ARLINGTON STREET, _Jan._ 8, 1773.
In return to your very kind inquiries, dear Sir, I can let you know,
that I am quite free from pain, and walk a little about my room, even
without a stick: nay, have been four times to take the air in the Park.
Indeed, after fourteen weeks this is not saying much; but it is a worse
reflection, that when one is subject to the gout and far from young,
one's worst account will probably be better than that after the next
fit. I neither flatter myself on one hand, nor am impatient on the
other--for will either do one any good? one must bear one's lot whatever
it be.
I rejoice Mr. Gulston has justice,[1] though he had no bowels. How
Gertrude More escaped him I do not guess. It will be wrong to rob you of
her, after she has come to you through so many hazards--nor would I hear
of it either, if you have a mind to keep her, or have not given up all
thoughts of a collection since you have been visited by a Visigoth.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Gulston now fully remunerated Mr. Cole in a valuable
present of books.--WALPOLE.]
I am much more impatient to see Mr. Gray's print, than Mr.
What-d'ye-call-him's [Masters's] answer to my "Historic Doubts."[1] He
may have made himself very angry; but I doubt whether he will make me at
all so. I love antiquities; but I scarce ever knew an antiquary who knew
how to write upon them. Their understandings seem as much in ruins as
the things they describe. For the Antiquarian Society, I shall leave
them in peace with Whittington and his Cat. As my contempt for them has
not, however, made me disgusted with what they do not understand,
antiquities, I have published two numbers of "Miscellanies," and they
are very welcome to mumble them with their toothless gums. I want to
send you these--not their gums, but my pieces, and a "Grammont,"[2] of
which I have printed only a hundred copies, and which will be extremely
scarce, as twenty-five copies are gone to France. Tell me how I shall
convey them safely.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Masters's pamphlet, printed at the expense of the
Antiquarian Society in the second volume of the
"Archaeologia."--WALPOLE.]
[Footnote 2: He had just published a small edition of Grammont's
Memoirs, "Augmentée de Notes et éclaircissemens nécessaires, par M.
Horace Walpole," and had dedicated it to Mme. du Deffand.]
Another thing you must tell me, if you can, is, if you know anything
ancient of the Freemasons. Governor Pownall,[1] a Whittingtonian, has a
mind they should have been a corporation erected by the popes. As you
see what a good creature I am, and return good for evil, I am engaged to
pick up what I can for him, to support this system, in which I believe
no more than in the pope: and the work is to appear in a volume of the
Society's pieces. I am very willing to oblige him, and turn my cheek,
that they may smite that, also. Lord help them! I am sorry they are such
numskulls, that they almost make me think myself something; but there
are great authors enough to bring me to my senses again. Posterity, I
fear, will class me with the writers of this age, or forget me with
them, not rank me with any names that deserve remembrance. If I cannot
survive the Milles's, the What-d'ye-call-him's [Masters's], and the
compilers of catalogues of Topography, it would comfort me very little
to confute them. I should be as little proud of success as if I had
carried a contest for churchwarden.
[Footnote 1: Thomas Pownall, Esq., the antiquary, and a constant
contributor to the "Archaeologia." Having been governor of South
Carolina and other American colonies, he was always distinguished from
his brother John, who was likewise an antiquary, by the title of
Governor.]
Not being able to return to Strawberry Hill, where all my books and
papers are, and my printer lying fallow, I want some short bills to
print. Have you anything you wish printed? I can either print a few to
amuse ourselves, or, if very curious, and not too dry, could make a
third number of "Miscellaneous Antiquities."
I am not in any eagerness to see Mr. What-d'ye-call-him's pamphlet
against me; therefore pray give yourself no trouble to get it for me.
The specimens I have seen of his writing take off all edge from
curiosity. A print of Mr. Gray will be a real present. Would it not be
dreadful to be commended by an age that had not taste enough to admire
his "Odes"? Is not it too great a compliment to me to be abused, too? I
am ashamed. Indeed our antiquaries ought to like me. I am but too much
on a par with them. Does not Mr. Henshaw come to London? Is he a
professor, or only a lover of engraving? If the former, and he were to
settle in town, I would willingly lend him heads to copy. Adieu!
_POPULARITY OF LOUIS XVI--DEATH OF LORD HOLLAND--BRUCE'S "TRAVELS."_