very fine-yet I cannot at once compass an epic poem now. It
tires me to death to read how many ways a warrior is like the
moon, or the sun, or a rock, or a lion, or the ocean. Fingal is
a brave collection of similes, and will serve all the boys at
Eton and Westminster for these twenty years. I will trust you
with a secret, but you must not disclose it; I should be ruined
with my Scotch friends; in short, I cannot believe it genuine; I
cannot believe a regular poem of six books has been preserved,
uncorrupted, by oral tradition, from times before Christianity
was introduced into the island. What! preserved unadulterated by
savages dispersed among mountains, and so often driven from their
dens, so wasted by wars civil and foreign! alas one man ever got
all by heart? I doubt it; were parts preserved by some, other
parts by others? Mighty lucky, that the tradition was never
interrupted, nor any part lost-not a verse, not a measure, not
the sense! luckier and luckier. I have been extremely qualified
myself lately for this Scotch memory; we have had nothing but a
coagulation of rains, fogs, and frosts, and though they have
clouded all understanding, I suppose, if I had tried, I should
have found that they thickened, and gave great consistence to my
remembrance.
You want news--I must make it, if I send it. To change the
dulness of the scene I went to the play, where I had not been
this winter. They are so crowded, that though I went before six,
I got no better place than a fifth row, where I heard very ill,
and was pent for five hours without a soul near me that I knew.
It was Cymbeline, and appeared to me as long as if every body in
it went really to Italy in every act,, and came back again. With
a few pretty passages and a scene or two, it is so absurd and
tiresome, that I am persuaded Garrick(206) * * * * *
(206) The rest of this letter is lost.
Letter 106 To Sir David Dalrymple.(207)
December 21, 1761. (page 163)
Your specimen pleases me, and I give you many thanks for
promising me the continuation. You will, I hope, find less
trouble with printers than I have done. Just when my book was, I
thought, ready to appear, my printer ran away, and has left it
very imperfect. This is the fourth I have tried, and I own it
discourages me. Our low people are so corrupt and such knaves,
that being cheated and disappointed are all the fruits of
attempting to amuse oneself or others. Literature must struggle
with many difficulties. They who print for profit print only for
profit; we, who print to entertain or instruct others, are the
bubbles of our designs, defrauded, abused, pirated--don't you
think, Sir, one need have resolution? Mine is very nearly
exhausted.
(207) Now first collected.
Letter 107 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Dec. 23, 1761. Past midnight. (page 164)
I am this minute come home, and find such a delightful letter
from you, that I cannot help answering it, and telling you so
before I sleep. You need not affirm, that your ancient wit and
pleasantry are revived; your letter is but five and twenty, and I
will forgive any vanity, that is so honest, and so well founded.
Ireland I see produces wonders of more sorts than one; if my Lord
Anson was to go lord-lieutenant, I suppose he would return a
ravisher. How different am I from this state of revivification!
Even such talents as I had are far from blooming again; and while
my friends, or contemporaries, or predecessors, are rising to
preside over the fame of this age, I seem a mere antediluvian;
must live upon what little stock of reputation I had acquired,
and indeed grow so indifferent, that I can only wonder how those,
whom I thought as old as myself, can interest themselves so much
about a world, whose faces I hardly know. You recover your
spirits and wit, Rigby is grown a speaker, Mr. Bentley a poet,
while I am nursing one or two gouty friends, and sometimes
lamenting that I am likely to survive the few I have left.
Nothing tempts me to launch out again; every day teaches me how
much I was mistaken in my own parts, and I am in no danger now
but of thinking I am grown too wise; for every period of life has
its mistake.
Mr. Bentley's relation to Lord Rochester by the St. Johns is not
new to me, and you had more reason to doubt of their affinity by
the former marrying his mistress, than to ascribe their
consanguinity to it. I shall be glad to see the epistle: are not
"The Wishes" to be acted? remember me, if they are printed; and I
shall thank you for this new list of prints.
I have mentioned names enough in this letter to lead me naturally
to new ill usage I have received. Just when I thought my book
finished, my printer ran away, and had left eighteen sheets in
the middle of the book untouched, having amused me with sending
proofs. He had got into debt, and two girls with child; being
two, he could not marry two Hannahs. You see my luck; I had been
kind to this fellow; in short, if the faults of my life had been
punished as severely as my merits have been, I should be the most
unhappy of beings; but let us talk of something else.
I have picked up at Mrs. Dunch's auction the sweetest Petitot in
the world-the very picture of James the Second, that he gave Mrs.
Godfrey,(208) and I paid but six guineas and a half for it. I
will not tell you how vast a commission I had given; but I will
own, that about the hour of sale, I drove about the door to find
what likely bidders there were. The first coach I saw was the
Chudleighs; could I help concluding, that a maid of honour, kept
by a duke, would purchase the portrait of a duke kept by a maid
of honour-but I was mistaken. The Oxendens reserved the best
pictures; the fine china, and even the diamonds, sold for
nothing; for nobody has a shilling. We shall be beggars if we
don't conquer Peru within this half year.
If you are acquainted with my lady Barrymore, pray tell her that
in less than two hours t'other night the Duke of Cumberland lost
four hundred and fifty pounds at loo; Miss Pelham won three
hundred, and I the rest. However, in general, loo is extremely
gone to decay; I am to play at Princess Emily's to-morrow for the
first time this winter, and it is with difficulty she has made a
party.
My Lady Pomfret is dead on the road to Bath; and unless the
deluge stops, and the fogs disperse, I think we shall all die. A
few days ago, on the cannon firing for the King going to the
House, some body asked what it was? M. de Choiseul replied,
"Apparemment, c'est qu'on voit le soleil."
Shall I fill up the rest of my paper with some extempore lines
that I wrote t'other night on Lady Mary Coke having St. Anthony's
fire in her cheek! You will find nothing in them to contradict
what I have said in the former part of my letter; they rather
confirm it.
No rouge you wear, nor can a dart
>From Love's bright quiver wound your heart.
And thought you, Cupid and his mother
Would unrevenged their anger smother?
No, no, from heaven they sent the fire
That boasts St. Anthony its sire;
They pour'd it on one peccant part,
Inflamed your cheek, if not your heart.
In vain-for see the crimson rise,
And dart fresh lustre through your eyes
While ruddier drops and baffled pain
Enhance the white they mean to stain.
Ah! nymph, on that unfading face
With fruitless pencil Time shall trace
His lines malignant, since disease
But gives you mightier power to please.
Willis is dead, and Pratt is to be chief justice; Mr. Yorke
attorney general; solicitor, I don't know who. Good night! the
watchman cries past one!
(208) Arabella Churchill, sister of the great Duke of
Marlborough, was the mistress of James the Second while Duke of
York, by whom she had four children; the celebrated Duke of
Berwick, the Duke of Albemarle, and two daughters. She
afterwards became the wife of Colonel Charles Godfrey, master of
the jewel office, and died in 1714, leaving by him two daughters,
Charlotte Viscountess Falmouth, and Elizabeth, wife of Edmund
Dunch, Esq.-E.
Letter 108 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Dec. 30, 1761. (page 165)
I have received two more letters from You since I wrote last
week, and I like to find by them that you are so well and so
happy. As nothing has happened of change in my situation but a
few more months passed, I have nothing to tell you new of myself.
Time does not sharpen my passions or pursuits, and the experience
I have had by no means prompts me to make new connexions. 'Tis a
busy world, and well adapted to those who love to bustle in it; I
loved it once, loved its very tempests--now I barely open my
windows to view what course the storm takes. The town, who, like
the devil, when one has once sold oneself' to him, never permits
one to have done playing the fool, believe I have a great hand in
their amusements; but to write pamphlets, I mean as a volunteer,
one must love or hate, and I have the satisfaction of doing
neither. I Would not be at the trouble of composing a distich to
achieve a revolution. 'Tis equal to me what names are on the
scene. In the general view, the prospect is very dark: the
Spanish war, added to the load, almost oversets our most sanguine
heroism: and now we have in opportunity of conquering all the
world, by being at war with all the world, we seem to doubt a
little of our abilities. On a survey
of our situation, I comfort myself with saying, "Well, what is it
to me?" A selfishness that is far from anxious, when it is the
first thought in one's constitution; not so agreeable when it is
the last, and adopted by necessity alone.
You drive your expectations much too fast, in thinking my
Anecdotes of Painting are ready to appear, in demanding three
volumes. You will see but two, and it will be February first.
True, I have written three, but I question whether the third will
be published at all; certainly not soon; it is not a work of
merit enough to cloy the town with a great deal at once. My
printer ran away, and left a third part of the two first volumes
unfinished. I suppose he is writing a tragedy himself, or an
epistle to my Lord Melcomb, or a panegyric on my Lord Bute.
Jemmy Pelham(209) is dead, and has left to his servants what
little his servants had left him. Lord Ligonier was killed by
the newspapers, and wanted to prosecute them; his lawyer told him
it was impossible--a tradesman indeed might prosecute, as such a
report might affect his credit. "Well, then," said the old man,
"I may prosecute too, for I can prove I have been hurt by this
'report I was going to marry a great fortune, who thought I was
but seventy-four; the newspapers have said I am eighty, and she
will not have me."
Lord Charlemont's Queen Elizabeth I know perfectly; he outbid me
for it; is his villa finished? I am well pleased with the design
in Chambers. I have been my out-of-town with Lord Waldecrave,
Selwyn, and Williams; it was melancholy the missing poor
Edgecombe, who was constantly of the Christmas and Easter
parties. Did you see the charming picture Reynolds painted for
me of him, Selwyn, and Gilly Williams? It is by far one of the
best things he has executed. He has just finished a pretty
whole-length of Lady Elizabeth Keppel,(210) in the bridemaid's
habit, sacrificing to Hymen.
If the Spaniards land in Ireland, shall you make the campaign?
No. no, come back to England; you and I will not be patriots,
till the Gauls are in the city, and we must take our great chairs
and our fasces, and be knocked on the head with decorum in St.
James's market. Good night!
P. S. I am told that they bind in vellum better at Dublin than
any where; pray bring me one book of their binding, as well as it
can be done, and I will not mind the price. If Mr. Bourk's
history appear,-, before your return, let it be that.
(209) The Hon. James Pelham, of Crowhurst, Sussex. He had been
principal secretary to Frederick Prince of Wales, and for nearly
forty years secretary to the several lords-chamberlain.-E.
(210) She was daughter of the Earl of Albemarle, and married to
the Marquis of Tavistock.
Letter 109 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Jan. 26, 1762. (page 167)
We have had as many mails due from Ireland as you had from us. I
have at last received a line from you; it tells me you are well,
which I am always glad to hear; I cannot say you tell me much
more. My health is so little subject to alteration, and so
preserved by temperance, that it is not worth repetition; thank
God you may conclude it is good, if I do not say to the contrary.
Here is nothing new but preparations for conquest, and approaches
to bankruptcy; and the worst is, the former will advance the
latter at least as much as impede it. You say the Irish will
live and die with your cousin: I am glad they are so well
disposed. I have lived long enough to doubt whether all, who
like to live with one, would be so ready to die with one. I know
it is not pleasant to have the time arrived when one looks about
to see whether they would or not; but you are in a country of
more sanguine complexion, and where I believe the clergy do not
deny the laity the cup.
The Queen's brother arrived yesterday; your brother, Prince John,
has been here about a week; I am to dine with him to-day at Lord
Dacre's with the Chute. Our burlettas are gone out of fashion;
do the Atnicis come hither next year, or go to Guadaloupe, as is
said? I have been told that a lady Kingsland(211) at Dublin has
a picture of Madame Grammont by Petitot; I don't know who Lady
Kingsland is, whether rich or poor, but I know there is nothing I
would not give for such a picture. I wish you would hunt it; and
if the dame is above temptation, do try if you could obtain a
copy in water colours, if there is any body in Dublin could
execute it.
The Duchess of Portland has lately enriched me exceedingly; nine
portraits of the court of Louis quatorze! Lord Portland brought
them over; they hung in the nursery at Bulstrode, the children
amused themselves with shooting at them. I have got them, but I
will tell you no more, you don't deserve it; you write to me as
if I were your godfather: "Honoured Sir, I am brave and well, my
cousin George is well, we drink your health every night, and beg
your blessing." This is the sum total of all your letters. I
thought in a new country, and with your spirits and humour, you
could have found something to tell me. I shall only ask you now
when you return; but I declare I will not correspond with you: I
don't write letters to divert myself, but in expectation of
returns; in short, you are extremely in disgrace with me; I have
measured my letters for sometime, and for the future will answer
you paragraph for paragraph. You yourself don't seem to find
letter-writing so amusing as to pay itself. Adieu!
(211) Nicholas Barnewall, third Viscount Kingsland, married Mary,
daughter of Frances Jennings, sister to the celebrated Sarah
Duchess of Marlborough, by George Count Hamilton: "by which
marriage," says Walpole, "the pictures I saw at Tarvey, Lord
Kingsland's house, came to him: I particularly recollect the
portraits of Count Hamilton and his brother Anthony, and two of
Madame Grammont; one taken in her youth, the other in advanced
age."-E.
Letter 110 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Feb. 2, 1762. (page 168)
I scolded YOU in my last, but I shall forgive you if you return
soon to England, as you talk of doing; for though you are an
abominable correspondent, and only write to beg letters, you are
good company, and I have a notion I shall still be glad to see
You.
Lady Mary Wortley is arrived;(212) I have seen her; I think her
avarice, her dirt, and her vivacity, are all increased. Her
dress, like her languages, is a gralimatias of several countries;
the groundwork rags, and the embroidery nastiness. She needs no
cap, no handkerchief, no gown, no petticoat, no shoes. An old
black-laced hood represents the first; the fur of a horseman's
coat, which replaces the third, serves for the second; a dimity
petticoat is deputy, and officiates for the fourth; and slippers
act the part of the last. When I was at Florence, and she was
expected there, we were drawing Sortes Virgili-anas for her; we
literally drew
Insanam vatem aspicies.
It would have been a stronger prophecy now, even than it was
then.
You told me not a word of Mr. Macnaughton,(213) and I have a
great mind to be as coolly indolent about our famous ghost in
Cock-lane. Why should one steal half an hour from one's
amusements to tell a story to a friend in another island? I
could send you volumes on the ghost, and I believe if I were to
stay a little, I might send its life, dedicated to my Lord
Dartmouth, by the ordinary of Newgate, its two great patrons. A
drunken parish clerk set it on foot out of revenge, the
Methodists have adopted it, and the whole town of london think of
nothing else. Elizabeth Canning and the Rabbit-woman were modest
impostors in comparison of this, which goes on Without saving the
least appearances. The Archbishop, who would not suffer the
Minor to be acted in ridicule of the Methodists, permits this
farce to be played every night, and I shall not be surprised if
they perform in the great hall at Lambeth. I went to hear it,
for it is not an apparition, but an audition. We set out from
the Opera, changed our clothes at Northumberland-house, the Duke
of York, Lady Northumberland, Lady Mary Coke, Lord Hertford, and
I, all in one hackney coach, and drove to the spot: it rained
torrents; yet the lane was full of mob, and the house so full we
could not get in; at last they discovered it was the Duke of
York, and the company squeezed themselves into one another's
pockets to make room for us. The house, which is borrowed, and
to which the ghost has adjourned, is wretchedly small and
miserable; when we opened the chamber, in which were fifty
people, with no light but one tallow candle at the end, we
tumbled over the bed of the child to whom the ghost comes,
and whom they are murdering by inches in such insufferable heat
and stench. At the top of the room are ropes to dry clothes. I
asked, if we were to have rope-dancing between the acts? We had
nothing; they told us, as they would at a puppet-show, that it
would not come that night till seven in the morning, that is,
when there are only 'prentices and old women. We stayed however
till half an hour after one. The Methodists have promised them
contributions; provisions are sent in like forage, and all the
taverns and alehouses in the neighbourhood make fortunes. The
most diverting part is to hear people wondering when it will be
found out--as if there was any thing to find out--as if the
actors would make their noises when they can be discovered.
However, as this pantomime cannot last much longer, I hope Lady
Fanny Shirley will set up a ghost of her own at Twickenham, and
then you shall hear one. The Methodists, as Lord Aylesford
assured Mr. Chute two nights ago at Lord Dacre's have attempted
ghosts three times in Warwickshire. There, how good I am!
(212) Lady Mary Wortley Montagu remained at Venice till the death
of Mr. Wortley in this year when she yielded to the solicitations
of her daughter, the Countess of Bute, and, after an absence of
two-and-twenty years, began her journey to England, where she
arrived in October.-E.
(213) john Macnaughton, Esq. executed in December, 1761, for the
murder of Miss Knox, daughter of Andrew Knox, Esq. of Prehen,
member of parliament for Donegal. macnaughton, who had ruined
himself by gambling, sought to replenish his fortune by marriage
with this young lady, who had considerable expectations; but as
her friends would not consent to their union, and he failed both
in inveigling her into a secret marriage, and in compelling her
by the suits which he commenced in the ecclesiastical courts to
ratify an alleged promise of marriage, he revenged himself by
shooting her while riding in a carriage with her father.-E.
Letter 111 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Feb. 6, 1762. (PAGE 169)
You must have thought me very negligent of your commissions; not
only in buying your ruffles, but in never mentioning them; but my
justification is most ample and verifiable. Your letters of Jan.
2d arrived but yesterday with the papers of Dec. 29. These are
the mails that have so long been missing, and were shipwrecked or
something on the Isle of Man. Now you see it was impossible for
me to buy you a pair of ruffles for the 18th of January, when I
did not receive the orders till the 5th of February.
You don't tell me a word (but that is not new to you) of Mr.
Hamilton's wonderful eloquence, which converted a whole House of
Commons on the five regiments. We have no such miracles here;
five regiments might work such prodigies, but I never knew mere
rhetoric gain above one or two proselytes at a time in all my
practice.
We have a Prince Charles here, the Queen's brother; he is like
her, but more like the Hows; low, but well made, good eyes and
teeth. Princess Emily is very ill, has been blistered, and been
blooded four times.
My books appear on Monday se'nnight: if I can find any quick
conveyance for them, you shall have them; if not, as you are
returning soon, I may as well keep them for you. Adieu! I grudge
every word I write to you.
Letter 112To The Rev. Mr. Cole.(214)
Tuesday, Feb. 7, 1762. (PAGE 170)
Dear Sir,
The little leisure I have to-day will, I trust, excuse my saying
very few words in answer to your obliging letter, of which no
part touches me more than what concerns your health, which,
however, I rejoice to hear is reestablishing itself.
I am sorry I did not save you the trouble of cataloguing Ames's
beads, by telling you that another person has actually done it,
and designs to publish a new edition ranged in a different
method. I don't know the gentleman's name, but he is a friend of
Sir William Musgrave, from whom I had this information some
months ago.
You will oblige me much by the sight of the volume you mention.
Don't mind the epigrams you transcribe on my father. I have been
inured to abuse on him from my birth. It is not a quarter of an
hour ago since, cutting the leaves of a new dab called Anecdotes
of Polite Literature, I found myself abused for having defended
my father. I don't know the author, and suppose I never shall,
for I find Glover's Leonidas is one of the things he admires--and
so I leave them to be forgotten together, Fortunati Ambo!
I sent your letter to Ducarel, who has promised me those poems--I
accepted the promise to get rid of him t'other day, when he would
have talked me to death.
(214) A distinguished antiquary, better known by the assistance
he gave to others than by publications of his own. He was vicar
of Burnham, in the county of Bucks; and died December 16th, 1782,
in his sixty-eighth year.-E.
Letter 113 To The Rev. Henry Zouch.
Arlington Street, Feb. 13, 1762. (PAGE 171)
Sir,
I should long ago have given myself the pleasure of writing to
you, if I had not been constantly in hope of accompanying my
letter with the Anecdotes of Painting, etc.; but the tediousness
of engraving, and the roguery of a fourth printer, have delayed
the publication week after week- for months: truly I do not
believe that there is such a being as an honest printer in the
world.
I Sent the books to Mr. Whiston, who, I think you told me, was
employed by you: he answered, he knew nothing of the matter. Mr.
Dodsley has undertaken now to convey them to you, and I beg your
acceptance of them: it will be a very kind acceptance if you will
tell me of any faults, blunders ,omissions, etc. as you observe
them. In a first sketch of this nature, I cannot hope the work
is any thing like complete. Excuse, Sir, the brevity Of this. I
am much hurried at this instant of publication, and have barely
time to assure you how truly I am your humble servant.
Letter 114To The Earl Of Bute.(215)
Strawberry Hill, Feb. 15, 1762. (PAGE 171)
My lord,
I am sensible how little time your lordship can have to throw
away on reading idle letters of compliment; yet as it would be
too great want of respect to your lordship, not to make some sort
of reply to the note(216) you have done me the honour to send me,
I thought I could couch what I have to say in fewer words by
writing, than in troubling you with a visit, which might come
unseasonably, and a letter you may read at any moment when you
are most idle. I have already, my lord, detained you too long by
sending you a book, which I could not flatter myself you would
turn over in such a season of business: by the manner in 'Which
you have considered it, you have shown me that your very minutes
of amusement you try to turn to the advantage of your country.
It was this pleasing prospect of patronage to the arts that
tempted me to offer you my pebble towards the new structure. I
am flattered that you have taken notice' of the only ambition I
have: I should be more flattered if I could contribute to the
smallest of your lordship's designs for illustrating Britain.
The hint your lordship is so good as to give me for a work like
Montfaucon's Monuments de la Monarchie Francaise, has long been a
subject that I have wished to see executed, nor, in point of
materials, do I think it would be a very difficult one. The
chief impediment was the expense, too great for a private
fortune. The extravagant prices extorted by English artists is a
discouragement to all public undertakings. Drawings from
paintings, tombs, etc. would be very dear. To have them engraved
as they ought to be, would exceed the compass of a much ampler
fortune than mine; which though equal to my largest wish, cannot
measure itself with the rapacity of our performers.
But, my lord, if his Majesty was pleased to command such a work,
on so laudable an idea as your lordship's, nobody would be more
ready than myself to give his assistance. I own I think I could
be of use in it, in collecting or pointing out materials, and I
would readily take any trouble in aiding, supervising, or
directing such a plan. Pardon me, my lord, if I offer no more; I
mean, that I do not undertake the part of composition. I have
already trespassed too much upon the indulgence of the public; I
wish not to disgust them with hearing of me, and reading me. It
is time for me to have done; and when I shall have completed, as
I almost have, the History of the Arts on which I am now engaged,
I did not purpose to tempt again the patience of mankind. But
the case is very different with regard to my trouble. My whole
fortune is from the bounty of the crown, and from the public: it
would ill become me to spare any pains for the King's glory, or
for the honour and satisfaction of my country; and give me leave
to add, my lord, it would be an ungrateful return for the
distinction with which your lordship has condescended to honour
me if I withheld such trifling aid as mine, when it might in the
least tend to adorn your lordship's administration. From me, my
lord, permit me to say, these are not words of course or of
compliment, this is not the language of flattery; your lordship
knows I have no Views, perhaps knows that, insignificant as it
is, my praise is never detached from my esteem: and when you have
raised, as I trust you will, real monuments of glory, the most
contemptible characters in the inscription dedicated by your
country, may not be the testimony of, my lord, etc.(217)
(215) Now first collected.
(216) This letter is in reply to the following note, which
Walpole had, a few days before, received from the Earl of Bute:--
"Lord Bute presents his compliments to Mr. Walpole, and returns
him a thousand thanks for the very agreeable present he has made
him. In looking over it, Lord Bute observes Mr. Walpole has
mixed several curious remarks on the customs, etc. of the times
he treats of; a thing much wanted, and that has never yet been
executed, except in parts, by Peck, etc. Such a general work
would be not only very agreeable, but instructive: the French
have attempted it; the Russians are about it; and Lord Bute has
been informed Mr. Walpole is well furnished with materials for
such a noble work."-E.
(217) The following passage, in a letter from Gray to Walpole, of
the 28th of February, has reference to that work projected by
Lord Bute:--"I rejoice in the good disposition of our court, and
in the propriety of their application to you: the work is a thing
so much to be wished; has so near a connexion with the turn of
your studies and of your curiosity, and might find such ample
materials among your hoards and in your head, that it will be a
sin if you let it drop and come to nothing, or worse than
nothing, for want of your assistance. The historical part should
be in the manner of Herault, a mere abridgment; a series of facts
selected with judgment, that may serve as a clue to lead the mind
along in the midst of those ruins and scattered monuments of art
that time has spared. This would be sufficient, and better than
Montfaucon's more diffuse narrative." Works, vol. iii. p. 293.
Before Walpole had received Gray's letter, he had already adopted
the proposed method; a large memorandum book of his being extant,
with this title page, Collections for a History of the Manners,
Customs, Habits, Fashions, Ceremonies, etc. of England; begun
February 21, 1762, by Horace Walpole." For a specimen of it, see
his Works, vol. v. p. 400.-E.
Letter 115 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Feb. 22, 1762. (PAGE 173)
My scolding does you so much good. that I will for the future
lecture you for the most trifling peccadillo. You have written
me a very entertaining letter, and wiped out several debts; not
that I will forget one of them if you relapse.
As we have never had a rainbow to assure us that the world shall
not be snowed to death, I thought last night was the general
connixation. We had a tempest of wind and snow for two hours
beyond any thing I remember: chairs were blown to pieces, the
streets covered with tassels and glasses and tiles, and coaches
and chariots were filled like reservoirs. Lady Raymond's house
in Berkeley-square is totally unroofed; and Lord Robert Bertie,
who is going to marry her, may descend into it like a Jupiter
Pluvius. It is a week of wonders, and worthy the note of an
almanack-maker. Miss Draycott, within two days of matrimony, has
dismissed Mr. Beauclerc; but this is totally forgotten already in
the amazement of a new elopement. In all your reading, true or
false, have you ever heard of a young Earl, married to the most
beautiful woman in the world, a lord of the bedchamber, a general
officer, and with a great estate, quitting every thing, resigning
wife and world, and embarking for life in a pacquetboat with a
Miss? I fear your connexions will but too readily lead you to
the name of the peer; it is Henry Earl of Pembroke,(218) the
nymph Kitty Hunter. The town and Lady Pembroke were but too much
witnesses to this intrigue, last Wednesday, at a great ball at
Lord Middleton's. On Thursday they decamped. However, that the
writer of their romance, or I, as he is a noble author, might not
want materials, the Earl has left a bushel of letters behind him;
to his mother, to Lord Bute, to Lord Ligonier, (the two last to
resign his employments,) and to Mr. Stopford, whom he acquits of
all privity to his design. In none he justifies himself, unless
this is a justification, that having long tried in vain to make
his wife hate and dislike him, he had no way left but this, and
it is to be hoped will succeed; and then it may not be the worst
event that could have happened to her. You may easily conceive
the hubbub such an exploit must occasion. With ghosts,
elopements, abortive motions, etc., we can amuse ourselves
tolerably well, till the season arrives for taking the field and
conquering the Spanish West Indies.
I have sent YOU my books by a messenger; Lord Barrington was so
good as to charge himself with them. They barely saved their
distance; a week later, and no soul could have read a line in
them, unless I had changed the title-page, and called them the
loves of the Earl of Pembroke and Miss Hunter.
I am sorry Lady Kingsland is so rich. However, if the Papists
should be likely to rise, pray disarm her of the enamel, and
commit it to safe custody in the round tower at Strawberry. Good
night! mine is a life of letter-writing; I pray for a peace that
I may sheath my Pen.
(218) Henry Herbert, tenth Earl of Pembroke, married, 13th March
1756, Lady Elizabeth Spencer, second daughter of Charles, third
Duke of Marlborough, by whom he had a son, George, eleventh Earl,
born 19th September 1759: and some years afterwards, when he ran
away with her, which he actually did, after they had lived for
some time separated, a daughter, born in 1773, who died in 1784,
unmarried.
Letter 116 To Dr. Ducarel.(219)
Feb. 24, 1762. (PAGE 174)
Sir, I am glad my books have at all amused you, and am much
obliged to you for your notes and communications. Your thought
of an English Montfaucon accords perfectly with a design I have
long had of attempting something of that kind, in which too I
have been lately encouraged; and therefore I will beg you at your
leisure, as they shall occur, to make me little notes of customs,
fashions, and portraits, relating to our history and manners.
Your work on vicarages, I am persuaded, will be very useful, as
every thing you undertake is, and curious.--After the medals I
lent Mr. Perry, I have a little reason to take it ill, that he
has entirely neglected me; he has published a number, and sent it
to several persons,-and never to me.(220) I wanted to see him
too, because I know of two very curious medals, which I could
borrow for him. He does not deserve it at my hands, but I will
not defraud the public of any thing valuable; and therefore, if
he will call on me any morning, but a Sunday or Monday, between
eleven and twelve, I will speak to him of them.--With regard to
one or two of your remarks, I have not said that real lions were
originally leopards. I have said that lions in arms, that is,
painted lions, were leopards; and it is fact, and no inaccuracy.
Paint a leopard yellow, and it becomes a lion.--YOU say, colours
rightly prepared do not grow black. The art would be much
obliged for such a preparation. I have not said that oil-colours
would not endure with a glass; on the contrary, I believe they
would last the longer.
I am much amazed at Vertue's blunder about my marriage of Henry
VII.; and afterwards, he said, "Sykes, knowing how to give names
to pictures to make them sell," called this the marriage of Henry
VII.; and afterwards, he said, Sykes had the figures in an old
picture of a church. He must have known little Indeed, Sir, if
he had not known how to name a picture that he had painted on
purpose that he might call it so! That Vertue, on the strictest
examination, could not be convinced that the man was Henry VII.,
not being like any of his pictures. Unluckily, he is extremely
like the shilling, which is much more authentic than any picture
of Henry VII. But here Sykes seems to have been extremely
deficient in his tricks. Did he order the figure to be painted
like Henry VII., and yet could not get it painted like him, which
was the easiest part of the task? Yet how came he to get the
Queen painted like, whose representations are much scarcer than
those of her husband? and how came Sykes to have pomegranates
painted on her robe, only to puzzle the cause! It is not worth
adding, that I should much sooner believe the church was painted
to the figures, than the figures to the church. They are hard
and antique: the church in a better style, and at least more
fresh. If Vertue had made no better criticisms than these, I
would never have taken so much trouble with his MS. Adieu!
(219) Librarian at Lambeth Palace, and a well-known antiquary.
He died in 1785.
(220) A series of English Medals, by Francis Perry, 4to. with
thirteen plates.
Letter 117 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Feb. 25, 1762. (PAGE 175)
I sent you my gazette but two days ago; I now write to answer a
kind long letter I have received from you since.
I have heard of my brother's play several years ago; but I never
understood that it was completed, or more than a few detached
scenes. What is become of Mr. Bentley's play and Mr. Bentley's
epistle?
When I go to Strawberry, I will look for where Lord Cutts was
buried; I think I can find it. I am disposed to prefer the
younger picture of Madame Grammont by Lely; but I stumbled at the
price; twelve guineas for a copy in enamel is very dear. Mrs.
Vezey tells me, his originals cost sixteen, and are not so good
as his copies. I will certainly have none of his originals.
His, what is his name'! I would fain resist his copy; I would
more fain excuse myself for having it. I say to myself, it Would
be rude not to have it, now Lady Kingsland and Mr. Montagu have
had so much trouble--well--"I think I must have it," as my Lady
Wishfort says, "Why does not the fellow take me?" Do try if he
will not take ten; remember it is the younger picture: and, oh!
now you are remembering, don't forget all my prints and a book
bound in vellum. There is-a thin folio too I want, called
"Hibernica;"(221) it is a collection of curious papers, one a
translation by Carew Earl of Totness: I had forgot that you have
no books in Ireland; however, I must have this, and your pardon
for all the trouble I give you.
No news yet of the runaways: but all that comes out antecedent to
the escape, is more and more extraordinary and absurd. The day
of the elopement he had invited his wife's family and other folk
to dinner with her, but said he must himself dine at a tavern;
but he dined privately in his own dressing-room, put on a
sailor's habit, and black wig, that he had brought home with him
in a bundle, and threatened the servants he would murder them if
they mentioned it to his wife. He left a letter for her, which
the Duke 'of Marlborough was afraid to deliver to her, and
opened. It desired that she would not write to him, as it would
make him completely mad. He desires the King would preserve his
rank of major-general, as some time or other he may serve again.
Here is an indifferent epigram made on the occasion: I send it to
you, though I wonder any body could think it a subject to joke
upon.
As Pembroke a horseman by most is accounted,
'Tis not strange that his lordship a Hunter has mounted.
Adieu! yours ever.
(221) Hibernica; or, some Ancient Pieces relating to Ireland,"
published at Dublin in 1757, by Walter Harris.-E.
Letter 118 To The Countess Of Ailesbury.
Strawberry Hill, March 5, 1762. (PAGE 176)
Madam,
one of your slaves, a fine young officer, brought me two days ago
a very pretty medal from your ladyship. Amidst all your triumphs
you do not, I see, forget your English friends, and it makes me
extremely happy. He pleased me still more, by assuring me that
you return to England when the campaign opens. I can pay this
news by none so good as by telling you that we talk of nothing
but peace. We are equally ready to give law to the world, or
peace. MartiniCO has not made us intractable. We and the new
Czar are the best sort of people upon earth: I am sure, Madam,
you must adore him; he is ,,, to resign all his conquests, that
you and Mr. Conway may be settled again at Park-place. My Lord
Chesterfield, with the despondence of an old man and the wit of a
young one, thinks the French and Spaniards must make some attempt
upon these islands, and is frightened lest we should not be so
well prepared to repel invasions as to make them: he says, "What
will it avail us if we gain the whole world, and lose our own
soul!"
I am here alone, Madam, and know nothing to tell you. I came
from town on Saturday for the worst cold I ever had in my life,
and, what I care less to own even to myself, a cough. I hope
Lord Chesterfield will not speak more truth in what I have
quoted, than in his assertion, that one need not cough if one did
not please. It has pulled me extremely, and you may believe I do
not look very plump, when I am more emaciated that usual.
However, I have taken James's powder for four nights, and have
found great benefit from it; and if Miss Conway does not come
back with soixante et douze quartiers, and the hauteur of a
landgravine, I think I shall still be able to run down the
precipices at Park-place with her-This is to be understood,
supposing that we have any summer. Yesterday was the first
moment that did not feel like Thule: not a glimpse of spring or
green, except a miserable almond tree, half opening one bud, like
my Lord PowersCOurt'S eye.
It will be warmer, I hope, by the King's birthday, or the old
ladies will catch their deaths. There is a court dress to be
instituted--(to thin the drawing-rooms)--stiff-bodied gowns and
bare shoulders. What dreadful discoveries will be made both on
fat and lean! I recommend to you the idea of Mrs. Cavendish,
when half-stark; and I might fill the rest of my paper with such
images, but your imagination will supply them; and you shall
excuse me, though I leave this a short letter: but I wrote merely
to thank your ladyship for the medal, and, as you perceive, have
very little to say, besides that known and lasting truth, how
much I am Mr. Conway's and your ladyship's faithful humble
servant.
Letter 119 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, March 9, 1762. (PAGE 177)
I am glad you have received my books safe, and are content with
them. I have little idea of Mr. Bentley's; though his
imagination is sufficiently Pindaric, nay obscure, his numbers
are not apt to be so tuneful as to excuse his flights. He should
always give his wit, both in verse and prose, to somebody else to
make up. If any of his things are printed at Dublin, let me have
them; I have no quarrel with his talents. Your cousin's
behaviour has been handsome, and so was his speech, which is
printed in our papers. Advice is arrived to-day, that our troops
have made good their landing at Martinico; I don't know any of
the incidents yet.
You ask me for an epitaph for Lord Cutts;(222) I scratched out
the following lines last night as I was going to bed; if they are
not good enough, pray don't take them: they were written in a
minute, and you are under no obligation to like them.
Late does the muse approach to Cutts's grave,
But ne'er the grateful muse forgets the brave;
He gave her subjects for the immortal lyre,
And sought in idle hours the tuneful choir;
Skilful to mount by either path to fame,
And dear to memory by a double name.
Yet if ill known amid the Aonian groves,
His shade a stranger and unnoticed roves,
The dauntless chief a nobler band may join:
They never die who conquer'd at the Boyne.
The last line intends to be popular in Ireland; but you must take
care to be certain that he was at the battle of the Boyne; I
conclude so; ind it should be specified the year, when you erect
the monument-The latter lines mean to own his having been but a
moderate poet, and to cover that mediocrity under his valour; all
which is true. Make the sculptor observe the steps.
I have not been at Strawberry above a month, nor ever was so long
absent - but the weather has been cruelly cold and disagreeable.
We have not had a single dry week since the beginning of
September; a great variety of weather, all bad. Adieu!
(222) John Lord Cutts, a soldier of most hardy bravery in King
William's wars. He died at Dublin in 1707. Swift's epigram on a
Salamander alluded to this lord, who was called by the Duke of
Marlborough the Salamander, on account of his always being in the
thickest of the fire. He published, in 1687, "Poetical
Exercises, written upon several Occasions."-E.
Letter 120 To The Rev. Henry Zouch.
Arlington Street, March 20, 1762. (PAGE 178)
I am glad you are pleased, Sir, with my "Anecdotes of Painting;"
but I doubt you praise me too much: it was an easy task when I
had the materials Collected. and I would not have the labours of
forty years, which was Vertue's case, depreciated in compliment
to the work of four months, which is almost my whole merit.
Style is become, in a manner, a mechanical affair,--and if to
much ancient lore our antiquaries would add a little modern
reading, to polish their language and correct their prejudices, I
do not see why books of antiquities should not be made as amusing
as writings on any other subject. If Tom Herne had lived in the
world, he might have writ an agreeable history of dancing; at
least, I am sure that many modern volumes are read for no reason
but for their being penned in the dialect of the age.
I am much beholden to you, dear Sir, for your remarks; they shall
have their due place whenever the work proceeds to a second
edition, for that the nature of it as a record will ensure to it.
A few of your notes demand a present answer: the Bishop of Imola
pronounced the nuptial benediction at the marriage of Henry VII.,
which made me suppose him the person represented.(223)
Burnet, who was more a judge of characters than statues, mentions
the resemblance between Tiberius and Charles II.; but, as far as
countenances went, there could not be a more ridiculous
prepossession; Charles had a long face, with very strong lines,
and a narrowish brow; Tiberius a very square face, and flat
forehead, with features rather delicate in proportion. I have
examined this imaginary likeness, and see no kind of foundation
for it. It is like Mr. Addison's travels, of which it was so
truly said, he might have composed them without stirring out of
England. There are a kind of naturalists who have sorted out the
qualities of the mind, and allotted particular turns of features
and complexions to them. It would be much easier to prove that
every form has been endowed with every vice. One has heard much
of the vigour of Burnet himself; yet I dare to say, he did not
think himself like to Charles II.
I am grieved, Sir, to hear that your eyes suffer; take care of
them; nothing can replace the satisfaction they afford: one
should hoard them, as the only friend that will not be tired of
one when one grows old, and when one should least choose to
depend on others for entertainment. I most sincerely wish you
happiness and health in that and every other instance.
(223) In the picture by Mabuse of the marriage of Henry VII.
Whatever was Mr. Zouch's correction (in which Mr. Walpole seems
to acquiesce), no alteration seem,- to have been made in the
passage about the Bishop of Imola. This curious picture is at
Strawberry Hill, and should be in the Royal Collection.-C.
Letter 121 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, March 22, 1762. (PAGE 179)
You may fancy what you -will, but the eyes of all the world are
not fixed upon Ireland. Because you have a little virtue, and a
lord-lieutenant(224) that refuses four thousand pounds a-year,
and a chaplain(225) of a lord-lieutenant that declines a huge
bishopric, and a secretary(226) whose eloquence can convince a
nation of blunderers, you imagine that nothing is talked of but
the castle of Dublin. In the first place, virtue may sound its
own praises, but it never is praised; and in the next place,
there are other feats besides self-denials; and for eloquence, we
overflow with it. Why, the single eloquence of Mr. Pitt, like an
annihilated star, can shine many months after it has set. I tell
you it has conquered Martinico.(227) If you will not believe me,
read the Gazette; read Moncton's letter; there is more martial
spirit in it than in half Thucydides, and in all the grand Cyrus.
Do you think Demosthenes or Themistocles ever raised the Grecian
stocks two per cent. in four-and-twenty hours? I shall burn all
my Greek and Latin books; they are histories of little people.
The Romans never conquered the world, till they had conquered
three parts of it, and were three hundred years about it; we
subdue the globe in three campaigns; and a globe, let me tell
you, as big again as It was in their days. Perhaps you may think
me proud; but you don't know that I had some share in the
reduction of Martinico; the express was brought to my godson, Mr.
Horatio Gates; and I have a very good precedent for attributing
some of the glory to myself - I have by me a love-letter, written
during my father's administration, by a journeyman tailor to my
brother's second chambermaid; his offers Honourable; he proposed
matrimony, and to better his terms, informed her of his
pretensions to a place; they were founded on what he called,
"some services to the government." As the nymph could not read,
she carried the epistle to the housekeeper to be deciphered, by
which means it came into my hands. I inquired what were the
merits of Mr. Vice Crispin, was informed that he had made the
suit of clothes for a figure of Lord Marr, that was burned after
the rebellion. I hope now you don't hold me too presumptuous for
pluming myself on the reduction of Martinico. However, I shall
not aspire to a post, nor to marry my Lady Bute's Abigail. I
only trust my services to you as a friend, and do not mean under
your temperate administration to get the list of Irish pensions
loaded with my name, though I am godfather to Mr. Horatio Gates.
The Duchess of Grafton and the English have been miraculously
preserved at Rome by being at loo, instead of going to a great
concert, where the palace fell in, and killed ten persons and
wounded several others. I shall send orders to have an altar
dedicated in the Capitol.
Pammio O. M.
Capitolino
Annam Ducisam de Grafton
Merito Incolumem.
I tell you of it now, because I don't know whether it will be
worth while to write another letter on purpose. Lord Albemarle
takes up the victorious grenadiers at Martinico, and in six weeks
will conquer the Havannah.- Adieu!
(224) The Irish House of Commons having voted an address to the
King to increase the salary of the lord-lieutenant, the Earl of
Halifax declined having any augmentation.
(225) Dr. Crane, chaplain to the Earl of Halifax, had refused the
bishopric of Elphin.
(226) Single-speech Hamilton.
(227) Sir Richard Lyttelton, in a letter to Mr. Pitt, written
from Rome on the 14th of April, says, " I cannot forbear
congratulating you on the glorious conquest of Martinico, which,
whatever effect it may have on England, astonishes all Europe,
and fills every mouth with praise and commendation of the noble
perseverance and superior ability of the planner of this great
and decisive undertaking. His Holiness told Mr. Weld, that, were
not the information such as left no possibility of its being
doubted, the news of our success could not have been credited;
and that so great was the national glory and reputation all over
the world, that he esteemed it the highest honour to be born an
Englishman. If this, sir, be the end of your administration, I
shall only say finis coronet opus." Chatham Correspondence, vol.
ii. p. 173-E.
Letter 122 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, April 29, 1762. (PAGE 180)
I am most absurdly glad to hear you are returned well and safe,
of which I have at this moment received your account from
Hankelow, where you talk of staying a week. However, not knowing
the exact day of your departure, I direct this to Greatworth,
that it may rather wait for you, than you for it, if it should go
into Cheshire and not find you there. As I should ever be sorry
to give you any pain, I hope I shall not be the first to tell you
of the loss of poor Lady Charlotte Johnstone,(228) who, after a
violent fever of less than a week, was brought to bed yesterday
morning of a dead child, and died herself at four in the
afternoon. I heartily condole with you, as I know your
tenderness for all your family, and the regard you have for
Colonel Johnstone. The time is wonderfully sickly; nothing but
sore throats, colds, and fevers. I got rid of one of the worst
of these disorders, attended with a violent cough, by only taking
seven grains of James's powder for six nights. It was the first
cough I ever had, and when coughs meet with so spare a body as
mine, they are not apt to be so easily conquered. Take great
care of yourself, and bring the fruits of your expedition in
perfection to Strawberry. I shall be happy to see you there
whenever you please. I have no immediate purpose of settling
there yet, as they are laying floors, which is very noisy, and as
it is uncertain when the Parliament will rise, but I would go
there at any time to meet you. The town will empty instantly
after the King's birthday; and consequently I shall then be less
broken in upon, which I know you do not like. If, therefore, it
suits you, any time you will name after the 5th of June will be
equally agreeable; but sooner if you like it better.
We have little news at present, except a profusion of new
peerages, but are likely I think to have much greater shortly.
The ministers disagree, and quarrel with as much alacrity as
ever; and the world expects a total rupture between Lord Bute and
the late King's servants. This comedy has been so often
represented, it scarce interests one, especially one who takes no
part, and who is determined to have nothing to do with the world,
but hearing and seeing the scenes it furnishes.
The new peers, I don't know their rank, scarce their titles, are
Lord Wentworth and Sir William Courtenay, Viscounts; Lord Egmont,
Lord Milton, Vernon of Sudbury, old Foxiane, Sir Edward Montagu,
Barons; and Lady Caroline Fox, a Baroness; the Duke of Newcastle
is created Lord Pelham, with an entail to Tommy Pelham; and Lord
Brudenel is called to the House of lords, as Lord Montagu. The
Duchess of Manchester was to have had the peerage alone, and
wanted the latter title: her sister, very impertinently, I think,
as being the younger, objected and wished her husband Marquis of
Monthermer. This difference has been adjusted, by making Sir
Edward Montagu Lord Beaulieu, and giving the title of the family
to Lord Brudenel. With pardon of your Cu-blood, I hold, that
Lord Cardigan makes a very trumpery figure by so meanly
relinquishing all Brudenelhood. Adieu! let me know soon when you
will keep your Strawberry tide.
P. S. Lord Anson is in a very bad way;(229) and Mr. Fox, I think,
in not a much better.
(228) Sister of the Earl of Halifax.
(229) His lordship, who was at this time first lord of the
admiralty, died on the 6th of June.-E.
Letter 123 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, May 14, 1762. (page 181)
It is very hard, when you can plunge over head and ears in Irish
claret, and not have even your heel vulnerable by the gout, that
such a Pythagorean as I am should yet be subject to it! It is
not two years since I had it last, and here am I with My foot
again upon cushions. But I will not complain; the pain is
trifling, and does little more than prevent my frisking about.
If I can bear the motion of the chariot, I shall drive to
Strawberry tomorrow, for I had rather only look at verdure and
hear my nightingales from the bow-window, than receive visits and
listen to news. I can give you no certain satisfaction relative
to the viceroy, your cousin. It is universally said that he has
no mind to return to his dominions, and pretty much believed that
he will succeed to Lord Egremont's seals, who will not detain
them long from whoever is to be his successor.
I am sorry you have lost another Montagu, the Duke of
Manchester.(230) Your cousin Guilford is among the competitors
for chamberlain to the Queen. The Duke of Chandos, Lord
Northumberland, and even the Duke of Kingston, are named as other
candidates; but surely they will not turn the latter loose into
another chamber of maids of honour! Lord Cantelupe has asked to
rise from vice-chamberlain, but met with little encouragement.
It is odd, that there are now seventeen English and Scotch dukes
unmarried, and but seven out of twenty-seven have the garter.
It is comfortable to me to have a prospect of seeing Mr. Conway
soon; the ruling part of the administration are disposed to
recall our troops front Germany. In the mean time our officers
and their wives are embarked for Portugal-what must Europe think
of us when we make wars and assemblies all over the world?
I have been for a few days this week at Lord Thomond's; by making
a river-like piece of water, he has converted a very ugly spot
into a tolerable one. As I was so near, I went to see Audley
Inn(231) once more; but it is only the monument now of its former
grandeur. The gallery is pulled down, and nothing remains but
the great hall, and an apartment like a tower at each end. In
the church I found, still existing and quite fresh, the
escutcheon of the famous Countess of Essex and Somerset.
Adieu! I shall expect you with great pleasure the beginning of
next month.
(230) Robert Montagu, third Duke of Manchester, lord-chamberlain
to the Queen, died on the 10th of May.-E.
(231) In Essex; formerly the largest palace in England. It was
built out of the ruins of a dissolved monastery, near Saffron
Walden, by Thomas, second son of Thomas Duke of Norfolk, who
married the only daughter and heir of Lord Audley, chancellor to
King Henry VIII. This Thomas was summoned to parliament in Queen
Elizabeth's time as Lord Audley of Walden, and was afterwards
created Earl of Suffolk by James I., to whom he was lord
chancellor and lord high treasurer. It was intended for a royal
palace for that King, who, when it was finished, was invited to
see it, and lodged there one night on his way to Newmarket; when,
after having viewed it with astonishment, he was asked how he
approved of it, he answered, "Very well; but troth, man, it is
too much for a king, but it may do for a lord high treasurer;"
and so left it upon the Earl's hands. It was afterwards
purchased by Charles II.; but, as he had never been able to pay
the purchase-money, it was restored to the family by William
III.-E.
Letter 124 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
strawberry Hill, May 20, 1762. (page 183)
Dear Sir,
You have sent me the most kind and obliging letter in the world,
and I cannot sufficiently thank you for it; but I shall be very
glad to have an opportunity of acknowledging it in person, by
accepting the agreeable visit you are so good as to offer me, and
for which I have long been impatient.
I should name the earliest day possible; but besides having some
visits to make, I think it will bi more pleasant to you a few
weeks hence (I mean, any time in July,) when the works, with
which I am finishing my house, will be more advanced, and the
noisy part, as laying floors and fixing wainscots, at an end, and
which now make me a deplorable litter. As you give me leave, I
will send You notice.
I am glad my books amused you;(232) yet you, who are so much
deeper an antiquarian, must have found more faults and emissions,
I fear, than your politeness suffers you to reprehend; yet you
will, I trust, be a little more severe. We both labour, I will
not say for the public (for the public troubles its head very
little about our labours),. but for the few of posterity that
shall be curious; and therefore, for their sake, you must assist
me in making my works as complete as possible. This sounds
ungrateful, after all the trouble you have given yourself; but I
say it to prove MY gratitude, and to show you how fond I am of
being corrected.
For the faults of impression, they were owing to the knavery of a
printer, who, when I had corrected the sheets, amused me with
revised proofs, and never printed off the whole number, and then
ran away. This accounts, too, for the difference of the ink in
various sheets, and for some other blemishes; though there are
still enough of my own, which I must not charge on others.
Ubaldini's book I have not, and shall be pleased to see it; but I
cannot think of robbing your collection, and am amply obliged by
the offer. The Anecdotes of Horatio Palavacini are extremely
entertaining.
In an Itinerary of the late Mr. Smart Lethiullier, I met the very
tomb of Gainsborough this winter that you mention; and, to be
secure, sent to Lincoln for an exact draught of it. But what
vexed me then, and does still, is, that by the defect at the end
of the inscription, one cannot be certain whether he lived in
CCC. or CCCC. as another C might have been there. Have you any
corroborating circumstance, Sir, to affix his existence to 1300
more than 1400? Besides, I don't know any proof of his having
been architect of the church: his epitaph only calls him
Caementarius, which, I suppose, means mason.
I have observed, since my book was published, what you mention of
the tapestry in Laud's trial; yet as the Journals were by
authority, and certainly cannot be mistaken, I have concluded
that Hollar engraved his print after the restoration. Mr. Wight,
clerk of the House of Lords, says, that Oliver placed them in the
House of Commons. I don't know on what grounds he says so. I
am, Sir, with great gratitude, etc.
(232) Anecdotes of Painting.
Letter 125 To George Montagu, Esq.
Strawberry Hill, May 25, 1762. (page 184)
I am diverted with your anger at old Richard. Can you really
suppose that I think it any trouble to frank a few covers for
you? Had I been with you, I should have cured you and your whole
family in two nights with James's powder. If you have any
remains of the disorder, let me beg you to take seven or eight
grains when you go to bed: if you have none, shall I send you
some? For my own part, I am released -again, though I have been
tolerably bad, and one day had the gout for several hours in my
head. I do not like such speedy returns. I have been so much
confined that I could not wait on Mrs. Osborn, and I do not take
it unkindly that she will not let me have the prints without
fetching them. I met her, that is, passed her, t'other day as
she was going to Bushy, and was sorry to see her look much older.
Well! tomorrow is fixed for that phenomenon, the Duke of
Newcastle's resignation.(233) He has had a parting lev`ee; and
as I suppose all bishops are prophets, they foresee that he will
never come into place again, for there was but one that had the
decency to take leave of him after crowding his rooms for forty
years together; it was Cornwallis. I hear not even Lord Lincoln
resigns. Lord Bute succeeds to the treasury, and is to have the
garter too On Thursday with Prince William. Of your cousin I hear
no more mention, but that he returns to his island. I cannot
tell you exactly even the few changes that are to be made, but I
can divert you with a bon-mot, which they give to my Lord
Chesterfield. The new peerages being mentioned, somebody said,
"I suppose there will be no duke made," he replied, "Oh yes,
there is to be one."--"Is? who?"--"Lord Talbot: he is to be
created Duke Humphrey, and there is to be no table kept at court
but his." If you don't like this, what do you think of George
Selwyn, who asked Charles Boone if it is true that he is going to
be married to the fat rich Crawley? Boone denied it. "Lord!"
said Selwyn, "I thought you were to be Patrick Fleming on the
mountain, and that gold and silver you were counting!" * * * *
P.S. I cannot help telling you how comfortable the new
disposition of the court is to me-, the King and Queen are
settled for good and all at Buckingham-house, and are stripping
the other palaces to furnish it. In short, they have already
fetched pictures from Hampton Court, which indicates their never
living there; consequently Strawberry Hill will remain in
possession of its own tranquillity, and not become a cheesecake
house to the palace. All I ask of Princes is, not to live within
five miles of me.
(233) The Duke of Newcastle, finding himself, on the subject of a
pecuniary aid to the King of Prussia, only supported in the
council by the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Hardwicke, resigned on
the 26th of May, and Lord Bute became prime minister.-E.
Letter 126 To George Montagu, Esq.
Strawberry Hill, Wednesday night, June 1. (page 185)
Since you left Strawberry, the town (not the King of Prussia) has
beaten Count Daun, and made the peace, but the benefits of either
have not been felt beyond Change Alley. Lord Melcomb is
dying(234) of a dropsy in his stomach,' and Lady Mary Wortley of
a cancer in her breast.(235)
Mr. Hamilton was here last night, and complained of your not
visiting him. He pumped me to know if Lord Hertford has not
thoughts of the crown of Ireland, and was more than persuaded
that I should go with him: I told him what was true, that I knew
nothing of the former; and for the latter, that I would as soon
return with the King of the Cherokees.(236) When England has
nothing that can tempt me, it would be strange if Ireland had.
The Cherokee Majesty dined here yesterday at Lord Macclesfield's,
where the Clive sang to them and the mob; don't imagine I was
there, but I heard so at my Lady Suffolk's.
We have tapped a little butt of rain to-night, but my lawn is far
from being drunk yet. Did not you find the Vine in great beauty?
My compliments to it, and to your society. I only write to
enclose the enclosed. I have consigned your button to old
Richard. Adieu!
(234) Lord Melcombe died on the 28th of July: upon which event
the title became extinct.-E.
(235) Lady Mary Wortley Montagu died on the 21st August, in the
seventy-third year of her age.-E.
(236) Three Cherokee Indian chiefs arrived this month in London,
from South Carolina, and became the lions of the day.-E.
Letter 127 To George Montagu, Esq.
Strawberry Hill, June 8, 1762. (page 185)
Well, you have had Mr. Chute. I did not dare to announce him to
you, for he insisted on enjoying all your ejaculations. He gives
me a good account of your health and spirits, but does not say
when you come hither. I hope the General, as well as your
brother John, know how welcome they would be, if they would
accompany you. I trust it will be before the end of this month,
for the very beginning of July I am to make a little visit to
Lord Ilchester, in Somersetshire, and I should not like not to
see you before the middle or end of next month.
Mrs. Osborn has sent me the prints; they are woful; but that is
my fault and the engraver's, not yours, to whom I am equally
obliged; you don't tell me whether Mr. Bentley's play was acted
or not, printed or not.
There is another of the Queen's brothers come over. Lady
Northumberland made a pompous festino for him t'other night; not
only the whole house, but the garden, was illuminated, and was
quite a fairy scene. Arches and pyramids of lights alternately
surrounded the enclosure; a diamond necklace of lamps edged the
rails and descent, with a spiral obelisk of candles on each hand;
and dispersed over the lawn were little bands of kettle-drums,
clarionets, flutes, etc., and the lovely moon, who came without a
card. The birthday was far from being such a show; empty and
unfine as possible. In truth, popularity does not make great
promises to the new administration, and for fear it should
hereafter be taxed with changing sides, it lets Lord Bute be
abused every day, though he has not had time to do the least
wrong. His first levee was crowded. Bothmer, the Danish
minister, said, "La chaleur est excessive!" George Selwyn
replied, "Pour se mettre au froid, il faut aller chez Monsieur le
Duc de Newcastle!" There was another George not quite SO tender.
George Brudenel was passing by; somebody in the mob said, "What
is the matter here?" Brudenel answered, "Why, there is a
Scotchman got into the treasury, and they can't get him out."
The Archbishop, conscious of not having been at Newcastle's last
levee, and ashamed of appearing at Lord Bute's, first pretended
he had been going by in his way from Lambeth, and, Upon inquiry,
found it was Lord Bute's levee, and so had thought he might as
well go in-I am glad he thought he might as well tell it.
The mob call Buckingham-house, Holyrood-house; in short, every
thing promises to be like times I can remember. Lord Anson is
dead; poor Mrs. Osborn will not break her heart; I should think
Lord Melcomb will succeed to the admiralty. Adieu!
Letter 128 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, July 29, 1762. (page 186)
Sir,
I fear you will have thought me neglectful of the visit you was
so good as to offer me for a day or two at this place; the truth
is, I have been in Somersetshire on a visit, which was protracted
much longer than I intended. I am now returned, and shall be
glad to see you as soon as you please, Sunday or Monday next, if
you like either, or any other day you will name. I cannot defer
the pleasure of seeing you any longer, though to my mortification
you will find Strawberry Hill with its worst looks-not a blade of
grass! My workmen too have disappointed me; they have been in the
association for forcing their masters to raise their wages, and
but two are yet returned--so you must excuse litter and shavings.
Letter 129 To The Countess Of Ailesbury.
Strawberry Hill, July 31, 1762 (page 187)
Madam,
Magnanimous as the fair soul of your ladyship is, and plaited
with superabundanCe of Spartan fortitude, I felicitate my own
good fortune who can circle this epistle with branches of the
gentle olive, as well as crown it with victorious laurel. This
pompous paragraph, Madam, which in compliment to my Lady
Lyttelton I have penned in the style of her lord, means no more,
them that I wish you joy of the castle of Waldeck,(237) and more
joy on the peace,
which I find every body thinks is concluded. In truth, I have
still my doubts; and yesterday came news, which, if my Lord Bute
does not make haste, may throw a little rub in the way. In
short, the Czar is dethroned. Some give the honour to his wife;
others, who add the little circumstance of his being murdered
too, ascribe the revolution to the Archbishop of Novogorod, who,
like other priests, thinks assassination a less affront to Heaven
than three Lutheran churches. I hope the latter is the truth;
because, in the honeymoonhood of Lady Cecilia's tenderness, I
don't know but she might miscarry at the thought of a wife
preferring a crown, and scandal says a regiment of grenadiers, to
her husband.
I have a little meaning in naming Lady Lyttelton and Lady
Cecilia, who I think are at Park-place. Was not there a promise
that you all three would meet Mr. Churchill and Lady Mary here in
the beginning of August! Yes, indeed was there, and I put in my
claim. Not confining your heroic and musical ladyships to a day
or a week; my time is at your command: and I wish the rain was at
mine; for, if you or it do not come soon, I shall not have a leaf
left. Strawberry is browner than Lady Bell Finch.
I was grieved, Madam, to miss seeing you in town on Monday,
particularly as I wished to settle this party. If you will let
me know when it will be your pleasure, I will write to my sister.
(237) At the taking of which Mr. Conway had assisted.
Letter 130 To The Earl Of Strafford.
Strawberry Hill, August 5, 1762. (page 187)
My dear lord,
As you have correspondents of better authority in town, I don't
pretend to send you great events, and I know no small ones.
Nobody talks of any thing under a revolution. That in Russia
alarms me,.lest Lady Mary should fall in love with the Czarina,
who has deposed her Lord Coke, and set out for Petersburgh. We
throw away a whole summer in writing Britons and North Britons;
the Russians change sovereigns faster than Mr. Wilkes can choose
a motto for a paper. What years were spent here in controversy
on the abdication of King James, and the legitimacy of the
Pretender! Commend me to the Czarina. They doubted, that is,
her husband did, whether her children were of genuine
blood-royal. She appealed to the Preobazinski guards, excellent
casuists; and, to prove Duke Paul heir to the crown, assumed it
herself. The proof was compendious and unanswerable.
I trust you know that Mr. Conway has made a figure by taking the
castle of Waldeck. There has been another action to Prince
Ferdinand's advantage, but no English were engaged.
You tantalize me by talking of the verdure of Yorkshire; we have
not had a teacupfull of rain till to-day for these six weeks.
Corn has been reaped that never wet its lips; not a blade of
grass; the leaves yellow and falling as in the end of October.
In short, Twickenham is rueful; I don't believe Westphalia looks
more barren. Nay, we are forced to fortify ourselves too.
Hanworth was broken open last night, though the family was all
there. Lord Vere lost a silver standish, an old watch, and his
writing-box with fifty pounds in it. They broke it open in the
park, but missed a diamond ring which was found, and the
telescope, which by the weight of the case they had fancied full
of money. Another house in the middle of Sunbury has had the
same fate. I am mounting cannon on my
battlements.
Your chateau, I hope, proceeds faster than mine. The carpenters
are all associated for increase of wages; I have had but two men
at work these five weeks. You know, to be sure, that Lady Mary
Wortley cannot live. Adieu, my dear Lord!
Letter 131 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, August 5, 1762. (page 188)
Sir,
As I had been dilatory in accepting your kind offer of coming
hither, I proposed it as soon as I returned. As we are so burnt,
and as my workmen have disappointed me, I am not quite sorry that
I had not the pleasure of seeing you this week. Next week I am
obliged to be in town on business. If you please, therefore, we
will postpone our meeting till the first of September; by which
time, I flatter myself we shall be green, and I shall be able to
show you my additional apartment to more advantage. Unless you
forbid me, I shall expect you, Sir, the very beginning of next
month. In the mean time, I will only thank you for the obliging
and curious notes you have sent me, which will make a great
figure in my second edition.
Letter 132 To George Montagu, Esq.
Strawberry Hill, August 10, 1762. (page 189)
I have received your letter from Greatworth since your return,
but I do not find that you have got one, which I sent you to the
Vine, enclosing one directed for you: Mr. Chute says you did
mention hearing from me there. I left your button too in town
with old Richard to be transmitted to you. Our drought
continues, though we have had one handsome storm. I have been
reading the story of Phaeton in the Metamorphoses; it is a
picture of Twickenham. Ardet
Athos, taurusque Cilix, etc.; Mount Richmond burns, parched is
Petersham: Parnassusque biceps, dry is Pope's grot, the nymphs of
Clievden are burning to blackmoors, their faces are already as
glowing as a cinder, Cycnus is changed into a swan: quodque suo
Tagus amne vehit, fluit ignibus aurum; my gold fishes are almost
molten. Yet this conflagration is nothing to that in Russia;
what do you say to a czarina mounting her horse, and marching at
the head of fourteen thousand men, with a large train of
artillery, to dethrone her husband? Yet she is not the only
virago in that country; the conspiracy was conducted by the
sister of the Czar's mistress, a heroine under twenty! They have
no fewer than two czars now in coops-that is, supposing these
gentle damsels have murdered neither of them. Turkey Will become
a moderate government; one must travel to frozen climates if one
chooses to see revolutions in perfection. Here's room for
meditation even to madness:" the deposed Emperor possessed
Muscovy, was heir to Sweden, and the true heir of Denmark; all
the northern crowns centered in his person; one hopes he is in a
dungeon, that is, one hopes he is not assassinated. You cannot
crowd more matter into a lecture of morality, than is
comprehended in those few words. This is the fourth czarina that
you and I have seen: to be sure, as historians, we have not
passed our time ill. Mrs. Anne Pitt, who, I suspect, envies the
heroine of twenty a little, says, "The Czarina has only robbed
Peter to pay Paul;" and I do not believe that her brother, Mr.
William Pitt, feels very happy, that he cannot immediately
despatch a squadron to the Baltic to reinstate the friend of' the
King of Prussia. I cannot afford to live less than fifty years
more; for so long, I suppose, at least, it will be before the
court of Petersburgh will cease to produce amusing scenes. Think
of old Count Biren, former master of that empire, returning to
Siberia, and bowing to Bestucheff, whom he may meet on the road
from thence. I interest myself now about nothing but Russia;
Lord Bute must be sent to the Orcades before I shall ask a
question in English politics; at least I shall expect that Mr.
Pitt, at the head of the Preobazinski guards, will seize the
person of the prime minister for giving up our conquests to the
chief enemy of this nation.
My pen is in such a sublime humour, that it can scarce condescend
to tell you that Sir Edward Deering is going to marry Polly Hart,
Danvers's old mistress; and three more baronets, whose names
nobody knows, but Collins, are treading in the same steps.
My compliments to the House of' Montagu-upon my word I
congratulate the General and you, and your viceroy, that you
escaped being deposed by the primate of Novogorod.
Letter 133 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, August 19, 1762. (page 190)
Sir,
I am very sensible of the obligations I have to you and Mr.
Masters, and ought to make separate acknowledgments to both; but,
not knowing how to direct to him, I must hope that you will
kindly be once more the channel of our correspondence; and that
you will be so good as to convey to him an answer to what you
communicated from him to me, and in particular my thanks for the
most obliging offer he has made me of a picture of Henry VII.; of
which I will by no means rob him. My view in publishing the
Anecdotes was, to assist gentlemen in discovering the hands of
pictures they possess: and I am sufficiently rewarded when that
purpose is answered. If there is another edition, the mistake in
the calculation of the tapestry shall be rectified, and any
others, which any gentleman will be so good as to point out.
With regard to the monument of Sir Nathaniel Bacon, Vertue
certainly describes it as at Culford; and in looking Into the
place to which I am referred, in Mr. Master's History of Corpus
Christi College, I think he himself allows in the note, that
there is such a monument at Culford. Of Sir Balthazar Gerber
there are several different prints. Nich. Lanicre purchasing
pictures at the King's sale, is undoubtedly a mistake for one of
his brothers--I cannot tell now whether Vertue's mistake or my
own. At Longleafe is a whole-length of Frances Duchess of
Richmond, exactly such as Mr. Masters describes, but in
oil. I have another whole-length of the same duchess, I believe
by Mytins, but younger than that at Longleafe. But the best
picture of her is in Wilson's life of King James, and very
diverting indeed. I Will not trouble you, Sir, or Mr. Masters,
with any more at present; but, repeating my thanks to both, will
assure you that I am, etc.
Letter 134 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 9, 1762. (page 191)
Nondurn laurus erat, longoque decentia crine
Tempera cingebat de qualibet arbore Phoebus.(238)
This is a hint to you, that Phoebus, who was certainly your
superior, could take up with a chestnut garland, or any crown he
found, you must have the humility to be content without laurels,
when none are to be had: you have hurried far and near for them,
and taken true pains to the last in that old nursery-garden
Germany, and by the way have made me shudder with your last
journal: but you must be easy with qu`alibet other arbore; you
must come home to your own plantations. The Duke of Bedford is
gone in a fury to make peace, for he cannot be even pacific with
temper; and by this time I suppose the Duke de Nivernois is
unpacking his portion of olive dans la rue de Suffolk-street. I
say, I suppose- -for I do not, like my friends at Arthur's, whip
into my postchaise to see every novelty. My two sovereigns, the
Duchess of Grafton and Lady Mary Coke, are arrived, and yet I
have seen neither Polly nor Lucy. The former, I hear, is
entirely French; the latter as absolutely English.
Well! but if you insist on not doffing your cuirass, you may find
an opportunity of wearing it. The storm thickens. The city of
London are ready to hoist their standard; treason is the bon-ton
at that end of the town; seditious papers pasted up at every
corner: nay, my neighbourhood is not unfashionable; we have had
them at Brentford and Kingston. The Peace is the cry; but to
make weight, they throw in all the abusive ingredients they can
collect. They talk of your friend the Duke of Devonshire's
resigning; and, for the Duke of Newcastle, it puts him so much in
mind of the end of Queen Anne's time, that I believe he hopes to
be minister again for another forty years.
In the mean time. there are but dark news from the Havannah; the
Gazette, who would not fib for the world, says, we have lost but
four officers; the World, who is not quite so scrupulous, says,
our loss is heavy. But whit shocking notice to those who have
Harry Conways there! The Gazette breaks off with saying, that
they were to storm the next day! Upon the whole, it is regarded
as a preparative to worse news.
Our next monarch was christened last night, George Augustus
Frederick; the Princess, the Duke of Cumberland, and the Duke of
Mecklenburgh, sponsors,; the ceremony performed by the Bishop of
London. The Queen's bed, magnificent, and they say in taste, was
placed in the great drawing-room: though she is not to see
company in form, yet it looks as if they had intended people
should have been there, as all who presented themselves were
admitted, which were very few, for it had not been notified; I
suppose to prevent too great a crowd: all I have heard named,
besides those in waiting, were the Duchess of Queensbury, Lady
Dalkeith, Mrs. Grenville, and about four more ladies.
My Lady Ailesbury is abominable: she settled a party to come
hither, and Put it off a month; and now she has been here and
seen my cabinet, she ought to tell you what good reason I had not
to stir. If she has not told you that it is the finest, the
prettiest, the newest and the oldest thing in the world, I will
not go to Park-place on the 20th, as I have promised. Oh! but
tremble you may for me, though you will not for yourself--all my
glories were on the point of vanishing last night in a flame!
The chimney of the new gallery, which chimney is full of
deal-boards, and which gallery is full of shavings was on fire at
eight o'clock. Harry had quarrelled with the other servants, and
would not sit in the
kitchen; and to keep up his anger, had lighted a vast fire in the
servants' hall, which is under the gallery. The chimney took
fire; and if Margaret had not smelt it with the first nose that
ever a servant had, a quarter of an hour had set us in a blaze.
I hope you are frightened out of your senses for me: if you are
not, I will never live in a panic for three or four years for you
again.
I have had Lord March and the Rena(239) here for One night, which
does not raise my reputation in the neighbourhood, and may usher
me again for a Scotchman into the North Briton.(240) I have had
too a letter from a German that I never saw, who tells me, that,
hearing by chance how well I am with my Lord Bute, he desires me
to get him a place. The North Briton first recommended me for an
employment, and has now given me interest -.it the backstairs.
It is a notion, that whatever is said of one, has generally some
kind of foundation: surely I am a contradiction to this maxim!
yet, was I of consequence enough to be remembered, perhaps
posterity would believe that I was a flatterer! Good night! Yours
ever.
(238) "The laurel was not yet for triumphs born,
But every green, alike by Phoebus worn,
Did, with promiscuous grace, his flowing locks adorn." Garth.-E.
(239) A fashionable courtesan.
(240) The favourable opinion given by Mr. Walpole of the
abilities of the Scotch in the Royal and Noble Authors, first
drew upon him the notice of the North Briton. ("The Scotch are
the most accomplished nation in Europe; the nation to which, if
any one country is endowed with a superior partition of sense, I
should be inclined to give the preference in that particular."]
Letter 135 To George Montagu, Esq.
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 24, 1762. (page 192)
I was disappointed at not seeing you, as you had given me hopes,
but shall he glad to meet the General, as I think I shall, for I
go to town on Monday to restore the furniture of my house, which
has been painted; and to stop the gaps as well as I can, which I
have made by bringing away every thing hither; but as long as
there are auctions, and I have money or hoards, those wounds soon
close.
I can tell you nothing of your dame Montagu and her arms; but I
dare to swear Mr. Chute can. I did not doubt but you would
approve Mr. Bateman's, since it has changed its religion; I
converted it from Chinese to Gothic. His cloister of founders,
which by the way is Mr. Bentley's, is delightful; I envy him his
old chairs, and the tomb of Bishop Caducanus; but I do not agree
with you in preferring the Duke's to Stowe. The first is in a
greater style, I grant, but one always perceives the mesalliance,
the blood of Bagshot-heath will never let it be green, If Stowe
had but half so many buildings as it has, there would be too
many; but that profusion that glut enriches, and makes it look
like a fine landscape of Albano; one figures oneself in Tempe or
Daphne. I never saw St. Leonard's-hill; would you spoke
seriously of buying it! one could stretch out the arm from one's
postchaise, and reach you when one would.
I am here all in ignorance and rain, and have seen nobody these
two days since I returned from Park-place. I do not know whether
the mob hissed my Lord Bute at his installation,(241) as they
intended, or whether my lord Talbot drubbed them for it. I know
nothing of the peace, nor of the Havannah; but I could tell you
much of old English engravers, whose lives occupy me at present.
On Sunday I am to dine with your prime minister Hamilton; for
though I do not seek the world, and am best pleased when quiet
here, I do not refuse its invitations, whet) it does not press
one to pass above a few hours with it. I have no quarrel to it,
when it comes not to me, nor asks me to lie from home. That
favour is only granted to the elect, to Greatworth, and a very
few more spots. Adieu!
(241) The ceremony of the installation of
Prince William and Lord Bute, as knights of the garter, took
place at Windsor on the 22d of September.-E.
Letter 136 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 28, 1762. (page 193)
To my sorrow and your wicked joy, it is a doubt whether Monsieur
de Nivernois will shut the temple of Janus. We do not believe
him quite so much in earnest as the dove(242) we have sent, who
has summoned his turtle to Paris. She sets out the day after
to-morrow, escorted, to add gravity to the embassy, by George
Selwyn. The stocks don't mind this journey of a rush, but draw
in their horns every day. We can learn nothing of the Havannah,
though the axis of which the whole treaty turns. We believe, for
we have never seen them, that the last letters thence brought
accounts of great loss, especially by the sickness. Colonel
Burgoyne(243) has given a little fillip to the Spaniards, and
shown them, that though they can take Portugal from the
Portuguese, it will not be entirely so easy to wrest it from the
English. Lord Pulteney,(244) and my nephew,(245) Lady
Waldegrave's brother, distinguished themselves. I hope your
hereditary Prince is recovering of the wounds in his loins; for
they say he is to marry Princess Augusta.
Lady Ailesbury has told you, to be sure, that I have been at Park
place. Every thing there is in beauty; and, I should think,
pleasanter than a campaign in Germany. Your Countess is
handsomer than Fame; your daughter improving every day; your
plantations more thriving than the poor woods about Marburg and
Cassel. Chinese pheasants swarm there. For Lady Cecilia
Johnston, I assure you, she sits close upon her egg, and it will
not be her fault if she does not hatch a hero. We missed all the
glories of the installation, and all the faults, and all the
frowning faces there. Not a knight was absent but the lame and
the deaf.
Your brother, Lady Hertford, and Lord Beauchamp, are gone from
Windsor into Suffolk. Henry,(246) who has the genuine
indifference of a Harry Conway, would not stir from Oxford for
those pageants. Lord Beauchamp showed me a couple of his
letters, which have more natural humour and cleverness than is
conceivable. They have the ease and drollery of a man of parts
who has lived long in the world--and he is scarce seventeen!
I am going to Lord Waldegrave's for a few days, and, when your
Countess returns from Goodwood, am to meet her at Churchill's.
Lord Strafford, who has been terribly alarmed about my lady,
mentions, with great pleasure, the letters he receives from you.
His neighbour and cousin, Lord Rockingham, I hear, is one of the
warmest declaimers at Arthur's against the present system. Abuse
continues in much plenty, but I have seen none that I thought had
wit enough to bear the sea. Good night. There are satiric
prints enough to tapestry Westminster-hall.
Stay a moment: I recollect telling you a lie in my last, which,
though of no consequence, I must correct. The right reverend
midwife, Thomas Secker, archbishop, did christen the babe, and
not the Bishop of London, as I had been told by matron authority.
Apropos to babes: have you read Rousseau on Education? I almost
got through a volume at Park-place, though impatiently; it has
mor(-tautology than any of his works, and less eloquence. Sure
he has writ more sense and more nonsense than ever any man did of
both! All I have yet learned from this work is, that one should
have a tutor for one's son to teach him to have no ideas, in
order that he may begin to learn his alphabet as he loses his
maidenhead.
Thursday noon, 30th.
lo Havannah! Lo Albemarle! I had sealed my letter, and given it
to Harry for the post, when my Lady Suffolk sent me a short note
from Charles Townshend, to say the Havannah surrendered on the
12th of August, and that we have taken twelve ships of the line
in the harbour. The news came late last night. I do not know a
particular more. God grant no more blood be shed! I have hopes
again of the peace. My dearest Harry, now we have preserved you
to the last moment, do take care of yourself. When one has a
whole war to wade through, it is not worth while to be careful in
any one battle; but it is silly to fling one's self away in the
last. Your character is established; Prince Ferdinand's letters
are full of encomiums on you; but what will weigh more with you,
save yourself for another war, which I doubt you will live to
see, and in which you may be superior commander, and have space
to display your talents. A second in service is never
remembered, whether the honour of the victory be owing to him -.
or be killed. Turenne would have a very short paragraph, if the
Prince of Cond`e had been general when he fell. Adieu!
(242) The Duke of Bedford, then ambassador at Paris.
(243) Colonel, afterwards General Burgoyne, with the Compte de
Lippe, commanded the British troops sent to the relief of
Portugal.
(244) Only son of William Pulteney, Earl of Bath. He died before
his father.
(245) Edward, only son of sir Edward Walpole. He died in 1771.
(246) ,Henry Seymour Conway, second son of Francis, Earl and
afterwards Marquis of Hertford.
Letter 137 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 30, 1762. (page 195)
It gives me great satisfaction that Strawberry Hill pleased you
enough to make it a second visit. I could name the time
instantly, but you threaten me with coming so loaded with
presents, that it will look mercenary, not friendly, to accept
your visit. If your chaise is empty, to be sure I shall rejoice
to hear it at my gate about the 22d of this next month: if it is
crammed, though I have built a convent, I have not SO much of the
monk in me as not to blush-nor can content myself with praying to
our Lady of Strawberries to reward you.
I am greatly obliged to you for the accounts from Gothurst. What
treasures there are still in private seats, if one knew where to
hunt them! The emblematic picture of Lady Digby is like that at
Windsor, and the fine small one at Mr. Skinner's. I should be
curious to see the portrait of Sir Kenelm's father; was not he
the remarkable Everard Digby?(247) How singular too is the
picture of young Joseph and Madam Potiphar! His Mujora--one has
heard of Josephs that did not find the lady's purse any
hinderance to Majora.
You are exceedingly obliging, in offering to make an index to my
prints, Sir; but that would be a sad way of entertaining you. I
am antiquary and virtuoso enough myself not to dislike such
employment, but could never think it charming enough to trouble
any body else with. Whenever you do me the favour of coming
hither, you will find yourself entirely at liberty to choose your
own amusements--if you choose a bad one, and in truth there is
not very good, you must blame yourself, while you know I hope
that it would be my wish that you did not repent your favours to,
Sir, etc.
(247) Executed in 1605, as a conspirator in the Gunpowder
Plot.-E.
Letter 138 To The Right Hon. Lady Hervey.
Strawberry Hill, Oct. 1, 1762. (page 196)
Madam,
I hope you are as free from any complaint, as I am sure you are
full of joy. Nobody partakes more of your satisfaction for Mr.
Hervey's(248) safe return; and now he is safe, I trust you enjoy
his glory: for this is a wicked age; you are one of those
un-Lacedaemonian mothers, that are not content unless your
children come off with all their limbs. A Spartan countess would
not have had the confidence of my Lady Albemarle to appear in the
drawing-room without at least one of her sons being knocked on
the head.(249) However, pray, Madam, make my compliments to her;
one must conform to the times, and congratulate people for being
happy, if they like it. I know one matron, however, with whom I
may condole; who, I dare swear, is miserable that she has not one
of her acquaintance in affliction, and to whose door she might
drive with all her sympathizing greyhounds to inquire after her,
and then to Hawkins's, and then to Graham's, and then cry over a
ball of rags that she is picking, and be sorry for poor Mrs.
Such-a-one, who has lost an only son!
When your ladyship has hung up all your trophies, I will come and
make you a visit. There is another ingredient I hope not quite
disagreeable that Mr. Hervey has brought with him,
un-Lacedaemonian too, but admitted among the other vices of our
system. If besides glory and riches they have brought us peace,
I will make a bonfire myself, though it should be in the
mayoralty of that virtuous citizen Mr. Beckford. Adieu, Madam!
(248) General William Hervey, youngest son of Lady Hervey; who
had just returned from the Havannah.
(249) Lady Anne Lenox, Countess of Albemarle, had three sons
present at the taking of the Havannah. The eldest, Lord
Albemarle, commanded the land forces; the second, afterwards Lord
Keppel, was then captain of a man of war; and the third was
colonel of a regiment.
Letter 139 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Arlington Street, Oct. 4, 1762. (page 196)
I am concerned to hear you have been so much out of order, but
should rejoice your sole command(250) disappointed you, if this
late cannonading business(251) did not destroy all my little
prospects. Can one believe the French negotiators are sincere,
when their marshals are so false? What vexes me more is to hear
you seriously tell your brother that you are always unlucky, and
lose all opportunities of fighting. How can you be such a child?
You cannot, like a German, love fighting for its own sake. No:
you think of the mob of London, who, if you had taken Peru, would
forget you the first lord mayor's day, or for the first hyena
that comes to town. How can one build on virtue and on fame too?
When do they ever go together? In my passion, I could almost wish
you were as worthless and as great as the King of Prussia! If
conscience is a punishment, is not it a reward too? Go to that
silent tribunal, and be satisfied with its sentence.
I have nothing new to tell you. The Havannah is more likely to
break off the peace than to advance it.(252) We are not in a
humour to give up the world; anza, are much more disposed to
conquer the rest of it. We shall have some commanding here, I
believe, if we sign the peace. Mr. Pitt, from the bosom of his
retreat, has made Beckford mayor. The Duke of Newcastle, if not
taken in again, will probably end his life as he began it-at the
head of a mob. Personalities and abuse, public and private,
increase to the most outrageous degree, and yet the town is at
the emptiest. You may guess what will be the case in a month. I
do not see at all into the storm: I do not mean that there will
not be a great majority to vote any thing; but there are times
when even majorities cannot do all they are ready to do. Lord
Bute has certainly great luck, which is something in politics,
whatever it is in logic: but whether peace or war, I would not
give him much for the place he will have this day twelvemonth.
Adieu! The watchman goes past one in the morning; and as I have
nothing better than reflections and conjectures to send YOU, I
may as well go to bed.
(250) During Lord Granby's absence from the army in Flanders, the
command in chief had devolved on Mr. Conway.
(251) The affair of Bucker-Muhl.
(252) On this subject, Sir Joseph Yorke, in a letter to Mr.
Michell of the 9th of October, Observes, "All the world is struck
with the noble capture of the Havannah, which fell into our hands
on the Prince of Wales's birthday, as a just punishment upon the
Spaniards for their unjust quarrel with us, and for the supposed
difficulties they have raised in the negotiation for peace. By
what I hear from Paris, my old acquaintance Grimaldi is the cause
of the delay in signing the preliminaries, insisting upon points
neither France nor England would ever consent to grant, such as
the liberty of fishing at Newfoundland; a point we should not
dare to yield, as Mr. Pitt told them, though they were masters of
the Tower of London. What effect the taking of the Havannah will
have is uncertain; for the Spaniards have nothing to give us in
return."-E.
Letter 140 To George Montagu, Esq.
Strawberry Hill, Oct 14, 1762. (page 197)
You will not make your fortune in the admiralty at least; your
King's cousin is to cross over and figure in with George
Grenville; the latter takes the admiralty, Lord Halifax the
seals--still, I believe, reserving Ireland for pocket-money; at
least no new viceroy is named. mr. Fox undertakes the House of
Commons--and the peace--and the war--for if we have the first, we
may be pretty sure of the second.(253)
you see Lord Bute totters; reduced to shift hands so often, it
does not look like much stability. The campaign at Westminster
will be warm. When Mr. Pitt can have such a mouthful as Lord
Bute, Mr. Fox, and the peace, I do not think three thousand
pounds a year will stop it. Well, I shall go into my old corner
under the window, and laugh I had rather sit by my fire here; but
if there are to be bull-feasts, one would go and see them, when
one has a convenient box for nothing, and is very indifferent
about the cavalier combatants. Adieu!
(253) In a letter to Mr. Pitt, of this day's date, Mr. Nuthall
gives the ex-minister the following account of these changes:-
-"Mr. Fox kissed hands yesterday, as one of the cabinet; Lord
Halifax, as secretary of state, and Mr. George Grenville, as
first lord of the admiralty. Mr. Fox's present state of health,
it was given out, would not permit him to take the seals.
Charles Townshend was early yesterday morning sent for by Lord
Bute, who opened to him this new system, and offered him the
secretaryship of the plantations and board of trade, which he not
only refused, but refused all connexion and intercourse whatever
with the new counsellor, and spoke out freely. He was afterwards
three times in with the King, to whom be was more explicit, and
said things that did not a little alarm." Chatham Correspondence,
vol. ii. p. 181.-E.
Letter 141 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, Oct. 29, 1762. (page 198)
You take my philosophy very kindly, as it was meant; but I
suppose you smile a little in your sleeve to hear me turn
moralist. Yet why should not I? Must every absurd young man
prove a foolish old one? Not that I intend, when the latter term
is quite arrived, to profess preaching; nor should, I believe,
have talked so gravely to you, if your situation had not made me
grave. Till the campaign is ended, I shall be in no humour to
smile. For the war, when it will be over, I have no idea. The
peace is a jack o' lanthorn that dances before one's eyes, is
never approached, and at best seems ready to lead some follies
into a woful quagmire.
As your brother was in town, and I had my intelligence from him,
I concluded you would have the same, and therefore did not tell
you of this last resolution, which has brought Mr. Fox again upon
the scene. I have been in town but once since; yet learned
enough to confirm the opinion I had conceived, that the building
totters, and that this last buttress will but push on its fall.
Besides the clamorous opposition already encamped, the world
talks of another, composed of names not so often found in a
mutiny. What think you of the great Duke,(254) and the little
Duke,(255) and the old Duke,(256) and the Derbyshire Duke,(257)
banded together against the favourite?(258) If so, it proves the
Court, as the late Lord G * * * wrote to the mayor of Litchfield,
will have a majority in every thing but numbers. However, my
letter is a week old before I write it: things may have changed
since last Tuesday. Then the prospect was des plus gloomy.
Portugal at the eve of being conquered--Spain preferring a diadem
to the mural crown of the Havannah--a squadron taking horse for
Naples, to see whether King Carlos has any more private bowels
than public, whether he is a better father than brother. If what
I heard yesterday be true, that the Parliament is to be put off
till the 24th, it does not look as if they were ready in the
green-room, and despised catcalls.
You bid me send you the flower of brimstone, the best things
published in this season of outrage. I should not have waited
for orders, if I had met with the least tolerable morsel. But
this opposition ran stark mad at once, cursed, swore, called
names, and has not been one minute cool enough to have a grain of
wit. Their prints are gross, their papers scurrilous: indeed the
authors abuse one another more than any body else. I have not
seen a single ballad or epigram. They are as seriously dull as
if the controversy was religious. I do not take in a paper of
either side; and being very indifferent, the only way of being
impartial, they shall not make me pay till they make me laugh. I
am here quite' alone, and shall stay a fortnight longer, unless
the Parliament prorogued lengthens my holidays. I do not pretend
to be so indifferent, to have so little curiosity, as not to go
and see the Duke of Newcastle frightened for his country--the
only thing that never yet gave him a panic. Then I am still such
a schoolboy, that though I could guess half their orations, and
know all their meaning, I must go and hear Caesar and Pompey
scold in the Temple of Concord. As this age is to make such a
figure hereafter, how the Gronoviuses and Warburtons would
despise a senator that deserted the forum when the masters of the
world harangued! For, as this age is to be historic, so of
course it will be a standard of virtue too; and we, like our
wicked predecessors the Romans, shall be quoted, till our very
ghosts blush, as models of patriotism and magnanimity. What
lectures will be read to poor children on this era! Europe taught
to tremble, the great King humbled, the treasures of Peru
diverted into the Thames, Asia subdued by the gigantic Clive! for
in that age men were near seven feet high; France suing for peace
at the gates of Buckingham-house, the steady wisdom of the Duke
of Bedford drawing a circle round the Gallic monarch, and
forbidding him to pass it till he had signed the cession of
America; Pitt more eloquent than Demosthenes, and trampling on
proffered pensions like-I don't know who; Lord Temple sacrificing
a brother to the love of his country; Wilkes as spotless as
Sallust, and the Flamen Churchill(259) knocking down the foes of
Britain with statues of the gods!-Oh! I am out of breath with
eloquence and prophecy, and truth and lies; my narrow chest was
not formed to hold inspiration! I must return to piddling with
my painters: those lofty subjects are too much for me. Good
night!
P. S. I forgot to tell -you that Gideon, who is dead worth more
than the whole land of canaan, has left the reversion of all his
milk and honey, after his son and daughter and their children, to
the Duke of Devonshire, without insisting on his taking the name,
or even being circumcised. Lord Albemarle is expected home in
December. My nephew Keppel(260) is Bishop of Exeter, not of the
Havannah, as you may imagine, for his mitre was promised the day
before the news came.
(254) Of Cumberland.
(255) Of Bedford.
(256) Of Newcastle.
(257) Of Devonshire.
(258) The Earl of Bute.
(259) Charles Churchill the poet.
(260) Frederick Keppel, youngest brother of George Earl of
Albemarle, who commanded at taking the Havannah, had married
Laura, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Walpole.
Letter 142 To The Right Hon. Lady Hervey.
Strawberry Hill, Oct. 31, 1762. (page 200)
Madam,
It is too late, I fear, to attempt acknowledging the honour
Madame de Chabot,(261) does me; and yet, if she is not gone, I
would fain not appear ungrateful. I do not know where she lives,
or I would not take the liberty again of making your ladyship my
penny-post. If she is gone, you will throw my note into the
fire.
Pray, Madam, blow your nose with a piece of flannel-not that I
believe it will do you the least good--but, as all wise folks
think it becomes them to recommend nursing and flannelling the
gout, imitate them; and I don't know any other way of lapping it
up, when it appears in the person of a running cold. I will make
it a visit on Tuesday next, and shall hope to find it tolerably
vented.
P. S. You must tell me all the news when I arrive, for I know
nothing of what is passing. I have only seen in the papers, that
the cock and hen doves(262) that went to Paris not having been
able to make peace, there is a third dove(263) just flown thither
to help them.
(261) Lady Mary Chabot, daughter of the Earl of Stafford.
(262) The Duke and Duchess of Bedford.
(263) Mr. Hans Stanley.
letter 143 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Thursday, Nov. 4, 1762. (page 200)
The events of these last eight days will make you stare. This
day se'nnight the Duke of Devonshire came to town, was flatly
refused an audience, and gave up his key. Yesterday Lord
Rockingham resigned, and your cousin Manchester was named to the
bedchamber. The King then in council called for the book, and
dashed out the Duke of Devonshire's name. If you like spirit, en
Voila! Do you know I am sorry for all this? You will not
suspect me of tenderness for his grace of Devonshire, nor,
recollecting how the whole house of Cavendish treated me on my
breach with my uncle, will any affronts, that happen to them,
call forth my tears. But I think the act too violent and too
serious, and dipped in a deeper dye than I like in politics.
Squabbles, and speeches, and virtue, and prostitution, amuse one
sometimes; less and less indeed every day; but measures, from
which you must advance and cannot retreat, is a game too deep;
one neither knows who may be involved, nor where may be the end.
It is not pleasant. Adieu!
Letter 144 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, Nov. 13, 1762. (page 201)
Dear sir,
You will easily guess that my delay in answering your obliging
letter, was solely owing to my not knowing whither to direct to
you. I waited till I thought you may be returned home. Thank
you for all the trouble you have given, and do give yourself for
me; it is vastly more than I deserve.
Duke Richard's portrait I willingly wave, at least for the
present, till one can find out who he is. I have more curiosity
about the figures of Henry VII. at Christ's College. I shall be
glad some time or other to visit them, to see how far either of
them agree with his portrait in my picture of his marriage. St.
Ethelreda was mighty welcome.
We have had variety of weather since I saw you, but I fear none
of the patterns made your journey more agreeable.
Letter 145 To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Dec. 20, 1762. (page 201)
As I am far from having been better since I wrote to you last, my
postchaise points more and more to Naples. Yet Strawberry, like
a mistress, As oft as I descend the hill of health, Washes my
hold away. Your company would have made me decide much faster,
but I see I have little hopes of that, nor can I blame you; I
don't use so rough a word with regard to myself, but to your
pursuing your amusement, which I am sure the journey Would be. I
never doubted your kindness to me one moment; the affectionate
manner in which you offered, three weeks ago, to accompany me to
Bath, Will never be forgotten. I do not think my complaint very
serious: for how can it be so, when it has never confined me a
whole day? But my mornings are so bad, and I have had so much
more pain this last week, with restless nights, that I am
convinced it must not be trifled with. Yet I think Italy would
be the last thing I would try, if it were 'not to avoid politics:
yet I hear nothing else. The court and opposition both grow more
violent every day from the same cause; the victory of the former.
Both sides torment me with their affairs, though it is so plain I
do not care a straw about either. I wish I -were great enough to
say, as a French officer on the stage at Paris said to the pit,
"Accordez vous, canaille!" Yet to a man without ambition or
interestedness, politicians are canaille. Nothing appears to me
more ridiculous in my life than my having ever loved their
squabbles, and that at an age when I loved better things too! My
poor neutrality, which thing I signed with all the world,
subjects me, like other insignificant monarchs on parallel
occasions, to affronts. On Thursday I was summoned to Princess
Emily's loo. Loo she called it, politics it was. The second
thing she said to me was, "How were you the two long days?"
"Madam, I was only there the first." "And how did you vote!"
"Madam, I went away." "Upon my word, that was carving well."
Not a very pleasant apostrophe to one who certainly never was a
time-server! Well, we sat down. She said, "I hear Wilkinson is
turned out, and that Sir Edward Winnington is to have his place;
who is he?" addressing herself to me, who sat over against her.
"He is the late Mr. Winnington's heir, Madam." "Did you like
that Winnington?" "I can't but say I did, Madam." She shrugged
her shoulders, and continued; "Winnington originally was a great
Tory; what do you think he was when he died?" "Madam, I believe
what all people are in place." Pray, Mr. Montagu, do you
perceive any thing rude or offensive in this? Hear then: she
flew into the most outrageous passion, Coloured like scarlet, and
said, "None of your wit; I don't understand joking on those
subjects; what do you think your father would have said if he had
heard you say so? He Would have murdered you, and you would have
deserved it." I was quite Confounded and amazed; it was
impossible to explain myself across a loo-table, as she is so
deaf: there was no making a reply to a woman and a Princess, and
particularly for me, who have made it a rule, when I must
converse with royalties, to treat them with the greatest respect,
since it is all the court they will ever have from me. I said to
those on each side of me, "What can I do? I cannot explain
myself now." Well, I held my peace, and so did she for a quarter
of an hour. Then she began with me again, examined me on the
whole debate, and at last asked me directly, which I thought the
best speaker, my father or Mr. Pitt. If possible, this was more
distressing than her anger. I replied, it was impossible to
compare two men so different: that I believed my father was more
a man of business than Mr. Pitt. "Well, but Mr. Pitt's
language?" "Madam," said I, "I have always been remarkable for
admiring Mr. Pitt's language." At last, this unpleasant scene
ended; but as we were going away, I went close to her, and said,
"Madam, I must beg leave to explain myself; your royal highness
has seemed to be very angry with me, and I am sure I did not mean
to offend you: all I intended to say was, that I supposed Tories
were Whigs when they got places!" "Oh!" said she, "I am very
much obliged to you; indeed, I was very angry." Why she was
angry, or what she thought I meaned, I do not know to this
moment, unless she supposed that I would have hinted that the
Duke of Newcastle and the opposition were not men of consummate
virtue, and had lost their places out of principle. The very
reverse was at that time in my head; for I meaned that the Tories
would be just as loyal as the Whigs, when they got any thing by
it.
You will laugh at my distresses, and in truth they are little
serious yet they almost put me out of humour. If your cousin
realizes his fair words to you, I shall be very good-humoured
again. I am not so morose as to dislike my friends for being in
place; indeed, if they are in great place, my friendship goes to
sleep like a paroli at pharaoh, and does not wake again till
their deal is over. Good night!
Letter 146 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Arlington Street, Dec. 23, 1762. (page 203)
Dear sir,
You are always abundantly kind to me, and pass my power of
thanking you. You do nothing but give yourself trouble and me
presents. My cousin Calthorpe is a great rarity, and I think I
ought, therefore, to return him to you; but that would not be
treating him like a relation, or you like a
friend. My ancestor's epitaph, too, was very agreeable to me.
I have not been at Strawberry Hill these three weeks. My maid is
ill there, and I have not been well myself with the same flying
gout in my stomach and breast, of which you heard me complain a
little in the summer. I am much persuaded to go to a warmer
climate, which often disperses these unsettled complaints. I do
not care for it, nor can determine till I see I grow worse: if I
do (To, I hope it will not be for long; and you shall certainly
hear again before I set out.
Letter 147
To The Hon. H. S. Conway.