This is merely a letter about your commission, and I hope it

will get to you with wondrous haste. I have not lost a minute

in trying to execute what you desire, but it is impossible to

perform all that is required. A watch, perfect by Ellicot or

Gray, with all the accompaniments, cannot possibly be had for

near seventy-five pounds. Though the directions do not

expressly limit me to seventy-five, yet I know Italians enough

to be sure that when they name seventy-five, they would not

bear a codicil of fifty-five more. Ellicot (and Gray is rather

dearer) would have for watch and chain a hundred and

thirty-four guineas; the seals will cost sixteen more. Two

hundred and sixty-eight sequins are more than I dare lay out.

But I will tell you what I have done: Deard, one of the first

jewellers and toymen Here, has undertaken to make a watch and

chain, enamelled according to a pattern I have chosen of the

newest kind, for a hundred guineas; with two seals for sixteen

more; and he has engaged that, if this is not approved, he will

keep it himself; but to this I must have an immediate answer.

He will put his own name to it, as a warrant to the goodness of

the work; and then, except the nine of Ellicot or Gray, your

friend will have as good a watch as he can desire. I take for

granted, at farthest, that I can have an answer by the 15th of

July; and then there will be time, I trust, to convey it to

you; I suppose by sea, for unless a fortunate messenger should

be going `a point nomm`e, you may imagine that a traveller

would not arrive there in any time. My dear Sir, you know how

happy I am to do any thing you desire; and I shall pique myself

on your credit in this, but your friend has expected what,

altogether, it is almost impossible to perform--what can be

done, shall be.

There is not a syllable of news--if there was, I should not

confine myself solely to the commission. Some of our captains

in the East Indies have behaved very ill; if there is an

invasion, which I don't believe there will, I am glad they were

not here. Adieu!

494 Letter 319

To The Earl Of Strafford.

Strawberry Hill, June 12, 1759.

My dear lord,

After so kind a note as you left for me at your going Out Of

town, you cannot wonder that I was determined to thank you the

moment I knew you settled in Yorkshire. At least I am not

ungrateful, if I deserve your goodness by no other title. I

was willing to stay till I could amuse you, but I have not a

battle big enough even to send in a letter. A war that reaches

from Muscovy to Alsace, and from Madras to California, don't

produce an article half so long as Mr. Johnson's riding three

horses at Once. The King of Prussia's campaign is still. in

its papillotes; Prince Ferdinand is laid up like the rest of

the pensioners on Ireland; Guadaloupe has taken a sleeping-

draught, and our heroes in America seem to be planting suckers

of laurels that will not make any future these three years.

All the war that is in fashion lies between those two

ridiculous things, an invasion and the militia. - Prince Edward

is going to sea, to inquire after the invasion from France: and

the old potbellied country colonels are preparing to march and

make it drunk when it comes. I don't know, as it is an event

in Mr. Pitt's administration, whether the Jacobite

corporations, who are converted by his eloquence which they

never heard, do not propose to bestow their freedom on the

first corps of French that shall land.

Adieu, my lord and my lady! I hope you are all beauty and

verdure. We are drowned with obtaining ours.

495 Letter 320

To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, June 22, 1759.

Well! they tell us in good earnest that we are to be invaded;

Mr. Pitt is as positive of it as of his own invasions. As the

French affect an air of grandeur in all they do, "Mr. Pitt sent

ten thousands, but they send fifty thousands." You will be

inquisitive after our force--I can't tell you the particulars;

I am only in town for to-day, but I hear of mighty

preparations. Of one thing I am sure; they missed the moment

when eight thousand men might have carried off England and set

it down in the gardens of Versailles. In the last war, when we

could not rake together four thousand men, and were all

divided, not a flat-bottomed boat lifted up its leg against us!

There is great spirit in Motion; my Lord Orford is gone with

his Norfolk militia to Portsmouth; every body is raising

regiments or themselves--my Lord Shaftsbury,(1039) . one of the

new colonels of militia, is to be a brigadier-general. I shall

not march my Twickenham militia for some private reasons; my

farmer has got an ague, my printer has run away, my footboy is

always drunk, and my gardener is a Scotchman, and I believe

would give intelligence to the enemy. France has notified the

Dutch that she intends to -surprise us; and this makes us still

more angry. In the mean time, we have got Guadaloupe to play

with. I did not send you any particulars, for this time the

Gazette piqued itself upon telling its own story from beginning

to end; I never knew it so full of chat. It is very

comfortable, that if we lose our own island, we shall at least

have all America to settle in. Quebec is to be conquered by

the 15th of July, and two more expeditions, I don't know

whither, are to be crowned with all imaginable success, I don't

know when; so you see our affairs, upon the whole, are in a

very prosperous train. Your friend, Colonel Clavering, is the

real hero of Guadaloupe; he is come home, covered "with more

laurels than a boar's head: indeed he has done exceedingly

well. A much older friend of yours is just dead, my Lady

Murray;(1040) she caught her death by too strict attendance on

her sister, Lady Binning, who has been ill. They were a family

of love, and break their hearts for her. She had a thousand

good qualities; but no mortal was ever so surprised as I when I

was first told that she was the nymph Arthur Gray would have

ravished. She had taken care to guard against any more such

danger by more wrinkles than ever twisted round a human face.

Adieu! If you have a mind to be fashionable, you must raise a

regiment of Florentine militia.

(1039) Anthony Ashley Cooper, fourth Earl of Shaftsbury. he

died in 1771.-D.

(1040) Daughter of George Bailie, Esq. See an epistle from

Arthur Gray, her footman, to her, in the poems of Lady Mary

Wortley Montagu. [Lady Murray of Stanhope. She was a woman of

merit and ability, and of excellent conduct. She was an

intimate friend of Lady Hervey, who, in her letters, thus

speaks of her;--"I have lost the first friend I had--the

kindest, best, and most valuable one I ever had, with whom I

have lived at her grandfather's, Lord Marchmont."-E.]

496 Letter 321

To George Montagu, Esq.

Strawberry Hill, June 23, 1759.

As you bid me fix a day about six weeks from the date of your

last, it will suit me extremely to see you here the 1st of

August. I don't mean to treat you with a rowing for a badge,

but it will fall in very commodely between my parties. You

tell me nothing of the old house you were to see near Blenheim:

I have some suspicion that Greatworth is coming into play

again. I made your speeches to Mr. Chute, and to Mr. M`untz,

and to myself; your snuff-box is bespoke, your pictures not

done, the print of Lady Waldegrave not begun.

news there are none, unless you have a mind for a panic about

the invasion. I was in town yesterday, and saw a thousand

people at Kensington with faces as long as if it was the last

accession of this family that they were ever to See. The

French are coming with fifty thousand men, and we shall meet

them with fifty addresses. Pray, if you know how, frighten

your neighbours, and give them courage at the same time.

My Lady Coventry and my niece Waldegrave have been mobbed in

the Park. I am sorry the people of England take all their

liberty out in insulting pretty women.

You will be diverted with what happened to Mr. Meynell lately.

He was engaged to dine at a formal old lady's, but stayed so

late hunting that he had not time to dress, but -went as he

was, with forty apologies. The matron very affected, and

meaning to say something very civil, cried, "Oh! Sir, I assure

you I can see the gentleman through a pair of buckskin breeches

as well as if he was in silk or satin."

I am sure I can't tell you any thing better, so good night!

Yours ever.

P. s. I hope you have as gorgeous weather as we have; it is

even hot enough for Mr. Bentley. I live upon the water.

497 Letter 322

To Sir Horace Mann.

Strawberry Hill, July 8, 1759.

This will be the most indecisive of all letters: I don't write

to tell you that the French are not landed at Deal, as was

believed yesterday. An officer arrived post in the middle of

the night, who saw them disembark. The King was called; my

lord Ligonier buckled on his armour. Nothing else was talked

of in the streets; yet there was no panic.(1041) Before noon,

it was known that the invasion was a few Dutch hoys. The day

before, it was triumph. Rodney was known to be before Havre de

Grace; with two bomb-ketches he set the town on fire in

different places, and had brought up four more to act,

notwithstanding a very smart fire from the forts, which,

however, will probably force him to retire without burning the

flat-bottomed boats, which are believed out of his reach. The

express came from him on Wednesday morning. This is Sunday

noon, and I don't know that farther intelligence is arrived. I

am sorry for this sort of war, not only for the sufferers, but

I don't like the precedent, in case the French should land. I

think they will scarce venture; for besides the force on land,

we have a mighty chain of fleet and frigates along the coast.

There is great animosity to them, and few can expect to return.

Our part of the war in Germany seems at an end: Prince

Ferdinand is retiring, and has all the advantage of that part

of great generalship, a retreat. From America we expect the

greatest things; our force there by land and sea is vast. I

hope we shall not be to buy England back by restoring the North

Indies! I will gladly give them all the hundred thousand acres

that may fall to my share on the Olio for my twenty acres here.

Truly I don't like having them endangered for the limits of

Virginia!

I wait impatiently for your last orders for the watch; if the

worst comes to the worst, I can convey it to you by some French

officer.

The weather is sultry; this country never looked prettier. I

hope our enemies will not have the heart to spoil it! It would

be much disappointment to me, who am going to make great

additions to my castle; a gallery, a round tower, and a

cabinet, that is to have all the air of a Catholic chapel--bar

consecration. Adieu! I will tell you more soon, or I hope no

more.

(1041) "Every body," says Gray, in a letter to Dr. Wharton, of

the 21st, "continues as quiet about the invasion as if a

Frenchman, as soon as he set his foot on our coast, would die,

like a toad in Ireland. Yet the King's tents and equipage are

ordered to be ready at an hour's warning." Works, vol. iii. p.

218.-E.

498 Letter 323

To Sir David Dalrymple.(1042)

Strawberry Hill, July 11, 1759.

You will repent, Sir, I fear, having drawn such a correspondent

upon yourself. An author flattered and encouraged is not

easily shaken- off again; but if the interests of my book did

not engage me to trouble you, while you are so good as to write

me the most entertaining letters in the world, it is very

natural for me to lay snares to inveigle more of them.

However, Sir, excuse me this once, and I will be more modest

for the future in trespassing on your kindness. Yet, before I

break out on my new wants, it will be but decent, Sir, to

answer some particulars of your letter.

I have lately read Mr. Goodall,S(1043) book. There is

certainly ingenuity in parts 'of his defence: but I believe one

seldom thinks a defence ingenious without meaning that it is

unsatisfactory. His work left me fully convinced of what he

endeavoured to disprove; and showed me, that the piece you

mention is not the only one that he has written against

moderation.

I have lately got Lord Cromerty's Vindication of the legitimacy

of King Robert,(1044) and his Synopsis Apocalyptica, and thank

you much, Sir, for the notice of any of his pieces. But if you

expect that his works should lessen my esteem for the writers

of Scotland, you Will please to recollect, that the letter

which paints Lord Cromerty's pieces in so ridiculous a light,

is more than a counterbalance in favour of the writers of your

country: and of all men living, Sir, you are the last who will

destroy my partiality for Scotland.

There is another point, Sir, on which, with all your address,

you will persuade me as little. Can I think that we want

writers of history while Mr. Hume and Mr. Robertson are living?

It is a truth, and not a compliment, that I never heard

objections made to Mr. Hume's History without endeavouring to

convince the persons who found fault wit@ it, of its great

merit and beauty; and for what I saw of Mr. -Robertson's work,

it is one of the purest styles, and of the greatest

impartiality, that I ever read. It is impossible for me to

recommend a subject to him: because I cannot judge of what

materials he can obtain. His present performance will

undoubtedly make him so well known and esteemed, that he will

have credit to obtain many new lights for a future history; but

surely those relating to his own country will always lie most

open to him. This is much my way of thinking with regard to

myself. Though the Life of Christina is a pleasing and a most

uncommon subject, yet, totally unacquainted as I am with Sweden

and its language, how could I flatter myself with saying any

thing new of her? And when original letters and authentic

papers shall hereafter appear, may not they contradict half one

should relate on the authority of what is already published?

for though memoirs written nearest to the time are likely to be

the truest, those published nearest to it are generally the

falsest.

But, indeed, Sir, I am now making you only civil excuses; the

real one is, I have no kind of intention of continuing to

write. I could not expect to succeed again with so much

luck,--indeed, I think it so,--as I have done; it Would mortify

me more now, after a little success, to be despised, than it

would have done before; and if I could please as much as I

should wish to do, I think one should dread being a voluminous

author. My own idleness, too, bids me desist. If I continued,

I should certainly take more pains than I did in my Catalogue;

the trouble would not only be more than I care to encounter,

but would probably destroy what I believe the only merit of my

last work, the ease. If I could incite you to tread in steps

which I perceive you don't condemn, and for which it is evident

you are so well qualified, from your knowledge, the grace,

facility, and humour of your expression and manner, I shall

have done a real service, where I expected at best to amuse.

(1042) Now first collected.

(1043) Walter Goodall, librarian of the Advocates' Library,

Edinburgh. He was warmly devoted to Mary Queen of Scots, and

in 1754, published an Examination of the letters said to be

written by Mary to the Earl of Bothwell, in which he

endeavoured to prove them to be forgeries.-E.

(1044) Robert, the third King of Scotland, from the imputation

of bastardy.-E.

499 Letter 324

To George Montagu, Esq.

Strawberry Hill, July 19, 1759.

Well, I begin to expect you; you must not forget the first of

August. If we do but look as well as we do at present, you

will own Strawberry is still in its bloom. With English

verdure, we have had an Italian summer, and

Whatever sweets Sabaean springs disclose,

Our Indian jasmin, and the Persian rose.

I am forced to talk of Strawberry, lest I should weary you with

what every body wearies me, the French and the militia. They,

I mean the latter only, not the former, passed just by us

yesterday, and though it was my own clan, I had not the

curiosity to go and see them. The crowds in Hyde Park, when

the King reviewed them, were unimaginable. My Lord Orford,

their colonel, I hear, looked gloriously martial and genteel,

and I believe it;(1045) his person and air have a noble

wildness in them; the regiments, too, are very becoming,

scarlet faced with black, buff waistcoats, and gold buttons.

How knights of shires, who have never shot any thing but

woodcocks, like this warfare, I don't know; but the towns

through which they pass adore them; every where they are

treated and regaled. The Prince of Wales followed them to

Kingston, and gave fifty guineas among the private men.

I expect some anecdotes from you of the coronation at Oxford; I

hear my Lord Westmoreland's own retinue was all be-James'd with

true-blue ribands; and that because Sir William Calvert, who

was a fellow of a college, and happened to be Lord Mayor,

attended the Duke of Newcastle at his inthronization, they

dragged down the present Lord Mayor to Oxford, who is only a

dry-salter.

I have your Butler's posthumous works.(1046) The poetry is

most uncouth and incorrect, but with infinite wit; especially

one thing on plagiaries is equal to any thirty in Hudibras.

Have you read my Lord Clarendon's? I am enchanted with it; 'tis

very incorrect, but I think more entertaining than his History.

It makes me quite out of humour with other memoirs. Adieu!

(1045) Mr. Pitt, in a letter of this day, to Lady Hester, says,

"Nothing could make a better appearance than the two Norfolk

battalions. Lord Orford, with the port of Mars himself, and

really the genteelest figure under arms I ever saw, was the

theme of every tongue." Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p.

4.-E.

(1046) "The Genuine Remains, in prose and verse, of Samuel

Butler; with notes by R. Thyer." A very pleasant review of

this work, by Oliver Goldsmith, will be found in the fourth

volume of Mr. Murray's enlarged edition of his Miscellaneous

Works.-E.

500 Letter 325

To George Montagu, Esq.

Arlington Street, July 26, 1759.

I am dying in a hot street, with my eyes full of dust, and my

table full of letters to be answered--yet I must write you a

line. I am sorry your first of Augustness is disordered; I'll

tell you why. I go to Ragley on the twelfth. There is to be a

great party at loo for the Duchess of Grafton, and thence they

adjourn to the Warwick races. I have been engaged so long to

this, that I cannot put it off; besides, I am under

appointments at George Selwyn's, etc. afterwards. If you

cannot come before all this to let me have enough of your

company, I should wish you to postpone it to the first of

September, when I shall be at leisure for ten or twelve days,

and could go with you from Strawberry to the Vine; but I could

like to know certainly, for as I never make any of my visits

while Strawberry is in bloom, I am a little crowded with them

at the end of the season.

I came this morning in all this torrent of heat from Lord

Waldegrave's at Navestock. It is a dull place, though it does

not want prospect backwards. The garden is small, consisting

of two French all`ees of old limes, that are comfortable, two

groves that are not so, and a green canal; there is besides a

paddock. The house was built by his father, and ill finished,

but an air seigneurial in the furniture; French glasses in

quantities, handsome commodes, tables, screens, etc. goodish

pictures in rich frames, and a deal of noblesse `a la St.

Germain--James the Second, Charles the Second, the Duke of

Berwick, her Grace of Buckingham, the Queen Dowager in the

dress she visited Madame Maintenon, her daughter the Princess

Louisa, a Lady Gerard that died at Joppa, returning from a

pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and above all La Goqfrey, and not at

all ugly, Though she does not show her thighs. All this is

leavened with the late King, the present King, and Queen

Caroline. I shall take care to sprinkle a little unholy water

from our well.

I am very sorry you have been so ill; take care of yourself.

there are wicked sore-throats in vogue; poor Lady Essex and

Mrs. Charles Yorke died of them in an instant.

Do let me have a line, and do fix a day; for instead of keeping

me at home one by fixing it, you will keep me there five or six

days by not fixing it. Adieu!

501 letter 326

To Sir Horace Mann.

Strawberry Hill, August 1, 1759.

I have received your two letters about the watch, the first

came with surprising celerity. I wish, when the watch is

finished, I may be able to convey it to you with equal

expedition.

Nothing is talked of here, as you may imagine, but the

invasion--yet I don't grow more credulous. Their ridiculous

lists of fifty thousand men don't contribute to frighten me--

nay, though they specify the numbers of apothecaries and

chaplains that are to attend. Fifty thousand men cannot easily

steal a march over the sea. Sir Edward Hawke will take care of

them till winter, and by that time we shall have a great force

at land. The very militia is considerable: the spirit, or at

least the fashion of it, catches every day. We are growing

such ancient Britons, that I don't know whether I must not

mount some popguns upon the battlements of my castle, lest I

should not be thought hero enough in these West-Saxon times.

Lord Pulteney has done handsomely, and what is more surprising,

so has his father. The former has offered to raise a regiment,

and to be only lieutenant-colonel, provided the command is

given to a Colonel Crawford, an old soldier, long postponed--

Lord Bath is at the expense, which will be five thousand

pounds. All the country squires are in regimentals --a

pedestal is making for little Lord Mountford, that he may be

placed at the head of the Cambridgeshire militia. In short, we

have two sorts of armies, and I hope neither will be

necessary--what the consequences of this militia may be

hereafter, I don't know. Indifferent I think it cannot be. A

great force upon an old plan, exploded since modern

improvements, must make some confusion. If they do not become

ridiculous, which the real officers are disposed to make them,

the crown or the disaffected will draw considerable

consequences, I think, from an establishment popular by being

constitutional, and of great weight from the property it will

contain.

If the French pursue their vivacity in Germany, they will send

us more defenders; our eight thousand men there seem of very

little use. Both sides seem in all parts weary of the war; at

least are grown so cautious, that a battle will be as great a

curiosity in a campaign as in the midst of peace. For the

Russians, they quite make one smile; they hover every summer

over the north of Germany, get cut to pieces by September,

disappear, have a general disgraced, and in winter out comes a

memorial of the Czarina's steadiness to her engagements, and of

the mighty things she will do in spring. The Swedes follow

them like Sancho Panza, and are rejoiced at not being bound by

the laws of chivalry to be thrashed too.

We have an evil that threatens us more nearly than the French.

The heat of the weather has produced a contagious sore-throat

in London. Mr. Yorke, the solicitor-general, has lost his

wife, his daughter, and a servant. The young Lady Essex(1047)

died of it in two days. Two servants are dead in

Newcastle-house, and the Duke has left it; any body else would

be pitied, but his terrors are sure of being a joke.(1048) My

niece, Lady Waldegrave, has done her part for repairing this

calamity, and is breeding.

Your Lord Northampton has not acted a much more gallant part by

his new mistress than by his fair one at Florence. When it was

all agreed, he refused to marry unless she had eighteen

thousand pounds. Eight were wanting. It looked as if he was

more attached to his old flame than to his new one; but her

uncle, Norborne Berkeley,(1049) has nobly made up the

deficiency.

I told Mr. Fox of the wine that is coming, and he told me what

I had totally forgot, that he has left off Florence, and

chooses to have no more. He will take this parcel, but you

need not trouble yourself again. Adieu! my dear Sir, don't let

Marshal Botta terrify you: when the French dare not stir out of

any port they have, it will be extraordinary if they venture to

come into the heart of us.

(1047) Frances, eldest daughter of Sir Charles Hanbury

Williams. See ant`e, p. 216, letter 108.-E.

(1048) "I have heard the Duke of Newcastle is much broke ever

since his sister Castlecorner died; not that he cared for her,

or saw her above once a year: but she was the last of the brood

that was left; and he now goes regularly to church, which he

never did before." Gray, Works, vol. iii. p. 218.-E.

(1049) Brother of the Duchess of Beaufort, mother of Lady Anne

Somerset, whom Lord Northampton did marry. (Norborne Berkeley

afterwards established his claim to the ancient barony of

Botetourt.-D.)

502 Letter 327

To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Aug. 8, 1759.

If any body admires expedition, they should address themselves

to you and me, who order watches, negotiate about them by

couriers, and have them finished, with as little trouble as if

we had nothing to do, but, like the men of business in the

Arabian tales, rub a dark lantern, a genie appears, one

bespeaks a bauble worth two or three Indies, and finds it upon

one's table the next morning at breakfast. The watch was

actually finished, and delivered to your brother yesterday. I

trust to our good luck for finding quick conveyance. I did

send to the White@horse cellar here in Piccadilly, whence all

the stage-coaches set out, but there was never a genie booted

and spurred, and going to Florence on a sunbeam. If you are

not charmed with the watch, never deal with us devils any more.

If any thing a quarter so pretty was found in Herculaneum, One

should admire Roman enamellers more than their Scipios and

Caesars. The device of the second seal I stole; it is old, but

uncommon; a Cupid standing on two joined hands over the sea; si

la foy manque, l'amour perira--I hope for the honour of the

device. it will arrive before half the honeymoon is over!--But,

alack! I forget the material point; Mr. Deard, who has forty

times more virtue than if he had been taken from the plough to

be colonel of the militia, instead of one hundred and sixteen

pounds to which I pinned him down, to avoid guineas, will

positively take but one hundred and ten pounds. I did all I

could to corrupt him with six more, but he is immaculate--and

when our posterity is abominably bad, as all posterity always

is till it grows one's ancestors, I hope Mr. Deard's integrity

will be quoted to them as an instance of the virtues that

adorned the simple and barbarous age of George the Second. Oh!

I can tell you the age of George the Second is likely to be

celebrated for more primitivity than the disinterestedness of

Mr. Deard-here is such a victory come over that--it can't get

over. Mr. Yorke has sent word that a Captain Ligonier is

coming from Prince Ferdinand to tell us that his Serene

Highness has beaten Monsieur Contades to such a degree, that

every house in London is illuminated, every street has two

bonfires, every bonfire has two hundred squibs, and the poor

charming moon yonder, that never looked so well in her life, is

not at all minded, but seems only staring out of a garret

window at the frantic doings all over the town.(1050) We don't

know a single particular, but we conclude that Prince Ferdinand

received all his directions from my Lord Granby, who is the

mob's hero. We are a little afraid, if we could fear any thing

to-night, that the defeat of the Russians by General Weidel was

a mistake for this victory of Prince Ferdinand. Pray Heaven!

neither of these glories be turned sour, by staying so long at

sea! You said in your last, what slaughter must be committed

by the end of August! Alas! my dear Sir, so there is by the

beginning of it; and we, wretched creatures, are forced to be

glad of it, because the greatest part falls on our enemies.

Fifteen hundred men have stolen from Dunkirk, and are said to

be sailed northward--some think, to Embden--too poor a pittance

surely where they thought themselves so superior, unless they

meaned to hinder our receiving our own troops from thence--as

paltry, too, if this is their invasion--but if to Scotland, not

quite a joke. However, Prince Ferdinand seems to have found

employment for the rest of their troops, and Monsieur de Botta

will not talk to you in so high a style.

D'Aubreu, the pert Spanish minister, said the other day at

court to poor Alt, the Hessian, "Monsieur, je vous f`elicite;

Munster est pris." Mr. Pitt, who overheard this cruel

apostrophe, called out, "Et moi, Monsieur Alt, Je vous

f`elicite; les Russes sont battus."

I am here in town almost every day; Mrs. Leneve, who has long

lived with my father, and with me, is at the point of death;

she is seventy-three, and has passed twenty-four of them in

continual ill health; so I can but wish her released. Her long

friendship with our family makes this attention a duty;

otherwise I should certainly not be in town this most gorgeous

of all summers! I should like to know in how many letters this

wonderful summer has been talked of.

It is above two years, I think, since you sent home any of my

letters--will you by any convenient opportunity?

Adieu! There is great impatience, as you may believe, to learn

the welfare of our young lords and heroes--there are the Duke

of Richmond, Lord Granby, Lord George Sackville, Lord Downe,

Fitzroy, General Waldegrave, and others of rank.

(1050) "I have the joy to tell you," writes Mr. Pitt, on the

6th, to Lady Hester, "that our happy victory ne fait que

croitre et embellir: by letters come this day, the hereditary

Prince, with his troops, had passed the Weser, and attacked,

with part of them, a body of six thousand French, defeated it,

took many prisoners, some trophies and

cannon: M. de Contades's baggage, coaches, mules, letters, and

correspondences have fallen into our hands. Words in letters

say, 'qu'on se lasse de prendre des prisoniers.'" Chatham

Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 8.-E.

504 Letter 328

To George Montagu, Esq.

Strawberry Hill, Aug. 9, 1759.

Unless your Colonel Johnson is a man of no note, he is well.

for we have not lost one officer of any note--now will you

conclude that we are beaten, and will be crying and roaring all

night for Hanover. Lord! where do you live? If you had any

ears, as I have none left with the noise, you would have heard

the racket that was made from morning till night yesterday on

the news of the victory(1051) gained by Prince Ferdinand over

the French. He has not left so many alive as there are at any

periwig-maker's in London. This is all we know, the

particulars are to come at their leisure, and with all the

gravity due to their importance. If the King's heart were not

entirely English, I believe he would be complimented with the

title of Germanicus from the name of the country where this

great event happened; for we don't at all know the precise

spot, nor has the battle yet been christened--all that is

certain is, that the poor Duke(1052) is neither father nor

godfather.

I was sent for to town yesterday, as Mrs. Leneve was at the

point of death: but she has had a surprising change, and may

linger on still. I found the town distracted, and at night it

was beautiful beyond description. As the weather was so hot,

every window was open, and all the rails illuminated; every

street had one or two bonfires, the moon was in all its glory,

the very middle of the streets crowded with officers and people

of fashion talking of the news. Every squib in town got drunk,

and rioted about the streets till morning. Two of our

regiments are said to have suffered much, of which Napier's

most. Adieu! If you should be over-English with this, there is

a party of one thousand five hundred men stolen out of Dunkirk,

that some weeks hence may bring you to your senses again,

provided they are properly planted and watered in Scotland.

(1051) At the battle of Minden.

(1052) Duke of Cumberland.

505 Letter 329

To The Earl Of Strafford.

Strawberry Hill, Thursday, 3 o'clock, August 9, 1759.

My dear lord,

Lord Granby has entirely defeated the French!--The foreign

gazettes, I suppose, will give this victory to Prince

Ferdinand: but the mob of London, whom I have this minute left,

and who must know best, assure me that it is all their own

Marquis's doing. Mr. Yorke(1053) was the first to send this

news, "to be laid with himself and all humility at his

Majesty's feet",(1054) about eleven o'clock yesterday morning.

At five this morning came Captain Ligonier, who was despatched

in such a hurry that he had not time to pack up any particulars

in his portmanteau: those we are expecting with our own army,

who we conclude are now at Paris, and will be tomorrow night at

Amiens. All we know is, that not one Englishman is killed, nor

one Frenchman left alive. If you should chance to meet a

bloody wagon-load of heads, you will be sure that it is the

part of the spoils that came to Downe's share, and going to be

hung up in the great hall at Cowick.(1055)

We have a vast deal of other good news; but as not one word of

it is true, I thought you would be content with this victory.

His Majesty is in high spirits, and is to make -,a triumphal

entry into Hanover on Tuesday fortnight. I envy you the

illuminations and rejoicings that will be made at Worksop on

this occasion.

Four days ago we had a great victory over the Russians; but in

the hurry of this triumph it has somehow or other been mislaid,

and nobody can tell where to find it:--however, it is not given

over for lost.

Adieu, my dear lord! As I have been so circumstantial in the

account of this battle, I will not tire you with any thing

else. My compliments to the lady of the menagerie. I see your

new offices rise(1056) every day in a very respectable manner.

(1053) Afterwards Lord Dover,, then Minister at the Hague.

(1054) The words of his despatch.

(1055) Lord Downe's seat in Yorkshire.

(1056) At Lord Strafford's house at Twickenham.

506 Letter 330

To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(1057)

Arlington Street, Aug. 14, 1759.

I am here in the most unpleasant way in the world, attending

poor Mrs. Leneve's deathbed, a spectator of all the horrors of

tedious suffering and clear sense, and with no one soul to

speak to-but I will not tire you with a description of what has

quite worn me out.

Probably by this time you have seen the Duke of Richmond or

Fitzroy--but lest you should not, I will tell you all I can

learn, and a wonderful history it is. Admiral Byng was not

more unpopular than Lord George Sackville. I should scruple

repeating his story, if Betty(1058) and the waiters at Arthur's

did not talk of it publicly, and thrust Prince Ferdinand's

orders into one's hand.

You have heard, I suppose, of the violent animosities that have

reigned for the whole campaign between him and Lord Granby--in

which some other warm persons have been very warm too. In the

heat of the battle, the Prince, finding thirty-six squadrons of

French coming down upon our army, sent Ligonier to order our

thirty-two squadrons, under Lord George to advance. During

that transaction, the French appeared to waver; and Prince

Ferdinand, willing, as it is supposed, to give the honour to

the British horse of terminating the day, sent Fitzroy to bid

Lord George bring up only the British cavalry. Ligonier had

but just delivered his message, when Fitzroy came with his.-

-Lord George said, "This can't be so--would he have me break

the line? here is some mistake." Fitzroy replied, he had not

argued upon the orders, but those were the orders. "Well!" said

Lord George, "but I want a guide." Fitzroy said, he would be

his guide. Lord George, "Where is the Prince?" Fitzroy, "I

left him at the head of the left wing, I don't know where he is

now." Lord George said he would go seek him, and have this

explained. Smith then asked Fitzroy, to repeat the orders to

him; which being done, Smith went and whispered Lord George,

who says he then bid Smith carry up the cavalry: Smith is come,

and says he is ready to answer any body any question. Lord

George says, Prince Ferdinand's behaviour to him has been most

infamous, has asked leave to resign his command, and to come

over, which is granted., Prince Ferdinand's behaviour is summed

up in the enclosed extraordinary paper; which you will doubt as

I did, but which is certainly genuine. I doubted, because, in

the military, I thought direct disobedience of orders was

punished with an immediate -arrest, and because the last

paragraph seemed to me very foolish. The going Out Of the way

to compliment Lord Granby with what he would have done, seems

to take off a little from the compliments paid to those that

have done something; but, in short, Prince Ferdinand or Lord

George, one of them, is most outrageously in the wrong, and the

latter has much the least chance of being thought in the right.

The particulars I tell you, I collect from the most accurate,

authorities.--I make no comments on Lord George, it would look

like a little dirty court to you; and the best compliment I can

make you, is to think, as I do, that you will be the last man

to enjoy this revenge.

You will be sorry for poor M'Kinsey and Lady Betty, who have

lost their only child at Turin. Adieu!

(1057) Now first printed.

(1058) A celebrated fruit-shop in St. James's Street.

(1059) Mr. Pitt in a letter of the 15th to Lord Bute, says,

"The king has given leave to Lord George Sackville to return to

England; his lordship having in a letter to Lord Holderness,

requested to be recalled from his command. This mode of

returning, your lordship will perceive, is a very considerable

softening of his misfortune. The current in all parts bears

hard upon him. As I have already, so I shall continue to give

him, as a most unhappy man, all the offices of humanity which

our first, sacred duty, the public good, will allow." Chatham

Correspondence, vol. i. p. 417.-E.

507 Letter 331

To Sir Horace Mann.

Strawberry Hill, August 29, 1759.

Truly I don't know whether one is to be rejoicing or lamenting!

Every good heart is a bonfire for Prince Ferdinand's success,

and a funeral pile for the King of Prussia's defeat.(1060) Mr.

Yorke, who every week," "lays himself most humbly at the King's

feet" with some false piece of news, has almost ruined us in

illuminations for defeated victories--we were singing Te Deums

for the King of Prussia, when he was actually reduced to be

King of Custrin, for he has not only lost his neighbour's

capital, but his own too. Mr. Bentley has long said, that we

should see him at Somerset House next winter; and really I

begin to be afraid that he will not live to write the history

of the war himself-I shall be content, if he is forced to do it

even by subscription. Oh, that Daun! how he sits silent on his

drum, and shoves the King a little and a little farther out of

the world! The most provoking part of all is, (for I am mighty

soon comforted when a hero tumbles from the top of Fame's

steeple and breaks his neck,) that that tawdry toad,

Bruhl(1061) Will make a triumphant entry into the ruins of

Dresden, and rebuild all his palaces with what little money

remains in the country!

The mob, to comfort themselves under these mishaps, and for the

disappointment of a complete victory, that might have been more

compleater, are new grinding their teeth and nails, to tear

Lord George(1062) to pieces the instant he lands. If he finds

more powerful friends than poor Admiral Byng, assure yourself

he has ten thousand times the number of personal enemies; I was

going to say real, but Mr. Byng's were real enough, with no

reason to be personal. I don't talk of the event itself', for

I suppose all Europe knows just as much as we know here. I

suspend my opinion till Lord George speaks himself--but I pity

his father, who has been so unhappy in his sons, who loved this

so much, and who had such fair prospects for him. Lord

George's fall is prodigious; nobody stood higher, nobody has

more ambition or more sense.

You, I suppose, are taking leave of your new King of

Spain,(1064)--what a bloody war is saved by this death, by its

happening in the midst of one that cannot be more bloody! I

detest a correspondence now; it lives like a vampire upon dead

bodies! Adieu! I have nothing to write about.

P. S. I forgot to ask you if you are not shocked with

Bellisle's letter to Contades? The French ought to behave with

more spirit than they do, before they give out such sanguinary

orders--@,iii(I if they did, I should think they would not give

such orders. And did not YOU laugh at the enormous folly of

Bellisle's conclusion? It is so foolish, that I think he might

fairly disavow it. It puts me in mind of a ridiculous passage

in Racine's Bajazet,

----"et s'il faut que je meure,

Mourons, moi, cher Osmin, comme un Visir; et toi

Comme le favori d'un homme tel que moi."

(1060) Prince Ferdinand's victory was the celebrated battle of

Minden, won from the French on the 1st of August; the King of

Prussia's defeat was that of Kunersdorf, lost to the Russians

on the 12th of August.-D.

(1061) Count Bruhl, favourite and prime minister of Augustus

the Third, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony.

(1063) Lord George Sackville, disgraced at the battle of

Minden.

(1064) Charles the Third, King of Naples, who had just become

King of Spain, by the death of his elder brother.-D.

508 Letter 332

To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Sept. 13, 1759.

With your unathletic constitution I think you will have a

greater weight of glory to represent than you can bear. You

will be as `epuis`e as Princess Craon with all the triumphs

over Niagara, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and such a parcel of

long names. You will ruin yourself in French horns, to exceed

those of Marshal Botta, who has certainly found a pleasant way

of announcing victories. Besides, all the West Indies, which we

have taken by a panic, there is Admiral Boscawen has demolished

the Toulon squadron, and has made you Viceroy of the

Mediterranean. I really believe the French will Come hither

now, for they can be safe nowhere else. If the King of Prussia

should be totally undone in Germany, we can afford to give him

an appanage, as a younger son of England, of some hundred

thousand miles on the Ohio. Sure universal monarchy was never

so put to shame as that of France! What a figure do they make!

they seem to have no ministers, no generals, no soldiers! If

any thing could be more ridiculous than their behaviour in the

field, it would be in the cabinet! Their invasion appears not

to have been designed against us, but against their own people,

who, they fear, will mutiny, and to quiet whom they disperse

expresses, with accounts of the progress of their arms in

England. They actually have established posts to whom the

people are directed to send their letters for their friends in

England. If, therefore, you hear that the French have

established themselves at Exeter or Norwich, don't be alarmed,

nor undeceive the poor women who are writing to their husbands

for English baubles.

We have lost another Princess, Lady Elizabeth.(1065) She died

of an inflammation in her bowels in two days. Her figure was

so very unfortunate, that it would have been difficult for her

to be happy, but her parts and application -were extraordinary.

I saw her act in "Cato" at eight years old, (when she could not

stand alone, but was forced to lean against the side-scene,)

better than any of her brothers and sisters. She had been so

unhealthy, that at that age she had not been taught to read,

but had learned the part of Lucia by hearing the others study

their parts. She went to her father and mother, and begged she

might act. They put her off as gently as they could--she

desired leave to repeat her part, and when she did, it was with

so much sense, that there was no denying her.

I receive yours of August 25. To all your alarms for the King

of Prussia I subscribe. With little Brandenburgh he could not

exhaust all the forces of Bohemia, Hungary, Austria, Muscovy,

Siberia, Tartary, Sweden, etc. etc. etc.--but not to

politicize too much, I believe the world will come to be fought

for somewhere between the North of Germany and the back of

Canada, between Count Daun and Sir William Johnson.(1066)

You guessed right about the King of Spain; he is dead, and the

Queen Dowager may once more have an opportunity of embroiling

the little of Europe that remains unembroiled.

Thank you, my dear Sir, for the Herculaneum and Caserta that

you are sending me. I wish the watch may arrive safe, to show

you that I am not insensible to all your attentions for me, but

endeavour, at a great distance, to imitate you in the execution

of commissions.

I would keep this letter back for a post, that I might have but

one trouble of sending you Quebec too; but when one has taken

so many places, it is not worth while to wait for one more.

Lord George Sackville, the hero of all conversation, if one can

be so for not being a hero, is arrived. He immediately applied

for a court-martial, but was told it was impossible now, as the

officers necessary are in Germany. This was in writing from

Lord Holderness--but Lord Ligonier in words was more squab--"If

he wanted a court-martial, he might go seek it in Germany." All

that could be taken from him is his regiment, above two

thousand pounds a-year: commander in Germany at ten pounds

a-day, between three and four thousand pounds:

lieutenant-general of the ordnance, one thousand five hundred

pounds: a fort, three hundred pounds. He remains with a patent

place in Ireland, of one thousand two hundred pounds, and about

two thousand pounds a-year of his own and wife's. With his

parts and ambition, it cannot end here; he calls himself

ruined, but when the Parliament meets, he will probably attempt

some sort of revenge.

They attribute, I don't know with what grounds, a sensible kind

of plan to the French; that De la Clue was to have pushed for

Ireland, Thurot for Scotland, and the Brest fleet for England--

but before they lay such great plans, they should take care of

proper persons to execute them.

I cannot help shifting at the great objects of our letters. We

never converse on a less topic than a kingdom. We are a kind

of citizens of the world, and battles and revolutions are the

common incidents of our neighbourhood. But that is and must be

the case of distant correspondences: Kings and Empresses that

we never saw are the only persons we can be acquainted with in

common. We can have no more familiarity than the Daily

Advertiser would have if it wrote to the Florentine Gazette.

Adieu! My compliments to any monarch that lives within five

hundred miles of you.

(1065) Second daughter of Frederick Prince of Wales.

(1066) The American general.

510 Letter 333

To The Earl Of Strafford.

Arlington Street, Sept. 13, 1759.

My dear lord,

You are very good to say you would accept of my letters, though

I should have no particular news to tell you; but at present it

would be treating heroes and conquerors with great

superciliousness, if I made use of your indulgence and said

nothing of them. We have taken more places and ships in a week

than would have set up such pedant nations as Greece and Rome

to all futurity. If we did but call Sir William Johnson

"Gulielmus Johnsonus Niagaricus," and Amherst "Galfridus

Amhersta Ticonderogicus," we should be quoted a thousand years

hence as the patterns of valour, virtue, and disinterestedness;

for posterity always ascribes all manner of modesty and

self-denial to those that take the most pains to perpetuate

their own glory. Then Admiral Boscawen has, in a very Roman

style, made free with the coast of Portugal, and used it to

make a bonfire of the French fleet. When Mr. Pitt was told of

this infraction of a neutral territory, he replied, "It is very

true, but they are burned." In short, we want but a little

more insolence and a worse cause to make us a very classic

nation.

My Lady Townshend, who has not learning enough to copy a

Spartan mother, has lost her youngest son.(1067) I saw her

this morning --her affectation is on t'other side she affects

grief--but not so much for the son she has lost, as for t'other

that she may lose.

Lord George is come, has asked for a court-martial, was put

off; and is turned out of every thing. Waldegrave has his

regiment, for what he did; and Lord Granby the ordnance--for

what he would have done.

Lord Northampton is to be married(1068) to-night in full

Comptonhood. I am indeed happy that Mr. Campbell(1069) is a

general; but how will his father like being the dowager-general

Campbell?

You are very kind, my lord (but that is not new,) in

interesting Yourself about Strawberry Hill. I have just

finished a Holbein-chamber, that I flatter myself you will not

dislike; and I have begun to build a new printing-house, that

the old one may make room for the gallery and round tower.

This noble summer is not yet over us--it seems to have cut a

colt's week-. I never write without talking of it, and should

be glad to know in how many letters this summer has been

mentioned.

I have lately been at Wilton, and was astonished at the heaps

of rubbish. The house is grand, and the place glorious; but I

should shovel three parts of the marbles and pictures into the

river. Adieu, my lord and lady!

(1067) The Hon. Roger Townshend, third son of Viscount

Townshend, killed at Ticonderoga on the 25th of July.-E.

(1068) To Lady Anne Somerset.

(1069) Afterwards Duke of Argyle.

511 Letter 334

To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(1070)

Arlington Street, Sept. 13, 1759.

I intended to send you the brief chronicle of Lord George

Sackville but your brother says he has writ to you this

morning. If you want to know minute particulars, which neither

he nor I should care to detail in a letter, I will tell you

them if you will call for a minute at Strawberry on Sunday or

Monday, as you go to your camp. I ask this boldly, though I

have not been with you; but it was impossible; George Montagu

and his brother returned to Strawberry with me from the Vine,

and I am expecting Mr. Churchill and Lady Mary, who sent me

word they would come to me as soon as I came back, and I think

you will find them with me.

Lady Mary Coke is stripping off all the plumes that she has

been wearing for Niagara, etc., and is composing herself into

religious melancholy against to-morrow night, when she goes to

Princess Elizabeth's burial. I passed this whole morning most

deliciously at my Lady Townshend's. Poor Roger, for whom she

is not concerned, has given her a hint that her hero George may

be mortal too; she scarce spoke, unless to improve on some

bitter thing that Charles said, who was admirable. He made me

all the speeches that Mr. Pitt will certainly make next winter,

in every one of which Charles says, and I believe, he will talk

of this great campaign, "memorable to all posterity with all

its imperfections-a campaign which, though obstructed, cramped,

maimed--but I will say no more."

The campaign in Ireland, I hear, will be very warm; the Primate

is again to be the object; Ponsonby, commander against him.

Lord George's situation will not help the Primate's. Adieu!

(1070) Now first printed.

512 Letter 335

To George Montagu, Esq.

Strawberry Hill, Saturday, October 11, 1759.

I don't desire any such conviction of your being ill as seeing

you nor can you wonder that I wish to persuade myself that what

I should be very sorry for, never happens. Poor Fred.

Montagu's gout seems more serious: I am concerned that he has

so much of a judge in him already.

You are very good in thinking of me about the sofas; but you

know the Holbein chamber is complete, and old matters arc not

flung away upon you yourself Had not you rather have your sofa

than Lord Northampton's running footman? Two hundred years

hence one might be amused with reading of so fantastic a dress,

but they are horrid in one's own time. Mr. Bentley and I go

to-morrow to Chaffont for two or three days. Mr. Chute is at

the Vine already, but, I believe, will be in town this week.

I don't know whether it proceeds from the menaced invasion or

the last comet, but we are all dying of heat. Every body has

put out their fires, and, if it lasts, I suppose will next week

make summer clothes. The mornings are too hot for walking:

last night I heard of strawberries. I impute it to the hot

weather that my head has been turned enough to contend with the

bards of the newspapers. You have seen the French epigram on

Madame Pompadour, and fifty vile translations of it. Here IS

Mine--

O yes! here are flat-bottom boats to be sold,

And soldiers to let-rather hungry than bold:

Here are ministers richly deserving to swing,

And commanders whose recompense should be a string.

O France! still your fate you may lay at Pitt's door;

You were saved by a Maid, and undone by a * * *

People again believe the invasion; and I don't wonder,

considering how great a militia we have, with such a boy as you

mention. I own, before I begin to be afraid, I have a little

curiosity to see the militia tried. I think one shall at least

laugh before one cries. Adieu! what time have you fixed for

looking southwards?

P. S. Your pictures you may have when you please; I think you

had better stay and take them with you, than risk the rubbing

them by the wagon. Mr. M`untz has not been lately in town--

that is, Hannah has drawn no bill on him lately--so he knows

nothing of your snuff-box. This it is to trust to my vivacity,

when it is past Its bloom. Lord! I am a mere antiquarian, a

mere painstaking mortal. Mr. Bentley says, that if all

antiquarians were like me, there would be no such thing as an

antiquarian, for I set down every thing, SO circumstantially

that I leave them nothing to find out.

513 Letter 336

To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(1071)

Strawberry Hill, October 14th, 1759.

If Strawberry Hill was not so barren of events as Chatham, I

would have writ to you again; nay, if it did not produce the

very same events. Your own Light Horse are here, and commit

the only vivacities of the place--two or three of them are in

the cage every day for some mischief or other. Indeed, they

seem to have been taken from school too soon, and, as Rigby

said of some others of these new troops, the moment their

exercise is over, they all go a bird's-nesting. If the French

load their flat-bottom boats with rods instead of muskets, I

fear all our young heroes will run away. The invasion seems

again come into fashion: I wish it would come, that one might

hear no more of it--nay, I wish it for two or three reasons.

If they don't come, we shall still be fatigued with the

militia, who will never go to plough again till they see an

enemy: if there is a peace before the militia runs away, one

shall be robbed every day by a constitutional force. I want

the French too, to have come, that you may be released; but

that will not be soon enough for me, who am going to

Park-place. I came from Chaffont to-day, and I cannot let the

winter appear without making my Lady Ailesbury a visit.

Hitherto my impediments may have looked like excuses, though

they were nothing less. Lady Lyttelton goes on Wednesday: I

propose to follow her on Monday; but I won't announce myself,

that I may not be disappointed, and be a little more welcome by

the surprise; though I should be very ungrateful, if I affected

to think that I wanted that.

I cannot say I have read the second letter on Lord George: but

I have done what will satisfy the booksellers more; I have

bought nine or ten pamphlets: my library shall be au fait about

him, but I have an aversion to paper wars, and I must be a

little more interested than I am about him, before I can attend

to them: my head is to be filled with more sacred trash.

The Speaker was here t'other day, and told me of the intimacy

between his son and you and the militia. He says the lawyers

are examining whether Lord George can be tried or not. I am

sorry Lord Stormont is marriediski;(1072) he will pass his life

under the north pole, and whip over to Scotland by way of

Greenland without coming to London.

I dined t'other day at Sion with the Holdernesses; Lady Mary

Coke was there, and in this great dearth of candidates she

permits Haslang to die for her. They were talking in the

bow-window, when a sudden alarm being given that dinner was on

the table, he expressed great joy and appetite. You can't

imagine how she was offended. Adieu!

(1071) Now first printed.

(1072) Lord Stormont had recently married Henrietta Frederica,

daughter of count Bunau, of Saxony.-E.

514 Letter 337

To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Oct. 16, 1759.

I love to prepare your countenance for every event that may

happen, for an ambassador, who is nothing but an actor, should

be that greatest of actors, a philosopher; and with the leave

of wise men (that is, hypocrites), philosophy I hold to be

little more than presence of mind now undoubtedly preparation

is a prodigious help to presence of mind. In short, you must

not be surprised that we have failed at Quebec, as we certainly

shall. You may say, if you please, in the style of modern

politics that your court never supposed it could be taken; the

attempt was only made to draw off the Russians from the King of

Prussia, and leave him at liberty to attack Daun. Two days ago

came letters from Wolfe, despairing, as much as heroes can

despair The town is well victualled, Amherst is not arrived,

and fifteen thousand men encamped defend it. We have lost many

men by the enemy, and some by our friends-that is, we now call

our nine thousand only seven thousand. How this little army

will get away from a much larger, and in this season in that

country, I don't guess--yes, I do.

You may be making up a little philosophy too against the

invasion, which is again come into fashion, and with a few

trifling incidents in its favour, such as our fleet dispersed

and driven from their coasts by a great storm. Before that,

they were actually embarking, but with so ill a grace that an

entire regiment mutinied, and they say is broke. We now expect

them in Ireland, unless this dispersion of our fleet tempts

them hither. If they do not come in a day or two, I shall give

them over.

You will see in our gazettes that we make a great figure in the

East Indies. In short, Mr. Pitt and this little island appear

of some consequence even in the map of the world. He is a new

sort of Fabius,

----Qui verbis restituit rem.

Have you yet received the -watch? I see your poor Neapolitan

Prince(1073) is at last set aside--I should honour Dr. Serrao's

integrity, if I did not think it was more humane to subscribe

to the poor boy's folly, than hazard his being poisoned by

making it doubtful.

My charming niece is breeding--you see I did not make my lord

Waldegrave an useless present. Adieu! my dear Sir.

(1073) The King's second son, Don Philip, set aside for being

in a state of incurable idiotcy.-E.

514 Letter 338

To The Hon. H. S. Conway.

Strawberry Hill, Oct. 18, 1759.

I intended my visit to Park-place to show my lady Ailesbury

that when I come hither it is not solely on your account, and

yet I will not quarrel with my journey thither if I should find

you there; but seriously I cannot help begging you to think

whether you will go thither or not, just now. My first thought

about you has ever been what was proper for you to do; and

though you are the man in the world that think of that the most

yourself, yet you know I have twenty scruples, which even you

sometimes laugh at. I will tell them to You, and then you will

judge, as you can best. Sir Edward Hawke and his fleet is

dispersed, at least driven back to Plymouth: the French, if one

may believe that they have broken a regiment for mutinying

against embarking, were actually embarked at that instant. The

most sensible people I know, always thought they would postpone

their invasion, if ever they intended it, till our great ships

could not keep the sea, or were eaten up by the scurvy. Their

ports are now free; their situation is desperate: the new

account of our taking Quebec leaves them in the most deplorable

condition; they will be less able than ever to raise money, we

have got ours for next year; and this event

would facilitate it, if we had not: they must try for a

peace, they have nothing to go to market with but

Minorca. In short, if they cannot strike some desperate blow

in this island or Ireland, they are undone: the loss of twenty

thousand men to do us some mischief, would

be cheap. I should even think Madame Pompadour in danger of

being torn to pieces, if they did not make some attempt.

Madame Maintenon, not half so unpopular, mentions in one of her

letters her unwillingness to trust her niece Mademoiselle

Aumale on the road, for fear of some such

accident. You will smile perhaps at all this reasoning and

pedantry; but it tends to this--if desperation should send the

French somewhere, and the wind should force them to your coast,

which I do not suppose their object, and you should be out of

the way, you know what your enemies would say; and strange as

it is, even you have been proved to have enemies.

My dear Sir, think of this! Wolfe, as I am convinced, has

fallen a sacrifice to his rash blame of

you. If I understand any thing in the

world, his letter that came on Sunday said this: "Qu`ebec

is impregnable; it is flinging away the lives of brave men to

attempt it. I am in the situation of Conway at

Rochefort; but having blamed him, I must do what I now see he

was in the right to see was wrong and yet what he would have

done; and as I am commander-, which he was not, I have the

melancholy power of doing what he was prevented doing."(1074)

Poor man! his life has paid the price of his injustice; and as

his death has purchased such benefit to his country, I lament

him, as I am sure you, who have twenty times more courage and

good-nature than I have, do too. In short, I, who never did

any thing right or prudent myself, (not, I am afraid, for want

of knowing what was so,) am content with your being perfect,

and with suggesting any thing to you that may tend to keep you

so;--and (what is not much to the present purpose) if such a

pen as mine can effect it, the world hereafter shall know that

you was so. In short, I have pulled down my Lord Falkland, and

desire you will take care that I may speak the truth when I

erect you in his place; for remember, I love truth even better

than I love you. I always confess my own faults, and I will

not palliate yours. But, laughing apart, if you think there is

no weight in what I say, I shall gladly meet you at Park-place,

whither I shall go on Monday, and stay as long as I can, unless

I hear from you to the contrary. If you should think I have

hinted any thing to you of consequence, would not it be

handsome, if, after receiving leave you should write to my Lord

Llegonier, that though you had been at home but one week in the

whole summer, yet there might be occasion for your presence in

the camp, you should decline the permission he had given you?-

-See what it is to have a wise relation, who preaches a

thousand fine things to you which he would be the last man in

the world to practise himself. Adieu!

(1074) General Wolfe's letter, written four days before his

death, which will be found in the Chatham Correspondence, does

not contain a single sentence which can be tortured into the

construction here given to it. "The extreme heat of the weather

in August," he says, "and a good deal of fatigue, threw me into

a fever; but that the business might go on, I begged the

generals to consider amongst themselves what was fittest to be

done. Their sentiments were unanimous, that (as the easterly

winds begin to blow, and ships can pass the town in the night

with provisions, Artillery, etc.) we "should endeavour, by

conveying a considerable corps into the upper river, to draw

them from their inaccessible situation and bring them to an

action. I agreed to the proposal; and we are now here, with

about three thousand six Hundred men, waiting an opportunity to

attack them, when and wherever they can best be got at. The

weather has been extremely unfavourable for a day or two, so

that we have been inactive. I am so far recovered as to do

business; but my constitution is entirely ruined, without the

consolation of having done any considerable service to the

state, or without any prospect of it." Walpole, however, in

his animated description of the capture of Quebec, in his

Memoires, does ample justice to the character of Wolfe. "His

fall," he says, "was noble indeed. He received a wound in the

head, but covered it from his soldiers with his handkerchief.

A second ball struck him in the belly: that too he dissembled.

A third hitting him on the breast, he sunk under the anguish,

and was carried behind the ranks. Yet, fast as life ebbed out,

his whole anxiety centred on the fortune of the day. He begged

to be borne nearer to the action; but his sight being dimmed by

the approach of death, he entreated to know what they who

supported him saw; he was answered, that the enemy gave ground;

he eagerly repeated the question; heard the enemy was totally

routed; cried, 'I am satisfied!' and expired."-E.

516 Letter 339

To Sir Horace Mann.

Strawberry Hill, Oct. 19, 1759.

I had no occasion to be in such a hurry to prepare your

ambassadorial countenance; if I had stayed but one day more, I

might have left its muscles to behave as they pleased. The

notification of a probable disappointment at Quebec came only

to heighten the pleasure of the conquest. You may now give

yourself what airs you please, you are master of East and West

Indies. An ambassador is the only man in the world whom

bullying becomes: I beg your pardon, but you are spies, if you

are not bragadochios. All precedents are on your side:

Persians, Greeks, Romans, always insulted their neighbours when

they conquered Quebec. Think how pert the French would have

been on such an occasion, and remember that they are Austrians

to whom you are to be saucy. You see, I write as if my name

was Belleisle and yours Contades.

It was a very singular affair, the generals on both sides

slain, and on both sides the second in command wounded; in

short, very near what battles should be, in which only the

principals ought to suffer. If their army has not ammunition

and spirit enough to fall again upon ours before Amherst comes

up, all North America is ours!

Poetic justice could not have been executed with more rigour

than it has been on the perjury, treachery, and usurpations of

the French. I hope Mr.-Pitt will not leave them at the next

treaty an opportunity of committing so many national crimes

again. How they or we can make a peace, I don't see; can we

give all back, or they give all up? No, they must come hither;

they have nothing left for @it but to conquer us.

Don't think it is from forgetting to tell you particulars, that

I tell you none; I am here, and don't know one but what you

will see in the Gazette, and by which it appears that the

victory was owing to the impracticability, as the French

thought, and to desperate resolution on our side. What a

scene! an army in the night dragging itself up a precipice by

stumps of trees to assault a town and attack an army strongly

entrenched and double in numbers!

Adieu ! I think I shall not write to you again this

twelvemonth; for, like Alexander, we have no more worlds left

to conquer.

P. S. Monsieur Thurot is said to be sailed with his tiny

squadron --but can the lords of America be afraid of half a

dozen canoes ? Mr. Chute is sitting by me, and says, nobody is

more obliged to Mr. Pitt than you are: he has raised you from a

very comfortable situation to hold your head above the Capitol.

517 Letter 340

To George Montagu, Esq.

Strawberry Hill, Oct. 21, 1759.

Your pictures shall be sent as soon as any of us go to London,

but I think that will not be till the Parliament meets. Can we

easily leave the remains of such a year as this? It is still

all gold. I have not dined or gone to bed by a fire till the

day before yesterday. Instead of the glorious and

ever-memorable year 1759, as the newspapers call it, I call it

this ever-warm and victorious year. We have not had more

conquest than fine weather: one would think we had plundered

East and West Indies of sunshine. Our bells are worn

threadbare with ringing for victories. I believe it will

require ten votes of the House of Commons before the people

will believe it is the Duke of Newcastle that has done this,

and not Mr. Pitt. One thing is very fatiguing--all the world

is made knights or generals. Adieu I don't know a word of news

less than the conquest of America. Adieu! yours ever.

P ' S. You shall hear from me again if we take Mexico or China

before Christmas.

P. S. I had sealed my letter, but break it open again,

having forgot to tell you that Mr. Cowslade has the pictures of

Lord and Lady Cutts, and is willing to sell them.

518 Letter 341

To The Earl Of Strafford.

Strawberry Hill, October 30th, 1759.

My dear lord,

It would be very extraordinary indeed if I was not glad to see

one Whose friendship does me so much honour as your lordship's,

and who always expresses so much kindness to me. I have an

additional reason for thanking you now, when you are creating a

building after the design of the Strawberry committee. It will

look, I fear, very selfish if I pay it a visit next year; and

yet it answers so many selfish purposes that I certainly shall.

My ignorance of all the circumstances relating to Quebec is

prodigious; I have contented myself with the rays of' glory

that reached hither, without going to London to bask in them.

I have not even seen the conqueror's mother(1075) though I hear

she has covered herself with more laurel-leaves than were

heaped on the children of the wood.

Seriously it is very great; and as I am too inconsiderable to

envy Mr. Pitt, I give him all the honour he deserves.

I passed all the last week at Park-place, where one of the

bravest men in the world, who is not permitted to contribute to

our conquests, was indulged in being the happiest by being with

one of the most deserving women--for Campbell-goodness no more

wears out than Campbell-beauty--all their good qualities are

huckaback.(1076) YOU See the Duchess(1077) has imbibed so much

of' their durableness, that she is good-humoured enough to dine

at a tavern at seventy-six.

Sir William Stanhope wrote to Mrs. Ellis,(1078) that he had

pleased himself, having seen much of Mr. Nugent and Lady

Berkeley this summer, and having been so charmed with the

felicity of their menage, that he could not resist marrying

again. His daughter replied, that it had always been her

opinion, that people should please themselves, and that she was

glad he had; but as to taking the precedent of Lady Berkeley,

she hoped it would answer in nothing but in my Lady Stanhope

having three children the first year. You see, my lord, Mrs.

Ellis has bottled up her words(1079) till they sparkle at last!

I long to have your approbation of my Holbein-chamber; it has a

comely sobriety that I think answers very well to the tone it

should have. My new printing-house is finished, in order to

pull down the old one, and lay the foundations next summer of

my round tower. Then follows the gallery and chapel-cabinet.

I hear your lordship has tapped your magnificent front too.

Well, when all your magnificences and minimificences are

finished, then, we--won't sit down and drink, as Pyrrhus

said,--no, I trust we shall never conclude our plans so

filthily: then--I fear we shall begin others. Indeed, I don't

know what the Countess may do: if she imitates her mother, she

will go to a tavern at fourscore, and then she and Pyrrhus may

take a bottle together---I hope she will live to try at least

whether she likes it. -Adieu, both!

(1075) Lady Townshend. On the death of General Wolfe, Colonel

Townshend received the surrender.

(1076) Lady Ailesbury and Lady Strafford, both preserved their

beauty so long, that Mr. Walpole called them huck(iback

beauties, that never wear out.

(1077) The Duchess of Argyle, widow of John Campbell, Duke of

Argyle, and mother to Lady Strafford.

(1078) His daughter.

(1079) She was very silent.

519 Letter 342

To The Right Hon. Lady Hervey.

Saturday, Nov. 3d, 1759.

Poor Robins' Almanack. Thick fogs, and some wet. Go not out of

town. Gouts and rheumatisms are abroad. Warm clothes, good

fires, and a room full of pictures, glasses, and scarlet damask

are the best physic.

In short, for fear your ladyship should think of Strawberry on

Saturday, I can't help telling you that I am to breakfast at

Petersham that day with Mr. Fox and Lady Caroline, Lord and

Lady Waldegrave. How did you like the farce? George Selwyn

says he wants to see High Life below Stairs (1080) as he is

weary of low life above stairs.

(1080) This popular' farce was written by the Rev. James

Townley, high master of Merchant Tailors' School . Dr, Johnson

said of it, "Here is a farce which is really very diverting

when you see it acted, and yet one may read it and not know

that one has been reading any thing at all;" and of the actors,

Goldsmith tells us, that "Mr. Palmer and Mr. King were entirely

what they desired to represent; and Mrs. Clive (but what need I

talk of her, since without exaggeration she has more true

humour than any actor or actress, upon the English or any other

stage, I have seen), she, I say, did the part all the justice

it was capable of." In England it was very successful; but in

Edinburgh the gentlemen of the party-coloured livery raised

violent riots in the theatre whenever it was performed.-E.

519 Letter 343

To George Montagu, Esq.

Arlington Street, Nov. 8, 1759.

Your pictures will set out on Saturday; I give you notice that

you may inquire for them. I did not intend to be here these

three days, but my Lord Bath taking the trouble to send a man

and horse to ask me to dinner yesterday, I did not know how to

refuse; and, besides, as Mr. Bentley said to me, "you know he

was an old friend of your father."

The town is empty, but is coming to dress itself for Saturday.

My Lady Coventry showed George Selwyn her clothes; they are

blue, with spots of silver, of the size of a shilling, and a

silver trimming, and cost--my lord will know what. She asked

George how he liked them; he replied, "Why, you will be change

for a guinea."

I find nothing talked of but the French bankruptcy;(1081) Sir

Robert Brown, I hear--and am glad to hear--will be a great

sufferer. They put gravely into the article of bankrupts in

the newspapers, "Louis le Petit, of the city of Paris,

peace-breaker, dealer, and chapman;" it would have been still

better if they had said, "Louis Bourbon of petty France." We

don't know what is become of their Monsieur Thurot,(1082) of

whom we had still a little mind to be afraid. I should think

he would do like Sir Thomas Hanmer, make a faint effort, beg

pardon of the Scotch for their disappointment, and retire.

Here are some pretty verses just arrived.

Pourquoi le baton `a Soubise,

Puisque Chevert est le vainqueur?

C'est de la cour une m`eprise,

Ou bien le but de la faveur.

Je ne vois rien l`a qui m'`etonne,

Repond aussitot un railleur;

C'est `a l'aveugle qu'on le donne,

Et non pas au COnducteur.

Lady Meadows has left nine thousand pounds in reversion after

her husband to Lord Sandwich's daughter. Apropos to my Lady

Meadow's maiden name,(1083) a name I believe you have sometimes

heard: I was diverted t'other day with a story of a lady of

that name,(1084) and a lord, whose initial is no farther from

hers than he himself is sometimes supposed to be. Her

postillion, a lad of sixteen, said, "I am not such a child but

I can guess something: whenever my Lord Lyttelton comes to my

lady, she orders the porter to let in nobody else, and then

they call for a pen and ink, and say they are going to Write

history." Is not this finesse so like him? 'Do you know that I

am persuaded, now he is parted, that he will forget- he is

married, and propose himself in form to some woman or other.

When do you come? if it is not soon, you will find a new town.

I stared to-day at Piccadilly like a country squire; there are

twenty new stone houses; at first I concluded that all the

grooms, that used to live there, had got estates to build

palaces. One young gentleman, who was getting an estate, but

was so indiscreet as to step out of his way to rob a comrade,

is convicted, and to be transported; in short, one of the

waiters at Arthur's. George Selwyn says, "What a horrid idea

he will give of us to the people

in Newgate!"

I was still more surprised t'other day, than at seeing

Piccadilly, by receiving a letter from the north of Ireland

from a clergyman, with violent encomiums on my Catalogue of

Noble Authors--and this when I thought it quite forgot. It put

me in mind of the queen that sunk at Charing-cross and rose at

Queenhithe.

Mr. Chute has got his commission to inquire about your Cutts,

but he thinks the lady is not your grandmother. You are very

ungenerous to hoard tales from me of your ancestry: what

relation have I spared? If your grandfathers were knaves, will

your bottling up their bad blood amend it? Do you only take a

cup of it now and then by yourself, and then come down to your

parson, and boast of it, as if it was pure old metheglin? I

sat last night with the Mater Gracchorum--oh! 'tis a mater

Jagorum; if her descendants taste any of her black blood, they

surely will make as wry faces at it as the servant in Don John

does when the ghost decants a corpse. Good night! I am just

returning to Strawberry, to husband my two last days and to

avoid all the pomp of the birthday. Oh! I had forgot, there is

a Miss Wynne coming forth, that is to be handsomer than my Lady

Coventry; but I have known one threatened with such every

summer for these seven years, and they are always addled by

winter!

(1081) The public credit in France, had, at this time, suffered

a very severe blow, the court having stopped the payment of

several of the public bills and funds to a vast amount.-E.

(1082) The captain of a privateer, who had commanded the French

squadron off Dunkirk, destined for an attack on Scotland.-E.

(1083) Montagu.

(1084) Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew Robinson, Esq. of the

Rokeby family, widow of Edward Montagu, grandson of the first

Earl of Sandwich, and founder of the Blue-stocking Club. She

wrote "Three Dialogues of the Dead," printed with those of Lord

Lyttelton; and in 1769 published her "Essay on the Genius and

Writings of Shakspeare." She died in 1800.-E.

521 Letter 344

To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Nov. 16, 1759.

Now the Parliament is met, you will expect some new news; you

will be disappointed: no battles are fought in Parliament now--

the House of Commons is a mere war-office, and only sits for

the despatch of military business. As I am one of the few men

in England who am neither in the army nor militia, I never go

thither. By the King's speech, and Mr. Pitt's t'other speech,

it looks as if we intended to finish the conquest of the world

the next campaign. The King did not go to the House; his last

eye is so bad that he could scarce read his answer to the

address, though the letters were as long and as black as Ned

Finch. He complains that every body's face seems to have a

crape over it. A person much more expected and much more

missed, was not at the House neither; Lord George Sackville.

He came to town the night before the opening, but did not

appear--it looks as if he gave every thing up. Did you hear

that M. de Contades saluted Prince Ferdinand on his

installation with twenty-one cannons? The French could

distinguish the outside of the ceremony, and the Prince sent

word to the marshal, that if he observed any bustle that day,

he must not expect to be attacked-it would only be a chapter of

the Garter.

A very extraordinary event happened the day after the meeting:

Lord Temple resigned the privy-seal. The account he gives

himself is, that he continued to be so ill used by the King,

that it was notorious to all the world; that in hopes of taking

off that reproach, he had asked for the Garter.(1085) Being

refused, he had determined to resign, at the same time

beseeching Mr. Pitt not to resent any thing for him, and

insisting with his two brothers that they should keep their

places, and act as warm as ever with the administration, That

in an audience of twenty-five minutes he hoped he had removed

his Majesty's prejudices, and should now go out of town as well

satisfied as any man in England. The town says, that it was

concerted that he should not quit till Mr. Pitt made his speech

on the first day, declaring that nothing should make him break

union with the rest of the ministers, no, not for the nearest

friend he had. All this is mighty fine; but the affair is,

nevertheless, very impertinent. If Lord Temple hoped to

involve Mr. Pitt in his quarrel, it was very wicked at such a

crisis as this--and if he could, I am apt to believe he would--

if he could not, it was very silly. To the garter nobody can

have slenderer pretensions; his family is scarce older than his

earldom, which is of the youngest. His person is ridiculously,

awkward; and if chivalry were in vogue, he has given proofs of

having no passion for tilt and tournament. Here end@ the

history of King George the Second, and Earl Temple the First.

We are still advised to believe in the invasion, though it

seems as slow in coming as the millennium. M. Thurot and his

pigmy navy have scrambled to Gottenburg, where it is thought

they will freight themselves with half a dozen pounds of

Swedes. We continue to militiate, and to raise light troops,

and when we have armed every apprentice in England, I suppose

we shall translate our fears to Germany. In the mean time the

King is overwhelmed with addresses on our victories he will

have enough to paper his palace. ITe told the City of London,

that all was owing to unanimity, but I think he should have

said, to unmanimity, for it were shameful to ascribe our

brilliancy to any thing but Mr. Pitt. The new King of Spain

seems to think that our fleet is the best judge of the

incapacity of his eldest son, and of the fitness of his

disposition of Naples, for he has expressed the highest

confidence of Wall, and the strongest assurances of neutrality.

I am a little sorry that Richcourt is not in Florence; it would

be pleasant to dress yourself up in mural crowns and American

plumes in his face. Adieu!

(1085) By the following passage of a letter from Lord Temple

himself to Mr. Pitt, of the 13th of October, in the Chatham

Correspondence, it will be seen that it was not his lordship

who solicited the garter, but Mr. Pitt:--"You have been so good

as to ask of his Majesty the garter for me, as a reward to

yourself, and the only one you desire for all the great and

eminent services you have done to, the King, to the nation, and

to the electorate; to which request you have, it seems,

hitherto met with a refusal. At the same time that I thank

you, and am proud to receive any testimony of your kind regard,

permit me to add, that I am not so mean-spirited as to

condescend to receive, in my own person, the reward of another

man's services, however dear to me you so deservedly are on

every account. Let the King continue to enjoy in peace the

pleasure and Honour of this refusal; for if he should happen to

be disposed, for other reasons than those of gratitude to you,

which will have no weight with him, to give me that mark of

distinction, I will not accept it on such terms." Vol. i. p.

438.-E.