I did not intend to have troubled you till Monday or Tuesday, but I
have this moment found a note from Mrs. P. requesting some game, to
answer a hare, on Wednesday. At this season I know of no game but a
Turkey. Holroyd is in town, as active but not so effectual as I could
wish. He is pleased with Bricknall's _four_ plans, but wishes that he
would sketch out the outlines of them, on a single piece of paper,
that their relative situation may be seen at one view. Adieu, Dear
Madam, and believe me,
Ever yours,
E. G.
[Sidenote: THE ROYAL MARRIAGE ACT.]
124.
_To J. B. Holroyd, Esq._
Boodle's, 10 o'clock, Monday night, Feb. 3rd, 1772.
*I love, honour, and respect every member of Sheffield-place; even my
great enemy Datch,[153] to whom you will please to convey my sincere
wishes, that no _simpleton_ may wait on him at dinner, that his wise
Papa may not show him any pictures, and that his much wiser Mamma may
chain him hand and foot, in direct contradiction to Magna Charta and
the Bill of Rights.
[Sidenote: THE OPENING OF THE PANTHEON.]
It is difficult to write news--because there are none. Parliament is
perfectly quiet; and I think that Barré,[154] who is just now playing
at Whist in the Room, will not have exercise of the lungs, except,
perhaps, on a Message much talked of, and soon expected, to recommend
it to the wisdom of the H. of C. to provide a proper future remedy
against the improper marriages of the younger branches of the royal
family.[155] The noise of Lutteral[156] is subsided, but there was
some foundation for it. The Colonel's expenses in his bold enterprise
were yet unpaid by government. The Hero threatened, assumed the
Patriot, received a sop, and again sunk into the Courtier. As to
Denmark, it seems now that the king, who was totally unfit for
government, has only passed from the hands of his Queen Wife to those
of his Queen Mother-in-Law. The former is said to have indulged a
very _vague_ taste in her Amours. She would not be admitted into the
Pantheon,[157] from whence the _Gentlemen Proprietors_ exclude all
beauty, unless unspotted and immaculate (tautology, by the by). The
_Gentlemen Proprietors_, on the other hand, are friends and patrons
of the Leopard Beauties. Advertising challenges have passed between
the two Great Factions, and a bloody battle is expected Wednesday
Night. _A propos_, the Pantheon, in point of Ennui and Magnificence,
is the wonder of the XVIIIth Century and the British Empire. Adieu.*
[153] The name by which Mr. Holroyd's son called himself.
[154] Colonel Isaac Barré (1726-1802), succeeded Lord Fitzmaurice
as M.P. for Chipping Wycombe in 1761. He afterwards sat for
Calne. He had served under Wolfe at Quebec, and appears in
West's famous picture of the death of Wolfe. At the battle he
lost his left eye, and in his picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds the
right side of his face is turned towards the spectator. He was
a prominent opponent of Lord North, and held office under the
first Pitt, and subsequently in the Rockingham and Shelburne
administrations.
[155] The Duke of Cumberland married, in October, 1771, Mrs.
Horton, a daughter of Simon Luttrell, Lord Irnham (afterwards
Earl of Carhampton), "a young widow of twenty-four, with the
most amorous eyes in the world, and eyelashes a yard long." The
Duke of Gloucester, a few months later, avowed his clandestine
marriage with Maria, an illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward
Walpole, and widow of the second Earl of Waldegrave. The Royal
Marriage Bill was brought in, in consequence of these marriages,
on February 20, 1772, and became law in the following March.
[156] Colonel Luttrell (1743-1821), brother of the Duchess of
Cumberland, had been declared by the House to be elected for
Middlesex against Wilkes in April, 1769, although the latter
polled 1143 votes to Colonel Luttrell's 296. He was made
adjutant-general of the land forces in Ireland; but in 1772,
being discontented with the post, threatened to resign his
seat for Middlesex, and so renew the struggle with Wilkes. The
circumstances in which the appointment was made are noticed by
Junius (August 22, 1770).
[157] Walpole, writing in May, 1770, speaks of "a winter-Ranelagh
erecting in Oxford Road at the expense of sixty thousand
pounds." "Imagine Balbec in all its glory!" he writes, when
it was approaching completion in April, 1771. The Pantheon,
built by Wyatt, was opened on January 27, 1772, "to a crowded
company of between fifteen hundred and two thousand people. In
point of consequence, the company were an olio of all sorts;
peers, peeresses, honourables, and right honourables, jew
brokers, demireps, lottery insurers, and quack doctors" (_Annual
Register_). It was destroyed by fire on January 16, 1792.
Gentlemen and ladies could only subscribe to the Pantheon on
the recommendation of a peeress, in order to prevent, as the
proprietors announce in the _Gazetteer_ (December 17, 1771),
"such persons only from obtaining subscriptions whose appearance
might not only be improper but subversive of that elegance and
propriety which they wish on every occasion to preserve." On the
other hand, once admitted to be subscribers, they could introduce
friends of any or no character. The struggle between the two
factions was decided by the efforts of a number of gentlemen,
headed by Mr. William Hanger, who, with drawn swords, succeeded
in forcing an entrance for Mrs. Baddeley. Possibly Gibbon
meant, instead of repeating "Gentlemen Proprietors," to mark
the contrast by writing "Gentlemen Subscribers" in the second
sentence. The dispute is alluded to in a poem published in 1772,
called _The Pantheon Rupture; or, A Dispute between Elegance and
Reason_. In their dialogue Elegance says--
"I glory to keep on a _virtuous course_,
And hate the very name of a _divorce_;
Besides the _Managers_ admit none in,
That e'er were known to have committed sin;--
The needy dame, who makes of love a trade,
These _Realms of Virtue_ must not dare invade;
The company's selected from a class
Too chaste to suffer _demireps_ to pass.