selwynsaid, "How often will she repeat that line of Shakspeare, Wake Duncan with this knocking--would thou couldst!"

I enclose the receipt from your lawyer. Adieu!

_CAPTURE OF BELLEISLE--GRAY'S POEMS--HOGARTH'S VANITY. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _May_ 5, 1761. 

We have lost a young genius, Sir William Williams; an express fromBelleisle, arrived this morning, brings nothing but his death. He wasshot very unnecessarily, riding too near a battery; in sum, he is asacrifice to his own rashness, and to ours. For what are we takingBelleisle?[1] I rejoiced at the little loss we had on landing; for theglory, I leave it the common council. I am very willing to leave Londonto them too, and do pass half the week at Strawberry, where my twopassions, lilacs and nightingales, are in full bloom. I spent Sunday asif it were Apollo's birthday; Gray and Mason were with me, and welistened to the nightingales till one o'clock in the morning. Gray hastranslated two noble incantations from the Lord knows who, a DanishGray, who lived the Lord knows when. They are to be enchased in ahistory of English bards, which Mason and he are writing; but of whichthe former has not written a word yet, and of which the latter, if herides Pegasus at his usual footpace, will finish the first page twoyears hence. 

[Footnote 1: Belleisle was of no value to us to keep; but Pitt sent anexpedition against it, that in any future treaty of peace he might beable to exchange it for Minorca. ]

But the true frantic Oestus resides at present with Mr. Hogarth; I wentt'other morning to see a portrait he is painting of Mr. Fox. Hogarthtold me he had promised, if Mr. Fox would sit as he liked, to make asgood a picture as Vandyke or Rubens could. I was silent--"Why now, " saidhe, "you think this very vain, but why should not one speak truth?" This_truth_ was uttered in the face of his own Sigismonda, which is exactlya maudlin street-walker, tearing off the trinkets that her keeper hadgiven her, to fling at his head. She has her father's picture in abracelet on her arm, and her fingers are bloody with the heart, as ifshe had just bought a sheep's pluck in St. James's Market. As I wasgoing, Hogarth put on a very grave face, and said, "Mr. Walpole, I wantto speak to you. " I sat down, and said, I was ready to receive hiscommands. For shortness, I will mark this wonderful dialogue by initialletters. 

H. I am told you are going to entertain the town with something in ourway. W. Not very soon, Mr. Hogarth. H. I wish you would let me have it, to correct; I should be very sorry to have you expose yourself tocensure; we painters must know more of those things than other people. W. Do you think nobody understands painting but painters? H. Oh! so farfrom it, there's Reynolds, who certainly has genius; why, but t'otherday he offered a hundred pounds for a picture, that I would not hang inmy cellar; and indeed, to say truth, I have generally found, thatpersons who had studied painting least were the best judges of it; butwhat I particularly wished to say to you was about Sir James Thornhill(you know he married Sir James's daughter): I would not have you sayanything against him; there was a book published some time ago, abusinghim, and it gave great offence. He was the first that attempted_history_ in England, and, I assure you, some Germans have said that hewas a very great painter. W. My work will go no lower than the year onethousand seven hundred, and I really have not considered whether Sir J. Thornhill will come within my plan or not; if he does, I fear you and Ishall not agree upon his merits. H. I wish you would let me correct it;besides, I am writing something of the same kind myself; I should besorry we should clash. W. I believe it is not much known what my workis, very few persons have seen it. H. Why, it is a critical history ofpainting, is not it? W. No, it is an antiquarian history of it inEngland; I bought Mr. Vertue's MSS. , and, I believe, the work will notgive much offence; besides, if it does, I cannot help it; when I publishanything, I give it to the world to think of it as they please. H. Oh!if it is an antiquarian work, we shall not clash; mine is a criticalwork; I don't know whether I shall ever publish it. It is rather anapology for painters. I think it is owing to the good sense of theEnglish that they have not painted better. W. My dear Mr. Hogarth, Imust take my leave of you, you now grow too wild--and I left him. If Ihad stayed, there remained nothing but for him to bite me. I give you myhonour this conversation is literal, and, perhaps, as long as you haveknown Englishmen and painters, you never met with anything sodistracted. I had consecrated a line to his genius (I mean, for wit) inmy Preface; I shall not erase it; but I hope nobody will ask me if he isnot mad. Adieu!

_INTENDED MARRIAGE OF THE KING--BATTLES IN GERMANY--CAPTURE OFPONDICHERRY--BURKE. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _July_ 22, 1761. 

For my part, I believe Mademoiselle Scudéri[1] drew the plan of thisyear. It is all royal marriages, coronations, and victories; they cometumbling so over one another from distant parts of the globe, that itlooks just like the handywork of a lady romance writer, whom it costsnothing but a little false geography to make the Great Mogul in lovewith a Princess of Mecklenburgh, and defeat two marshals of France[2] ashe rides post on an elephant to his nuptials. I don't know where I am. Ihad scarce found Mecklenburg Strelitz with a magnifying-glass before Iam whisked to Pondicherry--well, I take it, and raze it. I begin to growacquainted with Colonel Coote, [3] and figure him packing up chests ofdiamonds, and sending them to his wife against the King'swedding--thunder go to the Tower guns, and behold, Broglie and Soubiseare totally defeated; if the mob have not much stronger heads andquicker conceptions than I have, they will conclude my Lord Granby isbecome nabob. How the deuce in two days can one digest all this? Why isnot Pondicherry in Westphalia? I don't know how the Romans did, but Icannot support two victories every week. Well, but you will want to knowthe particulars. Broglie and Soubise united, attacked our army on the15th, but were repulsed; the next day, the Prince Mahomet Alli Cawn--no, no, I mean Prince Ferdinand, returned the attack, and the French threwdown their arms and fled, run over my Lord Harcourt, who was going tofetch the new Queen; in short, I don't know how it was, but Mr. Conwayis safe, and I am as happy as Mr. Pitt himself. We have only lost aLieutenant-colonel Keith; Colonel Marlay and Harry Townshend arewounded. 

[Footnote 1: Mdlle. Scudéri and her brother were writers of romances ofenormous length, and, in their time, of great popularity (seeD'Israeli's account of them, "Curiosities of Literature, " i. 105). ]

[Footnote 2: "_Defeat two French marshals_"--they were Maréchal deBroglie and the Prince de Soubise. The action, which, however, was ofbut little importance, is called by Lacretelle "Le Combat deFillingshausen. "]

[Footnote 3: Colonel Eyre Coote, the best soldier next to Clive himselfthat India had yet seen, had defeated the French Governor, Count Lally, at Wandewash in January, 1760; and the capture of Pondicherry was oneimportant fruit of the victory. ]

I could beat myself for not having a flag ready to display on my roundtower, and guns mounted on all my battlements. Instead of that, I havebeen foolishly trying on my new pictures upon my gallery. However, theoratory of our Lady of Strawberry shall be dedicated next year on theanniversary of Mr. Conway's safety. Think with his intrepidity, anddelicacy of honour wounded, what I had to apprehend; you shallabsolutely be here on the sixteenth of next July. Mr. Hamilton tells meyour King does not set out for his new dominions till the day after theCoronation; if you will come to it, I can give you a very good place forthe procession; where, is a profound secret, because, if known, I shouldbe teased to death, and none but my first friends shall be admitted. Idined with your secretary [Single-speech Hamilton] yesterday; there wereGarrick and a young Mr. Burke[1]--who wrote a book in the style of LordBolingbroke, that was much admired. He is a sensible man, but has notworn off his authorism yet, and thinks there is nothing so charming aswriters, and to be one. He will know better one of these days. I likeHamilton's little Marly; we walked in the great _allée_, and drank teain the arbour of treillage; they talked of Shakspeare and Booth, ofSwift and my Lord Bath, and I was thinking of Madame Sévigné. Goodnight--I have a dozen other letters to write; I must tell my friends howhappy I am--not as an Englishman, but as a cousin. 

[Footnote 1: Mr. Burke's book was "A Vindication of Natural Society, "and was regarded as a very successful imitation of the style of LordBolingbroke. ]

_ARRIVAL OF THE PRINCESS OF MECKLENBURGH--THE ROYAL WEDDING--THE QUEEN'SAPPEARANCE AND BEHAVIOUR. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Sept. _ 10, 1761. 

When we least expected the Queen, she came, after being ten days at sea, but without sickness for above half-an-hour. She was gay the wholevoyage, sung to her harpsichord, and left the door of her cabin open. They made the coast of Suffolk last Saturday, and on Monday morning shelanded at Harwich; so prosperously has his Majesty's chief eunuch, asthey have made the Tripoline ambassador call Lord Anson, executed hiscommission. She lay that night at your old friend Lord Abercorn's, atWitham [in Essex]; and, if she judged by her host, must have thought shewas coming to reign in the realm of taciturnity. She arrived at St. James's a quarter after three on Tuesday the 8th. When she first saw thePalace she turned pale: the Duchess of Hamilton smiled. "My dearDuchess, " said the Princess, "_you_ may laugh; you have been marriedtwice; but it is no joke to me. " Is this a bad proof of her sense? Onthe journey they wanted her to curl her toupet. "No, indeed, " said she, "I think it looks as well as those of the ladies who have been sent forme: if the King would have me wear a periwig, I will; otherwise I shalllet myself alone. " The Duke of York gave her his hand at thegarden-gate: her lips trembled, but she jumped out with spirit. In thegarden the King met her; she would have fallen at his feet; he preventedand embraced her, and led her into the apartments, where she wasreceived by the Princess of Wales and Lady Augusta: these threeprincesses only dined with the King. At ten the procession went tochapel, preceded by unmarried daughters of peers, and peeresses inplenty. The new Princess was led by the Duke of York and Prince William;the Archbishop married them; the King talked to her the whole time withgreat good humour, and the Duke of Cumberland gave her away. She is nottall, nor a beauty; pale, and very thin; but looks sensible; and isgenteel. Her hair is darkish and fine; her forehead low, her nose verywell, except the nostrils spreading too wide; her mouth has the samefault, but her teeth are good. She talks a good deal, and Frenchtolerably; possesses herself, is frank, but with great respect to theKing. After the ceremony, the whole company came into the drawing-roomfor about ten minutes, but nobody was presented that night. The Queenwas in white and silver; an endless mantle of violet-coloured velvet, lined with ermine, and attempted to be fastened on her shoulder by abunch of large pearls, dragged itself and almost the rest of her clotheshalfway down her waist. On her head was a beautiful little tiara ofdiamonds; a diamond necklace, and a stomacher of diamonds, worth threescore thousand pounds, which she is to wear at the Coronation too. Hertrain was borne by the ten bridesmaids, Lady Sarah Lenox, [1] LadyCaroline Russell, Lady Caroline Montagu, Lady Harriot Bentinck, LadyAnne Hamilton, Lady Essex Kerr (daughters of Dukes of Richmond, Bedford, Manchester, Portland, Hamilton, and Roxburgh); and four daughters of theEarls of Albemarle, Brook, Harcourt, and Ilchester--Lady ElizabethKeppel, Louisa Greville, Elizabeth Harcourt, and Susan Fox Strangways:their heads crowned with diamonds, and in robes of white and silver. Lady Caroline Russell is extremely handsome; Lady Elizabeth Keppel verypretty; but with neither features nor air, nothing ever looked socharming as Lady Sarah Lenox; she has all the glow of beauty peculiar toher family. As supper was not ready, the Queen sat down, sung, andplayed on the harpsichord to the Royal Family, who all supped with herin private. They talked of the different German dialects; the King askedif the Hanoverian was not pure--"Oh, no, Sir, " said the Queen; "it isthe worst of all. "--She will not be unpopular. 

[Footnote 1: Lady Sarah Lennox, in an account of a theatricalperformance at Holland House in a previous letter, is described byWalpole as "more beautiful than you can conceive. " The King himselfadmired her so greatly that he is believed to have had serious thoughtsof choosing her to be his queen. She afterwards married Major G. Napier, and became the mother of Sir William and Sir Charles Napier. ]

The Duke of Cumberland told the King that himself and Lady Augusta weresleepy. The Queen was very averse to leave the company, and at lastarticled that nobody should accompany her but the Princess of Wales andher own two German women, and that nobody should be admitted afterwardsbut the King--they did not retire till between two and three. 

The next morning the King had a levée. He said to Lord Hardwicke, "It isa very fine day:" that old gossip replied, "Yes, Sir, and it was a veryfine night. " Lord Bute had told the King that Lord Orford had betted hishaving a child before Sir James Lowther, who had been married the nightbefore to Lord Bute's eldest daughter; the King told Lord Orford heshould be glad to go his halves. The bet was made with Mr. Rigby. Somebody asked the latter how he could be so bad a courtier as to betagainst the King? He replied, "Not at all a bad courtier; I betted LordBute's daughter against him. "

After the King's Levee there was a Drawing-room; the Queen stood underthe throne: the women were presented to her by the Duchess of Hamilton, and then the men by the Duke of Manchester; but as she knew nobody, shewas not to speak. At night there was a ball, drawing-rooms yesterday andto-day, and then a cessation of ceremony till the Coronation, exceptnext Monday, when she is to receive the address of the Lord Mayor andAldermen, sitting on the throne attended by the bridesmaids. Aridiculous circumstance happened yesterday; Lord Westmoreland, not veryyoung nor clear-sighted, mistook Lady Sarah Lenox for the Queen, kneeledto her, and would have kissed her hand if she had not prevented him. People think that a Chancellor of Oxford was naturally attracted by theblood of Stuart. It is as comical to see Kitty Dashwood, the famous oldbeauty of the Oxfordshire Jacobites, living in the palace as Duenna tothe Queen. She and Mrs. Boughton, Lord Lyttelton's ancient Delia, arerevived again in a young court that never heard of them. There, I think, you could not have had a more circumstantial account of a royal weddingfrom the Heralds' Office. Adieu!

Yours to serve you, HORACE SANDFORD. 

Mecklenburgh King-at-Arms. 

_THE CORONATION AND SUBSEQUENT GAIETIES. _

TO THE COUNTESS OF AILESBURY. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _Sept. _ 27, 1761. 

You are a mean, mercenary woman. If you did not want histories ofweddings and coronations, and had not jobs to be executed about muslins, and a bit of china, and counterband goods, one should never hear of you. When you don't want a body, you can frisk about with greffiers andburgomasters, and be as merry in a dyke as my lady frog herself. Themoment your curiosity is agog, or your cambric seized, you recollect agood cousin in England, and, as folks said two hundred years ago, beginto write "upon the knees of your heart. " Well! I am a sweet-temperedcreature, I forgive you. 

[Illustration: THE LIBRARY, STRAWBERRY HILL]

My heraldry was much more offended at the Coronation with the ladiesthat did walk, than with those that walked out of their place; yet I wasnot so _perilously_ angry as my Lady Cowper, who refused to set a footwith my Lady Macclesfield; and when she was at last obliged to associatewith her, set out on a round trot, as if she designed to prove theantiquity of her family by marching as lustily as a maid of honour ofQueen Gwiniver. It was in truth a brave sight. The sea of heads inPalace-yard, the guards, horse and foot, the scaffolds, balconies, andprocession exceeded imagination. The Hall, when once illuminated, wasnoble; but they suffered the whole parade to return into it in thedark, that his Majesty might be surprised with the quickness with whichthe sconces catched fire. The Champion acted well; the other Paladinshad neither the grace nor alertness of Rinaldo. Lord Effingham and theDuke of Bedford were but untoward knights errant; and Lord Talbot hadnot much more dignity than the figure of General Monk in the Abbey. Thehabit of the peers is unbecoming to the last degree; but the peeressesmade amends for all defects. Your daughter Richmond, Lady Kildare, andLady Pembroke were as handsome as the Graces. Lady Rochford, LadyHoldernesse, and Lady Lyttelton looked exceedingly well in that theirday; and for those of the day before, the Duchess of Queensbury, LadyWestmoreland and Lady Albemarle were surprising. Lady Harrington wasnoble at a distance, and so covered with diamonds, that you would havethought she had bid somebody or other, like Falstaff, _rob me theExchequer_. Lady Northampton was very magnificent too, and lookedprettier than I have seen her of late. Lady Spencer and Lady Bolingbrokewere not the worst figures there. The Duchess of Ancaster [Mistress ofthe Robes] marched alone after the Queen with much majesty; and therewere two new Scotch peeresses that pleased everybody, Lady Sutherlandand Lady Dunmore. _Per contra_, were Lady P----, who had put a wig on, and old E----, who had scratched hers off; Lady S----, the DowagerE----, and a Lady Say and Sele, with her tresses coal-black, and herhair coal-white. Well! it was all delightful, but not half so charmingas its being over. The gabble one heard about it for six weeks before, and the fatigue of the day, could not well be compensated by a merepuppet-show; for puppet-show it was, though it cost a million. The Queenis so gay that we shall not want sights; she has been at the Opera, theBeggar's Opera and the Rehearsal, and two nights ago carried the King toRanelagh. 

Some of the peeresses were so fond of their robes, that they graciouslyexhibited themselves for a whole day before to all the company theirservants could invite to see them. A maid from Richmond begged leave tostay in town because the Duchess of Montrose was only to be seen fromtwo to four. The Heralds were so ignorant of their business, that, though pensioned for nothing but to register lords and ladies, and whatbelongs to them, they advertised in the newspaper for the Christiannames and places of abode of the peeresses. The King complained of suchomissions and of the want of precedent; Lord Effingham, the EarlMarshal, told him, it was true there had been great neglect in thatoffice, but he had now taken such care of registering directions, that_next coronation_ would be conducted with the greatest order imaginable. The King was so diverted with this _flattering_ speech that he made theearl repeat it several times. 

On this occasion one saw to how high-water-mark extravagance is risen inEngland. At the Coronation of George II. My mother gave forty guineasfor a dining-room, scaffold, and bedchamber. An exactly parallelapartment, only with rather a worse view, was this time set at threehundred and fifty guineas--a tolerable rise in thirty-three years! Theplatform from St. Margaret's Roundhouse to the church-door, whichformerly let for forty pounds, went this time for two thousand fourhundred pounds. Still more was given for the inside of the Abbey. Theprebends would like a Coronation every year. The King paid nine thousandpounds for the hire of jewels; indeed, last time, it cost my fatherfourteen hundred to bejewel my Lady Orford. 

_A COURT BALL--PAMPHLETS ON MR. PITT--A SONG BY GRAY. _

TO THE COUNTESS OF AILESBURY. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Nov. _ 28, 1761. 

Dear Madam, --You are so bad and so good, that I don't know how to treatyou. You give me every mark of kindness but letting me hear from you. You send me charming drawings the moment I trouble you with acommission, and you give Lady Cecilia [Johnston] commissions for triflesof my writing, in the most obliging manner. I have taken the latter offher hands. The Fugitive Pieces, and the "Catalogue of Royal and NobleAuthors" shall be conveyed to you directly. Lady Cecilia and I agree howwe lament the charming suppers there, every time we pass the corner ofWarwick Street! We have a little comfort for your sake and our own, inbelieving that the campaign is at an end, at least for this year--butthey tell us, it is to recommence here or in Ireland. You have nothingto do with that. Our politics, I think, will soon be as warm as our war. Charles Townshend is to be lieutenant-general to Mr. Pitt. The Duke ofBedford is privy seal; Lord Thomond, cofferer; Lord George Cavendish, comptroller. 

Diversions, you know, Madam, are never at high-water mark beforeChristmas; yet operas flourish pretty well: those on Tuesdays areremoved to Mondays, because the Queen likes the burlettas, and the Kingcannot go on Tuesdays, his post-days. On those nights we have the middlefront box, railed in, where Lady Mary [Coke] and I sit in triste statelike a Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress. The night before last there was aprivate ball at court, which began at half an hour after six, lastedtill one, and finished without a supper. The King danced the whole timewith the Queen, --Lady Augusta with her four younger brothers. The otherperformers were: the two Duchesses of Ancaster and Hamilton, who dancedlittle; Lady Effingham and Lady Egremont, who danced much; the six maidsof honour; Lady Susan Stewart, as attending Lady Augusta; and LadyCaroline Russel, and Lady Jane Stuart, the only women not of the family. Lady Northumberland is at Bath; Lady Weymouth lies in; Lady Bolingbrokewas there in waiting, but in black gloves, so did not dance. The men, besides the royals, were Lords March and Eglintoun, of the bedchamber;Lord Cantelupe, vice-chamberlain; Lord Huntingdon; and four strangers, Lord Mandeville, Lord Northampton, Lord Suffolk, and Lord Grey. Nositters-by, but the Princess, the Duchess of Bedford, and Lady Bute. 

If it had not been for this ball, I don't know how I should havefurnished a decent letter. Pamphlets on Mr. Pitt[1] are the wholeconversation, and none of them worth sending cross the water: at leastI, who am said to write some of them, think so; by which you mayperceive I am not much flattered with the imputation. There must be newpersonages, at least, before I write on any side. --Mr. Pitt and the Dukeof Newcastle! I should as soon think of informing the world that MissChudleigh is no vestal. You will like better to see some words which Mr. Gray has writ, at Miss Speed's request, to an old air of Geminiani; thethought is from the French. 

 I. 

 Thyrsis, when we parted, swore Ere the spring he would return. Ah! what means yon violet flower, And the bud that decks the thorn! 'Twas the lark that upward sprung, 'Twas the nightingale that sung. 

 II. 

 Idle notes! untimely green! Why this unavailing haste! Western gales and skies serene Speak not always winter past. Cease my doubts, my fears to move; Spare the honour of my love. 

Adieu, Madam, your most faithful servant. 

[Footnote 1: Mr. Pitt had lately resigned the office of Secretary ofState, on being outvoted in the Cabinet, which rejected his proposal todeclare war against Spain; and he had accepted a pension of £3, 000 ayear and a peerage for his wife--acts which Walpole condemns in morethan one letter, and which provoked comments in many quarters. ]

_DEATH OF THE CZARINA ELIZABETH--THE COCK-LANE GHOST--RETURN TO ENGLANDOF LADY MARY WORTLEY. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Jan. _ 29, 1762. 

I wish you joy, sir minister; the Czarina [Elizabeth] is dead. As _weconquered America in Germany_, [1] I hope we shall overrun Spain by thisburial at Petersburg. Yet, don't let us plume ourselves too fast;nothing is so like a Queen as a King, nothing so like a predecessor as asuccessor. The favourites of the Prince Royal of Prussia, who hadsuffered so much for him, were wofully disappointed, when he became thepresent glorious Monarch; they found the English maxim true, that theKing never dies; that is, the dignity and passions of the Crown neverdie. We were not much less defeated of our hopes on the decease ofPhilip V. The Grand Duke[2] [Peter III. ] has been proclaimed Czar at thearmy in Pomerania; he may love conquest like that army, or not know itis conquering, like his aunt. However, we cannot suffer more by thisevent. I would part with the Empress Queen, on no better a prospect. 

[Footnote 1: "_We conquered America in Germany. _" This is a quotationfrom a boastful speech of Mr. Pitt's on the conquest of Canada. ]

[Footnote 2: The Grand Duke (Peter III. ) was married, for hismisfortune, to Catharine, a princess of Anhalt-Zerbzt, whose lover, Count Orloff, murdered him before the end of the summer, at his wife'scommand; and in August she assumed the government, and was crowned withall due solemnity as Czarina or Empress. Walpole had some reason forsaying that "nothing was so like a predecessor as a successor, " since incharacter Elizabeth closely resembled Catharine. ]

We have not yet taken the galleons, nor destroyed the Spanish fleet. Norhave they enslaved Portugal, nor you made a triumphant entry intoNaples. My dear sir, you see how lucky you were not to go thither; youdon't envy Sir James Grey, do you? Pray don't make any categoricaldemands to Marshal Botta, [1] and be obliged to retire to Leghorn, because they are not answered. We want allies; preserve us our friendthe Great Duke of Tuscany. I like your answer to Botta exceedingly, butI fear the Court of Vienna is shame-proof. The Apostolic and ReligiousEmpress is not a whit a better Christian, not a jot less a woman, thanthe late Russian Empress, who gave such proofs of her being a _woman_. 

[Footnote 1: Marshal Botta was the Commander-in-chief in Tuscany. ]

We have a mighty expedition on the point of sailing; the destination notdisclosed. The German War loses ground daily; however, all is still inembryo. My subsequent letters are not likely to be so barren, andindecisive. I write more to prove there is nothing, than to tell youanything. 

You were mistaken, I believe, about the Graftons; they do not removefrom Turin, till George Pitt arrives to occupy their house there. I amreally anxious about the fate of my letter to the Duchess [of Grafton];I should be hurt if it had miscarried; she would have reason to think mevery ungrateful. 

I have given your letter to Mr. T[homas] Pitt; he has been veryunfortunate since his arrival--has lost his favourite sister inchild-bed. Lord Tavistock, I hear, has written accounts of you that giveme much pleasure. 

I am ashamed to tell you that we are again dipped into an egregiousscene of folly. The reigning fashion is a ghost[1]--a ghost, that wouldnot pass muster in the paltriest convent in the Apennine. It only knocksand scratches; does not pretend to appear or to speak. The clergy giveit their benediction; and all the world, whether believers or infidels, go to hear it. I, in which number you may guess, go to-morrow; for it isas much the mode to visit the ghost as the Prince of Mecklenburgh, whois just arrived. I have not seen him yet, though I have left my name forhim. But I will tell you who is come too--Lady Mary Wortley. [2] I wentlast night to visit her; I give you my honour, and you who know her, would credit me without it, the following is a faithful description. Ifound her in a little miserable bedchamber of a ready-furnished house, with two tallow candles, and a bureau covered with pots and pans. On herhead, in full of all accounts, she had an old black-laced hood, wrappedentirely round, so as to conceal all hair or want of hair. Nohandkerchief, but up to her chin a kind of horseman's riding-coat, calling itself a pet-en-l'air, made of a dark green (green I think ithad been) brocade, with coloured and silver flowers, and lined withfurs; boddice laced, a foul dimity petticoat sprig'd, velvet muffeteenson her arms, grey stockings and slippers. Her face less changed intwenty years than I could have imagined; I told her so, and she was notso tolerable twenty years ago that she needed have taken it forflattery, but she did, and literally gave me a box on the ear. She isvery lively, all her senses perfect, her languages as imperfect as ever, her avarice greater. She entertained me at first with nothing but thedearness of provisions at Helvoet. With nothing but an Italian, aFrench, and a Prussian, all men servants, and something she calls an_old_ secretary, but whose age till he appears will be doubtful; shereceives all the world, who go to homage her as Queen Mother, [3] andcrams them into this kennel. The Duchess of Hamilton, who came in justafter me, was so astonished and diverted, that she could not speak toher for laughing. She says that she has left all her clothes at Venice. I really pity Lady Bute; what will the progress be of such acommencement!

[Footnote 1: It was known as the Cock-lane Ghost. A girl in that laneasserted that she was nightly visited by a ghost, who could reveal amurder, and who gave her tokens of his (or its) presence by knocks andscratches, which were audible to others in the room besides herself; andat last she went so far as to declare that the ghost had promised toattend a witness, who might be selected, into the vault under the Churchof St. John's, Clerkenwell, where the body of the supposed victim wasburied. Her story caused such excitement, that at last Dr. Johnson, Dr. Douglas (afterwards Bishop of Salisbury), and one or two othergentlemen, undertook an investigation of the affair, which proved beyondall doubt that it was a trick, though they could not discover how it wasperformed, nor could they make the girl confess; and Johnson wrote anaccount of their investigations and verdict, which was published in _TheGentleman's Magazine_ and the newspapers of the day (Boswell's "Life ofJohnson, " ann. 1763). ]

[Footnote 2: Lady Mary Wortley was a daughter of the Duke of Kingstonand wife of Mr. Wortley, our ambassador at Constantinople. She was themost accomplished lady of the eighteenth century. Christian Europe isindebted to her for the introduction of the practice of inoculation forthe smallpox, of which she heard during her residence in Turkey, and ofthe efficacy of which she was so convinced that she caused her ownchildren to be inoculated; and, by publishing its success in their case, she led to its general adoption. It saved innumerable lives in theeighteenth century, and was, in fact, the parent of the vaccinationwhich has superseded it, and which is merely inoculation with matterderived from another source, the cow. She was also an authoress ofconsiderable repute for lyric odes and _vers de société_, &c. , and, above all, for her letters, most of which are to her daughter, Lady Bute(as Mme. De Sévigné's are to her daughter, Mme. De Grignan), and whichare in no respect inferior to those of the French lady in sprightly wit, while in the variety of their subjects they are far superior, as givingthe account of Turkish scenery and manners, and also of those of othercountries which her husband visited on various diplomatic missions, while Mme. De Sévigné's are for the greater part confined to the gossipof the coteries of Paris. Her works occupy five volumes; but what wehave is but a small part of what we might have had. D'Israeli points outthat "we have lost much valuable literature by the illiberal ormalignant descendants of learned and ingenious persons. Many of LadyMary Wortley Montague's letters have been destroyed, I am informed, byher daughters, who imagined that the family honours were lowered by theaddition of those of literature. Some of her best letters, recentlypublished, were found buried in an old trunk. It would have mortifiedher ladyship's daughter to have heard that her mother was the Sévigné ofBritain" ("Curiosities of Literature, " i. 54); and, as will be seen in asubsequent letter (No. 67), Walpole corroborates D'Israeli. Lady Marywas at one time a friend and correspondent of Pope, who afterwards, forsome unknown reason, quarrelled with her, and made her the subject ofsome of the most disgraceful libels that ever proceeded from even hispen. ]

[Footnote 3: She was mother of Lady Bute, wife of the PrimeMinister. --WALPOLE. ]

The King of France has avowed a natural son, [1] and given him the estatewhich came from Marshal Belleisle, with the title of Comte de Gisors. The mother I think is called Matignon or Maquignon. Madame Pompadourwas the Bathsheba that introduced this Abishag. Adieu, my dear sir!

[Footnote 1: This was a false report. --WALPOLE. ]

_HIS OWN "ANECDOTES OF PAINTING"--HIS PICTURE OF THE WEDDING OF HENRYVII. --BURNET'S COMPARISON OF TIBERIUS AND CHARLES II. --ADDISON'S"TRAVELS. "_

TO THE REV. HENRY ZOUCH. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _March_ 20, 1762. 

I am glad you are pleased, Sir, with my "Anecdotes of Painting;" but Idoubt you praise me too much: it was an easy task when I had thematerials collected, and I would not have the labours of forty years, which was Vertue's case, depreciated in compliment to the work of fourmonths, which is almost my whole merit. Style is become, in a manner, amechanical affair, and if to much ancient lore our antiquaries would adda little modern reading, to polish their language and correct theirprejudices, I do not see why books of antiquities should not be made asamusing as writings on any other subject. If Tom Hearne had lived in theworld, he might have writ an agreeable history of dancing; at least, Iam sure that many modern volumes are read for no reason but for theirbeing penned in the dialect of the age. 

I am much beholden to you, dear Sir, for your remarks; they shall havetheir due place whenever the work proceeds to a second edition, for thatthe nature of it as a record will ensure to it. A few of your notesdemand a present answer: the Bishop of Imola pronounced the nuptialbenediction at the marriage of Henry VII. , which made me suppose him theperson represented. [1]

[Footnote 1: In a previous letter Walpole mentions that Vertue (theengraver) had disputed the subject of this picture, because the face ofthe King did not resemble other pictures of him; but Walpole wasconvinced of the correctness of his description of it, because it doesresemble the face on Henry's shillings, "which are more authentic thanpictures. "]

Burnet, who was more a judge of characters than statues, mentions theresemblance between Tiberius and Charles II. ; but, as far ascountenances went, there could not be a more ridiculous prepossession;Charles had a long face, with very strong lines, and a narrowish brow;Tiberius a very square face, and flat forehead, with features ratherdelicate in proportion. I have examined this imaginary likeness, and seeno kind of foundation for it. It is like Mr. Addison's Travels, [1] ofwhich it was so truly said, he might have composed them without stirringout of England. There are a kind of naturalists who have sorted out thequalities of the mind, and allotted particular turns of features andcomplexions to them. It would be much easier to prove that every formhas been endowed with every vice. One has heard much of the vigour ofBurnet himself; yet I dare to say, he did not think himself like CharlesII. 

[Footnote 1: It is Fielding who, in his "Voyage to Lisbon, " gave thischaracter to Addison's "Travels. "]

I am grieved, Sir, to hear that your eyes suffer; take care of them;nothing can replace the satisfaction they afford: one should hoard them, as the only friend that will not be tired of one when one grows old, and when one should least choose to depend on others for entertainment. I most sincerely wish you happiness and health in that and every otherinstance. 

_BIRTH OF THE PRINCE OF WALES--THE CZARINA--VOLTAIRE'S HISTORICALCRITICISMS--IMMENSE VALUE OF THE TREASURES BROUGHT OVER IN THE"HERMIONE. "_

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Aug. _ 12, 1762. 

A Prince of Wales [George IV. ] was born this morning; the prospect ofyour old neighbour [the Pretender] at Rome does not improve; the Houseof Hanover will have numbers in its own family sufficient to defendtheir crown--unless they marry a Princess of Anhalt Zerbst. What ashocking tragedy that has proved already! There is a manifesto arrivedto-day that makes one shudder! This northern Athaliah, who has themodesty not to name her murdered _husband_ in that light, calls him _herneighbour_; and, as if all the world were savages, like Russians, pretends that he died suddenly of a distemper that never wasexpeditious; mocks Heaven with pretensions to charity and piety; andheaps the additional inhumanity on the man she has dethroned andassassinated, of imputing his death to a judgment from Providence. Inshort, it is the language of usurpation and blood, counselled andapologised for by clergymen! It is Brunehault[1] and an archbishop!

[Footnote 1: Brunehault (in modern English histories called Brunhild)was the wife of Sigebert, King of Austrasia (that district of Francewhich lies between the Meuse and the Rhine) and son of Clotaire I. The"Biographie Universelle" says of her: "This Princess, attractive by herbeauty, her wit, and her carriage, had the misfortune to possess a greatascendency over her husband, and to have lost sight of the fact thateven sovereigns cannot always avenge themselves with impunity. " Hersister, Galswith, the wife of Chilperic, King of Neustria, between theLoire and the Meuse, had been assassinated by Fredegonde, andBrunehault, determined to avenge her, induced Sigebert to make war onChilperic, who had married Fredegonde. He gained a victory; butFredegonde contrived to have him also assassinated, and Brunehaultbecame Fredegonde's prisoner. But Murovée, son of Chilperic, fell inlove with her, and married her, and escaping from Rouen, fled intoAustrasia. At last, in 595, Fredegonde died, and Brunehault subdued thegreater part of Neustria, and ruled with great but unscrupulous energy. She encouraged St. Augustine in his mission to England; she builthospitals and churches, earning by her zeal in such works a letter ofpanegyric from Pope Gregory the Great. But, old as she was, she at thesame time gave herself up to a life of outrageous license. It was not, however, her dissolute life which proved fatal to her, but the designwhich she showed to erect a firm monarchy in Austrasia and Neustria, byputting down the overgrown power of the nobles. They raised an army toattack her; she was defeated, and with four of her great-grandchildren, the sons of her grandson, King Theodoric, who had been left to herguardianship, fell into the hands of the nobles, who put her to deathwith every circumstance of cruelty and indignity. (See Kitchin's"History of France, " i. 91. )]

I have seen Mr. Keith's first despatch; in general, my account wastolerably correct; but he does not mention Ivan. The conspiracy advancedby one of the gang being seized, though for another crime; they thoughtthemselves discovered. Orloff, one of them, hurried to the Czarina, andtold her she had no time to lose. She was ready for anything; nay, marched herself at the head of fourteen thousand men and a train ofartillery against her husband, but not being the only Alecto in Muscovy, she had been aided by a Princess Daschkaw, a nymph under twenty, andsister to the Czar's mistress. It was not the latter, as I told you, butthe Chancellor's wife, who offered up the order of St. Catherine. I donot know how my Lord Buckingham [the English Minister at St. Petersburg]feels, but unless to conjure up a tempest against this fury of thenorth, nothing could bribe me to set my foot in her dominions. Had shebeen priestess of the Scythian Diana, she would have sacrificed herbrother by choice. It seems she does not degenerate; her mother wasambitious and passionate for intrigues; she went to Paris, and dabbledin politics with all her might. 

The world had been civilising itself till one began to doubt whetherancient histories were not ancient legends. Voltaire had unpoisoned halfthe victims to the Church and to ambition. Oh! there never was such aman as Borgia[1]; the league seemed a romance. For the honour of poorhistorians, the assassinations of the Kings of France and Portugal, majesties still living in spite of Damien and the Jesuits, and thedethronement and murder of the Czar, have restored some credibility tothe annals of former ages. Tacitus recovers his character by the editionof Petersburg. 

[Footnote 1: Borgia, the father, was Pope Sextus VI. ; Caesar Borgia wasthe son--both equally infamous for their crimes, and especially theirmurders by poison. ]

We expect the definitive courier from Paris every day. Now it is saidthat they ask time to send to Spain. What? to ask leave to desert them!The Spaniards, not so expeditious in usurpation as the Muscovites, havemade no progress in Portugal. Their absurd manifestoes appeared toosoon. The Czarina and Princess Daschkaw stay till the stroke is struck. Really, my dear Sir, your Italy is growing unfashionably innocent, --ifyou don't take care, the Archbishop of Novgorod will deserve, by hiscrimes, to be at the head of the _Christian_ Church. [1] I fear myfriend, good Benedict, infected you all with his virtues. 

[Footnote 1: That is, Pope Benedict XIV. ]

You see how this Russian revolution has seized every cell in my head--aPrince of Wales is passed over in a line, the peace in another line. Ihave not even told you that the treasure of the _Hermione_, [1] reckonedeight hundred thousand pounds, passed the end of my street this morningin one-and-twenty waggons. Of the Havannah I could tell you nothing if Iwould; people grow impatient at not hearing from thence. Adieu!

[Footnote 1: In August, 1761, Sir G. Pocock took Havannah, the capitalof Cuba. In September Commodore Cornish and Colonel Draper took Manilla, the principal of the Philippine Islands; and the treasures found inManilla alone exceeded the sum here mentioned by Walpole, and yet didnot equal those brought home from the Havannah, as Walpole mentions in asubsequent letter. ]

You see I am a punctual correspondent when Empresses commit murders. 

_NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE--CHRISTENING OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. _

TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _Sept. _ 9, 1762. 

 Nondum laurus erat, longoque decentia crine Tempora cingebat de quâlibet arbore Phoebus. [1]

[Footnote 1: The quotation is from Ovid, Met. I. 450. ]

This is a hint to you, that as Phoebus, who was certainly your superior, could take up with a chestnut garland, or any crown he found, you musthave the humility to be content without laurels, when none are to behad: you have hunted far and near for them, and taken true pains to thelast in that old nursery-garden Germany, and by the way have made meshudder with your last journal: but you must be easy with _quâlibet_other _arbore_; you must come home to your own plantations. The Duke ofBedford is gone in a fury to make peace, [1] for he cannot be evenpacific with temper; and by this time I suppose the Duke de Nivernois isunpacking his portion of olive _dans la rue de Suffolk Street_. I say, Isuppose--for I do not, like my friends at Arthur's, whip into mypost-chaise to see every novelty. My two sovereigns, the Duchess ofGrafton and Lady Mary Coke, are arrived, and yet I have seen neitherPolly nor Lucy. The former, I hear, is entirely French; the latter asabsolutely English. 

[Footnote 1: "On the 6th of September the Duke of Bedford embarked asambassador from England; on the 12th the Duc de Nivernois landed asambassador from France. Of these two noblemen, Bedford, though wellversed in affairs, was perhaps by his hasty temper in some degreedisqualified for the profession of a Temple or a Gondomar; and Nivernoiswas only celebrated for his graceful manners and his pretty songs" (LordStanhope, "History of England, " c. 38). ]

Well! but if you insist on not doffing your cuirass, you may find anopportunity of wearing it. The storm thickens. The City of London areready to hoist their standard; treason is the bon-ton at that end of thetown; seditious papers pasted up at every corner: nay, my neighbourhoodis not unfashionable; we have had them at Brentford and Kingston. ThePeace is the cry;[1] but to make weight, they throw in all the abusiveingredients they can collect. They talk of your friend the Duke ofDevonshire's resigning; and, for the Duke of Newcastle, it puts him somuch in mind of the end of Queen Anne's time, that I believe he hopes tobe Minister again for another forty years. 

[Footnote 1: "_The Peace is the cry. _" This was the peace of Paris, notabsolutely concluded till February of the next year. The conditions inour favour were so inadequate to our successes in the war, that thetreaty caused general indignation; so great, indeed, that Lord Bute, thePrime Minister, was afraid to face the meeting of Parliament, andresigned his office, in which he was succeeded by Mr. George Grenville. It was the subject of severe, but not undeserved comment in thecelebrated _North Briton_, No. 45, by Wilkes. ]

In the mean time, there are but dark news from the Havannah; the_Gazette_, who would not fib for the world, says, we have lost but fourofficers; the World, who is not quite so scrupulous, says, our loss isheavy. --But what shocking notice to those who have _Harry Conways_there! The _Gazette_ breaks off with saying, that they were to storm thenext day! Upon the whole, it is regarded as a preparative to worse news. 

Our next monarch [George IV. ] was christened last night, George AugustusFrederick; the Princess, the Duke of Cumberland, and Duke ofMecklenburgh, sponsors; the ceremony performed by the Bishop of London. The Queen's bed, magnificent, and they say in taste, was placed in thegreat drawing-room: though she is not to see company in form, yet itlooks as if they had intended people should have been there, as all whopresented themselves were admitted, which were very few, for it had notbeen notified; I suppose to prevent too great a crowd: all I have heardnamed, besides those in waiting, were the Duchess of Queensberry, LadyDalkeith, Mrs. Grenville, and about four more ladies. 

_TREASURES FROM THE HAVANNAH--THE ROYAL VISIT TO ETON--DEATH OF LADYMARY--CONCEALMENT OF HER WORKS--VOLTAIRE'S "UNIVERSAL HISTORY. "_

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _Oct. _ 3, 1762. 

I am now only the peace in your debt, for here is the Havannah. Here itis, following despair and accompanied by glory, riches, and twelveships-of-the-line; not all in person, for four are destroyed. Thebooty--that is an undignified term--I should say, the plunder, or thespoils, which is a more classic word for such heroes as we are, amountsto at least a million and a half. Lord Albemarle's share will be about£140, 000. I wish I knew how much that makes in _talents_ or _greatsesterces_. What to me is better than all, we have lost but sixteenhundred men; _but_, alas! Most of the sick recovered! What an affectingobject my Lady Albemarle would make in a triumph, surrounded by herthree victorious sons; for she had three at stake! My friend LadyHervey, [1] too, is greatly happy; her son Augustus distinguished himselfparticularly, brought home the news, and on his way took a rich Frenchship going to Newfoundland with military stores. I do not surely mean todetract from him, who set all this spirit on float, but you see we canconquer, though Mr. Pitt is at his plough. 

[Footnote 1: Lady Hervey, the widow of Pope's Lord Fanny and Sporus, hadbeen the beautiful "Molly Lepel, " celebrated by Lord Chesterfield. 

 Had I Hanover, Bremen, and Verden And likewise the Duchy of Zell, I would part with them all for a farden, Compared with sweet Molly Lepel. 

Three of her sons succeeded to the Earldom of Bristol. ]

The express arrived while the Duke de Nivernois was at dinner with LordBute. The world says, that the joy of the company showed itself with toolittle politeness--I hope not; I would not exult to a single man, and aminister of peace; it should be in the face of Europe, if I assumed thatdominion which the French used to arrogate; nor do I believe ithappened; all the company are not so charmed with the event. They arenot quite convinced that it will facilitate the pacification, nor am Iclear it will. The City of London will not lower their hopes, and views, and expectations, on this acquisition. Well, if we can steer wiselybetween insolence from success and impatience for peace, we may secureour safety and tranquillity for many years. But they are _not_ yetarrived, nor hear I anything that tells me the peace will certainly bemade. France _wants_ peace; I question if she _wishes_ it. How hisCatholic royalty will take this, one cannot guess. My good friend, weare not at table with Monsieur de Nivernois, so we may smile at thisconsequence of the family-compact. Twelve ships-of-the-line and theHavannah!--it becomes people who cannot keep their own, to divide theworld between them!

Your nephew Foote has made a charming figure; the King and Queen wentfrom Windsor to see Eton; he is captain of the Oppidans, and made aspeech to them with great applause. It was in English, which was right;why should we talk Latin to our Kings rather than Russ or Iroquois? Isthis a season for being ashamed of our country? Dr. Barnard, the master, is the Pitt of masters, and has raised the school to the mostflourishing state it ever knew. 

Lady Mary Wortley[1] has left twenty-one large volumes in prose andverse, in manuscript; nineteen are fallen to Lady Bute, and will not seethe light in haste. The other two Lady Mary in her passage gave tosomebody in Holland, and at her death expressed great anxiety to havethem published. Her family are in terrors lest they should be, and havetried to get them: hitherto the man is inflexible. Though I do not doubtbut they are an olio of lies and scandal, I should like to see them. Shehad parts, and had seen much. Truth is often at bottom of suchcompositions, and places itself here and there without the intention ofthe mother. I dare say in general, these works are like Madame delPozzo's _Memoires_. Lady Mary had more wit, and something more delicacy;their manners and morals were a good deal more alike. 

[Footnote 1: In a note to this letter, subsequently added by Walpole, hereduces this statement to seventeen, saying: "It was true that Lady Marydid leave seventeen volumes of her works and memories. She gave herletters from Constantinople to Mr. Sowden, minister of the EnglishChurch at Rotterdam, who published them; and, the day before she died, she gave him those seventeen volumes, with injunctions to publish themtoo; but in two days the man had a crown living from Lord Bute, and LadyBute had the seventeen volumes. "]

There is a lad, a waiter at St. James's coffee-house, of thirteen yearsold, who says he does not wonder we beat the French, for he himselfcould thrash Monsieur de Nivernois. This duke is so thin and small, thatwhen minister at Berlin, at a time that France was not in favour there, the King of Prussia said, if his eyes were a little older, he shouldwant a glass to see the embassador. I do not admire this bon-mot. Voltaire is continuing his "Universal History"; he showed the Duke ofGrafton a chapter, to which the title is, _Les Anglois vainqueurs dansles Quatres Parties du Monde_. There have been minutes in the course ofour correspondence when you and I did not expect to see this chapter. Itis bigger by a quarter than our predecessors the Romans had anypretensions to, and larger than I hope our descendants will see writtenof them, for conquest, unless by necessity, as ours has been, is anodious glory; witness my hand

H. WALPOLE. 

P. S. --I recollect that my last letter was a little melancholy; this, tobe sure, has a grain or two of national vanity; why, I must own I am amiserable philosopher; the weather of the hour does affect me. I cannothere, at a distance from the world and unconcerned in it, help feeling alittle satisfaction when my country is successful; yet, tasting itshonours and elated with them, I heartily, seriously wish they had their_quietus_. What is the fame of men compared to their happiness? Whogives a nation peace, gives tranquillity to all. How many must bewretched, before one can be renowned! A hero bets the lives and fortunesof thousands, whom he has no right to game with: but alas! Caesars havelittle regard to their fish and counters!

_RESIGNATION OF LORD BUTE--FRENCH VISITORS--WALPOLE AND NO. 45. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _April_ 30, 1763. 

The papers have told you all the formal changes; the real one consistssolely in Lord Bute being out of office, for, having recovered hisfright, he is still as much Minister as ever, and consequently does notfind his unpopularity decrease. On the contrary, I think his situationmore dangerous than ever: he has done enough to terrify his friends, and encourage his enemies, and has acquired no new strength; rather haslost strength, by the disappearance of Mr. Fox from the scene. Hisdeputies, too, will not long care to stand all the risk for him, whenthey perceive, as they must already, that they have neither credit norconfidence. Indeed the new administration is a general joke, and willscarce want a violent death to put an end to it. Lord Bute is veryblamable for embarking the King so deep in measures that may have soserious a termination. The longer the Court can stand its ground, themore firmly will the opposition be united, and the more inflamed. I haveever thought this would be a turbulent reign, and nothing has happenedto make me alter my opinion. 

Mr. Fox's exit has been very unpleasant. He would not venture to acceptthe Treasury, which Lord Bute would have bequeathed to him; and couldnot obtain an earldom, for which he thought he had stipulated; but someof the negotiators asserting that he had engaged to resign thePaymaster's place, which he vehemently denies, he has been forced totake up with a barony, and has broken with his associates--I do not sayfriends, for with the chief of _them_[1] he had quarrelled when heembarked in the new system. He meets with little pity, and yet has foundas much ingratitude as he had had power of doing service. 

[Footnote 1: "_The chief of them. _" Walpole himself explains in a notethat he means the Dukes of Cumberland and Devonshire. ]

I am glad you are going to have a great duke; it will amuse you, and anew Court will make Florence lively, the only beauty it wants. Youdivert me with my friend the Duke of Modena's conscientious match: ifthe Duchess had outlived him, she would not have been so scrupulous. But, for Hymen's sake, who is that Madame Simonetti? I trust, not thatold painted, gaming, debauched Countess from Milan, whom I saw at thefair of Reggio!

I surprise myself with being able to write two pages of pure English; Ido nothing but deal in broken French. The two nations are crossing overand figuring-in. We have had a Count d'Usson and his wife these sixweeks; and last Saturday arrived a Madame de Boufflers, _sçavante, galante_, a great friend of the Prince of Conti, and a passionateadmirer _de nous autres Anglois_. I am forced to live much with _toutça_, as they are perpetually at my Lady Hervey's; and as my LordHertford goes ambassador to Paris, where I shall certainly make him avisit next year--don't you think I shall be computing how far it is toFlorence? There is coming, too, a Marquis de Fleury, [1] who is to beconsigned to me, as a political relation, _vû l'amitié entre le Cardinalson oncle et feu monsieur mon père_. However, as my cousin Fleury is notabove six-and-twenty, I had much rather be excused from such acommission as showing the Tombs and the Lions, and the King and Queen, and my Lord Bute, and the Waxwork, to a boy. All this breaks in upon myplan of withdrawing by little and little from the world, for I hate totire it with an old lean face, and which promises to be an old lean facefor thirty years longer, for I am as well again as ever. The Duc deNivernois called here the other day in his way from Hampton Court; but, as the most sensible French never have eyes to see anything, unless theysee it every day and see it in fashion, I cannot say he flattered memuch, or was much struck with Strawberry. When I carried him into theCabinet, which I have told you is formed upon the idea of a Catholicchapel, he pulled off his hat, but perceiving his error, he said, "_Cen'est pas une chapelle pourtant_, " and seemed a little displeased. 

[Footnote 1: Cardinal Fleury, Prime Minister of France from 1727 to1742. Pope celebrated his love of peace--

 Peace is my dear delight, not Fleury's more;

and by his resolute maintenance of peace during the first seven years ofhis administration he had so revived the resources and restored thepower of his country, that when the question of going to war with Francewas discussed in the Council of Vienna the veteran Prince Eugene warnedthe Ministers that his wise and prudent administration had been sobeneficial to his country that the Empire was no longer a match for it. ]

My poor niece [Lady Waldegrave] does not forget her Lord, though by thistime I suppose the world has. She has taken a house here, at Twickenham, to be near me. Madame de Boufflers has heard so much of her beauty, thatshe told me she should be glad to peep through a grate anywhere to get aglimpse of her, --but at present it would not answer. I never saw sogreat an alteration in so short a period; but she is too young not torecover her beauty, only dimmed by grief that must be temporary. Adieu!my dear Sir. 

_Monday, May 2nd_, ARLINGTON STREET. 

The plot thickens: Mr. Wilkes is sent to the Tower for the last _NorthBriton_;[1] a paper whose fame must have reached you. It said Lord Butehad made the King utter a gross falsehood in his last speech. This herois as bad a fellow as ever hero was, abominable in private life, dull inParliament, but, they say, very entertaining in a room, and certainly nobad writer, besides having had the honour of contributing a great dealto Lord Bute's fall. Wilkes fought Lord Talbot in the autumn, whom hehad abused; and lately in Calais, when the Prince de Croy, the Governor, asked how far the liberty of the press extended in England, replied, Icannot tell, but I am trying to know. I don't believe this will be theonly paragraph I shall send you on this affair. 

[Footnote 1: The celebrated No. 45 which attacked the speech with whichthe King had opened Parliament; asserting that it was the speech not ofthe King, but of the Ministers; and that as such he had a right tocriticise it, and to denounce its panegyric of the late speech asfounded on falsehood. ]

_A PARTY AT "STRABERRI"--WORK OF HIS PRINTING PRESS--EPIGRAMS--A GARDENPARTY AT ESHER. _

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _May_ 17, 1763. 

"On vient de nous donner une très jolie fête au château de Straberri:tout étoit tapissé de narcisses, de tulipes, et de lilacs; des cors dechasse, des clarionettes; des petits vers galants faits par des fées, etqui se trouvoient sous la presse; des fruits à la glace, du thé, ducaffé, des biscuits, et force hot-rolls. "--This is not the beginning ofa letter to you, but of one that I might suppose sets out to-night forParis, or rather, which I do not suppose will set out thither; forthough the narrative is circumstantially true, I don't believe theactors were pleased enough with the scene, to give so favourable anaccount of it. 

The French do not come hither to see. _À l'Anglaise_ happened to be theword in fashion; and half a dozen of the most fashionable people havebeen the dupes of it. I take for granted that their next mode will be _àl'Iroquaise_, that they may be under no obligation of realising theirpretensions. Madame de Boufflers[1] I think will die a martyr to ataste, which she fancied she had, and finds she has not. Never havingstirred ten miles from Paris, and having only rolled in an easy coachfrom one hotel to another on a gliding pavement, she is already worn outwith being hurried from morning till night from one sight to another. She rises every morning so fatigued with the toils of the precedingday, that she has not strength, if she had inclination, to observe theleast, or the finest thing she sees! She came hither to-day to a greatbreakfast I made for her, with her eyes a foot deep in her head, herhands dangling, and scarce able to support her knitting-bag. She hadbeen yesterday to see a ship launched, and went from Greenwich by waterto Ranelagh. Madame Dusson, who is Dutch-built, and whose muscles arepleasure-proof, came with her; there were besides, Lady Mary Coke, Lordand Lady Holdernesse, the Duke and Duchess of Grafton, Lord Hertford, Lord Villiers, Offley, Messieurs de Fleury, D'Eon, [2] et Duclos. [3] Thelatter is author of the Life of Louis Onze; dresses like a dissentingminister, which I suppose is the livery of a _bel esprit_, and is muchmore impetuous than agreeable. We breakfasted in the great parlour, andI had filled the hall and large cloister by turns with French horns andclarionettes. As the French ladies had never seen a printing-house, Icarried them into mine; they found something ready set, and desiring tosee what it was, it proved as follows:--

The Press speaks--

FOR MADAME DE BOUFFLERS. 

 The graceful fair, who loves to know, Nor dreads the north's inclement snow; Who bids her polish'd accent wear The British diction's harsher air; Shall read her praise in every clime Where types can speak or poets rhyme. 

FOR MADAME DUSSON. 

 Feign not an ignorance of what I speak; You could not miss my meaning were it Greek: 'Tis the same language Belgium utter'd first, The same which from admiring Gallia burst. True sentiment a like expression pours; Each country says the same to eyes like yours. 

[Footnote 1: Boswell records Mr. Beauclerk's account of his introductionof this lady to Johnson: "When Mme. De Boufflers was first in Englandshe was desirous to see Johnson. I accordingly went with her to hischambers in the Temple, where she was entertained with his conversationfor some time. When our visit was over, she and I left him, and were gotinto Inner Temple Lane, when, all at once, I heard a noise like thunder. This was occasioned by Johnson, who, it seems, upon a littlerecollection, had taken it into his head that he ought to have done thehonours of his literary residence to a foreign lady of quality, and, eager to show himself a man of gallantry, was hurrying down thestaircase in evident agitation. He overtook us before we reached theTemple Gate, and brushing in between me and Mme. De Boufflers, seizedher hand and conducted her to her coach. His dress was a rusty brownmorning suit, a pair of old shoes by way of slippers, a littleshrivelled wig sticking on the top of his head, and the sleeves of hisshirt and the knees of his breeches hanging loose. A considerable crowdof people gathered round, and were not a little struck by this singularappearance" (vol. Ii. , ann. 1775. )]

[Footnote 2: This gentleman was at this time secretary to the Duc deNivernois. For many years he dressed in woman's clothes, and thequestion of his sex was made the subject of many wagers and trials bothin England and France. ]

[Footnote 3: M. Duclos was an author of good repute as a novelist, andone of the contributors to the "Dictionnaire de l'Academie. "]

You will comprehend that the first speaks English, and that the seconddoes not; that the second is handsome, and the first not; and that thesecond was born in Holland. This little gentilesse pleased, and atonedfor the popery of my house, which was not serious enough for Madame deBoufflers, who is Montmorency, _et du sang du premier Chrétien_; and tooserious for Madame Dusson, who is a Dutch Calvinist. The latter'shusband was not here, nor Drumgold, who have both got fevers, nor theDuc de Nivernois, who dined at Claremont. The Gallery is not advancedenough to give them any idea at all, as they are not apt to go out oftheir way for one; but the Cabinet, and the glory of yellow glass attop, which had a charming sun for a foil, did surmount theirindifference, especially as they were animated by the Duchess ofGrafton, who had never happened to be here before, and who perfectlyentered into the air of enchantment and fairyism, which is the tone ofthe place, and was peculiarly so to-day--_apropos_, when do you designto come hither? Let me know, that I may have no measures to interferewith receiving you and your grandsons. 

Before Lord Bute ran away, he made Mr. Bentley[1] a Commissioner of theLottery; I don't know whether a single or a double one: the latter, which I hope it is, is two hundred a-year. 

[Footnote 1: Mr. Bentley, who was an occasional correspondent ofWalpole, was a son of the great Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. ]

_Thursday 19th_. 

I am ashamed of myself to have nothing but a journal of pleasures tosend you; I never passed a more agreeable day than yesterday. MissPelham gave the French an entertainment at Esher;[1] but they have beenso feasted and amused, that none of them were well enough, or reposedenough, to come, but Nivernois and Madame Dusson. The rest of thecompany were, the Graftons, Lady Rockingham, Lord and Lady Pembroke, Lord and Lady Holdernesse, Lord Villiers, Count Woronzow the Russianminister, Lady Sondes, Mr. And Miss Mary Pelham, Lady Mary Coke, Mrs. Anne Pitt, and Mr. Shelley. The day was delightful, the scenetransporting; the trees, lawns, concaves, all in the perfection in whichthe ghost of Kent[2] would joy to see them. At twelve we made the tourof the farm in eight chaises and calashes, horsemen, and footmen, setting out like a picture of Wouverman's. My lot fell in the lap ofMrs. Anne Pitt, which I could have excused, as she was not at all inthe style of the day, romantic, but political. We had a magnificentdinner, cloaked in the modesty of earthenware; French horns and hautboyson the lawn. We walked to the Belvidere on the summit of the hill, wherea theatrical storm only served to heighten the beauty of the landscape, a rainbow on a dark cloud falling precisely behind the tower of aneighbouring church, between another tower and the building atClaremont. Monsieur de Nivernois, who had been absorbed all day, andlagging behind, translating my verses, was delivered of his version, andof some more lines which he wrote on Miss Pelham in the Belvidere, whilewe drank tea and coffee. From thence we passed into the wood, and theladies formed a circle on chairs before the mouth of the cave, which wasoverhung to a vast height with woodbines, lilacs, and laburnums, anddignified by the tall shapely cypresses. On the descent of the hill wereplaced the French horns; the abigails, servants, and neighbourswandering below by the river; in short, it was Parnassus, as Watteauwould have painted it. Here we had a rural syllabub, and part of thecompany returned to town; but were replaced by Giardini and Onofrio, whowith Nivernois on the violin, and Lord Pembroke on the bass, accompaniedMiss Pelham, Lady Rockingham, and the Duchess of Grafton, who sang. Thislittle concert lasted till past ten; then there were minuets, and as wehad seven couple left, it concluded with a country dance. I blush again, for I danced, but was kept in countenance by Nivernois, who has onewrinkle more than I have. A quarter after twelve they sat down tosupper, and I came home by a charming moonlight. I am going to dine intown, and to a great ball with fireworks at Miss Chudleigh's, but Ireturn hither on Sunday, to bid adieu to this abominable Arcadian life;for really when one is not young, one ought to do nothing but_s'ennuyer_; I will try, but I always go about it awkwardly. Adieu!

[Footnote 1: "_Esher. _" Claremont, at Esher, now the property of theQueen, and residence of the Duchess of Albany, at this time belonged tothe Duke of Newcastle, Miss Pelham's uncle. ]

[Footnote 2: Kent was the great landscape gardener of the lastgeneration. ]

P. S. --I enclose a copy of both the English and French verses. 

 À MADAME DE BOUFFLERS. 

 Boufflers, qu'embellissent les graces, Et qui plairoit sans le vouloir, Elle à qui l'amour du sçavoir Fit braver le Nord et les glaces; Boufflers se plait en nos vergers, Et veut à nos sons étrangers Plier sa voix enchanteresse. Répétons son nom mille fois, Sur tous les coeurs Boufflers aura des droits, Par tout où la rime et la Presse A l'amour prêteront leur voix. 

 À MADAME D'USSON. 

 Ne feignez point, Iris, de ne pas nous entendre; Ce que vous inspirez, en Grec doit se comprendre. On vous l'a dit d'abord en Hollandois, Et dans un langage plus tendre Paris vous l'a répété mille fois. C'est de nos coeurs l'expression sincere; En tout climat, Iris, à toute heure, en tous lieux, Par tout où brilleront vos yeux, Vous apprendrez combien ils sçavent plaire. 

_GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE FRENCH--FESTIVITIES ON THE QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY. _

TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _May_ 21, 1763. 

You have now seen the celebrated Madame de Boufflers. I dare say youcould in that short time perceive that she is agreeable, but I dare saytoo that you will agree with me that vivacity[1] is by no means the_partage_ of the French--bating the _étourderie_ of the _mousquetaires_and of a high-dried _petit-maítre_ or two, they appear to me morelifeless than Germans. I cannot comprehend how they came by thecharacter of a lively people. Charles Townshend has more _sal volatile_in him than the whole nation. Their King is taciturnity itself, Mirepoixwas a walking mummy, Nivernois has about as much life as a sickfavourite child, and M. Dusson is a good-humoured country gentleman, whohas been drunk the day before, and is upon his good behaviour. If I havethe gout next year, and am thoroughly humbled by it again, I will go toParis, that I may be upon a level with them: at present, I am _trop fou_to keep them company. Mind, I do not insist that, to have spirits, anation should be as frantic as poor Fanny Pelham, as absurd as theDuchess of Queensberry, or as dashing as the Virgin Chudleigh. [2] Oh, that you had been at her ball t'other night! History could neverdescribe it and keep its countenance. The Queen's real birthday, youknow, is not kept: this Maid of Honour kept it--nay, while the Court isin mourning, expected people to be out of mourning; the Queen's familyreally was so, Lady Northumberland having desired leave for them. Ascaffold was erected in Hyde-park for fireworks. To show theilluminations without to more advantage, the company were received in anapartment totally dark, where they remained for two hours. --If they gaverise to any more birthdays, who could help it? The fireworks were fine, and succeeded well. On each side of the court were two large scaffoldsfor the Virgin's tradespeople. When the fireworks ceased, a large scenewas lighted in the court, representing their Majesties; on each side ofwhich were six obelisks, painted with emblems, and illuminated; mottoesbeneath in Latin and English: 1. For the Prince of Wales, a ship, _Multorum spes_. 2. For the Princess Dowager, a bird of paradise, and_two_ little ones, _Meos ad sidera tollo_. People smiled. 3. Duke ofYork, a temple, _Virtuti et honori_. 4. Princess Augusta, a bird ofparadise, _Non habet parem_--unluckily this was translated, _I have nopeer_. People laughed out, considering where this was exhibited. 5. Thethree younger princes, an orange tree, _Promittit et dat_. 6. The twoyounger princesses, the flower crown-imperial. I forget the Latin: thetranslation was silly enough, _Bashful in youth, graceful in age_. Thelady of the house made many apologies for the poorness of theperformance, which she said was only oil-paper, painted by one of herservants; but it really was fine and pretty. The Duke of Kingston was ina frock, _comme chez lui_. Behind the house was a cenotaph for thePrincess Elizabeth, a kind of illuminated cradle; the motto, _All thehonours the dead can receive_. This burying-ground was a strange codicilto a festival; and, what was more strange, about one in the morning, this sarcophagus burst out into crackers and guns. The Margrave ofAnspach began the ball with the Virgin. The supper was most sumptuous. 

[Footnote 1: In a subsequent letter he represents Mme. De Boufflers asgiving them the same character, saying, "Dans ce pays-ci c'est un effortperpetuel pour sedivertir. "]

[Footnote 2: Miss Chudleigh, who had been one of the Princess Dowager'smaids of honour, married Mr. Hervey, afterwards Earl of Bristol, but, having taken a dislike to him, she procured a divorce, and afterwardsmarried the Duke of Kingston; but, after his death, his heirs, on theground of some informality in the divorce, prosecuted her for bigamy, and she was convicted. ]

You ask, when do I propose to be at Park-place. I ask, shall not youcome to the Duke of Richmond's masquerade, which is the 6th of June? Icannot well be with you till towards the end of that month. 

The enclosed is a letter which I wish you to read attentively, to giveme your opinion upon it, and return it. It is from a sensible friend ofmine in Scotland [Sir David Dalrymple], who has lately corresponded withme on the enclosed subjects, which I little understand; but I promisedto communicate his ideas to George Grenville, if he would statethem--are they practicable? I wish much that something could be done forthose brave soldiers and sailors, who will all come to the gallows, unless some timely provision can be made for them. --The former part ofhis letter relates to a grievance he complains of, that men who have_not_ served are admitted into garrisons, and then into our hospitals, which were designed for meritorious sufferers. Adieu!

_THE ORDINARY WAY OF LIFE IN ENGLAND--WILKES--C. TOWNSHEND--COUNTLALLY--LORD CLIVE--LORD NORTHINGTON--LOUIS LE BIEN AIMÉ--THE DRAMA INFRANCE. _

TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Dec. _ 29, 1763

You are sensible, my dear lord, that any amusement from my letters mustdepend upon times and seasons. We are a very absurd nation (though theFrench are so good at present as to think us a very wise one, onlybecause they, themselves, are now a very weak one); but then thatabsurdity depends upon the almanac. Posterity, who will know nothing ofour intervals, will conclude that this age was a succession of events. Icould tell them that we know as well when an event, as when Easter, willhappen. Do but recollect these last ten years. The beginning of October, one is certain that everybody will be at Newmarket, and the Duke ofCumberland will lose, and Shafto win, two or three thousand pounds. After that, while people are preparing to come to town for the winter, the Ministry is suddenly changed, and all the world comes to learn howit happened, a fortnight sooner than they intended; and fully persuadedthat the new arrangement cannot last a month. The Parliament opens;everybody is bribed; and the new establishment is perceived to becomposed of adamant. November passes, with two or three self-murders, and a new play. Christmas arrives; everybody goes out of town; and ariot happens in one of the theatres. The Parliament meets again; taxesare warmly opposed; and some citizen makes his fortune by asubscription. The opposition languishes; balls and assemblies begin;some master and miss begin to get together, are talked of, and giveoccasion to forty more matches being invented; an unexpected debatestarts up at the end of the session, that makes more noise than anythingthat was designed to make a noise, and subsides again in a new peerageor two. Ranelagh opens and Vauxhall; one produces scandal, and t'other adrunken quarrel. People separate, some to Tunbridge, and some to all thehorse-races in England; and so the year comes again to October. I dareto prophesy, that if you keep this letter, you will find that my futurecorrespondence will be but an illustration of this text; at least, it isan excuse for my having very little to tell you at present, and was thereason of my not writing to you last week. 

[Illustration: HORACE WALPOLE. 

_From a picture in the National Portrait Gallery, by Nathaniel Hone, R. A. _]

Before the Parliament adjourned, there was nothing but a trifling debatein an empty House, occasioned by a motion from the Ministry, to orderanother physician and surgeon to attend Wilkes:[1] it was carried byabout seventy to thirty, and was only memorable by producing Mr. CharlesTownshend, who, having sat silent through the question of privilege, found himself interested in the defence of Dr. Brocklesby![2] Charlesridiculed Lord North extremely, and had warm words with GeorgeGrenville. I do not look upon this as productive of consequentialspeaking for the opposition; on the contrary, I should expect him soonerin place, if the Ministry could be fools enough to restore weight tohim, and could be ignorant that he can never hurt them so much as bybeing with them. Wilkes refused to see Heberden and Hawkins, whom theHouse commissioned to visit him; and to laugh at us more, sent for twoScotchmen, Duncan and Middleton. Well! but since that, he is gone offhimself: however, as I did in D'Eon's case, I can now only ask news ofhim from you, not tell you any; for you have got him. I do not believeyou will invite him, and make so much of him, as the Duke of Bedforddid. Both sides pretend joy at his being gone; and for once I canbelieve both. You will be diverted, as I was, at the cordial esteem theministers have for one another; Lord Waldegrave told my niece [LadyWaldegrave], this morning, that he had offered a shilling, to receive ahundred pounds when Sandwich shall lose his head! what a good opinionthey have of one another! _apropos_ to losing heads, is Lally[3]beheaded?

[Footnote 1: Wilkes had been wounded in a duel, and alleged his wound asa sufficient reason for not attending in his place in the House ofCommons when summoned. Dr. Brocklesby, a physician of considerableeminence, reported that he was unable to attend; but the House ofCommons, as if they distrusted his report, appointed two otherphysicians to examine the patient, Drs. Heberden and Hawkins. ]

[Footnote 2: Dr. Brocklesby is mentioned by Boswell as an especialfriend of Johnson; having even offered him an annuity of £100 to relievehim from the necessity of writing to increase his income. ]

[Footnote 3: Count Lally, of an Irish family, his father or grandfatherhaving been among those who, after the capitulation of Limerick, accompanied the gallant Sarsfield to France, had been the Frenchgovernor in India; but, having failed in an attempt on Madras, andhaving been afterwards defeated at Wandewash by Colonel Coote, wasrecalled in disgrace, and brought to trial on a number of ridiculouslyfalse charges, convicted, and executed; his real offence being that by asomewhat intemperate zeal for the reformation of abuses, and thepunishment of corruption which he detested, he had made a great numberof personal enemies. He was the father of Count Lally Tollendal, who wasa prominent character in the French Revolution. ]

The East India Company have come to an unanimous resolution of notpaying Lord Clive the three hundred thousand pounds, which the Ministryhad promised him in lieu of his Nabobical annuity. Just after thebargain was made, his old rustic of a father was at the King's levée;the King asked where his son was; he replied, "Sire, he is coming totown, and then your Majesty will have another vote. " If you like thesefranknesses, I can tell you another. The Chancellor [Northington] is achosen governor of St. Bartholomew's Hospital: a smart gentleman, whowas sent with the staff, carried it in the evening, when the Chancellorhappened to be drunk. "Well, Mr. Bartlemy, " said his lordship, snuffing, "what have you to say?" The man, who had prepared a formal harangue, wastransported to have so fair opportunity given him of uttering it, andwith much dapper gesticulation congratulated his lordship on his health, and the nation on enjoying such great abilities. The Chancellor stoppedhim short, crying, "By God, it is a lie! I have neither health norabilities; my bad health has destroyed my abilities. "[1] The lateChancellor [Hardwicke] is much better. 

[Footnote 1: Lord Northington had been a very hard liver. He was amartyr to the gout; and one afternoon, as he was going downstairs out ofhis Court, he was heard to say to himself, "D--- these legs! If I hadknown they were to carry a Lord Chancellor, I would have taken bettercare of them;" and it was to relieve himself of the labours of the Courtof Chancery that he co-operated with Mr. Pitt in the discreditableintrigue which in the summer of 1766 compelled the resignation of LordRockingham, Mr. Pitt having promised him the office of President of theCouncil in the new Ministry which he intended to form. ]

The last time the King was at Drury-lane, the play given out for thenext night was "All in the Wrong:" the galleries clapped, and then criedout, "Let _us_ be all in the right! Wilkes and Liberty!" When the Kingcomes to a theatre, or goes out, or goes to the House, there is not asingle applause; to the Queen there is a little: in short, _Louis lebien aimé_[1] is not French at present for King George. 

[Footnote 1: "Le Bien aimé" was a designation conferred on Louis XV. Bythe people in their joy at his recovery from an illness which hadthreatened his life at Metz in 1744. Louis himself was surprised, andasked what he had done to deserve such a title; and, in truth, it was aquestion hard to answer; but it was an expression of praise for hisleaving the capital to accompany his army in the campaign. ]

I read, last night, your new French play, "Le Comte de Warwic, "[1] whichwe hear has succeeded much. I must say, it does but confirm the cheapidea I have of you French: not to mention the preposterous perversionof history in so known a story, the Queen's ridiculous preference of oldWarwick to a young King; the omission of the only thing she ever said ordid in her whole life worth recording, which was thinking herself toolow for his wife, and too high for his mistress; the romantic honourbestowed on two such savages as Edward and Warwick: besides these, andforty such glaring absurdities, there is but one scene that has anymerit, that between Edward and Warwick in the third act. Indeed, indeed, I don't honour the modern French: it is making your son but a slendercompliment, with his knowledge, for them to say it is extraordinary. Thebest proof I think they give of their taste, is liking you all three. Irejoice that your little boy is recovered. Your brother has been atPark-place this week, and stays a week longer: his hill is too high tobe drowned. 

[Footnote 1: "Le Comte de Warwic" was by La Harpe, who was onlytwenty-three years of age. The answer here attributed to ElizabethWoodville has been attributed to others also; and especially to Mdlle. De Montmorency, afterwards Princesse de Condé, when pursued by thesolicitations of Henry IV. ]

Thank you for your kindness to Mr. Selwyn: if he had too muchimpatience, I am sure it proceeded only from his great esteem for you. 

I will endeavour to learn what you desire; and will answer, in anotherletter, that and some other passages in your last. Dr. Hunter is verygood, and calls on me sometimes. You may guess whether we talk you overor not. Adieu!

_A NEW YEAR'S PARTY AT LADY SUFFOLK'S--LADY TEMPLE POETESS LAUREATE TOTHE MUSES_

TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Jan. _ 11, 1764. 

It is an age, I own, since I wrote to you: but except politics, what wasthere to send you? and for politics, the present are too contemptible tobe recorded by anybody but journalists, gazetteers, and such historians!The ordinary of Newgate, or Mr. ----, who write for their monthlyhalf-crown, and who are indifferent whether Lord Bute, Lord Melcombe, orMaclean [the highwayman], is their hero, may swear they find diamonds ondunghills; but you will excuse _me_, if I let our correspondence liedormant rather than deal in such trash. I am forced to send LordHertford and Sir Horace Mann such garbage, because they are out ofEngland, and the sea softens and makes palatable any potion, as it doesclaret; but unless I can divert _you_, I had rather wait till we canlaugh together; the best employment for friends, who do not mean to pickone another's pocket, nor make a property of either's frankness. Insteadof politics, therefore, I shall amuse you to-day with a fairy tale. 

I was desired to be at my Lady Suffolk's on New-year's morn, where Ifound Lady Temple and others. On the toilet Miss Hotham spied a smallround box. She seized it with all the eagerness and curiosity of elevenyears. In it was wrapped up a heart-diamond ring, and a paper in which, in a hand as small as Buckinger's[1] who used to write the Lord'sPrayer in the compass of a silver penny, were the following lines:--

 Sent by a sylph, unheard, unseen, A new-year's gift from Mab our queen: But tell it not, for if you do, You will be pinch'd all black and blue. Consider well, what a disgrace, To show abroad your mottled face: Then seal your lips, put on the ring, And sometimes think of Ob. The king. 

[Footnote 1: Buckinger was a dwarf born without hands or feet. ]

You will eagerly guess that Lady Temple was the poetess, and that wewere delighted with the gentleness of the thought and execution. Thechild, you may imagine, was less transported with the poetry than thepresent. Her attention, however, was hurried backwards and forwards fromthe ring to a new coat, that she had been trying on when sent for down;impatient to revisit her coat, and to show the ring to her maid, shewhisked upstairs; when she came down again, she found a letter sealed, and lying on the floor--new exclamations! Lady Suffolk bade her open it:here it is:--

 Your tongue, too nimble for your sense, Is guilty of a high offence; Hath introduced unkind debate, And topsy-turvy turn'd our state. In gallantry I sent the ring, The token of a love-sick king: Under fair Mab's auspicious name From me the trifling present came. You blabb'd the news in Suffolk's ear; The tattling zephyrs brought it here; As Mab was indolently laid Under a poppy's spreading shade. The jealous queen started in rage; She kick'd her crown, and beat her page: "Bring me my magic wand, " she cries; "Under that primrose, there it lies; I'll change the silly, saucy chit, Into a flea, a louse, a nit, A worm, a grasshopper, a rat, An owl, a monkey, hedgehog, bat. But hold, why not by fairy art Transform the wretch into-- Ixion once a cloud embraced, By Jove and jealousy well placed; What sport to see proud Oberon stare, And flirt it with a _pet en l'air_!" Then thrice she stamp'd the trembling ground, And thrice she waved her wand around; When I, endow'd with greater skill, And less inclined to do you ill, Mutter'd some words, withheld her arm, And kindly stopp'd the unfinish'd charm. But though not changed to owl or bat, Or something more indelicate; Yet, as your tongue has run too fast, Your boasted beauty must not last. No more shall frolic Cupid lie In ambuscade in either eye, From thence to aim his keenest dart To captivate each youthful heart: No more shall envious misses pine At charms now flown, that once were thine No more, since you so ill behave, Shall injured Oberon be your slave. 

There is one word which I could wish had not been there though it isprettily excused afterwards. The next day my Lady Suffolk desired Iwould write her a patent for appointing Lady Temple poet laureate to thefairies. I was excessively out of order with a pain in my stomach, whichI had had for ten days, and was fitter to write verses like a PoetLaureate, than for making one; however, I was going home to dinneralone, and at six I sent her some lines, which you ought to have seenhow sick I was, to excuse; but first I must tell you my talemethodically. The next morning by nine o'clock Miss Hotham (she mustforgive me twenty years hence for saying she was eleven, for I recollectshe is but ten), arrived at Lady Temple's, her face and neck all spottedwith saffron, and limping. "Oh, Madam!" said she, "I am undone for everif you do not assist me!" "Lord, child, " cried my Lady Temple, "what isthe matter?" thinking she had hurt herself, or lost the ring, and thatshe was stolen out before her aunt was up. "Oh, Madam, " said the girl, "nobody but you can assist me!" My Lady Temple protests the child actedher part so well as to deceive her. "What can I do for you?" "DearMadam, take this load from my back; nobody but you can. " Lady Templeturned her round, and upon her back was tied a child's waggon. In itwere three tiny purses of blue velvet; in one of them a silver cup, inanother a crown of laurel, and in the third four new silver pennies, with the patent, signed at top, "Oberon Imperator;" and two sheets ofwarrants strung together with blue silk according to form; and at top anoffice seal of wax and a chaplet of cut paper on it. The Warrants werethese:--

 From the Royal Mews:

 A waggon with the draught horses, delivered by command without fee. 

 From the Lord Chamberlain's Office:

 A warrant with the royal sign manual, delivered by command without fee, being first entered in the office books. 

 From the Lord Steward's Office:

 A butt of sack, delivered without fee or gratuity, with an order for returning the cask for the use of the office, by command. 

 From the Great Wardrobe:

 Three velvet bags, delivered without fee, by command. 

 From the Treasurer of the Household's Office:

 A year's salary paid free from land-tax, poundage, or any other deduction whatever by command. 

 From the Jewel Office:

 A silver butt, a silver cup, a wreath of bays, by command without fee. 

Then came the Patent:

 By these presents be it known, To all who bend before our throne, Fays and fairies, elves and sprites, Beauteous dames and gallant knights, That we, Oberon the grand, Emperor of fairy land, King of moonshine, prince of dreams, Lord of Aganippe's streams, Baron of the dimpled isles That lie in pretty maiden's smiles, Arch-treasurer of all the graces Dispersed through fifty lovely faces, Sovereign of the slipper's order, With all the rites thereon that border, Defender of the sylphic faith, Declare--and thus your monarch saith: Whereas there is a noble dame, Whom mortals Countess Temple name, To whom ourself did erst impart The choicest secrets of our art, Taught her to tune the harmonious line To our own melody divine, Taught her the graceful negligence, Which, scorning art and veiling sense, Achieves that conquest o'er the heart Sense seldom gains, and never art: This lady, 'tis our royal will Our laureate's vacant seat should fill; A chaplet of immortal bays Shall crown her brow and guard her lays, Of nectar sack an acorn cup Be at her board each year filled up; And as each quarter feast comes round A silver penny shall be found Within the compass of her shoe-- And so we bid you all adieu!

 Given at our palace of Cowslip Castle, the shortest night of the year. 

 OBERON. 

And underneath, HOTHAMINA. 

How shall I tell you the greatest curiosity of the story? The whole planand execution of the second act was laid and adjusted by my Lady Suffolkherself and Will. Chetwynd, Master of the Mint, Lord Bolingbroke'sOroonoko-Chetwynd;[1] he fourscore, she past seventy-six; and, what ismore, much worse than I was, for added to her deafness, she has beenconfined these three weeks with the gout in her eyes, and was actuallythen in misery, and had been without sleep. What spirits, andcleverness, and imagination, at that age, and under those afflictingcircumstances! You reconnoitre her old court knowledge, how charminglyshe has applied it! Do you wonder I pass so many hours and evenings withher? Alas! I had like to have lost her this morning! They had poulticedher feet to draw the gout downwards, and began to succeed yesterday, butto-day it flew up into her head, and she was almost in convulsions withthe agony, and screamed dreadfully; proof enough how ill she was, forher patience and good breeding makes her for ever sink and conceal whatshe feels. This evening the gout has been driven back to her foot, and Itrust she is out of danger. Her loss will be irreparable to me atTwickenham, where she is by far the most rational and agreeable companyI have. 

[Footnote 1: Oroonoko-Chetwynd, M. P. For Plymouth. He was calledOroonoko and sometimes "Black Will, " from his dark complexion. ]

I don't tell you that the Hereditary Prince [of Brunswick][1] is stillexpected and not arrived. A royal wedding would be a flat episode aftera _real_ fairy tale, though the bridegroom is a hero. I have not seenyour brother General yet, but have called on him, When come youyourself? Never mind the town and its filthy politics; we can go to theGallery at Strawberry--stay, I don't know whether we can or not, my hillis almost drowned, I don't know how your mountain is--well, we can takea boat, and always be gay there; I wish we may be so at seventy-six andeighty! I abominate politics more and more; we had glories, and wouldnot keep them: well! content, that there was an end of blood; then perksprerogative its ass's ears up; we are always to be saving our liberties, and then staking them again! 'Tis wearisome! I hate the discussion, andyet one cannot always sit at a gaming-table and never make a bet. I wishfor nothing, I care not a straw for the inns or the outs; I determinenever to think of them, yet the contagion catches one; can you tellanything that will prevent infection? Well then, here I swear, --no, Iwon't swear, one always breaks one's oath. Oh, that I had been born tolove a court like Sir William Breton! I should have lived and died withthe comfort of thinking that courts there will be to all eternity, andthe liberty of my country would never once have ruffled my smile, orspoiled my bow. I envy Sir William. Good night!

[Footnote 1: The Duke of Brunswick, who was mortally wounded in 1806 atthe battle of Jena. He had come, as is mentioned in the next letter, tomarry the King's sister. ]

_MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF BRUNSWICK: HIS POPULARITY. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Jan. _ 18, 1764. 

Shall I tell you of all our crowds, and balls, and embroideries? Don't Igrow too old to describe drawing-rooms? Surely I do, when I find myselftoo old to go into them. I forswore puppet-shows at the lastcoronation, and have kept my word to myself. However, being bound by aprior vow, to keep up the acquaintance between you and your own country, I will show you, what by the way I have not seen myself, the Prince ofBrunswick. He arrived at Somerset House last Friday evening; atChelmsford a quaker walked into the room, _did_ pull off his hat, andsaid, "Friend, my religion forbids me to fight, but I honour those thatfight well. " The Prince, though he does not speak English, understandsit enough to be pleased with the compliment. He received another, veryflattering. As he went next morning to St. James's, he spied in thecrowd one of Elliot's light-horse and kissed his hand to the man. "What!" said the populace, "does he know you?" "Yes, " replied the man;"he once led me into a scrape, which nothing but himself could havebrought me out of again. " You may guess how much this added to thePrince's popularity, which was at high-water mark before. 

When he had visited the King and Queen, he went to the Princess Dowagerat Leicester House, and saw his mistress. He is very _galant_, andprofesses great satisfaction in his fortune, for he had not even seenher picture. He carries his good-breeding so far as to declare he wouldhave returned unmarried, if she had not pleased him. He has had levéesand dinners at Somerset House; to the latter, company was named for him. On Monday evening they were married by the Archbishop in the greatdrawing-room, with little ceremony; supped, and lay at Leicester House. Yesterday morning was a drawing-room at St. James's, and a ball atnight; both repeated to-day, for the Queen's birthday. On Thursday theygo to the play; on Friday the Queen gives them a ball and dinner at herhouse; on Saturday they dine with the Princess at Kew, and return forthe Opera; and on Wednesday--why, they make their bow and curtsy, andsail. 

The Prince has pleased everybody; his manner is thought sensible andengaging; his person slim, genteel, and handsome enough; that is, not atall handsome, but martial, agreeably weather-worn. I should be able toswear to all this on Saturday, when I intend to see him; but, alas! thepost departs on Friday, and, however material my testimony may be, hemust want it. 

_GAMBLING QUARRELS--MR. CONWAY'S SPEECH. _

TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Feb. _ 6, 1764. 

You have, I hope, long before this, my dear lord, received the immenseletter that I sent you by old Monin. It explained much, and announcedmost part of which has already happened; for you will observe that whenI tell you anything very positively, it is on good intelligence. I haveanother much bigger secret for you, but that will be delivered to you byword of mouth. I am not a little impatient for the long letter youpromised me. In the mean time thank you for the account you give me ofthe King's extreme civility to you. It is like yourself to dwell onthat, and to say little of M. De Chaulnes's dirtv behaviour; butMonsieur and Madame de Guerchy have told your brother and me all theparticulars. 

I was but too good a prophet when I warned you to expect newextravagances from the Duc de Chaulnes's son. Some weeks ago he lostfive hundred pounds to one Virette, an equivocal being, that youremember here. Paolucci, the Modenese minister, who is not in the odourof honesty, was of the party. The Duc de Pecquigny said to the latter, "Monsieur, ne jouez plus avec lui, si vous n'êtes pas de moitié. " So farwas very well. On Saturday, at the Maccaroni Club (which is composed ofall the travelled young men who wear long curls and spying glasses), they played again: the Duc lost, but not much. In the passage at theOpera, the Duc saw Mr. Stuart talking to Virette, and told the formerthat Virette was a coquin, a fripon, &c. , &c. Virette retired, sayingonly, "Voilà un fou. " The Duc then desired Lord Tavistock to come andsee him fight Virette, but the Marquis desired to be excused. After theOpera, Virette went to the Duc's lodgings, but found him gone to makehis complaint to Monsieur de Guerchy, whither he followed him; andfarther this deponent knoweth not. I pity the Count [de Guerchy], who isone of the best-natured amiable men in the world, for having this absurdboy upon his hands!

Well! now for a little politics. The Cider Bill has not answered to theminority, though they ran the ministry hard; but last Friday wasextraordinary. George Grenville was pushed upon some Navy Bills. I don'tunderstand a syllable, you know, of money and accounts; but whateverwas the matter, he was driven from entrenchment to entrenchment by Bakerand Charles Townshend. After that affair was over, and many gone away, Sir W. Meredith moved for the depositions on which the warrant againstWilkes had been granted. The Ministers complained of the motion beingmade so late in the day; called it a surprise; and Rigby moved toadjourn, which was carried but by 73 to 60. Had a surprise beenintended, you may imagine the minority would have been better providedwith numbers; but it certainly had not been concerted: however, amajority, shrunk to thirteen, frightened them out of the small sensesthey possess. Heaven, Earth, and the Treasury, were moved to recovertheir ground to-day, when the question was renewed. For about two hoursthe debate hobbled on very lamely, when on a sudden your brother rose, and made such a speech[1]--but I wish anybody was to give you theaccount except me, whom you will think partial: but you will hear enoughof it, to confirm anything I can say. Imagine fire, rapidity, argument, knowledge, wit, ridicule, grace, spirit; all pouring like a torrent, butwithout clashing. Imagine the House in a tumult of continued applause, imagine the Ministers thunderstruck; lawyers abashed and almostblushing, for it was on their quibbles and evasions he fell mostheavily, at the same time answering a whole session of arguments on theside of the court. No, it was _unique_; you can neither conceive it, northe exclamations it occasioned. Ellis, the Forlorn Hope, Ellis presentedhimself in the gap, till the ministers could recover themselves, when ona sudden Lord George Sackville _led up the Blues_; spoke with as muchwarmth as your brother had, and with great force continued the attackwhich he had begun. Did not I tell you he would take this part? I wasmade privy to it; but this is far from all you are to expect. Lord Northin vain rumbled about his mustard-bowl, and endeavoured alone to outroara whole party: him and Forrester, Charles Townshend took up, but lesswell than usual. His jealousy of your brother's success, which was veryevident, did not help him to shine. There were several other speeches, and, upon the whole, it was a capital debate; but Plutus is so much morepersuasive an orator than your brother or Lord George, that we dividedbut 122 against 217. Lord Strange, who had agreed to the question, didnot dare to vote for it, and declared off; and George Townshend, who hadactually voted for it on Friday, now voted against us. Well! upon thewhole, I heartily wish this administration may last: both theircharacters and abilities are so contemptible, that I am sure we can bein no danger from prerogative when trusted to such hands!

[Footnote 1: Walpole must have exaggerated the merits of this speech;for Conway was never remarkable for eloquence. Indeed, Walpole himself, in his "Memoirs of George II. , " quotes Mr. Hutchinson, the PrimeSerjeant in Ireland, contrasting him with Lord G. Sackville, "LordGeorge having parts, but no integrity; Conway integrity, but no parts:and now they were governed by one who had neither. " And Walpole'scomment on this comparison is: "There was more wit than truth in thisdescription. Conway's parts, though not brilliant, were solid" (vol. Ii. P. 246). In his "Life of Pitt" Lord Stanhope describes him as "a manwho, in the course of a long public life, had shown little vigour ordecision, but who was much respected for his honourable character andmoderate counsels" (c. 5). ]

Before I have done with Charles Townshend, I must tell you one of hisadmirable _bon mots_. Miss Draycote, the great fortune, is grown veryfat; he says her _tonnage_ is become equal to her _poundage_. 

_ACCOUNT OF THE DEBATE ON THE GENERAL WARRANT. _

TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD. 

ARLINGTON STREET, _Wednesday, Feb. _ 15, 1764. 

My dear Lord, --You ought to be witness to the fatigue I am suffering, before you can estimate the merit I have in being writing to you at thismoment. Cast up eleven hours in the House of Commons on Monday, andabove seventeen hours yesterday, --ay, seventeen at length, --and then youmay guess if I am tired! nay, you must add seventeen hours that I maypossibly be there on Friday, and then calculate if I am weary. In short, yesterday was the longest day ever known in the House of Commons--why, on the Westminster election at the end of my father's reign, I was athome by six. On Alexander Murray's affair, I believe, by five--on themilitia, twenty people, I think, sat till six, but then they were onlyamong themselves, no heat, no noise, no roaring. It was half an hourafter seven this morning before I was at home. Think of that, and thenbrag of your French parliaments!

What is ten times greater, Leonidas and the Spartan _minority_ did notmake such a stand at Thermopylae, as we did. Do you know, we had like tohave been the _majority_? Xerxes[1] is frightened out of his senses;Sysigambis[1] has sent an express to Luton to forbid Phraates[1] comingto town to-morrow; Norton's[2] impudence has forsaken him; BishopWarburton is at this moment reinstating Mr. Pitt's name in thededication to his Sermons, which he had expunged for Sandwich's; andSandwich himself is--at Paris, perhaps, by this time, for the firstthing that I expect to hear to-morrow is, that he is gone off. 

[Footnote 1: "_Xerxes, Sysigambis, Phraates. _" These names containallusions to one of Mdlle. Scudéri's novels, which, as D'Israeliremarks, are "representations of what passed at the Court of France";but in this letter the scene of action is transferred to England. Xerxesis George III. ; Sysigambis, the Princess Dowager; and Phraates is LordBute. ]

[Footnote 2: Sir Fletcher Norton, the Speaker. ]

Now are you mortally angry with me for trifling with you, and nottelling you at once the particulars of this _almost-revolution_? You maybe angry, but I shall take my own time, and shall give myself what airsI please both to you, my Lord Ambassador, and to you, my Lord Secretaryof State, who will, I suppose, open this letter--if you have courageenough left. In the first place, I assume all the impertinence of aprophet, --aye, of that great curiosity, a prophet, who really prophesiedbefore the event, and whose predictions have been accomplished. Have I, or have I not, announced to you the unexpected blows that would be givento the administration?--come, I will lay aside my dignity, and satisfyyour impatience. There's moderation. 

We sat all Monday hearing evidence against Mr. Wood, [1] that dirtywretch Webb, and the messengers, for their illegal proceedings againstMr. Wilkes. At midnight, Mr. Grenville offered us to adjourn or proceed. Mr. Pitt humbly begged not to eat or sleep till so great a point shouldbe decided. On a division, in which though many said _aye_ toadjourning, nobody would go out for fear of losing their seats, it wascarried by 379 to 31, for proceeding--and then--half the House wentaway. The ministers representing the indecency of this, and Fitzherbertsaying that many were within call, Stanley observed, that after votingagainst adjournment, a third part had adjourned themselves, when, instead of being within _call_, they ought to have been within_hearing_; this was unanswerable, and we adjourned. 

[Footnote 1: Mr. Wood and Mr. Webb were the Under-Secretary of State andthe Solicitor of the Treasury; and, as such, the officers chieflyresponsible for the _form_ of the warrant complained of. ]

Yesterday we fell to again. It was one in the morning before theevidence was closed. Carrington, the messenger, was alone examined forseven hours. This old man, the cleverest of all ministerial terriers, was pleased with recounting his achievements, yet perfectly guarded andbetraying nothing. However, the _arcana imperii_ have been wofully laidopen. 

I have heard Garrick, and other players, give themselves airs of fatigueafter a long part--think of the Speaker, nay, think of the clerkstaking most correct minutes for sixteen hours, and reading them over toevery witness; and then let me hear of fatigue! Do you know, not only myLord Temple, [1]--who you may swear never budged as spectator, --but oldWill Chetwynd, now past eighty, and who had walked to the House, did notstir a single moment out of his place, from three in the afternoon tillthe division at seven in the morning. Nay, we had _patriotesses_, too, who stayed out the whole: Lady Rockingham and Lady Sondes the first day;both again the second day, with Miss Mary Pelham, Mrs. Fitzroy, and theDuchess of Richmond, as patriot as any of us. Lady Mary Coke, Mrs. George Pitt, and Lady Pembroke, came after the Opera, but I think didnot stay above seven or eight hours at most. 

[Footnote 1: Lord Temple was Mr. Pitt's brother-in-law, a restless andimpracticable intriguer. He had some such especial power of influencingMr. Pitt--who, it is supposed, must have been under some pecuniaryobligation to him--that he was able the next year to prevent hisaccepting the office of Prime Minister when the King pressed it on him. ]

At one, Sir W. Meredith moved a resolution of the illegality of theWarrant, and opened it well. He was seconded by old Darlington'sbrother, a convert to us. Mr. Wood, who had shone the preceding day bygreat modesty, decency, and ingenuity, forfeited these merits a gooddeal by starting up, (according to a Ministerial plan, ) and veryarrogantly, and repeatedly in the night, demanding justice and aprevious acquittal, and telling the House he scorned to accept beingmerely _excused_; to which Mr. Pitt replied, that if he disdained to be_excused_, he would deserve to be _censured_. Mr. Charles Yorke (who, with his family, have come roundly to us for support against the Duke ofBedford on the Marriage Bill) proposed to adjourn. Grenville and theministry would have agreed to adjourn the debate on the great questionitself, but declared they would push this acquittal. This they announcedhaughtily enough--for as yet, they did not doubt of their strength. LordFrederick Campbell was the most impetuous of all, so little he foresawhow much _wiser_ it would be to follow your brother. Pitt made a shortspeech, excellently argumentative, and not bombast, nor tedious, nordeviating from the question. He was supported by your brother, andCharles Townshend, and Lord George; the two last of whom are strangelyfirm, now they are got under the cannon of your brother:--Charles, who, as he must be extraordinary, is now so in romantic nicety of honour. Hisfather, who is dying, or dead, at Bath, and from whom he hopes twothousand a year, has sent for him. He has refused to go--lest his_steadiness_ should be questioned. At a quarter after four we divided. _Our_ cry was so loud, that both we and the ministers thought we hadcarried it. It is not to be painted, the dismay of the latter--in goodtruth not without reason, for _we_ were 197, they but 207. Yourexperience can tell you, that a majority of _but_ ten is a defeat. Amidst a great defection from them, was even a white staff, Lord CharlesSpencer--now you know still more of what I told you was preparing forthem!

Crest-fallen, the ministers then proposed simply to discharge thecomplaint; but the plumes which they had dropped, Pitt soon placed inhis own beaver. He broke out on liberty, and, indeed, on whatever hepleased, uninterrupted. Rigby sat feeling the vice-treasureship slippingfrom under him. Nugent was not less pensive--Lord Strange, though notinterested, did not like it. Everybody was too much taken up with hisown concerns, or too much daunted, to give the least disturbance to thePindaric. Grenville, however, dropped a few words, which did butheighten the flame. Pitt, with less modesty than ever he showed, pronounced a panegyric on his own administration, and from thence brokeout on the _dismission of officers_. This increased the roar from us. Grenville replied, and very finely, very pathetically, very animated. Hepainted Wilkes and faction, and, with very little truth, denied thecharge of menaces to officers. At that moment, General A'Court walked upthe House--think what an impression such an incident must make, whenpassions, hopes, and fears, were all afloat--think, too, how yourbrother and I, had we been ungenerous, could have added to thesesensations! There was a man not so delicate. Colonel Barré rose--andthis attended with a striking circumstance; Sir Edward Deering, one of_our_ noisy fools, called out, "_Mr. _ Barré. "[1] The latter seized thethought with admirable quickness, and said to the Speaker, who, inpointing to him, had called him _Colonel_, "I beg your pardon, Sir, youhave pointed to me by a title I have no right to, " and then made a veryartful and pathetic speech on his own services and dismission; withnothing bad but an awkward attempt towards an excuse to Mr. Pitt for hisformer behaviour. Lord North, who will not lose his _bellow_, though hemay lose his place, endeavoured to roar up the courage of his comrades, but it would not do--the House grew tired, and we again divided at sevenfor adjournment; some of our people were gone, and we remained but 184, they 208; however, you will allow our affairs are mended, when we say, _but_ 184. _We_ then came away, and left the ministers to satisfy Wood, Webb, and themselves, as well as they could. It was eight this morningbefore I was in bed; and considering that, this is no very short letter. Mr. Pitt bore the fatigue with his usual spirit--and even old Onslow, the late Speaker, was sitting up, anxious for the event. 

[Footnote 1: Mr. Barré had lately been dismissed from the office ofAdjutant-General, on account of some of his votes in Parliament. In 1784he was appointed Clerk of the Rolls, a place worth above £3, 000 a year, by Mr. Pitt, who, with extraordinary disinterestedness, forbore fromtaking it himself, that he might relieve the nation from a pension ofsimilar amount which had been improperly conferred on the Colonel byLord Rockingham. ]

On Friday we are to have the great question, which would prevent mywriting; and to-morrow I dine with Guerchy, at the Duke of Grafton's, besides twenty other engagements. To-day I have shut myself up; for withwriting this, and taking notes yesterday all day, and all night, I havenot an eye left to see out of--nay, for once in my life, I shall go tobed at ten o'clock.... 

Adieu! pray tell Mr. Hume that I am ashamed to be thus writing thehistory of England, when he is with you!

_LORD CLIVE--MR. HAMILTON, AMBASSADOR TO NAPLES--SPEECH OF LOUIS XV. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _June_ 8, 1764. 

Your Red Riband is certainly postponed. There was but one vacant, whichwas promised to General Draper, who, when he thought he felt the sworddubbing his shoulder, was told that my Lord Clive could not conquer theIndies a second time without being a Knight of the Bath. This, however, I think will be but a short parenthesis, for I expect that _heaven-bornhero_[1] to return from whence he came, instead of bringing hither allthe Mogul's pearls and rubies. Yet, before that happens there willprobably be other vacancies to content both Draper and you. 

[Footnote 1: "That _heaven-born hero_" had been Lord Chatham'sdescription of Lord Clive. ]

You have a new neighbour coming to you, Mr. William Hamilton, [1] one ofthe King's equerries, who succeeds Sir James Gray at Naples. Hamilton isa friend of mine, is son of Lady Archibald, and was aide-de-camp to Mr. Conway. He is picture-mad, and will ruin himself in virtù-land. Hiswife is as musical as he is connoisseur, but she is dying of an asthma. 

[Footnote 1: Mr. W. Hamilton, afterwards Sir William, was the husband ofthe celebrated Lady Hamilton. ]

I have never heard of the present[1] you mention of the box of essences. The secrets of that prison-house do not easily transpire, and the meritof any offering is generally assumed, I believe, by the officiatingpriests. 

[Footnote 1: A present from Sir Horace, I believe, to theQueen. --WALPOLE. ]

Lord Tavistock is to be married to-morrow to Lady Elizabeth Keppel, LordAlbemarle's sister. 

I love to tell you an anecdote of any of our old acquaintance, and Ihave now a delightful one, relating, yet indirectly, to one of them. Youknow, to be sure, that Madame de Craon's daughter, Madame de Boufflers, has the greatest power with King Stanislaus. Our old friend the Princessde Craon goes seldom to Luneville for this reason, not enduring to seeher daughter on that throne which she so long filled with absoluteempire. But Madame de Boufflers, who, from his Majesty's age, cannotoccupy _all_ the places in the palace that her mother filled, indemnifies herself with his Majesty's Chancellor. One day the livelyold monarch said, "Regardez, quel joli petit pied, et la belle jambe!Mon Chancellier vous dira le reste. " You know this is the form when aKing of France says a few words to his Parliament, and then refers themto his chancellor. I expect to hear a great deal soon of the princess, for Mr. Churchill and my sister are going to settle at Nancy for sometime. Adieu!

_THE KING OF POLAND--CATHERINE OF RUSSIA. _

TO SIR HORACE MANN. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _Aug. _ 13, 1764. 

I am afraid it is some thousands of days since I wrote to you; but woeis me! how could I help it? Summer will be summer, and peace peace. Itis not the fashion to be married, or die in the former, nor to kill orbe killed in the latter; and pray recollect if those are not the sourcesof correspondence. You may perhaps put in a caveat against my plea ofpeace, and quote Turks Island[1] upon me; why, to be sure theparenthesis is a little hostile, but we are like a good wife, and canwink at what we don't like to see; besides, the French, like a sensiblehusband, that has made a slip, have promised us a new topknot, so wehave kissed and are very good friends. 

[Footnote 1: Turk's Island, called also Tortuga, is a small island nearSt. Domingo, of which a French squadron had dispossessed some Britishsettlers; but the French Government disavowed the act, and compensatedthe settlers. ]

The Duke of York returned very abruptly. The town talks of remittancesstopped; but as I know nothing of the matter, and you are not only aminister but have the honour of his good graces, I do not pretend totell you what to be sure you know better than I do. 

Old Sir John Barnard is dead, which he had been to the world for sometime; and Mr. Legge. The latter, who was heartily in the minority, saidcheerfully just before he died, "that he was going to the majority. "

Let us talk a little of the north. Count Poniatowski, with whom I wasacquainted when he was here, is King of Poland, and calls himselfStanislaus the Second. This is the sole instance, I believe, uponrecord, of a second of a name being on the throne while the first wasliving without having contributed to dethrone him. [1] Old Stanislauslives to see a line of successors, like Macbeth in the cave of thewitches. So much for Poland; don't let us go farther north; we shallfind there Alecto herself. I have almost wept for poor Ivan! I shallsoon begin to believe that Richard III. Murdered as many folks as theLancastrian historians say he did. I expect that this Fury will poisonher son next, lest Semiramis should have the bloody honour of havingbeen more unnatural. As Voltaire has unpoisoned so many persons offormer ages, methinks he ought to do as much for the present time, andassure posterity that there never was such a lamb as Catherine II. , andthat, so far from assassinating her own husband and Czar Ivan, [2] shewept over every chicken that she had for dinner. How crimes, likefashions, flit from clime to clime! Murder reigns under the Pole, whileyou, who are in the very town where Catherine de' Medici was born, andwithin a stone's throw of Rome, where Borgia and his holy father sentcardinals to the other world by hecatombs, are surprised to hear thatthere is such an instrument as a stiletto. The papal is now a mere goutychair, and the good old souls don't even waddle out of it to get abastard. 

[Footnote 1: The first was Stanislaus Leczinski, father of the Queen ofFrance. He had been driven from Poland by Peter the Great after theoverthrow of Charles XII. Of Sweden (_v. Infra_, Letter 90). ]

[Footnote 2: Ivan, the Czar who had been deposed by the former Czarina, Elizabeth, had recently been murdered, while trying to escape from theconfinement in which he had been so long detained. ]

Well, good night! I have no more monarchs to chat over; all the rest arethe most Catholic or most Christian, or most something or other that isdivine; and you know one can never talk long about folks that are onlyexcellent. One can say no more about Stanislaus _the first_ than that heis the best of beings. I mean, unless they do not deserve it, and thentheir flatterers can hold forth upon their virtues by the hour. 

_MADAME DE BOUFFLERS' WRITINGS--KING JAMES'S JOURNAL. _

TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD. 

STRAWBERRY HILL, _Oct. _ 5, 1764. 

My dear Lord, --Though I wrote to you but a few days ago, I must troubleyou with another line now. Dr. Blanchard, a Cambridge divine, and whohas a good paternal estate in Yorkshire, is on his travels, which heperforms as a gentleman; and, therefore, wishes not to have hisprofession noticed. He is very desirous of paying his respects to you, and of being countenanced by you while he stays at Paris. It will muchoblige a particular friend of mine, and consequently me, if you willfavour him with your attention. Everybody experiences your goodness, butin the present case I wish to attribute it a little to my request. 

I asked you about two books, ascribed to Madame de Boufflers. If theyare hers, I should be glad to know where she found, that Oliver Cromwelltook orders and went over to Holland to fight the Dutch. As she has beenon the spot where he reigned (which is generally very strong evidence), her countrymen will believe her in spite of our teeth; and Voltaire, wholoves all anecdotes that never happened, _because_ they prove themanners of the times, will hurry it into the first history he publishes. I, therefore, enter my caveat against it; not as interested for Oliver'scharacter, but to save the world from one more fable. I know Madame deBoufflers will attribute this scruple to my partiality to Cromwell (and, to be sure, if we must be ridden, there is some satisfaction when theman knows how to ride). I remember one night at the Duke of Grafton's, abust of Cromwell was produced: Madame de Boufflers, without uttering asyllable, gave me the most speaking look imaginable, as much as to say, "Is it possible you can admire this man!" _Apropos_: I am sorry to saythe reports do not cease about the separation, and yet I have heardnothing that confirms it. 

I once begged you to send me a book in three volumes, called "Essais surles Moeurs;" forgive me if I put you in mind of it, and request you tosend me that, or any other new book. I am wofully in want of reading, and sick to death of all our political stuff, which, as the Parliamentis happily at the distance of three months, I would fain forget till Icannot help hearing of it. I am reduced to Guicciardin, and though theevenings are so long, I cannot get through one of his periods betweendinner and supper. They tell me Mr. Hume has had sight of King James'sjournal;[1] I wish I could see all the trifling passages that he willnot deign to admit into History. I do not love great folks till theyhave pulled off their buskins and put on their slippers, because I donot care sixpence for what they would be thought, but for what they are. 

[Footnote 1: This journal is understood to have been destroyed in thecourse of the French Revolution, but it had not only been previouslyseen by Hume, as Walpole mentions here, but Mr. Fox had also had accessto it, and had made some notes or extracts from it, which weresubsequently communicated to Lord Macaulay when he carried out thedesign of writing a "History of the Revolution of 1688, " which Mr. Foxhad contemplated. ]

Mr. Elliot brings us woful accounts of the French ladies, of the decencyof their conversation, and the nastiness of their behaviour. 

Nobody is dead, married, or gone mad, since my last. Adieu!... 

END OF VOL. I.