Liotard, the painter, is arrived, and has brought me Marivaux's

picture, which gives one a very different idea from what one

conceives of the author of Marianne, though it is reckoned

extremely like: the countenance is a mixture of buffoon and

villain. I told you what mishap I had with Cr`ebillon's

portrait: he has had the foolish dirtiness to keep it. Liotard

is a G`en`evois; but from having lived at Constantinopole, he

wears a Turkish habit, and a beard down to his girdle: this,

and his extravagant prices, which he has raised even beyond

what he asked at Paris, will probably get him as much money as

he covets, for he is avaricious beyond imagination. His

crayons and his water-colours are very fine; his enamel, hard:

in general, he is too Dutch, and admires nothing but excess of

finishing.

We have nothing new but two or three new plays, and those not

worth sending to you. The answer to the Prussian memorial,

drawn chiefly by Murray, is short, full, very fine, and has

more spirit than I thought we had by us. The whole is rather

too good, as I believe our best policy would have been, to be

in the wrong, and make satisfaction for having been ill-used:

the author with whom we have to deal, is not a sort of man to

stop at being confuted. Adieu!

(369) Sir Henry Liddel, Baron of Ravensworth.

(370) "Upon the whole matter," says the Hon. Philip Yorke, in

his MS. Parliamentary Journal, "the lords came unanimously to

an opinion of reporting to the King, that there appeared to

them no foundation for any part of the charge; that Mr.

Fawcett, the only evidence, had grossly prevaricated in it:

that it was malicious and scandalous, and ought not to affect

the character of the Bishop, or either of the gentlemen who

were aspersed by it."-E.

159 Letter 73

To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, March 27, 1753.

Such an event as I mentioned to you in my last, has, you may

well believe, had some consequences; but only enough to show

what it would have had in less quiet times. Last week the Duke

of Bedford moved in the House of Commons to have all the papers

relating to Lord Ravensworth and Fawcett laid before them. As

he had given notice of his intention, the ministry, in a great

fright, had taken all kind of precaution to defeat the motion;

and succeeded--if it can be called success to have quashed the

demand, and thereby confirmed the suspicions. After several

councils, it was determined, that all the cabinet councillors

should severally declare the insufficience and prevarication of

Fawcett's evidence: they did, and the motion Was rejected by

122 to 5.(371) If one was prejudiced by classic notions of the

wisdom and integrity of a senate, that debate would have cured

them. The flattery to Stone was beyond belief: I will give you

but one instance. The Duke of Argyll said, "He had happened to

be at the secretary's office during the rebellion, when two

Scotchmen came to ask for a place, which one obtained, the

other lost, but went away best pleased, from Mr. Stone's

gracious manner of refusal!" It appeared in the most glaring

manner, that the Bishop of Gloucester had dictated to Fawcett a

letter of acquittal to himself; and not content with that, had

endeavoured to persuade him to make additions to it some days

after. It was as plain, that Fawcett had never prevaricated

till these private interviews(372) With the prelate-yet there

were 122 to 5!

I take for granted our politics adjourn here till next winter

unless there should be any Prussian episode. It is difficult

to believe that that King has gone so far, without intending to

go farther: if he is satisfied with the answer to his memorial,

though it is the fullest that ever was made, yet it will be the

first time that ever a monarch was convinced! For a King of the

Romans, it seems as likely that we should see a King of the

Jews.

Your brother has got the paper for your room. He shall send

you with it a fine book which I have had printed of' Gray's

poems, with drawings by another friend of mine, which I am sure

will charm you, though none of them are quite well engraved,

and some sadly. Adieu! I am all brick and mortar: the castle

at Strawberry Hill grows so near a termination, that you must not

be angry if I wish to have you see it. Mr. Bentley is going to

make a drawing of the best view, which I propose to have

engraved, and then you shall at least have some idea of that

sweet little spot--little enough, but very sweet!

(371) "The debate was long and heavy; the Duke of Bedford's

performance moderate enough: he divided the House, but it was

not told, for there went below the bar with him the Earl of

Harcourt, Lord Townshend, the Bishop of Worcester, and Lord

Talbot only. Upon the whole, it was the worst judged, the

worst executed, and the worst supported point, that I ever saw

of so much expectations" Dodington, p. 202.-E.

(372) This insignificant, and indeed ridiculous accusation,

against Murray and Stone, is magnified by Walpole, both here

and in his Memoire,,,, into an important transaction, in

consequence of the hatred he bore to the persons accused,-D.

["The accusation was justly ridiculed by the wits of the day,

as a counterpart to the mountain in labour; and the Pelhams had

the satisfaction of seeing it terminate in the full exculpation

of their friends, the Solicitor-general and Mr. Stone." Coxe's

Pelham, vol. ii, p. 263.]

(373) On receiving a proof of the tail-piece, which Mr. Bentley

had designed for the Elegy in a Country Churchyard, and which

represents a village funeral, Gray wrote to Walpole: "I am

surprised at the print, which far surpasses my idea of London

graving: the drawing itself was so finished, that I suppose it

did not require all the art I imagined to copy it tolerably.

My aunts seeing me open your letter, took it to be a burying-

ticket, and asked whether any body had left me a ring; and so

they still conceive it to be, even with all their spectacles

on. Heaven forbid they should suspect it to belong to any

verses of mine! They would burn me for a poet." Works, vol.

iii. p. 105.-E.

161 Letter 74

To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, April 16, 1753.

Dear Sir,

I know I never give you more pleasure than in recommending such

an acquaintance as Mr. Stephens, a young gentleman now in

Italy, of whom I have heard from the best hands the greatest

and most amiable character. He is brother-in-law of Mr.

West,(374) Mr. Pelham's secretary, and (to you I may add,) as I

know it will be an additional motive to increase your

attentions to his relation, a particular friend of mine. I beg

you will do for my sake, what you always do from your own

goodness of heart, make Florence as agreeable to him as

possible: I have the strongest reasons to believe that you will

want no incitement the moment you begin to know Mr. Stephens.

(374) James West, member for St. Albans, secretary to Mr.

Pelham as chancellor of the exchequer, secretary to the

treasury, treasurer to the Royal Society, and member of the

Antiquarian Society, married the sister of this Mr. Stephens.

161 Letter 75

To Sir Horace Mann.

Strawberry Hill, April 27, 1753.

I have brought two of your letters hither to answer: in town

there are so many idle people besides oneself, that one has not

a minute's time; here I have whole evenings, after the labours

of the day are ceased. Labours they are, I assure you; I have

carpenters to direct, plasterers to hurry, papermen to scold,

and glaziers to help: this last is my greatest pleasure: I have

amassed such quantities of painted glass, that every window in

my castle will be illuminated with it: the adjusting and

disposing it is vast amusement. I thank you a thousand times

for thinking of procuring me some Gothic remains from Rome; but

I believe there is no such thing there: I scarce remember any

morsel in the true taste of it in Italy. indeed, my dear Sir,

kind as you are about it, I perceive you have no idea what

Gothic is; you have lived too long amidst true taste, to

understand venerable barbarism. You say, "You suppose my

garden is to be Gothic too." That can't be; Gothic is merely

architecture; and as one has a satisfaction in imprinting the

gloom of abbeys and cathedrals on one's house, so one's garden,

on the contrary, is to be nothing but riot, and the gaiety of

nature. I am greatly impatient for my altar, and so far from

mistrusting its goodness, I only fear it will be too good to

expose to the weather, as I intend it must be, in a recess in the

garden. I was going to tell you that my house is so monastic,

that I have a little hall decked with long saints in lean arched

windows, and with taper columns, which we call the Paraclete, in

memory of Eloisa's cloister.(375)

I am glad you have got rid of your duel, bloodguiltless:

Captain Lee had ill luck in lighting upon a Lorrain officer; he

might have boxed the ears of the whole Florentine nobility,

(con rispetto si dice,) and not have occasioned you half the

trouble you have had in accommodating this quarrel.

You need not distrust Mr. Conway and me for showing any

attentions to Prince San Severino,(376) that may convince him

of' our regard for you; I only hope he will not arrive till

towards winter, for Mr. Conway is gone to his regiment in

Ireland, and my chateau is so far from finished, that I am by

no means in a condition to harbour a princely ambassador. By

next spring I hope to have rusty armour, and arms with

quarterings enough to persuade him that I am qualified to be

Grand Master of Malta. If you could send me Viviani,(377 with

his invisible architects out of the Arabian tales, I might get

my house ready at a day's warning; especially as it will not be

quite so lofty as the triumphal arch at Florence.

What you say you have heard of strange conspiracies, fomented

by our nephew(378) is not entirely groundless. A Dr.

Cameron(379) has been seized in Scotland, who certainly came

over with commission to feel the ground. He is brought to

London; but nobody troubles their head about him, or any thing

else, but Newmarket, where the Duke is at present making a

campaign, with half the nobility and half the money of England

attending him: they really say, that not less than a hundred

thousand pounds have been carried thither for the hazard of this

single week. The palace has been furnished for him from the

great wardrobe, though the chief person(380) concerned flatters

himself that his son is at the expense of his own amusement

there.

I must now tell you how I have been treated by an old friend of

yours--don't be frightened, and conclude that this will make

against your friend San Severino: he is only a private prince;

the rogue in Question is a monarch. Your brother has sent you

some weekly papers that are much in fashion, called "The

World;" three or four of them are by a friend of yours; one

particularly I wrote to promote a subscription for King

Theodore, who is in prison for debt. His Majesty's character

is so bad, that it only raised fifty pounds; and though that

was so much above his desert, it was so much below his

expectation, that he sent a solicitor to threaten the printer

with a prosecution for having taken so much liberty with his

name--take notice too, that he had accepted the money! Dodsley,

you may believe, laughed at the lawyer; but that does not

lessen the dirty knavery. It would indeed have made an

excellent suit! a printer prosecuted suppose for having

solicited and obtained charity for a man in prison, and that

man not mentioned by his right name, but by a mock title, and

the man himself not a native of the country!--but I have done

with countenancing kings!

Lord Bath has contributed a paper to the World, but seems to

have entirely lost all his wit and genius: it is a plain heavy

description of Newmarket, with scarce an effort towards

humour.(381) I had conceived the greatest expectations from a

production of his, especially in the way of the Spectator; but

I M now assured by Franklyn, the old printer of the Craftsman,

(who by a comical revolution of things, is a tenant of mine at

Twickenham,) that Lord Bath never wrote a Craftsman himself,

only gave hints for them--yet great part of his reputation was

built on those papers. Next week my Lord chesterfield appears

in the World(382)--I expect much less from him than I did from

Lord Bath, but it is very certain that his name will make it

applauded. Adieu!

P.S. Since I came to town, I hear that my Lord Granville has

cut another colt's tooth-in short, they say he is going to be

married again; it is to Lady Juliana Collier,(383) a very

pretty girl, daughter of Lord Portmore: there are not above two

or three and forty years difference in their ages, and not

above three bottles difference in @ their drinking in a day, so

it is a very suitable match! She will not make so good a Queen

as our friend Sophia, but will like better, I suppose, to make

a widow. If this should not turn out true,(384) I can't help

it.

(375) "Where awful arches make a noonday night,

And the dim windows shade a solemn light."-Pope.-E.

(376) Ambassador from the King of Naples.

(377) Viviani, a Florentine nobleman, showing the triumphal

arch there to Prince San Severino, assured him, and insisted

upon it, that it was begun and finished in twenty-four hours!

(378) The King of Prussia.

(379) This is a strange story, and it is difficult to believe

that the King of Prussia was concerned in it. In his Memoires,

Walpole gives the following account of the taking of Dr.

Cameron:--"About this time was taken in Scotland, Dr. Archibald

Cameron, a man excepted by the act of indemnity. Intelligence

had been received some time before of his intended journey to

Britain, with a commission from Prussia to offer arms to the

disaffected Highlanders, at the same time that ships were

hiring in the north to transport men. The fairness of Dr.

Cameron's character, compared with the severity he met from a

government most laudably mild to its enemies, confirmed this

report. That Prussia, who opened its inhospitable arms to

every British rebel, should have tampered in such a business,

was by no means improbable. That King hated his uncle: but

could a Protestant potentate dip in designs for restoring a

popish government? Of what religion is policy? To what sect is

royal revenge bigoted? The Queen-dowager, though sister of our

King, was avowedly a Jacobite, by principle so-and it was

natural: what Prince, but the single one who profits by the

principle, can ever think it allowable to overturn sacred

hereditary right? It is the curse of sovereigns that their

crimes should be unpunishable."-D.

(380) The King.

(381) No. 17, giving an account of the races and manners at

Newmarket.-E.

(382) It forms the 18th number, and is entitled " A Country

Gentleman's Tour to Paris with his family."-E.

(383) Lady Juliana Collier, youngest daughter of Charles,

second Earl of Portmore, by Juliana hale, Duchess-dowager of

Leeds. She married, in 1759, James Dawkins, Esq. of

Standlinch, in Wiltshire.-D.

(384) It did not happen.

164 Letter 76

To The Hon. H. S. Conway.

Strawberry Hill, May 5, 1753.

Though my letter bears a country date, I am only a passenger

here, just come to overlook my workmen, and repose myself upon

some shavings, after the fatigues of the season. You know

balls and masquerades always abound as the weather be(,Ins to

be too hot for them, and this has been quite a spring-tide of

diversion. Not that I am so abandoned as to have partaken of

all; I neither made the Newmarket campaign under the Duke, nor

danced at any ball, nor looked well at any masquerade: I begin

to submit to my years, and amuse myself-only just as much as I

like. Indeed, when parties and politics are at an end, an

Englishman may be allowed not to b always grave and out of

humour. His Royal Highness has won as many hearts at Newmarket

as he lost in Scotland; he played deep and handsomely; received

every body at his table with the greatest good humour, and

permitted the familiarities of the place with ease and sense.

There have been balls at the Duchess of Norfolk's, at

Holland-house, and Lord Granville's, and a subscription

masquerade: the dresses were not very fine, not much invention,

nor any very absurd. I find I am telling you extreme trifles;

but you desired me to write; and there literally happens

nothing of greater moment. If I can fill out a sheet even in

this way, I will; for at Sligo(385) perhaps I may appear a

journalist of consequence.

There is a Madame de Mezi`eres arrived from Paris, who has said

a thousand impertinent things to my Lady Albemarle, on my

lord's not letting her come to Paris.(386) I should not repeat

this to you, only to introduce George Selwyn's account of this

woman who, he says, is mother to the Princess of Montauban,

grandmother to Madame de Brionne, sister to General Oglethorpe,

and was laundress to the Duchess of Portsmouth.

Sir Charles Williams, never very happy at panegyric, has made a

distich on the Queen of Hungary, which I send you for the

curiosity, not the merit of it:

"O regina orbis prima et pulcherrima, ridens

Es Venus, incedens Juno, Minerva loquens."

It is infinitely admired at Vienna, but Baron Munchausen has

received a translation of it into German in six verses, which

are still more applauded.

There is another volume published of Lord Bolinbroke's: it

contains his famous Letter to Sir William Windham, with an

admirable description of the Pretender and hi Court, and a very

poor justification of his own treachery to that party; a flimsy

unfinished State of the Nation, written at the end of his life,

and the commonplace tautology of an old politician, who lives out

of the world and writes from newspapers; and a superficial letter

to Mr. Pope, as an introduction to his Essays, which are printed,

but not yet published.

What shall I say to you more? You see how I am forced to tack

paragraphs together, without any connexion or consequence!

Shall I tell you one more idle story, and will you just

recollect that you once concerned yourself enough about the

heroine of it, to excuse my repeating such a piece of

tittle-tattle? This heroine is Lady Harrington, the hero is--

not entirely of royal blood; at least I have never heard that

Lodomie, the toothdrawer, was in any manner descended from the

house of Bourbon. Don't be alarmed: this plebeian operator is

not in the catalogue of your successors. How the lady was the

aggressor is not known; 'tis only conjectured that French

politeness and French interestedness could never have gone such

lengths without mighty provocation. The first instance of the

toothdrawer's un-gentle behaviour was on hearing it said that

Lady Harrington was to have her four girls drawn by Liotard;

which was wondered at, as his price is so great--"Oh!" said

Lodomie, "chacune paie pour la sienne." Soon after this

insult, there was some dispute about payments and toothpowder,

and divers messages passed. At last the lady wrote a card, to

say she did not understand such impertinent answers being given

to her chairman by an arracheur de dents. The angry little

gentleman, with as much intrepidity as if he had drawn out all

her teeth, tore the card in five slits, and returned it with

this astonishing sentence, "I return you your impertinent card,

and desire you will pay me what you owe me." All I know more

is, that the toothdrawer still lives; and so do many lords and

gentlemen, formerly thought the slaves of the offended fair

one's will and passions, and among others, to his great shame,

your sincere friend.

(385) Mr. Conway was then with his regiment quartered at Sligo

in Ireland.

(386) Lord Albemarle was then ambassador at Paris.

165 Letter 77

To George Montagu, Esq.

Strawberry Hill, May 22, 1753.

You may very possibly be set out for Greatworth, but what house

Greatworth is, or whose, or how you came to have it, is all a

profound secret to us: your transitions arc so Pindaric, that,

without notes, we do not understand them, especially as neither

Mr. Bentley nor I have seen any of the letters, which I suppose

you have written to your family in the intervals of your

journeyings from Sir Jonathan Cope's(387) to Roel, and from

Roel to Greatworth. Mr. Bentley was just ready to send you

down a packet of Gothic, and brick and mortar, and arched

windows, and taper columns to be erected at Roel--no such

matter, you have met with some brave chambers belonging to Sir

Jonathan somebody in Northamptonshire, and are unloading your

camels and caravan,.;, and pitching your tents among your own

tribe. I cannot be quite sorry, for I shall certainly visit

you at Greatworth, and it might have been some years before the

curtain had drawn up at Roel. We emerge very fast out of

shavings, and hammerings, and pastings; the painted glass is

full-blown in every window, and the gorgeous saints, that were

brought out for one day on the festival of Saint George

Montagu, are fixed for ever in the tabernacles they are to

inhabit.- The castle is not the only beauty: and to-day we had

a glimpse of the sun as he passed by, though I am convinced the

summer is over; for these two last years we have been forced to

compound for five hot days in the pound.

News there is none to tell you. We had two days in the House

of Commons, that had something of the air of Parliament; there

has been a Marriage-bill, invented by my Lord Bath, and cooked

up by the Chancellor, which was warmly opposed by the Duke of

Bedford in the Lords, and with us by Fox and Nugent: the latter

made an admirable speech last week against it, and Charles

Townshend,(388) another very good one yesterday, when we sat

till near ten o'clock, but were beat, we minority, by 165 to

84.

I know nothing else but elopements: I have lost my man Henry,

who is run away for debt; and my Lord Bath his only son. who is

run away from thirty thousand pounds a-year, which in all

probability would have come to him in six months. There had

been some great fracas about his marriage; the stories are

various on the Why; some say his father told Miss Nichols that

his son was a very worthless young man; others, that the Earl

could not bring himself to make tolerable settlements; and a

third party say, that the Countess has blown up a quarrel in

order to have his son in her power, and at her mercy. Whatever

the cause was, this ingenious young man, who You know has made

my Lady Townshend his everlasting enemy, by repeating her

histories of Miss Chudleigh to that Miss, of all counsellors in

the world, picked out my Lady Townshend to consult on his

domestic grievances: she, with all the good-nature and charity

imaginable, immediately advised him to be disinherited. He

took her advice, left two dutiful letters for his parents, to

notify 'his disobedience, and went off last Friday night to

France. The Earl is so angry, that he could almost bring

himself to give Mr. Newport, and twenty other people, their

estates again. Good night--here is the Goth, Mr. Bentley,

wants to say a word to you.

"Dear Sir,

Wrote you a supernumerary letter on Saturday, but as I find you

have shifted your quarters since I heard from 'YOU, imagine it

may not have reached you yet. If you want to know what made me

so assiduous, it was to tell you Sir Danvers Osborn has kissed

hands for New York, that's all. I am sincerely yours.

"P.S. I wish you Would write to him mentioning me, that's

more."

(387) At Brewern, in Oxfordshire.-E.

(388) Second son of the Marquis of Townshend.

167 Letter 78

To The Hon. H. S. Conway.

Strawberry Hill, May 24, 1753.

It is well you are married! How would my Lady Ailesbury have

liked to be asked in a parish church for three Sundays running?

I really believe she would have worn her weeds for ever, rather

than have passed through so impudent a ceremony! What do you

think? But you will want to know the interpretation of this

preamble. Why, there is a new bill, which, under the notion of

preventing clandestine marriages, has made such a general

rummage and reform in the office of matrimony that every

Strephon and Chloe, every dowager and her Hussey, will have as

many impediments and formalities to undergo as a treaty of

peace. Lord Bath invented this bill,(389) but had drawn it so

ill, that the Chancellor was forced to draw a new one, and then

grew so fond of his own creature, that he has crammed it down

the throats of both Houses-though they gave many a gulp before

they could swallow it. The Duke of Bedford attacked it first

with great spirit and mastery, but had little support, though

the Duke of Newcastle did not vote. The lawyers were all

ordered to purse it through our House: but except the poor

Attorney-general,(390) "Who is nurse indeed. to all intents and

purposes, and did amply gossip over it, not one of them said a

word. Nugent shone extremely in opposition to the bill, and,

though every now and then on the precipice of absurdity, kept

clear of it, with great humour and wit and argument, and was

unanswered-yet we were beat. Last Monday it came into the

committee: Charles Townshend acted a very good speech with

great cleverness, and drew a picture of his own story and his

father's tyranny, with at least as much parts as modesty. Mr.

Fox mumbled the Chancellor and his lawyers, and pinned the plan

of the bill upon a pamphlet he had found of Dr. Gally's,(391)

where the doctor, recommending the French scheme of matrimony,

says, "It was found that fathers were too apt to forgive." "The

Gospel, I thought," said Mr. Fox, "enjoined forgiveness; but

pious Dr. Gal] v thinks fathers are too apt to forgive." Mr.

Pelham, extremely in his opinion against the bill, and in his

inclination too, was forced to rivet it, and, without speaking

one word for it, taught the House how to vote for it; and it was

carried against the Chairman's leaving the chair by 165 to 84.

This Is all the news I know, or at least was all when I came out

of town; for I left the tinkering of the bill, and came hither

last Tuesday to my workmen. I flatter myself I shall get into

tolerable order to receive my Lady Ailesbury and you at your

return from Sligo, from whence I have received 'your letter, and

where I hope you have had my first. I say nothing of the exile

of the Parliament of Paris for I know no more than you will see

in the public papers; only, as we are going to choose a new

Parliament, we could not do better than choose the exiles: we

could scarce choose braver or honester men. I say as little of

Mademoiselle Murphy,(392) for I conclude you hear nothing but her

health drank in whiskey. Don't all the nailed Irish flatter

themselves with preferment, and claim relation with her? Miss

Chudleigh says, there is some sense in belonging to a king who

turns off an old mistress when he has got a new one.

Arlington Street, May 29.

I am Come to town for a day or two, and find that the

Marriage-bill has not only lasted till now-in the committee,

but has produced, or at least disclosed, extreme heats. Mr.

Fox and Mr. Pelham have had very high words on every clause,

and the former has renewed his attacks on the Chancellor under

the name of Dr. Gally. Yesterday on the nullity clause they

sat till half an hour after three in the morning, having just

then had a division On adjournment, which was rejected by the

ministry by above 80 to 70. The Speaker, who had spoken well

against the clause, was so misrepresented by the

Attorney-general, that there was danger of a skimmington

between the great wig and the coif, the former having given a

flat lie to the latter. Mr. Fox I am told, outdid himself for

spirit, and severity on the Chancellor and the lawyers. I say

I am told; for I was content with having been beat twice, and

did not attend. The heats between the two ministers were far

from cooling by the length of the debate. Adieu! You did

little expect in these times, and at this season, to have heard

such a parliamentary history! The bill is not near

finished;(393) Mr. Fox has declared he will dispute every inch

of ground. I hope he won't be banished to Pontoise.(394) I

shall write to you no more; so pray return. I hear most

favourable accounts of my Lady Ailesbury.

(389) The following is Tindal's account of the origin of this

bill: "The fatal consequences of clandestine marriages had been

long complained of in England, as rendering the succession to

all property insecure and doubtful. Every day produced

hearings of the most shocking kind in the court of Chancery,

and appeals in the House of Lords, concerning the validity of

such marriages; and sometimes the innocent offspring were cut

off from succession, though their parents had been married bona

fide, because of the irregularity of such marriage. On the

other hand, both women and men of the most infamous characters

had opportunities of ruining the sons and daughters of the

greatest families in England, by conveniences of marrying in

the Fleet, and other unlicensed places; and marrying was now

become as much a trade as any mechanical profession."-E.

(390 Sir Dudley Ryder.

(391) Dr. Henry Gally, one of the King's chaplains in ordinary.

Besides the pamphlet here spoken of, which was entitled "Some

Considerations upon Clandestine Marriages," he wrote a

"Dissertation on Pronouncing the Greek Language," and several

other works He died in 1769.-E.

(392) An Irishwoman who was, for a short time, mistress to

Louis XV.

(393) "The opposition to the bill was such that few clauses

remained unaltered; and Mr. Fox, holding it up in the House, as

Antony exposed the murdered body of Caesar, made a kind of a

parody of the speech in Shakespeare upon that occasion."

Tindal.-E.

(394) The Parliament of Paris having espoused the clause of

religious liberty, and apprehended several priests who, by the

authority of the Archbishop of Paris and other prelates, had

refused the sacraments to those who would not subscribe to the

bull Unigunitus, were banished by Louis XV. to Pontoise.

169 Letter 79

To George Montagu, Esq.

Strawberry Hill, June 11, 1753.

You will think me very fickle, and that I have but a slight

regard to the castle I am building for my ancestors, when you

hear that I have been these last eight days in London amid dust

and stinks, instead of seringa, roses, battlements, and niches;

but you perhaps recollect that I have another Gothic passion,

which is for squabbles in the Wittenagemot.(395) I can't say

that the contests have run so high in either House as they have

sometimes done in former days, but this age has found out a new

method of parliamentary altercations. The Commons abuse the

Barons, and the Barons return it; in short, Mr. Fox attacked

the Chancellor violently on the Marriage-bill; and when it was

sent back to the Lords, the Chancellor made the most outrageous

invectives on Fox that ever was heard. But what offends still

more,--I don't mean offends Fox more,--was the Chancellor

describing the chief persons who had opposed his bill in the

Commons, and giving reason why he excused them. As the speaker

was in the number of the excused, the two maces are ready to

come to blows.(396) The town says Mr. Fox is to be dismissed,

but I can scarce think it will go so far.

My Lord Cornwallis is made an earl; Lord Bristol's sisters have

the rank of Earl's daughters; Damer is Lord Milton in Ireland,

and the new Lord Barnard is, I hear, to be Earl of Darlington.

Poor Lady Caroline Brand is dead of a rheumatic fever, and her

husband as miserable a man as ever he was a cheerful one: I

grieve much for her, and pity him; they were infinitely happy,

and lived in the most perfect friendship I ever saw.

You may be assured that I will pay you a visit some time this

summer, though not yet, as I cannot leave my workmen,

especially as we have a painter who paints the paper on the

staircase under Mr. Bentley's direction. The armoury bespeaks

the ancient chivalry of the lords of the castle; and I have

filled Mr. Bentley's Gothic lanthorn with painted glass, which

casts the most venerable gloom on the stairs that ever was seen

since the days of Abelard. The lanthorn itself, in which I

have stuck a coat of the Veres, is supposed to have come from

Castle Henningham. Lord and Lady Vere were here t'other day, and

called cousins with it, and would very readily have invited it to

Hanworth; but her Portuguese blood has so blackened the true

stream that I could not bring myself to offer so fair a gift to

their chapel.

I shall only tell you a bon-mot of Keith's, the

marriage-broker, and conclude. "G-d d-n the bishops!" said he,

(I beg Miss Montagu's pardon,) "so they will hinder my

marrying. Well, let 'em; but I'll be revenged! I'll buy two

or three acres of ground, and, by G-d! I'll underbury them

all!" Adieu!

(395) The name of the Saxon great council, the supposed origin

of parliaments.

(396) Among the Hardwicke papers there is a letter from Dr.

Birch to the Hon. Philip Yorke, giving an account of the

debate in the House of Lords. The following is an extract:--

"My Lord Chancellor expressed his surprise, that the bill

should have been styled out of doors an absurd, a cruel, a

scandalous, and a wicked one. With regard to his own share in

this torrent of abuse, as he was obliged to those who had so

honourably defended him, so,' said he, 'I despise the

invective, and I despise the retractation; I despise the

scurrility, and I reject the adulation.' Mr. Fox was not

present, but had soon an account of what had passed; for the

same evening, being at Vauxhall with some ladies, he broke from

them, and collecting a little circle of young members of

parliament and others, told them with great eagerness, that he

wished the session had continued a fortnight longer, for then

he would have made ample returns to the Lord Chancellor. The

Speaker talks of my Lord Chancellor's speech in the style of

Mr. Fox, as deserving of the notice of the Commons, if they had

not been prorogued."-E.

170 Letter 80

To Sir Horace Mann.

Strawberry Hill, June 12, 1753.

I could not rest any longer with the thought of your having no

idea of a place of which you hear so much, and therefore

desired Mr. Bentley to draw you as much idea of it as the post

would be persuaded to carry from Twickenham to Florence. The

enclosed enchanted little landscape, then, is Strawberry Hill;

and I will try to explain so much of it to you as will help to

let you know whereabouts we are when we are talking to you; for

it is uncomfortable in so intimate a correspondence as ours not

to be exactly master of every spot where one another is

writing, or reading, or sauntering. This view of the

castle(397) is what I have just finished, and is the only side

that will be at all regular. Directly before it is an open

grove, through which you see a field, which is bounded by a

serpentine wood of all kind of trees, and flowering shrubs, and

flowers! The lawn before the house is situated on the top of a

small hill, from whence to the left you see the town and church

of Twickenham encircling a turn of the river, that looks

exactly like a seaport in miniature. The opposite shore is a

most delicious meadow, bounded by Richmond Hill, which loses

itself in the noble woods of the park to the end of the

prospect on the right, where is another turn of the river, and

the suburbs of Kingston as luckily placed as Twickenham is on

the left; and a natural terrace on the brow of my hill, with

meadows of my own down to the river, commands both extremities.

Is not this a tolerable prospect? You must figure that all this

is perpetually enlivened by a navigation of boats and barges,

and by a road below my terrace, with coaches, post-chaises,

wagons, and horsemen constantly in motion, and the fields

speckled with cows, horses, and sheep. Now you shall walk into

the house. The bow-window below leads into a little parlour

hung with a stone-colour Gothic paper and Jackson's Venetian

prints, which I could never endure while they pretended,

infamous as they are, to be after Titian, etc., but when I gave

them this air of barbarous basreliefs, they succeeded to a

miracle: it is impossible at first sight not to conclude

that they contain the history of Attila or Tottila, done about

the very aera. From hence, under two gloomy arches, you come

to the hall and staircase, which it is impossible to describe

to you, as it is the most particular and chief beauty of the

castle. Imagine the walls covered with (I call it paper, but

it is really paper painted in perspective to represent) Gothic

fretwork: the lightest Gothic balustrade to the staircase,

adorned with antelopes (our supporters) bearing shields lean

windows fattened with rich saints in painted glass, and a

vestibule open with three arches on the landing-place, and

niches full of trophies of old coats of mail, Indian shields

made of rhinoceros's hides, broadswords, quivers, long bows,

arrows, and spears--all supposed to be taken by Mr Terry

Robsart(398) in the holy wars. But as none of' this regards

the enclosed drawing, I will pass to that. The room on the

ground-floor nearest to you is a bedchamber, hung with yellow

paper and prints, framed in a new manner, invented by Lord

Cardigan; that is, with black and white borders printed. Over

this is Mr. Chute's bedchamber, hung with red in the same

manner. The bow-window room one pair of stairs is not yet

finished; but in the tower beyond it is the charming closet

where I am now writing to you. It is hung with green paper and

water-colour pictures; has two windows; the one in the drawing

looks to the garden, the other to the beautiful prospect; and

the top of each glutted with the richest painted glass of the

arms of England, crimson roses, and twenty other pieces of

green, purple, and historic bits. I must tell you, by the way,

that the castle, when finished, will have two-and-thirty

windows enriched with painted glass. In this closet, which is

Mr. Chute's college of arms, are two presses with books of

heraldry and antiquities, Madame Sevign`e's Letters, and any

French books that relate to her and her acquaintance. Out of

this closet is the room where we always live, hung with a blue

and white paper in stripes adorned with festoons, and a

thousand plump chairs, couches, and luxurious settees covered

with linen of the same pattern, and with a bow-window

commanding the prospect, and gloomed with limes that shade half

each window, already darkened with painted glass in

chiaroscuro, set in deep blue glass. Under this room is a cool

little hall, where we generally dine, hung with paper to

imitate Dutch tiles.

I have described so much, that you will begin to think that all

the accounts I used to give you of the diminutiveness of our

habitation were fabulous; but it is really incredible how small

most of the rooms are. The Only two good chambers I shall have

are not yet built; they will be an eating-room and a library,

each twenty by thirty, and the latter fifteen feet high. For

the rest of the house, I could send it you in this letter as

easily as the drawing, only that I should have no where to live

till the return of the post. The Chinese summer-house which

you may distinguish in the distant landscape, belongs to my Lord

Radnor. We pique ourselves upon nothing but simplicity, and have

no carvings, gildings, paintings, inlayings, or tawdry

businesses.

You will not be sorry, I believe,. by this time to have done

with Strawberry Hill, and to hear a little news. The end of a

very dreaming session has been extremely enlivened by an

accidental bill which has opened great quarrels, and those not

unlikely to be attended with interesting circumstances. A bill

to prevent clandestine marriages, so drawn by the Judges as to

clog all matrimony in general, was inadvertently espoused by

the Chancellor; and having been strongly attacked in the House

of Commons by Nugent, the Speaker, Mr. Fox, and others, the

last went very great lengths of severity on the whole body of

the law, and on its chieftain in particular-, which, however,

at the last reading, he softened and explained off extremely.

This did not ,appease; but on the return of the bill to the

House of Lords, where our amendments were to be read, the

Chancellor in the most personal terms harangued against Fox,

and concluded with saying that "he despised his scurrility as

much as his adulation and recantation." As Christian charity

is not one of the oaths taken by privy-counsellors, and as it

is not the most eminent virtue in either of the champions, this

quarrel is not likely to be soon reconciled. There are

natures(399) whose disposition it is to patch up political

breaches, but whether they will succeed, or try to succeed in

healing this, can I tell you?

The match for Lord Granville, which I announced to you, is not

concluded: his flames are cooled in that quarter as well as in

others.

I begin a new sheet to you, which does not match with the

other, for I have no more of the same paper here. Dr. Cameron

is executed, and died with the greatest firmness. His parting

with his wife the night before was heroic and tender: he let

her stay till the last moment, when being aware that the gates

of the Tower would be locked, he told her so; she fell at his

feet in agonies: he said, "Madam, this was not what you

promised me," and embracing her, forced her to retire; then

with the same coolness, looked at the window till her coach was

out of sight, after which he turned about and wept. His only

concern seemed to be at the ignominy of Tyburn: he was not

disturbed at the dresser for his body, or at the fire to burn

his bowels.(400) The crowd was so great, that a friend who

attended him could not get away, but was forced to stay and

behold the execution: but what will you say to the minister or

priest who accompanied him? The wretch, after taking leave,

went into a landau, where, not content with seeing the Doctor

hanged, he let down the top of the landau for the better

convenience of seeing him embowelled! I cannot tell you

positively that what I hinted of this Cameron being commissioned

from Prussia was true, but so it is believed. Adieu! my dear

child; I think this is a very tolerable letter for summer!

(397) It was a view of the south side towards the northeast.

(398) An ancestor of Sir Robert Walpole, who was knight of the

garter.

(399) An allusion to Mr. Pelham.

(400) "The populace," says Smollet, though not very subject to

tender emotions, were moved to compassion, and even to tears,

by his behaviour at the place of execution; and many sincere

well-wishers to the present establishment thought that the

sacrifice of this victim, at such a juncture, could not redound

either to its honour or security."-E.

173 Letter 81

To George Montagu, Esq.

Strawberry Hill, July 17, 1753.

Dear sir,

You are so kind, that I am peevish with myself for not being

able to fix a positive day for being with you; as near as I can

guess, it will be some of the very first days of the next

month: I am engaged to go with Lady Ailesbury and Mr. Conway to

Stowe, the 28th of this month, if some little business which I

have here does not prevent me; and from thence I propose to

meet Mr. Chute at Greatworth. If this should at all interfere

with your schemes, tell me so; especially, I must beg that you

would not so far depend on me as to stay one minute from doing

any thing else you like, because it is quite impossible for me

to be sure that I can execute just at the time I propose such

agreeable projects. Meeting Mrs. Trevor will be a principal

part of my pleasure; but the summer shall certainly not pass

without my seeing you.

You will, I am sure, be concerned to hear that your favourite,

Miss Brown, the pretty Catholic, who lived with Madame

d'Acunha, is dead at Paris, by the ignorance of the physician.

Tom Harvey, who always obliges the town with a quarrel in a

dead season, has published a delightful letter to Sir William

Bunbury,(401) full of madness and wit. He had given the Doctor

a precedent for a clergyman's fighting a duel, and I furnished

him with another story of the same kind, that diverted him

extremely. A Dr. Suckling, who married a niece of my father,

quarrelled with a country squire, who said, "Doctor, your gown

is your protection." "Is it so?" replied the parson; "but, by

God! it shall not be yours;" pulled it off, and thrashed him--I

was going to say damnably, at least, divinely. Do but think,

my Lord Coke and Tom Harvey are both bound to the peace, and

are always going to fight together: how comfortable for their

sureties!

My Lord Pomfret is dead; George Selwyn says, that my Lord

Ashburnham(402) is not more glad to get into the parks than

Lord Falkland is to get out of them. You know he was forced to

live in a privileged place.

Jack Hill(403) is dead too, and has dropped about a hundred

legacies; a thousand pound to the Dowager of Rockingham; as

much, with all his plate and china, to her sister Bel. I don't

find that my uncle has got so much as a case of knives and forks,

he always paid great court, but Mary Magdalen, my aunt, undid all

by scolding the man, and her spouse durst not take his part.

Lady Anne Paulett's daughter is eloped with a country

clergyman. The Duchess of Argyle Harangues against the

Marriage-bill not taking place immediately, and is persuaded

that all the girls will go off before next lady-day.

Before I finish, I must describe to you the manner in which I

overtook Monsieur le Duc de Mirepoix t'other day, who lives at

Lord Dunkeron's house at Turnham-green. It was seven o'clock

in the evening of one of the hottest and most dusty days of

this summer. He was walking slowly in the beau milieu of

Brentford town, without any company, but with a brown lap-dog

with long ears, two pointers, two pages, three footmen, and a

vis-a-vis following him. By the best accounts I can get, he

must have been to survey the ground of the battle of Brentford,

which I hear he has much studied, and harangues upon.

Adieu! I enclose a World' to you, which, by a story I shall

tell you, I find is called mine. I met Mrs. Clive two nights

ago, and told her I had been in the meadows, but would walk no

more there, for there was all the world. "Well," says she, "and

don't you like the World!(404) I hear it was very clever last

Thursday." All I know is, that you will meet with some of your

acquaintance there. Good night, with my compliments to Miss

Montagu.

(401) The Rev. Sir William Bunbury, father of Sir Charles, and

of Henry, the celebrated caricaturist.-E.

(402) Lord Ashburnham succeeded Lord Pomfret as ranger of St.

James's and Hyde Parks.

(403) Member for Higham Ferrers.

(404) No. 28, entitled " Old women most proper objects for

love." Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in a letter to her daughter,

says, "Send me no translations, no periodical papers; though I

confess some of The World' entertained me very much,

particularly Lord Chesterfield and Horry Walpole; but whenever

I met Dodsley, I wished him out of the World with all my heart.

The title was a very lucky one, being, as you see, productive

of puns world without end; which is all the species of wit some

people can either practise or understand."-E.

174 Letter 82

To Sir Horace Mann.

Strawberry Hill, July 21, 1753.

Though I have long had a letter of yours unanswered, yet I

verily think it would have remained so a little longer, if the

pretty altar-tomb which you have sent me had not roused my

Gratitude. It arrived here--I mean the tomb, not my

gratitude--yesterday, and this morning churchyarded itself in

the corner of my wood, where I hope it will remain till some

future virtuoso shall dig it up, and publish 'it in " A

Collection of Roman Antiquities in Britain. It is the very

thing I wanted: how could you, my dear Sir, take such exact

measure of my idea? By the way, you have never told me the

price; don't neglect it, that I nay pay your brother.

I told you how ill disposed I was to write to you, and you must

know without my telling you that the only reason of that could

be my not knowing a tittle worth mentioning; nay, not a tittle,

worth or not. All England is gone over all England

electioneering: the spirit is as great now they are all on one

side, as when parties ran the highest. You judge how little I

trouble myself about all this; especially when the question is

not who shall be in the ministry, only who shall be in the

House.

I am almost inclined not to say a word to your last letter,

because if I begin to answer it, it must be by scolding you for

making SO serious an affair of leaving off snuff; one would

think you was to quit a vice, not a trick. Consider, child,

you are in Italy, not in England: here you would be very

fashionable by having so many nerves, and you might have

doctors and waters for every One Of them, from Dr. Mead to Dr.

Thompson, and from Bath to the iron pear-tree water. I should

sooner have expected to hear that good Dr. Cocchi(405) was in

the Inquisition than in prescribing to a

snuff-twitter-nerve-fever! You say people tell you that

leaving off snuff all at once may be attended with bad

consequences--I can't conceive what bad consequences, but to

the snuff-shop, who, I conclude by your lamentations, must have

sold you tolerable quantities; and I know what effects any

diversion of money has upon the tobacco-trade in Tuscany. I

forget how much it was that the duty sank at Florence in a

fortnight after the erection of the first lottery, by the poor

people abridging themselves of snuff to buy tickets; but I

think I have said enough, considering I don't intend to scold.

Thank you for your civilities to Mr. Stephens; not at all for

those to Mr. Perry,(406) who has availed himself of the

partiality which he found you had for me, and passed Upon you

for my friend. I never spoke one word to him in my life, but

when he went out of his own dressing-room at Penshurst that Mr.

Chute and I might see it, and then I said, "Sir, I hope we

don't disturb you;" he grunted something, and walked away--la

belle amiti`e!--yet, my dear child, I thank you, who receive

bad money when it is called My coin. I Wish YOU had liked my

Lady Rochford's beauty more: I intended it should return well

preserved: I grow old enough to be piqued for the charms of my

contemporaries.

Lord Pomfret(407) is dead, not a thousand pound in debt. The

Countess has two thousand a-year rent-charge for jointure, five

hundred as lady of the bedchamber to the late Queen, and

fourteen thousand pounds in money, in her own power, just

recovered by a lawsuit-what a fund for follies! The new Earl

has about two thousand four hundred pounds a-year in present

but deep debts and post-obits. He has not put on mourning, but

robes; that is, in the middle of this very hot summer, he has

produced himself in a suit of crimson velvet, that he may be

sure of not being mistaken for being in weepers. There are

rents worth ten thousand pounds left to little Lady Sophia

Carteret,(408) and the whole personal estate between the two

unmarried daughters;(409) so the seat(410) must be stripped.

There are a few fine small pictures, and one(411) very curious

One of Henry VII. and his Queen, with Cardinal Morton, and, I

think, the Abbot of Westminster. Strawberry casts a Gothic eye

upon this, but I fear it will pass our revenues. The

statues,(412) which were part of the Arundel collection, are

famous, but few good. The Cicero is fine and celebrated: the

Marius I think still finer. The rest are Scipios,

Cincinnatus's and the Lord knows who, which have lost more of

their little value than of their false pretensions by living

out of doors; and there is a green-house full of colossal

fragments. Adieu! Have you received the description and

portrait of my castle?

(405) he was a very free thinker, and suspected by the

Inquisition.

(406) He married one of the coheiresses of the Sidneys, Earls

of Leicester.

(407) Thomas Fermor, first Earl of Pomfret, so created in 1721.

He had ben master of the horse to Queen Caroline, and ranger of

St. James's Park-D.

(408) Daughter of John, Earl of Granville, by his second wife,

eldest daughter of Thomas Fermor, Earl of Pomfret. (Afterwards

married to William Petty, Earl of Shelburne and Marquis of

Lansdowne.-D.)

(409) Lady Louisa and Lady Anne; the latter was afterwards

married to Mr. Dawson.

(410) Easton Neston, in Northamptonshire.

(411) It is the marriage of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York.

The two other figures are probably St. Thomas and the Bishop of

linola, the Pope's nuncio, who pronounced the nuptial

benediction. This curious picture was purchased by Lady

Pomfret for two hundred pounds. The Earl of Oxford offered her

five hundred pounds for it: Mr. Walpole bought it at Lord

Pomfret's sale for eighty-four guineas, and it is now at

Strawberry Hill.

(412) Lady Pomfret bought the statues, after her lord's death,

and presented them to the University of Oxford.

176 Letter 83

To John Chute, Esq.

Stowe, Aug. 4, 1753

My dear Sir,

You would deserve to be scolded, if you had not lost almost as

much pleasure as you have disappointed me of.(413) Whether

George Montagu will be so content With your commuting

punishments, I don't know: I should think not; he "cried and

roared all night"(414) when I delivered your excuse. He is

extremely well-housed, after having roamed like a Tartar about

the country with his whole personal estate at his heels. .

There is an extensive view, which is called pretty: but

Northamptonshire is no county to please me. What entertained

me was, that he who in London -,vas grown an absolute recluse,

is over head and ears in neighbours, and as popular as if he

intended to stand for the county, instead of having given up

the town. The very first morning after my arrival, as we were

getting into the chaise to go to Wroxton, they notified a Sir

Harry Danvers, a young squire, booted and spurred, and

buckskin-breeche'd. "Will you drink any chocolate?" "No; a

little wine and water, if you please."--I suspected nothing but

that he had rode till he was dry. "Nicol`o, some wine and

water." He desired the water might be warm--I began to stare;

Montagu understood the dialect, and ordered a negus. I had

great difficulty to keep my countenance, and still more when I

saw the baronet finish a very large jug indeed. To be sure, he

wondered as much at me e who did not finish a jug; and I could

not help reflecting, that living always in the world makes one

as unfit for living out of it, as always living out of it does

for living in it. Knightley, the knight of the shire, has been

entertaining all the parishes round with a turtle-feast, which,

so far from succeeding, has almost made him suspected for a

Jeu,, as the country parsons have not yet learned to wade into

green fat.

The roads are very bad to Greatworth; and such numbers of

gates, that if one loved punning one should call it the

Gate-house. - The proprietor had a wonderful invention: the

chimneys, which are of stone, have niches and benches in them,

where the man used to sit and smoke. I had twenty disasters,

according to custom; lost my way, and had my French boy almost

killed by a fall with his horse: but I have been much pleased.

When I was at Park-place I went to see Sir H.

Englefield's,(415) which Mr. Churchill and Lady Mary prefer,

but I think very undeservedly, to Mr. Southcote's. It is not

above a quarter as extensive, and wants the river. There is a

pretty view of Reading seen under a rude arch, and the water is

well disposed. The buildings are very insignificant, and the

house far from good. The town of Henley has been extremely

disturbed with an engagement between the ghosts of Miss Blandy

and her father, which continued so violent, that some bold

persons, to prevent farther blood-shed, broke in, and found it

was two jackasses which had got into the kitchen.

I felt strangely tempted to stay at Oxford and survey it at my

leisure; but as I was alone, I had not courage. I passed by

Sir James Dashwood'S,(416) a vast new house, situated so high

that it seems to stand for the county as well as himself. I

did look over Lord Jersey's(417) which was built for a

hunting-box, and is still little better. But now I am going to

tell you how delightful a day I passed at Wroxton. Lord

Guildford has made George Montagu so absolutely viceroy over

it, that we saw it more agreeable than you can conceive; roamed

over the whole house, found every door open, saw not a

creature, had an extreme good dinner, wine, fruit, coffee and

tea in the library, were served by fairies, tumbled over the

books, said one or two talismanic words, and the cascade

played, and went home loaded with pine-apples and flowers.--You

will take me for Monsieur de CoulangeS,(418) I describe

eatables so feelingly; but the manner in which we were served

made the whole delicious. The house was built by a Lord Downe

in the reign of James the First; and though there is a fine

hall and a vast dining-room below, and as large a drawing-room

above, it is neither good nor agreeable; one end of the front

was never finished, and might have a good apartment. The

library is added by this Lord, and is a pleasant chamber.

Except loads of portraits, there is no tolerable furniture. A

whole-length of the first Earl of Downe is in the Bath-robes,

and has a coif under the hat and feather. There is a charming

picture of Prince Henry about twelve years old, drawing his

sword to kill a stag, with a Lord Harrington; a good portrait

of Sir Owen Hopton,(419) 1390; your pious grandmother, my Lady

Dacre, which I think like you; some good Cornelius Johnsons; a

Lord North, by Riley, good; and an extreme fine portrait by him

of the Lord Keeper: I have never seen but few of the hand, but

most of them have been equal to Lely and the best of Sir

Godfrey. There is too a curious portrait of Sir Thomas Pope,

the founder of Trinity College, Oxford, said to be by Holbein.

The chapel is new, but in a pretty Gothic taste, with a very

long window of painted glass, very tolerable. The frieze is

pendent, just in the manner I propose for the eating-room at

Strawberry Hill. Except one scene, which is indeed noble, I

cannot much commend the without-doors. This scene consists of

a beautiful lake entirely shut in with wood: the head falls

into a fine cascade, and that into a serpentine river, over

which is a little Gothic seat like a round temple, lifted up by

a shaggy mount. On an eminence in the park is an obelisk

erected to the honour and at the expense of "optimus" and 1,

munificentissimus" the late Prince of Wales, "in loci

amoenitatem et memoriam advent`us ejus." There are several

paltry Chinese buildings and bridges, which have the merit or

demerit of being the progenitors of a very numerous race all

over the kingdom: at least they were of the very first. In the

church is a beautiful tomb of an Earl and Countess of Downe,

and the tower is in a good plain Gothic style, ind was once,

they tell you, still more beautiful; but Mr. Miller, who

designed it, unluckily once in his life happened to think

rather of beauty than of the water-tables, and so it fell down

the first winter.

On Wednesday morning we went to see a sweet little chapel at

Steane, built in 1620 by Sir Thomas Crewe, Speaker in the time

of the first James and Charles. Here are remains of the

mansion-house, but quite in ruins: the chapel is kept up by my

Lord Arran, the last of the race. There are seven or eight

monuments. On one is this epitaph, which I thought pretty

enough:

"Conjux, casta parens felix, matrona pudica;

Sara viro, mundo Martha, Maria Deo."

On another is the most affected inscription I ever saw, written

by two brothers on their sister: they say, "This agreeable

mortal translated her into immortality such a day:" but I could

not help laughing at one quaint expression, to which time has

given a droll sense: "She was a constant lover of the best."

I have been here these two days, extremely amused and charmed

indeed. Wherever you stand you see an Albano landscape. Half

as many buildings I believe would be too many, but such a

profusion gives inexpressible richness. You may imagine I have

some private reflections entertaining enough, not very

communicable to the company: the Temple of Friendship, in

which, among twenty memorandums of quarrels, is the bust of Mr.

Pitt: Mr. James Grenville is now in the house, whom his uncle

disinherited for his attachment to that very Pylades, Mr. Pitt.

He broke with Mr. Pope, who is deified in the Elysian fields,

before the inscription for his head was finished. That of Sir

John Barnard, which was bespoke by the name of a bust of my

Lord Mayor, was by a mistake of the sculptor done for Alderman

Perry. The statue of the King, and that "honori, laudi,

virtuti divae Carolinae," make one smile, when one sees the

ceiling where Britannia rejects and hides the reign of King * *

* * But I have no patience at building and planting a satire!

Such is the temple of modern virtue in ruins! The Grecian

temple is glorious: this I openly worship: in the heretical

corner of my heart I adore the Gothic building, which by some

unusual inspiration Gibbs had made pure and beautiful and

venerable. The style has a propensity to the Venetian or

mosque Gothic, and the great column near it makes the whole put

one in mind of the Place of St. Mark. The windows are

throughout consecrated with painted glass; most of it from the

priory at Warwick, a present from that foolish Greathead, who

quarrelled with me (because his father was a gardener) for

asking him if Lord Brook had planted much--Apropos to painted

glass. I forgot to tell you of a sweet house which Mr. Montagu

carried me to see, belonging to a Mr. Holman, a Catholic, and

called Warkworth. The situation is pretty, the front charming,

composed of two round and two square towers. The court within

is incomplete on one side; but above stairs is a vast gallery

with four bow-windows and twelve other large ones, all filled

with the arms of the old peers of England, with all their

quarterings entire. You don't deserve, after deserting me,

that I should tempt you to such a sight; but this alone is

worth while to carry you to Greatworth.

Adieu, my dear Sir! I return to Strawberry to-morrow, and

forgive you enough not to deprive myself of the satisfaction of

seeing you there whenever you have nothing else to do.

(413) In not accompanying Mr. Walpole on a visit to Mr. George

Montagu at Greatworth.

(414) A phrase of Mr. Montagu's.

(415) Whiteknights.

(416) At High Wycombe.

(417) Middleton.

(418) The cousin and friend of Madame de S`evign`e, and

frequently mentioned in her letters.-E.

(419) Lieutenant of the Tower. His daughter was the wife of

the first Earl of Downe.-E.

179 Letter 84

To George Montagu, Esq.

Strawberry Hill, Aug. 16, 1753.

Don't you suspect, that I have not only forgot the pleasure I

had at Greatworth and Wroxton,(420) but the commissions you

gave me too? It looks a little ungrateful not to have vented a

word of thanks; but I stayed to write till I could send you the

things, and when I had them, I stayed to send them by Mr.

Chute, who tells you by to-night's post when he will bring

them. The butter-plate is not exactly what You ordered, but I

flatter myself you will like it as well. There are a few

seeds; more shall follow at the end of the autumn. Besides Tom

Harvey's letter, I have sent you maps of Oxfordshire and

Northamptonshire, having felt the want of them when I was with

you. I found the road to Stowe above twelve miles, very bad,

and it took me up two hours and a half: but the formidable idea

I conceived of the breakfast and way of life there by no means

answered. You was a prophet; it was very agreeable. I am

ashamed to tell you that I laughed half an hour yesterday at

the sudden death of your new friend Sir Harry Danvers,(421)

"after a morning's airing," the news call it; I suspect it was

after a negus. I found my garden brown and bare, but these

rains have recovered the green. You may get your pond ready as

soon as you please; the gold fish swarm: Mr. Bentley carried a

dozen to town t'other day in a decanter. You would be

entertained with our fishing; instead of nets, and rods and

lines, and worms, we use nothing but a pail and a basin and a

tea-strainer, which I persuade my neighbours is the Chinese

method. Adieu! My best compliments to Miss Montagu.

P. S. Since writing my letter, I have received your twin

dispatches. I am extremely sensible of the honour my Lord

Guildford does me, and beg you to transmit my gratitude to him:

if he is ever at Wroxton when I visit Greatworth, I shall

certainly wait upon him, and think myself happy in seeing that

charming place again. As soon as I go to town, I shall send

for Moreland, and barbour your wardrobe with great pleasure. I

find I must beg your pardon for laughing in the former part of

my letter about your baronet's death; but his "wine and water a

little warm" had left such a ridiculous effect upon me, that

even his death could not efface it. Good night! Mr. Miller

told me at Stowe, that the chimney-piece (I think from Steane)

was he believed at Banbury, but he did not know exactly. If it

lies in your way to inquire, on so vague a direction, will you?

Mr. Chute may bring me a sketch of it.

(420) The seat of Lord Guilford.

(421) Of Culworth, in Oxfordshire. He died at the age of

twenty-two.-E.

180 Letter 85

To Richard Bentley, Esq.

Arlington Street, September, 1753.

My dear Sir,

I am going to send you another volume of my travels; I don't

know whether I shall not, at last, write a new Camden's

Britannia; but lest you should be afraid of my itinerary, I

will at least promise you that it shall not be quite so dry as

most surveys, which contain nothing but lists of impropriations

and glebes, and carucates, and transcripts out of Domesday, and

tell one nothing that is entertaining, describe no houses nor

parks, mention no curious pictures, but are fully satisfied if

they inform you that they believe that some nameless old tomb

belonged to a knight-templar, or one of the crusado, because he

lies cross-legged. Another promise I will make you is, that my

love of abbeys shall not make me hate the Reformation till that

makes me grow a Jacobite, like the rest of my antiquarian

predecessors; of whom, Dart in particular wrote Billingsgate

against Cromwell and the regicides: and Sir Robert Atkins

concludes his summary of the Stuarts with saying, "that it is

no reason, because they have been so, that this family should

always continue unfortunate."

I have made my visit at Hagley,(422) as I intended. On my way

I dined at Park-place, and lay at Oxford. As I was quite

alone, I did not care to see any thing; but as soon as it was

dark I ventured out, and the moon rose as I was wandering among

the colleges, and gave me a charming venerable Gothic scene,

which was not lessened by the monkish appearance of the old

fellows stealing to their pleasures. Birmingham is large, and

swarms with people and trade, but did not answer my expectation

from any beauty in it: yet, new as it is, I perceived how far I

was got back from the London hegira; for every alehouse is here

written mug-house, a name one has not heard of since the riots

in the late King's time.

As I got into Worcestershire, I opened upon a landscape of

country which I prefer even to Kent, which I had reckoned the

most beautiful county in England: but this, with all the

richness of Kent, is bounded with mountains. Sir George

Lyttelton's house is immeasurably bad and old; one room at the

top of the house, which was reckoned a conceit in those days,

projects a vast way into the air. There are two or three

curious pictures, and some of them extremely agreeable to me

for their relation to Grammont: there is le s`erieux

Lyttelton,(423) but too old for the date of that book;

Mademoiselle Stuart,(424) Lord Brounker, and Lady

Southesk;(425) besides, a portrait of Lord Clifford the

treasurer(426) with his staff, but drawn in armour (though no

soldier) out of flattery to Charles the Second, as he said the

most glorious part of his life was attending the King at the

battle of Worcester. He might have said, that it was as

glorious as any part of his Majesty's life. You might draw,

but I can't describe, the enchanting scenes of the park: it is

a hill of three miles, but broke into all manner of beauty;

such lawns, such wood, rills, cascades, and a thickness of

verdure quite to the summit of the hill, and commanding such a

vale of towns, and meadows, and woods extending quite to the

Black Mountain in Wales, that I quite forgot my favourite

Thames! Indeed, I prefer nothing to Hagley but Mount Edgecombe.

There is extreme taste in the park - the seats are not the

best, but there is not one absurdity. There is a ruined

castle, built by Miller, that would get him his freedom even of

Strawberry: it has the true rust of the barons' wars. Then

there is a scene of a small lake, with cascades falling down

such a Parnassus 1 with a circular temple on the distant

eminence; and there is such a fairy dale, with more cascades

gushing out of rocks! and there- is a hermitage, so exactly

like those in Sadeler's prints, on the brow of a shady

mountain, stealing peeps into the glorious world below; and

there is such a pretty well under a wood, like the Samaritan

woman's in a picture of Nicol`o Poussin! and there is such a

wood without the park, enjoying such a prospect! and there is

such a mountain on t'other side of the park commanding all

prospects, that I wore out my eyes with gazing, my feet with

climbing, and my tongue and my vocabulary with commending! The

best notion I can give you of the satisfaction I showed, was,

that Sir George proposed to carry me to dine with my Lord

Foley; and when I showed reluctance, he said, "Why, I thought

you did not mind any strangers, if you were to see any thing!"

Think of my not minding strangers! I mind them so much, that I

missed seeing Hartlebury Castle, and the Bishop of Worcester's

chapel of painted glass there, because it was his public day

when I passed by his park.-Miller has built a Gothic house in

the village at Hagley for a relation of Sir George: but there

he is not more than Miller; in his castle he is almost Bentley.

There is a genteel tomb in the church to Sir George's first

wife,(427) with a Cupid and a pretty urn in the Roman style.

You will be diverted with my distresses at Worcester. I set

out boldly to walk down the high-street to the cathedral: I

found it much more peopled than I intended, and, when I was

quite embarked, discovered myself up to the ears in a contested

election. A new candidate had arrived the night before, and

turned all their heads. Nothing comforted me, but that the

opposition is to Mr. Trevis; and I purchased my passage very

willingly with crying "No Trevis! No Jews!" However, the inn

where I lay was Jerusalem itself, the very head-quarters where

Trevis the Pharisee was expected; and I had scarce got into my

room, before the victorious mob of his enemy, who had routed

his advanced guard, broke open the gates of our inn, and almost

murdered the ostler-and then carried him off to prison for

being murdered. The cathedral is pretty, and has several

tombs, and clusters of light pillars of Derbyshire marble,

lately cleaned. Gothicism and the restoration of that

architecture, and not of the bastard breed, spreads extremely

in this part of the world. Prince Arthur's tomb, from whence

we took the paper for the hall and staircase, to my great

surprise. is on a less scale than the paper, and is not of

brass but stone, and that wretchedly whitewashed. The niches

are very small, and the long slips in the middle are divided

every now and then with the trefoil. There is a fine tomb for

Bishop Hough, in the Westminster Abbey style; but the obelisk

at the back is not loaded with a globe and a human figure, like

Mr. Kent's design for Sir Isatc Newton; an absurdity which

nothing but himself could surpass, when he placed three busts

at the foot of an altar-and, not content with that, placed them

at the very angles--where they have as little to do as they

have with Shakspeare.

>From Worcester I went to see Malvern Abbey. It is situated

half way up an immense mountain of that name: the mountain is

very long, in shape like the prints of a whale's back: towards

the larger end lies the town. Nothing remains but a beautiful

gateway and a church, which is very large: every window has

been glutted with painted glass, of which much remains, but it

did not answer; blue and red there is in abundance, and good

faces; but the portraits are so high, I could not distinguish

them. Besides, the woman who showed me the church would pester

me with Christ and King David, when I was hunting for John of

Gaunt and King Edward. The greatest curiosity, at least what I

had never seen before, was, the whole floor and far up the

sides of the church has been, if I may call it so, wainscoted

with red and yellow tiles, extremely polished, and diversified

with coats of arms, and inscriptions, and mosaic. I have since

found the same at Gloucester, and have even been so fortunate

as to purchase from the sexton about a dozen, which think what

an acquisition for Strawberry! They are made of the natural

earth of the country, which is a rich red clay, that produces

every thing. All the lanes are full of all kind of trees, and

enriched with large old apple-trees, that hang over from one

hedge to another. Worcester city is large and pretty.

Gloucester city is still better situated, but worse built, and

not near so large. About a mile from Worcester you break upon

a sweet view of the Severn. A little farther on the banks is

Mr. Lechmere's house; but he has given strict charge to a troop

of willows never to let him see the river: to his right hand

extends the fairest meadow covered with cattle that ever you

saw - at the end of it is the town of Upton, with a church half

ruined and a bridge of six arches, which I believe with little

trouble he might see from his garden.

The vale increases in riches to Gloucester. I stayed two days

at George Selwyn's house called Matson, which lies on Robin

Hood's Hill: it is lofty enough for an Alp, yet is a mountain

of turf to the very top, has wood scattered all over it,

springs that long to be cascades in twenty places of it: and

from the summit it beats even Sir George Lyttelton's views, by

having the city of Gloucester at its foot, and the Severn

widening to the horizon. His house is small, but neat. King

Charles lay here at the siege; and the Duke of York, with

typical fury, hacked and hewed the window-shutters of his

chamber, as a memorandum of his being there. Here is a good

picture, of Dudley Earl of Leicester in his latter age, which

he gave to Sir Francis Walsingham, at whose house in Kent it

remained till removed hither; and what makes it very curious,

is, his age marked on it, fifty-four in 1572. I had never been

able to discover before in what year he was born. And here is

the very flower-pot and counterfeit association, for which

Bishop Sprat was taken up, and the Duke of Marlborough sent to

the tower. The reservoirs on the hill supply the city. The

late Mr. Selwyn governed the borough by them-and I believe by

some wine too. The Bishop's house is pretty, and restored to

the Gothic by the late Bishop. Price has painted a large

chapel-window for him, which is scarce inferior for colours,

and is a much better picture than any of the old glass. The

eating-room is handsome. As I am a Protestant Goth, I was glad

to worship Bishop Hooper's room, from whence he was led to the

stake: but I could almost have been a Hun, and set fire to the

front of the house, which is a small pert portico, like the

conveniences at the end of a London garden. The outside of the

cathedral is beautifully light; the pillars in the nave

outrageously plump and heavy. There is a tomb of one Abraham

Blackleach, a great curiosity; for, though the figures of him

and his wife are cumbent, they are very graceful, designed by

Vandyck, and well executed. Kent designed the screen; but knew

no more there than he did any where else how to enter into the

true Gothic taste. Sir Christopher Wren, who built the tower

of the great gateway at Christ Church, has catched the graces

of it as happily as you could do: there is particularly a niche

between two compartments of' a window, that is a masterpiece.

But here is a modernity, which beats all antiquities for

curiosity: just by the high altar is a small pew hung with

green damask, with curtains of the same; a small corner

cupboard, painted, carved, and gilt, for books, in one corner,

and two troughs of a bird-cage, with seeds and water. If any

mayoress on earth was small enough to enclose herself in this

tabernacle, or abstemious enough to feed on rape and canary, I

should have sworn that it was the shrine of the queen of the

aldermen. It belongs to a Mrs. Cotton, who, having lost a

favourite daughter, is convinced her soul is transmigrated into

a robin-redbreast; for which reason she passes her life in

making an aviary of the cathedral of Gloucester. The chapter

indulge this whim, as she contributes abundantly to glaze,

whitewash, and ornament the church.

King Edward the Second's tomb is very light and in good repair.

The old wooden figure of Robert, the Conqueror's unfortunate

eldest son, is extremely genteel, and, though it may not be so

ancient as his death, is in a taste very superior to any thing

of much later ages. Our Lady's Chapel has a bold kind of

portal, and several ceilings of chapels, and tribunes in a

beautiful taste: but of all delight, is what they call the

abbot's cloister. It is the very thing that you would build,

when you had extracted all the quintessence of trefoils,

arches, and lightness. In the church is a star-window of eight

points, that is prettier than our rose-windows.

A little way from the town are the ruins of Lantony Priory:

there remains a pretty old gateway, which G. Selwyn has begged,

to erect on the top of his mountain, and it will have a

charming effect.

At Burford I saw the house of Mr. Lenthal the descendant of the

Speaker. The front is good and a chapel connected by two or

three arches, which let the garden appear through, has a pretty

effect; but the inside of the mansion is bad and ill-furnished.

Except a famous picture of Sir Thomas More's family, the

portraits are rubbish, though celebrated. I am told that the

Speaker, who really had a fine collection, made his peace by

presenting them to Cornbury, where they were well known, till

the Duke of Marlborough bought that seat.

I can't go and describe so known a place as Oxford, which I saw

pretty well on my return. The whole air of the town charms me;

and what remains of the true Gothic un-Gibbs'd, and the

profusion of painted glass, were entertainment enough to me.

In the picture-gallery are quantities of portraits; but in

general they are not only not so much as copies, but proxies-so

totally unlike they arc to the persons they pretend to

represent. All I will tell you more of Oxford is, that Fashion

has so far prevailed over her collegiate sister, Custom, that

they have altered the hour of dinner from twelve to one. Does

not it put one in mind of reformations in religion? One don't

abolish Mahommedism; one only brings it back to where the

impostor himself left it. I think it is at the

South-Sea-house, where they have been forced to alter the hour

of payment, instead of from ten to twelve, to from twelve to

two; so much do even moneyed citizens sail with the current of

idleness!

Was not I talking of religious sects? Methodism is quite

decayed in Oxford, its cradle. In its stead, there prevails a

delightful fantastic system, called the sect of the

Hutchinsonians,(429) of whom one seldom hears any thing in

town. After much inquiry, all I can discover is, that their

religion consists in driving Hebrew to its fountain-head, till

they find some word or other in every text of the Old

Testament, which may seem figurative of something in the New,

or at least of something, that may happen God knows when, in

consequence of the New. As their doctrine is novel, and

requires much study, or at least much invention, one should

think that they could not have settled half the canon of what

they are to believe-and yet they go on zealously, trying to

make and succeeding in making converts.(429) I could not help

smiling at the thoughts of etymological salvation; and I am

sure you will smile when I tell you, that according to their

gravest doctors, "Soap Is an excellent type of Jesus Christ,

and the York-buildings waterworks of the Trinity."--I don't

know whether this is not as entertaining as the passion of the

Moravians for the "little side-hole!" Adieu, my dear sir!

(422) The seat of Sir George, afterwards Lord Lyttelton.-E.

(423) Sir Charles Lyttelton, distinguished in the M`emoires de

Grammont as "le s`erieux Lyttelton." He died in 1716, at the

age of eighty-six.-E.

(424) The beautiful Frances Stuart, who married Esme, Duke of

Richmond; which greatly displeased Charles the Second, who was

in love with her.

(425) Anne, daughter of William, second Duke of Hamilton, and

wife of Robert, third Earl of Southesk.-E.

(426) Sir Thomas Clifford, created Lord Clifford of Chudleigh.

He was one of "The Cabal."-E.

(427) Lucy, daughter of Hugh Fortescue, Esq. of Filleigh; upon

whose death, in 1746-7, Lord Lyttelton wrote his Celebrated

monody.-E.

(428) John Hutchinson, the founder of this sect, was born in

1674, and died in 1737, leaving a number of works on the Hebrew

language, which were collected in 1748, in twelve volumes

octavo. He imagined all knowledge to be contained in the

Hebrew Scriptures, and, rejecting the points, he gave a

fanciful meaning to every one of the Hebrew letters. He

possessed great mechanical skill, and invented a chronometer

for the discovery of the longitude, which was much approved by

Sir Isaac Newton.-E.

(429) Among his followers were the amiable Dr. Horne, Bishop of

Norwich, who published

an "Abstract" of his writings, and Parkhurst, the author of the

Hebrew Lexicon.-E.

186 Letter 86

To Sir Horace Mann.

Strawberry Hill, Oct. 6, 1753.

I fear the letter of July 21st, which you tell me you have

received, was the last I wrote. I will make no more excuses

for my silence; I think they take up half my letters. The time

of year must be full excuse; and this autumn is so dead a time,

that people even don't die.

You have puzzled me extremely by a paragraph in yours about one

Wilton, a sculptor, who, you say, is mentioned with encomiums

one of the Worlds:(430) I recollected no such thing. The first

parcel your brother sends you shall convey the other numbers of

that paper, and I will mark all the names I know of the

authors: there are several, and of our first writers;(431) but

in general you will not find that the paper answers the idea

you have entertained of it.

I grieve for my Florentine friends, and for the doubling of

their yoke: the Count has shown great art. I am totally

ignorant, not to say indifferent, about the Modenese

treaty;(432) indeed, I have none of that spirit which was

formerly so much objected to some of my family, the love of

negotiations during a settled peace. Treaties within treaties

are very dull businesses: contracts of marriage between

baby-princes and miss-princesses give me no curiosity. If I

had not seen it in the papers, I should never have known that

Master Tommy the Archduke was playing at marrying Miss Modena.

I am as sick of the hide-and-seek at which all Europe has been

playing about a King of the Romans! Forgive me, my dear child,

you who are a minister, for holding your important affairs so

cheap. I amuse myself with Gothic and painted glass, and am as

grave about my own trifles as I could be at Ratisbon. I shall

tell you one or two events within my own very small sphere, and

you must call them a letter. I believe I mentioned having made

a kind of armoury: my upper servant, who is full as dull as his

predecessor, whom you knew, Tom Barney, has had his head so

filled with arms, that the other day, when a man brought home

an old chimney-back, which I had bought for having belonged to

Harry VII, he came running in, and said, "Sir, Sir! here is a

man has brought some more armour!"

Last week, when I was in town, I went to pay a bill to the

glazier who fixed up the painted glass: I said, "Mr. Palmer,

you charge me seven shillings a-day for your man's work: I know

you give him but two shillings; and I am told that it is

impossible for him to earn seven shillings a-day."--"Why no,

Sir," replied be, "it is not that; but one must pay house-rent,

and one must eat, and one must wear." I looked at him, and he

had on a blue silk waistcoat with an extremely broad gold lace.

I could not help smiling. I turned round, and saw his own

portrait, and his wife's, and his son's. "And I see," said I,

"one must sit for one's picture; I am very sorry that I am to

contribute for all you must do!" Adieu! I gave you warning

that I had nothing to say.

(430) Mr. Mann mistook; I think it was in a paper called "The

Adventurer."

(431) Lord Chesterfield, Lord Bath, Mr. W. Whithed, Sir Charles

Williams, Mr. Soame Jennings, Mr. Cambridge, Mr. Coventry, etc.

(432) It was between the Empress-Queen and the Duke of Modena,

for settling the duchy of Milan on one of the little Archdukes,

on his marrying the Duke's granddaughter, and in the mean time

the Duke was made administrator of Milan.

187 Letter 87

To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Dec 6, 1753.

In a very long, and consequently a very agreeable letter, which

I received from you yesterday, you set me an example which I

despair of following, keeping up a correspondence with spirit

when the world furnishes no events. I should not say no

events, for France is big with matter, but to talk of the

parliamentary wars of another country would be only

transcribing gazettes: and as to Prince Heracilus,(433) the

other phenomenon of the age, it is difficult to say much about

a person of whom one knows nothing at all. The only scene,

that promises to Interest one, lies in Ireland, from whence we

are told that the Speaker's party has carried a question

against the Lord Lieutenant's; but no particulars are yet

arrived. Foundations have formerly been laid in Ireland of

troubles that have spread hither: I have read somewhere this

old saw,

"He that would England win,

Must with Ireland-first begin."

The only novelty I know, and which is quite private history,

is, that there is a man(434) in the world, who has so much

obligingness and attention in his friendships, that in the

middle of public business, and teased to death with all kind of

commissions, and overrun with cubs and cubaccioni's of every

kind, he can for twelve years together remember any single

picture, or bust, or morsel of virtu, that a friend of his ever

liked; and what is forty times more extraordinary than this

circumstantial kindness, he remembers it just at the time when

others, who might be afflicted with as good a memory, would

take pains to forget it, that is, when it is to be

obtained:-exactly then this person goes and purchases the thing

in question, whips it on board a ship, and sends it to his

friend, in the manner in the world to make it most agreeable,

except that he makes it impossible to thank him, because you

must allow that one ought to be possessed of the same manner of

obliging, before one is worthy of thanking such a person. I

don't know whether you will think this person so extraordinary

as I do; but I have one favour to beg; if you should ever hear

his name, which, for certain reasons, I can't tell you, let me

entreat you never to disclose it, for the world in general is

so much the reverse of him, that they would do nothing but

commend to him every thing they saw, in order to employ his

memory and generosity. For this reason you will allow that the

prettiest action that ever was committed, ought not to be

published to all the world.

You, who love your friends, will not be sorry to hear a little

circumstance that concerns, in a tolerable manner, at least two

of them. The last of my mother's surviving brothers(435) is

dead, and dead without a will, and dead rich. Mr. Conway and I

shall share about six thousand pounds apiece in common with his

brother and sister and my brother. I only tell you this for a

momentary pleasure, for you are not a sort of person to

remember any thing relative to your friends beyond the present

instant!

After writing me two sheets of paper, not to mention the

episode of Bianca Capello, I know not how to have the

confidence to put an end to my letter already; and yet I must,

and you will admit the excuse: I have but just time to send my

brother an account of his succession: you who think largely

enough to forgive any man's deferring such notice to you, would

be the last man to defer giving it to any body else; and

therefore, to spare you any more of the compliments and thanks,

which surely I owe you, you shall let me go make my brother

happy. Adieu!

(433) One of the pretenders to the throne of Persia, who gained

many victories about this time.

(434) When Mr. Walpole was at Florence he saw a fine picture by

Vasari of the Great duchess Bianca Capello, in the palace of

the Marchese Vitelli, whose family falling to decay, and their

effects being sold twelve years afterwards, Mr. Mann

recollected-Mr. Walpole's having admired that picture, bought

and sent it to him.

(435) Erasmus Shorter, brother of Catherine Lady Walpole, and

of Charlotte Lady Conway, whose surviving children, Edward and

Horace Walpole, Francis Earl of Hertford, Henry and Anne

Conway, became his heirs.

188 Letter 88

To George Montagu, Esq.

Arlington Street, Dec. 6, 1753.

I have at last found a moment to answer your letter; a

possession of which, I think, I have not been master these ten

days. You must know I have an uncle dead; a sort of event that

could not possibly have been disagreeable to me, let his name

have been what it would; and to make it still less unpleasant,

here am I one of the heirs-at-law to a man worth thirty

thousand pounds. One of the heirs, you must construe, one of

five. In short, my uncle Erasmus is dead, and think at last we

may depend on his having made no will. If a will should

appear, we are but where we were; if it does not, it is not

uncomfortable to have a little sum of money drop out of the

clouds, to which one has as much right as any body, for which

one has no obligation, and paid no flattery. This death and

the circumstances have made extreme noise, but they are of an

extent impossible to tell you within the compass of any letter,

and I will not raise your curiosity when I cannot satisfy it

but by a narration, which I must reserve till I see you.

The only event I know besides within this atmosphere, is the

death of Lord Burlington, who, I have just heard, has left

every thing in his power to his relict. I tell you nothing of

Jew bills and Jew motions, for I dare to say you have long been

as weary of the words as I am. The only point that keeps up

any attention, is expectation of a mail from Ireland, from

whence we have heard, by a side wind, that the court have lost

a question by six; you may imagine one wants to know more of

this.

The opera is indifferent; the first man has a finer voice than

Monticelli, but knows not what to do with it. Ancient Visconti

does so much with hers that it is intolerable. There is a new

play of Glover's, in which Boadicea the heroine rants as much

as Visconti screams; but happily you hear no more of her after

the end of the third act, till in the last scene somebody

brings a card with her compliments, and she is very sorry she

cannot wait upon you, but she is dead. Then there is a scene

between Lord Sussex and Lord Cathcart, two captives, which is

most incredibly absurd; but yet the parts are so well acted,

the dresses so fine, and two or three scenes pleasing enough,

that it is worth seeing.(436)

There are new young lords, fresh and fresh: two of them are

much in vogue; Lord Huntingdon and Lord Stormont.(437) I

supped with them t'other night at Lady Caroline Petersham's;

the latter is most cried up; but he is more reserved, seems sly

and to have sense, but I should not think extreme: yet it is

not fair to judge on a silent man at first. The other is very

lively and very agreeable. This is the state of the town you

inquire after, and which you do inquire after as one does after

Mr. Somebody that one used to see at Mr. Such-a-one's formerly:

do you never intend to know more of us? or do you intend to

leave me to wither upon the hands of the town, like Charles

Stanhope and Mrs. Dunch? My contemporaries seem to be all

retiring to their proprerties. If I must too, positively I

will go no farther than Strawberry Hill! You are very good to

lament our gold fish - their whole history consists in their

being stolen a deux reprises, the very week after I came to

town.

Mr. Bentley is where he was, and well, and now and then makes

me as happy as I can be, having lost him, with a charming

drawing. We don't talk of his abode; for the Hecate his wife

endeavours to discover it. Adieu! my best compliments to Miss

Montagu.

(436) Glover's tragedy of "Boadicea" was acted nine or ten

nights at Drury Lane with some success; but was generally

considered better adapted to the closet than the stage.

Archbishop Herring, in a letter to Mr. Duncombe, gives the

following opinion of this play: "The first page of the play

Shocked me, and the sudden and heated answer of the Queen to

the Roman ambassador's gentle address is arrant madness. It is

another objection, in my opinion, that Boadicea is really not

the object of crime and punishment, so much as pity; and,

notwithstanding the strong painting of her savageness, I cannot

help wishing she had got the better. However, I admire the

play in many passages, and think the two last acts admirable,

In the fifth, particularly, I hardly ever found myself so

strongly touched."-E.

(437) David, Viscount Stormont, He was afterwards ambassador at

Vienna and Paris in 1779, one of the secretaries of state; and

in 1783, president of the council. Upon the death of his

uncle, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, in 1793, he succeeded to

the earldom. He died in 1796.-E.

190 Letter 89

To Richard Bentley, Esq.

Arlington Street, Dec. 19, 1753.

I little thought when I parted with you, my dear Sir, that your

absence(438) could indemnify me so well for itself; I still

less expected that I should find you improving daily: but your

letters grow more and more entertaining, your drawings more and

more picturesque; you write with more wit, and paint with more

melancholy, than ever any body did: your woody mountains hang

down "somewhat so poetical," as Mr. Ashe(439) said, that your

own poet Gray will scarce keep tune with you. All this refers

to your cascade scene and your letter. For the library it

cannot have the Strawberry imprimatur: the double arches and

double pinnacles are most ungraceful; and the doors below the

book-cases in Mr. Chute's design had a conventual look, which

yours totally wants. For this time, we shall put your genius

in commission, and, like some other regents, execute our own

plan without minding our sovereign. For the chimney, I do not

wonder you missed our instructions: we could not contrive to

understand them ourselves; and therefore, determining nothing

but to have the old picture stuck in a thicket of pinnacles, we

left it to you to find out the how. I believe it will be a

little difficult; but as I suppose facere quia impossibile est,

is full as easy as credere, why--you must do it.

The present journal of the world and of me stands thus: King

George II does not go abroad--Some folks fear nephews,(440) as

much as others hate uncles. The Castle of Dublin has carried

the Armagh election by one vote only--which is thought

equivalent to losing it by twenty. Mr. Pelham has been very

ill, I thought of St. Patrick's fire,(441) but it proved to be

St. Antony's. Our House of Commons, mere poachers, are

piddling wit the torture of Leheup,(442) who extracted so much

money out of the lottery.

The robber of Po Yang(443) is discovered, and I hope will be

put to death, without my pity interfering, as it has done for

Mr. Shorter's servant,(444) or Lady Caroline Petersham's, as it

did for Maclean. In short, it was a heron. I like this better

than thieves, as I believe the gang will be more easily

destroyed, though not mentioned in the King's speech or

Fielding's treatises.

Lord Clarendon, Lord Thanet, and Lord Burlington are dead. The

second sent for his tailor, and asked him if he could make him

a suit of mourning in eight hours: if he could, he would go

into mourning for his brother Burlington(445)--but that he did

not expect to live twelve hours himself.

There are two more volumes come out of Sir Charles Grandison.

I shall detain them till the last is published, and not think I

postpone much of your pleasure. For my part, I stopped at the

fourth; I was so tired of sets of people getting together, and

saying, "Pray, Miss, with whom are you in love?" and of mighty

good young men that convert your Mr. M * * * *'s in the

twinkling of a sermon!--You have not been much more diverted, I

fear, with Hogarth's book(446)--'tis very silly!--Palmyra(447)

is come forth, and is a noble book; the prints finely engraved,

and an admirable dissertation before it. My wonder is much

abated: the Palmyrene empire which I had figured, shrunk to a

small trading city with some magnificent public buildings out

of proportion to the dignity of the place.

The operas succeed pretty well; and music has so much

recovered its power of charming that there is started up a

burletta at Covent Garden,(448) that has half the vogue of the

old Beggar's Opera: indeed there is a soubrette, called the

Niccolina, who, besides being pretty, has more vivacity and

variety of humour than ever existed in any creature.

(438) Mr. Bentley was now in the island of Jersey; whither he

had retired on account of the derangement of his affairs, and

whither all the following letters are addressed to him.

(439) A nurseryman at Twickenham. He had served Pope. Mr.

Walpole telling him he Would have his trees planted

irregularly, he said, "Yes, Sir, I understand: you would have

them hung down somewhat poetical."

(440) Frederick King of Prussia, nephew to George II. Mr.

Walpole alludes to himself, who was upon bad terms with his

uncle Horace Walpole, afterwards Lord Walpole of Wolterton.

(441) Alluding to the disturbances and opposition to

government, which took place in Ireland during the viceroyalty

of Lionel Duke of Dorset.

(442) In framing the act for the purchase of the Sloane Museum

and the Harleian Manuscripts by lottery Mr. Pelham, who

disapproved of this financial expedient, as tending to foster a

spirit of gambling, had taken care to restrict the number of

tickets to be sold to any single individual. Notwithstanding

which, Mr. Leheup, one of the commissioners of the lottery, had

sold to one person, under names which he knew to be fictitious,

between two and three hundred tickets. The subject was brought

before the House of Commons, where a series of resolutions was

passed against Mr. Leheup, accompanied by an address to the

King, praying that the offender might be prosecuted. The

result was, that he was prosecuted by the Attorney-general, and

fined one thousand pounds.-E.

(443) Mr. Walpole had given this Chinese name to a pond of gold

fish at Strawberry Hill.

(444) A Swiss servant of Erasmus Shorter's, maternal uncle to

Mr. Walpole, who was not without suspicion of having hastened

his master's death.

(445) The Countesses of Thanet and Burlington were sisters.

(446) The Analysis of Beauty.

(447) "The Ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tadmor in the Desert,"

by Robert Wood, Esq.; a splendid volume in folio, with a number

of elegant engravings. In 1757, Mr. Wood published a similar

description of the "Ruins of Balbec."-E.

(448) Harlequin Sorcerer.-E.

191 Letter 90

To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Jan. 28, 1754.

Her Serene Highness, the great Duchess Bianca Capello,(449) is

arrived safe at a palace lately taken for her in Arlington

Street. She has been much visited by the quality and gentry,

and pleases universally by the graces of her person and

comeliness of her deportment--my dear child, this is the least

that the newspapers would say of the charming Bianca. I, who

feel all the agreeableness of your manner, must say a great

deal more, or should say a great deal more, but I can only

commend the picture enough, not you. The head is painted equal

to Titian; and though done, I suppose, after the 'clock had

struck five-and-thirty, yet she retains a great share of

beauty. I have bespoken a frame for her, with the grand-ducal

coronet at top, her story on a label at bottom, which Gray is

to compose in Latin, as short and expressive as Tacitus, (one

is lucky when one can bespeak and have executed such an

inscription!) the Medici arms on one side, and the Capello's on

the other. I must tell you a critical discovery of mine

apropos: in an old book of Venetian arms, there are two coats

of Capello, who from their name bear a hat; on one of them is

added a fleur-de-lis on a blue ball, which I am persuaded was

given to the family by the Great Duke, in consideration of this

alliance; the Medicis, you know, bore such a badge at the top

of their own arms. This discovery I made by a talisman, which

Mr. Chute calls the Sortes Walpolianae, by which I find every

thing I want, `a pointe nomm`ee, whenever I dip for it. This

discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call

Serendipity, a very expressive word, which, as I have nothing

better to tell you, I shall endeavour to explain to you: you

will understand it better by the derivation than by the

definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called "The Three

Princes of Serendip;" as their Highnesses travelled, they were

always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things

which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them

discovered that a mule blind of the right eye had travelled the

same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left

side, where it was worse than on the right--now do you

understand Serendipity? One of the most remarkable instances of

this accidental Sagacity, (for you must observe that no

discovery of a thing you are looking for comes under this

description,) was of my Lord Shaftsbury, who, happening to dine

at Lord Chancellor Clarendon's, found out the marriage of the

Duke of York and Mrs. Hyde, by the respect with which her

mother treated her at table. I will send you the inscription

in my next letter; you see I endeavour to grace your present as

it deserves.

Your brother would have me say something of my opinion about

your idea of taking the name of Guise;(450) but he has written

so fully that I can only assure you in addition, that I am

stronger even than he is against it, and cannot allow of your

reasoning on families, because, however families may be

prejudiced about them, and however foreigners (I mean, great

foreigners) here may have those prejudices too, vet they never

operate here, where there is any one reason to counterbalance

them. A minister who has the least disposition to promote a

creature of his, and to set aside a Talbot or a Nevil, will at

one breath puff away a genealogy that would reach from hence to

Herenhausen. I know a great foreigner, who always says that my

Lord Denbigh is the best gentleman in England, because he is

descended from the old Counts of Hapsburg; and yet my Lord

Denbigh, (and though he is descended from what one should think

of much more consequence here, the old Counts of Denbigh,) has

for many years wanted a place or a pension, as much as if he

were only what I think the first Count of Hapsburg was, the

Emperor's butler. Your instance of the Venetians refusing to

receive Valenti can have no weight: Venice might bully a Duke

of Mantua, but what would all her heralds signify against a

British envoy? In short, what weight do you think family has

here, when the very last minister whom we have despatched is

Sir James Gray,--nay, and who has already been in a public

character at Venice! His father was first a box-keeper, and

then footman to James the Second; and this is the man exchanged

against the Prince de San Severino! One of my father's maxims

was quieta non movere; and he was a wise man in that his day.

My dear child, if you will suffer me to conclude with a pun,

content yourself with your Manhood and Tuscany: it would be

thought injustice to remove you from thence for any body else:

when once you shift about, you lose the benefit of

prescription, and subject yourself to a thousand accidents. I

speak very seriously; I know the carte du pais.

We have no news: the flames in Ireland are stifled, I don't say

extinguished, by adjourning the Parliament, which is to be

prorogued. A catalogue of dismissions was sent over thither,

but the Lord Lieutenant durst not venture to put them in

execution. We are sending a strong squadron to the East

Indies, which may possibly bring back a war with France,

especially as we are going to ask money of our Parliament for

the equipment. We abound in diversions, which flourish

exceedingly on the demise of politics. There are no less than

five operas every week, three of which are burlettas; a very

bad company, except the Niccolina, who beats all the actors and

actresses I ever saw for vivacity and variety. We had a good

set four years ago, which did not take at all; but these being

at the playhouse, and at play prices, the people, instead of

resenting it, as was expected, are transported with them, call

them their own operas, and I will not swear that they do not

take them for English operas. They huzzaed the King twice the

other night, for bespeaking one on the night of the Haymarket

opera.

I am glad you are aware of Miss Pitt: pray continue your

awaredom: I assure you, before she set out for Italy, she was

qualified to go any Italian length of passion. Her very first

slip was with her eldest brother: and it is not her fault that

she has not made still blacker trips. Never mention this, and

forget it as soon as she is gone from Florence. Adieu!

(449) Bianca Capello was the daughter of a noble Venetian. She

had been seduced and carried off from her father's house by a

young Florentine of low origin, named Peter Bonaventuri. They

came to Florence, where she became the mistress of the Grand

Duke of Tuscany, Francis of Medicis. He was very anxious to

have a child by her; upon which she pretended to be brought to

bed of a son, who had in reality been bought of one of the

lower orders. He was called Don Anthony of Medicis. In order

to prevent the Grand Duke from discovering her fraud, Bianca

caused several of the persons who had had a part in the

deception to be assassinated. At length the wife of Francis,

the Archduchess Joan of Austria, died in childbed; and Bianca

intrigued so successfully, that she persuaded her lover to

marry her. Her marriage with the Grand Duke took place on the

12th of October, 1579, and was so sumptuous that it cost one

hundred thousand Florentine ducats. Her tyranny and rapacity

soon made her universally hated. She is supposed, as well as

her husband, to have died by poison, administered to them

through the means of his brother, the Cardinal Ferdinand of

Medicis, who succeeded him as Grand I)uke.-D.

(451) Mr. Mann's mother was an heiress of that house.

194 Letter 91

To Richard Bentley, Esq.

Arlington Street, March 2, 1754.

After calling two or three times without finding him, I wrote

yesterday to Lord Granville,' and received a most gracious

answer, but desiring to see me. I went. He repeated all your

history with him, and mentioned your vivacity at parting;

however, consented to give you the apartment, with great good

humour, and said he would write to his bailiff; and added,

laughing, that he had an old cross housekeeper, who had

regularly quarrelled with all his grantees. It is well that

some of your desires, though unfortunately the most trifling,

depend on me alone, as those at least are sure of being

executed. By Tuesday's coach there will go to Southampton two

orange trees, two Arabian jasmines, some tuberose roots, and

plenty of cypress seeds, which last I send you in lieu of the

olive trees, none of which are yet come over.

The weather grows fine, and I have resumed little flights to

Strawberry. I carried George Montagu thither, who was in

raptures, and screamed, and hooped and hollaed, and danced, and

crossed himself a thousand times over. He returns to-morrow to

Greatworth, and I fear will give himself up entirely to country

squirehood. But what will you say to greater honour which

Strawberry has received? Nolkejumskoi(453) has been to see it,

and liked the windows and staircase. I can't conceive how he

entered it. I should have figured him like Gulliver cutting

down some of the largest oaks in Windsor Forest to make

joint-stools, in order to straddle over the battlements and

peep in at the windows of Lilliput. I can't deny myself this

reflection (even though he liked Strawberry,) as he has not

employed you as an architect.

Still there is little news. To-day it is said that Lord George

Sackville is summoned in haste from Ireland, where the grand

juries are going to petition for the resitting Of the

Parliament. Hitherto they have done nothing but invent

satirical healths, which I believe gratify a taste more

peculiar to Ireland than politics, drinking. We have had one

Considerable day in the House of Commons here. Lord Egmont, in

a very long and fine speech, opposed a new Mutiny-bill for the

troops going to the East Indies (which I believe occasioned the

reports with you of an approaching war.) Mr. Conway got

infinite reputation by a most charming speech in answer to him,

in which he displayed a system of military learning, which was

at once new, striking and entertaining.(454) I had carried

Monsieur de Gisors thither, who began to take notes of all I

explained to him: but I begged he would not; for, the question

regarding French politics, I concluded the Speaker would never

have done storming at the Gaulls collecting intelligence in the

very senate-house. Lord Holderness made a magnificent ball for

these foreigners last week: there were a hundred and forty

people, and most stayed supper. Two of my Frenchmen learnt

country-dances, and succeeded very well. T'other night they

danced minuets for the entertainment of the King at the

masquerade; and then he sent for Lady Coventry to dance: it was

quite like Herodias-and I believe if he had offered her a boon,

she would have chosen the head of St. John--I believe I told

you of her passion for the young Lord Bolingbroke.

Dr. Mead is dead, and his collection going to be sold. I fear

I have not virtue enough to resist his miniatures. I shall be

ruined!(455)

I shall tell you a new instance of the Sortes Walpolianae: I

lately bought an old volume of pamphlets; I found at the end a

history of the Dukes of Lorrain, and with that an account of a

series of their medals, of which, says the author, there are

but two sets in England. It so happens that I bought a set

above ten years ago at Lord Oxford's sale; and on examination I

found the Duchess, wife of Duke Ren`e,(456) has a headdress,

allowing for being modernized, as the medals are modern, which

is evidently the same with that figure in my Marriage of Henry

VI. which I had imagined was of her. It is said to be taken

from her tomb at Angiers; and that I might not decide too

quickly en connoisseur, I have sent to Angiers for a draught of

the tomb.

Poor Mr. Chute was here yesterday, the first going out after a

confinement of thirteen weeks; but he is pretty well. We have

determined upon the plan for the library, which we find will

fall in exactly with the proportions of the room, with no

variations from the little door-case of St. Paul's, but

widening the larger arches. I believe I shall beg your

assistance again about the chimney-piece and ceiling; but I can

decide nothing till I have been again at Strawberry. Adieu! my

dear Sir.

(452) John Earl Granville, then secretary of state, had an

estate in Jersey.

(453) The Duke of Cumberland.-E.

(454) Mr. Conway's speech will be found in the Parliamentary

History, vol. xv. p. 282. The object of the bill was to extend

the operation of the Mutiny act to the troops in the service of

the East India Company. This question was strongly combated,

on constitutional grounds, as conferring on a trading body

powers which ought to be viewed with jealousy, when vested even

in the head of the state. The second reading was carried by

245 against 50.-E.

(455) Dr. Mead's pictures were chosen with so much judgment,

that at the sale of them in this month, they produced 3,417

pounds, 11 shillings, nearly seven hundred pounds more than he

gave for them.-E.

(456) Duke of Anjou, father of the unfortunate Margaret of

Anjou, Queen of Henry the Sixth of England.-E.

196 Letter 92

To Richard Bentley, Esq.

Arlington Street, March 6, 1754.

My dear Sir,

You will be surprised at my writing again so very soon; but

unpleasant as it is to be the bearer of ill news,(457) I

flattered myself that you would endure it better from me, than

to be shocked with it from an indifferent hand, who would not

have the same management for your tenderness and delicacy as I

naturally shall, who always feel for you, and on this occasion

with you! You are very unfortunate: you have not many real

friends, and you lose--for I must tell it you, the chief of

them! indeed, the only one who could have been of real use to

you--for what can I do, but wish, and attempt, and miscarry?-

-or from whom could I have hoped assistance for you, or warmth

for myself and my friends, but from the friend I have this

morning lost?--But it is too selfish to be talking of our

losses, when Britain, Europe, the world, the King, Jack

Roberts,(458) Lord Barnard, have lost their guardian angel.

What are private misfortunes to the affliction of one's

country? or how inglorious is an Englishman to bewail himself,

when a true patriot should be acting for the good of mankind!-

-Indeed, if it is possible to feel any comfort, it is from

seeing how many true Englishmen, how many true Scotchmen are

zealous to replace the loss, and snatch at the rudder of the

state, amidst this storm and danger! Oh! my friend, how will

your heart glow with melancholy admiration, when I tell you,

that even the poor Duke of Newcastle himself conquers the

torrent of his grief, and has promised Mrs. Betty Spence,(459)

and Mr. Griham the apothecary, that, rather than abandon

England to its evil genius, he will even submit to be lord

treasurer himself? My Lord Chancellor, too, is said to be

willing to devote himself in the same manner for the good of

his country. Lord Hartington(460) is the most inconsolable of

all; and when Mrs. Molly Bodens(461) and Mrs. Garrick were

entreated by some of the cabinet council to ask him whom he

wished to have minister, the only answer they could draw from

him was, "a Whig! a Whig!" As for Lord B. I may truly say, he

is humbled and licks the dust; for his tongue, which never used

to hang below the waistband of his breeches, is now dropped

down to his shoe-buckles; and had not Mr. Stone assured him

that if the worst came to the worst, they could but make their

fortunes under another family, I don't know whether he would

not have despaired of the commonwealth. But though I sincerely

pity so good a citizen, I cannot help feeling most for poor

Lord Holderness, who sees a scheme of glory dashed which would

have added new lustre to the British annals and have

transmitted the name D'Arcy down to latest posterity. He had

but just taken Mr. Mason the poet into his house to write his

deserts; and he had just reason to expect that the secretary's

office would have gained a superiority over that of France and

Italy, which was unknown even to Walsingham.

I had written thus far, and perhaps should have elegized on for

a page or two further, when Harry, who has no idea of the

dignity of grief, blundered in, with satisfaction in his

countenance, and thrust two packets from you into my hand.-

-Alas! he little knew that I was incapable of tasting any

satisfaction but in the indulgence of my concern.--I was once

going to commit them to the devouring flames, lest any light or

vain sentence should tempt me to smile but my turn for true

philosophy checked my hand, and made me determine to prove that

I could at once launch into the bosom of pleasure and be

insensible to it.-I have conquered; I have read your letters,

and yet I think of nothing but Mr. Pelham's death! Could Lady

Catherine(462) do thus @ Could she receive a love-letter from

Mr. Brown, and yet think only on her breathless Lord?

Thursday,

I wrote the above last night, and have stayed as late as I

could this evening, that I might be able to tell you who the

person is in whom all the world is to discover the proper

qualities for replacing the national loss. But, alas! the

experience of two @,whole days has showed that the misfortune

is irreparable; and I don't know whether the elegies on his

death will not be finished before there be any occasion for

congratulations to his successor. The mystery is profound.

How shocking it will be if things should go on just as they

are! I mean by that, how mortifying if it is discovered, that

when all the world thought Mr. Pelham did and could alone

maintain the calm and carry on the government, even he was not

necessary, and that it was the calm and the government that

carried on themselves! However, this is not my opinion.--I

believe all this will make a party.(453)

Good night! here are two more new plays: Constantine,(464) the

better of them, expired the fourth night at Covent-garden.

Virginia,(465) by Garrick's acting and popularity, flourishes

still: he has written a remarkably good epilogue to it. Lord

Bolingbroke is come forth in five pompous quartos, two and a

half new and most unorthodox.(466) Warburton is resolved to

answer, and the bishops not to answer him. I have not had a

moment to look into it. Good night!

(457) This is an ironic letter on the death of Henry Pelham,

first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer,

with whom Mr. Walpole was on ill terms.

(458) John Roberts, Esq. secretary to Mr. Pelham.

(459) Companion to the Duchess of Newcastle. [This lady was

related to the Rev. Joseph Spence, author of "Polymetis." She

died in 1764, after being the friend and companion of the

Duchess of Newcastle for more than forty-five years.]

(460) William, afterwards fourth Duke of Devonshire.

(461) Companion of Lady Burlington, Lord Hartington's

mother-in-law.

(462) Lady Catherine Pelham, the widow of Mr. Pelham.-E.

(463) Mr. Walpole, when young, loved faction; and Mr. Bentley

one day saying, " that he believed certain opinions would make

a sect," Mr. W. said eagerly, "Will they make a party?"

(464) "Constantine," a tragedy was written by the Rev. Philip

Francis, the translator of Horace and Demosthenes, and father

of Sir Philip Francis, the reputed author of the Letters of

Junius. He also wrote "Eugenia," a tragedy; but as a dramatic

author he was not very successful.-E.

(465) "Virginia" was written by Henry Crisp, a clerk in the

Custom-house. It was acted at Drury Lane with some success;

owing chiefly to the excellence of the performers.-E.

(466) A splendid edition of Lord Bolingbroke's Works, in five

volumes, quarto, having been published on the very day of Mr.

Pelham's death, Garrick wrote an ode on the occasion, which

contains the following stanza:-

"The same sad morn, to Church and State

(So for our sins 'twas fix'd by fate)

A double shock was given:

Black as the regions of the North,

St. John's fell genius issued forth,

And Pelham's fled to heaven!"

It was upon the appearance of this edition of Lord

Bolingbroke's works, edited by David Mallet, that Dr. Johnson

pronounced this memorable sentence upon both author and

editor:--"Sir, he was a scoundrel and a coward; a scoundrel,

for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a

coward, because he had no resolution to fire it off himself,

but left half-a-crown to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the

trigger after his death."-E.

198 Letter 93

To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, March 7, 1754.