I feel that I have so much to say to you, that I foresee there
will be but little method in my letter; but if, upon the
whole, you see My meaning, and the depth of my friendship for
you, I am content.
It was most agreeable to me to receive a letter of confidence
from you, at the time I expected a very different one from
you; though, by the date of your last, I perceive you had not
then received some letters, which, though I did not see, I
must call simple, as they could only tend to make you uneasy
for some months. I should not have thought of communicating a
quarrel to you at a distance, and I don't conceive the sort of
friendship of those that thought it necessary. When I heard
it had been wrote to you, I thought it right to myself to give
you my account of it, but, by your brother's desire,
suppressed my letter, and left it to be explained by him, who
wrote to you so sensibly on it, that I shall say no more but
that I think myself so ill-used that it will prevent my giving
you thoroughly the advice you ask of me for how can I be sure
that my resentment might not make me see in a stronger light
the reasons for your breaking off an affair(953) which you
know before I never approved?
You know my temper is so open to any body I love that I must
be happy at seeing you lay aside a reserve with me, which is
the only point that ever made me dissatisfied with you. That
silence of yours has, perhaps, been one of the chief reasons
that has always prevented my saying much to you on a topic
which I saw was so near your heart. Indeed, its being so near
was another reason; for how could I expect you would take my
advice, even if you bore it? But, my dearest Harry, how can I
advise you now? Is it not gone too far -for me to expect you
should keep any resolution about it, especially in absence,
which must be destroyed the moment you meet again? And if ever
you should marry and be happy, won't you reproach me with
having tried to hinder it? I think you as just and honest as
I think any man living; but any man living in that
circumstance would think I had been prompted by private
reasons. I see as strongly as you can all the arguments for
your breaking off; but, indeed, the alteration of your fortune
adds very little strength to what they had before. You never
had fortune enough to make such a step at all prudent: she
loved you enough to be content with that; I can't believe this
change will alter her sentiments, for I must do her the
justice to say that it is plain she preferred you with nothing
to all the world. I could talk upon this head, but I will
only leave you to consider, without advising YOU On either
side, these two things-whether you think it honester to break
off with her after such engagements as yours (how strong I
don't know), after her refusing very good matches for you, and
show her that she must think of making her fortune; or whether
you will wait with her till some amendment in your fortune can
put it in your power to marry her. '
My dearest Harry, you must see why I don't care to say more on
this head. My wishing it could be right for you to break off
with her (for, without it is right, I would not have you on
any account take such a step) makes it impossible for me to
advise it; and therefore, I am sure you will forgive my
declining, an act of friendship which your having put in my
power gives me the greatest satisfaction. But it does put
something else in my power, which I am sure nothing can make
me decline, and for which I have long wanted an opportunity.
Nothing could prevent my being unhappy at the smallness of
your fortune, but its throwing it into my way to offer you to
share mine. As mine is so precarious, by depending on so bad
a constitution, I can only offer you the immediate use of it.
I do that most sincerely. My places still (though my Lord
Walpole has cut off three hundred pounds a-year to save
himself the trouble of signing his name ten times for once)
bring me in near two thousand pounds a-year. I have no debts,
no connexions; indeed, no -way to dispose of it particularly.
By living with my father, I have little real use for a quarter
of it. I have always flung it away all in the most idle
manner; but, my dear Harry, idle -,is I am, and thoughtless, I
have sense enough to have real pleasure in denying myself
baubles, and in saving a very good income to make a man happy,
for whom I have a just esteem and most sincere friendship. I
know the difficulties any gentleman and man of spirit must
struggle with, even in having such an offer made him, much
more in accepting it. I hope you will allow there are some in
making it. But hear me: if there is such a thing as
friendship in the world, these are the opportunities of
exerting it, and it can't be exerted without it is accepted.
I must talk of myself to prove to you that it will be right
for 'you to accept it. I am sensible of having more follies
and weaknesses, and fewer real good qualities than most men.
I sometimes reflect on this, though I own too seldom. I
always want to begin acting like a man, and a sensible one,
which I think I might b, if I would. Can I begin better, than
by taking care of my fortune for one I love? You have seen (I
have seen you have) that I am fickle, and foolishly fond of
twenty new people; but I don't really love them-I have always
loved you constantly: I am willing to convince you and the
world, what I have always told you, that I loved you better
than any body. If I ever felt much for any thing, which I
know may be questioned, it was certainly my mother. I look on
you as my nearest relation by her, and I think I can never do
enough to show my gratitude and affection to her. For these
reasons, don't deny me what I have set my heart on-the making
your fortune easy to you.
[The rest of this letter is wanting.]
(953) This was an early attachment of Mr. Conway's. By his
having complied with the wishes and advice of his friends on
this subject, and got the better of his passion, he probably
felt that he, in some measure, owed to Mr. Walpole the
subsequent happiness of his life, in his marriage with another
person. (the lady alluded to was Lady Caroline Fitzroy,
afterwards Countess of Harrington, whose sister, Lady
Isabella, had, three years before, married Mr. Conway's elder
brother, afterwards Earl and Marquis of Hertford.]
381 Letter 144
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, July 22, 1744.
I have not written to you, my dear child, a good while, I know
but, indeed, it was from having nothing to tell you. You know
I love you too well for it to be necessary to be punctually
proving it to you; so, when I have nothing worth your knowing,
I repose myself upon' the persuasion that you must have of my
friendship. But I will never let that grow into any
negligence, I should say, idleness, which is always mighty
ready to argue me out of every thing I ought to do; and
letter-writing is one of the first duties that the very best
people let perish out of their rubric. Indeed, I pride myself
extremely in having been so good a correspondent; for, besides
that every day grows to make one hate writing, more, it is
difficult, you must own, to keep up a correspondence of this
sort with any spirit, when long absence makes one entirely out
of all the little circumstances of each other's society, and
which are the soul of letters. We are forced to deal only in
great events, like historians; and, instead of being Horace
Mann and Horace Walpole, seem to correspond as Guicciardin and
Clarendon would:
Discedo Alceus puncto Illius; ille meo quis!
Quis nisi Callimachus?
Apropos to writing histories and Guicciardin; I wish to God,
Boccalini was living! never was such an opportunity for
Apollo's playing off a set of looks, as there is now! The good
city of London, who, from long dictating to the government,
are now come to preside over taste and letters, have given one
Carte,(954) a Jacobite parson, fifty pounds a-year, for seven
years, to write the history of England; and four aldermen and
six common councilmen are to .inspect his materials and the
progress of the work. Surveyors and common sewers turned
supervisors of literature! To be sure, they think a history of
England is no more than Stowe's Survey of the Parishes!
Instead of having books published with the imprimatur of an
university, they Will be printed, as churches are whitewashed,
John Smith and Thomas Johnson, churchwardens.
But, brother historian, you will wonder I should have nothing
to communicate, when all Europe is bursting with events, and
every day "big with the fate of Cato and of Rome." But so it
is; I know nothing; Prince Charles's great passage of the
Rhine has hitherto produced nothing, more: indeed, the French
armies are moving towards him from Flanders; and they tell us,
ours is crossing the Scheldt to attack the Count de Saxe, now
that we arc equal to him, from our reinforcement and his
diminutions. In the mean time, as I am at least one of the
principal heroes of my own politics, being secure of any
invasion, I am going to leave all my lares, that is, all my
antiquities, household gods and pagods, and take a journey
into Siberia for six weeks, where my father's grace of
Courland has been for some time.
Lord Middlesex is going to be married to Miss Boyle,(955) Lady
Shannon's daughter; she has thirty thousand pounds, and may
have as much more, if her mother, who is a plain widow, don't
happen to Nugentize.(956) The girl is low and ugly, but a
vast scholar.
Young Churchill has got a daughter by the Frasi;(957) Mr.
Winnington calls it the opera-comique ; the mother is an opera
girl; the grandmother was Mrs. Oldfield.
I must tell you of a very extraordinary print, which my Lady
Burlington gives away, of her daughter Euston, -with this
inscription:
Lady Dorothy Boyle,
Once the pride, the joy, the -comfort of her parents,
The admiration of all that saw her,
The delight of all that knew her.
Born May 14, 1724, married alas! Oct. 10, 1741, an
delivered from extremest misery May 2, 1742.
This print was taken from a picture drawn by memory seven
weeks after her death, by her most afflicted mother;
DOROTHY BURLINGTON.(958)
I am forced to begin a new sheet, lest you should think my
letter came from my Lady Burlington, as it ends so patly with
her name. But is it not a most melancholy way of venting
oneself? She has drawn numbers of these pictures: I don't
approve her having them engraved; but sure the
inscription(959) is pretty.
I was accosted the other night by 'a little, pert petit-maitre
figure, that claimed me for acquaintance. Do you remember to
have seen at Florence an Abb`e Durazzo, of Genoa? well, this
was he: it is mighty dapper and French: however, I will be
civil to it: I never lose opportunities of paving myself an
agreeable passage back to Florence. My dear Chutes, stay for
me: I think the first gale of peace will carry me to you. Are
you as fond of Florence as ever? of me you are not, I am sure,
for you never write me a line. You would be diverted with the
grandeur of our old Florence beauty, Lady Carteret. She
dresses more extravagantly, and grows more short-sighted every
day: she can't walk a step without leaning on one of her
ancient daughters-in law. Lord Tweedale and Lord Bathurst are
her constant gentlemen-ushers. She has not quite digested her
resentment to Lincoln yet. He was walking with her at
Ranelagh the other night, and a Spanish refugee marquis,(960)
who is of the Carteret court, but who, not being quite perfect
in the carte du pais, told my lady, that Lord Lincoln had
promised him to make a very good husband to Miss Pelham. Lady
Carteret, with an accent of energy, replied, "J'esp`ere qu'il
tiendra sa promesse!" Here is a good epigram that has been
made on her:
"Her beauty, like the Scripture feast,
To which the invited never came,
Deprived of its intended guest,
Was given to the old and lame."
Adieu! here is company; I think I may be excused leaving off
at the sixth side.
(954) Thomas Carte, a laborious writer of history. His
principal works are, his Life of the Duke of Ormonde, in three
volumes, folio, and his History of England, in four. He
died in 1754.-D. [The former, though
ill-written, was considered by Dr. Johnson as a work of
authority; and of the latter Dr. Warton remarks, "You may read
Hume for his eloquence, but Carte is the historian for
facts."]
(955) Grace Boyle, daughter and sole heiress of Richard,
Viscount Shannon. She became afterwards a favourite of
Frederick, Prince of Wales, and died in 17 63.-D.
(956) See ant`e, p. 205. (Letter 48)
(957 Prima donna at the opera.
(958) This is an incorrect copy of the inscription on Lady
Euston's picture given in a note at 329 of this volume.-D.
(Letter 110, p. 328/9)
(959) It is said to be Pope's.
(960) The Marquis Tabernego.
383 Letter 145
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Aug. 6, 1744.
I don't tell you any thing about Prince Charles, for you must
hear all his history as soon as we do: at least much sooner
than it can come to the very north, and be despatched back to
Italy. There is nothing from Flanders: we advance and they
retire-just as two months ago we retired and they advanced:
but it is good to be leading up this part of the tune. Lord
Stair is going into Scotland: the King is grown wonderfully
fond of him, since he has taken the resolution of that
journey. He said the other day, "I wish my Lord Stair was in
Flanders! General Wade is a very able officer, but he is not
alert." I, in my private litany, am beseeching the Lord, that
he may contract none of my Lord Stair's alertness.
When I first wrote you word of la Ch`etardie's disgrace, I did
not believe it; but you see it is now public. What I like is,
her Russian Majesty's making her amour keep exact pace with
her public indignation. She sent to demand her picture and
other presents. "Other presents," to be sure, were
billet-doux, bracelets woven of her own bristles-for I look
upon the hair of a Muscovite Majesty in the light of the
chairs which Gulliver made out of the combings of the Empress
of Brobdignag's tresses: the stumps he made into very good
large-tooth combs. You know the present is a very Amazon. she
has grappled with all her own grenadiers. I should like to
see their loves woven into a French opera: La Ch`etardie's
character is quite adapted to the civil discord of their
stage: and then a northern heroine to reproach him in their
outrageous quavers, would make a most delightful crash of
sentiment, impertinence, gallantry, contempt, and screaming.
The first opera that I saw at Paris, I could not believe was
in earnest, but thought they had carried me to the
op`era-comique. The three acts of the piece(961) were three
several interludes, of the Loves of Antony and Cleopatra, of
Alcibiades and the Queen of Sparta, and of Tibuilus with a
niece of Macenas; besides something of Circe, who was screamed
by a Mademoiselle Hermans, seven feet high. She was in
black, with a nosegay of black (for on the French stage they
pique themselves on propriety,) and without powder: whenever
you are a widow, are in distress, or are a witch, you are to
leave off powder.
I have no news for you, and am going to have less, for I a)n
going into Norfolk. I have stayed till I have not one
acquaintance left: the next billow washes me last off the
plank. I have not cared to stir, for fear of news from
Flanders; but I have convinced myself that there will be
none. Our army is much superior to the Count de Saxe;
besides, they have ten large towns to garrison, which will
reduce their army to nothing; or they must leave us the towns
to walk into coolly.
I have received yours of July 21. Did neither I nor your
brother tell you, that we had received the Neapolitan
snuff-box?(962) it is above a month ago: how could I be so
forgetful? but I have never heard one word of the cases, nor
of Lord Conway's guns, nor Lord Hartington's melon-seeds, all
which you mention to have sent. Lestock has long been
arrived, so to be sure the cases never came with him: I hope
Matthews will discover them. Pray thank Dr. Cocchi very
particularly for his book.
I am very sorry too for your father's removal; it was not done
in the most obliging manner by Mr. Winnington; there was
something exactly like a breach of promise in it to my father,
which was tried to be softened by a civil alternative, that
was no alternative at all. He was forced to it by my Lady
Townshend, who has an implacable aversion to all my father's
people; and not having less to Mr. Pelham's, she has been as
brusque with Winnington about them. He has no principles
himself, and those no principles of his are governed
absolutely by hers, which are no-issimes.
I don't know any of your English. I should delight in your
Vauxhall-ets: what a figure my Grifona must make in such a
romantic scene! I have lately been reading the poems of the
Earl of Surrey,(963) in Henry the Eighth's time; he was in
love with the fair Geraldine of Florence; I have a mind to
write under the Grifona's picture these two lines from one of
his sonnets:
"From Tuscane came my lady's worthy race,
Fair Florence was some time her auncient seat."
And then these:
"Her beauty of kinde, her vertue from above;
Happy is he that can obtaine her love!"
I don't know what of kinde means, but to be sure it was
something prodigiously expressive and gallant in those days,
by its being unintelligible now. Adieu! Do the Chutes
cicisb`e it?
(961) I think it was the ballet de la paix.
(962) It was for a present to Mr. Stone, the Duke of
Newcastle's secretary
(963) Henry Howard, son of the Duke of Norfolk. Under a
charge of high-treason, of which he was manifestly innocent,
this noble soldier and accomplished poet was found guilty, and
in 1547, in his thirty-first year, was beheaded on Tower Hill.
History is silent as to the name of fair Geraldine.-E.
385 Letter 146
To Sir Horace Mann.
London, Aug. 16, 1744.
I am writing to you two or three days beforehand, by way of
settling my affairs-not that I am going to be married or to
die; but something as bad as either if it were to last as
long. You will guess that it can only be going to Houghton;
but I make as much an affair of that, as other people would of
going to Jamaica. Indeed I don't lay in store of cake and
bandboxes, and citron-water, and cards, and cold meat, as
country-women do after the session. My packing-up and
travelling concerns lie in very small compass; nothing but
myself and Patapan, my footman, a cloak-bag, and a couple of
books. My old Tom is even reduced upon the article of my
journey; he is at the Bath, patching together some very bad
remains of a worn-out constitution. I always travel without
company; for then I take my own hours and my own humours,
which I don't think the most tractable to shut up in a coach
with any body else. You know, St. Evremont's rule for
conquering the passions, was to indulge them mine for keeping
my temper in order, is never to leave it too long with another
person. I have found out that it will have its way, but I
make it take its way by itself. It is such sort of reflection
as this, that makes me hate the country: it is impossible in
one house with one set of company, to be always enough upon
one's guard to make one's self agreeable, which one ought to
do, as one always expects it from others. If I had a house of
my own in the country, and could live there now and then
alone, or frequently changing my company, I am persuaded I
should like it; at least, I fancy I should; for when one
begins to reflect why one don't like the country, I believe
one grows near liking to reflect in it. I feel very often
that I grow to correct twenty things in myself, as thinking
them ridiculous at my age; and then with my spirit of whim and
folly, I make myself believe that this is all prudence, and
that I wish I were young enough to be as thoughtless and
extravagant as I used to be. But if I know any thing of the
matter, this is all flattering myself. I grow older, and love
my follies less-if I did not, alas! poor prudence and
reflection!
I think I have pretty well exhausted the chapter of myself. I
will now go talk to YOU Of another fellow, who makes me look
upon myself as a very perfect character; for as I have little
merit naturally, and only pound a stray virtue now @ind then
by chance, the other gentleman seems to have no vice, rather
no villainy, but what he nurses in himself and metliodizes
with as much pains as a stoic would patience. Indeed his
pains are not thrown away. This painstaking person's name is
Frederic, King of Prussia. Pray remember for the future never
to speak of him and H. W. without giving the latter the
preference. Last week we were all alarm! He was before
Prague with fifty thousand men, and not a man in Bohemia to
ask him, "What dost thou?" This week we have raised a hundred
thousand Hungarians, besides vast militias and loyal
nobilities. The King of Poland is to attack him on his march,
and the Russians to fall on Prussia.(964) In the mean time,
his letter or address to the people of England(965) has been
published here: it is a poor performance! His Voltaires and
his litterati should correct his works before they are
printed. A careless song, with a little nonsense in it now
and then, does not misbecome a monarch; but to pen manifestoes
worse than the lowest commis that is kept jointly by two or
three margraves, is insufferable!
We are very strong in Flanders, but still expect to do nothing
this campaign. The French are so entrenched, that it is
impossible to attack them. There is talk of besieging
Maubeuge; I don't know how certainly.
Lord Middlesex's match is determined, and the writings signed.
She proves an immense fortune; they pretend a hundred and
thirty thousand pounds-what a fund for making operas!
My Lady Carteret is going to Tunbridge--there is a hurry for a
son: his only one is gone mad: about a fortnight ago he was at
the Duke of Bedford's, and as much in his few senses as ever.
At five o'clock in the morning he waked the duke and duchess
all bloody, and with the lappet of his coat held up full of
ears: he had been in the stable and cropped all the horses! He
is shut up.(966) My lady is in the honeymoon of her grandeur:
she lives in public places, whither she is escorted by the old
beaux of her husband's court; fair white-wigged old gallants,
the Duke of Bolton,(967) Lord Tweedale, Lord Bathurst, and
Charles Fielding;(968) and she all over knots, and small
hoods, and ribands. Her brother told me the other night,
"Indeed I think my thister doesth countenanth Ranelagh too
mutch." They call Lord Pomfret, King Stanislaus, the queen's
father.
I heard an admirable dialogue, which has been written at the
army on the battle of Dettingen, but one can't get a copy; I
must tell you two or three strokes in it that I have heard.
Pierot asks Harlequin, "Que donne-t'on aux g`en`eraux qui ne
se sont pas trouv`es `a la bataille!" Harl. "On leur donne le
cordon rouge." Pier. "Et que donne-t'on au g`en`eral en
Chef(969 qui a gagn`e la victoire!" Harl. "Son cong`e."
Pier. "Qui a soin des bless`es?" Harl. "L'ennemi." Adieu!
(964) This alludes to the King of Prussia's retreat from
Prague, on the approach of the Austrian army commanded by
Prince Charles Lorraine.-D.
(965) In speaking of this address of the King of Prussia, Lady
Hervey, in a letter of the 17th, says, "I think it very well
and very artfully drawn for his purpose, and very
impertinently embarrassing to our King. He is certainly a
very artful prince, and I cannot but think his projects and
his ambition still more extensive, than people at present
imagine them."-E.
(66) On the death of his father this son succeeded to the
earldom in 1763. He died in 1776, when the title became
extinct.-E.
(967) Charles Poulett, third Duke of Bolton.
(968) The Hon, Charles Fielding, third son of William, third
Earl of Denbigh; a lieutenant-colonel in the guards, and
Gentleman-usher to Queen Caroline. He died in 1765.-E.
(969) Lord Stair.-D.
387 Letter 147
To Sir Horace Mann.
Houghton, Sept. 1, 1744.
I wish you joy of your victory at Velletri!(970) I call it
yours, for you are the great spring of all that war. I intend
to publish your life, with an Appendix, that shall contain all
the letters to you from princes, cardinals, and great men of
the time. In speaking of Prince Lobkowitz's attempt to seize
the King of Naples at Velletri, I shall say: "for the share
our hero had in this great action, vide the Appendix, Card.
Albani's letter, p. 14." You shall no longer be the dear
Miny, but Manone, the Great Man; you shall figure with the
Great Pan, and the Great Patapan. I wish you and your laurels
and your operations were on the Rhine, in Piedmont, or in
Bohemia; and then Prince Charles would not have repassed the
first, nor the Prince of Conti advanced within three days of
Turin, and the King of Prussia would already have been
terrified from entering the last-all this lumping bad news
came to counterbalance your Neapolitan triumphs. Here is all
the war to begin again! and perhaps next winter a second
edition of Dunkirk. We could not even have the King of France
die, though he was so near it. He was in a woful fright, and
promised the Bishop of Soissons, that if he lived, he would
have done with his women.(971) A man with all these crowns on
his head, and attaching and disturbing all those on the heads
of other princes, who is the soul of all the havoc and ruin
that has been and is to be spread through Europe in this war,
haggling thus for his bloody life, and cheapening it at the
price of a mistress or two! and this was the fellow that they
fetched to the army to drive the brave Prince Charles beyond
the Rhine again. It is just Such another paltry mortal(972)
that has fetched him back into Bohemia-I forget which of his
battles(973) it was, that when his army had got the victory,
they could not find the King: he had run away for a whole day
without looking behind him.
I thank you for the particulars of the action, and the list of
the prisoners: among them is one Don Theodore Diamato Amor, a
cavalier of so romantic a name, that my sister and Miss Leneve
quite interest themselves in his captivity; and make their
addresses to you, who, they hear, have such power with Prince
Lobkowitz, to obtain his liberty. If he has Spanish gallantry
in any proportion to his name, he will immediately come to
England, and vow himself their knight.
Those verses I sent you on Mr. Pope, I assure you, were not
mine; I transcribed them from the newspapers; from whence I
must send you a very good epigram on Bishop Berkeley's
tar-water:
"Who dare deride what pious Cloyne has done?
The Church shall rise and vindicate her son;
She tells us, all her Bishops shepherds are-
And shepherds heal their rotten sheep with tar."
I am not at all surprised at my Lady Walpole's ill-humour to
you about the messenger. If the resentments of women did not
draw them into little dirty spite, their hatred would be very
dangerous; but they vent the leisure they have to do mischief
in a thousand meannesses, which only serve to expose
themselves.
Adieu! I know nothing here but public politics, of which I
have already talked to you, and which you hear as soon as I
do.
Thank dear Mr. Chute for his letter; I will answer it very
soon; but in the country I am forced to let my pen lie fallow
between letter and letter.
(970) The Austrians had formed a scheme to surprise the
Neapolitan King and general at Velletri, and their first
column penetrated into the place, but reinforcements coming
up, they were repulsed with considerable slaughter.-E.
(971) On the 8th of August, Louis the Fifteenth was seized at
Metz, on his march to Alsace, with a malignant putrid fever,
which increased so rapidly, that, in a few days, his life was
despaired of. In his illness, he dismissed his reigning
mistress, Madame de Chateauroux.-E.
(972) The King of Prussia.
(973) The battle of Molwitz.
388 Letter 148
To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Houghton, Oct. 6, 1744.
My dearest Harry,
My lord bids me tell you how much he is obliged to you for
your letter, and hopes you will accept my answer for his.
I'll tell you what, we shall both be obliged to you if you
will inclose a magnifying-glass in your next letters; for your
two last were in so diminutive a character, that we were
forced to employ all Mrs. Leneve's spectacles, besides an
ancient family reading-glass, with which my grandfather used
to begin the psalm, to discover what you said to us. Besides
this, I have a piece of news for you: Sir Robert Walpole, when
he was made Earl of Orford, left the ministry, and with it the
palace in Downing-street; as numbers of people found out three
years ago, who, not having your integrity, were quick in
perceiving the change of his situation. Your letter was full
as honest as you; for, though directed to Downing-street, it
would not, as other letters would have done, address itself to
the present possessor. Do but think if it had! The smallness
of the hand would have immediately struck my Lord Sandys with
the idea of a plot; for what he could not read' at first
sight, he would certainly have concluded must be cipher.
I march next week towards London, and have already begun to
send my heavy artillery before me, consisting of half-a-dozen
books and part of my linen: my light-horse, commanded by
Patapan, follows this day se'nnight. A detachment of hussars
surprised an old bitch fox yesterday morning, who had lost a
leg in a former engagement; and then, having received advice
of another litter being advanced as far as Darsingham, Lord
Walpole commanded Captain Riley's horse, with a strong party
of foxhounds, to overtake them; but on the approach of our
troops the enemy stole off, and are now encamped at Sechford
common, whither we every hour expect orders to pursue them.
My dear Harry, this is all I have to tell you, and, to my
great joy, which you must forgive me, is full as memorable as
any part of the Flanders campaign. I do not desire to have
you engaged in the least more glory than you have been. I
should not love the remainder of you the least better for your
having lost an arm or a leg, and have as full persuasion of
your courage as if you had contributed to the slicing off
twenty pair from French officers. Thank God. you have sense
enough to content yourself without being a hero! though I
don't quite forget your expedition a hussar-hunting the
beginning of this campaign. Pray, no more of those jaunts. I
don't know any body you would oblige with a present of such
game - for my part, a fragment of the oldest hussar on earth
should never have a place in my museum-they are not antique
enough; and for a live one, I must tell you, I like my raccoon
infinitely better.
Adieu! my dear Harry. I long to see you, You will easily
believe the thought I have of being particularly well with you
is a vast addition to my impatience, though you know it is
nothing new to me to be overjoyed at your return. Yours ever.
390 Letter 149
To Sir Horace Mann.
Houghton, Oct. 6, 1744.
Does decency insist upon one's writing within certain periods,
when one has nothing to say? because, if she does, she is the
most formal, ceremonious personage I know. I shall not enter
into a dispute with her, as my Lady Hervey did with the
goddess of Indolence, or with the goddess of letter-writing, I
forget which, in a long letter that she sent to the Duke of
Bourbon; because I had rather write than have a dispute about
it. Besides, I am not at all used to converse with
hierglyphic ladies. But, I do assure you, it is merely to
avoid scolding that I set about this letter: I don't mean your
scolding, for you are all goodness to me; but my own scolding
of myself-a correction I stand in great awe of, and which I am
sure never to escape as often as I am to blame. One can scold
other people again, or smile and jog one's foot, and affect
not to mind it; but those airs won't do with oneself; One
always comes by the worst in a dispute with one's own
conviction.
Admiral Matthews sent me down hither your great packet: I am
charmed with your prudence, and with the good sense of your
orders for the Neapolitan expedition; I won't say your good
nature, which is excessive for I think your tenderness of the
little Queen(974) a little outree, especially as their
apprehensions might have added great weight to your menaces.
I would threaten like a corsair, though I would conquer with
all the good-breeding of a Scipio. I most devoutly wish you
success; you are sure of having me most happy with any honour
you acquire. You have quite soared above all fear of
Goldsworthy, and, I think, must appear of consequence to any
ministry. I am much obliged to you for the medal, and like
the design: I shall preserve it as part of your works.
I can't forgive what you say to me about the coffee-pot: one
would really think that you looked upon me as an old woman
that had left a legacy to be kept for her sake, and a curse to
attend the parting with it. My dear child, is it treating me
justly to enter into the detail of your reasons? was it even
necessary to say, ,I have changed your coffee-pot for some
other plate?"
I have nothing to tell you but that I go to town next week,
and will then write you all I hear. Adieu!
(974) The Queen of Naples,-Maria of Saxony, wife of Charles
the Third, King of Naples, and subsequently, on the death of
his elder brother, King of Spain. This alludes to the
Austrian campaign in the Neapolitan territories, the attack on
the town of Velletri, etc.-E.
391 Letter 150
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Oct 19, 1744.
I have received two or three letters from you since I wrote to
you last, and all contribute to give me fears for your
situation at Florence. How absurdly all the Queen's ban
haughtinesses are dictated to her by her ministers, or by her
own Austriacity! She lost all Silesia because she would not
lose a small piece of it, and she is going to lose Tuscany for
want of a neutrality, because she would not accept one for
Naples, even after all prospect of conquering it was vanished.
Every thing goes ill! the King of Sardinia beaten; and to-day
we hear of Coni lost! You will see in the papers too, that the
Victory, our finest ship, is lost, with Sir John Balchen and
nine hundred men.(975) The expense alone of the ship is
computed at above two hundred thousand pounds. We have
nothing good but a flying report of a victory of Prince
Charles over the Prussian, who, it 'Is said, has lost ten
thousand men, and both his legs by a cannon-ball. I have no
notion of his losing them, but by breaking them in over-hurry
to run away. However, it comes from a Jew, who had the first
news of the passage of the Rhine.(976) But, my dear child,
how will this comfort me, if you are not to remain in peace at
Florence! I tremble as I write!
Yesterday morning carried off those two old beldamss, Sarah of
Marlborough and the (.countess Granville;(977) so now
Uguccioni's(978) epithalamium must be new-tricked out in
titles, for my Lady Carteret is Countess! Poor Bistino! I wish
my Lady Pomfret may leave off her translation of Froissart to
English the eight hundred and forty heroics! When I know the
particulars of old Marlborough's will, you shall.
My Lord Walpole has promised me a letter for young Gardiner;
who, by the way, has pushed his fortune en vrai b`atard,
without being so, for it never was pretended that he was my
brother's - he protests he is not; but the youth has profited
of his mother's gallantries.
I have not seen Admiral Matthews yet, but I take him to be
very mad. He walks in the Park with a cockade of three
/colours: the Duke desired a gentleman to ask him the meaning,
and all the answer he would give was, "The Treaty of Worms!
the treaty of Worms!" I design to see him, thank him for my
packet, and inquire after the cases.
it is a most terrible loss for his parents, Lord
Beauchamp's(979) death: if they were out of the question, one
could not be sorry for such a mortification to the pride of
old Somerset. He has written the most shocking letter
imaginable to poor Lord Hertford, telling him that it is a
judgment upon him for all his undutifulness, and that he must
always look upon himself. as the cause of' his son's death.
Lord Hertford is as good a man as lives, and has always been
most unreasonably ill-used by that old tyrant. The title of'
Somerset will revert to Sir Edward Seymour, whose line has
been most unjustly deprived of it from the first creation.
The Protector when only Earl of Hertford, married a great
heiress, and had a Lord Beauchamp, who was about twenty when
his mother died. His father then married an Anne Stanhope,
with whom he was In love, and not only procured an act of
parliament to deprive Lord Beauchamp of' his honours and to
settle the title of Somerset, which he was going to have, on
the children of' this second match, but took from him even his
mother's fortune. From him descended Sir Edward Seymour, the
Speaker, who, on King William's landing, when he said to him,
"Sir Edward, I think you are of the Duke of Somerset's
family!" replied, "No, Sir: he is of mine."
Lord Lincoln was married last Tuesday, and Lord Middlesex will
be very soon. Have you heard the gentle manner of the French
King's dismissing Madame de Chateauroux? In the very circle,
the Bishop of Soissons(980) told her, that, as the scandal the
King had given with her was public, his Majesty thought his
repentance ought to be so too, and that he therefore forbade
her the court; and then turning to the monarch, asked him if
that was not his pleasure, who replied, Yes. They have taken
away her pension too, and turned out even laundresses that she
had recommended for the future Dauphiness. A-propos to the
Chateauroux: there is a Hanoverian come over, who was so
ingenuous as to tell Master Louis,(981) how like he is to M.
Walmoden. You conceive that "nous autres souvereins nous
n'aimons pas qu'on se m`eprenne aux gens:" we don't love that
our Fitzroys should be scandalized with any mortal
resemblance.
I must tell you a good piece of discretion of a Scotch
soldier, whom Mr. Selwyn met on Bexley Heath walking back to
the army. He had met with a single glove at Higham, which had
been left there last year in an inn by an officer now in
Flanders: this the fellow was carrying in hopes of a little
money; but, for fear he should lose the glove, wore it all the
way.
Thank you for General Braitwitz's deux potences.(982) I hope
that one of them, at least will rid us of the Prussian.
Adieu! my dear child: all my wishes are employed about
Florence.
(975) The Victory, of a hundred and ten brass guns, was lost,
between the 4th and 5th of October, near Alderney.-E.
(976) This report proved to be without foundation.
(977) Mother of John, Lord Carteret, who succeeded her in the
title.
(978) A Florentine, who had employed an abbe of his
acquaintance to write an epithalamium on Lord Carteret's
marriage, consisting of eight hundred and forty Latin lines.
Sir H. Mann had given an account of the composition of this
piece of literary flattery in one of his letters to
Walpole.-D.
(979) Only son of Algernon, Earl of Hertford, afterwards the
last Duke of Somerset of that branch. [lord Beauchamp was
seized with the smallpox at Bologna, and, after an illness of
four days, died on the 11th of September; on which day he had
completed his nineteenth year.]
(980) Son of Fitzjames, Duke of Berwick. This Bishop of
Soissons, on the King being given over at Metz, prevailed on
him to part with his mistress, the Duchess de Chateauroux; but
the King soon recalled her, and confined the bishop to his
diocese.
(981) Son of King George II. by Madame Walmoden, created
Countess of Yarmouth.
(982) General Braitwitz, commander of the Queen of Hungary's
troops in Tuscany, speaking of the two powers, his mistress
and the King of Sardinia, instead of' saying "ces deux
pouvoirs," said "ces deux potences."
393 Letter 151
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Nov. 9, 1744.
I find I must not wait any longer for news, if I intend to
keep up our correspondence. Nothing happens; nothing has
since I wrote last, but Lord Middlesex's wedding;(983) which
was over above a week before it was known. I believe the
bride told it then; for he and all his family are so silent,
that they Would never have mentioned it: she might have popped
out a child, before a single Sackville would have been at the
expense of a syllable to justify her.
Our old acquaintance, the Pomfrets, are not so reserved about
their great matrimony: the new Lady Granville was at home the
other night for the first time of her being mistress of the
house. I was invited, for I am in much favour with them all,
but found myself extremely d`eplac`e: there was nothing but
the Winchilseas and Baths, and the Gleanings of a party
stuffed out into a faction, some foreign ministers, and the
whole blood of Fermor. My Lady Pomfret asked me if I
corresponded still with the Grifona: "No," I said, "since I
had been threatened with a regale of hams and Florence wine, I
had dropped it." My Lady Granville said, "You was afraid of
being thought interested."--"Yes," said the queen-mother, with
all the importance with which she used to blunder out pieces
of heathen mythology, "I think it was very ministerial."
Don't you think that the Minister word came in as awkwardly as
I did into their room? The Minister is most gracious to me;
he has returned my visit, which, you know, IS never practised
by that rank: I put it all down to my father's account, who is
not likely to keep up the civility.
You will see the particulars of old Marlborough's will in the
Evening Posts of this week: it is as extravagant as one should
have expected; but I delight in her begging that no part of
the Duke of Marlborough's life may be written in verse by
Glover and Mallet, to whom she gives five hundred pounds
apiece for writing it in prose.(984) There is a great deal of
humour in the thought: to be sure the spirit of the dowager
Leonidas(985) inspired her with it.
All public affairs in agitation at present go well for us;
Prince Charles in Bohemia, the raising of the siege of Coni,
and probably of that of Fribourg, are very good circumstances.
I shall be very tranquil this winter, if Tuscany does not come
into play, or another scene of invasion. In a fortnight meets
the Parliament; nobody guesses what the turn of the Opposition
will be. Adieu! My love to the Chutes. I hope you now and
then make my other compliments: I never forget the Princess,
nor (ware hams!) the Grifona.
(983) The Earl of Middlesex married Grace, daughter and sole
heiress of Lord Shannon. On the death of his father in 1765,
he succeeded, as second Duke of Dorset, and died without
issue, in 1769.-E.
(984) Glover, though in embarrassed circumstances at the time,
renounced the legacy; Mallet accepted it, but never fulfilled
the terms.-E.
(985) Glover wrote a dull heroic poem on the action of
Leonidas at Thermopylae. ["Though far indeed from being a
vivid or arresting picture of antiquity, Leonidas," says Mr.
Campbell, "the local descriptions of Leonidas, its pure
sentiments, and the classical images which it recalls, render
it interesting, as the monument of an accomplished and amiable
mind."]
394 Letter 152
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Nov. 26, 1744.
I have not prepared for you a great event, because it was
really,
so unlikely to happen, that I was afraid of being the author
of a mere political report; but, to keep you no longer in
suspense, Lord Granville has resigned: that is the term
"l'honn`ete fa`con de parler;" but, in few words, the truth of
the history is, that the Duke of Newcastle (by the way, mind
that the words I am going to use are not mine, but his
Majesty's,) "being grown as jealous of Lord Granville(986) as
he had been of Lord Orford, and wanting to be first minister
himself, which, a puppy! how should he be?" (autre phrase
royale) and his brother being as susceptible of the noble
passion of jealousy as he is, have long been conspiring to
overturn the great lord. Resolution and capacity were all
they wanted to bring it about; for the imperiousness and
universal contempt which their rival had for them, and for the
rest of the ministry, and for the rest of the nation, had made
almost all men his engines; and, indeed, he took no pains to
make friends: his maxim was, "Give any man the Crown on his
side, and he can defy every thing." Winnington asked him, if
that were true, how he came to be minister? About a fortnight
ago, the whole cabinet-council, except Lord Bath, Lord
Winchilsea, Lord Tweedale, the Duke of Bolton, and my good
brother-in-law,(987) (the two last severally bribed with the
promise of Ireland,) did venture to let the King know, that he
must part with them or with Lord Granville. The monarch does
not love to be forced, and his son is full as angry. Both
tried to avoid the rupture. My father was sent for, but
excused himself from coming till last Thursday, and even then
would not ,go to the King; and at last gave his opinion very
unwillingly. But on Saturday it was finally determined: Lord
Granville resigned the seals, which are given back to my Lord
President Harrington. Lord Winchilsea quits too; but for all
the rest of that connexion, they have agreed not to quit, but
to be forced out: so Mr. Pelham must have a new struggle to
remove every one. He can't let them stay in; because, to
secure his power, he must bring in Lord Chesterfield, Pitt,
the chief patriots, and perhaps some Tories. The King has
declared that my Lord Granville has his opinion and
affection-the Prince warmly and openly espouses him. Judge
how agreeably the two brothers will enjoy their ministry!
To-morrow the Parliament meets: all in suspense! every body
will be staring at each other! I believe the war will still go
on, but a little more Anglicized. For my part, I behold all
with great tranquillity; I cannot --be sorry for Lord
Granville,-for he certainly sacrificed everything to please
the King; I cannot be glad for the Pelhams, for they sacrifice
every thing to their own jealousy and ambition.
Who are mortified, are the fair Sophia and Queen Stanislaus.
However, the daughter carries it off heroically: the very
night of her fall she went to the Oratorio. I talked to her
much, and recollected all that had been said to me upon the
like occasion three years ago: I succeeded, and am invited to
her assembly next Tuesday. Tell Uguccioni that she still
keeps conversazioni, or he will hang himself. She had no
court, but an ugly sister and the fair old-fashioned Duke of
Bolton. It put me in mind of a scene in Harry VIII., where
Queen Catherine appears after her divorce, with Patience her
waiting-maid, and Griffith her gentleman-usher.
My dear child, voil`a le monde! are you as great a philosopher
about it as I am? You cannot imagine how I entertain myself,
especially as all the ignorant flock hither, and conclude that
my lord must be minister again. Yesterday, three bishops came
to do him homage; and who should be one of them but Dr.
Thomas.(988) the only man mitred by Lord Granville! As I was
not at all mortified with our fall, I am only diverted with
this imaginary restoration. They little think how incapable
my lord is of business again. He has this whole summer been
troubled with bloody water upon the least motion; and to-day
Ranby assured me, that he has a stone in his bladder, which he
himself believed before: so now he must never use the least
exercise, never go into a chariot again; and if ever to
Houghton, in a litter. Though this account will grieve you, I
tell it you, that you may know what to expect; yet it is
common for people to live many years in his situation.
if you are not as detached from every thing as I am, you will
wonder at my tranquillity, to be able to write such variety in
the midst of hurricanes. It costs me nothing; so I shall
write on, and tell you an adventure of my own. The town has
been trying all this winter to beat pantomimes off the stage,
very boisterously; for it is the way here to make even an
affair of taste and sense a matter of riot and arms.
Fleetwood, the master of Drury-Lane, has omitted nothing to
support them, as they supported his house. About ten days
ago, he let into the pit great numbers of Bear-garden bruisers
(that is the term), to knock down every body that hissed. The
pit rallied their forces, and drove them out: I was sitting
very quietly in the side-boxes, contemplating all this. On a
sudden the curtain flew up, and discovered the whole stage
filled with blackguards, armed with bludgeons and clubs, to
menace the audience. This raised the greatest uproar; and
among the rest, who flew 'into a passion, but your friend the
philosopher. In short, one of the actors, advancing to the
front of the stage to make an apology for the manager, he had
scarce begun to say, "Mr. Fleetwood--" when your friend, with
a most audible voice and dignity of anger, called out, "He is
an impudent rascal!" The whole pit huzzaed, and repeated the
words. Only think of my being a popular orator! But what was
still better, while my shadow of a person was dilating to the
consistence of a hero, One of the chief ringleaders of the
riot, coming under the box where I sat, and pulling off his
hat, said, "Mr. Walpole, what would you please to have us do
next?" It is impossible to describe to you the confusion into
which this apostrophe threw me. I sank down into the box, and
have never since ventured to set my foot into the playhouse.
The next night, the uproar was repeated with greater violence,
and nothing was heard but voices calling out, "Where's Mr. W.?
where's Mr. W.?" In short, the whole town has been
entertained with my prowess, and Mr. Conway has given me the
name of Wat Tyler; which, I believe, would have stuck by me,
if this new episode of Lord Granville had not luckily
interfered.
We every minute expect news of the Mediterranean engagement
for, besides your account, Birtles has written the same from
Genoa. We expect good news, too, from Prince Charles, who is
driving the King of Prussia before him. In the mean time, his
wife the Archduchess is dead, which may be a signal loss to
him.
I forgot to tell you that, on Friday, Lord Charles Hay,(989)
who has more of the parts of an Irishman than of a Scot, told
my Lady Granville at the drawing-room, on her seeing so full a
court, "that people were come out of curiosity." The
Speaker,(990) is the happiest of any man in these bustles: he
says, "this Parliament has torn two favourite ministers from
the throne." His conclusion is, that the power of the
Parliament will in the end be so great, that nobody can be
minister but their own speaker.
Winnington says my Lord Chesterfield and Pitt will have places
before old Marlborough's legacy to them for being patriots is
paid. My compliments to the family of Suares on the
Vittorina's marriage. Adieu!
(986) By the death of his mother, Lord Carteret had become
Earl Granville.-E.
(987) George, Earl Cholmondeley.
(988) Bishop of Lincoln [successively translated to Salisbury
and Winchester. He died in 1781.]
(989) Brother of Lord Tweedale.
(990) Arthur Onslow.
397 Letter 153
To sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Dec. '24, 1744.
You will wonder what has become of me: nothing has. I know it
is above three weeks since I wrote to you; but I will tell you
the reason. I have kept a parliamentary silence, which I must
'explain to you. Ever since Lord Granville went out, all has
been in suspense. The leaders of the Opposition immediately
imposed silence upon their party; every thing passed without
the least debate--in short, all were making their bargains.
One has heard of the corruption of courtiers; but believe me,
the impudent prostitution of patriots, going to market with
their honesty, beats it to nothing. Do but think of two
hundred men of the most consummate virtue, setting themselves
to sale for three weeks! I have been reprimanded by the wise
for saying that they all stood like servants at a country
statute fair to be hired. All this while nothing was certain:
one day the coalition was settled; the next, the treaty broke
off-I hated to write to you what I might contradict next post.
Besides, in my last letter I remember telling you that the
Archduchess was dead; she did not die till a fortnight
afterwards.
The result of the whole is this: the King, instigated by Lord
Granville, has used all his ministry as ill as possible, and
has with the greatest difficulty been brought to consent to
the necessary changes. Mr. Pelham has had as much difficulty
to regulate the disposition of places. Numbers of lists of
the hungry have been given in by their centurions of those,
several Tories have refused to accept the proffered posts
some, from an impossibility of being rechosen for their
Jacobite counties. But upon the whole, it appears that their
leaders have had very little influence with them; for not
above four or five are come into place. The rest will stick
to Opposition. Here is a list of the changes, as made last
Saturday:
Duke of Devonshire, Lord Steward, in the room of the Duke of
Dorset.
Duke of Dorset, Lord President, in Lord Harrington's room.
Lord Chesterfield,+ Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in the Duke of
Devonshire's.
Duke of Bedford,+ Lord Sandwich,+ George Grenville,+ Lord Vere
Beauclerc,(991) and Admiral Anson, Lords of the Admiralty, in
the room of Lord Winchilsea,* Dr. Lee,* Cockburn,* Sir Charles
Hardy,* and Philipson.*
Mr. Arundel and George Lyttelton,f Lords of the Treasury, in
the room of Compton* and Gybbon.*
Lord Gowerf again Privy Seal, in Lord Cholmondeley's* room,
who is made Vice-Treasurer of Ireland in Harry Vane's.*
Mr. Doddington,+ Treasurer of the Navy, in Sir John
Rushout's.*
Mr. Waller,+ Cofferer, in Lord Sandys'.*
Lord Hobart, Captain of the Pensioners, in Lord Bathurst's.*
Sir John Cotton, +(992) Treasurer of the Chambers, in Lord
Hobart'S.(993)
Mr. Keene, Paymaster of the Pensions, in Mr. Hooper's.*
Sir John Philippsf and John Pitt+ Commissioners of Trade, in
Mr. Keene's and Sir Charles Gilmour's.*
William Chetwynd,+ Master of the Mint, in Mr. Arundel's.
Lord Halifax,+ Master of the Buck-hounds, in Mr. Jennison's,
who has a pension.
All those with a cross are from the Opposition; those with a
star, the turned-out, and are of the Granville and Bath
squadron, except Lord Cholmondeley, (who, too, had connected
with the former,) and Mr. Philipson. The King parted with
great regret with Lord Cholmondeley, and complains loudly of
the force put upon him. The Prince, who is full as warm as
his father for Lord Granville, has already turned out
Lyttelton, who was his secretary, and Lord Halifax; and has
named Mr. Drax and Lord Inchiquin(994) in their places. You
perceive the great Mr. William Pitt is not in the list, though
he comes thoroughly into the measures. To preserve his
character and authority in the Parliament, he was unwilling to
accept any thing yet: the ministry very rightly insisted that
he should; he asked for secretary at war, knowing it would be
refused-and it was.(995)
By this short sketch, and it is impossible to be more
explanatory, you will perceive that all is confusion: all
parties broken to Pieces, and the whole Opposition by tens and
by twenties selling themselves for profit-power they get none!
It is not easy to say where power resides at present: it is
plain that it resides not in the King; and yet he has enough
to hinder any body else from having it. His new governors
have no interest with him-scarce any converse with him.
The Pretender's son is owned in France as Prince of Wales; the
princes of the blood have been to visit him in form. The
Duchess of Chateauroux is poisoned there; so their monarch is
as ill-used as our most gracious King!(996) How go your
Tuscan affairs? I am always trembling for you, though I am
laughing at every thing else. My father is pretty well: he is
taking a preparation of Mr. Stephens's(997) medicine; but I
think all his physicians begin to agree that he has no large
stone.
Adieu! my dear child: I think the present comedy cannot be of
long duration. the Parliament is adjourned for the holidays;
I am impatient to see the first division.
(991) Lord Vere Beauclerc, third son of the first Duke of St.
Albans, afterwards created Lord Vere, of Hanworth. He entered
early into a maritime life, and distinguished himself in
several commands, He died in 1781.-E.
(992) The King was much displeased that an adherent of the
exiled family should be forced into the service of his own. in
consequence of this appointment a caricature was circulated,
representing the ministers thrusting Sir John, who was
extremely corpulent, down the King's throat.
(993) John, first Lord Hobart, so created in 1728, by the
interest of his sister, Lady Suffolk, the mistress of George
the Second. In 1746 he was created Earl of Buckinghamshire;
and died in 1756.-D.
(994) William O'Brien, fourth Earl of Inchiquin, in Ireland.
He died in 1777.-E.
(995) Pitt alone was placeless. He loftily declared, that he
would accept no office except that of secretary at war, and
the ministers were not yet able to dispense with Sir William
Yonge in that department. This resolution of Pitt, joined to
the King's pertinacity against him, excluded him, for the
present, from any share in power."-Lord Mahon, vol. iii. p.
315.
(996) The Duchess died on the 8th of December. The Biog.
Univ. says, that the rumour of her having been poisoned was
altogether without foundation.-E.
(997) It was Dr. Jurin's preparation.
399 Letter 154
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Jan. 4, 1745.
When I receive your long letters I am ashamed: mine are notes
in comparison. How do you contrive to roll out your patience
into two sheets? You certainly don't love me better than I do
you; and yet if our loves were to b@ sold by the quire, you
would have by far the more magnificent stock to dispose of. I
can only say that age has already an effect on the vigour of
my pen; none on yours: it is not, I assure you, for you alone,
but my ink is at low water-mark for all my acquaintance. My
present shame arises from a letter of eight sides, of December
8th, which I received from you last post; but before I say a
word to that, I must tell you that I have at last received the
cases; three with gesse figures, and one with Lord Conway's
gun- barrels: I thought there were to be four, besides the
guns; but I quite forget, and did not even remember what they
were to contain. Am not I in your debt again? Tell me, for
you know how careless I am. Look over your list, and see
whether I have received all. There were four barrels, the
Ganymede, the Sleeping Cupid, the model of my statue, the
Musaeum Florentinum, and some seeds for your brother. But
alas! though I received them in gross, I did not at all in
detail; the model was broken into ten thousand bits, and the
Ganymede shorn in two: besides some of the fingers quite
reduced to powder. Rysbrach has undertaken to mend him. The
little Morpheus arrived quite whole, and is charmingly pretty;
I like it better in plaster than in the original black marble.
It is not being an upright senator to promise one's vote
beforehand, especially in a money matter; but I believe so
many excellent patriots have just done the same thing, that I
shall venture readily to engage my promise to you, to get you
any sum for the defence of Tuscany -why it is to defend you
and my own country! my own palace in via di santo
spirits,(998) my own Princess `epuis`ee, and all my family! I
shall quite make interest for you: nay, I would speak to our
new ally, and your old acquaintance, Lord Sandwich, to assist
in it; but I could have no hope of getting at his ear, for he
has put on such a first-rate tie-wig, on his admission to the
admiralty board, that nothing without the lungs of a boatswain
can ever think to penetrate the thickness of the curls. I
think, however, it does honour to the dignity of ministers:
when he was but a patriot, his wig was not of half its present
gravity. There are no more changes made: all is quiet yet;
but next Thursday the Parliament meets to decide the
complexion of the session. My Lord Chesterfield goes next
week to Holland, and then returns for Ireland.
The great present disturbance in politics is my Lady
Granville's assembly; which I do assure you distresses the
Pelhams infinitely more than a mysterious meeting of the
States would, and far more than the abrupt breaking up of the
Diet at Grodno. She had begun to keep Tuesdays before her
lord resigned, which now she continues with greater zeal. Her
house is very fine, she very handsome, her lord very agreeable
and extraordinary; and yet the Duke of Newcastle wonders that
people will go thither. He mentioned to my father my going
there, who laughed at him; Cato's a proper person to trust
with such a childish jealousy! Harry Fox says, "Let the Duke
of Newcastle open his own house, and see if all that come
thither are his friends." The fashion now is to send cards to
the women, and to declare that all men Are welcome without
being asked. This is a piece of ease that shocks the prudes
of the last age. You can't imagine how my Lady Granville
shines in doing favours; you know she is made for it. My lord
has new furnished his mother's apartment for her, and has
given her a magnificent set of dressing plate: he is very fond
of her, and she as fond of his being so.
You will have heard of Marshal Belleisle's being made a
prisoner at Hanover: the world will believe it was not by
accident. He is sent for over hither: the first thought was
to confine him to the Tower, but that is contrary to the
politesse of modern war: they talk of sending him to
Nottingham, where Tallard was. I am sure, if he is prisoner
at large anywhere, we could not have a worse inmate! so
ambitious and intriguing a man, who was author of this whole
war, will be no bad general to be ready to head the Jacobites
on any insurrection.(999)
I can say nothing more about young Gardiner, but that I don't
think my father at all inclined now to have any letter written
for him. Adieu!
(998) The street in Florence where Mr. Mann lived.
(999) Belleisle and his brother, who had been sent by the King
of France on a mission to the King of Prussia, were detained,
while changing horses, at Elbengerode, and from thence
conveyed to England; where, refusing to give their parole in
the mode it was required, they were confined in Windsor
Castle.
400 Letter 155
To sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Jan. 14, 1745.
I have given my uncle the letter from M. de Magnan; he had
just received another from him at Venice, to desire his
recommendation to you. His history is, first,-the Regent
picked him up, (I don't know from whence, but he is of the
Greek church,) to teach the present Duke of Orleans the Russ
tongue, when they had a scheme for marrying him into Muscovy.
At Paris, Lord Waldegrave(1000) met with him, and sent him
over hither, where they pensioned him and he was to be a spy,
but made nothing out; till the King was weary of giving him
money, and then they despatched him to Vienna, with a
recommendation to Count d'Uhlefeldt, who, I suppose, has
tacked him upon the Great Duke. My uncle says, he knows no
ill of him; that you may be civil to him, but not enter into
correspondence with him, you need not; he is of no use.
Apropos to you; I have been in a fright about you; we were
told that Prince Lobkowitz was landed at Harwich; I did not
like the name; and as he has been troublesome to you, I did
not know but he might fancy he had some complaints against
you. I wondered you had never mentioned his being set out;
but it is his son, a travelling boy of twenty; he is sent
under the care of an apothecary and surgeon.
The Parliament is met: one hears of the Tory Opposition
continuing, but nothing has appeared; all is quiet. Lord
Chesterfield is set out for the Hague - I don't know what ear
the States will lend to his embassy, when they hear with what
difficulty the King was brought to give him a parting
audience; and which, by a watch, did not last five-and-forty
seconds. The Granville faction are still the constant and
only countenanced people at court. Lord Winchilsea, one of
the disgraced, played at court On Twelfth-night, and won: the
King asked him the next morning, how much he had for his own
share?(1001) He replied, "Sir, about a quarter's salary." I
liked the spirit, and was talking to him Of it the next night
at Lord Granville's: "Why, yes," said he, "I think it showed
familiarity at least: tell it your father--I don't think he
will dislike it." My Lady Granville gives a ball this week,
but in a manner a private one, to the two families of Carteret
and Fermor and their intimacies: there is a fourth sister,
Lady Jullana,(1002) who is very handsome, but I think not so
well as Sophia: the latter thinks herself breeding.
I will tell you a very good thing: Lord Baltimore will not
come into the admiralty, because in the new commission they
give Lord Vere Beauclerc the precedence to him, and he has
dispersed printed papers with precedents in his favour. A
gentleman, I don't know who, the other night at Tom's
coffee-house, said, "It put him in mind of Ponkethman's
petition in the Spectator, where he complains, that formerly
he used to act second chair in Dioclesian, but now was reduced
to dance fifth flowerpot."
The Duke of Montagu has found out an old penny-history-book,
called the Old Woman's Will of Ratcliffe-Highway, which he has
bound up with his mother-in-law's, Old Marlborough,(1003)
only-tearing away the title-page of the latter.
My father has been extremely ill this week with his disorder--
I think the physicians are more and more persuaded that it is
the stone in his bladder. He is taking a preparation of Mrs.
Stevens's medicine, a receipt of one Dr. Jurin, which we began
to fear was too violent for him: I made his doctor angry with
me, by arguing on this medicine, which I never could
comprehend. it is of so great violence, that it Is to split a
stone when it arrives at it, and yet it is to do no damage to
all the tender intestines through which it must first
pass.(1004) I told him, I thought it was like an admiral
going on a secret expedition of war, with instructions, which
are not to be opened till he arrives in such a latitude.
George Townshend,(1005) my lord's eldest son, who is at the
Hague on his travels, has had an offer to raise a regiment for
their service, of which he is to be colonel, with power of
naming all his own officers. It was proposed, that it should
consist of Irish Roman Catholics, but the regency of Ireland
have represented against that, because they think they will
all desert to the French. He is now to try it of Scotch, which
will scarce succeed, unless he will let all the officers be of
the same nation. An affair of this kind first raised the late
Duke of Argyll; and was the cause of the first quarrel with
the Duke of Marlborough, who was against his coming into our
army in the same rank.
Sir Thomas Hanmer has at last published his Shakspeare: he has
made several alterations, but they will be the less talked of,
as he has not marked in the text, margin, or notes, where or
why he has made any change; but every body must be obliged to
collate it with other editions. One most curiously absurd
alteration I have been told. In Othello, it is said of
Cassio, "a Florentine, one almost damned in a fair wife." It
happens that there is no other mention in the play of Cassio's
wife. Sir Thomas has altered it-how do you think?-no, I
should be sorry if you could think how-"almost damned in a
fair phiz!"-what a tragic word! and what sense!
Adieu! I see advertised a translation of Dr. Cocchi's book on
living on vegetables:(1006) Does he know any thing of it? My
service to him and every body.
(1000) James, first Earl of Waldegrave, ambassador at Paris,
K. G. He died in 1741.-D.
(1001) Those who play at court on Twelfth-night, make a bank
with several people.
(1002) Lady Juliana Fermor, married in 1751 to Thomas Penn,
Esq. (son of William Penn, the great legislator of the
Quakers) one of the proprietors of Pennsylvania. He died in
1775, and Lady Juliana in 1781.-E.
(1003) The Duchess of Marlborough's will was published in a
thin octavo volume.-D.
(1004) Mrs. Stephens's remedy for the stone made for some
time, the greatest noise, and met both with medical
approbation and national reward. In 1742, Dr. James Parsons
published a pamphlet on the subject, which Dr. Mead describes
as @' a very useful book; in which both the mischiefs done by
the medicine, and the artifices employed to bring it into
vogue are set in a clear light."--E.
(1005) Afterwards first Marquis Townshend, Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, Master General of the Ordnance. etc.
(1006) The Doctor's treatise "Di Vitto Pythagorico," appeared
this year in England, under the title of "The Pythagorean
Diet; or Vegetables only conducive to the Preservation of
Health and the Cure of Diseases."-E.
402 letter 156
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Feb. 1, 1745.
I am glad my letters, obscure as they of course must be, give
you any light into England; but don't mind them too much; they
may be partial; must be imperfect: don't negotiate upon their
authority, but have Capello's(1007) example before your eyes!
How I laugh when I see him important, and see my Lady
Pomfret's letters at the bottom of his instructions! how it
would make a philosopher smile at the vanity of politics! How
it diverts me, who can entertain myself at the expense of
philosophy, politics, or any thing else! Mr. Conway says I
laugh at all serious characters-so I do-and at myself too, who
am far from being of the number. Who would not laugh at a
world, where so ridiculous a creature as the Duke of Newcastle
can overturn ministries! Don't take me for a partisan of Lord
Granville's because I despise his rivals; I am not for
adopting his measures; they were wild and dangerous -. in his
single capacity, I think him a great genius(1008) and without
having recourse to the Countess's translatable periods, am
pleased with his company. His frankness charms one when it is
not necessary to depend upon it: and his contempt for fools is
very flattering to any one who happens to know the present
ministry. Their coalition goes on as One should expect; they
have the name of having effected it; and the Opposition is no
longer mentioned: yet there is not a half-witted prater in the
House but can divide with every new minister on his side,
except Lyttelton, whenever he pleases. They actually do every
day bring in popular bills, and on the first tinkling of the
brass, all the new bees swarm back to the Tory side of the
House. The other day, on the Flanders army, Mr. Pitt came
down to prevent this: he was very ill, but made a very strong
and much admired speech for coalition,(1009) which for that
day succeeded, and the army was voted with but one negative,.
But now the Emperor (1010) is dead, and every thing must wear
a new face. If it produces a peace, Mr. Pelham is a fortunate
man! He will do extremely well at the beginning of peace,
like the man in Madame de la Fayette's Memoirs, Qui exer`coit
extr`emement bien sa charge, quand il n'avoit rien `a faire."
However, do you keep well with them, and be sure don't write
me back any treason, in answer to all I write to you: you are
to please them; I think of them -is they are.
The new Elector(1011) seems to set out well for us, though
there are accounts of his having taken the style of Archduke,
as claiming the Austrian succession: if he has, it will be
like the children's game of beat knaves out of doors, where
you play the pack twenty times over; one gets pam, the other
gets pam, but there is no conclusion to the game till one side
has never a card left.
After my ill success with the baronet,(1012) to whom I gave a
letter for
you. I shall always be very cautious how I recommend
barbarians to your protection. I have this morning been
solicited for some credentials for a Mr. Oxenden.(1013) I
could not help laughing: he is a son of Sir George, my Lady
W.'s famous lover! Can he want recommendations to Florence?
However, I must give him a letter; but beg you will not give
yourself any particular trouble about him, for I
do not know him enough to bow to. His person is good: that
and his name, I suppose, will bespeak my lady's attentions,
and save you the fatigue of doing him many honours.
Thank Mr. Chute for his letter; I will answer it very soon. I
delight in the article of the Mantua Gazette. Adieu!
(1007) The Venetian ambassador.
(1008) Swift, in speaking of Lord Granville, says, that "he
carried away from college more Greek, Latin, and philosophy
than properly became a person of his rank;" and Walpole, in
his Memoires, describes him as "an extensive scholar, master
of all classic criticism, and of all modern politics."-E.
(1009) "Mr. Pitt, who had been laid up with the gout, came
down with the mien and apparatus of an invalid, on purpose to
make a full declaration of his sentiments on our present
circumstances. What he said was enforced with much grace both
of action and elocution. He commended the ministry for
pursuing moderate and healing measures, and such -,is tended
to set the King at the head of all his people." See Mr.- P.
Yorke's MS. Parliamentary Journal.-E.
(1010) Charles Vii. Elector of Bavaria.
(1011) Maximilian Joseph. He died in 1777.-E.
(1012) Sir William Maynard. (He married the daughter of Sir
Cecil Bisshopp, and died in 1772.]
(1013) Afterwards Sir Henry Oxenden, the sixth baronet of the
family, and eldest son of Sir George Oxenden, for many years a
lord of the treasury during the reign of George the Second.
He died in 1803.-E.
404 Letter 157
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Feb. 28, 1745.
You have heard from your brother the reason of my not having
written to you so long. I have been out but twice since my
father fell into this illness, which is now near a month; and
all that time either continually in his room, or obliged to
see multitudes of people; for it is most wonderful how every
body of all kinds has affected to express their concern for
him. He has been out of danger above this week; but I can't
say he mended at all perceptibly, till these last three days.
His spirits are amazing, and his constitution more; for Dr.
Hulse, said honestly from the first, that if he recovered, it
would be from his own strength, not from their art. After the
four or five first days, in which they gave him the bark, they
resigned him to the struggles of his own good temperament-and
it has surmounted! surmounted an explosion and discharge of
thirty-two pieces of stone, a constant and vast effusion of
blood for five days, a fever of three weeks, a perpetual flux
of water, and sixty-nine years, already (one should think)
worn down with his vast fatigues! How much more he will ever
recover, one scarce dare hope about: for us, he is greatly
recovered; for himself-
March 4th.
I had written thus far last week, without being able to find a
moment to finish. In the midst of all my attendance on my
lord and receiving visits, I am forced to go out and thank
those that have come and sent; for his recovery is now at such
a pause, that I fear it is in vain to expect much farther
amendment. How dismal a prospect for him, with the possession
of the greatest understanding in the world, not the least
impaired to lie without any use of it! for to keep him from
pains and restlessness, he takes so much opiate, that he is
scarce awake four hours of the four-and-twenty; but I -will
say no more on this.
Our coalition goes on thrivingly; but at the expense of the
old Court, who are all discontented, and are likely soon to
show their resentment. The brothers have seen the best days
of their ministry. The Hanover troops dismissed to please the
Opposition, and taken again with their consent, under the
cloak of an additional subsidy to the Queen of Hungary, who is
to pay them. This has set the patriots in so villainous a
light, that they will be ill able to support a minister who
has thrown such an odium on the Whigs, after they had so
stoutly supported that measure last year, and which, after all
the clamour, is now universally adopted, as you see. If my
Lord Granville had any resentment, as he seems to have nothing
but thirst, sure there is no vengeance he might not take! So
far from contracting any prudence from his fall, he laughs it
off every night over two or three bottles. The countess is
with child. I believe she and the countess-mother have got
it; for there is nothing ridiculous which they have not done
and said about it. There was a private masquerade lately at
the Venetian ambassadress's for the Prince of Wales, who named
the company, and expressly excepted my Lady Lincoln and others
of the Pelham faction. My Lady Granville came late, dressed
like Imoinda, and handsomer than one of the houris - the
Prince asked her why she would not dance? , Indeed, Sir, I was
afraid I could not have come at all, for I had a fainting fit
after dinner." The other night my Lady Townshend made a great
ball on her son's coming of age: I went for a little while,
little thinking of dancing. I asked my Lord Granville, why my
lady did not dance? "Oh, Lord! I wish you would ask her: she
will with you." I was caught, and did walk down one country
dance with her; but the prudent Signora-madre would not let
her expose the young Carteret any farther.
You say, you expect much information about Belleisle, but
there has not (in the style of the newspapers) the least
particular transpired. He was at first kept magnificently
close at Windsor; but the expense proving above one hundred
pounds per day, they have taken his parole, and sent him to
Nottingham, `a la Tallarde. Pray, is De Sade with you still'?
his brother has been taken too by the Austrians.
My Lord Coke is going to be married to a Miss Shawe,(1014) of
forty thousand pounds. Lord Hartington(1015) is contracted to
Lady Charlotte Boyle, the heiress of Burlington, and sister of
the unhappy Lady Euston; but she is not yet old enough. Earl
Stanhope,(1016) too, has at last lifted up his eyes from
Euclid, and directed them to matrimony. He has chosen the
eldest sister of your acquaintance Lord Haddington. I revive
about you and Tuscany. I will tell you. what is thought to
have reprieved you: it is much suspected that the King of
Spain(1017) is dead. I hope those superstitious people will
pinch the queen, as they do witches, to make her loosen the
charm that has kept the Prince of Asturias from having
children. At least this must turn out better than the death
of the Emperor has.
The Duke,(1018) you hear, is named generalissimo, with Count
Koningseg, Lord Dunmore,(1019) and Ligonier,(1020) under him.
Poor boy! he is most Brunswickly happy with his drums and
trumpets. Do but think that this sugar-plum was to tempt him
to swallow that bolus the Princess of Denmark!(1021) What
will they do if they have children? The late Queen never
forgave the Duke of Richmond, for telling her that his
children would take place before the Duke's grandchildren.
I inclose you a pattern for a chair, which your brother
desired me to send you. I thank you extremely for the views
of Florence; you can't imagine what wishes they have awakened.
My best thanks to Dr. Cocci for his book: I have delivered all
the copies as directed. Mr. Chute will excuse me yet; the
first moment I have time I will write. I have: just received
your letter of Feb. 16, and grieve for your disorder: you
know, how much concern your ill health gives m. Adieu! my
dear child: I write with twenty people in the room.
(1014) This marriage did not take place. Lord Coke afterwards
married Lady Campbell; and Miss Shawe, William, fifth Lord
Byron, the immediate predecessor of the great poet.-E.
(1015) In 1755 he succeeded his father as fourth Duke of
Devonshire. He died at Spa, in 1764; having filled at
different times, the offices of lord lieutenant of Ireland,
first lord of the treasury, and lord chamberlain of the
household. His marriage with Lady Charlotte Boyle took place
in March 1748.-E.
(1016) Philip, second Earl Stanhope. See ant`e, p. 308.
Letter 96. He married, in July following, Lady Grizel
Hamilton, daughter of Charles Lord Binning.-E.
(1017) The imbecile and insane Philip V. He did not die till
1746. The Prince of Asturias was Ferdinand VI., who succeeded
him, and died childless in 1759.-D.
(1018) Of Cumberland. He never married.-D.
(1019) John Murray, second Earl of Dunmore: colonel of the
third regiment of Scotch foot-guards. He died in 1752-E.
(1020) Sir John Ligonier a general of merit. He was created
Lord Ligonier in Ireland, in 1757, an English peer by the same
title in 1763, and Earl Ligonier in 1766. He died at the
great age of ninety-one, in 1770.-D.
(1021) The Princess was deformed and- ugly. "Having in vain
remonstrated with the King against the marriage, the Duke sent
his governor, mr. Poyntz, to consult Lord Orford how to avoid
the match. After reflecting a few moments, Orford advised
'that the Duke should give his consent, on condition of his
receiving an ample and immediate establishment; and believe
me,' added he, 'that the match will be no longer pressed.'
The Duke followed the advice, and the result fulfilled the
prediction "' Lord Mahon, vol. iii. p. 321.-E.
406 Letter 158
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, March 29, 1745.
I begged your brother to tell you what it was impossible for
me to tell you.(1023) You share nearly in our common loss!
Don't expect me to enter at all upon the subject. After the
melancholy two months, that I have passed, and in my
situation, you will not wonder I shun a conversation which
could not be bounded by a letter-a letter that would grow into
a panegyric, or a piece of moral; improper for me to write
upon, and too distressful for us both!-a death is only to be
felt, never to be talked over by those it touches!
I had yesterday your letter of three sheets - I began to
flatter myself that the storm was blown over, but I tremble to
think of the danger you are in! a danger, in which even the
protection of the great friend you have lost could have been
of no service to you. How ridiculous it seems for me to renew
protestations of my friendship for you, at an instant when my
father is just dead, and the Spaniards just bursting into
Tuscany! How empty a charm would my name have, when all my
interest and significance are buried in my father's grave! All
hopes of present peace, the only thing that could save you,
seem vanished. We expect every day to hear of the French
declaration of war against Holland. The new Elector of
Bavaria is French, like his father; and the King of Spain is
not dead. I don't know how to talk to you. I have not even a
belief that the Spaniards will spare Tuscany. My dear child
what will become of you? whither will you retire till a peace
restores you to your ministry? for upon that distant view
alone I repose!
We are every day nearer confusion. The King is in as bad
humour as a monarch can be; he wants to go abroad, and is
detained by the Mediterranean affair; the inquiry into which
was moved by a Major Selwyn, a dirty pensioner, half-turned
patriot, by the Court being overstocked with votes.(1024)
This inquiry takes up the whole time of the House of Commons,
but I don't see what conclusion it can have. My confinement
has kept me from being there, except the first day; and all I
know of what is yet come out is, as it was stated by a Scotch
member the other day, "that there had been one (Matthews) with
a bad head, another, (Lestock) with a worse heart, and four
(the captains of the inactive ships) with no heart at all."
Among the numerous visits of form that I have received, one
was from my Lord Sandys: as we two could only converse 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 court
of justice in the world as the House of Commons; and how hard
it is upon any man to have his cause tried there!"
Sir Everard Falkner(1025) is made secretary to the Duke, who
is not yet gone: I have got Mr. Conway to be one of his
aide-de-camps. Sir Everard has since been offered the
joint-Postmastersh'ip, vacant by Sir John Iyles'S(1026) death;
but he would not quit the Duke. It was then proposed to the
King to give it to the brother: it happened to be a cloudy
day, and he, only answered, ,I know who Sir Everard is, but I
don't know who Mr. Falkner is."
The world expects some change when the Parliament rises. My
Lord Granville's physicians have ordered him to go to the Spa,
as, you know, they often send ladies to the Bath who are very
ill of a want of diversion. It will scarce be possible for
the present ministry to endure this jaunt. Then they are
losing many of their new allies: the new Duke of
Beaufort,(1027) a most determined and unwavering Jacobite, has
openly set himself at the head of that party, and forced them
to vote against the Court, and to renounce my Lord Gower. My
wise cousin, Sir John Phillipps, has resigned his place; and
it is believed that Sir John Cotton will soon resign but the
Bedford, Pitt, Lyttelton, and that squadron, stick close to
their places. Pitt has lately resigned his bedchamber to the
Prince, which, in friendship to Lyttelton, it was expected he
would have done long ago. They have chosen for this
resignation a very apposite passage out of Cato:
"He toss'd his arm aloft, and proudly told me
He would not stay, and perish like Sempronius."
This was Williams's.
My Lord Coke's match is broken off, upon some coquetry of the
lady with Mr. Mackenzie,(1028) at the Ridotto. My Lord
Leicester says, there shall not be a third lady in Norfolk of
the species of the two fortunes(1029) that matched at Rainham
and Houghton." Pray, will the new Countess of Orford come to
England?
The town flocks to a new play of Thomson's, called Tancred and
Sigismunda: it is very dull, I have read it.(1030) I cannot
bear modern poetry; these refiners of the purity of the stage,
and of the incorrectness of English verse, are most
-,,,wofully insipid. I had rather have written the most
absurd lines in Lee, than Leonidas or the Seasons; as I had
rather be put into the round-house for a wrong-headed quarrel,
than sup quietly at eight o'clock with my grandmother. There
is another of these tame geniuses, a Mr. Akenside,(1031) who
writes Odes: in one he has lately published, he says, "Light
the tapers, urge the fire." Had not you rather make gods
jostle 'in the dark, than light the candles for fear they
should break their heads? One Russel, a mimic, has a
puppet-show to ridicule operas; I hear, very dull, not to
mention its being twenty years too late: it consists of three
acts, with foolish Italian songs burlesqued in Italian.
There is a very good quarrel on foot between two duchesses;
she of Queensberry sent to invite Lady Emily Lennox(1032) to a
ball: her Grace of Richmond, who is wonderfully cautious since
Lady Caroline's elopement, sent word, "she could not
determine." The other sent again the same night: the same
answer. The Queensberry then sent word, that she had made up
her company, and desired to be excused from having Lady
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 no declaration of war come out from the
other duchess; but, I believe it will be made a national
quarrel of the whole illegitimate royal family.
It is the present fashion to make conundrums: there are books
of them printed, and produced at all assemblies: they are full
silly enough to be made a fashion. I will tell you the most
renowned--"Why is my uncle Horace like two people
conversing?-Because he is both teller and auditor." This was
Winnington's.
Well, I had almost forgot to tell you a most extraordinary
impertinence of your Florentine Marquis Riccardi. About three
weeks ago, I received a letter by Monsieur Wastier's footman
from the marquis. He tells me most cavalierly, that he has
sent me seventy-seven antique gems to sell for him, by the way
of Paris, not caring it should be known in Florence. He will
have them sold altogether, and the lowest price two thousand
pistoles. You know what no-acquaintance I had with him. I
shall be as frank as he, and not receive them. If I did, they
might be lost in sending back, and then I must pay his two
thousand doppie di Spagna. The refusing to receive them is
Positively all the notice I shall take of it.
I enclose what I think a fine piece on my father:(1033) it
was written by Mr. Ashton, whom you have often heard me
mention as a particular friend. You see how I try to make out
a long letter, in return for your kind one, which yet gave me
great pain by telling me of your fever. My dearest Sir, it is
terrible to have illness added to your other distresses! .
I will take the first opportunity to send Dr. Cocchi his
translated book; I have not yet seen it myself.
Adieu! my dearest child! I write with a house full of
relations, and must conclude. Heaven preserve you and
Tuscany.
(1023) The death of Lord Orford. - He expired," says Coxe, "on
the 18th of March, 1745, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. His
remains were interred in the parish church at Houghton,
without monument or inscription-
"So peaceful rests, without a stone, a name,
Which once had honours, titles, wealth and fame!"-E.
(1024) "February 26.-We had an unexpected motion from a very
contemptible fellow, Major Selwyn, for an inquiry into the
cause of the miscarriage of the fleet in the action off
Toulon. Mr. Pelham, perceiving that the inclination of the
House was for an inquiry, acceded to the motion; but
forewarned it of the temper, patience, and caution with which
it should be pursued."-Mr. Yorke's MS. Journal.-E.
(1025) He had been ambassador at Constantinople.
(1026) Sir John Eyles, Bart. an alderman of the city of
London, and at one time member of parliament for the same. He
died March 11, 1745.-D.
(1027) Charles Noel Somerset, fourth Duke of Beaufort,
succeeded his elder brother Henry in the dukedom, February 14,
1745.-D.
(1028) The Hon. James Stuart Mackenzie, second son of James,
second Earl of Bute, and brother of John, Earl of Bute, the
minister. He married Lady Elizabeth Campbell, one of the
daughters of John, the great Duke of Argyll, and died in
1800.-D.
(1029) Margaret Rolle, Countess of Orford, and Ethelreda
Harrison, Viscountess Townshend.
(1030) This was the most successful of all Thomson's plays;
"but it may be doubted," says Dr. Johnson, " whether he was,
either by the bent of nature or habits of study, much
qualified for tragedy: it does not appear that he had much
sense of the pathetic; and his diffusive and Descriptive style
produced declamation rather than dialogue."-E.
(1031) The author of "The Pleasures of the Imagination;" a
poem of some merit, though now but little read.-D.
(1032) Second daughter of Charles, Duke of Richmond.
(Afterwards married to James Fitzgerald, first Duke of
Leinster in Ireland.-D.)
1033) It was printed in the public papers.
410 Letter 159
To sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, April 15, 1745.
By this time you have heard of my Lord's death: I fear it will
have been a very great shock to you. I hope your brother will
write you all the particulars; for my part, you can't expect I
should enter into the details of it. His enemies pay him the
compliment of saying, they do believe now that he did not
plunder the public,, as he was accused (as they accused him)
of doing, he having died in such circumstances." If he had no
proofs of his honesty but this, I don't think this would be
such indisputable authority: not having immense riches would
be scanty evidence of his not having acquired them, there
happening to be such a thing as spending them. It is certain,
he is dead very poor: his debts, with his legacies, which are
trifling, amount to fifty thousand pounds. His estate, a
nominal eight thousand a-year, much mortgaged. In short, his
fondness for Houghton has endangered Houghton. If he had not
so overdone it, he -might have left such an estate to his
family as might have secured the glory of the place for many
years: another such debt must expose it to sale. If he had
lived, his unbounded generosity and contempt of money would
have run him into vast difficulties. However irreparable his
personal loss may be to his friends, he certainly died
critically well for himself: he had lived to stand the rudest
trials with honour, to see his character universally cleared,
his enemies brought to infamy for their ignorance or villainy,
and the world allowing him to be the only man in England fit
to be what he had been; and he died at a time when his age and
infirmities prevented his again undertaking the support of a
government, which engrossed his whole care, and which he
foresaw was falling into the last confusion. In this I hope
his judgment failed! His fortune attended him to the last; for
he died of the most painful of all distempers, with little or
no pain.
The House of Commons have at last finished their great affair,
their inquiry into the Mediterranean miscarriage. It was
carried on with more decency and impartiality than ever was
known in so tumultuous, popular, and partial a court. I can't
say it ended so; for the Tories, all but one single man, voted
against Matthews, whom they have not forgiven for lately
opposing one of their friends in Monmouthshire, and for
carrying his election. The greater part of the Whigs were for
Lestock. This last is a very great man: his cause, most
unfriended, came before the House with all the odium that
could be laid on a man standing in the light of having
betrayed his country. His merit, I mean his parts, prevailed,
and have set him in a very advantageous point of view. Harry
Fox has gained the greatest honour by his assiduity and
capacity in this affair. Matthews remains in the light of a
hot, brave, imperious, dull, confused fellow. The question
was to address the King to appoint a trial, by court-martial,
of the two admirals and the four coward captains. Matthews's
friends were for leaving out his name, but, after a very long
debate, were only 76 to 218. It is generally supposed, that
the two admirals will be acquitted and the captains hanged.
By what I can make out, (for you know I have been confined,
and could not attend the examination,) Lestock preferred his
own safety to the glory of his country; I don't mean cowardly,
for he is most unquestionably brave, but selfishly. Having to
do with a man who, he knew, would take the slightest
opportunity to ruin him, if he in the least transgressed his
orders, and knowing that man too dull to give right orders, he
chose to stick to the letter, when, by neglecting it, he might
have done the greatest service.
We hear of great news from Bavaria, of that Elector being
forced into a neutrality; but it IS not confirmed.
Mr. Legge is made lord of the admiralty, and Mr. Philipson
surveyor of the roads in his room. This is all I know. I
look with anxiety every day into the Gazettes about Tuscany,
but hitherto I find all is quiet. My dear Sir, I tremble for
you!
I have been much desired to get you to send five gesse
figures; the Venus, the Faun, the Mercury, the Cupid and
Psyche, and the little Bacchus; you know the original is
modern: if this is not to be had, then the Ganymede. My dear
child, I am sorry to give you this trouble; order any body to
buy them, and to Send them from Leghorn by the first ship. let
me have the bill, and bill of lading. Adieu!
411 Letter 160
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, April 29, 1745.
When you wrote your last of the 6th of this month, you was
still in hopes about my father. I wish I had received your
letters on his death, for it is most shocking to have all the
thoughts opened again upon such a subject!-it is the great
disadvantage of a distant correspondence. There was a report
here a fortnight ago of the new countess coming over. She
could not then have heard it. Can she be so mad? Why should
she suppose all her shame buried in my lord's grave? or does
not she know, has she seen so little of the world, as not to
be sensible that she will now return in a worse light than
ever? A few malicious, who would have countenanced her to vex
him, would now treat her like the rest of the world. It is a
private family affair; a husband, a mother, and a son, all
party against her, all wounded by her conduct, would be too
much to get over!
\\
My dear child, you have nothing but misfortunes of your
friends to lament. You have new subject by the loss of poor
Mr. Chute's brother.(1034) It really is a great loss! he was
a most rising man, and one of the best-natured and most honest
that ever lived. If it would not sound ridiculously, though,
I assure you, I am far from feeling it lightly, I would tell
you of poor Patapan's death - he died about ten days ago.
This peace with the Elector of Bavaria may Produce a general
one. You have given great respite to my uneasiness, by
telling me that Tuscany seems out of danger. We have for
these last three days been in great expectation of a battle.
The French have invested Tournay; our army came up with them
last Wednesday, and is certainly little inferior, and
determined to attack them; but it is believed they are
retired: we don't know who commands them; it is said, the Duc
d'Harcourt. Our good friend, the Count de Saxe, is
dying(1036)-by Venus, not by Mars. The King goes on Friday;
this may make the young Duke(1036) more impatient to give
battle, to have all the honour his own.
There is no kind of news; the Parliament rises on Thursday,
and every body is going out of town. I shall only make short
excursions in visits; you know I am not fond of the country,
and have no call into it now! My brother will not be at
Houghton this year; he shuts it Up to enter on new, and there
very unknown economy: he has much occasion for it! Commend me
to poor Mr. Chute! Adieu!
(1034) Francis Chute, a very eminent lawyer.
(1035) The Marshal de Saxe- did not die till 1750. He was,
however, exceedingly ill at the time of the battle of
Fontenoy. Voltaire, in his "Si`ecle de Louis XV." mentions
having met him at Paris just as he was setting out for the
campaign. Observing how unwell he seemed to b, he asked him
whether he thought he had strength enough to go through the
fatigues which awaited him. To this the Marshal's reply was
"il ne s'agit pas de vivre, mais de partir."-D.
William, Duke of Cumberland.-D.
412 Letter 161
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, May 11, 1745.
I stayed till to-day, to be able to give you some account of
the battle of Tournay:(1037) the outlines you will have heard
already. We don't allow it to be a victory on the French
side: but that is, just as a woman is not called Mrs. till she
is married, though she may have had half-a-dozen natural
children. In short, we remained upon the field of battle
three hours: I fear, too many of us remain there still!
without palliating, it is certainly a heavy stroke. We never
lost near so many officers. I pity the Duke, for it is almost
the first battle of consequence that we ever lost. By the
letters arrived to-day we find that Tournay still holds out.
There are certainly killed Sir James Campbell, General
Ponsonby, Colonel Carpenter, Colonel Douglas, young Ross,
Colonel Montagu, Geo, Berkeley, and Kellet. Mr. Vanbrugh is
since dead. Most of the your),r men of quality in the Guards
@ are wounded. I have had the vast fortune to have nobody
hurt, for whom I was in the least interested. Mr. Conway, in
particular, has highly distinguished himself; he ind Lord
Petersham,' who is slightly wounded, are most commended;
though none behaved ill but the Dutch horse. There has been
but very little consternation here: the King minded it so
little, that being set out for Hanover, and blown back into
Harwich-roads since the news came, he could not be persuaded
to return, but sailed yesterday with the fair wind. I believe
you will have the Gazette sent Tonight; but lest it should not
be printed time enough, here is a list of the numbers, as it
came 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. The French own the loss of three thousand; I don't
believe many more, for it was a most desperate and rash
perseverance on our side. The Duke behaved very bravely and
humanely;(1038) but this will not have advanced the peace.
However coolly the Duke may have behaved, and coldly his
father, at least his brother, has outdone both. He not only
went 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 nothing but the language, the thoughts, and the
poetry. Did I not tell you in my last that he was going to
act Paris in Congreve's Masque? The song is addressed to the
goddesses.
1. Venez, mes ch`eres D`eesses,
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'`ecoutons que la tendresse
D'un charmant vis-a-vis.
2. Quand le chagrin me d`evore,
Vite `a 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'`etalage.
Qu'a chez lui toujours on Roi.
3. 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 `a l'amour;
Que Bacchus nous donne `a boire;
A ces deux fasions la cour.
4. Passons ainsi notre vie,
Sans rover IL ce qui suit;
Avec ma ch`ere Sylvie,(1039)
Le tems trop Vite me fuit.
Mais si, par Un malheur extr`eme,
Je perdois cet objet charmant,
Oui, cette compagnie m`eme
Ne me tiendroit Un moment.
5. me livrant `a ma tristesse,
Toujours plein de mon chagrin,
Je n'aurois plus d'all`egresse
Pour mettre Bathurst(1040) en train:
Ainsi pour vous tenir en joie
Invoquez toujours les Dieux,
Q Qu'elle vive et qu'elle soit
Avec nous toujours heureuse!
Adieu! I am in a great hurry.
(1037) Since called the battle of Fontenoy. (The Marshal de
Saxe commanded the French army, and both Louis XV. and his son
the Dauphin were present in the action. The Duke of
Cumberland commanded the British forces.-D.)
(1037) William, Lord Petersham, eldest son of the Earl of
Harrington.
(1038) The Hon. Philip Yorke, in a letter to Horace Walpole,
the elder, of the following day, says,"the Duke's behaviour
was, by all accounts, the most heroic and gallant imaginable:
he was the whole day in the thickest of the fire. His Royal
Highness drew out a pistol upon an officer whom he saw running
away."-E.
(1038) Frederick, Prince of Wales. The following song was
written immediately after the battle of Fontenoy, and was
addressed to Lady Catherine Hanmer, Lady Fauconberg, and Lady
Middlesex, who were to act the three goddesses, with the
Prince of Wales, in Congreve's Judgment of Paris, whom he was
to represent, and Prince Lobkowitz, Mercury.-E.
(1039) The Princess.
(1040) Allen, Lord Bathurst.
415 Letter 162
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, May 18, 1745.
Dear George,
I am very sorry to renew our correspondence upon so melancholy
a circumstance, but when you have lost so near a friend as
your brother,(1041) 'tis sure the duty of all your other
friends to endeavour to alleviate your loss, and offer all the
increase of affection that is possible to compensate it. This
I do most heartily; I wish I could most effectually.
You will always find in me, dear Sir, the utmost inclination
to be of service to you; and let me beg that you will remember
your promise of writing to me. As I am so much in town and in
the world, I flatter myself with having generally something to
tell you that may make my letters agreeable in the country:
you, any where, make yours charming.
Be so good to say any thing you think proper from me to your
sisters, and believe me, dear George, yours most sincerely.
(1041) Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Montagu, killed at the battle
of Fontenoy.
415 Letter 163
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, May 24, 1745.
I have no consequences of the battle of Tournay to tell you
but the taking of the town: the governor has eight days
allowed him to consider whether he will give up the citadel.
The French certainly lost more men than we did. Our army is
still at Lessines waiting for recruits from Holland and
England; ours are sailed. The King is at Hanover. All the
letters are full of the Duke's humanity and bravery: he will
be as popular with the lower class of men as he has been for
three or four years with the low women: he will be the
soldier's Great Sir as well as theirs. I am really glad; it
will be of great service to the family, if any one of them
come to make a figure.
Lord Chesterfield is returned from Holland; you will see a
most simple farewell speech of his in the papers.(1042)
I have received yours of the 4th of May, and am extremely
obliged to you for your expressions of kindness: they did not
at all surprise me, but every instance of your friendship
gives me pleasure. I wish I could say the same to good prince
Craon. Yet I must set about answering his letter: it is quite
an affair; I have so great a disuse of writing French, that I
believe it will be very barbarous.
My fears for Tuscany are again awakened: the wonderful march
Which the Spanish Queen has made Monsieur de Gage take, may
probably end in his turning short to the left; for his route
to Genoa will be full as difficult as what he has already
passed. I watch eagerly every article from Italy, at a time
when nobody will read a paragraph but from the army in
Flanders.
I am diverted with my Lady's(1043) account of the great riches
that are now coming to her. She has had so many foolish
golden visions, that I should think even the Florentines would
not be the dupes of any more. As for her mourning, she may
save it, if she expects to have it notified. Don't you
remember my Lady Pomfret's having a piece of economy of that
sort, when she would not know that the Emperor was dead,
because my Lord Chamberlain had not notified it to her.
I have a good story to tell you of Lord Bath, whose name you
have not heard very lately; have you? He owed a tradesman
eight hundred pounds, and would never pay him: the man
determined to persecute him till he did; and one morning
followed him to Lord Winchilsea's, and sent up word that he
wanted to speak with him. Lord Bath came down, and said,
"Fellow, what do you want with me'!"-"My money," said the man,
as loud as ever he could bawl, before all the servants. He
bade him come the next morning, and then would not see him.
The next Sunday the man followed him to church, and got into
the next pew: he leaned over, and said, , "My money; give me
my money!" My lord went to the end of the pew; the man too:
"Give me my money!" The sermon was on avarice, and the text,
"Cursed are they that heap up riches." The man groaned out,
"O lord!" and pointed to my Lord Bath. In short, he persisted
so much, and drew the eyes of all the congregation, that my
Lord Bath went out and paid him directly. I assure you this
is a fact. Adieu.
(1042) " Have you Lord Chesterfield's speech on taking leave?
It is quite calculated for the language it is wrote in, and
makes but an indifferent figure in English. The thoughts are
common, and yet he strains hard to give them an air of
novelty; and the quaintness of the expression is quite a la
Fran`caise." The Hon. P. Yorke to Horatio Walpole.-E.
(1043) Lady Walpole, now become Countess of Orford.-D.
416 Letter 164
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, May 25, 1745.
Dear George,
I don't write to you now so much to answer your letter as to
promote your diversion, which I am as much obliged to you for
consulting me about, at least as much as about an affair of
honour, or your marriage, or any other important transaction;
any one of which you might possibly dislike more than
diverting yourself. For my part, I shall give you my advice
on this point with as much reflection as I should, if it were
necessary for me, like a true friend, to counsel you to
displease yourself.
You propose making a visit at Englefield Green, and ask me, if
I think it right? Extremely so. I have heard it is a very
pretty place. You love a jaunt--have a pretty chaise, I
believe, and, I dare swear, very easy; in all probability, you
have a fine evening too ; and, added to all this, the
gentleman you would go to see is very agreeable and good
humoured.(1044) He has some very Pretty children, and a
sensible, learned man that lives with him, one Dr.
Thirlby,(1045) whom, I believe you know. The master of the
house plays extremely well on the bass-viol, and has generally
other musical people with him. He knows a good deal of the
private history of a late ministry; and, my dear George, you
love memoires. Indeed, as to personal acquaintance with any
of the court beauties, I can't say you will find your account
in him ; but, to make amends, he is perfectly master of all
the quarrels that have been fashionably on foot about Handel,
and can give you a very perfect account of all the modern
rival painters. In short, you may pass a very agreeable day
with him; and if he does but take to you, as I can't doubt,
who know you both, you will contract a great friendship with
him, which he will preserve with the greatest warmth and
partiality.
In short, I can think of no reason in the world against your
going there but one: do you know his youngest brother? If you
to be so unlucky, I can't flatter you so far as to advise you
to make him a visit; for there is nothing in the world the
Baron of Englefield has such an aversion for as for his
brother.
(1044) Mr. Walpole's brother, Sir Edward. See Ant`e, p.189,
letter 42.
(1045) Styan Thirlby, fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge,
published an edition of Justin Martyr, and, I think, wrote
something against Middleton. He communicated several notes to
Theobald for his Shakspeare, and in the latter part of his
life, took to study the common law. He lived chiefly for his
last years with Sir Edward Walpole, who had procured for him a
small place in the Custom house, and to whom he left his
papers: he had lost his intellects some time before his death.
[He died a martyr to intemperance, in 1751, in his sixty-first
year. Mr. Nichols says, that, while in Sir Edward's houses,
he kept a miscellaneous book of Memorables, containing
whatever was said or done amiss by Sir Edward, or any part of
his family.]
417 Letter 165
To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Arlington Street, May 27, 1745.
My dear Harry,
As gloriously as you have set out, yet I despair of seeing you
a perfect hero! You have none of the charming violences that
are so essential to that character. You write as coolly,
after behaving well in battle, as you fought in it. Can your
friends flatter themselves with seeing you, one day or other,
be the death of thousands, when you wish for peace in three
weeks after four first engagements and laugh at the ambition
of those men who have given you this opportunity of
distinguishing yourself? With the person of an Orondates, and
the courage, you have all the compassion, the reason, and the
'reflection of one that never read a romance. Can one ever
hope you will make a figure, when you only fight because it
was right you should, and not because you hated the French or
loved destroying mankind? This is so un-English, or so
un-heroic, that I despair of you!
Thank Heaven, you have one spice of madness! Your admiration
of your master(1047) leaves me a glimmering of hope, that you
will not be always so unreasonably reasonable. Do you
remember the humorous lieutenant, in one of Beaumont and
Fletcher's plays, that is in love with the king? Indeed, your
master is not behindhand with you; you seem to have agreed to
puff one another.
If you are acting up to the strictest rules of war and
chivalry in Flanders, we are not less scrupulous on this side
the water in fulfilling all the duties of the same order. The
day the young volunteer(1048 departed for the army (unluckily
indeed, it was after the battle), his tender mother
Sisygambis, and the beautiful Statira,(1049) a lady formerly
known in your history by the name of Artemisia, from her
cutting off her hair in your absence, were so afflicted and SO
inseparable, that they made a party together to Mr.
graham'S(1050) (you may read lapis if you please) to be
blooded. It was settled that this was a more precious way of
expressing Concern than shaving the head, which has been known
to be attended with false locks the next day.
For the other princess you wot of, who is not entirely so tall
as the former, nor so evidently descended from a line of
monarchs--I don't hear her talk of retiring. At present she
is employed in buying up all the nose-gays in Covent Garden
and laurel leaves at the pastry cooks, to where chaplets for
the return of her hero. Who that is I don't pretend to know
or guess. All I know is, that in this age retirement is not
one of the fashionable expressions of passion.
(1046) The battle of Fontenoy, where Mr. Conway greatly
distinguished himself.
(1047) The Duke of Cumberland, to whom Mr. Conway was
aide-de-camp.
(1048) George, afterwards Marquis Townshend.
(1049) Ethelreda Harrison, Viscountess Townshend, and her
daughter, the Hon. Audrey Townshend, afterwards married to
Robert Orme, Esq.
(1050) A celebrated apothecary in Pall-mall.
418 Letter 166
To Sir Horace Mann.
I have the pleasure of recommending you a new acquaintance,
for which I am sure you will thank me. Mr. Hobart(1051)
proposes passing a little time at Florence, which I am sure
you will endeavour to make as agreeable to him as possible. I
beg you will introduce him to all my friends, who, I don't
doubt, will show him the same civilities that I received.
Dear Sir, this will be a particular obligation to me, who am,
etc.
1051) Eldest son of John, Earl of Buckinghamshire, (The Hon.
John Hobart, afterwards second Earl of Buckinghamshire, and
lord Lieutenant of Ireland.-D.)
419 Letter 167
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, June 24, 1745.