Do you know that I have bought the Jupiter Serapis as well as the
Julio Clovio!(569) Mr. * * * * assures me he has seen six of the
head, and not one of them so fine, or so well preserved. I am
glad Sir Joshua Reynolds saw no more excellence in the Jupiter
than in the Clovio; or the Duke of Portland, I suppose, would
have purchased it, as he has the vase for a thousand pounds. I
would not change. I told Sir William Hamilton and the late
Duchess, when I never thought it would be mine, that I had rather
have the head than the vase.- I shall long for Mrs. Damer to make
a bust to it, and then it will be still more valuable. I have
deposited both the Illumination(570) and the Jupiter in Lady
Di.'s cabinet,(571) which is worthy of them. And here my
collection winds up; I will not purchase trumpery after such
jewels. Besides, every thing is much dearer in old age, as one
has less time to enjoy. Good night!
(569) At the sale Of the Duchess-dowager of Portland.
(570) The Book of Psalms, with twenty-one illuminations, by Don
Julio Clovio, scholar of Julio Romano-E.
(571) A cabinet at Strawberry Hill, built in 1776, to receive
seven incomparable drawings of Lady Diana Beauclere, for
Walpole's tragedy of "The Mysterious Mother."-E.
Letter 302 To Richard Gough, Esq.
Berkeley Square, June 21, 1786. (page 383)
On coming to town yesterday upon business, I found, Sir, your
very magnificent and most valuable present,(572) for which I beg
you will accept my most grateful thanks. I am impatient to
return to Twickenham, to read it tranquilly. As yet I have only
had time to turn the prints over, and to read the preface; but I
see already that it is both a noble and laborious work, and -will
do great honour both to you and to your country. Yet one
apprehension it has given me-I fear not living to see the second
part! Yet I shall presume to keep it Unbound; not only till it
is perfectly dry and secure, but, as I mean the binding should be
as fine as it deserves, I should be afraid of not having both
volumes exactly alike.
Your partiality, I doubt, Sir, has induced you to insert a paper
not so worthy of the public regard as the rest of your splendid
performance. My letter to Mr. Cole,(573) which I am sure I had
utterly forgotten .to have ever written, was a hasty indigested
sketch, like the rest of my scribblings, and never calculated to
lead such well-meditated and accurate works as yours. Having
lived familiarly with Mr. Cole, from our boyhood, I used to write
to him carelessly on the occasions that occurred. As it was
always on subjects of' no importance, I never thought of
enjoining secrecy. I could not foresee that such idle
Communications would find a place in a great national work, or I
should have been more attentive to 'what I said. Your taste,
Sir, I fear, has for once been misled; and I shall be sorry for
having innocently blemished a single page. Since your partiality
(for such it certainly was) has gone so far, I flatter myself you
will have retained enough to accept, not a retribution, but a
trifling mark of my regard, in the little volume that accompanies
this; in which you will find that another too favourable reader
has bestowed on me more distinction than I could procure for
myself, by turning my slight Essay on Gardening(574) into the
pure French of the last age;(575) and, which is wonderful, has
not debased Milton by French poetry: on the contrary, I think
Milton has given a dignity to French poetry--nay, and harmony;
both which I thought that language almost incapable of receiving.
As I would wish to give all the value I can to my offering, I
Will mention, that I have printed but four hundred copies, half
of which went to France; and as this is an age in which mere
rarities are preferred to commoner things of intrinsic worth,-as
I have found by the ridiculous prices given for some of my
insignificant publications, merely because they are scarce,-I
hope, under the title of a kind of curiosity, my thin piece will
be admitted into your library. If you would indulge me so far,
Sir, as to let me know when I might hope to see the second part,
I would calculate how many more fits of the gout I may weather,
and would be still more strict in my regimen. I hope, at least,
that you will not wait for the engravers, but will accomplish the
text for the sake of the world: in this I speak disinterestedly.
Though you are much younger than I am, I would have your part of
the work secure - engravers may always proceed, or be found;
another author cannot.
(572) The first volume of Mr. Gough's "Sepulchral Monuments in
Great Britain."-E.
(573) See vol. iii., Aug. 12, 1769, letter 366.-E.
(574) The author of "The Pursuits of Literature",--
"Well pleased to see
Walpole and Nature may, for once, agree,"
adds, in a note, "read (it well deserves the attention) that
quaint, but most curious and learned writer's excellent Essay on
Modern Gardening."-E.
(575) Besides Walpole's Essay on Modern Gardening, the Duc do
Nivernois translated Pope's Essay on Man, and a portion of
Milton's Paradise Lost, into French verse.-E.
Letter 303 To The Earl Of Strafford.
Strawberry Hill, August 29, 1786. (page 384)
Since I received the honour of your lordship's last, I have been
at Park-place for a few days. Lord and Lady Frederick Campbell
and Mrs. Damer were there. We went on the Thames to see the new
bridge at Henley, and Mrs. Damer's colossal masks. There is not
a sight in the island more worthy of being visited. The bridge
is as perfect as if bridges were natural productions, and as
beautiful as if it had been built"for Wentworth Castle; and the
masks, as if the Romans had left them here. We saw them in a
fortunate moment; for the rest of the time was very cold and
uncomfortable, and the evenings as chill as many we have had
lately. In short, I am come to think that the beginning of an
old ditty, which passes for a collection of blunders, was really
an old English pastoral, it is so descriptive of our climate:
"Three children sliding on the ice
All on a summer's day----"
I have been overwhelmed more than ever by visitants to my house.
Yesterday I had Count Oginski,(576) who was a pretender to the
crown of Poland at the last election, and has been stripped of
most of a vast estate. He had on a ring of the new King of
Prussia, or I should have wished him joy on the death Of One of
the plunderers of his country.(577)
It has long been my opinion that the out-pensioners of Bedlam are
so numerous, that the shortest and cheapest way would be to
confine in Moorfields the few that remain in their senses, who
would then be safe; and let the rest go at large. They are the
out-pensioners who are for destroying poor dogs! The whole
canine race never did half so much mischief as Lord George
Gordon; nor even worry hares, but when hallooed on by men. As it
is a persecution of animals, I do not love hunting; and what old
writers mention as a commendation makes me hate it the more, its
being an image of war. Mercy on us! that destruction of any
species should be a sport or a merit! What cruel unreflecting
imps we are! Every body is unwilling to die; yet sacrifices the
lives of others to momentary -pastime, or to the still emptier
vapour, fame! A hero or a sportsman who wishes for longer life is
desirous of prolonging devastation. We shall be crammed, I
suppose, with panegyrics and epitaphs on the King of Prussia; I
am content that he can now have an epitaph. But, alas! the
Emperor will write one for him probably in blood! and, while he
shuts up convents for the sake of population, will be stuffing
hospitals .With maimed soldiers, besides making thousands of
widows!
I have just been reading a new published history of the Colleges
in Oxford, by Anthony Wood; and there found a feature in a
character that always offended me, that of Archbishop Chicheley,
who prompted Henry the Fifth to the invasion of France, to divert
him from squeezing the overgrown clergy. When that priest
meditated founding All Souls, and "consulted his friends (who
seem to have been honest men) what great matter of piety he had
best perform to God in his old age, he was advised by them to
build an hospital for the wounded and sick soldiers that daily
returned from the wars then had in France;"-I doubt his grace's
friends thought as I do of his artifice "but," continues the
historian, "disliking those motions, and valuing the welfare of
the deceased more than the wounded and diseased, he resolved with
himself to promote his design, which was, to have masses said for
the King, Queen, and himself, etc. while living, and for their
souls when dead." And that mummery the old foolish rogue thought
more efficacious than ointments and medicines for the wretches he
had made! And of the chaplains and clerks he instituted in that
dormitory, one was to teach grammars and another prick-song. How
history makes one shudder and laugh by turns! But I fear I have
wearied your lordship with my idle declamation, and you will
repent having commanded me to send you more letters.
(576) Father of Count Michel Oginski, the associate
of Kosciusko, and author of "Memoires sur la Pologne et les
Polonais, depuis 1788 jusqu'`a la fin de 1815;" in four volumes
octavo. Paris, 1826.-E.
(577) Frederick the Great had died on the 17th, at Berlin.-E.
Letter 304 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, Oct. 29, 1786. (page 386)
I was sorry not to be apprised of your intention of going to
town, where I would have met you; but I knew it too late, both as
I was engaged, and as you was to return so soon. I mean to come
to Park-place in a week or fortnight: but I should like to know
what company you expect, or do not expect; for I had rather fill
up your vacancies than be a supernumerary. Lady Ossory has sent
me two charades made by Colonel Fitzpatrick: the first she says
is very easy, the second very difficult. I have not come within
sight of the easy one; and, though I have a guess at the other, I
do not believe I am right; and so I send them to you, who are
master-general of the Oedipuses.