I added, that Macpherson's and Dalrymple's invidious scandals

really serve but to heighten the amazing greatness of the King's

genius; for, if they

say true, he maintained the crown on his head though the

nobility, the churchmen, the country gentlemen, the people were

against him; and though almost all his own ministers betrayed

him--"But," said I, "nothing is so silly as to suppose that the

Duke -of Marlborough and Lord Godolphin ever meant seriously to

restore King James. Both had offended him too much to

expect forgiveness, especially from so remorseless a nature. Yet

a re-revolution was so probable, that it is no wonder they kept

up a correspondence with him, at least to break their fall if he

returned. But as they never did effectuate the least service in

his favour, when they had the fullest power, nothing can be

inferred but King James's folly in continuing to lean on them.

To imagine they meant to sacrifice his weak daughter, whom they

governed absolutely, to a man who was sure of being governed-by

others, one must have as little sense as James himself had."

The precise truth I take to have been this. Marlborough and

Godolphin both knew the meanness and credulity of James's

character. They knew that he must be ever dealing for partisans;

and they might be sure, that if he could hope for support from

the General and the Lord-treasurer he must be less solicitous for

more impotent supporters. "Is it impossible," said I to the

Doctor, "but they might correspond with the King even by Anne's

own consent? Do not be surprised, Sir," said I: "such things have

happened. My own father often received letters from the

Pretender, which he always carried to George II and had them

endorsed by his Majesty- I myself have seen them countersigned by

the King's own hand."

In short,. I endeavoured to impress him with Proper ideas of his

subject, and painted to him the difficulties., and the want of

materials. But- the booksellers will out-argue me, and the

Doctor will forget his education--Panem et Circenses, if you will

allow me to use the latter for those that are captivated by

favour in the circle, will decide his writing and give the

colour. I once wished he should write the History of King

William; but his Charles V. and his America have opened my eyes,

and the times have shut his.(301) Adieu!

(299) This letter, which is without date, was most probably

written in April or May 1778; at which time Dr. Robertson was in

London.-E.

(300) Dr. Watson's History of the Reign of philip II. of Spain

was published, in two quarto volumes, in 1777.-E.

(301) By the life of Dr. Robertson, in Chamvers's Scottish

Biography, it will be seen, that several persons suggested to him

a History of Great Britain from the Revolution to the

accession of the House of Hanover; and it appears, from a letter

to Dr. Waddilour, Dean of Rippon, written in July of this year,

that he had made up his mind to encounter the responsibility of

the task, but abandoned it, in consequence of a correspondence

with his friend, Mr. James Macpherson, had, three years

before, published a history of the same reigns.-E.

Letter 136 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Strawberry Hill, June 3, 1778. (page 186)

I will not dispute with you, dear Sir, on patriots and politics.

One point is Past controversy, that the ministers have ruined

this country; and if the church of England is satisfied with

being reconciled with the church of Rome, and thinks it a

compensation for the loss of America and all credit in Europe,

she is as silly an old woman as any granny in an almshouse.

France is very glad we are grown such fools, and soon saw that

the Presbyterian Dr. Franklin(302) had more sense than our

ministers together. She has got over all her prejudices, has

expelled the Jesuits, and made the Protestant Swiss, Necker, her

comptroller-general. It is a little woful, that we are relapsing

into the nonsense the rest of Europe is shaking off! and it is

more deplorable, as we know by repeated experience, that this

country has always been disgraced by Tory administrations. The

rubric is the only gainer by them in a few martyrs.

I do not know yet what is settled about the spot of Lord

Chatham's interment. I am not more an enthusiast to his memory

than you. I knew his faults and his defects-yet one fact Cannot

Only not be controverted, but I doubt more remarkable every day--

I mean, that under him we attained not only our highest

elevation, but the most solid authority in Europe. When the

names of Marlborough and Chatham are still pronounced with awe in

France, our little cavils make a puny sound. Nations that are

beaten cannot be mistaken.

I have been looking out for your friend a set of my heads of

painters, and I find I want six or seven. I think I have some

odd ones in town; if I have not, I will have deficiencies

supplied from the plates, though I fear they will not be good, as

so many have been taken off. I should be very ungrateful for all

your kindnesses, if I neglected any opportunity of obliging you,

dear Sir. Indeed, our old

and unalterable friendship is creditable to us both, and very

uncommon between two persons who differ so much in their opinions

relative to church and state. I believe the reason is, that we

are both sincere, and never meant to take advantage of our

principles; which I allow is too common on both sides, and I own,

too, fairly more common on my side of the question than on yours.

There is a reason, too, for that; the honours and emoluments are

in the gift of the crown: the nation has no separate treasury to

reward its friends.

If Mr. Tyrwhit(303) has opened his eyes to Chatterton's

forgeries, there is an instance of conviction against strong

prejudice! I have drawn up an account of my transaction with

that marvellous young man; you shall see it one day or other, but

I do not intend to print it.(304) I have taken a thorough

dislike to being an author; and if it would not look like begging

you to Compliment me, by contradicting me, I would tell you, what

I am most seriously convinced of, that I find what small share of

parts I had, grown dulled--and when I perceive it myself, I may

well believe that others would not be less sharpsighted. It is

very natural; mine were spirits rather than parts; and as time

has abated the one, it must surely destroy their resemblance to

the other: pray don't say a syllable in reply on this head, or I

shall have done exactly what I said I would not do. Besides, as

you have always been too partial to me, I am on my guard, and

when I will not expose myself to my enemies, I must not listen to

the prejudices of my friends; and as nobody is more partial to me

than you, there is nobody I must trust less in that respect.

Yours most sincerely.

(302) Dr. Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane were publicly

received at the court of France, as ambassadors from America in

the preceding March-.E.

(303) Mr. Tyrwhit, the learned editor of Chaucer's Canterbury

Tales, considered one of the best edited books in the English

language, had, on the appearance of the Rowley Poems, believed

them genuine; but being afterwards convinced of the contrary, he

did not hesitate to avow his conviction.-E.

(304) It was entitled "A Letter to the Editor of the Miscellanies

of Thomas Chatterton," and will be found in the edition of

Walpole's works.-E.

Letter 137 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Strawberry Hill, June 10, 1778. (page 187)

I am as impatient and in as much hurry as you was, dear Sir, to

clear myself from the slightest intention of censuring your

politics. I know the sincerity and disinterested goodness of

your heart, and when I must be convinced how little certain we

are all of what is truth, it would be very presumptuous to

condemn the opinions of any good man, and still less an old and

unalterable friend, as I have ever found 'You, The destruction

that violent arbitrary principles have drawn on this blinded

country has moved my indignation. We never were a great and

happy country till the Revolution. The system of these days

tended to overturn, and has overturned, that establishment, and

brought on the disgraces that ever attended the foolish and

wicked Councils of the house of Stuart. If man is a rational

being, he has a right to make use of his reason, and to enjoy his

liberty. We, we alone almost had a constitution that every other

nation upon earth envied or ought to envy. This is all I contend

for. I will give you up whatever descriptions of men you please;

that is, the leaders of parties, not the principles. These

cannot change, those generally do, when power falls into the

hands of them or their party, because men are corruptible, which

truth is not. But the more the leaders of a party dedicated to

liberty are apt to change, the more I adore the principle,

because it shows that extent of power is not to be trusted even,

with those that are the most sensible of the value of liberty.

Man is a domineering animal; and it has not only been my

principle. but my practice, too. to quit every body at the gate

of the palace. I trust we shall not much differ on these

outlines, but we will bid adieu to the subject. It is never an

agreeable one to those who do not mean to make a trade of it.

I heartily wish you may not find the pontiff what I think the

order, and what I know him, if you mean the high priest of

Ely.(305) He is all I have been describing and worse; and I have

too good an opinion of you, to believe that he will ever serve

you.

What I said of disclaiming authorship by no means alluded to Mr.

Baker's life. It would be enough that you desire it, for me to

undertake it. Indeed, I am inclined to it because he was what

you and I are, a party-man from principle, not from interest: and

he, who was so candid, surely is entitled to the strictest

candour. You shall send me your papers whenever you please. If

I can succeed to your satisfaction, I shall be content: though I

assure you there was no affectation in my saying that I find my

small talent decline. I shall write the life to oblige you,

without any thoughts of publication, unless I am better pleased

than I expect to be, and even then not in my own life. I had

rather show that I am sensible of my own defects, and that I have

judgment enough not to hope praise for my writings: for surely

when they are not obnoxious, and one only leaves them behind one,

it is a mark that one is not very vain of them.

I have found the whole set of my Painters, and will send them the

first time I go to town: and I will have my papers on Chatterton

transcribed for you, though I am much chagrined at your giving me

no hope of seeing you again here. I will not say more of it;

for, while it is in my power, I will certainly make you a visit

now and then, if there is no other way of our meeting Mr.

Tyrwhit, I hear, has actually published an Appendix, in which he

gives up Mr. Rowley. I have not seen it, but will. Shall I beg

you to transcribe the passage in which Dr. Kippis abuses my

father and Me;(306) for I shall not buy the new edition, only to

purchase abuse on me and mine: I may be angry with liberties he

takes with Sir Robert, but not with myself; I shall rather take

it as a flattery to be ranked with him; though there can be

nothing worse said of my father than to place us together. Oh!

that great, that good man! Dr. Kippis may as well throw a stone

at the sun.

I am sorry you have lost poor Mr. Bentham. Will you say a civil

thing for me to his widow, if she is living, and you think it not

improper? I have not forgotten their kindness to me. Pray send

me your papers on Mr. Prior's generosity to Mr. Baker.(307) I am

sorry it was not so. Prior is much a favourite with me, though a

Tory, nor did I ever hear any thing ill of him. He left his

party, but not his friends, and seems to me to have been very

amiable. Do you know I pretend to be very impartial sometimes.

Mr. Hollis(308) wrote against me for not being Whig enough. I am

offended with Mrs. Macaulay(309) for being too much a Whig. In

short, we are all silly animals, and scarce ever more so than

when we affect sense. Yours ever.

(305) Dr. Edmund Keene-E.

(306) See ant`e, p. 155, letter 108.

(307) The Biograpbia Britannica had asserted, that Prior ceded to

Mr. Baker the profits of his fellowship after his expulsion.-E.

(308) Thomas Hollis, Esq. the editor of Toland's Life of Milton;

Algernon Sidney's Discourses on Government; Algernon Sidney's

Works, etc. He died in 1774.-E.

(309) The celebrated Catherine Macaulay, well known by her

"History of England."-E.

Letter 138 To The Countess Of Ailesbury.

Strawberry Hill, June 25, 1778. (page 189)

I am quite astonished, Madam, at not hearing of Mr. Conway's

being returned! What is he doing? Is he revolting and setting

up for himself, like our nabobs in India? or is he forming

Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark, into the united provinces

in the compass of a silver penny? I should not wonder if this

was to be the fate of our distracted empire, which we seem to

have made so large, only that it might afford to split into

separate kingdoms. I told Mr. C. I should not write any more,

concluding he would not stay a twinkling; and your ladyship's

last encouraged my expecting him. In truth, I had nothing to

tell him if he had written.

I have been in town but one single night this age, as I could not

bear to throw away this phoenix June. It has rained a good deal

this morning, but only made it more delightful. The flowers are

all Arabian. I have found but One inconvenience, which is the

hosts of cuckoos: one would not think one was in Doctors'

Commons. It is very disagreeable, that the nightingales should

sing but half a dozen songs, and the other beasts squall for two

months together.

Poor Mrs. Clive has been robbed again in her own lane, as she was

last year, and has got the jaundice, she thinks, with the fright.

I don't make a visit without a blunderbuss; so one might as well

be invaded by the French. Though I live in the centre of

ministers, I do not know a syllable of politics; and though

within hearing of Lady Greenwich, who is but two miles off, I

have not a word of news to send your ladyship. I live like

Berecynthia, surrounded by nephews and nieces; yet Park-place is

full as much in my mind, and I beg for its history. I am, Madam,

etc.

Letter 139 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.

Strawberry Hill, July 8, 1778. (page 189)

I have had some conversation with a ministerial person, on the

subject of pacification with France; and he dropped a hint, that

as 'we should not have Much chance of a good peace, the

Opposition would make great clamour on it. I said a few words on

the duty of ministers to do what they thought right, be the

consequence what it ,Would., But as honest men do not want such

lectures, and dishonest will not let them weigh, I waived that

theme, to dwell on what is more likely to be persuasive, and

which I am firmly persuaded is no less true than the former

maxim; and that was, that the ministers are still so strong, that

if they could get a peace that would save the nation, though not

a brilliant or glorious one, the nation in general would be

pleased with it, and the clamours of the Opposition be

insignificant. I added, what I think true, too, that no time is

to be lost in treating not only for preventing a blow, but from

the consequences the first misfortune would have. The nation is

not yet alienated from the court, but it is growing so; is grown

so enough, for any calamity to have violent effects. Any

internal disturbance would advance the hostile designs of France.

An insurrection from distress would be a double invitation to

invasion; and, I am sure, much more to be dreaded, even

personally, by the ministers, than the ill-humours of Opposition

for even an inglorious peace. To do the Opposition justice, it

is not composed of incendiaries. Parliamentary speeches raise no

tumults: but tumults would be a dreadful thorough bass to

speeches. The ministers do not know the strength they have left

(supposing they apply it in time), if they are afraid of making

any peace. They were too sanguine in making war; I hope they

will not be too timid of making peace.

What do you think of an idea of mine, of offering France a

neutrality? that is, to allow her to assist both us and the

Americans. I know she would assist only them: but were it not

better to connive at her assisting them, without attacking us,

than her doing both? A treaty with her would perhaps be followed

by one with America. We are sacrificing all the essentials we

can recover, for a few words and risking the independence of this

country, for the nominal supremacy over America. France seems to

leave us time for treating. She made no scruple of begging peace

of us in '63, that she might lie by and recover her advantages.

Was not that a wise precedent? Does not she now show that it was?

Is not policy the honour of nations? I mean, not morally, but

has Europe left itself any other honour? And since it has really

left itself no honour, and as little morality, does not the

morality of a nation consist in its preserving itself in as much

happiness as it can? The invasion of Portugal by Spain in the

last war, and the partition of Poland, have abrogated the law Of

nations. Kings have left no ties between one another. Their

duty to their people is still allowed. He is a good King that

preserves his people: and if temporizing answers that end, is it

not justifiable? You who are as moral as wise, answer my

questions. Grotius is obsolete. Dr. Joseph(310) and Dr.

Frederic(311) with four hundred thousand commentators, are

reading new lectures--and I should say, thank God, to One

another, if the four hundred thousand commentators were not in

worse danger than they.(312) Louis XVI. is grown a casuist

compared to those partitioners. Well, let US Simple individuals

keep our honesty, and bless our stars that we have not armies at

our command, lest we should divide kingdoms that are at our

biens`eance! What a dreadful thing it is for such a wicked

little imp as man to have absolute power!--But I have travelled

into Germany, when I meant to talk to you only of England; and it

is too late to recall My text. Good night!

(310) The Emperor of Germany.

(311) Frederic II. King of Prussia.

(312) The Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia having some

dispute about Bavaria, brought immense armies into the field, but

found their forces so nearly balanced, that neither ventured to

attack the other; and the Prussian monarch falling back upon

Silesia, the affair was, through the intervention of the Empress

of Russia, settled by negotiation, which ended in the peace of

Teschen.-E.

Letter 140 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

July 12, 1778. (page 191)

Mr. Lort has delivered your papers to me, dear Sir, and I have

already gone through them. I will try if I can make any thing of

them, but I fear I have not art enough, as I perceive there is

absolutely but one fact--the expulsion. You have certainly very

clearly proved that Mr. Baker was neither supported by Mr. Prior

nor Bishop Burnet; but these are mere negatives. So is the

question, whether he intended to compile an Athenae

Cantabrigienses or not; and on that you say but little, as you

have not seen his papers in the Museum. I will examine the

printed Catalogue, and try if I can discover the truth thence,

when I go to town. I will also borrow the new Biographia, as I

wish to know more of the expulsion. As it is our only fact, one

would not be too dry on it. Upon the whole, I think that it

would be preferable to draw up an ample character of Mr. Baker,

rather than a life. The one was most beautiful, amiable,

conscientious; the other totally barren of more than one event:

and though you have taken excellent pains to discover all that

was possible, yet there is an obscurity hangs over the

circumstances that even did attend him; as his connexion with

Bishop Crewe and his living. His own modesty comes out the

brighter, but then it composes a character, not a life.

As to Mr. Kippis and his censures, I am perfectly indifferent to

them. He betrays a pert malignity in hinting an intention of

being severe on my father, for the pleasure of exerting a right I

allowed, and do allow, to be a just One, though it is not just to

do it for that reason; however, let him say his pleasure. The

truth will not hurt my father; falsehood will recoil on the

author. His asserting, that my censure of Mr. Addison's

character of Lord Somers is not to be justified, is a silly ipse

dixit, as he does not, in truth cannot, show why it is not to be

justified. The passage I alluded to is the argument of an old

woman; and Mr. Addison's being a writer of true humour is not

justification of his reasoning like a superstitious gossip. In

the other passage you have sent me, Mr. Kippis is perfectly in

the right, and corrects me very justly. Had I seen Archbishop

Abbot's(313) Preface, with the outrageous flattery on, And lies

of James I., I should certainly never have said, "Honest Abbot

could not flatter!" I should have said, and do say, I never saw

grosser perversion of truth. One can almost excuse the faults of

James when his bishops were such base sycophants. What can a

king think of human nature, when it produces such wretches? I am

too impartial to prefer Puritans to clergymen, or vice versa,

when Whitgift and Abbot only ran a race of servility and

adulation: the result is, that priests of all religions are the

same. James and his Levites were worthy of each other; the

golden calf and the idolaters were well coupled, and it is Pity

they ever came out of the wilderness. I am very glad Mr. Tyson

has escaped death and disappointment: pray wish him joy 'of both

from me. Has not this Indian summer dispersed your complaints?

We are told we are to be invaded. Our Abbots and Whitgifts now

see with what successes and consequences their preaching up a

crusade against America has been crowned! Archbishop

Markham(314) may have an opportunity of exercising his martial

prowess. I doubt he would resemble Bishop Crewe more than good

Mr. Baker. Let us respect those only who are Israelites indeed.

I surrender Dr. Abbot to you. Church and presbytery are terms

for monopolies, Exalted notions of church matters are

contradictions in terms to the lowliness and humility of the

gospel. There is nothing sublime but the Divinity. Nothing is

sacred but as His work. A tree or a brute stone is more

respectable as such, than a mortal called an Archbishop, or an

edifice called a Church, which are the puny and perishable

productions of men. Calvin and Wesley had just the same views as

the Pope; power and wealth their objects. I abhor both, and

admire Mr. Baker.

P. S. I like Popery as well as you, and have shown I do. I like

it as I like chivalry and romance. They all furnish one with

ideas and visions, which presbyterianism does not. A Gothic

church or a convent fills one with romantic dreams-but for the

mysterious, the Church in the abstract, it is a jargon that means

nothing, or a great deal too much, and I reject it and its

apostles, from Athanasius to Bishop Keene.(315)

(313) Dr. George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, born at

Guildford, in Surrey, 1562. In 1604, when the translation of the

Scriptures now in use was commenced by direction of King James,

Dr. Abbot was the second of eight divines of Oxford to whom was

committed the care of translating the New Testament, with the

exception of the Epistles, He died at the palace at Croydon, in

1633.-E.

(314) Dr. William Markham, translated to the see of York from

Chester in 1776. He died in 1807.-E.

(315) Dr. Edmund Keene, Bishop of Ely.-E.

Letter 141 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.

Saturday, July 18, 1778. (page 192)

Yesterday evening the following notices were fixed up in Lloyd's

coffee-house:-That a merchant in the city had received an express

from France, that the Brest fleet, consisting, of twenty-eight

ships of the line, were sailed, with orders to burn, sink, and

destroy. That Admiral Keppel was at Plymouth, and had sent to

demand three more ships of the line to enable him to meet the

French. On these notices stocks sunk three-and-a-half per cent.

An account I have received this morning from a good hand says,

that on Thursday the Admiralty received a letter from Admiral

Keppel, who was off the Land's End, saying that the Worcester was

in sight; that the Peggy had joined him, and had seen the

Thunderer making sail for the fleet; that he was waiting for the

Centaur, Terrible, and Vigilant; and that having received advice

from Lord Shuldham that the Shrewsbury was to sail from Plymouth

on Thursday, he should likewise wait for her. His fleet will

then consist of thirty ships of the line; and he hoped to have an

opportunity of trying his strength with the French fleet on our

own coast: if not, he would seek them on theirs. The French

fleet sailed on the 7th, consisting of thirty-one ships of the

line, two fifty-gun ships, and eight frigates. This state is

probably more authentic than those at Lloyd's.

Thus you see how big the moment is! and, unless far more

favourable to us in its burst than good sense allows one to

promise, it must leave us greatly exposed. Can we expect to beat

with considerable loss?--and then, where have we another fleet?

I need not state the danger from a reverse. The Spanish

ambassador certainly arrived on Monday.

I shall go to town on Monday for a day or two; therefore, if you

write to-morrow, direct to Arlington-street. I add no more: for

words are unworthy of the situation; and to blame now, would be

childish. It is hard to be gamed for against one's consent; but

when one's country is at stake, one must throw oneself out of the

question. When one, is old and nobody, one must be whirled with

the current, and shake one's wings like a fly, if one lights on a

pebble. The prospect is so dark, that one shall rejoice at

whatever does not happen that may. Thus I have composed a sort

of philosophy for myself, that reserves every possible chance.

You want none of these Artificial aids to your resolution.

Invincible courage and immaculate integrity are not dependent on

the folly of ministers or on the events of war. Adieu!

Letter 142 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Strawberry Hill, July 24, 1778. (page 193)

Upon reviewing your papers, dear Sir, I think I can make more of

them than I at first conceived. I have even commenced the life,

and do not dislike my ideas for it, if the execution does but

answer, At present, I am interrupted by another task, which you,

too, have wished me to undertake. In a word, somebody has

published Chatterton's works, and charged me heavily for having

discountenanced him. He even calls for the indignation of the

public against me. It is somewhat singular, that I am to be

offered up as a victim at the altar of a notorious impostor! but

as Many saints have been impostors, so many innocent persons have

been sacrificed to them. However, I shall not be patient under

this attack, but shall publish an answer-the narrative I

mentioned to you. I would, as you know, have avoided entering

into this affair if I could; but as I do not despise public

esteem, it is necessary to show how groundless the accusation is.

Do not speak of my intention, as perhaps I shall not execute it

immediately.

I am not in the least acquainted with the Mr. Bridges you

mention, nor know that I ever saw him. The tomb for Mr. Gray is

actually erected, and at the generous expense of Mr. Mason, and

with an epitaph of four lines,(316) as you heard, and written by

him--but the scaffolds are not yet removed. I was in town

yesterday, and intended to visit it, but there is digging a vault

for the family of Northumberland, which obstructs the removal of

the boards.

I rejoice in your amendment, and reckon it among my obligations

to the fine weather, and hope it will be the most lasting of

them. Yours ever.

(316) "No more the Grecian Muse unrivall'd reigns;

To Britain let the nations homage pay:

She felt a Homer's fire in Milton's strains,

A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray."-E.

Letter 143 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Strawberry Hill, August 15, 1778. (page 194)

Your observation of Rowley not being mentioned by William of

Wyrcestre, is very strong, indeed, dear Sir, and I shall

certainly take notice of it. It has suggested to me that he is

not named by Bale or Pitts(317)--is he? Will you trouble

yourself to look? I conclude he is not, or we should have heard

of it. Rowley is the reverse of King Arthur, and all those

heroes that have been expected a second time; he is to come again

for the first time-I mean, as a great poet. My defence amounts

to thirty pages of the size of this paper: yet I believe I shall

not publish it. I abhor a controversy; and what is it to me

whether people believe in an impostor or not? Nay, shall I

convince every body of my innocence, though there is not the

shadow of reason for thinking I was to blame? If I met a beggar

in the street, and refused him sixpence, thinking him strong

enough to work, and two years afterwards he should die of

drinking, might not I be told I had deprived the world of a

capital rope-dancer? In short, to show one's self sensible to

such accusations, would only invite more; and since they accuse

me of contempt, I will have it for my accusers.

My brass plate for Bishop Walpole was copied exactly from the

print in Dart's Westminster, of the tomb of Robert Dalby, Bishop

of Durham, with the sole alteration Of the name. I shall return,

as soon as I have time, to Mr. Baker's Life; but I shall want to

Consult you, or, at least, the account of him in the new

Biographia, as your notes want some dates. I am not satisfied

yet with what I have sketched; but I shall correct it. My small

talent was grown very dull. This attack about Chatterton has a

little revived it; but it warns me to have done , for, if*one

comes to want provocatives,-the produce will soon be feeble.

Adieu! Yours most sincerely.

(317) John Bale, Bishop of Ossory. The work to which Walpole

alludes is his "Catalog's Scriptorum illustrium Majoris

Brytannie." Basle, 1557-E.--John Pitts wrote, in opposition to

Bale, "De illustribus Angliae Scriptoribus." Paris, 1619.-E.

Letter 144 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.

Strawberry Hill, August 21, 1778. (page 195)

I think it so very uncertain whether this letter will find you,

that I write merely to tell you I received yours to-day. I

recollect nothing particularly worth seeing in Sussex that you

have not seen (for I think you have seen Coudray and Stansted,

and I know you have Petworth), but Hurst Monceaux, near Battle;

and I don't know whether it is not pulled down. The site of

Arundel Castle is fine, and there are some good tombs of the

Fitzalans at the church, but little remains of the castle; in the

room of which is a modern brick house; and in the late Duke's

time the ghost of a giant walked there, his grace said--but I

suppose the present Duke has laid it in the Red Sea of claret.

Besides Knowle and Penshurst, I should think there were several

seats of old families in Kent worth seeing; but I do not know

them. I poked out Summer-hill(318) for the sake of the

Babylonienne in Grammont; but it is now a mere farmhouse. Don't

let them Persuade you to visit Leeds Castle, which is not worth

seeing.

You have been near losing me and half a dozen fair cousins today.

The Goldsmiths, Company dined in Mr. Shirley's field, next to

Pope's. I went to Ham with my three Waldegrave nieces and Miss

Keppel, and saw them land, and dine in tents erected for them,

from the opposite shore. You may imagine how beautiful the sight

was in such a spot and in such a day! I stayed and dined at Ham,

and after dinner Lady Dysart, with Lady Bridget Tollemache took

our four nieces on the water to see the return of the barges but

were to set me down at Lady Browne's. We were, with a footman

and the two watermen, ten in a little boat. As we were in the

middle of the river, a larger boat full of people drove directly

upon us on purpose. I believe they were drunk. We called to

them, to no purpose; they beat directly against the middle of our

little skiff--but, thank you, did not do us the least harm--no

thanks to them. Lady Malpas was in Lord Strafford's garden, and

gave us for gone. In short, Neptune never would have had so

beautiful a prize as the four girls.

I hear an express has been sent to * * * * to offer him the

mastership of the horse. I had a mind to make you guess, but you

never can--to Lord Exeter! Pray let me know the moment you

return to Park-place.

(318) Formerly a country-seat of Queen Elizabeth, and the

residence of Charles the Second when the court was at Tunbridge.-

E.

Letter 145 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Strawberry Hill, August 22, 1778. (page 196)

I beg YOU Will feel no uneasiness, dear Sir, at having shown my

name to Dr. Glynn. I Can never suspect you, who are giving me

fresh proofs of your friendship, and solicitude for my

reputation, of doing any thing unkind. It is true I do not think

I shall publish any thing about Chatterton. IS not it an affront

to innocence, not to be perfectly satisfied in her? My pamphlet,

for such it would be, is four times as large as the narrative in

your hands, and I think Would not discredit me--but, in truth, I

am grown much fonder of truth than fame; and scribblers or their

patrons shall not provoke me to sacrifice the one to the other.

Lord Hardwicke, I know, has long been my enemy,--latterly, to get

a sight of the Conway Papers, he has paid great court to me,

which, to show how little I regarded his enmity, I let him see,

at least the most curious. But as I set as little value on his

friendship, I did not grant another of his requests. Indeed, I

have made more than one foe by not indulging the vanity of those

who have made application to me; and I am obliged to them, when

they augment my contempt by quarrelling with me for that refusal.

It was the case of Mr. Masters, and is now of Lord Hardwicke. He

solicited me to reprint his Boeotian volume of Sir Dudley

Carleton's Papers, for which he had two motives. The first he

inherited from his father, the desire of saving money; for though

his fortune is so much larger than mine, he knew I would not let

out my press for hire, but should treat him with the expense, as

I have done for those I have obliged. The second was, that the

rarity of my editions makes them valuable, and though I cannot

make men read dull books, I can make them purchase them. His

lordship, therefore, has bad grace in affecting to overlook one,

whom he had in vain courted, yet he again is grown my enemy,

because I would not be my own. For my Writings, they do not

depend on him or the venal authors he patronizes (I doubt very

frugally), but On their own merits or demerits. It is from men

of sense they must expect their sentence, not from boobies and

hireling authors, whom I have always shunned, with the whole fry

of minor wits, critics, and monthly censors. I have not seen the

Review you mention, nor ever do, but when something particular is

pointed out to me. Literary squabbles I know preserve one's

name, when one's work will not; but I despise the fame that

depends on scolding till one is remembered, and remembered by

whom? The scavengers of literature! Reviewers are like sextons,

who in a charnel-house can tell you to what John Thompson or to

what Tom-Matthews such a skull or such belonged--but who wishes

to know? The fame that is only to be found in such vaults, is

like the fires that burn unknown in tombs, and go out as fast as

they are discovered. Lord Hardwicke is welcome to live among the

dead if he likes',,it, and can contrive to live nowhere else.

Chatterton did abuse me under the title of Baron of Otranto,(319)

but unluckily the picture is more like Dr. Milles and

Chatterton's own devotees' than to me, who am but a recreant

antiquary, and, as the poor lad found by experience, did not

swallow every fragment that 'Was offered to me as an antique;

though that is a feature he has bestowed Upon me.

I have seen, too, the criticism you mention on the Castle of

Otranto, in the preface to the Old English Baron.(320) It is not

at all oblique, but, though mixed with high compliments, directly

attacks the visionary part, which, says the author or authoress,

makes one laugh. I do assure you, I have not had the smallest

inclination to return that attack. It would even be ungrateful,

for the work is a professed imitation of mine, only stripped of

the marvellous; and so entirely stripped, except in one awkward

attempt at a ghost or two, that it is the most insipid dull

nothing you ever saw. It certainly does not

make me laugh; but what makes one doze, seldom makes one merry.

I am very sorry to have talked for near three pages on what

relates to myself, who should be of no consequence, if people did

not make me so, whether I will or not.- My not replying to them,

I hope, is a proof I do not seek to make myself the topic of

conversation. How very foolish are the squabbles of authors!

They buzz and are troublesome, to-day, and then repose for ever

on some shelf in a college' library, close by their antagonists,

like Henry VI. and Edward IV. at Windsor.

I shall be in town in a few days, and will send You the heads of

painters, which I left there; and along with them for yourself a

translation of a French play,(321) that I have just printed

there. It is not for your reading, but as one of the Strawberry

editions, and one of the rarest; for I have printed but

seventy-five copies. It was to oblige Lady Craven, - the

translatress; and will be an aggravation of my offence to Sir

Dudley's State Papers.

I hope this Elysian summer, for it has been above Indian, has

dispersed all your complaints. Yet it does not agree with fruit;

the peaches and nectarines are shrivelled to the size of damsons,

and half of them drop. Yet you remember what portly bellies the

peaches had at Paris, where it is generally as hot. I suppose

our fruit-trees are so accustomed to rain, that they don't know

how to behave without it. Adieu!

P. S. I can divert you with a new adventure that has happened to

me in the literary way. About a month ago, I received a letter

from Mr. Jonathan Scott, at Shrewsbury, to tell me he was

possessed of MS. of Lord Herbert's Account of the Court of

France,(322) which he designed to publish by subscription, and

which he desired me to subscribe to, and to assist in the

publication. I replied, that having been obliged to the late

Lord Powis and his widow, I could not meddle with any such thing,

without knowing that it had the consent of the present Earl and

his mother.

Another letter, commending my reserve, told me Mr. Scott had

applied for it formerly, and would again now. This showed me

they did not consent. I have just received a third letter,

owning the approbation has not yet arrived; but to keep me

employed in the mean time, the modest Mr. Scott, whom I never

saw, nor know more of than I did of Chatterton, proposes to me to

get his fourth son a place in the civil department in India: the

father not choosing it should be in the military, his three

eldest sons being engaged in that branch already. If this fourth

son breaks his neck, I suppose it will be laid to my charge!

Yours ever.

(319) Chatterton exhibited a ridiculous portrait of Walpole: in

the "Memoirs of a Sad Dog,"

under the character of "the redoubted Baron Otranto, who has

spent his whole life in conjectures."-E.

(320) The Old English Baron, a romance of considerable repute

which has been frequently reprinted, was the production of Clara

Reeve. This Ingenious lady had published, in 1772, a translation

of Barclay's Latin romance of Argenis, under the title of "The

Phoenix, or the History of Polyarchus and Argenis." She was born

at Ipswich, in 1738, died there in 1808.-E.

(321) "the Sleep Walker;" Strawberry Hill, 1778. It was

translated from the French of M. Pont de Veyle, by Lady Craven,

afterwards Margravine of Anspach.-E.

(322) By Lord Herbert's Account of the Court of France, Mr. Scott

most probably referred to his "Letters written during his

residence at the French Court" and which were first published

from the originals, in the edition of his Life which appeared in

1826.-E.

Letter 146 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

September 1, 1778. (page 198)

I have now seen the Critical Review, with Lord Hardwicke's note,

in which I perceive the sensibility of your friendship for me,

dear Sir, but no rudeness on his part. Contemptuous it was to

reprint Jane Shore's letter without any notice of my having given

it before: the apology, too, is not made to me-but I am not

affected by such incivilities, that imply more ill-will than

boldness. As I expected more from your representation, I believe

I expressed myself with more warmth than the occasion deserved;

and, as I love to be just, I will, now I am perfectly cool, be so

to Lord Hardwicke. His dislike of me was meritorious in him, as

I conclude it was founded on my animosity to his father, as mine

had been, from attachment to my own who was basely betrayed by

the late Earl. The present has given me formerly many peevish

marks of enmity; and I suspect, I don't know if justly, that he

was the mover of the cabal in the Antiquarian Society against me-

-but all their Misunderstandings were of a size that made me

smile rather than provoked me. The Earl, as I told you, has

since been rather wearisome in applications to me; which I

received rather civilly, but encouraged no farther. When he

wanted me to be his printer, I own I was not good Christian

enough, not to be pleased with refusing, and yet in as well-bred

excuses as I could form, pleading what was true at the time, as

you know, that I had laid down my press-but so much for this idle

story. I shall think no more of it, but adhere to my specific

system. The antiquarians will be as ridiculous as they used to

be; and, since it is impossible to infuse taste into them, they

will be as dry and dull as their predecessors. One may revive

what perished, but it will perish again, if more life is not

breathed into it than it enjoyed originally. Facts, dates, and

names will never please the multitude, unless there is some style

and manner to recommend them, and unless some novelty is struck

out from their appearance. The best merit of the society lies in

their prints; for their volumes, no mortal will ever touch them

but an antiquary. Their Saxon and Danish discoveries are not

worth more than monuments of the Hottentots; and for Roman

remains in Britain, they are upon a foot with what ideas we

should get of Inigo Jones, if somebody was to publish views of

huts and houses, that our officers run up at Senegal and Goree.

Bishop Lyttelton used to torment me with barrows and Roman camps,

and I would as soon have attended to the turf graves in our

churchyards. I have no curiosity to know how awkward and clumsy

men have been in the dawn of arts, or in their decay.

I exempt you entirely from my general censure on antiquaries,

both for your singular modesty in publishing nothing yourself,

and for collecting stone and bricks for others to build with. I

wish your materials may ever fall into good hands--perhaps they

will! our empire is falling to pieces! we are relapsing to a

little island. n that state men are apt to inquire how great

their ancestors have been; and, when a kingdom is past doing any

thing, the few that are studious look into the memorials of past

time; nations, like private persons, seek lustre from their

progenitors, when they have none in themselves, and the farther

they are from the dignity of their source. When half its

colleges are tumbled down, the ancient university of Cambridge

will revive from your Collections,(323) and you will be a living

witness that saw its splendour.

Since I began this letter, I have had another curious adventure.

I was in the Holbein chamber, when a chariot stopped at my door.

A letter was brought up--and who should be below but--Dr. Kippis.

The letter was to announce himself and his business, flattered me

on My Writings, desired my assistance, and particularly my

direction and aid for his writing the life of my father. I

desired he would walk up, and received him very civilly, taking

not the smallest notice of what you had told me of his flirts at

me in the new Biographia. I told him if I had been applied to, I

could have pointed out many errors in the old edition, but as

they were chiefly in the printing, I supposed they would be

corrected. With regard to my father's life, I said, it might be

partiality, but I had such confidence in my father's virtues,

that I was satisfied the more his life was examined, the clearer

they would appear. That I also thought that the life of any man

written under the direction of his family, did nobody honour; and

that, as I was persuaded my father's would stand the test, I

wished that none of his relations should interfere in it. That I

did not doubt but the Doctor would speak impartially, and that

was all I desired. He replied, that he did suppose I thought in

that manner, and that all he asked was to be assisted in facts

and dates. I said, if he would please to write the life first,

and then communicate it to me, I would point out any errors in

facts that I should perceive. He seemed mightily well

satisfied-and so we parted-but is it not odd. that people are

continually attacking me, and then come to me for' assistance?--

but when men write for profit, they are not very delicate.

I have resumed Mr. Baker's life, and pretty well arranged my

plan; but I shall have little time to make any progress till

October, as I am going soon to make some visits. Yours ever.

(323) His valuable Collections, in about a hundred volumes, in

folio fairly written in his own band, Mr. Cole, on his death in

1782, left to the British Museum, to be locked up for twenty

years. His Diary, as will be seen by a specimen or two, is truly

ludicrous:--Jan. 25, 1766. Foggy. My beautiful Parrot died at

ten at night, without knowing the Cause of his illness, he being

very well last night.--Feb. 1. Fine day, and cold. Will. Wood

carried three or four loads of dung Baptized William, the son of

William Grace, blacksmith, whom I married about six months

before. March 3. I baptized Sarah, the bastard daughter of the

Widow Smallwood, of Eton, aged near fifty, whose husband died

about a year ago.--March 6, Very fine weather. My man was

blooded. I sent a loin Of pork and a spare-rib to Mr.

Cartwright, in London.--27. I sent my two French wigs to my

London barber to alter, they being made so miserably I could not

wear them.--June 17. I went to our new Archdeacon's visitation

at Newport-Pagnel. took young H. Travel with me on my dun horse,

in order that he might hear the organ, he being a great

psalm-singer. The most numerous appearance of clergy that I

remember: forty-four dined with the Archdeacon; and what is

extraordinary, not one smoked tobacco. My new coach-horse

ungain.--Aug. 16. Cool day. Tom reaped for Joe Holdom. I

cudgelled Jem for staying so long on an errand," etc.-E.

Letter 147 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Strawberry Hill, Sept. 18, 1778. (page 200)

I have run through the new articles in the Biographia, and think

them performed but by a heavy hand. Some persons have not

trusted the characters of their ancestors, as I did my father's,

to their own merits. On the contrary, I have met with one whose

corruption is attempted to be palliated by imputing its

punishment to the revenge of my father-which, by the way, is

confessing the guilt of the convict. This was the late Lord

Barrington,(324) who, i believe, was a very dirty fellow; for,

besides being expelled the House of Commons on the affair of the

Harburgh lottery, he was reckoned to have twice sold the

Dissenters to the court; but in short, what credit can a

Biographia Britannica, which ought to be a standard work,

deserve, when the editor is a mercenary writer, who runs about to

relations for direction, and adopts any tale they deliver to him?

This very instance is proof that it is not a jot more creditable

than a peerage. The

authority is said to be a nephew of Judge Foster, (consequently,

I suppose, a friend of Judge Barrington), and he pretends to have

found a scrap of paper, nobody knows on what occasion written,

that seems to be connected with nothing, and is called a

palliative, if not an excuse of Lord Barrington's crime. A man

is expelled from Parliament for a scandalous job, and it is

called a sufficient excuse to say the minister was his enemy; and

this nearly forty years after the death of both! and without any

impeachment of the justice of the sentence: instead of which we

are told that Lord Barrington was suspected of having offended

Sir Robert Walpole, who took that opportunity of being revenged.

Supposing he did--which at most you see is a suspicion--grounded

on a suspicion--it would at least Imply, that he had found a good

opportunity. A most admirable acquittal! Sir Robert Walpole was

expelled for having endorsed a note that was not for his own

benefit, nor ever supposed to be, and it Was the act of a whole

outrageous party; yet, abandoned as parliaments sometimes are, a

minister would not find them very complaisant In gratifying his

private revenge against a member without some crime. Not a

syllable is said of any defence the culprit made:; and,' had my

father been guilty of such violence and injustice, it is totally

incredible that he, whose minutest acts and his most innocent

were so rigorously scrutinized, tortured, and blackened, should

never have heard that act of power complained of. The present

Lord Barrington who opposed him, saw his fall, and the secret

committee appointed' to canvass his life, when a retrospect of

twenty years was desired and only ten allowed, would certainly

have pleaded for the longer term, had he had any thing to say, in

behalf of his father's sentence. Would so warm a patriot then,

though so obedient a courtier now, have suppressed the charge to

this hour? This Lord Barrington, when I was going to publish the

second edition of my Noble Authors, begged it as a favour of me

suppress all mention of his father--a strong presumption that he

was ashamed of him. I am well repaid! but I am certainly 11

record that good man. I shall-and s ow at liberty to hall take

notice of the satisfactory manner in which his sons have

whitewashed their patriarch. I recollect a saying of the present

peer that will divert you when contrasted with forty years of

servility which even in this age makes him a proverb. It was in

his days of virtue. He said, "If I should ever be so unhappy as

to have a place that would make it necessary for me to have a

fine coat on a birthday, I would pin a bank-bill on my sleeve."

He had a place in less than two years, I think--and has had

almost every place that every administration could bestow.(325)

Such were the patriots that opposed that excellent man, my

father; allowed by all parties as incapable of revenge as ever

minister was--but whose experience of mankind drew from him that

memorable saying, "that very few men ought to be prime ministers,

for it is not fit many should know how bad men are;"--one can see

a little of it without being a prime minister. "one shuns

mankind and flies to books, one meets with their meanness and

falsehood there, too! one has reason to say, there is but one

good, that is God. Adieu! Yours ever.

(324) John Shute, first Viscount Barrington in the peerage of

Ireland, expelled the House of Commons in February 1723, for

having promoted, abetted, and carried on that fraudulent

undertaking, the Harburgh lottery. This lottery took its name

from the place where it Was to be drawn, the town and port of

Harburgh, on the

river Elbe, where the projector was to settle a trade for the

woollen manufacture between England and Germany. Lord Barrington

was distinguished for theological learning, and published

"Miscellanea Critica" and an "Essay on the several Dispensations

of God to Mankind." He died in 1734, leaving five sons, who had

the rare fortune of each rising to high stations in the church,

the state, the law, the army, and the navy.-E.

(325) See vol. i. p. 258, letter 69. Among the Mitchell MSS. is

a letter from Lord Barrington, in which he says, "No man knows

what is good for him: my invariable rule, therefore, is to ask

nothing, to refuse nothing; to let Others place me, and to do my

best wherever I am placed. The same strange fortune which made

me secretary of war five years ago has made me chancellor of the

exchequer; it may perhaps at last make me pope. I think i am

equally fit to be at the head of the church as the exchequer."-E.

Letter 148 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Oct, 14, 1778. (page 202)

I think you take in no newspapers, nor do I believe condescend to

read any more modern than the Paris `a la Main at the time of the

Ligue; consequently you have not seen a new scandal on my father,

which you will not wonder offends me. You cannot be interested

in his defence; but, as it comprehends some very curious

anecdotes, you will not grudge my indulging myself to a friend in

vindicating a name so dear to me. In the accounts of Lady

Chesterfield's(326) death and fortune, it is said that the late

King, at the instigation of Sir Robert Walpole, burnt his

father's will which contained a large legacy to that, his

supposed, daughter, and I believe his real one; for she was very

like him, as her brother General Schulembourg, is, in black, to

the late King. The fact of suppressing the will is indubitably

true; the instigator most false, as I can demonstrate thus:--

When the news arrived of the death of George the First, my father

carried the account from Lord Townshend to the then Prince of

Wales. One of the first acts of royalty is for the new monarch

to make a speech to the privy council. Sir Robert asked the King

who he would please to have draw the Speech, which was, in fact,

asking who was to be prime minister; to which his Majesty

replied, Sir Spencer Compton. It is a wonderful anecdote, and

but little known, that the new premier, a very dull man, could

not draw the Speech, and the person to whom he applied was the

deposed premier. The Queen, who favoured my father, observed how

unfit a man was for successor, who was reduced to beg assistance

of his predecessor. The council met as soon as possible, the

next morning at latest. There Archbishop Wake, with whom one

copy of the will had been deposited, (as another was, I think,

with the Duke of Wolfenbuttle, who had a pension for sacrificing

it, which, I know, the late Duke of Newcastle transacted,)

advanced and delivered the will to the King, who put it into his

pocket, and went out of council without opening it, the

Archbishop- not having courage or presence of mind to desire it

to b' read,. as he ought to have done.

These circumstances, which I solemnly assure you are strictly

true, prove that my father neither advised, nor was consulted;

nor is it credible that the King in one night's time should have

passed from the intention of disgracing him, to make him his

bosom Confidant on so delicate an affair.

I was once talking to the late Lady Suffolk, the former mistress,

on that extraordinary event. She said, "I cannot justify the

deed to the legatees; but towards his father, the late King was

justifiable, for George the First had burnt two wills made in

favour of George the Second." I suppose these were the

testaments of the Duke and Duchess of Zell, parents of George the

First's wife, whose treatment of her they always resented.

I said, I know the transactions of the Duke of Newcastle. The

late Lord Waldegrave showed me a letter from that Duke to The

first Earl of Waldegrave, then ambassador at Paris, with

directions about that transaction, or, at least, about payment of

the pension, I forget which.(327) I have somewhere, but cannot

turn to it now, a memorandum of that affair, and who the Prince

was, whom I may mistake in calling Duke of Wolfenbuttle. There

was a third COPY of the will, I likewise forget with whom

deposited. The newspaper says, which is true, that Lord

Chesterfield filed a bill in chancery against the late King to

oblige him to produce the will, and was silenced, I think, by

payment of twenty thousand Pounds. There was another legacy to

his own daughter, the Queen of Prussia, which has at times been,

and, I believe, is still claimed by the King of Prussia.

Do not mention any part of this story, but it is worth

preserving, I am sure you are satisfied with my scrupulous

veracity. It may Perhaps be authenticated hereafter by

collateral evidence that may come out. If ever true history does

come to light my father's character will have just honour paid to

it. Lord Chesterfield, one of his sharpest enemies, has not,

with all his

prejudices, left a very unfavourable account of him, and it would

alone be raised by a comparison of their two characters. Think

of one who calls Sir Robert the corrupter of youth, leaving a

system of education to poison them from their nursery!

Chesterfield, Pulteney, and Bolingbroke were the saints that

reviled my father! I beg your pardon, but you will allow Me to

open my heart to you when it is full. Yours ever.

(326) Malosine de Schulenbourg, a natural daughter of George I.

by Miss Schulenbourg, afterwards created Duchess of Kendal. She

was created, in 1722, Countess of Walsingham and Baroness of

Aldborough, and was the widow of Philip Dormer Stanhope, the

celebrated Earl of Chesterfield, who died in 1773-E.

(327) See Walpole's Memoires of George the second, vol. ii., p.

458-E.

Letter 149 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.

Oct. 23, 1778. (page 204)

* * * * * Having thus told you all I know, I shall add a few

words, to say I conclude you have known as much, by my not having

heard from you. Should the post-office or secretary's o(fice set

their wits at work to bring to light all the intelligence

contained under the above hiatus, I am confident they will

discover nothing, though it gives an exact description of all

they have been about themselves.

My personal history is very short. I have had an assembly and

the rheumatism-and am buying a house-and it rains-and I shall

plant the roses against my treillage to-morrow. Thus you know

-what I have done, suffered, am doing, and shall do. Let me know

as much of you, in quantity, not in quality. Introductions to,

and conclusions of, letters are as much out of fashion, as to at,

etc. on letters. This sublime age reduces every thing to its

quintessence: all periphrases and expletives are so much in

disuse, that I suppose soon the only way of making love will be

to say "Lie down." Luckily, the lawyers will not part with any

synonymous words, and will, consequently preserve the

redundancies of our language--Dixi.

Letter 150 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

October 26, 1778. (page 204)

I have finished the life of Mr. Baker, will have it transcribed,

and send it to you. I have omitted several little particulars

that are in your notes, for two reasons; one, because so much is

said in the Biographia; and the other, because I have rather

drawn a character of him, than meant a circumstantial life. In

the justice I have done to him, I trust I shall have pleased you.

I have much greater doubt of that effect in what I have said of

his principles and party. It is odd, perhaps, to have made use

of the life of a high churchman for expatiating on my own very

opposite principles; but it gave me SO fair an opportunity of

discussing those points, that I very naturally embraced it. I

have done due honour to his immaculate conscience, but have not

spared the cause in which he fell,-or rather rose,-for the ruin

of his fortune was the triumph of his virtue.

As you know I do not love the press, you may be sure I have no

thoughts of printing this life at present; nay, I beg you will

not only not communicate it, but take care it never should be

printed without my consent. I have written what presented

itself; I should perhaps choose to soften several passages; and I

trust to you for Your own satisfaction, not as a finished thing,

or as I am determined it should remain.

Another favour I beg of you is to criticise it as largely and

severely As you please: you have A right so to do, as it is built

with your own materials, nay, you have a right to scold if I

have, nay, since I have, employed them so differently from your

intention. All my excuse is, that you communicated them to one

who did not deceive you, and you was pretty sure would make

nearly the use of them that he has made. Was not you? did you

not suspect a little that I could not write even a Life of Mr.

Baker without talking Whiggism!--Well, if I have ill-treated the

cause, I am sure I have exalted the martyr. I have thrown new

light on his virtue from his notes on the Gazettes, and you will

admire him more, though you may love me less, for my chymistry.

I should be truly sorry if I did lose a scruple of your

friendship. You have ever been as candid to me, as Mr. Baker was

to his antagonists, and our friendship is another proof that men

of the most opposite principles can agree in every thing else,

and not quarrel about them.

As my manuscript contains above twenty pages of my writing on

larger paper than this, you cannot receive it speedily--however,

I have Performed my promise, and I hope you will not be totally

discontent, though I am not satisfied with myself. I have

executed it by snatches and by long interruptions; and not having

been eager about it, I find I wanted that ardour to inspire me;

another proof of what I told you, that my small talent is waning,

and wants provocatives. It shall be a warning to me. Adieu!

Letter 151 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Arlington Street, Nov. 4, 1778. (page 205)

You will see by my secretary's hand, that I am not able to write

myself; indeed, I am in bed with the gout in six places, like

Daniel in the den; but, as the lions are slumbering round me, and

leave me a moment of respite, I employ it to give you one.

You have misunderstood me, dear Sir: I have not said a word that

will lower Mr. Baker's character; on the contrary, I think he

will come out brighter from my ordeal. In truth, as I have drawn

out his life from your papers, it is a kind of Political epic, in

which his conscience is the hero that always triumphs over his

interest

upon the most opposite occasions. Shall you dislike your saint

in this light! I had transcribed about half when I fell ill last

week. If the gout does not seize my right hand, I shall Probably

have recovery full leisure to finish it during my recovery, but

shall certainly not be

able to send it to you by Mr. Lort.

Your promise fully satisfies me. My life can never extend to

twenty years.(328) Anyone that saw me this moment would not take

me for a Methusalem. I have not strength to dictate more now,

except to add, that if Mr. Nicholls has seen my narrative about

Chatterton, it can only be my letter to Mr. Barrett, of which you

have a copy; the larger one has not yet been out of my own house.

Yours most sincerely.

(328) Mr. Cole had informed Walpole that his collections were not

to be opened until twenty years after his death. See ant`e, P.

199, letter 146, note 323.

Letter 152 To Lady Browne.(329)

Arlington Street, Nov, 5, 1778. (page 206)

Your ladyship is exceedingly kind and charitable, and the least I

can do in return is to do all I can--dictate a letter to you. I

have not been out of bed longer than it was necessary to have it

made, once a day, since last Thursday. The gout is in both my

feet, both my knees, and in my left hand and elbow. Had I a mind

to brag, I could boast of a little rheumatism too, but I scorn to

set value on such a trifle; nay, I will own that I have felt but

little acute pain. My chief propensity to exaggeration would be

on the miserable nights I have passed; and yet whatever I should

say would not be beyond what I thought I suffered. I have been

constantly as broad awake as Mrs. Candour that is always gaping

for Scandal,(330) except when I have taken opiates, and then my

dreams have been as extravagant as Mrs. Candour adds to what she

hears. In short, Madam, not to tire you with more details,

though you have ordered them, I am so weak that I am able to see

nobody at all, and when I shall be recovered enough to take

possession of this new lease, as it is called, the mansion, I

believe, will be so shattered that it won't be worth repairs. Is

it not very foolish, then, to be literally buying a new house? Is

it not verifying Pope's line, when I choose a Pretty situation,

"But just to look about us and to die?"

I am sorry Lady Jane's lot is fallen in Westphalia, where so

great a hog is lord of the manor. He is like the dragon of

Wantley,

"And houses and churches

To him are geese and turkeys;"

so I don't wonder that he has gobbled her two cows.

Lady Blandford is delightful in congratulating me upon having the

gout in town, and staying in the country herself. Nay, she is

very insolent in presuming to be the only person invulnerable.

If I could wish her any, harm, it should be that she might feel

for one quarter of an hour a taste of the mortifications that I

suffered from eleven last night till four this morning, and I am

sure she would never dare to have a spark of courage again. I

can only wish her in Grosvenor-square, where she would run no

risks. Her reputation for obstinacy is so well established, that

she might take advice from her true friends for a twelvemonth,

before we should believe our own ears. However, as every body

has some weak part, I know she will do for others more than for

herself; and, therefore, pray Madam, tell her, that I am sure it

is bad for Your ladyship to stay in the country at this time of

year, and that reason, I am sure will bring you both. I really

must rest.

(329) Now first printed. See vol. iii., letter to George

Montagu, Esq., Nov. 1, 1767, letter 332.

(330) Sheridan's popular comedy of the "School for Scandal" which

came out at Drury-lane theatre in May 1777, was at this time as

much the favourite of the town as ever.-E.

Letter 153 To Lady Browne.(331)

Arlington Street, Dec. 18, 1778. (page 207)

My not writing with my own hand, to thank Your ladyship for your

very obliging letter, is the worst symptom that remains with me,

Madam: all pain and swelling are gone; and I hope in a day or two

to get a glove even on my right hand, and to walk with help into

the room by the end of next week. I did I confess, see a great

deal too much company too early; and was such an old child as to

prattle abundantly, till I was forced to shut myself up for a

week and see nobody; but I am quite recovered, and the emptiness

of the town will soon preserve me from any excesses.

I am exceedingly glad to hear your ladyship finds so much benefit

from the air: I own I thought you looked ill the last time I had

the honour of seeing you; and though I am sorry to hear you talk

with so much satisfaction of a country life, I am not selfish

enough to wish you to leave Tusmore(332) a day before your health

is quite re-established, nor to envy Mr. Fermor so agreeable an

addition to his society and charming seat.

Poor Lady Albemarle is indeed very miserable and full of

apprehensions; though the incredible zeal. of the navy for

Admiral Keppel crowns him with glory, and the indignation of and

the indignation of mankind, and the execration of Sir Hugh, add

to the triumph. Indeed, I still think Lady A.'s fears may be

well founded: some slur may be Procured on her son; and his own

bad nerves, and worse constitution, may not be able to stand

agitation and suspense.(333)

Lady Blandford has had a cold, but I hear is well again, and has

generally two tables. She will be a loss indeed to all her

friends, and to hundreds more; but she cannot be immortal, nor

would be, if she could.

The writings are not yet signed, Madam, for my house, but I am in

no doubt of having it; yet I shall not think of going into it

till the spring, as I cannot enjoy this year's gout in it, and

will not venture catching a codicil, by going backwards and

forwards to it before it is aired.

I know no particular news, but that Lord Bute was thought in

great danger yesterday; I have heard nothing of him to-day. I do

not know even a match, but of some that are going to be divorced;

the fate of one of the latter is to be turned into an exaltation,

and is treated by her family and friends in quite a new style, to

the discomfit of all prudery. It puts me in mind of Lord

Lansdowne's lines in the room in the Tower where my father had

been confined,

"Some fall so hard, they bound and rise again."

Methinks, however, it is a little hard on Lord George Germaine,

that in four months after seeing a Duchess of Dorset, he may see

a Lord Middlesex too; for so old the egg is said to be, that is

already prepared. If this trade goes on, half the peeresses will

have two eldest sons with both fathers alive at the same time.

Lady Holderness expresses nothing but grief and willingness to

receive her daughter(334) again on any terms, which probably will

happen; for the daughter has already opened her eyes, is sensible

of her utter ruin, and has written to Lord Carmarthen and Madam

Cordon, acknowledging her guilt, and begging to be remembered

only with pity, which is sufficient to make one pity her.

I would beg pardon for so long a letter, but your ladyship

desired THE intelligence, and I know a long letter from London is

not uncomfortable at Christmas, even. in the most comfortable

house in the country. Perhaps my own forced idleness has a

little contributed to lengthen it; still I hope it implies great

readiness to obey your ladyship's commands, in your most obedient

humble servant.

(331) Now first printed.

(332) Lady Browne's first husband was Henry Fermor Esq.,

grandfather of Mr. Fermor of Tusmore House. She was Miss

Sheldon.-E.

(333) Some charges having been brought against Admiral Keppel for

his conduct at the battle of Ushant,

by Sir Hugh Palliser, his vice-admiral, he was tried for the

same, and not only unanimously acquitted, but the prosecution

declared malicious. This verdict gave such general satisfaction,

that London was illuminated for two nights; upon one,

of which a mob, consisting in great part of sailors who had

served under Keppel, broke all the windows in the house of his

accuser. The city of London voted the Admiral the freedom of the

corporation. In 1782, he was Created Viscount Keppel, and

appointed first lord of the admiralty. He died unmarried, in

October 1786. The following is a part of Mr. Burke's beautiful

panegyric on him, at the conclusion of his letter to a noble

Lord:--"I ever looked on Lord Keppel as one of the greatest and

best men of his age, and I loved and cultivated him accordingly.

It was at his trial that he gave me this picture. With what zeal

and anxious affection I attended him through that his agony of

glory; what part my son took in the early flush and enthusiasm of

his virtue, and the pious passion with which he attached himself

to all my connexions; with what prodigality we both squandered

ourselves in courting almost every sort of enmity for his sake, I

believe he felt, just as I should have felt such friendship on

such an occasion. I partook, indeed, of this honour with several

of the first, and best, and ablest in the kingdom; but I was

behind with none of them - and I am sure that if, to the eternal

disgrace of this nation, and to the total annihilation of every

trace of honour and virtue in it, things had taken a different

turn from what they did, I should have attended him to the

quarterdeck with no less good-will and more pride, though with

far other feelings, than I partook of the general flow of

national joy that attended the justice that was done to his

virtue."-E.

(335) Amelia D'Arcy, Baroness Conyers, daughter of Robert, fourth

Earl of Holderness, Married to Lord Carmarthen; who had eloped

with Captain John Byron, father of the great poet.-E.

Letter 154 To The Earl Of Buchan.(336)

Arlington Street, Dec. 24, 1778. (page 209)

It was an additional mortification to my illness, my lord, that I

was nut able to thank your lordship with my own hand for the

honour of your letter, and for your goodness in remembering an

old man, who must with reason consider himself as forgotten, when

he never was of importance, and is now almost useless to himself.

Frequent severe fits of the gout have a good deal disabled me

from pursuing the trifling studies in which I could pretend to

know any thing; or at least has given me an indifference, that

makes me less ready in answering questions than I may have been

formerly; and as my papers are in the country, whither at present

I am not able to go, I fear I can give but unsatisfactory replies

to your lordship's queries.

The two very curious pictures of King James and his Queen (I

cannot recollect whether the third or fourth of the name, but I

know that she was a princess of Sweden or Denmark,(337) and that

her arms are on her portrait,) were at the palace at Kensington,

and I imagine are there still. I had obtained leave from the

Lord Chamberlain to have drawings made of them, and Mr. Wale

actually

began them for me, but made such slow progress, and I was so

called off from the thought of them by indispositions and other

avocations, that they were never finished; and Mr.. Wale may,

perhaps, still have the beginnings he made.

At the Duke of Devonshire's at Hardwicke, there is a valuable

though poorly painted picture of James V. and Mary of Guise, his

second queen: it is remarkable from the great resemblance of Mary

Queen of Scots to her father; I mean in Lord Morton's picture of

her, and in the image of her on her tomb at Westminster, which

agree together, and which I take to be the genuine likeness. I

have doubts on Lord Burlington's picture, and on Dr. Mead's. The

nose in both is thicker, and also fuller at bottom than on the

tomb; though it is a little supported by her coins.

There is a much finer portrait,--indeed, an excellent head,--of

the Lady Margaret Douglas at Mr. Carteret's at Hawnes in

Bedfordshire, the late Lord Granville's. It is a shrewd

countenance, and at the same time with great goodness of

character. Lord Scarborough has a good picture, in the style of

Holbein at least, of Queen Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry

VII., and of her second or third husband (for, if I don't

mistake, she had three); but indeed, my lord, these things are so

much out of my memory at present, that I speak with great

diffidence. I cannot even recollect any thing else to your

lordship's purpose; but I flatter myself, that these imperfect

notices will at least be a testimony of my readiness to obey your

lordship's commands, as that I am, with great respect, my lord,

your lordship's obedient humble servant.

(336) Now first printed. David Stewart Erskine, eleventh Earl of

Buchan. He was intended for public life, but shortly after

succeeding to the family honours, in 1767, he retired to

Scotland, and devoted himself to literature. His principal works

were, an Essay on the lives of Fletcher of Saltoun and the Poet

Thomson, and a Life of Napier of Merchiston. He died at Dryburgh

Abbey in 1829 at the age of eighty-seven.-E.

(337) James the First married, in 1590, Anne, daughter of

Frederick King of Denmark.-E.

Letter 155 To Edward Gibbon, Esq.(338)

[1778.] (page 210)

Dear Sir,

I have gone through your Inquisitor's attack(339) and am far from

being clear that it deserves your giving yourself the trouble of

an answer, as neither the detail nor the result affects your

argument. So far from it, many of his reproofs are levelled at

your having quoted a wrong page; he confessing often that what

you have cited is in the author, referred to, but not precisely

in the individual spot. If St. Peter is attended by a corrector

of the press, you will certainly never be admitted where he is a

porter. I send you my copy, because I scribbled my remarks. I

do not send them with the impertinent presumption of suggesting a

hint to you, but to prove I did not grudge the trouble of going

through such a book when you desired it, and to show how little

struck me as of any weight.

I have set down nothing on your imputed plagiarisms; for, if they

are so, no argument that has ever been employed must be used

again, even where the passage necessary is applied to a different

purpose. An author is not allowed to be master of his own works;

but, by Davis's new law, the first person that cites him would be

so. You probably looked into Middleton, Dodwell, etc.; had the

same reflections on the same circumstances, or conceived them so

as to recollect them, without remembering what suggested them.

Is this plagiarism? If it is, Davis and such cavillers might go a

short step further, and insist that an author should peruse every

work antecedently written on every subject at all collateral to

his own.-not to assist him, but to be sure to avoid every

material touched by his predecessors. I will make but one remark

on such divine champions. Davis and his prototypes tell you

Middleton, etc. have used the same objections, and they have

been confuted: answering, in the theologic dictionary, signifying

confuting; no matter whether there is sense, argument, truth, in

the answer or not.

Upon the whole I think ridicule is the only answer such a work is

entitled to.' The ablest, answer which you can make (which would

be the ablest answer that could be made) would never have any

authority with the cabal, yet would allow a sort of dignity to

the author. His patrons will always maintain that he vanquished

you, unless u made him too ridiculous for them to dare to revive

his name. You might divert yourself, too, with Alma Mater, the

church, employing a goviat to defend the citadel, while the

generals repose in their tents. If irenaeus, St. Augustine, etc.

did not set apprentices and proselytes to combat Celsus and the

adversaries of the new religion---but early bishops had not five

or six thousand pounds a-year.

In short, dear Sir, I wish you not to lose your time; that is,

either ,not reply, or set your mark on your answer, that it may

always be read with the rest of your works.

(338) Now first collected.

(339) "An Examination of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of

Mr. Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

By Henry Edward Davis, B.A. of Baliol College, Oxford." He was

born in 1756 and died in 1784, at the early age of twenty-seven.

He was a native of Windsor, and is believed to have received a

present from George the Third for this production.-E.

Letter 156 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Strawberry Hill, Jan. 3, 1779. (page 211)

At last, after ten weeks I have been able to remove hither, in

hopes change of air and the frost will assist my recovery; though

I am not one of those ancients that forget the register, and

think they are to be as well as ever after every fit of illness.

As yet I can barely creep about the room in the middle of the

day.

I have made my printer (now my secretary) copy out the rest of

Mr. Baker's Life; for my own hand will barely serve to write

necessary letters, and complains even of them. If you know of

any very trusty person passing between London and Cambridge, I

would send it to you, but should not care to trust it by the

coach, nor to any giddy undergraduate that comes to town to see a

play; and, besides, I mean to return you your own notes. I Will

Say no more than I have said in my apology to you for the manner

in which I have written this life. With regard to Mr. Baker

himself, I am confident you will find that I have done full

justice to his work and character. i

do not expect You to approve the inferences I draw against some

other persons; and yet, if his conduct was meritorious, it would

not be easy to excuse those who -were active after doing what he

would not do. You will not understand this sentence till you

have seen the Life.

I hope you have not been untiled or unpaled by the tempest on

New-year's morning.(340) I have lost two beautiful elms in a row

before my windows here, and had the skylight demolished in town.

Lady Pomfret's Gothic house in my street lost one of the stone

towers, like those at King's Chapel, and it was beaten through

the roof The top of our cross, too, at Ampthill was thrown down,

as I hear from Lady Ossory this morning. I remember to have been

told that Bishop Kidder and his wife were killed in their bed in

the palace of Gloucester in 1709,(341) and yet his heirs were

sued for dilapidations. Lord de Ferrers,(342) who deserves his

ancient honours, is going to repair the castle at Tamworth, and

has flattered me that he will Consult me. He has a violent

passion for ancestry--and, consequently, I trust will not stake

the patrimony of the Ferrars, Townshends, and Comptons, at the

hazard-table. A little pride would not hurt our nobility, cock

and hen. Adieu, dear Sir; send me a good account of yourself

Yours ever.

(340) On the 1st of January, 1779, London was visited by one of

the most violent tempests ever known. Scarcely a public building

in the metropolis escaped without damage.-E.

(341) The memorable storm here alluded to took place in November,

1703, and Bishop Kidder and his lady perished in their bed at the

episcopal palace at Wells by the fall of a stack of chimneys.

They were privately interred in the cathedral; and one of his

daughters, dying single, directed by her will a monument to be

erected for her parents.-E.

(342) Robert, sixth Earl Ferrers. He had just succeeded to the

title, by the death of his brother Washington, vice-admiral of

the blue,; who had begun to rebuild the mansion of Stanton

Harold, in Leicestershire, according to a plan of his own, and

lived to see it nearly finished.-E.

Letter 157 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.

Arlington Street; Jan. 9, 1779. (page 212)

Your flight to Bath would have much surprised me, if Mr.

Churchill, who, I think, heard it from Stanley, had not prepared

me for it. Since you was amused, I am glad you went, especially

as you escaped being initiated in Mrs. Miller's follies at

Batheaston,(343) which you would have mentioned. She would

certainly have sent some trapes of a Muse to press you, had she

known what good epigrams you write.

I went to Strawberry partly out of prudence, partly from ennui.

I thought it best to air myself before I go in and out of hot

rooms here, and had my house thoroughly warmed for a week

previously, and then only stirred from the red room to the blue

on the same floor. I stayed five days, and was neither the

better nor the worse for it. I was quite tired with having

neither company, books, nor amusement of any kind. Either from

the emptiness of the town, or that ten weeks of gout have worn

out the patience of all my acquaintance, but I do not see three

persons in three days. This gives me but an uncomfortable

prospect for my latter days: it is but probable that I may be a

cripple in a fit or two more, if I have strength to go through

them; and, as that will be long life, one outlives one's

acquaintance. I cannot make new acquaintance, nor interest

myself at all about the young, except those that belong to me;

nor does that go beyond contributing to their pleasures, without

having much satisfaction in their conversation-But-one must take

every thing as it comes, and make the best of it., I have had a

much happier life than I deserve, and than millions that deserve

better. I should be very weak if I could not bear the

uncomfortableness of old age, when I can afford what comforts it

is capable of. How many poor old people have none of them! I am

ashamed whenever I am peevish, and recollect that I have fire and

servants to help me.

I hear Admiral Keppel is in high spirits with the great respect

and zeal expressed for him. In my own opinion, his constitution

will not stand the struggle. I am very uneasy too for the Duke

of Richmond, who is at Portsmouth, and will be at least as much

agitated.

Sir William Meredith has written a large pamphlet, and a very

good one. It is to show, that whenever the Grecian republics

taxed their dependents, the latter resisted, and shook off the

yoke. He has printed but twelve copies: the Duke of Gloucester

sent me one of them. There is an anecdote of my father, on the

authority of old Jack White, which I doubt. It says, he would

not go on with the excise scheme, though his friends advised it,

I cannot speak to the particular event, as I was, then at school;

but it was more like him to have yielded, against his sentiments,

to Mr. Pelham and his candid--or say, plausible--and timid

friends. I have heard him say, that he never did give up his

opinion to such men but he always repented it. However, the

anecdote in the, book would be more to his honour. But what a

strange man is Sir William! I suppose, now he has written this

book, he will change his opinion, and again be for carrying on

the war--or, if he does not know his own mind for two years

together, why will he take places, to make every body doubt his

honesty?

(343) See ant`e, P. 125, letter 86.-E.

Letter 158 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

January 15, 1779. (page 213)

I sent you by Dr. Jacob, as you desired, my Life of Mr. Baker,

and with it your own materials. I beg you will communicate my

Manuscript to nobody, but if you think it worth your trouble I

will consent to your transcribing it; but on one condition, and a

silly one for Me to exact, who am as old as You, and broken to

pieces, and very unlikely to survive you; but, should so

improbable a thing happen, I must exact that you will keep your

transcript sealed up, with orders written on the cover to be

restored to me in case of an accident, for I should Certainly

dislike very much to see it printed without my consent. I should

not think of your copying it, if you did not love to transcribe,

and sometimes things of as little value as my manuscript. I

shall beg to have it returned to me by a safe hand as soon as you

can, for I have nothing but the foul copy, which nobody can read,

I believe, but I and my secretary.

I am actually printing my Justification about Chatterton, but

only two hundred copies to give away; for I hate calling in the

whole town to a fray, of which otherwise probably not one

thousand persons would ever hear. You shall have a copy as soon

as ever it is finished, which my printer says will be in three

weeks.

You know my printer is my secretary too: do not imagine I am

giving myself airs of a numerous household of officers. I shall

be glad to see the letter of Mr. Baker you mentioned. You will

perceive two or three notes in my manuscript in a different hand

from mine, or that of my amanuensis (still the same officer;)

they were added by a person I lent it to, and I have effaced part

of the last.

I must finish, lest Dr. Jacob should call, and my parcel not be

ready. I hope your sore throat is gone; my gout has returned

again a little with taking the air only, but did not stay--

however, I am still confined, and almost ready to remain so, to

prevent disappointment. Yours most sincerely.

Letter 159 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.

Arlington Street, Jan. 28, 1779. (page 214)

I write in as much hurry as you did, dear Sir, and thank you for

the motive of yours mine is to prevent your fatiguing yourself in

copying my manuscript, for which I am not in the least haste:

pray keep it till another safe conveyance presents itself. You

may bring the gout, that is, I am sorry to hear, flying about

you, into your hand by wearying it.

How can you tell me I may well be cautious about my manuscript

and yet advise me to print it?--No-I shall not provoke nests of

hornets, till I am dust, as they will be too.

If I dictated tales when ill in my bed, I must have been worse

than I thought; for, as I know nothing of it, I must have been

light-headed. Mr. Lort was certainly misinformed, though he

seems to have told you the story kindly to the honour of my

philosophy or spirits-but I had rather have no fame than what I

do not deserve.

I am fretful or low-spirited at times in the gout, like other

weak old men, and have less to boast than most men. I have some

strange things in my drawer, even wilder than the Castle of

Otranto, and called Hieroglyphic Tales; but they were not written

lately, nor in the gout, nor, whatever they may seem, written

when I was out of my senses. I showed one or two of them to a

person since my recovery, who may have mentioned them, and

occasioned Mr. Lort's misintelligence. I did not at all perceive

that the latter looked ill; and hope he is quite recovered. You

shall see Chatterton soon. Adieu!