STRAWBERRY HILL, _July_ 4, 1757.
My Dear Lord,--It is well I have not obeyed you sooner, as I have often
been going to do: what a heap of lies and contradictions I should have
sent you! What joint ministries and sole ministries! What acceptances
and resignations!--Viziers and bowstrings never succeeded one another
quicker. Luckily I have stayed till we have got an administration that
will last a little more than for ever. There is such content and harmony
in it, that I don't know whether it is not as perfect as a plan which I
formed for Charles Stanhope, after he had plagued me for two days for
news. I told him the Duke of Newcastle was to take orders, and have the
reversion of the bishopric of Winchester; that Mr. Pitt was to have a
regiment, and go over to the Duke; and Mr. Fox to be chamberlain to the
Princess, in the room of Sir William Irby. Of all the new system I
believe the happiest is Offley; though in great humility he says he only
takes the bedchamber _to accommodate_. Next to him in joy is the Earl of
Holdernesse--who has not got the garter. My Lord Waldegrave has; and
the garter by this time I believe has got fifty spots.
Had I written sooner, I should have told your lordship, too, of the King
of Prussia's triumphs[1]--but they are addled too! I hoped to have had a
few bricks from Prague to send you towards building Mr. Bentley's
design, but I fear none will come from thence this summer. Thank God,
the happiness of the menagerie does not depend upon administrations or
victories! The happiest of beings in this part of the world is my Lady
Suffolk: I really think her acquisition and conclusion of her law-suit
will lengthen her life ten years. You may be sure I am not so satisfied,
as Lady Mary [Coke] has left Sudbroke.
[Footnote 1: On the 6th of May Frederic defeated the Austrian army under
Prince Charles of Lorraine and Marshal Brown in the battle of Prague.
Brown was killed, as also was the Prussian Marshal, Schwerin; indeed,
the King lost eighteen thousand men--nearly as many as had fallen on the
side of the enemy; and the Austrian disaster was more than retrieved by
the great victory of Kolin, gained by Marshal Daun, June 18th, to which
Walpole probably alludes when he says Frederic's "triumphs are addled."]
Are your charming lawns burnt up like our humble hills? Is your sweet
river as low as our deserted Thames?--I am wishing for a handful or two
of those floods that drowned me last year all the way from Wentworth
Castle. I beg my best compliments to my lady, and my best wishes that
every pheasant egg and peacock egg may produce as many colours as a
harlequin-jacket.
_Tuesday, July 5th._
Luckily, my good lord, my conscience had saved its distance. I had writ
the above last night, when I received the honour of your kind letter
this morning. You had, as I did not doubt, received accounts of all our
strange histories. For that of the pretty Countess [of Coventry], I fear
there is too much truth in all you have heard: but you don't seem to
know that Lord Corydon and Captain Corydon his brother have been most
abominable. I don't care to write scandal; but when I see you, I will
tell you how much the chits deserve to be whipped. Our favourite general
[Conway] is at his camp: Lady Ailesbury don't go to him these three
weeks. I expect the pleasure of seeing her and Miss Rich and Fred.
Campbell here soon for a few days. I don't wonder your lordship likes
St. Philippe better than Torcy:[1] except a few passages interesting to
Englishmen, there cannot be a more dry narration than the latter. There
is an addition of seven volumes of Universal History to Voltaire's
Works, which I think will charm you: I almost like it the best of his
works. It is what you have seen extended, and the Memoirs of Louis XIV.
_refondues_ in it. He is a little tiresome with contradicting La
Beaumelle and Voltaire, one remains with scarce a fixed idea about that
time. I wish they would produce their authorities and proofs; without
which, I am grown to believe neither. From mistakes in the English part,
I suppose there are great ones in the more distant histories; yet
altogether it is a fine work. He is, as one might believe, worst
informed on the present times.--He says eight hundred persons were put
to death for the last Rebellion--I don't believe a quarter of the number
were: and he makes the first Lord Derwentwater--who, poor man! was in no
such high-spirited mood--bring his son, who by the way was not above a
year and a half old, upon the scaffold to be sprinkled with his
blood.--However, he is in the right to expect to be believed: for he
believes all the romances in Lord Anson's Voyage, and how Admiral
Almanzor made one man-of-war box the ears of the whole empire of
China!--I know nothing else new but a new edition of Dr. Young's Works.
If your lordship thinks like me, who hold that even in his most frantic
rhapsodies there are innumerable fine things, you will like to have this
edition. Adieu, once more, my best lord!
[Footnote 1: Torcy had been Secretary of State in the time of Louis
XIV., and was the diplomatist who arranged the details of the First
Partition Treaty with William III.]
_HIS OWN "ROYAL AND NOBLE AUTHORS."_