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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4919.txt b/4919.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0db73a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/4919.txt @@ -0,0 +1,34040 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters of Horace Walpole, V4, by Horace Walpole +(#5 in our series by Horace Walpole) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Letters of Horace Walpole, V4 + +Author: Horace Walpole + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4919] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 27, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LETTERS OF HORACE WALPOLE, V4 *** + + + + +This etext was produced by Marjorie Fulton. + + + +For easier searching, letters have been numbered. Only the +page numbers that appear in the table of contents have been +retained in the text of letters. Footnotes have been regrouped +as endnotes following the letter to which they relate. + + + + + + + The Letters of Horace Walpole, + Earl of Orford: + + Including Numerous letters Now First Published + From The Original Manuscripts. + + + In Four Volumes. + Vol. IV. + + 1770-1797. + + Philadelphia: Lea And Blanchard. + + 1842. + + + C. Sherman & Co. Printers + 19 St. James Street. + + + + + Contents Of Vol. IV. + + [Those Letters now first collected are marked N.] + + + + 1770. + +1. To Sir David Dalrymple, January 1.-Thanks for his "History +of Scottish Councils." The spirit of controversy the curse of +modern times. Attack on the House of Commons. Outcry against +grievances. Despotism and unbounded licentiousness--(N.) 25 + +2. To the same, Jan. 23.-Mr. Charles Yorke's rapid history. +Lord Chatham's attempt to enlarge the representation. Sir +George Savile and Mr. Burke's attack on the House of Commons. +Modern Catilines. Corruption of senators. Wilkes, Parson Horne, +and JUnius--[N.] 26 + +3. To George Montagu, Esq. March 31.-Print of Alderman +Backwell--28 + +4. To the same, May 6.-Backwardness of the season. Marriages. +Masquerades. New establishment at Almack's. Intercourse between +age and youth--28 + +5. To the same, June 11.-Description of Lord Dysart's house at +Ham--29 + +6. To the same, June 29.-Promising a visit on his way to Stowe. +Death of Alderman Beckford--31 + +7. To the same, July 1.-On not finding him at home--32 + +8. To the same, July 7.-Account of his visit to Stowe, Lines +addressed to Princess Amelia--33 + +9. To the Earl of Strafford, July 9.-Visit to Stowe, Alderman +Beckford's death--35 + +10. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, July 12.-Visit to Stowe--36 + +11. To George Montagu, Esq. July 14.-Reversion of Walpole's +place--37 + +12. To the same, July 15-Correcting a mistake in his last--38 + +13. To the same Oct. 3.-Fit of the gout. The gate of age--38 + +14. To the same, Oct. 16--39 + +15. To the Earl of Strafford, Oct. 16.-Convalescence. Dispute +with Spain--39 + +16. To the Earl of Charlemont, Oct. 17.-In answer to an +application on behalf of an artist, and a wish to be permitted +to read his tragedy--[N.] 40 + +17. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Nov. 15.-Soliciting his interest in +Cambridgeshire for Mr. Brand--41 + +18. To the same, Nov. 26.-Mr. Bentham's "History of Ely +Cathedral"--41 + +19. To the same, Dec. 20.-Mr. Essex's projected "History of +Gothic Architecture." Antiquarian Society. Dean Milles. +Gentlemen engravers at Cambridge--42 + +20. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Dec. 25.-Planting of +poplar-pines. Dryden's "King Arthur" altered by Garrick--43 + +21. To the same, Dec. 29.-Change in the French ministry. +Overthrow of the Duc de Choiseul. Banishment of the Duc de +Praslin. New law arrangements at home--44 + + + 1771. + +22. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Jan. 10.-Suggestions for getting the +projected History of Gothic Architecture patronized by the +King--45 + +23. To the same, May -29.-Letters of Edward the Sixth--46 + +24. To the same, June 11.-On the various attacks upon his +writings. Archaeologia, or Old Women's Logic. Mr. Masters--47 + +25. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, June 17.-Visit to Ampthill. +Houghton Park. Mausoleum of the Bruces--[N.] 48 + +26. To the Earl of Strafford, June 20 . -Intended visit to +Paris. Madame du Deffand. New French ministry. The Duc +d'Aiguillon. Life of Cellini. Charles Fox--49 + +27. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, June 22.-On the cross to be erected +at Ampthill to the memory of Catherine of Arragon--50 + +28. To the same, June 24.-Thanks for some prints and letters-- +51 + +29. To John Chute, Esq. July 9.-Account of his journey to +Paris--51 + +30. To the Hon. H. S, Conway, July 30.-French politics. +Distress at court. Vaudevilles against Madame du Barry. +Amusements at Paris. Gaillard's "Rivalit`e de la France et de +l'Angleterre"--52 + +31. To John Chute, Esq. Aug. 5.-Progress of English gardening +in France. New arr`ets. General distress. State of Le Soeor's +paintings at the Chartreuse. The charm of viewing churches and +convents dispelled. Shock at learning the death of Gray--55 + +32. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Aug. 11.-Reflection on the death +of Gray. Lady Beauchamp. Opium a false friend--57 + +33. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Aug. 12.-Reflections on the death of +Gray--58 + +34. To the Earl of Strafford, Aug. 25.-Climate of Paris. French +economy and retrenchment. Mademoiselle Guimard. Mademoiselle +Heinel. Suppression of the French Parliaments. Ruinous +condition of the palaces and pictures--59 + +35. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Sept. 7.-Return to England. +Deplorable condition of the French finances--61 + +36. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Sept. 10.-Thanks for some particulars +of Gray's death. Dr. James Browne. Gray's portrait--62 + +37. To the same, Oct. 12.-Mr. Essex's design for the cross at +Ampthill. Calvin and Luther--63 + +'38. To the same, Oct. 23.-Armour of Francis the First. Ancient +window from Bexhill. Tomb of Capoccio--63 + + + 1772. + +39. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, January 7.-Effects of an +explosion of powder-mills at Hounslow--64 + +40. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Jan. 28.-Dean Milles. Relics of Gray. +Letters on the English nation. Garrick and his writings. +Wilkes's squint--65 + +41. To the same, June 9--66 + +42. To the same, June 17.-Thanks for some literary researches. +Letters of Sir Thomas Wyat. Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood. +Browne Willis. Peter Gore and Thomas Callaghan--66 + +43. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, June 22.-Panic occasioned by +Fordyce's bankruptcy. Cherubims. Exercise. Letters of Guy +Patin. Charles Fox's annuities. Lives of Leland, Hearne, and +Wood. Entry in Wood's Diary. Freemasonry. Peter Gore--68 + +44. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, July 7.-King Edward's letters. +Portrait of Gray. Death of Mr. West the antiquary. His +collections. Foote's comedy of "The Nabob"--70 + +45. To the same, July 28.-Archaeologia, or, Old Women's Logic. +Antiquarian Society. Life of Sir Thomas Wyat. William Thomas's +"Peleryne"--70 + +46. To the same, Aug. 25.-Thanks to Dr. Browne for a goar-stone +and seal belonging to Gray. Lincoln and York cathedrals. Roche +Abbey. Screen of York Minster--71 + +47. To the same, Aug. 28.-Indolence of age. inquiries after +some prints--72 + +48. To the same, Nov. 7.-Fit of the gout. Regret at not being +able to see Mr. Essex--73 + +49. To the same.-On the rapacity of a gentleman who had thinned +Mr. Cole's collection of prints--74 + +50. To the Countess of Ailesbury, Dec. 20.-Account of Reynal's +"Histoire Philosophique et Politique du Commerce des Deux +Indes"--74 + + + + 1773. + +51. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Jan. 8.-Mr. Masters's answer to +"Historic Doubts." Antiquarians. Freemasonry. Governor Pownall. +Edition of "M`emoires du Comte de Grammont." Dedication to +Madame du Deffand. Gray's "Odes"--75 + +52. To the same, Feb. 18.-Miscellaneous antiquities. Governor +Pownall's System of Freemasonry. Mrs. Marshall's "Sir Harry +Gaylove, or Comedy in Embryo"--77 + +53. To the Rev. William Mason, March 2.-Thanks for submitting +his collections for the "Life of Gray" to his correction. +Origin of the differences between them. Takes to himself the +chief blame in the quarrel--(N.) 78 + +(54. To the same, March 27.-Mason the author of "The Heroic +Epistle to Sir William Chambers." Account of Gray's going +abroad with him--79 + +55. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, April 7.-ArchaEologia, or Old Women's +Logic. Masters's answer to "Historic Doubts." Sale of Mr. +West's collections--80 + +56. To the same, April 27.@Character of authors. Shenstone's +and Hughes' "Correspondence." Declines acquaintance with Mr. +Gough. Scotch metaphysicians. Anstey's "New Bath Guide." +"Heroic Epistle." Oliver Goldsmith. Johnson's pension--81 + +57. To the same, May 4.-On being mentioned by the public orator +at Cambridge--82 + +58. To the same, May 29.--83 + +59. To Dr. Berkenhout, July 5.-Declining to supply materials +for a biographical notice of himself--84 + +60. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Aug. 30.-Visit to Houghton. +Deplorable state of his nephew's private affairs. Mortification +of family pride--84 + +61. To the Earl of Strafford, Sept. 24.-Journey to Houghton. +State of his nephew's affairs. Lady Mary Coke's ardour of +peregrination. Beatific print of Lady Huntingdon. Whitfield and +the Methodists. Death of the Duke of Kingston--85 + +62. To the same, Nov. 15.-Best way of contending with the folly +and vice of the world. Proposed tax on Irish absentees. Lady +Mary Coke's mortifications. Count Gage and Lady Mary Herbert-- +86 + +63. To Lady Mary Coke.-On her ardour of peregrination--87 + +64. To the Hon. Mrs. Grey, Dec. 9.-Advice from Dr. Walpole to +Lady Blandford suffering from a fit of the gout--89 + +65. To Sir David Dalrymple, Dec. 14.-Thanks for his "Remarks on +the History of Scotland"--[N.] 90 + + + +1774. + +66. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, May 4.-Reasons for his long silence. +Temptations to visit Strawberry. Fate of Mr. Bateman's +collection of curiosities. Conjectured fate of Strawberry--90 + +67. To the same, May 28.-Pennant's "Tour to Scotland and the +Hebrides." Ossian. Fingal's Cave. Brave way of being an +antiquary. Mr. Gough described. Fenn's "Original Letters." +Society of Antiquaries. Old friends--91 + +68. To the same, June 21.-Efficacy of James's powder. Old +friends in old age our best amusement. Flattery. Queen +Catherine's Cross at Ampthill--93 + +69. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, June 23.-On the General's tour of +military observation. Politics. Quebec-bill--94 + +70. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Aug. 15.-Account of his antiquarian +pursuits. Journey into Worcestershire. Matson. Gloucester +Cathedral. Monument of Edward the Second. Bishop Hooper's +house. Prinknash. Berkeley Castle. Murder of Edward the Second. +Thornbury Castle. The vicar of Thornbury--95 + +71. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Aug. 18.-On the General's +introduction to the King of Prussia. Account of his own journey +into Worcestershire--98 + +72. To the same, Sept. 7.-On the General's visit to the mines +of Cremnitz. Visit to Berkeley Castle. Lord Malton presented at +court in coal-black hair--99 + +73. To the same, Sept. 27.-Rejoices at the General's flattering +reception at foreign courts. Character of the Germans. Italian +women. Reasons for not taking a trip to Paris. French dirt. New +elections. Mode of passing his time--101 + +74. To the same, Sept. 28.-Cautions for his conduct at Paris. +Entreaty to take much notice of Madame du Deffand. Her +character. Wishes to have back his letters to her. Mademoiselle +de l'Espinasse. The Duchesse de Choiseul. Monsieur Buffon. +Comte de Broglie--103 + +75. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Oct. 11.-Elections. His nephew's +mental alienation--105 + +76. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Oct. 16.-New elections. Wilkes's +popularity. Charles Fox. Character of M. de Maurepas. Reasons +for not meeting him at Paris--106 + +77. To the same, Oct. 29.-On the General's being deprived of a +seat in the new Parliament. Objects to be seen at Paris. Church +of the Celestines. Richelieu's tomb at the Sorbonne. H`otel de +Carnavalet. Versailles. The Luxembourg. Pictures at the Palais +Royal. Church of the Invalids. St. Roch. The Carmelites. The +Val de Grace. The Sainte Chapelle. Tomb of Cond`e; and of +Cardinal Fleury--108 + +78. To the Countess of Ailesbury, Nov. 7.-Domestic news. +Marriages. Wilkes's popularity. Mr. Burke's success at Bristol. +"Wit-and-a-gamut." Comforts of old age--110 + +79. To the Earl of Strafford, Nov. 11.-Concert at Isleworth. +Leoni. The Opera. The Duchess of Kingston--112 + +80. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Nov. 12. Thanks for his +attentions to Madame du Deffand. American disturbances. General +Burgoyne's "Maid of the Oaks," The Duc de la Vali`ere. +Chevalier de Boufflers. Madame de Caraman. Madame de Mirepoix. +Abb`e Raynal. Mademoiselle de Rancoux. Le Kain. Mo]`e. +Preville. M. Boutin's English garden--112 + +81. To the same, Nov. 27.-Deaths. Disturbed state of America. +The Duchess of Kingston. French despotism. Madame du Deffand. +Opera. The Bastardella. Death of lord Holland--115 + +82. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Dec. 15.-Remonstrances from +America. Lord Chatham--118 + +83. To the same, Dec. 26.-The Prince de Conti. Proceedings of +the French Parliament. Petitions from America. Burke's +speeches. Duchesse de Lauzun. St. Lambert--119 + +84. To the same, Dec. 31.-Biblioth`eque du Roi. Abb`e +Barthelemi. Duc de Choiseul. "History of Furness Abbey"--121 + + + + 1775. + +85. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Jan. 9.-Nell Gwynn's letter. Strutt's +"Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants of England." Duke +Humphrey's skull at St. Albans--124 + +86. To the Hon. H . S. Conway, Jan. 15.-Party-men. Lord George +Germain. Mr. Burke. Lord Chatham. Marquis of Rockingham. +Operations of the Bostonians. General Gage. New Parnassus at +Batheaston. Bouts-rim`es. Lines on a buttered muffin, by the +Duchess of Northumberland. Lord Palmerston's poem on Beauty. +Rulhi`ere's Russian Anecdotes--124 + +87. To the same, Jan. 22.-Debate in the House of lords on Lord +Chatham's motion for withdrawing the troops from Boston. Plan +for cutting off all traffic with America. Illness of the Duke +of Gloucester. Committee of oblivion. Death of Dowdeswell and +Tom Hervey--[N.] + 128 + +88. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, April 11.-Warm approbation of mason's +Life of gray. Verses by Lord Rochford, Anne Boleyn's brother-- +129 + +89. To the same, April 25.-Mason's Life of Gray. "Peep in the +Gardens at Twickenham." Whitaker's History of Manchester. +Bryant's Ancient Mythology--132 + +90. To the same, June 5,-Genealogical inquiries. Blomefield's +Norfolk--134 + +91. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, July 9.-Projected trip to Paris. +American news. Story of Captain Mawhood, the teaman's son--136 + +92. To the same, August 9.-Preparations for a journey to Paris. +War between the Lord Chamberlain and Foote for refusing to +license his play--[N.] 137 + +93. To the Countess of Ailesbury, Aug. 17.-Journey to +Paris--138 + +94. To the same, Aug. 20.-Arrival at Paris. Madame du Deffand. +Madame Clotilde's wedding. M. Turgot's economy--139 + +95. To Mrs. Abington, Sept.-Regret at not knowing she was at +Paris. Compliment to her great merits as an actress--[N.) 140 + +96. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Sept. 8.-On Lady Ailesbury being +overturned in her carriage. Madame du Deffand. Lady Barrymore. +Madame de Marchais Madame de Viri. French opinion of our +dispute with America--140 + +97. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Oct. 6.-Illness of Madame du +Deffand. Economy and reformation of the bon-ton at Paris. +Horse-race on the Plain de Sablon. French politics, and +probable changes--142 + +98. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Dec. 10.-English version of Gray's +Latin Odes--144 + +99. To the Countess of Ailesbury, Dec. 11.-Trial of the Duchess +of Kingston. Le Texier's French readings--145 + +100. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Dec. 14.-Society of Antiquarians. +Opening of Edward the First's tomb. Prints from pictures at +Houghton--146 + +101. To Thomas Astle, Esq. Dec. 19.-On the attainder of George +Duke of Clarence, found in the Tower--147 + + + + 1776. + +102. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Jan. 26.-Subject of the Painting at +the Rose Tavern in Fleet-street. Attainder of George Duke of +Clarence--148 + +103. To Edward Gibbon, Esq. February.-Thanks for the first +volume of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"--[N.] 149 + +104. To the same, Feb. 14.-Panegyric on the first volume of the +"Decline and Fall"--[N.) 150 + +105. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, March 1.-On the old painting at the +Rose Tavern in Fleet-street. Antiquarian accuracy--151 + +106. To Dr. Gem, April 4.-French politics. Resistance of the +Parliament to the reformations of Messieurs de Malesherbes and +Turgot. Extraordinary speeches of the Avocat-G`en`eral. Our +dispute with America--151 + +107. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, April 16.-Death of the Rev. Mr. +Granger. Trial of Duchess of Kingston--153 + +108. To the same, June 1.-Mr. Granger's prints and papers +purchased by Lord Mountstuart--154 + +(109) To the same, June 11.-Vexations and disappointments of +the gout--155 + +110. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, June 30.-Gallery and beauty-room +at Strawberry. Lady Diana Beauclerk. His own talents and +pursuits. Picture of his mind--156 + +111. To the' Rev. Mr. Cole, July 23.-Thanks for the present of +a vase. Condolence on the ill state of his health--157 + +112. To the same, July 24.-Effects of General Conway's illness +on his own mind. Outliving one's friends. Mr. Penticross--158 + +113. To the same, Aug. 19.-Inquiries after Dr. Kenrick Prescot. +Death of Mr. Damer--159 + +114. To the same, Sept. 9.-Alterations at Strawberry. Lord +Carmarthen--160 + +115. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Oct. 31.-Folly and madness of +the dispute with America. Opening of Parliament. Prospect of a +war with France. Reasons for his retirement--(N.] 161 + +116. To the Earl of Strafford, Nov-. 2.-retirement. Effects of +our climate. Unhappy dispute with America. Prospect of war with +France--162 + +117. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Dec. 9.-Sir John Hawkins's "History +of Music"--163 + + + + 1777. + +118. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Feb. 20.-Purchase of the shutters of +the altar at St. Edmondsbury--163 + +119. To the same, February 27.-Requesting the loan of some of +his manuscripts. Dr. Dodd--165 + +120. To the same, May 22.-Continuance of his nephew's mental +illness. Love of Cambridge. Inclination to a sequestered life. +Charles the Fifth--166 + +121. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, June 19.-Macpherson's success with +Ossian the ruin of Chatterton. Rowley's pretended poems. +Chatterton's death--167 + +122. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, July 10.-M. d'Agincourt's +"Histoire de l'Art par les Monumens." The "Hayssians." Madame +de Blot. M. Schomberg. Madame Necker's character of Walpole-- +168 + +123. To Robert Jephson, Esq. July 13.-Advice respecting the +representation of his tragedy. Success of Sheridan's School for +Scandal--[N.] 169 + +124. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Aug. 31.-True wisdom. Illness of the +Duke of Gloucester. Monasteries. Recluse life. "In six weeks my +clock will strike sixty!"--171 + +125. To the same, Sept. 16.-Thanks for the loan of manuscripts. +Nonsense. Sincerity the foundation of long friendship. Sir +Joshua Reynolds's portrait of Soame Jenyns. Duke of +Gloucester's recovery--172 + +126. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Sept. 16.-Description of a +machine called the Delineator. His "unlearnability"--173 + +127. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Sept. 22.-Suggesting a life of +Thomas Baker, author of "Reflections on Learning." Burnet's +History. Christiana, Queen of Sweden. Calvin--173 + +128. To Robert Jephson, Esq. Oct. 1.-"The Law of Lombardy"-- +[N.] 175 + +129. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Oct. 5.-Apologies for not +meeting him at Goodwood. Disinclination to move from home. +"Threescore to-day State of his health and spirits. His idea of +old age--176 + +130. To Robert Jephson. Esq. Oct. 17.-Criticism on ,The Law of +Lombardy"--[N.] 177 + +131. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Oct. 19.-Burnet's History. Duke +Lauderdale. Sir John Dalrymple and Macpherson's Histories. +Friendship. Efficacy of the bootikins--179 + + + + 1778. + +132. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, March 31.-Politics. Life of Mr. +Baker--181 + +133. To the same, April 23.-Life of Baker. Pennant's "Welsh +Tour." Warton's "History of English Poetry." Lord Hardwicke's +State Papers." Aspect of the times--181 + +134. To the same, May 21.-Restoration of Popery. Lord Chatham's +interment. Intercourse with Chatterton. Detection of his +forgeries--182 + +135. To the Rev. William Mason.-Visit from Dr. Robertson. The +Doctor's contemplated "History of King William." Macpherson's +and Sir John Dalrymple's scandals--184 + +136. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, June 3.-Patriots and politics. Dr. +Franklin. Lord Chatham's interment. His merits and demerits. +Mr. Tyrwhit. Chatterton's forgeries--186 + +137. To the same, June 10.-His political creed, and opinion of +parties and political men. Life of Mr. Baker. Rowley and +Chatterton. Mat. Prior. Mr. Hollis. Mrs. Macauley--187 + +138. To the Countess of Ailesbury, June 25.--Mr. Conway's +governorship. Cuckoos and Nightingales. Robbery of Mrs. Clive-- +189 + +139. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, July 8.-Suggesting the propriety +of pacification with America. Conduct of the Opposition. French +neutrality. Partition of Poland--189 + +140. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, July 12.-Projected Life of Mr. +Baker. Dr. Kippis's "Biographia Britannica." Addison's +character of Lord Somers. Whitgift and Abbot. Archbishop +Markham. Calvin and Wesley. Popery and Presbyterianism. +Churches and convents--191 + +141. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, July 18.-Sailing of the Brest +fleet. Political prospects--192 + +142. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, July 24.-Answer to the attack upon +him prefixed to Chatterton's works. Gray's tomb, and Mason's +epitaph--193 + +143. To the same, Aug. 15.-Rowley's pretended poems. Walpole's +defence. Bishop Walpole'-s tomb. Baker's Life--194 + +144. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Aug, 21.-Recollections of +Sussex. Arundel Castle,. Tombs of the Fitzalans. Knowle and +Penshurst. Summer Hill. Leeds Castle. Goldsmiths' Company. +Aquatic adventure--195 + +145. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Aug. 22.-Chatterton. Attacks on +Walpole in the Critical Review. Lord Hardwicke and the Carleton +Papers. Literary squabbles. The "Old English Baron." Lady +Craven's "Sleep Walker." A literary adventure--196 + +146. To the same, Sept. 1.-Attack on him in the Critical +Review. Cabal in the Antiquarian Society. Their Saxon and +Danish discoveries, and Roman remains. Value of Mr. Cole's +collections,. Visit from Dr. Kippis--198 + +147. To the same, Sept. 18.-"Biographia Britannica." Life of +the first Lord Barrington. Anecdote of the present peer--200 + +148. To the same, Oct. 14.-Defence of Sir Robert Walpole +against a charge of instigating George the Second to destroy +the will of his father. Lord Chesterfield--202 + +149. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Oct. 23.-Account of his +pursuits--201 + +150. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Oct. 26.-Completion of his Life of +Mr. Baker--204 + +151. To the same, Nov. 4.-Attack of the gout. Character of Mr. +Baker--205 + +152. To Lady Browne. Nov. 5.-Reflections on the state of' his +health. Lady Blandford's obstinacy--[N.] 206 + +153. To the same, Dec. 18.-Admiral Keppel's trial. Lord Bute. +Lord George Germaine. Lady Holderness, Lord and Lady +Carmarthen--[N.] 207 + +154. To the Earl of Buchan, Dec. 24.-Reply to inquiries after +certain portraits--[N.) 209 + +155. To Edward Gibbon, Esq.-On the attacks upon his History of +the Decline and Fall--[N.] 210 + + + + 1779. + +156. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Jan. 3.-Life of Mr. Baker. Damage +done by the great tempest on New-year's morning. Death of +Bishop Kidder. Tamworth Castle. Lord Ferrers's passion for +ancestry--211 + +157. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Jan. 9.-Mrs. Miller's follies at +Batbeaston. Ennui. His recent illness. Prospects of old age. +Admiral Keppel's trial. Grecian Republics. Anecdote of Sir +Robert Walpole. Character of Sir William Meredith--212 + +158. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Jan. 15.-Life of Mr. Baker. Pamphlet +respecting Chatterton--213 + +159. To the same, Jan. 28.-Reasons for not printing his +pamphlet concerning Chatterton. His Hieroglyphic Tales--214 + +160. To the same, Feb. 4.-Answer to Mr. Cole's objections to +his Life of Baker--215 + +161. To the same, Feb. 18.-His opinion of Hasted's history of +Kent. Lord Ferrers and Tamworth Castle--215 + +162. To Sir David Dalrymple, March 12.-Thanks for his "Annals." +Portrait of Duns Scotus--[N.] 216 + +163. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, March 28.-Swinburne's Travels in +Spain. The Alhambra. Character of Moses. Cumberland's Masque of +"Calypso." Design of a chimney-piece, by Holbein--216 + +164. To Edward Gibbon, Esq.-Congratulations on his +,Vindication" of his "History"--[N.] 218 + +165. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, April 12.-St. Peter's portrait. +Richard the Third. Truth and Falsehood. Murder of Miss Ray by +Mr. Hackman. Shades of madness. Solace in books and past ages-- +218 + +166. To the same, April 20.-Plates after designs by Rubens--219 + +167. To the same, April 23.-Sale of the pictures at Houghton-- +220 + +168. To Mrs. Abington.-Regrets at not being able to accept an +invitation--(N.) 220 + +169. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, May 21.-History of the Abbey of Bec. +Keate's "Sketches from Nature." Church of Reculver. Person of +Richard the Third--221 + +170. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, May 22.-Attack on Jersey. War in +America. Masquerades. Festino at Almack's. Lord Bristol's +wonderful calf--221 + +171. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, June 2.-State of his health. +Strictures on a volume of the ArchEeologia. Pictures at +Houghton--222 + +172. To the Rev. Dr. Lort, June 4.-Painted shutters from the +altar of St. Edmund's Bury--224 + +173. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, June 5.-Disturbances in Ireland. +Spanish declaration of war. Treatment of America. Tickell's +"Cassette Verte." Dr. Franklin. "Opposition Mornings." Story of +Mrs. Ellis and her great O--225 + +174. To the same, June 16.-Sailing of the Brest fleet. +Probability of a war with Spain. Dispute with America. State of +Ireland. F`ete at the Pantheon--227 + +175. To the Hon. George Hardinge, July 4.-Thanks for drawings +of Grignan. Letters of Madame de S`evign`e, and of her +daughter. Character of Coulanges--229 + +176. To the Countess of Ailesbury, July 10.-Conjectures on the +political state of the country. Washington and Clinton. +Difficulty of conquering America--230 + +177. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, July 12.-Value of the pictures at +Houghton--231 + +178. To the same, Aug. 12.-Thanks for offer of painted glass. +"History of Alien Priories"--232 + +179. To the Countess of Ailesbury, Aug. 13.-Situation of +General Conway in Jersey. Constancy of Fortune. Folly of +pursuing the war with America--233 + +180. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Sept. 12.-Alarms for the +General's situation at Jersey. Battle between Byron and +D'Estaing. Mrs. Damer. Eruption of Vesuvius--234 + +181. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Nov. 16.-Mr. Tyson's Journal. Old +Gate at Whitehall. Nichols's "Alien Priories." Rudder's +"History of Gloucestershire." Removal of old friends--235 + +182. To the same, Dec. 27.-Earl-bishops. Lord Bristol. Rudder's +"History of Gloucestershire"--236 + + + + 1780. + +183. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Jan. 5.-Congratulations on his +providential escape. Count-bishops. Old painting found in +Westminster-abbey. Tomb of Ann of Cleve. Reburial of the crown, +robes, and sceptre of Edward the First. Sale of the Houghton +pictures--237 + +184. To Robert Jephson, Esq., Jan. 25.-His opinion of Mr. +Jephson's "Count of Narbonne;" and advice on casting the parts- +-[N.] 238 + +185. To the same, Jan. 27.-Tragedy of the "Count of Narbonne." +Warburton's panegyric on the "Castle of Otranto." Miss Aikin's +"Fragment." "Old English Baron"--[N.] 240 + +186. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Feb. 5.-New volume of the +"Biographia Britannica." Characters of Dr. Birch, Dr. +Blackwell, and Dr. John Brown. Dr. Kippis's threat. Cardinal +Beaton. Dr. Bentley. Mr. Hollis. Barry the painter--242 + +187. To the same, Feb. 27.-Rodney's victory. Home prospects. +Party divisions. History of Leicester. Cit`e des dames. +Christiana of Pisa--242 + +188. To the same, March 6.-Thanks for his portrait in glass. +History of Leicester. Dean Mills and Mr. Masters. Pine-apples. +Charles the Second's gardener--245 + +189. To the same, March 13.-Atkyns's Gloucestershire. +Hutchinson's Northumberland. Romantic Correspondence of Hackman +and Miss Ray. Sir Herbert Croft's,,Love and Madness." +Chatterton. "The Young Villain." Lord Chatham. Lady Craven's +"Miniature Picture"--246 + +190. To the same, March 30.-Projected reform of the House of +Commons. Annual parliaments--248 + +191. To the same, May 11.-Death of Mr. Tyson, and of his old +friend George Montagu. His character--248 + +192. To the same, May 19.-Character of Joseph Spence--249 + +193. To the same, May 30.-Altar-doors from St. Edmundsbury. +Annibal Caracci and Shakspeare--250 + +194. To Mrs. Abington, June 11.-Invitation to Strawberry Hill-- +[N.] 251 + +195. To the Earl of Strafford, June 12.-Lord George Gordon and +the Riots of London. Persecutions under the cloak of religion. +Highway robberies. Ambition the most detestable of passions-- +251 + +196. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, June 15.-London riots. Black +Wednesday. Lord George Gordon in the Tower. Electioneering +rioting in Cambridgeshire. Mr. Banks and the Otaheitans--253 + +197. To the same, July 4.-Wishes his having written the Life of +Baker to be kept a secret--254 + +198. To the Earl of Strafford, Sept. 9.-Folly of election +contests. Dissatisfaction in the fleet--255 + +199. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Sept. 27.-Electioneering agitations. +Death of Madame du Deffand--256 + +200. To the same, Oct. 3.-"Life of Mr. Baker." Dr. James Brown- +-256 + +201. To the same, Nov. 11.-Mr. Gough's "Topography." +Introduction of ananas. Rose, the gardener of Charles the +Second. Folly of antiquaries--257 + +202. To the same, Nov. 24.-Mr. Gough's "Topography." Character +of Mr. Pennant. Dean Milles. Judge Barrington. Dulness and +folly of Grose's Dissertations. Rejoices in having done with +the professions of author and printer, and determines to be +comfortably lazy--259 + +203. To the same, Nov. 30.-In answer to a request for a copy of +his Anecdotes for the University Library at Cambridge. +Character of Mr. Gough--260 + +204. To Sir David Dalrymple, Dec. 11.-Thanks for communications +for his Anecdotes of Painters. Hogarth. Colonel Charteris. +Archbishop Blackbourne and Mrs. Conwys. Poetry of Richardson +and Hogarth. Lord Chesterfield's story of Jervas. Origin of Oil +Painting--261 + +205. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Dec. 19.-Friendship between Gray and +Mason. Views of Strawberry Hill--263 + + + + 1781. + +206. To Sir David Dalrymple, Jan. 1.-Thanks for his favourable +opinion of his father. His reasons for not writing his Life. +Dr. Kippis and his "Biographia Britannica." Lord Barrington and +the Hamburgh lottery. Character of King William. Folly of +reburying the crown and robes of' Edward the First. "Dr. +Johnson's notions of sacrilege--[N.) 264 + +207. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Jan. 3.-On the General's speech +for quieting the troubles in America. Melancholy state of the +country--266 + +208. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Feb. 7.-Death of Lady Orford at +Pisa--268 + +209. To the same, Feb. 9.-Wolsey's negotiations. Value of Mr. +Cole's manuscripts. Character of Mr. Pennant--269 + +210. To the Earl of Buchan, Feb. 10.-Thanks for being elected +member of the Scotch Society of Antiquaries--[N.] 269 + +211. To Sir David Dalrymple, Feb. 10.-Sir William Windham and +Sir Robert Walpole, Archibald Duke of Argyll. Scotch Society of +Antiquaries. Portrait of Lady Mary Douglas--[N.] 270 + +212. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, March 2.-Reasons for becoming a +member of the Scotch Antiquarian Society--272 + +213. To the same, March 5.-Inquiries after Lord Hardwicke's +"Walpoliana"--273 + +214. To the same, March 29.-Contradicting a report of Mr. +Pennant's indisposition of mind--273 + +215. To the same, April 3.-Lord Hardwicke's "Walpolianae"--274 + +216. To the same, May 4.-Character of Dr. Farmer. On his own +rank as an author. Pennant's "Welsh Tour." Madame du Deffand's +dog Tonton--274 + + +217. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, May 6.-Relief of Gibraltar. Lord +Cholmondeley at Brookes's. Winnings of Charles Fox and +Fitzpatrick. India affairs. Arrival of Tonton--275 + +218. To the same, May 28.-Scotch thistles. French politics. +Resignation of Necker. Proposals for a pacification with +America. Charles Fox and the Marriage-bill. Folly of retiring +from the world--277 + +219. To the same, June 3. 'Projected French attack on Jersey. +Siege of Gibraltar. "The Young William Pitt's" first display. +Mr. Bankes. Theatricals. Consequences of lord Cornwallis's +victories--279 + +220. To the Earl of Strafford, June 13.-Visit from Mr. Storer-- +281 + +221. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, June 16.-Sir Richard Worsley's +History of the Isle of wight. Nichols's Life of Hogarth. "AEdes +Strawberrianae." Miseries of having a house worth being seen-- +282 + +222. To the Earl of Charlemont, July 1.-On Mr. Preston's poems- +-[N.] 284 + +223. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, July 7.-Orthodoxy and heterodoxy-- +284 + +224. To the same, July 26--286 + +225. To the Earl of Strafford, Aug. 31.-Difficulty of sending +an entertaining letter. Mason's English Garden. Marriage of +Lord Althorp--286 + +226. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Sept. 16.-Their long and +uninterrupted friend- ship. Madame du Deffand's papers. Henley +bridge--287 + +227. To John Nichols, Esq. Oct. 31.-Criticisms on his Life of +Hogarth--288 + +228. To Robert Jephson, Esq. Nov. 7.-On his tragedy of "The +Count of Narbonne"--[N.] 290 + +229. To the same, Nov. 10.--[N.] 292 + +230. To the same, Nov. 13.--[N.] 293 + +231. To the same, Nov. 18.--[N.] 293 + +232. To the Hon. H. S. Conway,- Nov. 18.-On Mr. Jephson's +tragedy of "The Count of Narbonne"--294 + +233. To Robert Jephson, Esq. Nov. 18.-Favourable reception of +"The Count of Narbonne"--[N.] 295 + +234. To the Earl of Strafford, Nov. 27.-Surrender of the +British forces at York Town. Gloomy forebodings of the +consequences. General spirit of dissipation--296 + +235. To the Earl of Buchan, Dec. 1.-British disgraces in +America. Ancient portraits--[N.) 297 + +236. To Robert Jephson, Esq. Dec. 3.-On his expression of +dissatisfaction at some alterations in the scenes of his play-- +[N.] 299 + +237. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Dec. 30.-The gout described. Etching +of Browne Willis. Character of Mr. Gough. Mr. George Steevens. +Rowley and Chatterton controversy--299 + + + + 1782. + +238. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Jan. 27.-Interview with, and +characters of Mr. Gough and Mr. Steevens--302 + +239. To the same,. Feb. 14.-Thanks for the loan of some +manuscripts. Society of Antiquaries. Description of his +regimen. His great nostrum--303 + +240. To the same, Feb. 15.-Specimen of Mr. Gough's "Sepulchral +Monuments." Antiquarian solemnities ridiculed. Count-bishop +Hervey. Martin Sherlock the English traveller--304 + +241. To the Rev. William Mason.-New French translation of the +Elder Pliny. Common jargon of Poetry--307 + +242. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Feb. 22.-Rowley and Chatterton +controversy--308 + +243. To the Hon. George Hardinge, March 8.-On the success of +General Conway's motion for putting an end to the American war- +-309 + +244. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, March 9.-Character of Dr. Farmer. +Declaration of war by the Emperor against the Crescent. +Ambition and interest under the mask of religion--310 + +245. To the same, April 11.-His preference of English to Latin +inscriptions. Mason's Archaeological Epistle to Dean Milles. +Melancholy death of Mr. Chamberlayne. Dr. Glynn--310 + +246. To the same, May 24.-On his own illness. The Chatterton +controversy--312 + +247. To the same, June 1.-Bishop Newton's Life. Pratt's "Fair +Circassian." Cumberland's "Anecdotes of Painters in Spain"--313 + +248. To John Nichols, Esq., June 19.-Dr. Henry Bland the +translator of Cato's speech into Latin--315 + +249. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, June 21.-Old age and solitude. +Marivaux and Cr`ebillon. Multiplicity of writers. Errors in +Nichols's "Select Poems"--315 + +250. To the same, July 23.-Merits of Nichols's "Life of +Bowyer." Dr. Mead. Carteret Webb. Great men. Dr. Birch's +Catalogue of Manuscripts in the British Museum--316 + +251. To the Earl of Strafford, Aug. 16.-Inclemency of the +season. Robberies. Comte de Grasse. Mrs. Clive's declining +health. Philosophy of deceiving one's self--317 + +252. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Aug. 20.--[N.] 318 + +253. To the Earl of Buchan, Sept. 15.-Dr. Birch's Catalogue. +Mr. Tyrwhitt's book on the Rowleian controversy--[N.] 319 + +254. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Sept. 17.-On the General's being +appointed Commander-in-chief. His new coke ovens--319 + +255. To the Earl of Strafford, Oct. 3.-General Elliot's success +at Gibraltar. Necessity of peace. Increase of highway +robberies. Mr. Mason--320 + +256. To the Rev. Mr. Cole, Nov. 5.--On Mr. Cole's illness. His +death--321 + + + + 1783. + +257. To George Colman, Esq. May 10.-Thanks for his translation +of Horace's Art of Poetry--322 + +258. To the Earl of Buchan, May 12.-Congratulations on the +success of the Scotch Antiquarian Society. Roman remains. +Biography of illustrious men. Account of John Law. Papers in +the Scotch college at Paris, and paintings in the Castle of +Aubigny--N.) 324 + +259. To the Hon. George Hardinge, May 17.-Sir Thomas Rumbold's +Bill of pains and penalties--325 + +260. To the Earl of Strafford, June 24.-Visits of the French to +England. Their Anglomanie. George Ellis. Beau Dillon. +"Antoinette." Mr. Mason. Fashionable life--326 + +261. To the same, Aug. 1.-Complains of his own inactivity and +indifference. Speculations on the peace. Lord Northesk. Shock +of an earthquake--328 + +262. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Aug. 15.-Addresses of the Irish +Volunteers. Political speculations. Mr. Fox--330 + +263. To the same, Aug. 27.--[N.) 331 + +264. To the Earl of Strafford, Sept. 12.-Visit to Astley's +theatre. Sir William Hamilton. Mr. Mason's new discoveries in +painting. Pursuit of health--332 + +265. To the same, Oct. 11.-Disturbed state of Ireland. +Parliamentary reform. Yorkshire Associations Leaders of +friction. Lord Carlisle's tragedy. Lord and lady Fitzwilliam-- +334 + +266. To Lady Browne, Oct. 19.-State of his health--[N.)336 + +267. To Governor Pownall, Oct. 27.-Observations on a defence of +Sir Robert Walpole by the Governor. Character of Home. Sylla. +Liberality of George the First and Second to his father--336 + +268. To the same, Nov. 7.-The same subject--339 + +269. To the Earl of Strafford, Nov. 10.-Situation of Ireland. +Flowers of Billingsgate. Flood and Grattan. Meeting of the +delegates. Difference between correcting abuses and removing +landmarks. Character of Mr. Fox--339 + +270. To the same, Dec. 11.-Excellence of letter-writing. +India-bill. Air-balloons. Mrs. Siddons. Lord Thurlow. Flood and +Courtenay--341 + + + + 1784 +. + +271. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, May 5.-Congratulations on the +General's retirement from place and Parliament. Mr. Fox's +election--342 + +272. To Miss Hannah More, May 6.-Thanks for her poem, the "Bas +Bleu"--[N.] 344 + +273. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, May 21.-Epitaph-writing. Lord +Melcombe's Diary. Cox's Travels--345 + +274. To the Countess of Ailesbury, June 8.-Voltaire's Memoirs. +Lord Melcombe's Diary. Severity of the weather--346 + +275. To the Hon. H. S. Conway', June 25.-Benefits of retirement +from public life. Local grievances. Highway robberies. The good +things of life--347 + +276. To the same, June 30.-Inclemency of the season. Death of +Lady Harrington. Lunardi's balloon--348 + +277. To the Earl of Strafford, Aug. 6.-Earthquakes. The Deluge. +Uncertainty of human reasoning--349 + +278. To Mr. Dodsley, Aug. 8.-Declining Mr. Pinkerton's offer of +a dedication to him of his Essay on Medals--[N.] 350 + +279. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Aug. 14.-Frequency of robberies +in his neighbourhood. Disturbed state of Ireland--350 + +280. To John Pinkerton, Esq. Aug. 24.-Thanks for the perusal of +his poems, and invitation to Strawberry Hill--[N.] 351 + +281. To the Earl of Strafford, Sept. 7.-Congratulations on the +return of fine weather. Air-balloons and highwaymen. Sir +William Hamilton. Mrs. Walsingham. Mrs. Damer's "sleeping +dogs"--351 + +282. To John Pinkerton, Esq. Sept. 27.-Criticisms on his +comedy--N.] 353 + +283. To the same, Oct. 6.-Further criticisms on his comedy. +Remarks on English poetry, on poetry in general, and on the +drama--N.] 354 + +284. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Oct. 15.-Speculations on the +perfection of air-balloons--356 + +285. To John Pinkerton, Esq. Oct. 28.-His own publications and +literary career. Remarks on Mr. Pinkerton's projected History +of the Reign of George the Second--[N.] 358 + +286. To Miss Hannah More, Nov. 13.-On the poems and conduct of +Ann Yearsley, the Bristol tnilkwoman. Danger of encouraging her +poetical propensity. Fate of Stephen Duck--360 + +287. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Nov. 28.-Continental politics. +Poetical epistle to Lady Lyttelton--362 + + + + 1785. + +288. To Miss Hannah More, April 5.-In answer to an anonymous +letter from Miss More, ridiculing the prevailing adoption of +French idioms into the English language--363 + +289. To John Pinkerton, Esq. June 22.-Strictures on "Heron's +Letters of Literature." Mr. Pinkerton's proposed amendment of +the English language. Lady Mary Wortley Montague. Mr. Hume and +Mr. Gray--[N.] 365 + +290. To the same, June 26,-Further criticisms on Heron's +"Letters." Definition and exemplification of grace. Remarks on +Waller, Milton, Cowley, Boileau, Pope, and Madame de S`evign`e- +-[N.] 367 + +291. To the same, July 27.-Declining to print Greek authors at +the Strawberry Hill press--[N.] 371 + +292. To the same, Aug. 18.-Declines to print an edition of the +Life of St. Ninian--[N.] 372 + +293. To the same, Sept. 17.-Advising him not to reply to the +critiques of anonymous adversaries--[N.] 372 + +294. To George Colman, Esq. Sept. 19.-On sending him a copy of +the Duc de Nivernois' translation of his "Essay on Modern +Gardening"--[N.] 374 + +295. To the Earl of Buchan, Sept. 23.-Literary stores in the +Vatican, and in the Scottish College at Paris. Mr. Herschell's +discoveries--[N.] 374 + +296. To John Pinkerton, Esq. Sept. 30.-Advice on his intended +publication of Lives of the Scottish Saints. His opinion of +Bishop Headley. Reflections on his own life--[N.] 376 + +297. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Oct. 6.-Jarvis's window at New +College. Blenheim. Beau Desert. Stowe. "The Charming Man." +Boswell's "Tour to the Hebrides"--377 + +298. To the Earl of Charlemont, Nov. 23.-Order of St. Patrick-- +(N.] 379 + +299. To Lady Browne, Dec. 14.-Last illness and death of Kitty +Clive. Lord John Russell's marriage--[N.] 379 + + + + 1786. + +300. To Miss Hannah More, Feb. 9.-On her poem of "Floria," +dedicated to him--380 + +301. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, June 18.-Account of his visit to +the Princess Amelia at Gunnersbury. Stanzas addressed to the +Princess. Her answer. Purchase of the Jupiter Serapis and Julio +Clovio--381 + +302. To Richard Gough, Esq. June 21.-Thanks for the present of +his "Sepulchral Monuments." The Duc de Nivernois' translation +of his "Essay on Gardening"--383 + +303. To the Earl of Strafford, Aug. 29.-The new bridge at +Henley. Mrs. Damer's colossal masks. Visit from Count Oginski. +Out-pensioners of Bedlam. Lord George Gordon. Archbishop +Chicheley and Henry the Fifth--384 + +304. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Oct. 29.-Two Charades by Colonel +Fitzpatrick. Precocity of Robert Stewart, afterwards Marquis of +Londonderry--386 + +305. To the Right Hon. Lady Craven, Nov. 27.-Apologies for not +having written, and thanks for a drawing of the Castle of +Otranto--387 + + + + 1787. + +306. To Miss Hannah More, Jan. 1.-With a present of "Christine +de Pise." Her "Cit`e des Dames." Mrs. Yearsley--388 + +307. To the Right Hon. Lady Craven, Jan. 2.-On her ladyship's +travels. Sir John Mandeville. Lady Mary Wortley. Peter the +Hermit--389 + +308. To Miss Hannah More, Feb. 23.-Christina's 11 Life of +Charles the Fifth"--390 + +309. To the Rev. Henry Zouch, March 13.-Proposing to return the +letters he had received from him--[N.) 391 + +310. To Miss Hannah More, June 15.-The Irish character. Miss +Burney--(N.] 391 + +311. To the Hon, H. S. Conway, June 17.-Expected visit from the +Princess Lubomirski. "The Way to keep Him"--393 + +312. To the Earl of Strafford, July 28.-St. Swithin. The Duke +of Queensberry's dinner to the Princess de Lamballe. Mrs. +French's marble pavement. Lord Dudley's obelisk. Miss Boyle's +carvings--394 + +313. To Miss Hannah More, Oct. 14.-Ingratitude of Anne Yearsley +to her. Mrs. Vesey. Dr. Johnson's Letters. Bruce's Travels. +Gibbon's History. Figaro--395 + +314. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Nov. 11.-On the small Druidical +temple presented by the States of Jersey to the General. +Stonehenge--397 + + + + 1788. + +315. To Thomas Barrett, Esq. June 5.-Gibbon's "Decline and +Fall." Sheridan's speech against Mr. Hastings--398 + +316. To the Earl of Strafford, June 17.-General Conway's comedy +of "False Appearances." Sheridan's speech against Mr. Hastings- +-399 + +317. To Miss Hannah More, July 4. Newspaper reading. General +Conway's play--401 + +318. To the same, July 12.-On his own writings. Authorship +after seventy. Voltaire at eighty-four. Fate of his last +tragedy. Mrs. Piozzi. Pipings of Miss Seward and Mr. Hayley-- +402 + +319. To the Earl of Strafford, Aug. 2.-On a reported discovery +of new letters of Madame de S`evign`e. Letters of the Duchess +of Orleans. Druidical temple from Jersey--404 + +320. To John Pinkerton, Esq. Aug. 14.-Criticism on his Ode for +the Scottish Revolution Club--[N.) 405 + +321. To Miss Hannah More, Aug. 17.-Rumoured discovery of new +letters of Madame de S`evign`e. Library of Greek and Latin +authors at Naples--[N.] 406 + +322. To the Earl of Strafford, Sept. 12.-Account of the +Druidical temple at Park- place. The Duchess of Kingston's +will--407 + +323. To Miss Hannah More, Sept. 22.-Ingratitude of Mrs. +Yearsley. Education of the Great. Walpolia'na. Virtuous +intentions. Enthusiasts and quack- doctors--408 + +324. To the Right Hon. Lady Craven, Dec. 11.-Wisdom of retiring +from the world in time. Voltaire. Lord Chatham. Mr. Anstey. +King of Prussia's Memoirs. Poverty of the French language, as +far as regards verse and pieces of eloquence--[N.] 411 + + + + 1789. + +(325. To the Miss Berrys. Feb. 2.-Acceptance of an invitation. +Expressions of delight on being in their society--[N.] 413 + +326. To the same, March 20.-Madame de la Motte's M`emoire +Justificatif. General illumination for the King's recovery. +Hairs of Edward the Fourth's head--[N.] 413 + +327. To Miss Hannah More, April 22.-Darwin's Botanic Garden. +Loves of the Plants. Success of General Conway's comedy--[N.] +414 + +328. To the Miss Berrys, April 28.-Darwin's Botanic Garden. His +poetry characterized--[N.]415 + +329. To the same, June 23.-Destruction of the Opera-house by +fire. The nation tired of Operas. "The room after." Mr. Batt +and the Abb`e Nicholls--[N.] 416 + +330. To Miss Hannah More, June 23.-On her poem of Bishop +Bonner's Ghost. Offers to print it at Strawberry Hill. Bruce's +Travels--[N.] 418 + +331. To Miss Berry, June 30.-Arabian Nights. Bishop Atterbury. +Sinbad the Sailor versus AEneas. Mrs. Piozzi's Travels. King's +College Chapel. Effects of criticism and comparison. Pageantry +of popery--[N.] 419 + +332. To Miss Hannah More, July 2.-Thanks for permission to +print "Bishop Bonner's Ghost." Account of his fall. Gratitude +to Providence for his lot--421 + +333. To Miss Berry, July 9.-Recovery from his fall. Present +state of France. Tumults at Versailles on the reported +resignation of Necker. Marshal Broglio appointed +commander-in-chief Camp round Paris. Mutinous disposition of +the army. Voltaire's correspondence. His letters to La +Chalotais--422 + +334. To Miss Hannah More, July 10.-"Bishop Bonner's Ghost"--425 + +335. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, July 15.-Dismissal of Necker. +Paris in an uproar. Storming and destruction of the Bastille. +Speculation on the probable results. The Duke of Orleans and +Mirabeau--425 + +336. To Miss Hannah More, July 20.-Result of her "double +treachery." A visit from Bishop Porteiis. The visit returned-- +427 + +337. To Miss Berry, July 29.-Anarchy in Paris. Account of La +Chalotais. Treachery of Calonne. Character of the Duc de +Vrilli`ere. St. Swithin's day. Predicts the fall of Necker-- +(N.] 428 + +338. To John Pinkerton, Esq. July 31.-Remarks on his Inquiry +into the early History of Scotland"--(N.] 431 + +339. To Miss Hannah More, Aug. 8.-On sending her copies of +"Bonner's Ghost." +Complains of letters--[N.] 432 + +340. To John Pinkerton, Esq., Aug. 14.-Confesses his want of +taste for the ancient +histories of nations. Remarks on the different modes of +treating antiquities--[N.] 433 + +341. To the same, Aug. 19.-Compliments him on his strong and +manly understanding. Account of his own studies--[N.] 434 + +342. To Richard Gough, Esq. Aug. 24.-Strictures on the injuries +done to Salisbury cathedral by the recent alterations--435 + +343. To the Miss Berrys, Aug. 27.-Illness of the Countess of +Dysart. Richmond and Hampton Court gossip--(N.) 436 + +344. To the same. Sept. 4.-On their declining a visit to +Wentworth House. The Duke of Clarence at Richmond. Miss +Farren's Beatrice. Account of Lady Luxborough. Wentworth Castle +described. Violences in France. Destruction of chateaus in +Burgundy. Assemblage of deserters round Paris. Patience of Lady +Dysart under her suffering. Mademoiselle d'Eon in petticoats-- +[N.] 437 + +345. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Sept. 5.-Thanks to him for a +poem. Death of Lady Dysart. Terrible situation of Paris. +Predicts that the kingdom will become a theatre of civil wars-- +440 + +346. To Miss Hannah More, Sept. 7.-Congratulation on the +demolition of the functions of the Bastille. The `Etats a mob +of kings. Time the composer of a good constitution. Negro +slavery. Suggests the possibility of relieving slaves by +machine work. Utility of starting new game to invention. +Barrett's History of Bristol. The Biographia Britannica and +Chatterton--441 + +347. To the same, Nov. 4.-Death of Lady Dysart and Lord +Waldegrave. Mrs. Yearsley's Earl Goodwin. Death of Mr. Barrett. +Succedaneum for negro labour. Suggests the propriety of Mr. +Wilberforce's starting the abolition of slavery to the `Etats. +Character of the `Etats--444 + + + + 1790. + +348. To Miss Hannah More, Feb. 20.-With his contribution to a +charitable subscription--446 + +349. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, June 25.-Charles Fox and the +Westminster gridiron. Puerile pedantry of the French `Etats. +Destruction of the statues of Louis Quatorze. Bruce's Travels-- +[N.) 447 + +350. To the Earl of Strafford, June 26.-Reflections on the +state of France. Consciences of tyrants. Luther and Calvin. +Fate of projectors--448 + +351. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, July 1.-Bruce's Travels. French +barbarity and folly. Grand Federation in the Champ de Mars. +Rationality of the Americans. Franklin and Washington. A great +man wanted in France. Return of Necker. His insignificance-- +[N.] 448 + +352. To Miss Berry, July 3,-His alarm at their design of +visiting Italy. Atrocities of the French `Etats. Good-humoured +speech of Marie Antoinette. Winchester Cathedral. Netley Abbey. +Visit from the Duchess of Marlborough--[N.] 450 + +353. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Aug. 9.-Peace of Spain. Miss +Gunning's reported match with Lord Blandford--452 + +354. To the Earl of Strafford, Aug. 12.-Lord Barrymore's +exhibitions at the Richmond theatre. Reflections on the +progress of the French Revolution--452 + +355. To Sir David Dalrymple, Sept. 21.-Pictures at Burleigh. +Shakspeare Gallery. Macklin's Gallery--454 + +356. To the Miss Berrys, Oct. 10.-On their departure for Italy. +Regrets at the loss of their society--[N.] 455 + +357. To the same, Oct. 31.-Burke's "Reflections." Calonne's +"Etat de la France"--[N.] 457 + +358. To the same, Nov. 8.-Pacification with Spain and Brabant. +Earl Stanhope and the Revolution Club. Mr. Burke's "Reflections +on the French Revolution" characterized. Visit from the Prince +of Furstemberg--[N.] 458 + +359. To Miss Berry, Nov. 11.-Mr,,;. Damer's departure for +Lisbon. Effects of Burke's pamphlet on Dr. Price. Mr. Merry's +"Laurel of Liberty." The Della Crusca school of poetry +described--[N.] 460 + +360. To the Miss Berrys, Nov. 18.-Character of the Bishop of +Arras. Dr. Price's talons drawn by Mr. Burke. Revolution Club +exploded--[N.) 461 + +361. To the same, Nov. 27.-Anxiety for a letter from Florence-- +[N.] 463 + +362. To Miss Agnes Berry, Nov. 29.-Thanks for her letter. +Correggio. Guercino, a German edition of Guido. Lord Stanhope's +speech against Calonne's book. Dr. Price's answer to Burke. +Reasons for creating Mr. Grenville a peer. Richmond arrivals. +Duke of Clarence. Mrs. Fitzherbert. Duke of Queensbury. Madame +Griffoni. Works of Massaccio. Fra Bartolomeo. Benvenuto +Cellini's Perseus--464 + +363. To the Miss Berrys, Dec. 20.-Character of Mr. Burke's +"Reflections." Mrs. Macaulay's reply to it--[N.] 465 + + + + 1791. + +364. To Miss Berry, Jan. 22.-Recovery from a severe illness. +Death of Mrs. French. Illness of George Selwyn--[N.] 466 + +365. To the Miss Berrys, Jan. 29.-Effects of his late illness. +Picture of himself. Death and character of George Selwyn. +Mademoiselle Pagniani. Story of Miss Vernon and Martindale. The +Gunninghiad. Visit from Mr. Batt. Overthrow of the French +monarchy. The Duchess of Gordon and Mr. Dundas--[N.] 468 + +366. To Miss Berry, Feb. 4.-Regrets at their absence, and +anxiety for their return. Destructive tempest. The rival +Opera-houses. Taylor's pamphlet against the Lord Chamberlain-- +(N.) 470 + +367. To the same, Feb. 12. -Hi@ anxiety for their return, but +resolution not to derange their plans of economy. Comte de +Coigny. Instability of the present government of France. Horne +Tooke's libel in the House of Commons. Christening of Miss +Boycot--(N.] 472 + +368. To Miss Agnes Berry, Feb. 13.-Narrative of the history of +a marriage supposed to have been likely to take place between +Miss Gunning and the Marquis of Blandford--[N.] 474 + +369. To the Earl of Charlemont, Feb. 17.-On a surreptitious +edition of The Mysterious Mother, published at Dublin--[N.] 476 + +370. To Miss Agnes Berry, Feb. 18.-Codicil to Gunning's story. +Opening of the Pantheon. Dieu et mon Droit versus Ich Dien-- +(N.] 477 + +371. To the Miss Berrys, Feb. 26.-More of the Gunnings: Arrival +of Madame du Barry to recover her jewels. The King of France's +aunt stopped from leaving France. Majesty of the mob. The +Monster. Gibbon's account Of Necker in retirement; and opinions +of Burke's Reflections. Madame du Barry and the Lord Mayor. +Recovery of her jewels. Jerningham's poetry--(N.) 479 + +372. To the same, March 5.-London unknown to Londoners. "Who is +Sir Robert Walpole?" Destruction of the Albion Mills. Automaton +snuff-box [N.] 481 + +373. To Miss Berry, March 19.-Mrs. Gunning's letter to the Duke +of Argyle--[N.] 484 + +374. To the Miss Berrys, March 28.-King's message on the +situation of Europe. Blusterings of the Autocratrix. Bounces +and huffs of Prussia. Royal reconciliation. Taylor and the Lord +Chamberlain. Prosecution of the Gunnings. Gunnilda's letter to +Lord Blandford--(N.) 486 + +375. To Miss Berry, April 3.-On her fall down a bank at Pisa. +Kemble and Mrs. Siddons. Mrs. Damer's reception at Elvas. Death +of Dr. Price. Outrageous violence of the National Assembly. +Paine's answer to Burke--[N.] 488 + +376. To the same, April 15.-Lady Diana Beauclerc's designs for +Dryden's Fables. War with Russia. Madame du Barry dining with +the Prince of Wales. Increased population of London. Story of +the young woman at St. Helena. A party at Mrs. Buller's +described--[N.) 490 + +377. To Miss Berry, April 23.-Resignation of the Duke of Leeds. +Progress of the repairs at Clivedon. The abolition of the +slave-trade rejected. Captain Bowen's pamphlet against +Gunnilda. Hannah More and the Gretna Green runaway. Lord +Cholmondeley's marriage. Indian victory--(N.] 492 + +378. To the same, May 12,-Congratulations on her recovery. +Earnest wish to put them in possession of Clivedon during his +life. Unhappy quarrel between Mr. Burke and Mr. Fox. Mrs. +Damer's arrival from Spain--[N.] 495 + +379. To the same, May 19.-Thanks for her punctuality in +writing. Advantages of resources in one's self. Internal armour +more necessary to females than weapons to men. Duchesse de +Brissac. Duc de Nivernois. Hastings's impeachment. The Countess +of Albany in London. Her presentation at court. Her visit to +the Pantheon--[N.] 497 + +380. To the same, May 26.-The Duchess of Gordon's journal of a +day. Arrival of Sir William Hamilton with the Nymph of the +Attitudes. Strictures on Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson. +Johnson's abuse of Gray. Burke's "Letter to a member of the +National Assembly." His character of Rousseau. Lodge's +"Illustrations of British History" panegyricised. Lord Mount- +Edgcumbe's bon-mot on M. d'Eon--[N.] 500 + +381. To the Miss Berrys, June 2--"This is the note that nobody +wrote." Interview with, and description of, Madame d'Albany-- +[N.] 504 + +382. To the same, June 8.-Frequency of highway robberies. The +birthday. Madame d'Albany. Mrs. Fitzherbert. Mrs. Cosway. Lally +de Tollendal's tragedy. French politics. Rage for building in +London. Visit to Dulwich College--[N.] 505 + +383. To the same, June 14. Mrs. Hobart's rural breakfast. Dr +Beattie. Malone's Shakspeare--[N.] 508 + +384. To Miss Berry-, June 23.-Madame du Barry at Mrs. Hobart's +breakfast. Dr. Robertson's "Disquisition." French anarchy. +Madame d'Albany at the House of Lords--[N.] 510 + +385. To the same, July 12.-Calonne in London. Attack of the +rheumatism--[N 512 + +386. To the Miss Berrys, July 26.-Tom Paine in England, Crown +and Anchor celebration of the French Revolution. Birmingham +riots. Flight of the King of France to, and return from, +Varennes. Marriage of the Duke of York. Catherine of Russia. +Bust of Mr. Fox--[N.] 512 + +387. To Miss Berry, Aug. 17.-Spirit of democracy in +Switzerland. Peace with Russia. M. de Bouill`e's bravado. Sir +William Hamilton's pantomime wife. Antique statues--[N.) 514 + +388. To the Miss Berrys, Aug. 23.-Miss Harte and her attitudes. +Conversation with Madame du Barry. Account of a boat-race. The +soi-disante Margravine in England--[N.] 516 + +389. To the same, Sept. 11.-Lord Blandford's marriage. Sir W. +Hamilton married to his Gallery of Statues. Successes in India- +-[N.] 517 + +390. To the same, Sept. 18.-Mrs. Jordan. Miss Brunton's +marriage. Lord Buchan's jubilee for Thomson. Character of the +"Seasons." Danger of returning to England through France--[N.] +519 + +391. To the same, Sept. 25.-Valombroso. Ionian antiquities. +Egyptian pyramids. Mr. Gilpin and Richmond Hill--[N.) 520 + +392. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Sept: 21.-The French emigrants +at Richmond. Progress of the French Revolution. The Legislative +Assembly. The King's forced acceptance of the new constitution. +Predicts the flight of La Fayette and the Lameths. Condorcet +turned placeman. Character of Mirabeau--(N.] 522 + +393. To Miss Hannah More, Sept. 29.-State of his health. The +Bishop of London's charity sermon. Miss Berrys. Anxiety for +their safe return from Italy. Miss Burney. Mrs. Barbauld's +Verses on the Abolition of the Slave-trade--[N.) 523 + +394. To Miss Berry, Oct. 9.-Anxiety for their safe return. +Account of a visit to Windsor Castle. St. George's chapel. The +new screen. Jarvis's window. West's paintings. Story of Peg +Nicholson. Thanks for their disinterested generosity in +returning to England. The Bolognese school. General Gunning and +the tailor's wife--[N.] 526 + +395. To John Pinkerton, Esq. Dec. 26.-His feelings and +situation on his accession to the title of Earl of Orford--[N.] +--528 + + + + 1792. + +396. To Miss Hannah More, Jan. 1.-Increase of trouble and +business occasioned by his accession to the title--529 + +397. To Thomas Barrett, Esq., May 14.-Darwin's Triumph of +Flora"--530 + +398. To Miss Hannah More, Aug. 21.-The Massacre of Paris. +Butcheries at the Tuilleries. Tortures of the King and Queen. +Heroic conduct of Madame Elizabeth. Thankfulness for the +tranquillity of England. Mrs. Wolstoncroft's "Rights of Women." +Gratitude for past comforts, and submission to his future lot-- +[N.] 531 + +399. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Aug. 31.-Detail of French +Atrocities. Anecdotes of the Duchess of York. State of his +health--533 + + + + 1793. + + +400. To Miss Hannah More, Feb. 9.-French horrors. Beheading Of +Louis the Sixteenth. Assignats. Diabolical conduct of the Duke +Of Orleans. heroism of Madame Elizabeth. Sublime sentence of +Father Edgeworth. Speculations on the future--535 + +401. To the same, March 23.-On her -' Village Politics." French +atheism. Massacre of Manuel. Condorcet's new constitution--538 + +402. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, June 13.-On parties and +party-men. Injury done to the cause of liberty by the French +republicans--540 + +403. To the same, July 17.-Sultriness of the season. English +felicity, French atrocities. Separation of Maria Antoinette +from her son--541 + +404. To the Miss Berrys, Sept. 17.-Reminds them of his first +introduction to them--[N.] 542 + +405. To the same, Sept. 25.-Visit of the Duchess of York to +Strawberry Hill--[N.] 543 + +406. To the same, Oct. 6.-Inertness of the grand alliance +against France--[N.] 544 + +407. To Miss Hannah More, Oct.-On the answer to her pamphlet +against M. Dupont. Atrocities of the French atheists--[N.] 546 + +408. To the Miss Berrys, Oct. 15.-Arrest of the Duchesse de +Biron, and of the Duchesse de Fleury. Execution of Marie +Antoinette. The Duchesse de la Vali`ere--[N.] 547 + +409. To the same, Nov. 7.-Murder of Maria Antoinette. Loss of +Lord Montagu and Mr. Burdett in the falls of Schaflhausen. +Suicide of Mr. Tickell. "Death an endless sleep." Mr. Lysons' +Roman Remains. Account of his Own readings--[N.] 549 + +410. To Miss Berry, Dec. 4.-Visit to Haymarket Theatre. Young +Bannister in "The Children of the Wood." The Comte de Coigni. +Fate of the Duc de Fleury--[N.] 552 + +411. To the same, Dec. 13.-Reported successs of Lord Howe, and +the Duke of Brunswick. Quarrel between Robespierre and +Barr`ere. Fate of Barrave, Orleans, and Brissot. Mr. +Jerningham's play. Character of Mrs. Howe--(N.] 553 + + + + 1794. + +412. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, Jan. 16.-On the gloomy prospect +of affairs. Jasper Wilson's Letter to Mr. Pitt--555 + +413. To Miss Berry, April 16.-Successes in Martinico. Mrs. +Piozzi's "British Synomymes." Mr. Courtenay's verses on him-- +[N.] 556 + +414. To Miss Hannah More, April 27.-An invitation to meet Lady +Waldegrave--556 + +415. To the Miss Berrys, Sept. 27.-Visit to Mrs. Damer's new +house. Her bust of Mrs. Siddons. Canterbury. A Ghost story. +Lord Holland's buildings at Kingsgate. Recommends them to +visit Mr. Barrett at Lee--(N.) 558 + +416. To Miss Berry, Oct. 7.-On the advisability of her +accepting a situation at court--(N.] 561 + +417. To the Miss Berrys, Oct. 17.-On their visit to Mr. Barrett +at Lee--(N.] 563 + +418. To the Rev. Mr. Beloe, Dec. 2.-On his intending to +dedicate his translation of aulus Gellius to Lord Orford-- +564 + + + + 1795. + +419. To Miss Hannah More, Jan. 24.-With his subscription to the +fund for promoting the dispersion of the Cheap Repository +Tracts. Death of Condorcet, Orleans, etC. Justice of +Providence--565 + +420. To the same, Feb. 13.-On receiving some ballads written by +her for the Cheap Repository. Bisliol) Wilson's edition of +the Bible presented to her by Lord Orford--566 + +421. To William Roscoe, Esq. April 4.-On his sending him a copy +of his Life of Lorenzo de Medici--567 + +422. To the Hon. H. S. Conway, July 2.-The Queen's expected +visit to Strawberry Hill--569 + +423. To the same, July 7.-Account of the Queen's visit to +Strawberry Hill--569 + + + + 1796. + +424. To Miss Berry, Aug. 18.-Mr. and Mrs. Conway. Madame +Arblay's "Camilla." Arundel Castle. Monuments of the +Fitzalans. Account of a visit from Mr. Penticross--[N.] 570 + +425. To the same, Auff. 24.-Arundel Castle. Chapel of the +Fitzalans--[N.) 572 + +426. To Miss Hannah More, Aug. 29.-Giving an account of his +health; and expressing gratitude to God for the blessings he +enjoys--573 + +427. To Richard Gough, Eq. Dec. 3.-Thanking him for +the second volume of his "Sepulchral Monuments"--574 + +(428. To Miss Berry, Dec. 15.-Account Of the debates in the +House of Commons on the Loan to the Emperor. Death of Lord +Orford--[N.] 575 + + + + 1797 + +429. To the Countess of Ossory, Jan. 13--576 + + + End of Volume IV. + + + + +Letter 1 To Sir David Dalrymple.(1) +Arlington Street, Jan. 1, 1770. (page 25) + +Sir, +I have read with great pleasure and information, your History +of Scottish Councils. It gave me much more satisfaction than I +could have expected from so dry a subject. It will be perused, +do not doubt it, by men of taste and judgment; and it is happy +that it will be read Without occasioning a controversy. The +curse of modern times is, that almost every thing does create +controversy, and that men who are willing to instruct or amuse +the world have to dread malevolence and interested censure, +instead of receiving thanks. If your part of our country is at +all free from that odious spirit, you are to be envied. In our +region we are given up to every venomous mischievous passion, +and as we behold all the public vices that raged in and +destroyed the remains of the Roman Commonwealth, so I wish we +do not experience some of the horrors that brought on the same +revolution. When we see men who call themselves patriots and +friends of liberty attacking the House of Commons, to what, +Sir, can you and I, who are really friends of liberty, impute +such pursuits, but to interest and disappointed ambition! When +we see, on one hand, the prerogative of the Crown excited +against Parliament, and on the other, the King and Royal Family +traduced and insulted in the most shameless manner, can we +believe such a faction is animated by honesty or love of the +constitution? When, as you very sensibly observe, the authors +of grievances are the loudest to complain of them, and when +those authors and their capital enemies shake hands, embrace, +and join in a common cause, which set can we believe most or +least sincere? And when every set of men have acted every +part, to whom shall the well-meaning look up? What can the +latter do, but sit with folded arms and pray for miracles? +Yes, Sir, they may weep over a prospect of ruin too probably +approaching, and regret a glorious country nodding to its fall, +when victory, wealth, and daily universal improvements, might +make it the admiration and envy of the world? Is the Crown to +be forced to be absolute? Is Caesar to enslave us, because he +conquered Gaul? Is some Cromwell to trample on us, because +Mrs. Macaulay approves the army that turned out the House of +Commons, the necessary consequence of such mad notions? Is +eloquence to talk or write us out of ourselves? or is Catiline +to save us, butt so as by fire? Sir, I talk thus freely, +because it is a satisfaction, in ill-looking moments, to vent +one's apprehensions in an honest bosom. YOU Will not, I am +sure, suffer my letter to go out of your own hands. I have no +views to satisfy or resentments to gratify. I have done with +the world, except in the hopes of a quiet enjoyment of it for +the few years I may have to come; but I love my country, though +I desire and expect nothing from it, and I would wish to leave +it to posterity, as secure and deserving to be valued, as I +found it. Despotism, or unbounded licentiousness, can endear +no nation to any honest man. The French can adore the monarch +that starves them, and banditti are often attached to their +chief; but no good Briton can love any constitution that does +not secure the tranquillity and peace of mind of all. + +(1) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 2 To Sir David Dalrymple.(2) +Arlington Street, Jan. 23, 1770. (page 26) + +Sir, +I have not had time to return you the enclosed sooner, but I +give you my honour that it has neither been out of my hands, +nor been copied. It is a most curious piece, but though +affecting art has very little; so ill is the satire disguised. +I agree with you in thinking it ought not to be published yet, +as nothing is more cruel than divulging private letters which +may wound the living. I have even the same tenderness for the +children of persons concerned; but I laugh at delicacy for +grandchildren, who can be affected by nothing but their pride- +-and let that be hurt if it will. It always finds means of +consoling itself. + +The rapid history of Mr. Yorke is very touching.(3) For +himself, he has escaped a torrent of obloquy, which this +unfeeling and prejudiced moment was ready to pour on him. Many +of his survivors may, perhaps, live to envy him! Madness and +wickedness gain ground--and you may be sure borrow the chariot +of virtue. Lord Chatham, not content with endeavouring to +confound and overturn the legislature, has thrown out, that one +member more ought to be added to each county;(4) so little do +ambition -,And indulgence scruple to strike at fundamentals! +Sir George Savile and Edmund Burke, as if envying the infamous +intoxication of Wilkes, have attacked the House of Commons +itself, in the most gross and vilifying language.(5) In short, +the plot thickens fast, and Catilines start up in every street. +I cannot say Ciceros and Catos arise to face them. The +phlegmatic and pedants in history quote King William's and +Sacheverel's times to show the present is not more serious; but +if I have any reading, I must remember that the repetition of +bad scenes brings about a catastrophe at last! It is small +consolation to living sufferers to reflect that history will +rejudge great criminals; nor is that sure. How seldom is +history fairly stated! When do all men concur in the Same +sentence? Do the guilty dead regard its judicature, or they +who prefer the convict to the judge? Besides, an ape of Sylla +will call himself Brutus, and the foolish people assist a +proscription before they suspect that their hero is an +incendiary. Indeed, Sir, we are, as Milton says-- + +"On evil days fallen and evil tongues!" + +I shall be happy to find I have had too gloomy apprehensions. +A man, neither connected with ministers nor opponents, may +speculate too subtly. If all this is but a scramble for power, +let it fall to whose lot it will! It is the attack on the +constitution that strikes me. I have nothing to say for the +corruption of senators; but if the senate itself is declared +vile by authority, that is by a dissolution, will a re-election +restore its honour? Will Wilkes, and Parson Horne, and Junius +(for they will name the members) give us more virtuous +representations than ministers have done? Reformation must be +a blessed work in the hands of such reformers! Moderation, and +attachment to the constitution, are my principles. Is the +latter to be risked rather than endure any single evil? I +would oppose, that is restrain, by opposition check, each +branch of the legislature that predominates in its turn;--but +if I detest Laud, it does not make me love Hugh Peters. + +Adieu, Sir! I must not tire you with my reflections; but as I +am flattered with thinking I have the sanction of the same +sentiments in you, it is natural to indulge even unpleasing +meditations when one meets with sympathy, and it is as natural +for those who love their country to lament its danger. I am, +Sir, etc. + +(2) Now first collected. + +(3) On the 17th, Mr. Charles Yorke was appointed lord +chancellor, and a patent was ordered to be made out, creating +him a peer, by the title of Lord Morden; but, three days after, +before the patent could be completed, he suddenly closed his +valuable life, at the early age of forty-eight.-E. + +(4) Lord Chatham, on the preceding day, had made his celebrated +speech on the state of the nation, which had the good fortune +to be ably reported by Sir Philip Francis, and attracted the +particular attention of Junius. The following is the passage +which gave Walpole so much offence:--"Since we cannot cure the +disorder, let us endeavour to infuse such a portion of new +health into the constitution, as may enable it to support its +most inveterate diseases. The representation of the counties +is, I think, still preserved pure and uncorrupted. That of the +greatest cities is upon a footing equally respectable; and +there are many of the larger trading towns which stilt preserve +their independence. The infusion of health which I now allude +to would be to permit every county to elect one member more in +addition to their present representation." Sir Philip +Francis's report of this speech was first printed by Almon in +1792. Junius, in a letter to Wilkes, of the 7th of September +1771, says--"I approve highly of Lord Chatham's idea of +infusing a portion of new health into the constitution, to +enable it to bear its infirmities; a brilliant expression, and +full of intrinsic wisdom." There can be little doubt that +Junius and Sir Philip Francis were present in the House of +Lords, when this speech was delivered. See Chatham +Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 406.-E. + +(5) The speeches of Sir George Savile and Mr. Burke, above +alluded to, will be found in Sir Henry Cavendish's Debates.-E. + + + +Letter 3. To George Montagu, Esq. +Arlington Street, March 31, 1770. (page 28) + +I shall be extremely obliged to you for Alderman Backwell. A +scarce print is a real present to me, who have a table of +weights and measures in my head very different from that of the +rich and covetous. I am glad your journey was prosperous. The +weather here has continued very sharp, but it has been making +preparations for April to-day, and watered the streets with +some soft showers. They will send me to Strawberry to-morrow, +where I hope to find the lilacs beginning to put forth their +little noses. Mr. Chute mends very slowly, but you know he has +as much patience as gout. + +I depend upon seeing you whenever you return this wayward. You +will find the round chamber far advanced, though not finished; +for my undertakings do not stride with the impetuosity of my +youth. This single room has been half as long in completing as +all the rest of the castle. My compliments to Mr. John, whom I +hope to see at the same time. + + + +Letter 4 To George Montagu, Esq. +Strawberry Hill May 6, 1770. (page 28) + +If you are like me, you are fretting at the weather. We have +not a leaf, yet, large enough to make an apron for a Miss Eve +at two years old. Flowers and fruits, if they come at all this +year, must meet together as they do in a Dutch picture; our +lords and ladies, however, couple as if it were the real +Giovent`u dell' anno. Lord Albemarle,(6) you know has +disappointed all his brothers and my niece; and Lord +Fitzwilliam is declared sposo to Lady Charlotte Ponsonby.(7) +It is a pretty match, and makes Lord Besborough as happy as +possible. + +Masquerades proceed in spite of church and King. The Bishop of +London persuaded that good soul the Archbishop to remonstrate +against them; but happily the age prefers silly follies to +serious ones, and dominos, comme de raison, carry It against +lawn sleeves.(8) + +There is a new Institution that begins to and if it proceeds, +will make a considerable noise. It is a club of both sexes to +be erected at Almack's, on the model of that of the men at +White's. Mrs. Fitzroy, Lady Pembroke, Mrs. Meynel, Lady +Molyneux, MISS Pelham, and Miss Loyd, are the foundresses. I +am ashamed to say I am of so young and fashionable a society; +but as they are people I live with, I choose to be idle rather +than morose. I can go to a young supper, without forgetting +how much sand is run out of the hourglass. Yet I shall never +pass a triste old age in turning the psalms into Latin or +English verse. My plan is to pass away calmly; cheerfully if I +can; sometimes to amuse myself with the rising generation, but +to take care not to fatigue them, nor weary them with old +stories, which will not interest them, as their adventures do +not interest me. Age would indulge prejudices if it did not +sometimes polish itself against younger acquaintance; but it +must be the work of folly if one hopes to contract friendship +with them, or desires it, or thinks one can become the same +follies, or expects that they should do more than bear one for +one's good humour. In short, they are a pleasant medicine, +that one should take care not to grow fond of. Medicines hurt +when habit has annihilated their force; but you see I am in no +danger. I intend by degrees to decrease my opium, instead of +augmenting the dose. Good-night! You see I never let our +long-lived friendship drop, though you give it so few +opportunities of breathing. + +(6) George, third Earl of Albemarle. His lordship had married, +on the 20th of April, Anne, youngest daughter of Sir John +Miller, Bart. of Chichester. He died in October 1772.-E. + +(7) Lady Charlotte Ponsonby, second daughter of William, second +Earl of Besborough. The marriage took place on the 1st of +July.-E. + +(8) Dr. Johnson, having read in the newspapers an account of a +masquerade given at Edinburgh, by the Countess Dowager of Fife, +at which Boswell had appeared in the character of a dumb +conjuror, thus wrote to him:--"I have heard of your masquerade. +What says your synod to such innovations? I am not studiously +scrupulous, nor do I think a Masquerade either evil in itself +or very likely to be the occasion of evil, yet, as the world +thinks it a very licentious relaxation of manners, I would not +have been one of the first masquers in a country where no +masquerades had ever been before."-E. + + + +Letter 5 To George Montagu, Esq. +Strawberry Hill, June 11, 1770. (page 29) + +My company and I have wished for you very much to-day. The +Duchess of Portland, Mrs. Delany, Mr. Bateman, and your cousin, +Fred. Montagu, dined here. Lord Guildford was very obliging, +and would have come if he dared have ventured. Mrs. Montagu +was at Bill-hill with Lady Gower. The day was tolerable, with +sun enough for the house, though not for the garden. You, I +suppose, will never come again, as I have not a team of horses +large enough to draw you out of the clay of Oxfordshire. + +I went yesterday to see my niece(9) in her new principality of +Ham. It delighted me and made me peevish. Close to the +Thames, in the centre of all rich and verdant beauty, it is so +blocked up and barricaded with walls, vast trees, and gates, +that you think yourself an hundred miles off and an hundred +years back. The old furniture is so magnificently ancient, +dreary and decayed, that at every step one's spirits sink, and +all my passion for antiquity could not keep them up. Every +minute I expected to see ghosts sweeping by; ghosts I would not +give sixpence to See, Lauderdales, Tollcmaches, and Maitlands. +There is one old brown gallery full of Vandycks and Lelys, +charming miniatures, delightful Wouvermans, and Polenburghs, +china, japan, bronzes, ivory cabinets, and silver dogs, pokers, +bellows, etc. without end. One pair of bellows is of filigree. +In this state of pomp and tatters my nephew intends it shall +remain, and is so religious an observer of the venerable rites +of his house, that because the gates never were opened by his +father but once for the late Lord Granville, you are locked out +and locked in, and after journeying all round the house, as you +do round an old French fortified town, you are at last admitted +through the stable-yard to creep along a dark passage by the +housekeeper's room, and so by a back-door into the great hall. +He seems as much afraid of water as a cat; for though you might +enjoy the Thames from every window of three sides of the house, +you may tumble into it before you guess it is there. In short, +our ancestors had so little idea of taste and beauty, that I +should not have been surprised if they had hung their pictures +with the painted sides to the wall. Think of such a palace +commanding all the reach of Richmond and Twickenham, with a +domain from the foot of Richmond-hill to Kingston-bridge, and +then imagine its being as dismal and prospectless as if it +stood "on Stanmore's wintry wild!" I don't see why a man should +not be divorced from his prospect as well as from his wife, for +not being able to enjoy it. Lady Dysart frets, but it is not +the etiquette of the family to yield, and @ she must content +herself with her chateau of Tondertentronk as well as she can. +She has another such ample prison in Suffolk, and may be glad +to reside where she is. Strawberry, with all its painted glass +and gloom, looked as gay when I came home as Mrs. Cornelis's +ball-room. + +I am very busy about the last volume of my Painters, but have +lost my index, and am forced again to turn over all my Vertues, +forty volumes of miniature MSS.; so that this will be the third +time I shall have made an index to them. Don't say that I am +not persevering, and yet I thought I was grown idle. What +pains one takes to be forgotten! Good-night! + +(9) Charlotte, daughter of Sir Edward Walpole, married to Lord +Huntingtower, who had just succeeded to the title of the Earl +of Dysart, on the death of his father.-E. + + + +Letter 6 To George Montagu, Esq. +Strawberry Hill, June 29, 1770. (page 30) + +Since the sharp mountain will not come to the little hill, the +little hill must go to the mountain. In short, what do you +think of seeing me walk into your parlour a few hours after +this epistle! I had not time to notify myself sooner. The +case is, Princess Amelia has insisted on my going with her to, +that is, meeting her at Stowe on Monday, for a week. She +mentioned it to me some time ago, and I thought I had parried +it; but having been with her at Park-place these two or three +days, she has commanded it so positively that I could not +refuse. Now, as it would be extremely inconvenient to my +indolence to be dressed up in weepers and hatbands by six +o'clock in the morning, and lest I should be taken for chief +mourner going to Beckford's funeral,(10) I trust you will be +charitable enough to give me a bed at Adderbury for one night, +whence I can arrive at Stowe in a decent time, and caparisoned +as I ought to be, when I have lost a brother-in-law(11) and am +to meet a Princess. Don't take me for a Lauson, and think all +this favour portends a second marriage between our family and +the blood-royal; nor that my visit to Stowe implies my +espousing Miss Wilkes. I think I shall die as I am, neither +higher nor lower; and above all things, no more politics. Yet +I shall have many a private smile to myself, as I wander among +all those consecrated and desecrated buildings, and think what +company I am in, and of all that is past; but I must shorten my +letter, or you will not have finished it when I arrive. Adieu! +Yours, a-coming! a-coming! + +(10) William Beckford, Esq. Lord Mayor of London, who died on +the 21st of June, during his second mayoralty, in the +sixty-fifth year of his age. On the 5th of the following +month, at a meeting of the Common Council, "a motion being made +and question put, that the statue of the Right Hon. William +Beckford, late Lord Mayor, deceased, be erected in the +Guildhall of this city, with the inscription of his late +address to his Majesty, the was resolved in the affirmative." +The speech here alluded to is the one which the Alderman +addressed to his Majesty on the 23d of May, with reference to +the King's reply--"That he should have been wanting to the +public, as well as to himself, if he had not expressed his +dissatisfaction at the late address." At the end of the +Alderman's speech, in his copy of the City Addresses, Mr. Isaac +Reed has inserted the following note:--"It is a curious fact, +but a true one, that Beckford did not utter one syllable of +this speech. It was penned by Horne Tooke, and by his art put +on the records of the city and on Beckford's statue; as he told +me, Mr. Braithwaite, Mr. Sayers, etc. at the Athenian club. +Isaac Reed." There can be little doubt that the worthy +commentator and his friends were imposed upon. In the Chatham +Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 460, a letter from Sheriff +Townsend to the Earl expressly states, that with the exception +of the words "and necessary" being left out before the word +"revolution," the Lord Mayor's speech in the Public Advertiser +of the preceding day is verbatim the one delivered to the +King.--E. + +(11) George third Earl of Cholmondeley. He married, in 1723, +Mary the youngest daughter of @Sir Robert Walpole.-E. + + + +Letter 7 To George Montagu, Esq. +Adderbury, Sunday night, July 1, 1770. (page 32 + +You will be enough surprised to receive a letter from me dated +from your own house, and may judge of my mortification at not +finding you here; exactly as it happened two years ago. In +short, here I am, and will tell you how I came here; in truth, +not a little against my will. I have been at Park-place with +Princess Amelia, and she insisted on my meeting her at Stowe +to-morrow. She had mentioned it before, and as I have no +delight in a royal progress, and as little in the Seigneur +Temple, I waived the honour and pleasure, and thought I should +hear no more of it. However, the proposal was turned into a +command, and every body told me I could not refuse. Well, I +could not come so near, and not call upon you; besides, it is +extremely convenient to my Lord Castlecomer, for it would have +been horrid to set out at seven o'clock in the morning, full- +dressed, in my weepers, and to step out of my chaise into a +drawing-room. I wrote to you on Friday, the soonest I could +after this was settle(], to notify myself to you, but find I am +arrived before my letter. Mrs. White is all goodness; and +being the first of July, and consequently the middle of winter, +has given me a good fire and some excellent coffee and bread +and butter, and I am as comfortable as possible, except in +having missed you. She insists on acquainting you, which makes +me write this to prevent your coming; for as I must depart at +twelve o'clock to-morrow, it would be dragging you home before +your time for only half an hour, and I have too much regard for +Lord Guildford to deprive him of your company. Don't therefore +think of making this unnecessary compliment. I have treated +your house like an inn, and it will not be friendly, if you do +not make as free with me. I had much rather that you would +take it for a visit that you ought to repay. Make my best +compliments to your brother and Lord Guildford, and pity me for +the six dreadful days that I am going to pass. Rosette is fast +asleep in your chair, or I am sure she would write a +postscript. I cannot say she is either commanded or invited to +be of this royal party; but have me, have my dog. + +I must not forget to thank you for mentioning Mrs. Wetenhall, +on whom I should certainly wait with great pleasure, but have +no manner of intention of going into Cheshire. There is not a +chair or stool in Cholmondeley, and my nephew, I believe, will +pull it down. He has not a fortune to furnish or inhabit it; +and, if his uncle should leave him one, he would choose a +pleasanter country. Adieu! Don't be formal with me, and don't +trouble your hand about yours ever. + + + +Letter 8 To George Montagu, Esq. +Strawberry Hill, Saturday night, July 7, 1770. (page 33) + +After making an inn of your house, it is but decent to thank +you for my entertainment, and to acquaint you with the result +of my journey. The party passed off much better than I +expected. A Princess at the Heart of a very small set for five +days together did not promise well. However, she was very +good-humoured and easy, and dispensed with a large quantity of +etiquette. Lady Temple is good-nature itself, my lord was very +civil, Lord Besborough is made to suit all sorts of people, +Lady Mary Coke respects royalty too much not to be very +condescending, Lady Anne Howard(12) and Mrs. Middleton filled +up the drawing-room, or rather made it out, and I was so +determined to carry it off as well as I could, and happened to +be in such good spirits, and took such care to avoid politics, +that we laughed a great deal, and had not one cloud the whole +time. + +We breakfasted at half an hour after nine; but the Princess did +not appear till it was finished; then we walked in the garden, +or drove about in cabriolets, till it was time to dress; dined +at three, which, though properly proportioned to the smallness +of company to avoid ostentation, lasted a vast While, as the +Princess eats and talks a great deal; then again into the +garden till past seven, when we came in, drank tea and coffee, +and played at pharaoh till ten, when the Princess retired, and +we went to supper, and before twelve to bed. You see there was +great sameness and little vivacity in all this. It was a +little broken by fishing, and going round the park one of the +mornings; but, in reality, the number of buildings and variety +of scenes in the garden, made each day different from the rest, +and my meditations on so historic a spot prevented my being +tired. Every acre brings to one's mind some instance of the +parts or pedantry, of the taste or want of taste, of the +ambition or love of fame, or greatness or miscarriages, of +those that have inhabited, decorated, planned, or visited the +place. Pope, Congreve, Vanbrugh, Kent, Gibbs, Lord Cobham, +Lord Chesterfield, the mob of nephews, the Lytteltons, +Granvilles, Wests, Leonidas Glover, and Wilkes, the late Prince +of Wales, the King of Denmark, Princess Amelia, and the proud +monuments of Lord Chatham's services, now enshrined there, then +anathematized there, and now again commanding there, with the +temple of Friendship, like the temple of Janus, sometimes open +to war, and sometimes shut up in factious cabals--all these +images crowd upon one's memory, and add visionary personages to +the charming scenes, that are so enriched with fanes and +temples, that the real prospects are little less than visions +themselves. + +On Wednesday night, a small Vauxhall was acted for us at the +grotto in the Elysian fields, which was illuminated with lamps, +as were the thicket and two little barks on the lake. With a +little exaggeration I could make you believe that nothing was +so delightful. The idea was really pretty; but as my feelings +have lost something of their romantic sensibility, I did not +quite enjoy such an entertainment alfresco so much as I should +have done twenty years ago. The evening was more than cool, +and the destined spot any thing but dry. There were not half +lamps enough, and no music but an ancient militia-man, who +played cruelly on a squeaking tabor and pipe. As our +procession descended the vast flight of' steps into the garden, +in which was assembled a crowd of people from Buckingham and +the neighbouring villages to see the Princess and the show, the +moon shining very bright, I could not help laughing as I +surveyed our troop, which, instead of tripping lightly to such +an Arcadian entertainment, were hobbling down by the +balustrades, wrapt up in cloaks and greatcoats, for fear of +catching cold. The Earl, you know, is bent double, the +Countess very lame; I am a miserable walker, and the Princess, +though as strong as a Brunswick lion, makes no figure in going +down fifty stone stairs. Except Lady Anne, and by courtesy +Lady Mary, we were none of us young enough for a pastoral. We +supped in the grotto, which is as proper to this climate as a +sea-coal fire would be in the dog-days at Tivoli. + +But the chief entertainment of the week, at least what was so +to the Princess, was an arch, which Lord Temple has erected to +her honour in the most enchanting of all picturesque scenes. +It is inscribed on one side, 'Amelia Sophia Aug.,' and has a +medallion of her on the other. It is placed on an eminence at +the top of the Elysian fields, in a grove of orange-trees. You +come to it on a sudden, and are startled with delight on +looking through it: you at once see, through a glade, the river +winding at the bottom; from which a thicket arises, arched over +with trees, but opened, and discovering a hillock full of +haycocks, beyond which in front is the Palladian bridge, and +again over that a larger hill crowned with the castle. It is a +tall landscape framed by the arch and the overhovering trees, +and comprehending more beauties of light, shade, and buildings, +than any picture of Albano I ever saw. Between the flattery +and the prospect the Princess was really in Elysium: she +visited her arch four or five times every day, and could not +satiate herself with it. statues of Apollo and the Muses stand +on each side of the arch. One day she found in Apollo's hand +the following lines, which I had written for her, and +communicated to Lord Temple:-- + +T'other day, with a beautiful frown on her brow, +To the rest of the gods said the Venus of Stowe, +"What a fuss is here made with that arch just erected, +How our temples are slighted, our antirs neglected! +Since yon nymph has appear'd, We are noticed no more, +All resort to her shrine, all her presence adore; +And what's more provoking, before all our faces, +Temple thither has drawn both the Muses and Graces." +"Keep your temper, dear child," Phoebus cried with a smile, +"Nor this happy, this amiable festival spoil. +Can your shrine any longer with garlands be dress'd? +When a true goddess reigns, all the false are suppress'd." + +If you will keep my counsel, I will own to you, that originally +the two last lines were much better, but I was forced to alter +them out of decorum, not to be too pagan upon the occasion; in +short, here they are as in the first sketch,-- + +"Recollect, once before that our oracle ceased, +When a real divinity rose in the East." + +So many heathen temples around had made me talk as a Roman poet +would have done: but I corrected my verses, and have made them +insipid enough to offend nobody. Good night! I am rejoiced to +be once more in the gay solitude of my own little Temple. Yours +ever. + +(12) Lady Anne Howard, daughter of Henry fourth Earl, and +sister of Frederick fifth Earl of Carlisle.-E. + + + +Letter 9 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, July 9, 1770. (page 35) + +I am not going to tell you, my dear lord, of the diversions or +honours of Stowe, which I conclude Lady Mary has writ to Lady +Strafford. Though the week passed cheerfully enough, it was +more glory than I should have sought of my own head. The +journeys to Stowe and Park-place have deranged my projects so, +that I don't know where I am, and I wish they have not given me +the gout into the bargain; for I am come back very lame, and +not at all with the bloom that one ought to have imported from +the Elysian field. Such jaunts when one is growing old is +playing with edged-tools, as my Lord Chesterfield, in one of +his Worlds,(13) makes the husband say to his wife, when she +pretends that gray powder does not become her. It is charming +at twenty to play at Elysian fields, but it is no joke at +fifty; or too great a joke. It made me laugh as we were +descending the great flight of steps from the house to go and +sup in the grotto on the banks of Helicon: we were so cloaked +up, for the evening was very cold, and so many of us were +limping and hobbling, that Charon would have easily believed we +were going to ferry over in earnest. It is with much more +comfort that I am writing to your lordship in the great +bow-window of my new round room, which collects all the rays of +the southwest sun, and composes a sort of summer; a feel I have +not known this year, except last Thursday. If the rains should +ever cease, and the weather settle to fine, I shall pay you my +visit at Wentworth Castle; but hitherto the damps have affected +me so much, that I am more disposed to return to London and +light my fire, than brave the humours of a climate so +capricious and uncertain, in the country. I cannot help +thinking it grows worse; I certainly remember such a thing as +dust: nay, I still have a clear idea of it, though I have seen +none for some years, and should put some grains in a bottle for +a curiosity, if it should ever fly again. + +News I know none. You may be sure it was a subject carefully +avoided at Stowe; and Beckford's death had not raised the glass +or spirits of the master of the house. The papers make one +sick with talking of that noisy vapouring fool, as they would +of Algernon Sidney. + +I have not happened to see your future nephew, though we have +exchanged visits. It was the first time I had been at +Marble-hill, since poor Lady Suffolk's death; and the +impression was so uneasy, that I was not sorry not to find him +at home. Adieu, my good lord! Except seeing you both, nothing +can be more agreeable than to hear of yours and Lady +Strafford's health, who, I hope, continues perfectly well. + +(13) No. 18. A Country Gentleman's Tour to Paris with his +Family.-E. + + + +Letter 10 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street, July 12, 1770. (page 36) + +Reposing under my laurels! No, no, I am reposing in a much +better tent, under the tester of my own bed. I am not obliged +to rise by break of day and be dressed for the drawing-room; I +may saunter in my slippers till dinner-time, and not make bows +till my back is as much out of joint as my Lord Temple's. In +short, I should die of the gout or fatigue, if I was to be +Polonius to a Princess for another week. Twice a-day we made a +pilgrimage to almost every heathen temple in that province that +they call a garden; and there is no sallying out of the house +without descending a flight of steps as high as St. Paul's. My +Lord Besborough would have dragged me up to the top of the +column, to see all the kingdoms of the earth; but I would not, +if he could have given them to me. To crown all, because we +live under the line, and that we were all of us giddy young +creatures, of near threescore, we supped in a grotto in the +Elysian fields, and were refreshed with rivers of dew and +gentle showers that dripped from all the trees, and put us in +mind of the heroic ages, when kings and queens were shepherds +and shepherdesses, and lived in caves, and were wet to the skin +two or three times a-day. Well! thank Heaven, I am emerged +from that Elysium, and once more in a Christian country!--Not +but, to say the truth, our pagan landlord and landlady were +very obliging, and the party went off much better than I +expected. We had no very recent politics, though volumes about +the Spanish war; and as I took care to give every thing a +ludicrous turn as much as I could, the Princess was diverted, +the six days rolled away, and the seventh is my sabbath; and I +promise you i will do no manner of work, I, nor my cat, nor my +dog, nor any thing that is mine. For this reason, I entreat +that the journey to Goodwood may not take place before the 12th +of August, when I will attend you. But this expedition to +Stowe has quite blown up my intended one to Wentworth Castle: I +have not resolution enough left for such a journey. Will you +and Lady Ailesbury come to Strawberry before, or after +Goodwood? I know you like being dragged from home as little as +I do; therefore you shall place that visit just when it is most +convenient to you. + +I came to town the night before last, and am just returning. +There are not twenty people in all London. Are not YOU in +despair about the summer? It is horrid to be ruined in coals in +June and July. Adieu. Yours ever. + + + +Letter 11 To George Montagu, Esq. +Strawberry Hill, July 14, 1770. (page 37) + +I see by the papers this morning that Mr. Jenkinson(14) is +dead. He had the reversion of my place, which would go away, +if I should lose my brother. I have no pretensions to ask it, +and you know It has long been my fixed resolution not to accept +it. But as Lord North is your particular friend, I think it +right to tell you, that you may let him know what it is worth, +that he may give it to one of his own sons, and not bestow it +on somebody else, without being apprised of its value. I have +seldom received less than fourteen hundred a-year in money, and +my brother, I think, has four more from it. There are besides +many places in the gift of the office, and one or two very +considerable. Do not mention this but to Lord North, or Lord +Guilford. It is unnecessary, I am sure, for me to say to you, +but I would wish them to be assured that in saying this, I am +incapable of, and above any finesse, or view, to myself. I +refused the reversion for myself several years ago, when Lord +Holland was secretary of state, and offered to obtain it for +me. Lord Bute, I believe, would have been very glad to have +given it to me, before he gave it to Jenkinson; but I say it +very seriously, and you know me enough to be certain I am in +earnest, that I would not accept it upon any account. Any +favour Lord North will do for you will give me all the +satisfaction I desire. I am near fifty-three; I have neither +ambition nor interest to gratify. I can live comfortably for +the remainder of my life, though I should be poorer by fourteen +hundred pounds a-year; but I should have no comfort if, in the +dregs of life, I did any thing that I would not do when I was +twenty years younger. I will trust to you, therefore, to make +Use of this information in the friendly manner I mean it, and +to prevent my being hurt by its being taken otherwise than as a +design to serve those to whom you wish well. Adieu! Yours +ever. + +(14) Charles Jenkinson, at this time one of the lords of the +treasury. In 1786, He was created Baron Hawkesbury, and in +1796 advanced to the dignity of Earl of Liverpool.-E. + + + +Letter 12 To George Montagu, Esq. +Strawberry Hill, Sunday, [July 15, 1770.] (page 38) + +I am sorry I wrote to you last night, for I find it is Mrs. +Jenkinson(15) that is dead, and not Mr.; and therefore I should +be glad to have this arrive time enough to prevent your +mentioning the contents of my letter. In that case, I should +not be concerned to have given you that mark of my constant +good wishes, nor to have talked to you of my affairs, which are +as well in your breast as my own. They never disturb me; for +my mind has long taken its stamp, and as I shall leave nobody +much younger than myself behind me for whom I am solicitous, I +have no desire beyond being easy for the rest of my life I +could not be so if I stooped to have obligations to any man +beyond what it would ever be in my power to return. When I was +in Parliament, I had the additional reason of choosing to be +entirely free; and my strongest reason of all is, that I will +be at liberty to speak truth both living and dead. This +outweighs all considerations of interest, and will convince +you, though I believe you do not want that conviction, that my +yesterday's letter was as sincere in its resolution as in its +professions to you. Let the matter drop entirely, as it is now +Of no consequence. Adieu! Yours ever. + +(15) Amelia, daughter of William Watts, Esq. formerly governor +of Fort William, in Bengal.-E. + + + +Letter 13 To George Montagu, Esq. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 3, 1770. (page 38) + + +I am going on in the sixth week of my fit, and having had a +return this morning in my knee, I cannot flatter myself with +any approaching prospect of recovery. The gate of painful age +seems open to me, and I must travel through it as I may! If +you have not written one word for another, I am at a loss to +understand you. You say you have taken a house in London for a +year, that you are gone to Waldeshare for six months, and then +shall come for the winter. Either you mean six weeks, or +differ with most people in reckoning April the beginning of +winter. I hope your pen was in a hurry, rather than your +calculation so uncommon; I certainly shall be glad of your +residing in London. I have long wished to live nearer to you, +but it was in happier days. I am now so dismayed by these +returns of gout, that I can promise myself few comforts in any +future scenes of my life. + +I am much obliged to Lord Guildford and Lord North, and was +very sorry that the latter came to see Strawberry in so bad a +day, and when I was so extremely ill, and full of pain, that I +scarce knew he was here; and as my coachman was gone to London, +to fetch me bootikins, there was no carriage to offer him; but, +indeed, in the condition I then was, I was not capable of doing +any of the honours of my house, suffering at once in my hand, +knee, and both feet. I am still lifted out of bed by two +servants; and by their help travel from my bedchamber down to +the couch in my blue room; but I shall conclude, rather than +tire you with so unpleasant a history. Adieu! Yours ever. + + + +Letter 14 To George Montagu, Esq. +Arlington Street, Oct. 16, 1770. (page 39) + +At last I have been able to remove to London; but though long +weeks are gone and over since I was seized, I am only able to +creep about upon a flat floor, but cannot go up and down +stairs. However, I have patience, as I can at least fetch a +book for myself', instead of having a servant bring me a wrong +one. I am much obliged to Lord Guildford for his goodness to +me, and beg my thanks to him. When you go to Canterbury, pray +don't wake the Black Prince. I am very unwarlike, and desire +to live the rest of my time upon the stock of glory I saved to +my share Out Of the last war. I know not more news than I did +at Strawberry; there are not more people in town than I saw +there, and I intend to return thither on Friday or Saturday. +Adieu! Yours ever. + + + +Letter 15 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Arlington Street, Oct. 16, 1770. (page 39) + +Though I have so very little to say, it is but my duty, my dear +lord, to thank you for your extreme goodness to me and your +inquiring after me. I was very bad again last week, but have +mended so much since Friday night, that I really now believe +the fit is over. I came to town on Sunday, and can creep about +my room even without a stick, which is more felicity to me than +if I had got a white one. I do not aim yet at such preferment +as walking up stairs; but having moulted my stick, I flatter +myself I shall come forth again without being lame. The few I +have seen tell me there is nobody else in town. That is no +grievance to me, when I should be at the mercy of all that +should please to bestow their idle time upon me. I know +nothing of the war-egg, but that sometimes it is to be hatched +and sometimes to be addled.(16) Many folks get into the nest, +and sit as hard upon it as they can, concluding it will produce +a golden chick. As I shall not be a feather the better for it, +I hate that game-breed, and prefer the old hen Peace and her +dunghill brood. My compliments to my lady and all her poultry. + +(16) The dispute with Spain relative to the possession of the +Falkland Islands, had led to a considerable augmentation both +of the army and navy; which gave an appearance of authenticity +to the rumours of war which were now in circulation.-E. + + + +Letter 16 To The Earl Of Charlemont.(17) +Arlington Street, Oct. 17, 1770. (page 40) + +My lord, +I am very glad your lordship resisted your disposition to make +me an apology for doing me a great honour; for, if you had not, +the Lord knows where I should have found words to have made a +proper return. Still you have left me greatly in your debt. +It is very kind to remember me, and kinder to honour me with +your commands: they shall be zealously obeyed to the utmost of +my little credit; for an artist that your lordship patronises +will, I imagine, want little recommendation, besides his own +talents. It does not look, indeed, like very prompt obedience, +when I am yet guessing only at Mr. Jervais's merit; but though +he has lodged himself within a few doors of me, I have not been +able to get to him, having been confined near two months with +the gout, and still keeping my house. My first visit shall be +to gratify my duty and curiosity. I am sorry to say, and beg +your lordship's pardon for the confession, that, however high +an opinion I have of your taste in the arts, I do not equally +respect your judgment in books. it is in truth a defect that +you have in common with the two great men who are the +respective models of our present parties-- + +"The hero William, and the martyr Charles." + +You know what happened to them after patronising Kneller and +Bernini-- + +"One knighted Blackmore, and one pensioned Quarles." + +After so saucy an attack, my lord, it is time to produce my +proof. It lies in your own postscript, where you express a +curiosity to see a certain tragedy, with a hint that the other +works of the same author have found favour in your sight, and +that the piece ought to have been sent to you. But, my lord, +even your approbation has not made that author vain; and for +the lay in question, it has so many perils to encounter, that +it never thinks of producing itself. It peeped out of its +lurking corner once or twice; and one of those times, by the +negligence of a friend, had like to have been, what is often +pretended in prefaces, stolen, and consigned to the press. +When your lordship comes to England, which, for every reason +but that, I hope will be Soon, you shall certainly see it; and +will then allow, I am sure. how improper it would be for the +author to risk its appearance in public. However, unworthy as +that author may be, from his talents, of your lordship's +favour, do not let its demerits be confounded with the esteem +and attachment with which he has the honour to be, my lord, +your lordship's most devoted servant. + +(17) James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont, an Irish nobleman, +distinguished for his literary taste and patriotism. Of him +Mr. Burke said, ,He is a man of such polished manners, of a +mind so truly adorned and disposed to the adoption of whatever +is excellent and praiseworthy, that to see and converse with +him would alone induce me, or might induce any one who relishes +such qualities, to pay a visit to Ireland." He died in 1799, +and in 1810, his Memoirs were published by Francis Hardy, Esq. +in a quarto volume.-E. + + + +Letter 17 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Nov. 15, 1770. ((page 41) + +Dear sir, +If you have not engaged your interest in Cambridgeshire, you +will oblige me much by bestowing it on young Mr. Brand, the son +of my particular acquaintance, and our old schoolfellow. I am +very unapt to trouble my head about elections, but wish success +to this. + +If you see Bannerman, I should be glad you would tell him that +I am going to print the last volume of my Painters, and should +like to employ him again for some of the heads, if he cares to +undertake them: though there will be a little trouble as he +does not reside in London. I am in a hurry, and am forced to +be brief, but am always glad to hear of you, and from you. +Yours most sincerely. + + + +letter 18 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Nov. 20, 1770. (page 41) + +I believe our letters crossed one another without knowing it. +Mine, it seems, was quite unnecessary, for I find Mr. Brand has +given up the election. Yours was very kind and obliging, as +they always are. Pray be so good as to thank Mr. Tyson for me +a thousand times; I am vastly pleased with his work, and hope +he will give me another of the plates for my volume of heads +(for I shall bind up his present), and I by no means relinquish +his promise of a complete set of his etchings, and of a visit +to Strawberry Hill. Why should it not be with you and Mr. +Essex, whom I shall be very glad to see--but what do you talk +of a single day? Is that all you allow me in two years? + +I rejoice to see Mr. Bentham's advertisement at last. I depend +on you, dear Sir, for procuring me his book(18) the instant it +is possible to have it. Pray make my compliments to all that +good family. I am enraged, and almost in despair, at Pearson +the glass-painter, he is so idle and dissolute. He has done +very little of the window, though what he has done is glorious, +and approaches very nearly to Price. + +My last volume of Painters begins to be printed this week; but, +as the plates are not begun, I doubt it will be long before the +whole is ready. I mentioned to you in my last Thursday's +letter a hint about Bannerman, the engraver. Adieu! + +(18) The "History and Antiquities of the Conventual and +Cathedral Church at Ely," which appeared in the following +year.-E. + + + +Letter 19 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Dec. 20, 1770. (page 42) + +Dear Sir +I am very zealous, as you know, for the work; but I agree with +you in expecting very little success from the plan.(19) +Activity is the best implement in such undertakings, and that +seems to be wanting; and, without that, it were vain to think +of who would be at the expense. I do not know whether it were +not best that Mr. Essex should publish his remarks as simply as +he can. For my own part, I can do no more than I have done,- +-sketch out the plan. I grow too old, and am grown too +indolent, to engage in any more works: nor have I time. I wish +to finish some things I have by me, and to have done. The last +volume of my Anecdotes, of which I was tired, is completed and +with them I shall take my leave of publications. The last +years of one's life are fit for nothing but idleness and quiet, +and I am as indifferent to fame as to politics. + +I can be of as little use to Mr. Granger in recommending him to +the Antiquarian Society. I dropped my attendance there four or +five years ago, from being sick of their ignorance and +stupidity, and have not been three times amongst them since. +They have chosen to expose their dullness to the world, and +crowned it with Dean Milles's(20) nonsense. I have written a +little answer to the last, which you shall see, and then wash +my hands of them. + +To say the truth, I have no very sanguine expectation about the +Ely window. The glass-painter, though admirable, proves a very +idle worthless fellow, and has yet scarce done any thing of +consequence. I gave Dr. Nichols notice of his character, but +found him apprised of it. The Doctor, however, does not +despair, but pursues him warmly. I wish it may succeed! + +If you go over to Cambridge, be so good as to ask Mr. Grey when +he proposes being in town; he talked of last month. I must beg +you, too, to thank Mr. Tyson for his last letter. I can say +no more to the Plan than I have said. If he and Mr. Essex +should like to come to town, I shall be very willing to talk it +over with them, but I can by no means think of engaging in any +part of the composition. + +These holidays I hope to have time to arrange my drawings, and +give bannerman some employment towards my book, but I am in no +hurry to have it appear, as it speaks of times so recent; for +though I have been very tender of not hurting any living +relations of the artists, the latter were in general so +indifferent, that I doubt their families will not be very well +content with the coldness of the praises I have been able to +bestow. This reason, with my unwillingness to finish the work, +and the long interval between the composition of this and the +other volumes, have, I doubt, made the greatest part a very +indifferent performance. An author, like other mechanics, +never does well when he is tired of his profession. + +I have been told that, besides Mr. Tyson, there are two other +gentlemen engravers at Cambridge. I think their names are +Sharp or Show, and Cobbe, but I am not at all sure of either. +I should be glad, however, if I could procure any of their +portraits; and I do not forget that I am already in your debt. +Boydell is going to recommence a suite of illustrious heads, +and I am to give him a list of indubitable portraits of +remarkable persons that have never been engraved; but I have +protested against his receiving two sorts; the one, any old +head of a family, when the person was moderately considerable; +the other, spurious or doubtful heads; both sorts apt to be +sent in by families who wish to crowd -their own names into the +work; as was the case more than once in Houbraken's set, and of +which honest Vertue often complained to me. The Duke of +Buckingham, Carr, Earl of Somerset, and Thurloe, in that list, +are absolutely not genuine--the first is John Digby Earl of +Bristol. Yours ever. + +(19) Mr. Essex's projected History of Gothic Architecture. +See vol. iii. Letter 366 to the Rev. Mr. Cole, Aug. 12, +1769.-E. + +(20) Dr. Jeremiah Milles, dean of Exeter, many years president +of the Antiquarian Society. He engaged ardently in the +Chatterton controversy, and published the whole of the poems +purporting to be written by Rowley, with a glossary; thereby +proving himself a fit subject for that chef-d'oeuvre of wit and +poetry, the Archaeological Epistle, written by Mason. +Walpole's answer is entitled, "Reply to the Observations on the +Remarks of the Rev. Dr. Milles, Dean of Exeter and President +of the Society of Antiquaries, on the Wardrobe Account of 1483, +etc." It is inserted in the second volume of his collected +Works-E. + + + +Letter 20 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street, Christmas-day. (page 43) + +If poplar-pines ever grow,(21) it must be in such a soaking +season as this. I wish you would send half-a-dozen by some +Henley barge to meet me next Saturday at Strawberry Hill, that +they may be as tall as the Monument by next summer. My +cascades give themselves the airs of cataracts, and Mrs. Clive +looks like the sun rising out of the ocean. Poor Mr. +Raftor(22) is tired to death of their solitude; and, as his +passion is walking, he talks with rapture of the brave rows of +lamps all along the street, just as I used formerly to think no +trees beautiful without lamps to them, like those at Vauxhall. + +As I came to town but to dinner, and have not seen a soul, I do +not KNOW whether there is any news. I am just going to the +Princess,(23) where I shall hear all there is. I went to King +Arthur(24) on Saturday, and was tired to death, both of the +nonsense of the piece and the execrable performance, the +singers being still worse than the actors. The scenes are +little better (though Garrick boasts of rivalling the French +Opera,) except a pretty bridge, and a Gothic church with +windows of painted glass. This scene, which should be a +barbarous temple of Woden, is a perfect cathedral, and the +devil officiates at a kind of high-mass! I never saw greater +absurdities. Adieu! + +(21) The first poplar-pine (or, as they have since been called, +Lombardy poplar) planted in England was at Park-place, on the +bank of the river near the great arch. It was a cutting +brought from Turin by Lord Rochford in his carriage, and +planted by General Conway's own hand. + +(22) Brother of Mrs. Clive. He had been an actor himself, and, +when his sister retired from the stage, lived with her in the +house Mr. Walpole had given her at Twickenham. + + +(23( The Princess Amelia. + +(24) Dryden's dramatic opera of King Arthur, or the British +Worthy, altered by Garrick, was this year brought out at Drury +Lane, and, by the aid of scenery, was very successful.-E. + + + +Letter 21 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street, Dec. 29, 1770. (page 44) + +The trees came safe: I thank you for them: they are gone to +Strawberry, and I am going to plant them. This paragraph would +not call for a letter, but I have news for you of importance +enough to dignify a despatch. The Duc de Choiseul is fallen! +The express from Lord Harcourt arrived yesterday morning; the +event happened last Monday night, and the courier set out so +immediately, that not many particulars are yet known. The Duke +was allowed but three hours to prepare himself, and ordered to +retire to his seat at Chanteloup: but some letters say, "il ira +plus loin." The Duc de Praslin is banished, too, and Chatelet +is forbidden to visit Choiseul. Chatelet was to have had the +marine; and I am Sure is no loss to us. The Chevalier de Muy +is made secretary of state pour la guerre;(25) and it is +concluded that the Duc d'Aiguillon is prime-minister, but was +not named so in the first hurry. There! there is a revolution! +there is a new scene opened! Will it advance the war? Will it +make peace? These are the questions all mankind is asking. +This whale has swallowed up all gudgeon-questions. Lord +Harcourt writes, that the d'Aiguillonists had officiously taken +opportunities of assuring him, that if they prevailed it would +be peace; but in this country we know that opponents turned +ministers can change their language It is added, that the +morning of Choiseul's banishment'(26) the King said to him, +"Monsieur, je vous ai dit que je ne voulais point la guerre." +Yet how does this agree with Franc`es's(27) eager protestations +that Choiseul's fate depended on preserving the peace? How +does it agree with the Comptroller-general's offer of finding +funds for the war, and of Choiseul's proving he could not?--But +how reconcile half the politics one hears? De Guisnes and +Franc`es sent their excuses to the Duchess of Argyle last +night; and I suppose the Spaniards, too; for none of them were +there.--Well! I shall let all this bustle cool for two days; +for what Englishman does not sacrifice any thing to go his +Saturday out of town? And yet I am very much interested in +this event; I feel much for Madame de Choiseul, though nothing +for her Corsican husband; but I am in the utmost anxiety for my +dear old friend,(28) who passed every evening with the Duchess, +and was thence in great credit; and what is worse, though +nobody, I think, can be savage enough to take away her pension, +she may find great difficulty to get it paid--and then her poor +heart is so good and warm, that this blow on her friends, at +her great age, may kill her.(29) I have had no letter, nor had +last post--whether it was stopped, or whether she apprehended +the event, as I imagine--for every one observed, on Tuesday +night, at your brother's, that Franc`es could not open his +mouth. In short, I am most seriously alarmed about her. + +You have seen in the papers the designed arrangements in the +law.(30) They now say there is some hitch; but I suppose it +turns on some demands, and so will be got over by their being +granted. Mr. Mason, the bard, gave me yesterday, the enclosed +memorial, and begged I would recommend it to you. It is in +favour of a very ingenious painter. Adieu! the sun shines +brightly; but it is one o'clock, and it will be set before I +get to Twickenham. Yours ever. + +(25) The Chevalier, afterwards Mar`echal de Muy, was offered +that place, but declined it. He eventually filled it in the +early part of the reign of Louis XVI.-E. + +(26) The Duc de Choiseul was dismissed from the ministry +through the intrigues of Madame du Barry, who accused him of an +improper correspondence with Spain.-- E. + +(27) Then charg`e des affaires from the French court in London. + +(28) It appears by Madame du Deffand's Letters to Walpole, that +she had addressed to him, on the 27th of December, one of +considerable length, filled with details relative to the +dismissal of the Duc de Choiseul, which took place on the 24th, +and the appointment of his successor; but this letter is +unfortunately lost.-E. + +(29) By the reduction which the Abb`e de Terrai, when he first +entered upon the controle g`en`eral, made upon all pensions, +Madame du Deffand had lost three thousand livres of income. To +her letter of the 2d of February 1771, announcing this +diminution, Walpole made the following generous reply:--"Je ne +saurois souffrir une telle diminution de votre bien. O`u +voulez-vous faire des retranchemens? O`u est-il possible que +vous en fassiez? Ne daignez pas fire un pas, s'il n'est pas +fait, pour remplacer vos trois Mille livres. Ayez assez +d'amiti`e pour moi pour les accepter de ma part. Accordez-moi, +je vous conjure, la gr`ace, que je vous demande aux genoux, et +jouissez de la satisfaction de vous dire, j'ai un ami qui ne +permettra jamais que je me jette aux pieds des grands. Ma +Petite, j'insiste."-E. + +(30) Mr. Bathurst was created Lord Apsley, and appointed Lord +Chancellor; Sir William de Grey was made Chief Justice of the +Common Pleas; Mr. Thurlow, attorney-general and Mr. Wedderburn, +solicitor-general.-E. + + + +Letter 22 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Jan. 10, 1771. (page 45) + +As I am acquainted with Mr. Paul Sandby, the brother of the +architect,(31) I asked him if there was a design, as I had +heard, of making a print or prints of King's College Chapel, by +the King's order'! He answered directly, by no means. His +brother made a general sketch of the chapel for the use of the +lectures he reads on architecture at the Royal Academy. Thus, +dear Sir, Mr. Essex may be perfectly easy that there is no +intention of interfering with his work. I then mentioned to +Mr. Sandby Mr. Essex's plan, which he much approved, but said +the plates would cost a great sum. The King, he thought, would +be inclined to patronise the work; but I own I do not know how +to get it laid before him. His own artists would probably +discourage any scheme that might entrench on their own +advantages. Mr. Thomas Sandby, the architect, is the only one +of them I am acquainted with; and Mr. Essex must think whether +he would like to let him into any participation of the work. +If I can get any other person to mention it to his Majesty, I +will; but you know me, and that I have always kept clear of +connexions with courts and ministers, and have no interest with +either, and perhaps my recommendation might do as much hurt as +good, especially as the artists in favour might be jealous Of +One who understands a little of their professions, and is apt +to say what he thinks. In truth, there is another danger, +which is that they might not assist Mr. Essex without views of +profiting of his labours. I am slightly acquainted with Mr. +Chambers,(32) the architect, and have a good opinion of him: if +Mr. Essex approves my communicating his plan to him or Mr. +Sandby, I should think it more likely to succeed by their +intervention, than by any lord of the court; for, at last, the +King would certainly take the opinion of his artists. When you +have talked this over with Mr. Essex, let me know the result. +Till he has determined, there can be no use in Mr. Essex's +coming to town. + +Mr. Gray will bring down some of my drawings to Bannerman, and +when you go over to Cambridge, I will beg you now and then to +supervise him. For Mr. Bentham's book, I rather despair of it; +and should it ever appear, he will have had people expect it +too long, which will be of no service to it, though I do not +doubt of its merit. Mr. Gray will show you my answer to"Dr. +Milles.(33) Yours ever. + +(31) Paul Sandby, the well-known artist in water-colours, was +brother to Thomas Sandby, who was professor of architecture in +the Royal Academy of London.-E. + +(32) Afterwards Sir William Chambers, author of the well-known +"Treatise on Civil Architecture;" a "Dissertation on Oriental +Gardening," etc. In 1775, he was appointed to superintend the +building of Somerset-house, in the Strand.-E. + +(33) In the early part of this year, Walpole's house in +Arlington-street was broke open, without his servants being +alarmed; all the locks forced off his drawers, cabinets, etc. +their contents scattered about the rooms, and yet nothing taken +away. In her letter of the 3d of April, Madame du Deffand +says, "Votre aventure fait tenir ici toute sorte de propos: les +uns disent que l'on vous soup`connait d'avoir une +correspondence secr`ete avec M. de Choiseul.-E. + + + +Letter 23 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, May 29, 1771. (page 46) + +Dear Sir, +I have but time to write you a line, that I may not detain Mr. +Essex, who is so good as to take charge of this note, and of a +box, which I am sure will give you pleasure, and I beg may give +you a little trouble. It contains the very valuable seven +letters of Edward the sixth to Barnaby Fitzpatrick. Lord +Ossory, to whom they belong, has lent them to me to print, but +to facilitate that, and to prevent their being rubbed or hurt +by the printer, I must entreat your exactness to copy them, and +return them with the copies. I need not desire your particular +care; for you value these things as much as I do, and will be +able to make them out better than I can do, from being so much +versed in old writing. Forgive my taking this liberty with +you, which, I flatter myself, will not be disagreeable. Mr. +Essex and Mr. Tyson dined with me at Strawberry Hill; but could +not stay so long as I wished. The party would have been still +more agreeable if you had made a fourth. Adieu! dear Sir, +yours ever. + + + +Letter 24 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, June 11, 1771. (page 47) + +You are very kind, dear Sir, and I ought to be, nay, what is +more, I am ashamed of giving you so much trouble; but I am in +no hurry for the letters. I shall not set out till the 7th of +next month, And it will be sufficient if I receive them a week +before I set out. Mr. C. C. C. C. is very welcome to attack me +about a Duchess of Norfolk. He is even welcome to be in the +right; to the edification I hope of all the matrons at the +Antiquarian Society, who I trust will insert his criticism in +the next volume of their Archaeologia, or Old Women's Logic; +but, indeed, I cannot bestow my time on any more of them, nor +employ myself in detecting witches for vomiting pins. When +they turn extortioners like Mr. Masters,(34) the law should +punish them, not only for roguery, but for exceeding their +province, which our ancestors limited to killing their +neighbour's cow, or crucifying dolls of wax. For my own part, +I am so far from being out of charity with him, that I would +give him a nag or new broom whenever he has a mind to ride to +the Antiquarian sabbat, and preach against me. Though you have +more cause to be angry, laugh -,it him as I do. One has not +life enough to throw away on all the fools and knaves that come +across one. I have often been attacked, and never replied but +to Mr. Hume and Dr. Milles--to the first, because he had a +name; to the second, because he had a mind to have one:--and +yet I was in the wrong, for it was the only way he could attain +one. In truth, it is being too self-interested, to expose only +one's private antagonists, when one lets worse men pass +unmolested. Does a booby hurt me by an attack on me, more than +by any other foolish thing he does? Does not he tease me more +by any thing he says to me, without attacking me, than by any +thing he says against me behind my back? I shall, therefore, +most certainly never inquire after or read Mr. C. C. C. C.'s +criticism, but leave him to oblivion with her Grace of Norfolk, +and our wise society. As I doubt my own writings will soon be +forgotten, I need not fear that those of my answerers will be +remembered. + +(34) There is a note on this letter in Cole's handwriting. Mr. +Mason had informed him, that Mr. Masters had lately read a +paper at the Antiquarian Society against some mistake of Mr. +Walpole's respective a Duchess of Norfolk; and he adds, "This I +informed Mr. Walpole of in my letter, and said something to him +of Masters' extortion in making me pay forty pounds towards the +repairing his vicarage-house at Waterbeche, which he pretended +he had fitted up for my reception." + + + +Letter 25 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(35) +Strawberry Hill, June 17, 1771. (page 48) + +I was very sure you would grant my request, if you could, and I +am perfectly satisfied with your reasons; but I do not believe +the parties concerned will be so too, especially the heads of +the family, who are not so ready to serve their relations at +their own expense as gratis. When I see you I will tell you +more, and what I thought I had told you. + +You tax me with four days in Bedfordshire; I was but three at +most, and of those the evening I went, and the morning I came +away, made the third day. I will try to see you before I go. +The Edgcumbes I should like and Lady Lyttelton, but Garrick +does not tempt me at all. I have no taste for his perpetual +buffoonery, and am sick of his endless expectation of flattery; +but you who charge me with making a long visit to Lord and Lady +Ossory,--you do not see the mote in your own eye; at least I am +sure Lady Ailesbury does not see that in hers. I could not +obtain a single day from her all last year, and with difficulty +got her to give me a few hours this. There is always an +indispensable pheasantry that must be visited, or some thing +from which she cannot spare four-and-twenty hours. Strawberry +sets this down in its pocket-book. and resents the neglect. + +At two miles from Houghton Park is the mausoleum of the Bruces, +where I saw the most ridiculous monument of one of Lady +Ailesbury's predecessors that ever was imagined; I beg she will +never keep such company. In the midst of an octagon chapel is +the tomb of Diana, Countess of Oxford and Elgin. From a huge +unwieldy base of white marble rises a black marble cistern; +literally a cistern that would serve for an eating-room. In +the midst of this, to the knees, stands her ladyship in a white +domino or shroud, with her left hand erect as giving her +blessing. It put me in mind of Mrs. Cavendish when she got +drunk in the bathing-tub. At another church is a kind of +catacomb for the Earls of Kent: there are ten sumptuous +monuments. Wrest and Hawnes are both ugly places; the house at +the former is ridiculously old and bad. The state bedchamber +(not ten feet high) and its drawing-room, are laced with Ionic +columns of spotted velvet, and friezes of patchwork. There are +bushels of deplorable earls and countesses. The garden was +execrable too, but is something mended by Brown. Houghton Park +and Ampthill stand finely: the last is a very good house, and +has a beautiful park. The other has three beautiful old +fronts, in the style of Holland House, with turrets and +loggias, but not so large within. It is the worst contrived +dwelling I ever saw. Upon the whole, I was much diverted with +my journey. On my return I stayed but a single hour in London, +saw no soul, and came hither to meet the deluge. It has rained +all night, and all day; but it is midsummer, consequently +midwinter, and one can expect no better. Adieu! + +(35) Now first printed. + + + +Letter 26 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, June 20, 1771. (page 49) + +I have waited impatiently, my dear lord, for something worth +putting into a letter but trees do not speak in parliament, nor +flowers write in the newspapers; and they are almost the only +beings I have seen. I dined on Tuesday at Notting-hill(36) +with the Countesses of Powis and Holderness, Lord and Lady +Pelham, and Lord Frederick Cavendish--and Pam; and shall go to +town on Friday to meet the same company at Lady Holderness's; +and this short journal comprises almost my whole history and +knowledge. + +I must now ask your lordship's and Lady Strafford's commands +for Paris. I shall set out on the 7th of next month. You will +think, though you will not tell me so, that these are Very +juvenile jaunts at my age. Indeed, I should be ashamed if I +went for any other pleasure but that of once more seeing my +dear blind friend, whose much greater age forbids my depending +on seeing more often.(37) It will, indeed, be amusing to +change the scene of politics for though I have done with our +own, one cannot help hearing them--nay, reading them; for, like +flies, they come to breakfast with one's bread and butter. I +wish there was any other vehicle for them but a newspaper; a +place into which, considering how they are exhausted, I am sure +they have no pretensions. The Duc d'Aiguillon, I hear, is +minister. Their politics, some way or other, must end +seriously, either in despotism, a civil war, or assassination. +Methinks, it is playing deep for the power of tyranny. Charles +Fox is more moderate: he only games for an hundred thousand +pounds that he has not. + +Have you read the Life of Benvenuto Cellini,(38) my lord? I am +angry with him for being more distracted and wrong-headed than +my Lord Herbert. Till the revival of these two, I thought the +present age had borne the palm of absurdity from all its +predecessors. But I find our contemporaries are quiet good +folks, that only game till they hang themselves, and do not +kill every body they meet in the street. Who would have +thought we were so reasonable? + +Ranelagh, they tell me, is full of foreign dukes. There is a +Duc de la Tr`emouille, a Duc d'Aremberg, and other grandees. I +know the former, and am not sorry to be out of his way. + +It is not pleasant to leave groves and lawns and rivers for a +dirty town with a dirtier ditch, calling itself the Seine; but +I dare not encounter the sea and bad inns in cold weather. +This consideration will bring me back by the end of August. I +should be happy to execute any commission for your lordship. +You know how earnestly I wish always to show myself your +lordship's most faithful humble servant. + +(36) near Kensington. The villa of Lady Mary Coke. + +(37) In the February of this-year Madame du Deffand had made +her will, and bequeathed Walpole all her manuscripts-. In her +letter of the 17th, informing him that she had so done, she +says, "Je fis usage de votre 'j'y consens.' J'ai une vraie +satisfaction que cette affaire soit termin`ee, et jamais vous +ne m'avez fait un plus v`eritable plaisir qu'en pronon`cant ces +deux mots."-E. + +(38) The celebrated Florentine sculptor, "one of the most +extraordinary men in an extraordinary age," so designated by +Walpole. His Life, written by himself, was first published in +English in 1771, from a translation by Dr. T. Nugent; of which +a new edition, corrected and enlarged, with the notes and +observations of G. P. Carpani, translated by Thomas Roscoe, +appeared in 1822.-E. + + + +Letter 27 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, June 22, 1771. (page 50) + +I just write you a line, dear Sir, to acknowledge the receipt +of the box of papers, which is come very safe, and to give you +a thousand thanks for the trouble you have taken. As you +promise me another letter I will wait to answer it. + +At present I will only beg another favour, and with less shame, +as it is of a kind you will like to grant. I have lately been +at Lord Ossory's at Ampthill. You know Catherine of Arragon +lived some time there.(39) Nothing remains of the castle, nor +any marks of residence, but a very small bit of her garden. I +proposed to Lord Ossory to erect a cross to her memory on the +spot, and he will. I wish, therefore, you could, from your +collections of books, or memory, pick out an authentic form of +a cross, of a better appearance than the common run. It must +be raised on two or three steps; and if they were octagon, +would it not be handsomer? Her arms must be hung like an order +upon it. Here is something of my idea.(40) The shield +appendant to a collar. We will have some inscriptions to mark +the cause of erection. Adieu! Your most obliged. + +(39) After her divorce from Henry the Eighth. + +(40) A rough sketch in the margin of the letter. + + + + Letter 28 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, June 24, 1771. (page 51) + +Dear Sir, +when I wrote to you t'other day, I had not opened the box of +letters, and consequently had not found yours, for which, and +the prints, I give you a thousand thanks; though Count Bryan I +have, and will return to you. Old Walker(41) is very like, and +is valuable for being mentioned in the Dunciad, and a +curiosity, from being mentioned there without abuse. + +Your notes are very judicious,(42) and your information most +useful to me in drawing up some little preface to the Letters; +which, however, I shall not have time now to do before my +journey, as I shall set out on Sunday se'nnight. I like your +motto much. The Lady Cecilia's Letters are, as you say, more +curious for the writer than the matter. We know very little of +those daughters of Edward IV. Yet she and her sister +Devonshire lived to be old; especially Cecily, who was married +to Lord Wells; and I have found why: he was first cousin to +Henry VII., who, I suppose, thought it the safest match for +her. I wish I knew all she and her sisters knew of her +brothers, and their uncle Richard III. Much good may it do my +Lord of Canterbury with his parboiled stag! Sure there must be +more curiosities in Bennet Library! + +Though your letter is so entertaining and useful to me, the +passage I like best is a promise you make me of a visit in the +autumn with Mr. Essex. Pray put him in mind of it, as I shall +you. It would add much to the obligation if you would bring +two or three of your MS. volumes of collections with you. +Yours ever. + +(41) Dr. Richard Walker, vice-master of Trinity College, by +Lambourne. + +(42) From King Edward's Journal relating to Mr. Fitzpatrick. + + + +Letter 29 To John Chute, Esq. +Amiens, Tuesday evening, July 9, 1771. (page 51) + +I am got no farther yet, as I travel leisurely, and do not +venture to fatigue myself. My voyage was but of four hours. I +was sick only by choice and precaution, and find myself in +perfect health. The enemy, I hope, has not returned to pinch +you again, and that you defy the foul fiend. The weather is +but lukewarm, and I should choose to have all the windows shut, +if my smelling was not much more summerly than my feeling; but +the frowsiness of obsolete tapestry and needlework is +insupportable. Here are old fleas and bugs talking of Louis +Quatorze like tattered refugees in the park, and they make poor +Rosette attend them, whether she will or not. This is a woful +account of an evening in July, and which Monsieur de St. +Lambert has omitted in his Seasons, though more natural than +any thing he has placed there. I f the Grecian religion had +gone into the folly of self-mortification, I suppose the +devotees of Flora would have shut themselves up in a nasty inn, +and have punished their noses for the sensuality of having +smelt to a rose or a honeysuckle. + +This is all I have yet to say; for I have had no adventure, no +accident, nor seen a soul but my cousin Richard Walpole, whom I +met on the road and spoke to in his chaise. To-morrow I shall +lie at Chantilly, and be at Paris early on Thursday. The +Churchills are there already. Good night-- and a sweet one to +you! + +Paris, Wednesday night, July 10. + +I was so suffocated with my inn last night, that I mustered all +my resolution, rose with the alouette this morning, and was in +my chaise by five o'clock I got hither by eight this evening, +tired, but rejoiced; I have had a comfortable dish of tea, and +am going to bed in clean sheets. I sink myself even to my dear +old woman(43) and my sister; for it is impossible to sit down +and be made charming At this time of night after fifteen posts, +and after having been here twenty times before. + +At Chantilly I crossed the Countess of Walpole, who lies there +to-night on her way to England. But I concluded she had no +curiosity about me-and I could not brag of more about her-and +so we had no intercourse. I am wobegone to find my Lord F -* * +* in the same hotel. He is as starched as an old-fashioned +plaited neckcloth, and come to suck wisdom from this curious +school of philosophy. He reveres me because I was acquainted +with his father; and that does not at all increase my +partiality to the son. + +Luckily, the post departs early to-morrow morning I thought you +would like to hear I was arrived -well. I should be happy to +hear you are so; but do not torment yourself too soon, nor will +I torment you. I have fixed the 26th of August for setting out +on my return. These jaunts are too juvenile. I am ashamed to +look back and remember in what year of Methuselah I was here +first. Rosette Sends her blessing to her daughter. Adieu! +Yours ever. + +(43) Madame du Deffand; who, in her letter to Walpole of the +12th of June, had said, "Je sens l'exc`es de votre +complaisance; j'ai tant de joie de l'esp`erance de vous revoir +qu'il me semble que rien ne peut plus m'affliger ni +m'attrister."--E. + + + +Letter 30 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Paris, July 30, 1771. (page 52) + +I do not know where you are, nor where this will find you, nor +when it will set out to seek you, as I am not certain by whom I +shall send it. It is of little consequence, as I have nothing +material to tell you, but what you probably may have heard. + +The distress here is incredible, especially at court. The +King's tradesmen are ruined, his servants starving, and even +angels and archangels cannot get their pensions and salaries, +but sing, "Woe! woe! woe!" instead of Hosannahs. Compi`egne is +abandoned; Villiers-coterets and Chantilly(44) crowded, and +Chanteloup(45) still more in fashion, whither every body goes +that pleases; though, when they ask leave, the answer is, "Je +ne le defends ni le permets." This is the first time that ever +the will of a King of France was interpreted against his +inclination. Yet, after annihilating his Parliament, and +ruining public credit, he tamely submits to be affronted by his +own servants. Madame de Beauveau, and two or three +high-spirited dames, defy this Czar of Gaul- Yet they and their +cabal are as inconsistent on the other hand. They make +epigrams, sing vaudevilles(46) against the mistress, hand about +libels against the Chancellor, and have no more effect than a +sky-rocket; but in three months will die to go to court, and to +be invited to sup with Madame du Barry. The only real struggle +is between the Chancellor(47) and the Duc d'Aiguillon. The +first is false, bold, determined, and not subject to little +qualms. The other is less known, communicates himself to +nobody, is suspected of deep policy and deep designs, but seems +to intend to set out under a mask of very smooth varnish; for +he has just obtained the payment of all his bitter enemy La +Chalotais' pensions and arrears. He has the advantage, too, of +being but moderately detested in comparison of his rival, and, +what he values more, the interest of the mistress.(48) The +Comptroller-general serves both, by acting mischief more +sensibly felt; for he ruins every body but those who purchase a +respite from his mistress.(49) He dispenses bankruptcy by +retail, and will fall, because he cannot even by these means be +useful enough. They are striking off nine millions la caisse +militaire, five from the marine, and one from the afaires +`etrang`eres: yet all this will not extricate them. You never +saw a great nation in so disgraceful a position. Their next +prospect is not better: it rests on an imbecile, both in mind +and body. + +July 31. + +Mr. Churchill and my sister set out to-night after supper, and +I shall send this letter by them. There are no new books, no +new Plays, no new novels; nay, no new fashions. They have +dragged old Mademoiselle Le Maure out of a retreat of thirty +years, to sing at the Colis`ee, which is a most gaudy Ranelagh, +gilt, painted, and becupided like an Opera, but not calculated +to last as long as Mother Coliseum, being composed of chalk and +pasteboard. Round it are courts of treillage, that serve for +nothing, and behind it a canal, very like a horsepond, on which +there are fireworks and justs. Altogether it is very pretty; +but as there are few nabobs and nabobesses in this country, and +as the middling and common people are not much richer than Job +when he had lost every thing but his patience, the proprietors +are on the point of being ruined, unless the project takes +place that is talked of. It is, to oblige Corneille, Racine, +and Moli`ere to hold their tongues twice a-week, that their +audiences may go to the Colis`ee. This is like our +Parliament's adjourning when senators want to go to Newmarket. +There is a Monsieur Gaillard writing a "History of the +Rivalit`e de la France et de l'Angleterre."(50) I hope he will +not omit this parallel. + +The instance of their poverty that strikes me most, who make +political observations by the thermometer of baubles, is, that +there is nothing new in their shops. I know the faces of every +snuff-box and every tea-cup as well as those of Madame du Lac +and Monsieur Poirier. I have chosen some cups and saucers for +my Lady Ailesbury, as she ordered me; but I cannot say they are +at all extraordinary. I have bespoken two cabriolets for her, +instead of six, because I think them very dear, and that she +may have four more if she likes them. I shall bring, too, a +sample of a baguette that suits them. For myself, between +economy and the want of novelty, I have not laid out five +guineas--a very memorable anecdote in the history of my life. +Indeed, the Czarina and I have a little dispute; she has +offered to purchase the whole Crozat collection of pictures, at +which I had intended to ruin myself. The Turks thank her for +it! Apropos, they are sending from hence fourscore officers to +Poland, each of whom I suppose, like Almanzor, can stamp with +his foot and raise an army. + + As my sister travels like a Tartar princess with her whole +horde, she will arrive too late almost for me to hear from you +in return to this letter, which in truth requires no answer, +v`u que I shall set out myself on the 26th of August. You will +not imagine that I am glad to save myself the pleasure of +hearing from you; but I would not give you the trouble of +writing unnecessarily. If you are at home, and not in +Scotland, you will judge by these dates where to find me. +Adieu! + +P. S. Instead of restoring the Jesuits, they are proceeding to +annihilate the Celestines, Augustines, and some other orders. + +(44) The country palaces of the Duke of Orleans and the Prince +of Cond`e; who were in disgrace at court for having espoused +the cause of the Parliament of Paris, banished by the +Chancellor Maupeou. + +(45) The country seat of the Duc de Choiseul, to which, on his +ceasing to be first minister, he was banished by the King. + +(46) The following `echantillon of these vaudevilles was given +by Madame du Deffand to Walpole:-- + +"L'avez-vous vue, ma Du Barry, +Elle a ravi mon `ame; +Pour elle j'ai perdu l'esprit, +Des Fran`cais j'ai le bl`ame: +Charmants enfans de la Gourdon, +Est-elle chez vous maintenant? +Rendez-la-moi, +Je suis le Roi, +Soulagez mon martyre; +Rendez-la-moi, +Elle est `a moi, +Je suis son pauvre Sire. +Llavez-vous vue, etc. + +"Je sais qu'autrefois les laquais +Ont f`et`e ses jeunes attraits; +Que les cochers, +Les peruquiers, +L'aimaient, l'aimaient d'amour ex`eme, +Mais pas autant que je l'aime. +L'avez-vous vue," etc,-E. + +(47) Maupeou. + +(48) Madame du Barry.''' + +(49) The Abb`e Terrai was comptroller-general of the finances. +His mistress, known in the fashionable circles of Paris by the +name of La Sultane, received money, as it was supposed, in +concert with the Abb`e himself, for every act of favour or +justice solicited from the department over which he presided.-E. + +(50) In a letter to Walpole, Madame du Deffand thus speaks of +this work:--"Il m'arrive une bonne fortune apr`es laquelle je +soupirais depuis longtemps: c'est un livre qui me plait +infiniment; il est de M. Gaillard; il a Pour titre 'Rivalit`e +de la France et de l'Angleterre;' il est par chapitres, et +chaque chapitre est les `ev`enemens du r`egne d'un Roi de +France et d'un Roi d'Angleterre contemporains. Il est bien +loin d'`etre fini; il n'en est qu'a Philippe de Valois et +Edouard Trois. Il n'y a que trois volumes; il y en aura +peut-`etre douze ou quinze." The work, which was not completed +till the year 1774, extended to eleven Volumes.-E. + + + +Letter 31 To John Chute, Esq. +Paris, August 5, 1771. ((page 55) + +It is a great satisfaction to Me to find by your letter of the +30th, that you have had no return of your gout. I have been +assured here, that the best remedy is to cut one's nails in hot +water. It is, I fear, as certain as any other remedy! It +would at least be so here, if their bodies were of a piece with +their understandings; or if both were as curable as they are +the contrary. Your prophecy, I doubt, is not better founded +than the prescription. I may be lame; but I shall never be a +duck, nor deal in the garbage of the Alley. I envy your +Strawberry tide, and need not say how much I wish I was there +to receive you. Methinks, I should be as glad of a little +grass, as a seaman after a long voyage. Yet English gardening +gains ground here prodigiously-not much at a time, indeed--I +have literally seen one, that is exactly like a tailor's paper +of patterns. There is a Monsieur Boutin, who has tacked a +piece of what he calls an English garden to a set of stone +terraces, with steps of turf. There are three or four very +high hills, almost as high as, and exactly in the shape of, a +tansy pudding. You squeeze between these and a river, that is +conducted at obtuse angles in a stone channel, and supplied by +a pump, and when walnuts Come in I suppose it will be +navigable. In a corner enclosed by a chalk wall are the +samples I mentioned: there is a stripe of grass, another of +corn, and a third en friche, exactly in the order of beds in a +nursery. They have translated Mr. Whately's book,(51) and the +Lord knows what barbarism is going to be laid at our door. +This new anglomanie will literally be mad English. + +New arr`ets, new retrenchments, new misery, stalk forth every +day. The Parliament of Besan`con is dissolved; so are the +grenadiers de France. The King's tradesmen are all bankrupt; +no pensions are paid, and every body is reforming their suppers +and equipages. Despotism makes converts faster than ever +Christianity did. Louis Quinze is the true rex +Ckristianissimus, and has ten times more success than his +dragooning great-grandfather. Adieu, my dear Sir! Yours most +faithfully. + +Friday, 9th. + +This was to have gone by a private hand, but cannot depart till +Monday; so I may be continuing my letter till I bring it +myself. I have been again at the Chartreuse; and though it was +the sixth time, I am more enchanted with those paintings(52) +than ever. If it is not the first work in the world, and must +yield to the Vatican, yet in simplicity and harmony it beats +Raphael himself. There is a vapour over all the pictures, that +makes them more natural than any representation of objects-1 +cannot conceive bow it is effected! You see them through the +shine of a southeast wind. These poor folks do not know the +inestimable treasure they possess--but they are perishing these +pictures, and one gazes at them as at a setting sun. There is +the purity of a Racine in them, but they give me more pleasure- +-and I should much sooner be tired of the poet than of the +painter. + +It is very singular that I have not half the satisfaction in +going into C, churches and convents that I used to have. The +consciousness that the vision is dispelled, the want of fervour +so obvious in the religious, the solitude that one knows +proceeds from contempt, not from contemplation, make those +places appear like abandoned theatres destined to destruction. +The monks trot about as if they had not long to stay there; and +what used to be the holy gloom is now but dirt and darkness. +There is no more deception than in a tragedy acted by +candlesnuffers. One is sorry to think that an empire of common +sense would not be very picturesque; for, as there is nothing +but taste that can compensate for the imagination of madness, I +doubt there will never be twenty men of taste for twenty +thousand madmen. The world will no more see Athens, Rome, and +the Medici again, than a succession of five good emperors, like +Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, and the two Antonines. + +August 13. + +Mr. Edmonson called on me; and, as he sets on to-morrow, I can +safely trust my letter to him. I have, I own,, been much +shocked at reading Gray's(53) death in the papers. 'Tis an +hour that makes one forget any subject of complaint, especially +towards one with whom I lived in friendship from thirteen years +old. As self lies so rooted in self, no doubt the nearness of +our ages made the stroke recoil to my own breast; and having so +little expected his death, it is Plain how little I expect my +own. Yet to you, who of all men living are the most forgiving, +I need not excuse the concern I feel. I fear most men ought to +apologize for their want of feeling, instead of palliating that +sensation when they have it. I thought that what I had seen of +the world had hardened my heart; but I find that it had formed +my language, not extinguished my tenderness. In short, I am +really shocked--nay, I am hurt at my own weakness, as I +perceive that when I love any body, it is for my life; and I +have had too Much reason not to wish that such a disposition +may very seldom be put to the trial.(54) You, at least, are +the only person to whom I would venture to make such a +confession. + +Adieu! my dear Sir! Let me know when I arrive, which will be +about the last day of the month, when I am likely to see YOU. +I have much to say to you. Of being here I am most heartily +tired, and nothing but the dear old woman should keep me here +an hour-I am weary of them to death-but that is not new! Yours +ever. + +(51) Entitled "An Essay on Design in Gardening," Mr. Whately +was at this time under-secretary of state, and member for +Castle Rising. In January, 1772, he was made keeper of the +King's private roads, gates, and bridges, and died in the June +following.-E. + +(52) The Life of St. Bruno, painted by Le Soeur, in the +cloister of the Chartreuse. + +(53) On the 24th of July," says Mr. Mitford, "Gray, while at +dinner in the college hall, was seized with an attack of the +gout in his stomach. The violence of the disease resisted all +the powers of medicine: on the 29th he was seized with +convulsions, which returned more violently on the 30th; and he +expired on the evening of that day, in the fifty-fifth year of +his age." Works, Vol. i, P. lvi-E. + +(54) "It will appear from this and the two following letters," +observes Mr. Mitford, "that Walpole's affection and friendship +for Gray was warm and sincere after the reconcilement took +place; and indeed, before that, and immediately after the +quarrel, I believe his regard for Gray was undiminished." +Works, vol. iv. p. 2 12-E. + + + +Letter 32 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Paris, August 11, 1771. (page 57) + +You will have seen, I hope, before now, that I have not +neglected writing to you. I sent you a letter by my sister, +but doubt she has been a great while upon the road, as they +travel with a large family. I was not sure where you was, and +would not write at random by the post. + +I was just going out when I received yours and the newspapers. +I was struck in a most sensible manner, when, after reading +your letter, I saw in the newspapers that Gray is dead! So very +ancient an intimacy(55) and, I suppose, the natural reflection +to self on losing a person but a year older, made me absolutely +start in my chair. It seemed more a corporal than a mental +blow; and yet I am exceedingly concerned for him, and every +body must be so for the loss of such a genius. He called on me +but two or three days before I came hither; he complained of +being ill, and talked of the gout in his stomach--but I +expected his death no more than my own--and yet the same death +will probably be mine.(56) I am full of all these +reflections-but shall not attrist you with them: only do not +wonder that my letter will be short, when my mind is full of +what I do not give vent to. It was but last night that I was +thinking how few persons last, if one lives to be old, to whom +one can talk without reserve. It is impossible to be intimate +with the Young, because they and the old cannot converse on the +same common topics; and of the old that survive, there are few +one can commence a friendship with, because one has probably +all one's life despised their heart or their understandings. +These are the steps through which one passes to the unenviable +lees of life! + +I am very sorry for the state of poor Lady Beauchamp. It +presages ill. She had a prospect of long happiness. Opium is +a very false friend. I will get you Bougainville's book.(57) +I think it is on the Falkland Isles, for it cannot be on those +just discovered; but as I set out to-morrow se'nnight, and +probably may have no opportunity sooner of sending it, I will +bring it myself. Adieu! Yours ever. + +(55) It will b recollected, that General Conway travelled with +Gray and Walpole in 1739, and separated from them at Geneva.-E. + +(56) Gray's last letter to Walpole was dated March 17, 1771; it +contained the following striking passage:--"He must have a very +strong stomach that can digest the crambe recocta of Voltaire. +Atheism is a vile dish, though all the cooks of France combine +to make new sauces to it. As to the soul, perhaps they may +have none on the Continent; but I do think we have such things +in England; Shakspeare, for example, I believe, had several to +his own share. As to the Jews (though they do not eat pork), I +like them, because they are better Christians than Voltaire." +Works vol. iv. p. 190.-E. + +(57) An English translation of the book appeared in 1773, under +the title of "History of a Voyage to the Malonine, or Falkland +Islands, made in 1763 and 1764, under the command of M. de +Bougainville; and of two Voyages to the Straits of Magellan, +with an account of the Patagonians; translated from Don +Pernety's Historical Journal, written in French." In the same +year was published a translation of Bougainville's "Voyage +autour du Monde." This celebrated circumnavigator retired from +the service in 1790. He afterwards was made Count and Senator +by Napoleon Buonaparte, became member of the National Institute +and of the Royal Society of London, and died at Paris in 1811, +at the age of eighty-two.-E. + + +Letter 33 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Paris, August 12, 1771. (page 53) + +I am excessively shocked at reading in the papers that Mr. Gray +is dead! I wish to God you may be able to tell me it is not +true! Yet in this painful uncertainty I must rest some days! +None of my acquaintance are in London--I do not know to whom to +apply but to you--alas! I fear in vain! Too many circumstances +speak it true!--the detail is exact;--a second paper arrived by +the same post, and does not contradict it--and, what is worse, +I saw him but four or five days before I came hither: he had +been to Kensington for the air, complained of the gout flying +about him, of sensations of it in his stomach: I, indeed, +thought him changed, and that he looked ill--still I had not +the least idea of his being in danger--I started up from my +chair when I read the paragraph--a cannon-ball would not have +surprised me more! The shock but ceased, to give way to my +concern; and my hopes are too ill-founded to mitigate it. If +nobody has the charity to write to me, my anxiety must continue +till the end of the month, for I shall set out on my return on +the 26th; and unless you receive this time enough for your +answer to leave London on the 20th, in the evening, I cannot +meet it till I find it in Arlington-street, whither I beg you +to direct it. + +If the event is but too true, pray add to this melancholy +service, that of telling me any circumstance you know of his +death. Our long, very long friendship, and his genius, must +endear to me every thing that relates to him. What writings +has he left? Who are his executors?(58) I should earnestly +wish, if he has destined any thing to the public, to print it +at my press--it would do me honour, and would give me an +opportunity of expressing what I feel for him. Methinks, as we +grow old, our only business here is to adorn the graves of our +friends, or to dig our own! Adieu, dear Sir! Yours ever. + +P. S. I heard this unhappy news but last night; and have just +been told, that Lord Edward Bentinck goes in haste to-morrow to +England; so that you will receive this much sooner than I +expected: still I must desire you to direct to +Arlington-street, as by far the surest conveyance to me. + +(58) His executors were, Mason the poet and the Rev. Dr. Brown, +master of Pembroke Hall. "He hath desired," wrote Dr. Brown to +Dr. Wharton, "to be buried near his mother, at Stoke, near +Windsor, and that one of his executors would see him laid in +the grave; a melancholy task, which must come to my share, for +Mr. Mason is not here." Works, vol. iv. p. 206.-E. + + +Letter 34 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Paris, August 25, 1771. (page 59) + +I have passed my biennial six weeks here, my dear lord, and am +preparing to return as soon as the weather will allow me. It +is some comfort to the patriot virtue, envy, to find this +climate worse than our own. There were four very hot days at +the end of last month, which, you know, with us northern people +compose a summer: it has rained half this, and for these three +days there has been a deluge, a storm, and extreme cold. Yet +these folks shiver in silk, and sit with their Windows open +till supper-time. Indeed, firing is very dear, and nabobs very +scarce. Economy and retrenchment are the words in fashion, and +are founded in a little more than caprice. I have heard no +instance of luxury but in Mademoiselle Guimard, a favourite +dancer, who is building a palace: round the salle `a manger +there are windows that open upon hot-houses, that are to +produce flowers all winter. That is worthy of * * * * * *. +There is a finer dancer, whom Mr. Hobart is to transplant to +London; a Mademoiselle Heinel or Ingle, a Fleming.(59) She is +tall, perfectly made, very handsome, and has a set of attitudes +copied from the classics. She moves as gracefully slow as +Pygmalion's statue when it was Coming to life, and moves her +leg round as imperceptibly as if she was dancing in the zodiac. +But she is not Virgo. + +They make no more of breaking parliaments here than an English +mob does of breaking windows. It is pity people are so +ill-sorted. If this King and ours could cross over and figure +in, Louis XV. would dissolve our parliament if Polly Jones did +but say a word to him. They have got into such a habit of it +here, that you would think a parliament was a polypus: they cut +it in two, and by next morning half of it becomes a whole +assembly. This has literally been the case at Besan`con.(60) +Lord and Lady Barrymore, who are in the highest favour at +Compiegne, will be able to carry over the receipt. + +Everybody feels in their own way. My grief is to see the +ruinous Condition of the palaces and pictures. I was yesterday +at the Louvre. Le Brun's noble gallery, where the battles of +Alexander are, and of which he designed the ceiling, and even +the shutters, bolts, and locks, is in a worse condition than +the old gallery at Somerset-house. It rains in upon the +pictures, though there are stores of much more valuable pieces +than those of Le Brun. Heaps of glorious works by Raphael and +all the great masters are piled up and equally neglected at +Versailles. Their care is not less destructive in private +houses. The Duke of Orleans' pictures and the Prince of +Monaco's have been cleaned, and varnished so thick that you May +see your face in them; and some of them have been transported +from board to cloth, bit by bit, and the seams filled up with +colour; so that in ten years they will not be worth sixpence. +It makes me as peevish as if I was posterity! I hope your +lordship's works will last longer than these of Louis XIV. The +glories of his si`ecle hasten fast to their end, and little +will remain but those of his authors. + +(59) "It was at this time," says Dr. Burney, "that dancing +seemed first to gain the ascendant over music, by the superior +talents of Mademoiselle Heinel, whose grace and execution were +so perfect as to eclipse all other excellence. Crowds +assembled at the Opera-house, more for the gratification of the +eye than the ear; for neither the invention of a new composer, +nor the talents of new singers, attracted the public to the +theatre, which was almost abandoned till the arrival of this +lady, whose extraordinary merit had an extraordinary +recompense; for, besides the six hundred pounds' salary allowed +her by the Honourable Mr. Hobart, as manager, she was +complimented with a regallo of six hundred more from the +Maccaroni Club. 'E molto particulare,' said Cocchi, the +Composer; 'ma quei Inglesi non fanno conto d'alcuna cosa se non +ben pagata:' It is very extraordinary that the English set no +value upon any thing but what they pay an exorbitant price +for."-E. + +(60) The Parliaments of Besan`con, Bourdeaux, +Toulouse and Britany, were, in succession, totally suppressed +by Louis XV. New courts were assembled in their stead; most of +the former members being sent into banishment.-E. + + + +Letter 35 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street, Sept. 7, 1771. (page 61) + +I arrived yesterday,(61) within an hour or two after you was +gone, which mortified me exceedingly: Lord knows when I shall +see you. You are so active and so busy, and cast bullets(62) +and build bridges, are pontifex maximus, and, like Sir John +Thorold or Cimon, triumph over land and wave, +that one can never get a word with you. Yet I am very well +worth a general's or a politician's ear. I have been deep in +all the secrets of France, and confidant of some of the +principals of both parties. I know what is, and is to be, +though I am neither priest nor conjuror -and have heard a vast +deal about breaking carabiniers and grenadiers; though, as +usual, I dare say I shall give a woful account of both. The +worst part is, that by the most horrid oppression and injustice +their finances will very soon be in good order-unless some +bankrupt turns Ravaillac, which will not surprise me. The +horror the nation has conceived of the King and Chancellor +makes it probable that the latter, at least, will be +sacrificed. He seems not to be without apprehension, and has +removed from the King's library a MS. trial of a chancellor +who was condemned to be hanged under Charles VII. For the +King, qui a fait ses `epreuves, and not to his honour, you will +not wonder that he lives in terrors. + +I have executed all Lady Ailesbury's commissions; but mind, I +do not commission you to tell her, for you would certainly +forget it. As you will, no doubt, come to town to report who +burnt Portsmouth;(63) I will meet you here, if I am apprised of +the day. Your niece's marriage,(64) pleases me extremely. +Though I never saw him till last night, I know a great deal of +her future husband, and like his character. His person is much +better than I expected, and far preferable to many of the fine +young moderns. He is better than Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, at +least as well as the Duke of Devonshire, and Adonis compared to +the charming Mr. Fitzpatrick. Adieu! + +(61) Mr. Walpole arrived at Paris on the '10th of July, and +left it on the 2d of September-E. + +(62) Mr. Conway was now at the head of the ordnance, but with +the title and appointments of lieutenant-general only. The +particular circumstances attending this are thus recorded in a +letter from Mr. Walpole to another correspondent at the time +(January 1770), and deserve to be known:--"The King offered the +mastership of the ordnance, on Lord Granby's resignation, to +Mr. Conway, who is only lieutenant-general of it: he said he +had lived in friendship with Lord Granby, and would not profit +by his spoils; but, as he thought he could do some essential +service in the office, where there were many abuses, if his +Majesty would be pleased to let him continue as he is, be would +do the business of the office without accepting the salary."-E. + +(63) On the 27th of July, a fire had broken out in the dockyard +at Portsmouth, which, as it might be highly prejudicial to the +country at that period, excited universal alarm. The loss +sustained by it, which at first was supposed to be half a +million, is said to have been about one hundred and fifty +thousand pounds.-E. + +(64) The marriage of Lady Gertrude Seymour Conway to Lord +Villiers, afterwards Earl of Grandison. + + +Letter 36 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 10, 1771. (page 62) + +However melancholy the occasion is, I can but give you a +thousand thanks, dear Sir-., for the kind trouble you have +taken, and the information you have given me about poor Mr. +Gray. I received your first letter at Paris; the last I found +at my house in town, where I arrived only on Friday last. The +circumstance of the professor refusing to rise in the night and +visit him, adds to the shock. Who is that true professor of +physic? Jesus! is their absence to murder as well as their +presence? + +I have not heard from Mr. Mason, but I have written to him. Be +so good as to tell the Master at Pembroke,(65) though I have +not the honour of knowing him, how sensible I am of his +proposed attention to me, and how much I feel for him in losing +a friend of so excellent a genius. Nothing will allay my own +concern like seeing any of his compositions that I have not yet +seen. It is buying them too dear--but when the author is +irreparably lost, the produce of his Mind is the next best +possession. I have offered my press to Mr. Mason, and hope it +will be accepted. + +Many thanks for the cross, dear Sir; it is precisely what I +wished. I hope you and Mr. Essex preserve your resolution of +passing a few days here between this and Christmas. Just at +present I am not My own master, having stepped into the middle +of a sudden match in my own family. Lord Hertford is going to +marry his third daughter to Lord Villiers, son of Lady +Grandison, the present wife of Sir Charles Montagu. We are all +felicity, and in a round of dinners. I am this minute returned +from Beaumont-lodge, at Old Windsor, where Sir Charles +Grandison lives. I will let you know, if the papers do not, +when our festivities are subsided. + +I shall receive with gratitude from Mr. Tyson either drawing or +etching of our departed friend; but wish not to have it +inscribed to me, as it is an honour, more justly due to Mr. +Stonehewer. If the Master of Pembroke will accept a copy of a +small picture I have of Mr. Gray, painted soon after the +publication of his Ode on Eton, it shall be at his service--and +after his death I beg, it may be bequeathed to his college. +Adieu! + +(65) Dr. James Brown. Gray used to call him "le petit bon +homme;" and Cole, in his Athene Cantab, says of him--"He is a +very worthy man, a good scholar, small, and short-sighted." In +the Chatham Correspondence there will be found an interesting +letter from the Master of Pembroke to Lord Chatham, in which he +thus speaks of his illustrious son, the future minister of this +country: " Notwithsanding the illness of your son, I have +myself seen, and have heard enough from his tutors, to be +convinced both of his extraordinary genius and most amiable +disposition. He promises fair, indeed to be one of those +extraordinary persons whose eminent parts, equalled by as +eminent industry, continue in a progressive state throughout +their lives; such persons appear to be formed by Heaven to +assist and bless mankind." Vol. iv. p. 311.-E. + + + +Letter 37 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 12, 1771. (page 63) + +Dear Sir, +As our wedding will not be so soon as I expected, and as I +should be unwilling You Should take a journey in bad weather, I +wish it may be convenient to you and Mr. Essex to come hither +on the 25th day of this present month. If one can depend on +any season, it is on the chill suns of October, which, like an +elderly beauty, are less capricious than spring or summer. Our +old-fashioned October, you know, reached eleven days into +modern November, and I still depend on that reckoning, when I +have a mind to protract the year. + +Lord Ossory is charmed with Mr. Essex's cross(66) and wishes +much to consult him on the proportions. Lord Ossory has taken a +small house very near mine; is now, and will be here again, +after Newmarket. He is determined to erect it at Ampthill, and +I have written the following lines to record the reason: + +In days of old here Ampthill's towers were seen; +The mournful refuge of an injured queen. + Here flowed her pure, but unavailing tears; +Here blinded zeal sustain'd her sinking years. + Yet Freedom hence-her radiant banners waved, +And love avenged a realm by priests enslaved. + From Catherine's wrongs a nation's bliss was spread, +And Luther's light from Henry's lawless bed, + +I hope the satire on Henry VIII. will make you excuse the +compliment to Luther, Which, like most poetic compliments, does +not come from my heart. I only like him better than Henry, +Calvin, and the Church of Rome, who were bloody persecutors. +Calvin was an execrable villain, and the worst of all; for he +copied those whom he pretended to correct. Luther was as +jovial as Wilkes, and served the cause of liberty without +canting. Yours most sincerely. + +(66) Mr. Cole applied to Mr. Essex, who furnished a design for +the cross, which was followed. + + + +Letter 38 To The Rev Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 23, 1771. (page 63) + +I am sorry, dear Sir, that I cannot say your answer is as +agreeable and entertaining as you flatter me my letter was; but +consider, you are prevented coming to me, and have flying pains +of rheumatism--either were sufficient to spoil your letter. + +I am sure of being here till to-morrow se'nnight, the last of +this month; consequently I may hope to see Mr. Essex here on +Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday next. After that I cannot answer +for myself, on account of our wedding, which depends on the +return of a courier from Ireland. If I can command any days +certain in November, I will give you notice: and yet I shall +have a scruple of dragging you so far from home at such a +season. I will leave it to your option, only begging you to be +assured that I shall always be most happy to see you. + +I am making a very curious purchase at Paris, the complete +armour of Francis the First. It is gilt, in relief, and is +very rich and beautiful. It comes out of the Crozat +collection.(67) I am building a small chapel, too, in my +garden, to receive two valuable pieces of antiquity, and which +have been presents singularly lucky for me. They are the +window from Bexhill, with the portraits of Henry III. and his +Queen, procured for me by Lord Ashburnham. The other, great +part of the tomb of Capoccio, mentioned in my Anecdotes of +Painting on the subject of the Confessor's shrine, and sent to +me from Rome by Mr. Hamilton, our minister at Naples. It is +very extraordinary that I should happen to be master of these +curiosities. After next summer, by which time my castle and +collection will be complete (for if I buy more I must build +another castle for another collection), I propose to form +another catalogue and description, and shall take the liberty +to call on you for your assistance. In the mean time there is +enough new to divert you at present. + +(67) This curiosity was at first estimated at a thousand +crowns, but Madame du Deffand finally purchased it for Walpole +for fifty louis. "Ce bijou," she says, "me parait un peu cher +et ressemble beaucoup aux casques du Ch`ateau d,Otrante: si +vous persistez `a le d`esirer, je le payerai, je le ferai +encaisser et Partir sur le champ. C'est certainement une +pi`ece tr`es belle et tr`es rare, mais infiniment ch`ere."-E. + + + + +Letter 39 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Late Strawberry Hill, Jan. 7, 1772. (page 64) + +You have read of my calamity without knowing it, and will pity +me when you do. I have been blown up; my castle is blown up; +Guy Fawkes has been about my house: and the 5th of November has +fallen on the 6th of January! In short, nine thousand +powder-mills broke loose yesterday morning on +Hounslow-heath;(68) a whole squadron of them came hither, and +have broken eight of my painted-glass windows; and the north +side of the castle looks as if it had stood a siege. The two +saints in the hall have suffered martyrdom! they have had their +bodies cut off, and nothing remains but their heads. The two +next great sufferers are indeed two of the least valuable, +being the passage-windows to the library and great parlour--a +fine pane is demolished in the round-room; and the window by +the gallery is damaged. Those in the cabinet, and +Holbein-room, and gallery, and blue-room, and green-closet, +etc. have escaped. As the storm came from the northwest, the +china-closet was not touched, nor a cup fell down. The +bow-window of brave old coloured glass, at Mr. Hindley's, is +massacred; and all the north sides of Twickenham and Brentford +are shattered. At London it was proclaimed an earthquake, and +half the inhabitants ran into the street. + +As lieutenant-general of the ordnance, I must beseech you to +give strict order that no more powder-mills may blow up. My +aunt, Mrs. Kerwood, reading one day in the papers that a +distiller's had been burnt by the head of the still flying off, +said, she wondered they did not make an act of parliament +against the heads of stills flying off. Now, I hold it much +easier for you to do a body this service; and would recommend +to your consideration whether it would not be prudent to have +all magazines of powder kept under water till they are wanted +for service. In the mean time, I expect a pension to make me +amends for what I have suffered under the government. Adieu! +Yours. + +(68) Three powder-mills blew up on Hounslow-heath, on the 6th +of January, when such was the violence of the explosion that it +was felt not only in the metropolis, but as far as Gloucester, +and was very generally mistaken for the shock of an +earthquake.-E. + + + +Letter 40 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Jan. 28, 1772. (page 65) + + +It is long indeed, dear Sir, since we corresponded. I should +not have been silent if I had had any thing worth telling you +in your way: but I grow such an antiquity myself, that I think +I am less fond of what remains of our predecessors. + +I thank you for Bannerman's proposal; I mean, for taking the +trouble to send it, for I am not at all disposed to subscribe. +I thank you more for the note on King Edward; I mean, too, for +your friendship in thinking of me. Of Dean Milles I cannot +trouble myself to think any more. His piece is at Strawberry: +perhaps I may look at it for the sake of your note. The bad +weather keeps me in town, and a good deal at home; which I find +very comfortable, literally practising what so many persons +pretend they intend, being quiet and enjoying my fireside in my +elderly days. + +Mr. Mason has shown me the relics of poor Mr. Gray. I am sadly +disappointed at finding them so very inconsiderable. He always +persisted, when I inquired about his writings, that he had +nothing by him. I own I doubted. I am grieved he was so very +near exact--I speak of my own satisfaction; as to his genius, +what he published during his life will establish his fame as +long as our language lasts, and there is a man of genius left. +There is a silly fellow, I do not know who, that has published +a volume of Letters on the English Nation, With characters of +our modern authors. He has talked such nonsense On Mr. Gray, +that I have no patience with the compliments he has paid me. +He must have an excellent taste; and gives me a woful opinion +of my own trifles, when he likes them, and cannot see the +beauties of a poet that ought to be ranked in the first line. +I am more humbled by any applause in the present age, than by +hosts of such critics as Dean Milles. Is not Garrick reckoned +a tolerable author, though he has proved how little sense is +necessary to form a great actor'? His Cymon, his prologues and +epilogues, and forty such pieces of trash, are below +mediocrity, and yet delight the mob in the boxes as well as in +the footman's gallery. I do not mention the things written in +his praise; because he writes most Of them himself! But you +know any one popular merit can confer all merit. Two women +talking Of Wilkes, one said he squinted--t'other replied, +"Squints!--well, if he does, it is not more than a man should +squint." For my part, I can see how extremely well Garrick +acts, without thinking him six feet high. It is said +Shakspeare was a bad actor; why do not his divine plays make +our wise judges conclude that he was a good one? They have not +a proof of the contrary, as they have in Garrick's works--but +what is it to you or me what he is? We may see him act with +pleasure, and nothing obliges us to read his writings.(69) + +(69) The best defence of Garrick against the charges which +Walpole so repeatedly brings against him will be found in the +estimation in which he was held by the most distinguished of +his contemporaries. His friend Dr. Johnson thought well of' +his talent in prologue writing: "Dryden," he said, "has written +prologues superior to any that David has written; but David has +written more good prologues than Dryden has done. It is +wonderful that he has been able to write such variety of them. +A true conception of character and natural expression of it, +were his distinguished excellences; but I thought him less to +be envied on the stage than at the head of a table. He was the +first man in the world for sprightly conversation."-E. + + + +Letter 41 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, June 9, 1772. (page 66) + +Dear sir, +The preceding paper(70) was given me by a gentleman, who has a +better opinion of my bookhood than I deserve. I could give him +no satisfaction, but told him, I would get inquiry made at +Cambridge for the pieces he wants. If you can give any +assistance in this chase, I am sure you will: as it will be +trouble enough, I will not make my letter longer. + +(70) This letter enclosed some queries from a gentleman abroad, +respecting books, etc. relating to the order of Malta. + + + +Letter 42 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, June 17, 1772. (page 66) + +Dear sir, +You are a mine that answers beyond those of Peru. I have given +the treasure you sent me to the gentleman from whom I had the +queries. He is vastly obliged to you, and I am sure so am I, +for the trouble you have given yourself"and, therefore I am +going to give you more. King Edward's Letters are printed.(71) +Shall I keep them for you or send them, and how? I intend you +four copies--shall you want more? Lord Ossory takes a hundred, +and I have as many; but none will be sold. + +I am out of materials for my press. I am thinking of printing +some numbers of miscellaneous MSS. from my own and Mr. Gray's +collection. If you have any among your stores that are +historic, new and curious, and like to have them printed, I +shall be glad of them. Among Gray's are letters of Sir Thomas +Wyat the elder.(72) I am sure you must have a thousand hints +about him. If you will send them to me I will do you justice; +as you will see I have in King Edward's Letters. Do you know +any thing of his son,(73) the insurgent, in Queen Mary's reign? + +I do not know whether it was not to Payne the bookseller, but I +am sure I gave somebody a very few notes to the British +Topography. They were indeed of very little consequence. + +I have got to-day, and am reading with entertainment, two vols. +in octavo, the Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Antony Wood.,(74) +I do not know the author, but he is of Oxford. I think you +should add that of your friend Brown Willis.(75) There is a +queer piece on Freemasonry in one of the volumes, said to be +written, on very slender authority, by Henry VI. with notes by +Mr. Locke: a very odd conjunction! It says that Arts were +brought from the East by Peter Gower. As I am sure you will +not find an account of this singular person in all your +collections, be it known to you, that Peter Gower was commonly +called Pythagoras. I remember our newspapers insisting that +Thomas Kouli Khan was an Irishman, and that his true name was +Thomas Callaghan. + +On reading over my letter, I find I am no sceptic, having +affirmed no less than four times, that I am sure. Though this +is extremely awkward, I am sure I will not write my letter over +again; so pray excuse or burn my tautology. + +P. S. I had like to have forgotten the most obliging, and to me +the most interesting part of your letter-your kind offer of +coming hither. I accept it most gladly; but, for reasons I +will tell you, wish it may be deferred a little. I am going to +Park-place (General Conway's), then to Ampthill (Lord +Ossory's), and then to Goodwood (Duke of Richmond's); and the +beginning of August to Wentworth Castle (Marquis of +Rockingham's); so that I shall not be at all settled here till +the end of the latter month. But I have a stronger reason. By +that time will be finished a delightful chapel I am building in +my garden, to contain the shrine of Capoccio, and the Window +with Henry III. and his Queen. My new bedchamber will be +finished too, which is now all in litter: and, besides, +September is a quiet month; visits to make or receive are over, +and the troublesome go to shoot partridges. If that time suits +you, pray assure me I shall see you on the first of September. + +(71) "Copies of seven original Letters from King Edward VI. to +Barnaby Fitzpatrick." Strawberry Hill, 1772.-E. + +(72) He was the contemporary and friend of Surrey, and was +accused by Henry VIII. of being the paramour of Anne Boleyn; +but the King's suspicion dying away, he was appointed, in 1537, +Henry's ambassador to the Emperor. His poems have recently +been published in the Aldine edition of the Poets; and in the +Biographical Preface to them are included some of his admirable +letters.-E. + +(73) Sir Thomas Wyatt "the younger," son of the preceding, who +is presumed to have received that designation from having been +knighted in the lifetime of his father. Having joined in the +effort to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne, he was condemned +and executed for high treason, on the 11th of April 1554.-E. + +(74) The editor was W. Huddersford, fellow of Trinity +College.-E. + +(74) Browne Willis, the antiquary, and author of "A Survey of +the Cathedrals of England;" "Notitia Parliamentaria," etc. He +was born at Blandford in 1682, and died in February 1760. Dr. +Ducarel printed privately, immediately after his death, a small +quarto pamphlet, entitled " Some Account Of Browne Willis, Esq. +LL. D." One of Willis's peculiarities was his fondness for +visiting cathedrals on the saints, days to which they were +dedicated.-E. + + + +Letter 43 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Monday, June 22, 1772. (page 68) + +It is lucky that I have had no dealings with Mr. Fordyce;(75) +for, if he had ruined me, as he has half the world, I could not +have run away. I tired myself with walking on Friday: the gout +came on Saturday in my foot; yesterday I kept my bed till four +o'clock, and my room all day-but, with wrapping myself all over +with bootikins, have scarce had any pain-my foot swelled +immediately, and today I am descended into the blueth and +greenth:(76) and though you expect to find that I am paving the +way to an excuse, I think I shall be able to be with you on +Saturday. All I intend to excuse myself from, is walking. I +should certainly never have the gout, if I had lost the use of +my feet. Cherubims that have no legs, and do nothing but stick +their chins in a cloud and sing, are never out of order. +Exercise is the worst thing in the world, and as bad an +invention as gunpowder. + +Apropos to Mr. Fordyce, here is a passage ridiculously +applicable to him, that I met with yesterday in the letters of +Guy Patin: "Il n'y a pas long-temps qu'un auditeur des comptes +nomm`e Mons. Nivelle fit banqueroute; et tout fra`ichement, +c'est-`a-dire depuis trois jours, un tr`esorier des parties +casuelles, nomm`e SanSon, en a fait autant; et pour vous +montrer qu'il est vrai que res humanae faciunt circulum, comme +il a `et`e autrefois dit par Plato et par Aristote, celui-l`a +s'en retourne d'o`u il vient. Il est fils d'un paysan; il a +`et`e laquais de son premier m`etier, et aujourd'hui il n'est +plus rien, si non qu'il lui reste une assez belle femme."--I do +not think I can find in Patin or Plato, nay, nor in Aristotle, +though he wrote about every thing, a parallel case to Charles +Fox:(77) there are advertised to be sold more annuities of his +and his society, to the amount of five hundred thousand pounds +a-year! I wonder what he will do next, when he has sold the +estates of all his friends! + +I have been reading the most delightful book in the world, the +Lives of Leland, Tom earne, and Antony Wood. The last's diary +makes a thick volume in octavo. One entry is, "This day Old +Joan began to make my bed." In the story of Leland is an +examination of a freemason, written by the hand of King Henry +VI., with notes by Mr. Locke. Freemasonry, Henry VI., and +Locke, make a strange heterogeneous olio; but that is not all. +The respondent, who defends the mystery of masonry, says it was +brought into Europe by the Venetians--he means the Phoenicians. +And who do you think propagated it? Why, one Peter Gore--And +who do you think that was?--One Pythagoras, Pythagore. I do +not know whether it is not still More extraordinary, that this +and the rest of the nonsense in that account made Mr. Locke +determine to be a freemason: so would I too, if I could expect +to hear of more Peter Gores. + +Pray tell Lady Lyttelton that I say she will certainly kill +herself if she lets Lady Ailesbury drag her twice a-day to feed +the pheasants, and you make her climb cliffs and clamber over +mountains. She has a tractability that alarms me for her; and +if she does not pluck up a spirit, and determine never to be +put out of her own way, I do not know what may be the +Consequence. I will come and set her an example of +immovability. Take notice, I do not say one civil syllable to +Lady Ailesbury. She has not passed a whole day here these two +years. She is always very gracious, says she will come when +you will fix a time, as if you governed, and then puts it off +whenever it is proposed, nor will spare one Single day from +Park-place-as if other people were not as partial to their own +Park-places, Adieu! Yours ever. + +Tuesday noon. + +I wrote my letter last night; this morning I received yours, +and shall wait till Sunday, as you bid me, which will be more +convenient for my gout, though not for other engagements, but I +shall obey the superior, as nullum tempus occurrit regi et +podagrae. + +(75) The greatest consternation prevailed at this time in the +metropolis, in consequence of the banking-house of Neale, +James, Fordyce, and Down having stopped payment. Fordyce was +bred a hosier in Aberdeen. For a memoir of him, see Gent. Mag. +vol. x1ii. p. 310.-E. + +(76) Cant words of Walpole for blue and green. He means, that +he came out of his room to the blue sky and green fields. + +(77) Gibbon, in a letter to Mr. Holroyd, of the 8th of +February, in reference to the recent debate in the House of +Commons, on the clerical petition for relief from subscription +to the Thirty-nine Articles, says--"I congratulate you on the +late victory of our dear Mamma, the Church of England. She had, +last Thursday, seventy-one rebellious sons, Who pretended to +set aside her will, on a account of insanity; but two hundred +and seventeen worthy champions, headed by Lord North, Burke, +Charles Fox, etc., though they allowed the thirty-nine clauses +of her testament were absurd and unreasonable, supported the +validity of it with infinite honour. By the bye, Charles Fox +prepared himself for that holy work by passing twenty-one hours +in the pious exercise of hazard; his devotions cost him only +about five hundred pounds an hour, in all, eleven thousand +pounds."-E. + + + +Letter 44 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, July 7, 1772. (page 70) + +Dear Sir, +I sent you last week by the Cambridge Fly, that puts up in +Gray's-inn-lane, six copies of King Edward's Letters, but fear +I forgot to direct their being left at Mr. Bentham's, by which +neglect perhaps you have not yet got them; so that I have been +very blamable, while I thought I was very expeditious; and it +was not till reading your letter again just now that I +discovered my carelessness. + +I have not heard of Dr. Glynn, etc., but the housekeeper has +orders to receive them. I thank you a thousand times for the +Maltese notes, which I have given to the gentleman, and for the +Wyattiana: I am going to work on the latter. + +I have not yet seen Mr. 's print, but am glad it is so like. I +expected Mr. Mason would have sent me one early; but I suppose +he keeps it for me, as I shall call on him in my way to Lord +Strafford's. + +Mr. West,(78) one of our brother antiquaries, is dead. He had +a very curious collection of old pictures, English coins, +English prints, and manuscripts. But he was so rich, that I +take for granted nothing will be sold. I could wish for his +family pictures of Henry V. and Henry VIII. + +Foote, in his new comedy of The Nabob, has lashed Master Doctor +Miles and our Society very deservedly for the nonsensical +discussion they had this winter about Whittington and his Cat. +Few of them are fit for any thing better than such researches. +Poor Mr. Granger has been very ill, but is almost recovered. I +intend to invite him to meet you in September. It is a party I +shall be very impatient for: you know how sincerely I am, dear +Sir, your obliged and Obedient humble servant. + +(78) James West, Esq. He was for some time one of the +secretaries of the treasury, vice president of the Society of +Antiquaries, and president of the Royal Society. His curious +collection of manuscripts were purchased by the Earl of +Shelburne, and are now deposited in the British Museum.-E. + + + + +Letter 45 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, July 28, 1772. (page 70) + +Dear Sir, +I am anew obliged to you, as I am perpetually, for the notice +you give me of another intended publication against me in the +Archaeologia, or Old Woman's Logic. By Your account, the +author will add much credit to their Society! For my part, I +shall take no notice of any of his handycrafts. However, as +there seems to be a willingness to carp at me, and as gnats may +on a sudden provoke one to give a slap, I choose to be at +liberty to say what I think Of the learned Society; and +therefore I have taken leave of them, having so good an +occasion presented as their council on Whittington and his Cat, +and the ridicule that Foote has thrown on them. They are +welcome to say any thing on my writings, but that they are the +works of a fellow of so foolish a Society. + +I am at work on the Life of Sir Thomas Wyat, but it does not +please me; nor will it be entertaining, though you have +contributed so many materials towards it. You must take one +trouble more it is to inquire and search for a book that I want +to see. It is the Pilgrim; was written by William Thomas, who +was executed in Queen Mary's time; but the book was printed +under, and dedicated to, Edward VI. I have only an imperfect +memorandum of it, and cannot possibly recall to mind from +whence I made it. All I think I remember is, that the book was +in the King's library. I have sent to the Museum to inquire +after it; but I cannot find it mentioned in Ames's History of +English Printers. Be so good as to ask all your antiquarian +friends if they know such a work. + +Amidst all your kindness, you have added one very disagreeable +paragraph:--I mean, you doubt about coming here in September. +Fear of a sore throat would be a reason for your never coming. +It is one of the distempers in the world the least to be +foreseen, and September, a dry month, one of the least likely +months to bring it. I do not like your recurring to so very +ill-founded an excuse, and positively will not accept it, +unless you wish I should not be so much as I an, dear Sir, Your +most faithful humble servant, +H. W. + + + +Letter 46 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Aug. 25, 1772. (page 71) + +Dear sir, +I thank YOU for your notices, dear Sir, and will deliver you +from the trouble of any further pursuit of the Peleryne of +Thomas. I have discovered him among the Cottonian MSS. in the +Museum, and am to see him. + +If Dr. Browne is returned to Cambridge, may I beg you to give +him a thousand thanks for the present he left at my house, a +goarstone and a seal, that belonged to Mr. Gray. I shall lay +them up in my cabinet at Strawberry among my most valuables. +Dr. Browne, however, was not quite kind to me; for he left no +direction where to find him in town, so that I could not wait +upon him, nor invite him to Strawberry Hill, as I much wished +to do, Do not these words, "invite him to Strawberry," make +Your ears tingle? September is at hand, and You must have no +sore throat. The new chapel in the garden is almost finished, +and you must come to the dedication. + +I have seen Lincoln and York, and to say the truth, prefer the +former in some respects. In truth, I was scandalized in the +latter. William of Hatfield's tomb and figure is thrown aside +into a hole: and yet the chapter possess an estate that his +mother gave them. I have charged Mr. Mason(79) with my +anathema, unless they do justice. I saw Roche Abbey, too; +which is hid in such a venerable chasm, that you might lie +concealed there even from a 'squire parson of the parish. Lord +Scarborough, to whom it belongs, and who lives at next door, +neglects it as much as if he was afraid of ghosts. I believe +Montesino's cave lay in just such a solemn thicket, which is +now so overgrown, that, when one finds the spot, one can scarce +find the ruins. + +I forgot to tell you, that in the screen of York Minster there +are most curious statues of the Kings of England, from the +Conqueror to Henry VI.; very singular, evidently by two +different hands, the one better than the other, and most of +them I am persuaded, very authentic. Richard II., Henry III., +and Henry V., I am sure are; and Henry Iv., though unlike the +common portrait at Hampton-court, in Herefordshire, the most +singular and villanous countenance I ever saw. I intend to try +to get them well engraved. That old fool, James I., is crowded +in, in the place of Henry VII., that was taken away to make +room for this piece of flattery; for the chapter did not slight +live princes. Yours ever. + +(79) Mason was a residentiary of York cathedral; as well as +prebendary of Duffield, and rector of Aston.-E. + + + +Letter 47 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, August 28, 1772. (page 72) + +Dear Sir, +Your repentance is much more agreeable than your sin, and will +cancel it whenever you please. Still I have a fellow-feeling +for the indolence of age, and have myself been writing an +excuse this instant for not accepting an invitation above +threescore miles off. One's limbs, when they grow old, will +not go any where, when they do not like it. If yours should +find themselves in a more pliant humour, you are always sure of +being welcome here, let the fit of motion come when it will. + +Pray what is become of that figure you mention of Henry VII., +which the destroyers, not the builders have rejected? and which +the antiquaries, who know a man by his crown better than by his +face, have rejected likewise? The latter put me in mind of +characters in comedies, in which a woman disguised in man's +habit, and whose features her very lover does not know, is +immediately acknowledged by pulling off her hat, and letting +down her hair, which her lover had never seen before. I should +be glad to ask Dr. Milles, if he thinks the crown of England +was always made, like a quart pot, by Winchester measure? If +Mr. Tyson has made a print from that little statue, I trust he +will give me one; and if he, or Mr. Essex, or both, will +accompany you hither, I shall be glad to see them. + +At Buckden, in the Bishop's palace, I saw a print of Mrs. +Newcome: I Suppose the late mistress of St. John's. Can you +tell me where I can procure one? Mind, I insist that you do +not serve me as you have often done, and send me your own, if +you have one. I seriously will not accept it, nor ever trust +you again. On the staircase, in the same palace, there is a +picture of two young men, in the manner of Vandyck, not at all +ill done; do you know who they are, or does any body? There is +a worse picture, in a large room, of some lads, which, too, the +housemaid did not know. Adieu! dear Sir, yours ever. + + + +Letter 48To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 7, 1772. (page 73) + +Dear Sir, +I did receive the print of Mrs. Newcome, for which I am +extremely obliged to you, with a thousand other favours, and +should certainly have thanked you for it long ago, but I was +then, an(I am now, confined to my bed with the gout in every +limb, and in almost every joint. I have not been out of my +bedchamber these five weeks to-day and last night the pain +returned violently into one of my feet; so that I am now +writing to you in a most uneasy posture, which will oblige me +to be very short. + +Your letter, which I suppose was left at my house in Arlington +street by Mr. Essex, was brought to me this morning. I am +exceedingly sorry for his disappointment, and for his coming +without writing first; in which case I might have prevented his +journey. I do not know, even, whither to send to him, to tell +him how impossible it is for me just now, in my present painful +and hopeless situation, to be of any use to him. I am so weak +and faint, I do not see even my nearest relations, and God +knows how long it will be before I am able to bear company, +much less application. I have some thoughts, as soon as I am +able, of removing to Bath; so that I cannot guess when it will +be in my power to consider duly Mr. Essex's plan with him. I +shall undoubtedly, if ever capable of it, be ready to give him +my advice, such as it is; or to look over his papers, and even +to correct them, if his modesty thinks me more able to polish +them than he is himself. At the same time, I must own, I think +he will run too great a risk by the expense. The engravers in +London are now arrived at such a pitch of exorbitant +imposition, that, for my own part, I have laid aside all +thoughts of having a single plate more done. + +Dear Sir, pray tell Mr. Essex how concerned I am for his +mischance, and for the total impossibility I am under of seeing +him now. I can write no More, but I shall be glad to hear from +you on his return to Cambridge: and when I am recovered, you +may be assured how glad I shall be to talk his plan over with +him. I am his and Your obliged humble servant. + + + +Letter 49 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +(page 74) + +I have had a relapse, and not been able to use my hand, or I +should have lamented with you on the plunder of your prints by +that Algerine hog.(80) I pity you, dear Sir, and feel for your +awkwardness, that was struck dumb at his rapaciousness. The +beast has no sort of taste neither-and in a twelvemonth will +sell them again. I regret particularly one print, which I dare +to say he seized, that I gave you, Gertrude More; I thought I +had another, and had not; and, as you liked it, I never told +you so. This Muley Moloch used to buy books, and now sells +them. He has hurt his fortune, and ruined himself, to have a +Collection, without any choice of what it should be composed. +It is the most underbred swine I ever saw; but I did not know +it was so ravenous. I wish you may get paid any how; you see +by my writing how difficult it is to me, and therefore will +excuse my being short. + +(80) This letter may want some explanation. A gentleman, a +collector of prints, and a neighbour of Mr. Walpole's, had just +before requested to see Mr. Cole's collection, and on Mr. +Cole's offering to accommodate him with such heads as he had +not, he selected and took away no less than one hundred and +eighty-seven of the most rare and valuable. + + + + +Letter 50 To The Countess Of Ailesbury. +Arlington Street, Dec. 20, 1772. (page 74) + +Indeed, Madam, I want you and Mr. Conway in town. Christmas has +dispersed all my company, and left nothing but a loo-party or +two. If all the fine days were not gone out of town, too, I +should take the air in a morning; but I am not yet nimble enough, +like old Mrs. Nugent, to jump out of a postchaise into an +assembly. + +You have a woful taste, my lady, not to like Lord Gower's bonmot. +I am almost too indignant to tell you of a most amusing book in +six volumes, called "Histoire Philosophique et Politique du +commerce des Deux Indes."(81) It tells one every thing in the +world;--how to make conquests, invasions, blunders, settlements, +bankruptcies, fortunes, etc.; tells you the natural and +historical history of all nations; talks commerce, navigation, +tea, coffee, china, mines, salt, spices; of the Portuguese, +English, French, Dutch, Danes, Spaniards, Arabs, caravans, +Persians, Indians, of Louis XIV. and the King of Prussia; of La +Bourdonnais, Dupleix, and Admiral Saunders; of rice, and women +that dance naked; of camels, ginghams, and muslin; of millions of +millions of livres, pounds, rupees, and cowries; of iron cables, +and Circassian women; of Law and the Mississippi; and against all +governments and religions. This and every thing else is in the +two first volumes. I cannot conceive what is left for the four +others. And all is so mixed, that you learn forty new trades and +fifty new histories in a single chapter. There is spirit, wit, +and clearness and, if there were but less avoirdupois weight in +it, it would be the richest book in the world in materials--but +figures to me are so many ciphers, and only put me in mind of +children that say, an hundred hundred hundred millions. However, +it has made me learned enough to talk about Mr. Sykes and the +Secret Committee,(82) which is all that any body talks of at +present, and yet Mademoiselle Heinel(83) is arrived. This is all +I know, and a great deal too, considering I know nothing, and +yet, were there either truth or lies, I should know them; for one +hears every thing in a sick room. Good night both! + +(81) By the Abb`e Raynal. sensible of the faults of his work, +the Abb`e visited England and Holland to obtain correct +mercantile information, and, on his return, published an improved +edition at Geneva, in ten volumes, octavo. Hannah More relates, +that, when in England, the Abb`e was introduced to Dr. Johnson, +and advancing to shake his band, the Doctor drew back and put it +behind him, and afterwards replied to the expostulation of a +friend--"Sir, I will not shake hands with an infidel." The +Parliament of Paris ordered the work to be burnt, and the author +to be arrested; but he retired to Spain, and, in 1788, the +National Assembly cancelled the decree passed against him. He +died at Passy in 1794, at the age of eighty-five.-E. + +(82) Upon indian affairs. + +(83) See ante, p. 59, letter 34. + + + +Letter 51 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Jan. 8, 1773. (page 75) + +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. * * * * has justice,(84) though he had no bowels. +How Gertrude More escape' 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. + +I am much more impatient to see Mr. Gray's print, than Mr. +What-d'ye-call-him's answer to my Historic Doubts.(85) 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,(86) 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. + +Another thing you must tell me, if you can, is, if you know any +thing ancient of the Freemasons Governor Pownall,(87) 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 that they are such numsculls, 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, 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. + +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 any thing 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! + +(84) The gentleman who had carried off so many of Mr. +Cole's prints. He now fully remunerated Mr. Cole in a valuable +present of books. + +(85) Mr. Master's pamphlet, printed at the expense of the +Antiquarian Society in the second volume of the Archaeologia. + +(86) "M`emoires du Comte de Grammont, nouvelle edition, +augment`ee de Notes et Eclaircissemens n`ecessaires, par M. +Horace Walpole." Strawberry Hill, 1772, 4to. To the M`emoires +was prefixed the following dedication to Madame du Deffand:-- +"L'Editeur VOUS Consacre cette edition, comme un monument de +son amiti`e, de son admiration, et de son respect, a vous dont +les gr`aces, l'esprit, et le gout retracent an si`ecle present +le si`ecle de Louis XIV., et les agr`emens de l'auteur de ces +Memoires." + +(87) 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.-E. + + + +Letter 52 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Feb. 18, 1773. (page 77) + +The most agreeable ingredient of your last, dear Sir, is the +paragraph that tells me you shall be in town in April, when I +depend on the pleasure of seeing you; but, to be certain, wish +you would give me a few days' law, an let me know, too, where +you lodge. Pray bring your books, though the continuation of the +Miscellaneous Antiquities is uncertain. I thought the +affectation of loving veteran anecdotes was so vigorous, that I +ventured to print five hundred copies., One, hundred and thirty +only are sold. I cannot afford to make the town perpetual +presents; though I find people exceedingly eager to obtain them +when I do; and if they will not buy them, it is a sign of such +indifference, that I shall neither bestow my time, nor my cost, +to no purpose. All I desire is, to pay the expenses, which I can +afford much less than my idle moments. Not but the operations +of-my press have often turned against myself in many shapes. I +have told people many things they did not know, and from fashion +they have bought a thousand things out of my hands, which they do +not understand, and only love en passant. At Mr. West's sale, +I got literally nothing: his prints sold for the frantic sum of +1495 pounds 10 shillings. Your and my good friend Mr. Gulston +threw away above 200 pounds there. + +I am not sorry Mr. Lort has recourse to the fountainhead: Mr. +Pownall's system of Freemasonry is so absurd and groundless, +that I am glad to be rid of intervention. I have seen the +former once: he told Me he was willing to sell his prints, as +the value of them is so increased--for that very reason I did +not want to purchase them. + +Paul Sanby promised me ten days ago to show Mr. Henshaw's +engraving which I received from Dr. Ewen) to Bartolozzi, and +ask his terms, thinking he would delight in So Very promising a +scholar; but I have heard nothing since, and therefore fear +there is no success. Let me, however, see the young man when +he comes, and I will try if there is any other way of serving +him. + +What shall I say to you, dear Sir, about Dr. Prescot? or what I +say to him? It hurts me not to be very civil, especially as +any respect to my father's memory touches me much more than any +attention to myself, which I cannot hold to be a quarter so +well founded. Yet, how dare I write to a poor man, who may do, +as I have lately seen done by a Scotchwoman that wrote a +play,(88) and printed Lord Chesterfield's and Lord Lyttelton's +letters to her, as Testimonia fluctorum: I will therefore beg +you to make my compliments and thanks to the master, and to +make them as grateful as you please, provided I am dispensed +with giving any certificate under my hand. You may plead my +illness, which, though the fifth month ended yesterday, is far +from being at an end, My relapses have been endless - I cannot +yet walk a step: and a great cold has added an ague in my +cheek, for which I am just going to begin the bark. The +prospect for the rest of my days is gloomy. The case of my +poor nephew still more deplorable - he arrived in town last +night, and bore his Journey tolerably-but his head is in much +more danger of not recovering than his health; though they give +us hopes of both. But the evils of life are not good subjects +for letters--why afflict one's friends? Why make commonplace +reflections? Adieu! Yours ever. + +(88) "Sir Harry Gaylove; or, Comedy in Embryo;" by Mrs. Jane +Marshall. It was printed in Scotland by subscription, but not +acted. in the preface, she complains bitterly of the managers +of the three London theatres, for refusing her the advantages +of representing her performance.-E. + + + +Letter 53 To The Rev. William Mason.(89) +March 2, 1773. (page 78) + +What shall I say? How shall I thank you for the kind manner in +which you submit your papers to my correction? But if you are +friendly, I must be just. I am so far from being dissatisfied, +that I Must beg to shorten your pen, and in that respect only +would I wish, with regard to myself, to alter your text. I am +conscious that in the beginning of the differences between Gray +and me, the fault was mine. I was young, too fond of my own +diversions; nay, I do not doubt, too much intoxicated by +indulgence, vanity, and the insolence of my situation, as a +prime minister's Son, not to have been inattentive to the +feelings of one, I blush to say, that I knew was obliged to me; +of one, whom presumption and folly made me deem not very +superior in parts, though I have since felt my infinite +inferiority to him. I treated him insolently. He loved me, +and I did not think he did. I reproached him with the +difference between us, when he acted from the conviction of +knowing that he was my superior. I often disregarded his wish +of seeing places, which I would not quit my own amusements to +visit, though I offered to send him thither without me. +Forgive me, if I say that his temper was not conciliating, at +the same time that I confess to you, that he acted a most +friendly part had I had the sense to take advantage of it. He +freely told me my faults. I declared I did not desire to hear +them, nor would correct them. You will not wonder,, that with +the dignity of his spirit, and the obstinate carelessness of +mine the breach must have widened till we became incompatible. + +After this confession, I fear you will think I fall short in +the words I wish to have substituted for some of yours. If you +think them inadequate to the state of the case, as I own they +are, preserve this letter and let some future Sir John +Dalrymple produce it to load my memory; but I own I do not +desire that any ambiguity should aid his invention to forge an +account) for me. If you would have no objection, I would +propose your narrative should run thus, [Here follows a note, +which is inserted verbatim in Mason's Life of Gray.(90)] and +contain no more, till a more proper time shall come for +publishing the truth, as I have stated it to you. While I am +living, it is not pleasant to see my private disagreements +discussed in magazines and newspapers. + +(89) This and the following letter are from Mr. mitford's +valuable edition of Gray's Works. See vol. iv. pp. 216, 218.- +E. + +(90) "In justice to the memory of so respectable a friend, Mr. +Walpole enjoins me to charge himself with the chief blame in +their quarrel - confessing that more attention and +complaisance, more deference to a warm friendship, superior +judgment and prudence, might have prevented a rupture that gave +such uneasiness to them both and a lasting concern +to the survivor; though, in the year 1744, a reconciliation was +effected between them, by a lady who wished well to both +parties."-E. + + + +Letter 54 To The Rev. William Mason. +Strawberry Hill, March 27, 1773. (page 79) + +I have received your letter, dear Sir, your manuscript, and +Gray's letters to me. Twenty things crowd upon my pen, and +jostle, and press to be laid. As I came here to-day for a +little air, and to read you undisturbed, they shall all have a +place in due time. But having so safe a conveyance for my +thoughts, I must begin with the uppermost of them, the Heroic +Epistle. I have read it so very often, that I have got it by +heart; and now I am master of all its beauties, I confess I +like it infinitely better than I did, though I liked it +infinitely before. There is more wit, ten times more delicacy +of irony, as much poetry, and greater facility than and as in +the Dunciad. But what Signifies what I think? All the world +thinks the same. No soul has, I have heard, guessed within an +hundred miles. I catched at Anstey's name, and have, +contributed to spread that notion. It has since been called +Temple Luttrell's, and, to my infinite honour, mine; Lord ----- +- swears he should think so, if I did not praise it so +excessively. But now, my dear Sir, that you have tapped this +mine of talent, and it runs so richly and easily, for Heaven's +sake, and for England's sake, do not let it rest! You have a +vein of irony, and satire, etc. + +I am extremely pleased with the easy unaffected simplicity of +your manuscript (Memoirs of Gray), and have found scarcely any +thing I could wish added, much less retrenched, unless the +paragraph on Lord Bute,(91) which I don't think quite clearly +expressed; and yet perhaps too clearly, while you wish to +remain unknown as the author of the Heroic Epistle,(92) since +it might lead to suspicion. For as Gray asked for the place, +and accepted it afterwards from the Duke of Grafton, it might +be thought that he, or his friend for him, was angry with the +author of the disappointment. I can add nothing to your +account of Gray's going abroad with me. It was my own thought +and offer, and cheerfully accepted. Thank you for inserting my +alteration. As I am the survivor, any Softening would be +unjust to the dead. I am sorry I had a fault towards him. It +does not wound me to own it; and it must be believed when I +allow it, that not he, but I myself, was in the wrong. + +(91) This paragraph was suppressed-E. + +(92) In March, 1798, Mr. Matthias suggested, in the Pursuits of +Literature, that Walpole's papers would possibly lead to the +discovery of the author of the far-famed Heroic Epistle to Sir +William Chambers. By Thomas Warton, the poet-laureate, it was +supposed to have been "written by Walpole, and buckrum'd by +Mason;" and Mr. Croker, in a note to his edition of Boswell's +Johnson, says of it, "there can be no doubt that it was the +joint production of Mason and Walpole; Mason supplying the +poetry and Walpole the points;" while the Quarterly Review, +vol. xv. p. 385, observes, that "when it is remembered that no +one then alive, with the same peculiar taste and the same +political principles, could have written such poetry, we must +either ascribe the Heroic Epistle to Mr. Mason, or suppose, +very needlessly and improbably, that one person supplied the +matter and another shaped it into verse; but, the personal +insolence displayed in this poem to his Sovereign, which was +probably the true reason for concealing the writer's -the +principles of genuine taste which abound in it--the bitter and +sarcastic strain of indignation against a monstrous mode of bad +taste then beginning to prevail in landscape gardening, and, +above all, a vigorous flow of spirited and harmonious verse, +all concur to mark it as the work of our independent and +uncourtly bard," The above letter settles the long-disputed +point, and fixes the sole authorship of this exquisite poem on +Mason.-E. + + + +Letter 55 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. + Arlington Street, April 7, 1773. (page 80) + +I have now seen the second volume of the Archaeologia, or Old +Woman's Logic, with Mr. Masters's Answer to me. If he had not +taken such pains to declare it was written against my Doubts, I +should have thought it a defence of them; for the few facts he +quotes make for my arguments, and confute himself; particularly +in the case of Lady Eleanor Butler; -whom, by the way, he makes +marry her own nephew, and not descend from her own family, +because she was descended from her grandfather. + +This Mr. Masters is an excellent Sancho Panza to such a Don +Quixote as Dean Milles! but enough of such goosecaps! Pray +thank Mr. Ashby for his admirable correction of Sir Thomas +Wyat's bon-mot. It is right beyond all doubt, and I will quote +it if ever the piece is reprinted. + +Mr. Tyson surprises me by usurping your Dissertation. It seems +all is fish that comes to the net of the Society- Mercy on us! +What a cart-load of brick and rubbish, and Roman ruins, they +have piled together! I have found nothing-, tolerable in the +volume but the Dissertation of Mr Masters; which is followed by +an answer, that, like Masters, contradicts him, without +disproving any thing. + +Mr. West's books are selling outrageously. His family will +make a fortune by what he collected from stalls and Moorfields. +But I must not blame the virtuosi, having surpassed them. In +short I have bought his two pictures of Henry V. and Henry +VIII. and their families; the first of which is engraved in my +Anecdotes, or, as the catalogue says, engraved by Mr. H. +Walpole, and the second described there. The first cost me 38 +pounds and the last 84, though I knew Mr. West bought it for +six guineas. But, in fact, these two, with my Marriages of +Henry VI. and VII., compose such a suite of the House of +Lancaster, and enrich my Gothic house so completely, that I +would not deny myself. The Henry VII. cost me as much, and is +less curious: the price of antiquities is so exceedingly risen, +too, at present, that I expected to have paid more. I have +bought much cheaper at the same sale, a picture of Henry VIII. +and Charles V. in one piece, both much younger than I ever saw +any portrait of either. I hope your pilgrimage to St. +Gulaston's this month will take place, and that you will come +and see them. Adieu! + + + +Letter 56 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, April 27, 1773. (page 81) ' + +I had not time this morning to answer your letter by Mr. Essex, +but I gave him the card you desired. You know, I hope, how +happy I am to obey any orders of yours. + +In the paper I showed you in answer to Masters, you saw I was +apprised of Rastel's Chronicle: but pray do not mention my +knowing of it; because I draw so much from it, that I lie in +wait, hoping that Milles, or Masters, or some of their fools, +will produce it against me; and then I shall have another word +to say to them, which they do not expect, since they think +Rastel makes for them. + +Mr. Gough(93) wants to be introduced to me! Indeed! I would +see him, as he has been midwife to Masters; but he is so dull, +that he would only be troublesome--and besides you know I shun +authors, and would never have been One myself, if it obliged me +to keep such bad company. They are always in earnest, and +think their profession serious, and dwell upon trifles, and +reverence learning. I laugh at all those things, and write +only to laugh at them, and divert myself. None of us are +authors of any consequence; and it is the most ridiculous in +all vanities to be vain of being mediocre. A page in a great +author humbles me to the dust; and the conversation of those +that are not superior to myself, reminds me of what will be +thought of myself. I blush to flatter them, or to be flattered +by them, and should dread letters being published some time or +other, in which they should relate our interviews, and we +should appear like those puny conceited Witlings in Shenstone's +and Hughes' Correspondence,(94) who give themselves airs from +being in possession of the soil of Parnassus for the time +being; as peers are proud, because they enjoy the estates of +great men who went before them. Mr. Gough is very welcome to +see Strawberry Hill; or I would help him to any scraps in my +possession, that would assist his publications; though he is +one of those industrious who are only reburying the dead-but I +cannot be acquainted with him. It is contrary to my system, +and my humour; and, besides, I know nothing of barrows, and +Danish entrenchments, and Saxon barbarisms, and Phoenician +characters--in short, I know nothing of those ages that knew +nothing--then how should I be of use to modern literati? All +the Scotch metaphysicians have sent me their works. I did not +read one of them, because I do not understand what is not +understood by those that write about it; and I did not get +acquainted with one of the writers. I should like to be +intimate with Mr. Anstey,(95) even though he wrote Lord +Buckhorse, or with the author of the Heroic Epistle.(96) I +have no thirst to know the rest of my contemporaries, from the +absurd bombast of Dr. Johnson down to the silly Dr. Goldsmith; +though the latter changeling has had bright gleams of parts, +and the former had sense, 'till he charged it for words, and +sold it for a pension. Don't think me scornful. Recollect +that I have seen Pope, and lived with Gray. Adieu! Yours +ever. + +P. S. Mr. Essex has shown me a charming drawing, from a +charming round window at Lincoln. It has revived all my +eagerness to have him continue his plan. + +(93) Richard Gough, Esq., author of the British Topography, and +the Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain; and editor of +Camden's Britannia. This learned antiquary was born in 1735, +and died in the year 1809-E. + +(94) A second edition had just appeared of "Letters by several +eminent Persons deceased; including the Correspondence of John +Hughes, Esq, and several of His Friends."-E. + +(95) The author of the New Bath Guide. See vol. iii., letter +307 to George Montagu, Esq., June 20 1766.-E. + +(96) See ante, letter 54, P. 80.-E. + + + +Letter 57 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, May 4, 1773. (page 82) + +I should not have hurried to answer your letter, dear Sir, the +moment I receive it, but to send you another ticket(97) for +your sister, in case she should not have recovered the other; +and I think you said she was to stay but a fortnight in town. +I would have sent it to her, had I known whither: and I have +made it for five persons, in case she should have a mind to +carry so many. + +I am sorry for the young engraver; but I can by no means meddle +with his going abroad, without the father's consent. it would +be very wrong, and would hurt the young man essentially, if the +father has any thing to leave. , In any case, I certainly would +not be accessory to sending away the son against the father's +will. The father is an impertinent fool--but that you +and I cannot help. + +Pray be not uneasy about Gertrude More: I shall get the +original or, at least, a copy. Tell me how I shall Send you +martagons by the safest conveyance, or any thing else you want. +I am always in your debt; and the apostle-spoon will make the +debtor side in my book of gratitude run over. + +Your public orator has done me too much honour by far-- +especially as he named me with my father,(98) to whom I am so +infinitely inferior, both in parts and virtues. Though I have +been abused undeservedly, I feel I have more title to censure +than praise, and -will subscribe to the former sooner than to +the latter. Would not it be prudent to look upon the encomium +as a funeral oration, and consider Myself as dead? I have +always dreaded outliving myself, and writing after what small +talents I have should be decayed. Except the last volume of +the Anecdotes of Painting, which has been finished and printed +so long, and which, appear when they may, will still come too +late for many reasons. I am disposed never to publish any more +of my own self; but I do not say so positively, lest my +breaking my intention should be but another folly. The gout +has, however, made me so indolent and inactive, that if my head +does not inform me how old I grow, at least my mind and my feet +will--and can one have too many monitors of one's weakness! + +I am sorry you think yourself so much inconvenienced by +stirring from home. ' This is an incommodity by which your +friends will suffer more than yourself, and nobody more, +sensibly than yours, etc. + +(97) Of admission to Strawberry. + +(98) On presenting a relation of Mr. Walpole's to the +Vice-chancellor for his honorary degree. + + + +Letter 58 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, May 29, 1773. (page 83) + +Dear Sir, +I have been so much taken up of late with poor Lord Orford's +affairs, I have not had, and scarce have now, time to write you +a line, and thank you for all your kindnesses, information, and +apostle -spoon. I have not Newcomb's Repertorium, and shall be +obliged to you for the transcript; not as doubting, but to +confirm what Heaven, King Edward I., and the Bishop of the +Tartars have deposed in favour of Malibrunus, the Jew painter's +abilities. I should sooner have suspected that Mr. Masters +would have produced such witnesses to condemn Richard III. The +note relating to Lady Boteler does not relate to her marriage. + +I send you two martagon roots, and some jonquils; and have +added some prints, two enamelled Pictures, and three medals. +One of Oliver, by Simon; a fine one of Pope Clement X., and a +scarce one of Archbishop Sancroft and the Seven Bishops. I +hope the two latter will atone for the first. As I shall never +be out of your debt, pray draw on me for any more other roots, +or any thing that will be agreeable to you, and excuse me at +present. + + + +Letter 59 To Dr. Berkenhout.(99) +July 6, 1773, (page 84) + +Sir, +I am so much engaged in private business at present, that I +have not had time to thank you for the favour of your letter: +nor can I now answer it to your satisfaction. My life has been +too insignificant to afford materials interesting to the +public. In general, the lives of mere authors are dry and +unentertaining; nor, though I -have been one occasionally, are +my writings of a class or merit to entitle me to any +distinction. I can as little furnish you, Sir, with a list of +them or their dates, which would give me more trouble to make +out than is worth while. If I have any merit with the public, +it is for printing and preserving some valuable works of +others; and if ever you write the lives of printers, I may be +enrolled in the number. My own works, I suppose, are dead and +buried; but, as I am not impatient to be interred with them, I +hope you will leave that office to the parson of the parish, +and I shall be, as long as I live, yours, etc. + +(99) Dr. John Berkenhout had been a captain both in the English +and Prussian service, and in 1765 took his degree of MD. at +Leyden. his application to Walpole was for the purpose of +procuring materials for a life of him In his forthcoming work, +"Biographia Literaria, or a Biographical History of Literature; +containing the Lives of English, Irish, and Scottish Authors, +from the dawn of Letters in these Kingdoms to the present +Time." The first volume, which treats of those writers who +lived from the beginning of the fifth to the end of the sixth +century, and which is the only one ever published, appeared in +1777. He died in 1791-E. + + + +Letter 60 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street, Aug. 30, 1773. (page 84) + +I returned last night from Houghton,(100) where multiplicity of +business detained me four days longer than I intended, and +where I found a scene infinitely more mortifying than I +expected; though I certainly did not go with a prospect of +finding a land flowing with milk and honey. Except the +pictures, which are in the finest preservation, and the woods, +which are become forests, all the rest is ruin, desolation, +confusion, disorder, debts, mortgages, sales, pillage, villany, +waste, folly, and madness. I do not believe that five thousand +pounds would put the house and buildings into good repair. The +nettles and brambles in the park are up to your shoulders; +horses have been turned into the garden, and banditti lodged in +every cottage. The perpetuity of livings that come up to the +park-pales have been sold--and every farm let for half its +value. In short, you know how much family pride I have, and +consequently may judge how much I have been mortified! Nor do I +tell you half, or near the worst circumstances. I have just +stopped the torrent-and that is all. I am very uncertain +whether I must not fling up the trust; and some of the +difficulties in my way seem unsurmountable, and too dangerous +not to alarm even my zeal; since I must not ruin myself, and +hurt those for whom I must feel, too, only to restore a family +that will end with myself, and to retrieve an estate' from +which I am not likely ever to receive the least advantage. + +if you will settle with the Churchills your journey to +Chalfont, and will let me know the day, I will endeavour to +meet you there; I hope it Will not be till next week. I am +overwhelmed with business--but, indeed, I know not when I shall +be otherwise! I wish you joy of this endless summer. + +(100) Whither he had gone during the mental alienation of his +nephew, George Earl of Orford, to endeavour to settle and +arrange his affairs. + + + +Letter 61 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 24, 1773. (page 85) + +The multiplicity of business which I found chalked out to me by +my journey to Houghton, has engaged me so much, my dear lord, +and the unpleasant scene opened to me there struck me so +deeply, that I have neither had time nor cheerfulness enough to +flatter myself I could amuse my friends by my letters. Except +the pictures, I found every thing worse than I expected, and +the prospect almost too bad to give me courage to pursue what I +am doing. I am totally ignorant of most of the branches of +business that are fallen to my lot, and not young enough to +learn any new business well. All I can hope is to clear the +worst part of the way; for, in undertaking to retrieve an +estate, the beginning is certainly the most difficult of the +work--it is fathoming a chaos. But I will not unfold a +confusion to your lordship which your good sense will always +keep You from experiencing --very unfashionably; for the first +geniuses of the age hold, that the best method of governing the +world is to throw it into disorder. The experiment is not yet +complete, as the rearrangement is still to come. + +I am very seriously glad of the birth of your nephew,(101) +my lord; I am going this evening with my gratulations'; but +have been so much absent and so hurried, that I have not yet +had the pleasure of seeing + +Lady Anne,(102) though I have called twice. To Gunnersbury I +have no summons this summer: I receive such honours, or the +want of them, with proper respect. Lady Mary Coke, I fear, is +in chace of a Dulcineus that she will never meet. When the +ardour of peregrination is a little abated, will not she +probably give in to a more comfortable pursuit; and, like a +print I have seen of -the blessed martyr Charles the First, +abandon the hunt of a corruptible for that of an incorruptible +crown? There is another beatific print just published in that +style: it is of Lady Huntingdon. With much pompous humility, +she looks like an old basket-woman trampling on her coronet at +the mouth of a cavern.-Poor Whitfield! if he was forced to do +the honours of the spelunca!--Saint Fanny Shirley is nearer +consecration. I was told two days ago that she had written a +letter to Lady Selina that was not intelligible. Her grace of +Kingston's glory approaches to consummation in a more worldly +style. The Duke(103) is dying, and has given her the whole +estate, seventeen thousand a-year. I am told she has already +notified the contents of the will, and made offers of the sale +of Thoresby. Pious matrons have various ways of expressing +decency. + +Your lordship's new bow-window thrives. I do not want it to +remind me of its master and mistress, to whom I am ever the +most devoted humble servant. + +(101) A son of John Earl of Buckingham, who died young. + +(102) Lady Anne Conolly. + +(103) The Duke of Kingston died on the 22d of September, when +all his honours became extinct.-E. + + + +Letter 62 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Arlington Street, Nov. 15, 1773. (page 86) + +I am very sorry, my dear lord, that you are coming towards us +so slowly and unwillingly. I cannot quite wonder at the +latter. The world is an old acquaintance that does not improve +upon one's hands: however, one must not give way to the +disgusts it creates. My maxim, and practice, too, is to laugh, +because I do not like to cry. I could shed a pailfull of tears +over all I have seen and learnt Since my poor nephew's +misfortune-the more one has to do with men the worse one finds +them But can one mend them? No. Shall we shut ourselves up +from them? No. We should grow humourists-and of all animals an +Englishman is least made to live alone. For my part, I am +conscious of so many faults, that I think I grow better the +more bad I see in my neighbours; and there are so many I would +not resemble, that it makes me watchful over myself You, my +lord, who have forty more good qualities than I have, should +not seclude yourself. I do not wonder you despise knaves and +fools: but remember, they want better examples; they will never +grow ashamed by conversing with one another. + +I came to settle here on Friday, being drowned out of +Twickenham. I find the town desolate, and no news in it, but +that the ministry give up the Irish -tax-some say, because it +will not pass in Ireland; others, because the city of London +would have petitioned against it; and some, because there were +factions in the council-- which is not the most incredible of +all. I am glad, for the sake of some of my friends who would +have suffered by it, that it is over.(104) In other respects, I +have too much private business of my own to think about the +public, which is big enough to take care of itself. + +I have heard some of Lady Mary Coke's mortifications. I have +regard and esteem for her good qualities, which are many; but I +doubt her genius will never suffer her to be quite happy. As +she will not take the psalmist's advice of not putting trust, I +am sure she would not follow mine; for, with all her piety, +King David is the only royal person she will not listen to, and +therefore I forbear my sweet counsel. When she and Lord +Huntingdon meet, will not they put you in mind of Count-Gage +and Lady Mary Herbert, who met in the mines of Asturias, after +they had failed of the crown of Poland?(105) Adieu, my dear +lord! Come you and my lady among us. You have some friends +that are not odious, and who will be rejoiced to see you both- +-witness, for one, yours most faithfully. + +(104) A tax upon absentees. Mr. Hardy, in his Memoirs of Lord +Charlemont, says, that the influence of the Whig leaders +predominated so far as to oblige the ministers to relinquish +the measure.-E. + +(105) "The crown of Poland, venal twice an age, +To just three millions stint;ed modest Gage." + +Pope in a note to the above couplet, states that Mr. Gage and +Lady Mary Herbert, " each of them, in the Mississippi scheme, +despised to realize above three hundred thousand pounds: the +gentleman with a view to the purchase of the crown of Poland, +the lady on a vision of the like royal nature: they have since +retired into Spain, where they are still in search of gold, in +the mines of the Asturias."-E. + + + +Letter 63 To Lady Mary Coke.(106) +((page 87) + +Your ladyship's illustrious exploits are the constant theme of +my meditations. Your expeditions are so rapid, and to such +distant regions, that I cannot help thinking you are possessed +of the giant's boots that stepped seven leagues at a stride, as +we are assured by that accurate historian Mother Goose. You +are, I know, Madam', an excellent walker, yet methinks seven +leagues at once are a prodigious straddle for a fair lady. But +whatever is your manner of travelling, few heroines ancient or +modern can be compared to you for length of journeys. +Thalestris, Queen of the Amazons, and M. M. or N. N. Queen of +Sheba, went each of them the Lord knows how far to meet +Alexander the Great and Solomon the Wise; the one to beg the +favour of having a daughter (I suppose) and heiress by him; and +the other, says scandal, to grant a like favour to the Hebrew +monarch. Your ladyship, who has more real Amazonian +principles, never makes visits but to empresses, queens, and +princesses; and your country is enriched with the maxims of +wisdom and virtue which you collect in your travels. For such +great ends did Herodotus, Pythagoras, and other sages, make +voyages to Egypt, and every distant kingdom; and it is amazing +how much their own countries were benefited by what those +philosophers learned in their peregrinations. Were it not that +your ladyship is actuated by such public spirit, I could Put +YOU in mind, Madam, of an old story that might save you a great +deal of fatigue and danger-and now I think of it, as I have +nothing better to fill my letter with, I will relate it to you. + +Pyrrhus, the martial and magnanimous King of Epirus (as my Lord +Lyttelton would call him), being, as I have heard or seen +Goodman Plutarch say, intent on his preparations for invading +Italy, Cineas, one of the grooms of his bedchamber, took the +liberty of asking his majesty what benefit he expected to reap +if he should be successful in conquering the Romans?--Jesus! +said the King, peevishly; why the question answers itself. +When we have overcome the Romans, no province, no town, whether +Greek or barbarian, will be able to resist us: we shall at once +be masters of all Italy. Cineas after a short pause replied, +And having subdued Italy, what shall we do next?--Do next? +answered Pyrrhus; why, seize Sicily. Very likely, quoth +Cineas: but will that put an end to the war?-The gods forbid! +cried his Majesty: when Sicily is reduced, Libya and Carthage +will be within our reach. And then, without giving Cineas time +to put in a word, the heroic Prince ran over Africa, Greece, +Asia, Persia, and every other country he had ever heard of upon +the face of God's earth; not one of which he intended should +escape his victorious sword. At last, when he was at the end +of his geography, and a little out of breath, Cineas watched +his opportunity, and said quietly, Well, Sire, and when we have +conquered all the world, what are we to do then?--Why, then, +said his Majesty, extremely satisfied with his own prowess, we +will live at our ease; we: Will spend whole days in banqueting +and carousing, and will think of nothing but our pleasures. + +Now, Madam, for the application. Had I had the honour a few +years ago of being your confidential abigail, when you +meditated a visit to Princess Esterhazi, I would have ventured +to ask your ladyship of what advantage her acquaintance would +be to you? Probably you would have told me, that she would +introduce you to several electresses and margravines, whose +courts you would visit. That having conquered all their +hearts, as I am persuaded you would, your next jaunt would be +to Hesse; from whence it would be but a trip to Aix, where +Madame de Rochouart lives. Soaring from thence you Would +repair to the Imperial court at Vienna, where resides the most +august, most virtuous, and most plump of empresses and queens- +-no, I mistake--I should only have said, of empresses; for her +Majesty of Denmark, God bless her! is reported to be full as +virtuous, and three stone heavier. Shall not you call at +Copenhagen, Madam? If you do, you are next door to the +Czarina, who is the quintessence of friendship, as the Princess +Daskioff says, whom, next to the late Czar, her Muscovite +Majesty loves above all the world. Asia, I suppose, would not +enter into your ladyship's system Of conquest; for, though it +contains a sight of queens and sultanas, the poor ladies are +locked up in abominable places, into which I am sure your +ladyship's amity would never carry you--I think they call them +seraglios. Africa has nothing but empresses stark-naked; and +of complexions directly the reverse of your alabaster They do +not reign in their own right; and what is worse, the emperors +of those barbarous regions wear no more robes than the +sovereigns of their hearts. And what are princes and +princesses without velvet and ermine? As I am not a jot a +better geographer than King Pyrrhus, I can at present recollect +but one lady more who reigns alone, and that is her Majesty of +Otaheite, lately discovered by Mr. Bankes and Dr. Solander; and +for whom, your ladyship's compassionate breast must feel the +tenderest emotions,' she having been cruelly deprived of her +faithful minister and lover Tobiu, since dead at Batavia. + +Well,'Madam, after you should have given me the plan of your +intended expeditions, and not left a queen regent on the face +of the globe unvisited,-- I would ask what we were to do next?- +-Why then, dear Abigail, you would have said, we will retire to +Notting-hill, we will plant shrubs all the morning, read +Anderson's Royal Genealogies all the evening; and once or twice +a week I will go to Gunnersbury and drink a bottle with +Princess Amelia. Alas, dear lady! and cannot you do all that +without skuttling from one end of the world to the other?--This +was the, upshot of all Cineas's inquisitiveness: and this is +the pith of this tedious letter from, Madam, your ladyship's +most faithful Aulic Counsellor and humble admirer. + +(106) See the two preceding letters. It will be recollected +that Lady Mary Coke was sister-in-law to The Earl of Strafford, +and widow of Viscount Coke, heir apparent of Thomas Earl of +Leicester, who died without issue by her, in his father's +lifetime. Lady Mary died at a great age in 1811-E. + + + +Letter 64 To The Hon. Mrs. GREY.(107) +Dec. 9, 1773. (page 89) + +DEAR MADAM, +As I hear Lady Blandford has a return of the gout-, as I +foretold last night from the red spot being not gone, I beg you +will be so good as to tell her, that if she does not encourage +the swelling by keeping her foot wrapped up as hot as possible +in flannel, she will torment herself and bring more pain. I +will answer that if she will let it swell, and suffer the +swelling to go off of itself, she will have no more pain; and +she must remember, that the gout will bear contradiction no +more than she herself(108) Pray read this to her, and what I +say farther--that though I know she will not bear pain for +herself, I am sure she will for her friends. Her misfortune +has produced the greatest satisfaction that a good mind can +receive, the experience that that goodness has given her a +great many sincere friends, who have shown as much concern as +ever was known, and the most disinterested; as we know her +generosity has left her nothing to give. We wish to preserve +her for her own sake and ours, and the poor beseech her to bear +a little pain for them. + +I am going out of town till Monday, or would bring my +prescription myself. She wants no virtue but patience; and +patience takes it very ill to be left out of such good company. +I am, dear Madam, Your obedient servant, +Dr. WALPOLE. + +(107) NOW first printed. + +(108) It has already been stated, that Lady Blandford was +somewhat impatient in her temper.-E. + + + +Letter 65 To Sir David Dalrymple.(109) +Arlington Street, Dec. 14, 1773. (page 90) + +Sir, +I have received from Mr. Dodsley, and read with pleasure, your +Remarks on the History of Scotland," though I am not +competently versed in some of the subjects. Indeed, such a +load of difficult and vexatious business is fallen upon me by +the unhappy situation of my nephew, Lord Orford, of whose +affairs I have been forced to undertake the management, though +greatly unfit for it, that I am obliged to bid adieu to all +literary amusement and pursuits; and must dedicate the rest of +a life almost worn out, and of late wasted and broken by a long +illness, to the duties I owe to my family. I hope you, Sir, +will have no such disagreeable avocation, and am your obliged +servant. + +(109) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 66 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, May 4, 1774. (page 90) + +Dear Sir, +We have dropped one another, as if we were not antiquaries, but +people of this world-or do you disclaim me, because I have +quitted the Society? I could give You but too sad reasons for +my silence. The gout kept entire possession of me for six +months; and, before it released me, Lord Orford's illness and +affairs engrossed me totally. I have been twice in Norfolk +since you heard from me. I am now at liberty again. What is +your account of yourself? To. ask you to come above ground, +even so far as to see me, I know is in vain or I certainly +would ask it. You impose Carthusian shackles on Yourself, Will +not quit your cell, nor will speak above once a week. I am +glad to hear of you, and to see your hand, though you make that +as much like print as you can. If you were to be tempted +abroad, it would be a pilgrimage: and I can lure you even with +that. My chapel is finished, and the shrine will actually be +placed in less than a fortnight. My father is said to have +said, that every man had his price. You are a Beatus, indeed, +if you resist a shrine. Why should not you add to your +claustral virtues that of a peregrination to Strawberry? You +will find me quite alone in July. Consider, Strawberry is +almost the last monastery left, at least in England. Poor Mr. +Bateman's is despoiled. Lord Bateman has stripped and +plundered it: has sequestered the best things, has advertised +the site, and is dirtily selling by auction what he neither +would keep, nor can sell for a sum that is worth while. I was +hurt to see half the ornaments of the chapel, and the +reliquaries, and in short a thousand trifles, exposed to +sneers. I am buying a few to keep for the founder's sake. +Surely it is very indecent for a favourite relation, who is +rich, to show so little remembrance and affection. I suppose +Strawberry will have the same fate! It has already happened to +two of my friends. Lord Bristol got his mother's house from +his brother, by persuading her he was in love with it. He let +it in a month after she was dead band all her favourite +pictures and ornaments, which she had ordered not to be +removed, are mouldering in a garret! You are in the right to +care so little for a world where there is no measure but +avoirdupois. Adieu! Yours sincerely. + + + +Letter 67 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, May 28, 1774. (page 91) + +Nothing will be more agreeable to me', dear Sir, than a visit +from you in July. I will try to persuade Mr. Granger to meet +you; and if you had any such thing as summer in the fens, I +would desire you to bring a bag with you. We are almost +freezing here in the midst of beautiful verdure, with a +profusion of blossoms and flowers; but I keep good fires, and +seem to feel warm weather while I look through the window; for +the way to ensure summer in England, is to have it framed and +glazed in a comfortable room. + +I shall be still more glad to hear you are settled in Your +living. Burnham is almost in my neighbourhood; and its being +in that of Eton and Windsor, will more than console you, I +hope, for leaving Ely and Cambridge. Pray let me know the +moment you are certain. It would now be a disappointment to me +as well as you. You shall be inaugurated in my chapel, which +is much more venerable than your parish church, and has the +genuine air of antiquity. I bought very little of poor Mr. +Bateman's. His nephew disposed of little that was worth +houseroom, and Yet pulled the whole to pieces. + +Mr. Pennant has Published a new Tour to Scotland and the +Hebrides: and, though he has endeavoured to paint their dismal +isles and rocks in glowing colours, they will not be satisfied; +for he seems no bigot about Ossian, at least in some passages; +and is free in others, which their intolerating spirit will +resent. I cannot say the book is very entertaining to me, and +it is more a book of rates than of antiquities. The most +amusing part was communicated to him by Mr. Banks, who found +whole islands that bear nothing but columns, as other places do +grass and barley. There is a beautiful cave called Fingal's; +which proves that nature loves Gothic architecture. + +Mr. Pennant has given a new edition of his former Tour, with +more cuts. Among others, is the vulgar head, called the +Countess of Desmond. I told him I had discovered, and proved +past contradiction, that it is Rembrandt's mother. He owned +it, and said, he would correct it by a note-but he has not. +This is a brave way of being an antiquary! as if there could be +any merit in giving for genuine what one knows to be spurious. +He is, indeed, a superficial man, and knows little of history +or antiquity: but he has a violent rage for being an author. +He set out with Ornithology, and a little Natural History, and +picks Up his knowledge as he rides. I have a still lower idea +of Mr. Gough; for Mr. Pennant, at least, is very civil: the +other is a hog. Mr. Fenn,(110) another smatterer in antiquity, +but. a very good sort of man, told me, Mr. Gough desired to be +introduced to me--but as he has been such a bear to you,(111) +he shall not come. The Society of Antiquaries put me in mind +of what the old Lord Pembroke said to Anstis the herald: "Thou +silly fellow! thou dost not know thy own silly business." If +they went behind taste by poking into barbarous ages, when +there was no taste, one could forgive them--but they catch at +the first ugly thing they see, and take it for old, because it +is new to them, and then usher it pompously into the world, as +if they had made a discovery; though they have not yet cleared +up a single point that is of the least importance, or that +tends to Settle any obscure passage in history. + +I will not condole with you on having had the gout, since you +find it has removed other complaints. Besides as it begins +late, you are never likely to have it severely. I shall be in +terrors in two or three months, having had the four last fits +periodically and biennially Indeed, the two last were so long +and severe, that my remaining and shattered strength could ill +support such. + +I must repeat how glad I shall be to have you at Burnham. When +people grow old, as you and I do, they should get together. +Others do not care for us: but we seem wiser to one another by +finding fault with them. Not that I am apt to dislike young +folks, whom I think every thing becomes: but it is a kind of +self-defence to live in a body. I dare to say that monks never +find out that they grow old fools. Their age gives them +authority, and nobody contradicts them. In the world, one +cannot help perceiving one is out of fashion. Women play at +cards with women of their own standing, and censure others +between the deals, and thence conclude themselves Gamaliels. I +who see many young men with better parts than myself, submit +with a good grace, or retreat hither to my castle, where I am +satisfied with what I have done, and am always in good humour. +But I like to have one or two old friends with me. I do not +much invite the juvenile, who think my castle and me of equal +antiquity: for no wonder, if they supposed George I. lived in +the time of the crusades. + +Adieu! my good Sir, and pray let Burnham Wood and Dunsinane be +good neighbours. Yours ever. + +(110) Sir John Fenn, who edited the "Original Letters, written +during the Reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV., Richard III., and +Henry ViI., by various Persons of rank and consequence, +digested in a Chronological order - with Notes historical and +explanatory;" which were published in four volumes, quarto, +between the years 1787-1789. The letters are principally by +members of the Paston family and others, who were of great +consequence in Norfolk at the time Sir John who was a native of +Norwich, died in 1794. A fifth volume was published in 1823.- +E. + +(111) Alluding to his not having answered a letter from Mr. +Cole for nearly a twelvemonth. + + + +Letter 68 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, June 21, 1774. (page 93) + +Your illness, dear Sir, is the worst excuse you could make me; +and the worse, as you may be well in a night, if you will, by +taking six grains of James's Powder. He cannot cure death; but +he can most complaints that are not mortal or chronical. He +could cure you so soon of colds, that he would cure you of +another distemper, to which I doubt you are a little subject, +the fear of them. I hope you were certain, that illness is a +legal plea for missing induction, or you will have nursed a +cough and hoarseness with too much tenderness, as they +certainly could bear a journey. Never see my face again, if +you are not rector of Burnham. How can you be so bigoted to +Milton? I should have thought the very name would have +prejudiced you against the place, as the name is all that could +approach towards reconciling me to the fens. I shall be very +glad to see you here, whenever you have resolution enough to +quit your cell. But since Burnham and the neighbourhood of +Windsor and Eton have no charms for you, can I expect that +Strawberry Hill should have any? Methinks, that when one grows +old, one's contemporary friends should be our best amusement: +for younger people are soon tired of us, and our old stories: +but I have found the contrary in some of mine. For your part, +you care for conversing with none but the dead: for I reckon +the unborn, for whom you are writing, as much dead, as those +from whom you collect. . + +You certainly ask no favour, dear Sir, when you want prints of +Me. They are at any body's service that thinks them worth +having. The owner sets very little value on them, since he +sets very little, indeed, on himself: as a man, a very faulty +one; and as an author, a very +middling one; which +whoever thinks a comfortable rank, is not at all my opinion. +Pray convince me that you think I mean sincerely, by not +answering me with a compliment. it is very weak to be pleased +with flattery; the stupidest of 'all delusions to beg it. From +You I should take it ill. We have known one another almost +fifty years--to very little purpose, indeed, if any ceremony is +necessary, or downright sincerity not established between us. +tell me that you are recovered, and that I shall see you some +time or other. I have finished the catalogue of my collection; +but you shall never have it without fetching, nor, though a +less punishment, the prints you desire. I propose in time to +have plates of my house added to 'the Catalogue, yet I Cannot +afford them, unless by degrees. Engravers are grown so much +dearer, without My growing richer, that I must have patience! a +quality I seldom have, but when I must. Adieu! Yours ever. + +P. S. I have lately been at Ampthill, and saw Queen Catherine's +cross. It is not near large enough for the situation, and would +be fitter for a garden than a park: but it is executed in the +truest and best taste. Lord Ossory is quite satisfied, as well +as I, and designs Mr. Essex a present of some guineas. If ever +I am richer, I shall consult the same honest man about building +my offices, for Which I have a plan: but if I have no more +money, ever, I Will not run in debt, and distress myself: and +therefore remit my designs to chance and a little economy. + + + +Letter 69 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, June 23, 1774. (page 94) + +I have nothing to say--which is the best reason in the world +for writing; for one must have a great regard for any body, one +writes to, when one begins a letter neither on ceremony nor +business. You are seeing armies,(112) who are always in fine +order--and great spirits when they are in cold blood: I am +sorry you thought it worth while to realize what I should have +thought you could have seen in your mind's eye. However, I +hope you will be amused and pleased With viewing heroes, both +in their autumn and their bud. Vienna will be a new sight; so +will the Austrian eagle and its two heads, I should like +seeing, too, if any fairy would present me with a chest that +would fly up into the air by touching a peg, and transport me +whither I pleased in an instant: but roads, and inns, and dirt, +are terrible drawbacks on My curiosity. I grow so old and so +indolent, that I scarce stir from hence; and the dread of the +gout makes me almost as much a prisoner, as a fit of it. News +I know none, if there is any. The papers tell me that the city +was to present a petition to The King against the Quebec-bill +yesterday; and I suppose they will tell me to-morrow whether it +was presented. The King's speech tells me, there has nothing +happened between the Russians and the Turks.(113) Lady +Barrymore told me t'other day, that nothing was to happen +between her and Lord Egremont. I am as well satisfied with +these negatives, as I should have been with the contrary. I am +much more interested about the rain, for it destroys all my +roses and orange-flowers, of which I have exuberance; and my +hay is cut, and cannot be made. However, it is delightful to +have no other distresses. When I compare my present +tranquillity and indifference with all I suffered last +year,(114) I am thankful for my happiness and enjoy it--unless +the bell rings early in the morning--then I tremble, and think +it an express from Norfolk. + +It is unfortunate that when one has nothing to talk of but +one's self, one should have nothing to' say of one's self. It +is shameful, too, to send such a scrap by the post. I think I +shall reserve it till Tuesday. If -I have then nothing to add, +as is probable, you must content yourself with my good +intentions, as you, I hope, will with this speculative +campaign. Pray, for the future, remain at home and build +bridges: I wish you were here to expedite ours to Richmond, +which they tell me Will not be passable these two years. I +have done looking so forward. Adieu! + +(112) Mr. Conway was now on a tour of military curiosity +through Flanders, Germany, Prussia, and part of Hungary. + +(113) Peace between Russia and Turkey Was proclaimed at St. +Petersburgh on the 14th of August, 1774.-E. + +(114) During the illness of his nephew, Lord Orford. + + + +Letter 70 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Matson, near Gloucester, Aug. 15, 1774. (page 95) + +Dear Sir, +As I am your disciple in antiquities (for you studied them when +I was but a scoffer), I think it my duty to give you some +account of my journeying, in the good cause. You will not +dislike my date. I am in the Very mansion where King Charles +the First and his two eldest sons lay during the siege; and +there are marks of the last's +hacking with his hanger on a window, as he told Mr. Selwin's +grandfather afterwards. The present master has done due honour +to the royal residence, and erected a good marble bust of the +Martyr, in a little gallery. In a window is a shield in +painted glass, with that King's and his Queen's arms, which I +gave him. So you see I am not a rebel, when alma mater +antiquity stands godmother. + +I went again to the cathedral, and, on seeing the monument of +Edward II a new historic doubt started which I pray you to +solve. His Majesty has a longish beard - and such were +certainly worn at that time. Who is the first historian that +tells the story of his being shaven with cold water from a +ditch and weeping to supply warm, as he was carried to Berkeley +Castle? Is not this apocryphal? The house whence Bishop +Hooper(115) was carried to the stake, is still standing, tale +quale. I made a visit to his actual successor, Warburton, 'who +is very infirm, speaks with much hesitation, and, they say, +begins to lose his memory. They have destroyed the beautiful +cross; the two battered heads of Henry III. and Edward III. are +in the Postmaster's garden. + +Yesterday I made a jaunt four miles hence that pleased me +exceedingly, to Prinknash, the individual villa of the abbots +of Gloucester. I wished you there with their mitre on. It +stands on a glorious, but impracticable hill, in the midst of a +little forest of beech, and commanding Elysium. The house is +small, but has good rooms, and though modernized here and +there, not extravagantly. On the ceiling of the hall is Edward +IVth's Jovial device, a fau-con serrure. The chapel is low and +small, but antique, and with painted glass, with many angels in +their coronation robes, i. e. wings and crowns. Henry VIII. +and Jane Seymour lay here: in the dining-room are their arms in +glass, and of Catherine of Arragon, and of Brays and Bridges. +Under the window, a barbarous bas-relief head of Harry, young: +as it is still on a sign of an alehouse, on the descent of the +hill. Think of my amazement, when they showed me the chapel +plate, and I found on it, on four pieces, my own arms, +quartering my mother-in-law, Skerret's, and in a shield of +pretence, those of Fortescue certainly by mistake, for those of +my sister-in-law, as the barony of Clinton was in abeyance +between her and Fortescue Lord Clinton. The whole is modern +and blundered: for Skerret should be impaled, not quartered, +and instead of our crest, are two spears tied together in a +ducal coronet, and no coronet for my brother, in whose time +this plate must have been made, and at whose sale it was +probably bought; as he finished the repairs of the church at +Houghton, for which, I suppose, this decoration was intended. +But the silversmith was no herald, you see. + +As I descended the hill, I found in a wretched cottage a child, +in an ancient oaken cradle, exactly in the form of that lately +published from the cradle of Edward II. I purchased it for +five shillings; but don't know whether I shall have fortitude +enough to transport it to Strawberry Hill. People would +conclude me in my second childhood. + +To-day I have been at Berkeley and Thornbury Castles. The +first disappointed me much, though very entire. It is much +smaller than I expected, but very entire, except a small part +burnt two years ago, while the present Earl was in the house. +The fire began in the housekeeper's room, who never appeared +more; but as she was strict over the servants, and not a bone +of her was found, it was supposed that she was murdered, and +the body conveyed away. The situation is not elevated nor +beautiful, and little improvements made of late, but some silly +ones `a la Chinoise, by the present Dowager. In good sooth, I +can give you but a very imperfect account; for, instead of the +lord's +being gone to dine with the mayor of Gloucester, as I expected, +I found him in the midst of all his captains of the militia. I +am so sillily shy of strangers and youngsters, that I hurried +through the chambers; and looked for nothing but the way out of +every room. I just observed that there were many bad portraits +of the family, but none ancient; as if the Berkeleys had been +commissaries, and raised themselves in the last war. There is +a plentiful addition of those of my Lord Berkeley of Stratton, +but no knights templars, or barons as old as Edward I.; yet are +there three beds on which there may have been as frisky doings +three centuries ago, as there probably have been within these +ten ears. The room shown for the murder of Edward II., and the +shrieks of an agonizing king, I verily believe to be genuine. +It is a dismal chamber, almost at top of the house, quite +detached, and to be approached only by a kind of foot-bridge, +and from that 'descends' a large flight of steps that terminate +on strong gates; exactly the situation for a corps de garde. +In that room they show you a cast of a face in plaister, and +tell you it was taken from Edward's. I was not quite so easy +of faith about that; for it is evidently the face of Charles I. + +The steeple of the church, lately rebuilt handsomely, stands +some paces from the body; in the latter are three tombs of the +old Berkeleys;, with cumbent figures. The wife of the Lord +Berkeley,(116) who was supposed to be privy to the murder, has +a curious headgear; it is like a long horseshoe, quilted in +quatrefoils; and, like Lord Foppington's wig, allows no more +than the breadth of a half-crown to be discovered of the face. +Stay, I think I mistake; the husband was a conspirator against +Richard II. not Edward. But in those days, loyalty was not so +rife as at present. + +>From Berkeley Castle I went to Thornbury, of which the ruins +are half-ruined. It would have been glorious, if +finished.(117) I wish the lords of Berkeley had retained the +spirit of deposing till Henry the VIIIth's time! The situation +is fine, though that was not the fashion; for all the windows +of the great apartment look into the inner court. The prospect +was left to the servants. Here I had two adventures. I could +find nobody to show me about. I saw a paltry house that I took +for the sexton's, at the corner of the close, and bade my +servant ring, and ask who could show me the Castle. A voice in +a passion flew, from a casement, and issued from a divine. +"What! was it his business to show the Castle? - Go look for +somebody else! What did the fellow ring for as if the house was +on fire?" The poor +Swiss came back in a fright, and said, the doctor had sworn at +him. Well--we scrambled over a stone stile, saw a room or two +glazed near the gate, and rung at it. A damsel came forth and +satisfied our curiosity. When we had done seeing, I said, +"Child, we don't know our Way, and want to be directed into the +London road; I see the Duke's steward yonder at the window, +pray desire him to come to me, that I may consult him." She +went--he stood staring at us at the window, and sent his +footman. I do not think courtesy is a resident at Thornbury. +As I returned through the close, the divine came running, out +of breath, and without his beaver or band, and calls out, "Sir, +I am come to justify myself: your servant says I swore at him: +I am no swearer--Lord bless me! (dropping his voice) it is Mr. +Walpole!" "Yes, Sir, and I think you was Lord Beauchamp's +tutor at Oxford, but I have forgot your name." "Holwell, Sir." +"Oh! yes." and then I comforted him, and laid the ill-breeding +on my footman's being a foreigner; but could not help saying, I +really had taken his house for the sexton's. "Yes, Sir, it is +not very good without, won't you please to walk in!" I did, and +found the inside ten times worse, and He was making an Index to +Homer, a lean wife, suckling a child. He is going to publish +the chief beauties, and I believe had just been reading some of +the delicate civilities that pass between Agamemnon and +Achilles, and that what my servant took for oaths, were only +Greek compliments.(118) Adieu! Yours ever. + +You see I have not a line more of paper. + +(115) John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, who, having refused to +recant his opinions, was burned alive before the cathedral of +Gloucester in the year 1554.-E. + +(116) Thomas, third Lord Berkeley, was entrusted with the +custody of Edward II.; but, owing to the humanity with which he +treated the captive monarch, he was forced to resign his +prisoner and his castle to Lord Maltravers and Sir Thomas +Gournay. After the murder of Edward, Lord Berkeley was +arraigned as a participator in the crime, but honourably +acquitted. The Lady Berkeley alluded to by Walpole was his +first wife, Margaret, daughter of Roger de Mortimer, Earl of +March, and widow of Robert Vere, Earl of Oxford.-E. + +(117) Thornbury Castle was designed, but never finished by the +Duke of Buckingham, in Henry VIII's time.-E. + +(118) The Rev. William Holwell, vicar of Thornbury, prebendary +of Exeter, and some time chaplain to the King. He was +distinguished by superior talents as a scholar, and a critical +knowledge of the Greek language. His "Extracts from Mr. Pope's +Translation, corresponding with the Beauties of Homer, selected +from the Iliad," were published in 1776.-E. + + + +Letter 71 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, August 18, 1774. (page 98) + +It is very hard, that because you do not get my letters, you +will not let me receive yours, who do receive them. I have not +had a line from you these five weeks. Of your honours and +glories fame has told me;(119) and for aught I know, you may be +a veldt-marshal by this time, and despise such a poor cottager +as me. Take notice I shall disclaim you in my turn, if you are +sent on a command against Dantzich, or to usurp a new district +in Poland.(120) + +I have seen no armies, kings, or. empresses, and cannot send +you such august gazettes; nor are they what I want to hear of. +I like to hear you are well and diverted; nay, have pimped +towards the latter, by desiring Lady Ailesbury to send you +Monsieur do Guisnes's invitation to a military f`ete at +Metz.(121) For my part, I wish you was returned to your +plough. Your Sabine farm is in high beauty. I have lain there +twice within this week, going to and from a visit to George +Selwyn, near Gloucester; a tour as much to my taste as yours to +you. For fortified towns I have seen ruined castles. +Unluckily, in that of Berkeley I found a hole regiment of +militia in garrison, and as many young officers as if the +Countess was +in possession, and ready to surrender at indiscretion. I +endeavoured to comfort myself, by figuring that they were +guarding Edward II. I have seen many other ancient sights +without asking leave of the King of Prussia: it would not +please me so much to write to him, as it once did to write for +him.(122) + +They have found at least seventy thousand pounds of Lord +Thomond's.(123) George Howard has decked himself with a red +riband, money, and honours! Charming things! and yet One may +be happy without them. + +The young Mr. Coke is returned from his travels n love with the +Pretender's queen,(124) who has permitted him to have her +picture. What can I tell you more? Nothing. Indeed, if I +only write to postmasters, my letter is long enough. Every +body's head but mine is full of elections. I had the +satisfaction at Gloucester, where George Selwyn is canvassing, +of reflecting on my own wisdom. "Suave mari maggno turbantibus +aequora ventis," etc. I am certainly the greatest philosopher +in the world, without ever having thought of being so: always +employed, and never busy;' eager about trifles, and indifferent +to every thing serious. Well, if it is not philosophy, it is +at least content. I am as pleased here with my own nutshell, +as any monarch you have seen these two months astride his +eagle--not but I was dissatisfied when I missed you at +Park-place, and was peevish at your being in an Aulic chamber. +Adieu! Yours ever. + +P- S. They tell us from Vienna, that the peace is made between +Tisiphone and the Turk: is it true? + +(119) Alluding to the distinguished notice taken of General +Conway by the King of Prussia. + +(120) The first dismemberment of Poland had taken place in the +preceding year, by which a third of her territory was ceded to +Russia, Austria, and Prussia.-E. + +(121) To see the review of the French regiment of Carabineers, +then commanded by Monsieur de Guisnes. + +(122) Alluding to the Letter to Rousseau in the name of the +King of Prussia. + +(123) Percy Wyndham Obrien. He was the second son of Sir +Charles Wyndham, chancellor of the exchequer to Queen Anne; and +took the name of Obrien, pursuant to the Earl of Thomond in +Ireland. + +(124) The Countess of Albany.-E. + + + +Letter 72 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 7, 1774. (page 99) + +I did not think you had been so like the rest of the world, as, +when you pretended to be visiting armies, to go in search of +gold and silver mines!(125) The favours of courts and the +smiles of emperors and kings, I see, have corrupted even you, +and perverted you to a nabob. Have you brought away an ingot +in the calf of your leg? What abomination have you committed? +All the gazettes in Europe have sent you on different +negotiations: instead of returning With a treaty in your +pocket, you will only come back with bills of exchange. I +don't envy your subterraneous travels, nor the hospitality of +the Hungarians. Where did you find a spoonful of Latin about +you? I have not attempted to speak Latin these thirty years, +without perceiving I was talking Italian thickened with +terminations in us and orum. I should have as little expected +to find an Ovid in those regions; but I suppose the gentry of +Presburg read him for a fashionable author, as our squires and +their wives do the last collections of ballads that have been +sung at Vauxhall and Marybone. I wish you may have brought +away some sketches of Duke Albert's architecture. You know I +deal in the works of royal authors, though I have never admired +any of their own buildings, not excepting King Solomon's +temple. Stanley(126) and Edmondson in Hungary! What carried +them thither? The chase of mines too? The first, perhaps, +waddled thither obliquely, as a parrot would have done whose +direction was to Naples. + +Well, I am glad you have been entertained, and seen such a +variety of sights. You don't mind fatigues and hardships, and +hospitality, the two extremes that to me poison travelling. I +shall never see any thing more, unless I meet with a ring that +renders one invisible. It was but the other day that, being +with George Selwyn at Gloucester, I Went to view Berkeley +Castle, knowing the Earl was to dine with the mayor of +Gloucester. Alas! when I arrived, he had put off the party to +enjoy his militia a day longer, and the house was full of +officers. They might be in the Hungarian dress, for aught I +knew; for I was so dismayed, that I would"fain have persuaded +the housekeeper that she could not show me the apartments; and +when she opened the hall, and I saw it full of captains, I hid +myself in a dark passage, and nothing could persuade me to +enter, till they had the civility to quit the place. When I +was forced at last to go over the castle, I ran through it +without seeing any thing, as if I had been afraid of being +detained prisoner. + +I have no news to send you: if I had any, I would not conclude, +as all correspondents do, that Lady Ailesbury left nothing +Untold. Lady Powis is gone to hold mobs at Ludlow, where there +is actual war, and where a knight, I forget his name, one of +their friends, has been almost cut in two with a scythe. When +you have seen all the armies in Europe, you will be just in +time for many election-battles--perhaps, for a war in America, +whither more troops are going. Many of those already sent have +deserted; and to be sure the- prospect there is not smiling. +Apropos, Lord Mahon,(127) whom Lord Stanhope, his father, will +not suffer to wear powder because wheat is so dear, was +presented t'other day in coal-black hair and a white feather: +they said, "he had been tarred and feathered." + +In France you will find a new scene.(128) The Chancellor is +sent, a little before his time, to the devil. The old +Parliament is expected back. I am sorry to say I shall not +meet you there. It will be too late in the year for me to +venture, especially as I now live in dread of my biennial gout, +and should die of it in an h`otel garni, and forced to receive +all comers--I, who you know lock myself up when I am ill as if +I had the plague. + +I wish I could fill my sheet, in return for your five pages. +The only thing-you will care for knowing is, that I never saw +Mrs. Damer better in her life, nor look so well. You may trust +me, who am so apt to be frightened about her. + +(125) Mr. Conway had gone to see the gold and silver mines of +cremnitz, in the neighbourhood of Grau, in Hungary. + +(126) Mr. Hans Stanley. + +(127) Charles Viscount Mahon, born on the 3d of August 1753. +In the following December, he married Lady Hester Pitt, eldest +daughter of the Earl of Chatham. He succeeded his father, as +third Earl Stanhope, in March 1786, and died in 1816.-E. + +(128) In Consequence of the death of Louis XV. on the 10th of +May.-E. + + + +Letter 73 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 27, 1774. (page 101) + +I should be very ungrateful indeed if I thought of complaining +of you, who are goodness itself to me: and when I did not +receive letters from 'you, I concluded it happened from your +eccentric positions. I am amazed, that hurried as YOU have +been, and your eyes and thoughts- crowded with objects, you +have been able to find time to write me so many and such long +letters, over and above all those to Lady, Ailesbury, your +daughter, brother, and other friends. Even Lord Strafford +brags of your frequent remembrance. That your superabundance +of royal beams would dazzle you, I never suspected. Even I +enjoy for you the distinctions you have received--though I +should hate such things for myself, as they are particularly +troublesome to me,'and I am particularly awkward under them, +and as I abhor the King of Prussia, and if I passed through +Berlin, should have no joy like avoiding him--like one of our +countrymen, who changed horses at Paris, and asked what the +name of that town was? All the other civilities you have +received I am perfectly happy in. The Germans are certainly a +civil, well-meaning people, and, I believe, one of the least +corrupted nations in Europe. I do not think them very +agreeable; but who do I think are so? A great many French +women, some English men, and a few English women; exceedingly +few French men. Italian women are the grossest, vulqarest of +the sex. If an Italian man has a grain of sense, he is a +buffoon. So much for Europe! + +I have already told you, and so must Lady Ailesbury, that my +courage fails me, and I dare not meet you at Paris, As the +period arrived when the gout used to come, it is never a moment +out of my head. Such a suffering, such a helpless condition as +I was in for five months and a half, two years ago, makes me +tremble from head to foot. I should die at once if seized in a +French inn; or, what, if possible, would be worse, at Paris, +where I must admit every body.--I, who you know can hardly bear +to see even you when I am ill, and who shut up myself here, and +would not let Lord and Lady Hertford come near me--I, who have +my room washed though in bed, how could I bear French dirt! In +short, I, who am so capricious, and whom you are pleased to +call a philosopher, I suppose because I have given up every +thing but my own will--how could I keep my temper, who have no +way of keeping my temper but by keeping it out of every body's +way! No, I must give up the satisfaction of being with you at +Paris. I have just learnt to give up my pleasures, but I +cannot give up my pains, which such selfish people as I who +have suffered much, grow to compose into a system that they are +partial to, because it is their own. I must make myself amends +when you return: you will be more stationary, I hope, for the +future; and if I live I shall have intervals of health. In +lieu of me, you will have a charming succedaneum, Lady Harriet +Stanhope.(129) Her father, who is more a hero than i, is +packing up his old decrepit bones, and goes too. I wish she +may not have him to nurse, instead of diverting herself. + +The present state of your country is, that it is drowned and +dead drunk; all water without, and wine within. Opposition for +the next elections every where, even in Scotland; not from +party, but as laying Out money to advantage. In the +head-quarters, indeed, party is not out of the question: the +day after to-morrow will be a great bustle in the city for a +Lord Mayor,(130) and all the winter in Westminster, where Lord +Mahon and Humphrey Cotes oppose the court. Lady Powis is +saving her money at Ludlow and Powis Castles by keeping open +house day and night against Sir Watkin Williams, and fears she +shall be kept there till the general election. It has rained +this whole month, and we have got another inundation. The +Thames is as broad as your Danube, and all my meadows are under +water. Lady Browne and I, coming last Sunday night from Lady +Blandford's, were in a piteous plight. The ferryboat was +turned round by the current, and carried to Isleworth. Then we +ran against the piers of our new bridge, and the horses were +frightened. Luckily, my cicisbeo -was a Catholic, and screamed +to so many Saints, that some of them at the nearest alehouse +came and saved us, or I should have had no more gout, or what I +dreaded I should; for I concluded we should be carried ashore +somewhere, and be forced to wade through the mud up to my +middle. So you see one may wrap oneself up in flannel and be +in danger, without visiting all the armies on the face of the +globe, and putting the immortality of one's chaise to the +proof. + +I am ashamed Of sending you three sides of smaller paper in +answer to seven large--but what can I do? I see nothing, know +nothing, do nothing. My castle is finished, I have nothing new +to read, I am tired of writing, I have no new or old bit for my +printer. I have only black hoods around me; or, if I go to +town, the family-party in Grosvenor Street. One trait will +give you a sample of how I passed my time, and made me laugh, +as it put me in mind of you; at least it was a fit of absence, +much more likely to have happened to you than to me. I was +playing eighteenpenny tredrille with the Duchess of +Newcastle(131) and Lady Browne, and certainly not much +interested in the game. I cannot recollect nor conceive what I +was thinking of, but I pushed the cards very gravely to the +Duchess, and said, "Doctor, you are to deal." You may guess at +their astonishment, and how much it made us all laugh. I wish +it may make you smile a moment, or that I had any thing better +to send you. Adieu, most affectionately. Yours ever. + +(129) a Daughter of the Earl of Harrington. Her ladyship was +married, in 1776, to Thomas second Lord Foley.-E. + +(130) When Mr. Wilkes was elected. + +(131) Catherine, eldest daughter and heiress of the Right Hon. +Henry Pelham, married to Henry ninth Earl of Lincoln; who, in +consequence of his marriage with her, inherited in 1768, the +dukedom of Newcastle-under-Line on the demise of the Countess's +uncle, Thomas Pelham Holles, Who had been created Duke of +Newcastle.under-Line, with special remainder to the Earl of +Lincoln , in 1756 _E. + + + +Letter 74 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 28, 1774. (page 103) + +Lady Ailesbury brings you this,(132) which is not a letter, but +a paper of direction, and the counterpart of what I have +written to Madame du Deffand. I beg of you seriously to take a +great deal of notice of this dear old friend of mine. She +will, perhaps, expect more attention +from you, as my friend, and as it is her own nature a little, +than will be quite convenient to you: but you have an infinite +deal of patience and good-nature, and will excuse it. I was +afraid of her importuning Madame Ailesbury, who has a vast deal +to see and do, and, therefore, I prepared Madame du Deffand, +and told her Lady Ailesbury loves amusements, and that, having +never been at Paris before, she must not confine her: so you +must pay for both--and it will answer: and- I do not, I own, +ask this Only for Madame du Deffand's sake, but for my own, and +a little for yours. Since the late King's death she has not +dared to write to me freely, and I want to know the present +state of 'France exactly, both to satisfy my Own curiosity, and +for her sake, as- I wish to learn whether her, pension, etc. is +in any danger from the present ministry, some of whom are not +her friends. She can tell you a great deal if she will--by +that I don't mean that she is reserved, or partial to, her Own +country against ours--quite the contrary; she loves me better +than all France together--but she hates politics; and +therefore, to make her talk on it, you must tell her it is to +satisfy me, and that I want to know whether she is well at +court, whether she has any fears from the government, +particularly Maurepas and Nivernois: and that I am eager to +have Monsieur do Choiseul and ma grandmaman, the Duchess, +restored to power. If you take it on this foot easily, she +will talk to you with the utmost frankness and with amazing +cleverness. I have told her you are strangely absent, and +that, if she does not repeat it over and over, you will forget +every syllable; so I have prepared her to joke and be quite +familiar with you at once.(133) She knows more of personal +characters, and paints them better, than any body: but let this +be between ourselves, for I would not have a living soul +suspect, that I get any intelligence from her, which would hurt +her; and, therefore, I beg you not to let any human being know +of this letter, nor of your conversation with her, neither +English nor French. + +Madame du Deffand hates les philosophes; so you must give them +up to her. She and Madame Geoffrin are no friends: so, if you +go thither, don't tell her of it. Indeed, you would be sick of +that house, whither all pretended beaux esprits and faux +savants go, and where they are very impertinent and dogmatic. + +Let me give you one other caution, which I shall give to Lady +Ailesbury too. Take care of your papers at Paris, and have a +very strong lock to your porte-feuille. In the h`otels garnis +they have double keys to every lock, and examine every drawer +and paper of the English they can get at. They will pilfer, +too, whatever they can. I was robbed of half my clothes there +the first time, and they wanted to hang poor Louis to save the +people of the house who had stolen the things. + +Here is another thing I must say. Madame du Deffand has kept a +great many of my letters, and, as she is very old, I am in pain +about them. I have written to her to beg she will deliver them +up to you to bring back to me, and I trust she Will.(134) If +she does, be so good to take great care of them. If she does +not mention them, tell her before you come away, that I begged +you to bring them; and if she hesitates, convince her how it +would hurt me to have letters written in very bad French, and +mentioning several people, both French and English, fall into +bad hands, and, perhaps, be printed. + +Let me desire you to read this letter more than once, that you +may not forget my requests, which are very important to me; and +I must give you one other caution, without which all would be +useless. + +There is at Paris a Mademoiselle de l,Espinasse,(135) a +pretended bel esprit, who was formerly an humble companion of +Madame du Deffand; and betrayed her and used her very ill. I +beg of you not to let any body carry you thither. It Would +disoblige my friend of all things in the world, and she would +never tell you a syllable; and I own it would hurt me, who have +such infinite obligations to her, that I should be very unhappy +if a particular friend of mine showed her this disregard. She +has done every thing upon earth to please and serve me, and I +owe it to her to be earnest about this attention. Pray do not +mention it; it might look simple in me, and yet I owe it to +her, as I know it would hurt her, and, at her age, with her +misfortunes, and with infinite obligations on my side, can I do +too much to show My gratitude, or prevent her any new +mortification? I dwell upon it, because she has some enemies so +spiteful that they try to carry all English to Mademoiselle de +l'Espinasse. + +I wish the Duchess of Choiseul may come to Paris while you are +there; but I fear she will not; you would like her of all +things. She has more sense and more virtues than almost any +human being. If you choose to see any of the savans, let me +recommend Monsieur Buffon. He has not only much more sense +than any of them, but is an excellent old man, humane, gentle, +well-bred, and with none of the arrogant pertness of all the +rest. if he is at Paris, you will see a good deal of the Comte +d e Broglie at Madame du Deffand's. He is not a genius of the +first water, but lively and sometimes agreeable. The court, I +fear, will be at Fontainbleau, which will prevent your seeing +many, unless you go thither. Adieu! at Paris! I leave the rest +of my paper for England, if I happen to have any thing +particular to tell you. + +(132) Mr. Conway ended is military tour at Paris; whither Lady +Ailesbury and Mrs. Damer went to meet him, and where they spent +the winter together. + +(133) In her letter to Walpole, of the 28th of October, Madame +du Deffand draws the following portrait of General Conway:-- +"Selon l'id`ee que vous m'en aviez donn`ee, je le croyais +grave, s`ev`ere, froid, imposant; c'est l'homme le plus +aimable, le plus facile, le plus doux, le plus obligeant, et le +plus simple que je connaisse. Il n'a pas ces premiers +mouvemens de sensibilit`e qu'on trouve en vous, mais aussi +n'a-t-il pas votre humeur."-E. + +(134) To this request Madame du Deffand replied--"Je ne me +flatte point de vous revoir l'ann`ee prochaine, et le renvoi +que vous voulez que je vous fasse de vos lettres est ce qui +m'en fait denier. Ne serait-il pas plus naturel, si vous +deviez venir, que je vous les rendisse `a vous-m`eme? car vous +ne pensez pas que je ne puisse vivre encore un an. Vous me +faites croire, Par votre m`efiance, que vous avez en vue +d'effacer toute trace de votre intelligence avec Moi."-E. + +(135) Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse, the friend of D'Alembert, +born at Lyons in 1732, was the natural child of Mademoiselle +d'Albon, whose legitimate daughter was married to the Marquis +de Vichy. After the death of her mother, she resided with +Monsieur and Madame de Vichy; but in consequence of some +disagreements, left them, and in May +1754, went to reside with Madame du Deffand, with whom she +remained until 1764. The letters of Mademoiselle de +l'Espinasse were published some few years since.-E. + + + +Letter 75 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 11, 1774. (page 105) + +Dear Sir, +I answer yours immediately; as one pays a shilling to clench a +bargain, when one suspects the seller. I accept your visit in +the last week of this month, and will prosecute you if you do +not execute. I have nothing to say about elections, but that I +congratulate myself ,every time I feel I have nothing to do +with them. By my nephew's strange conduct about his boroughs, +and by many other reasons, I doubt whether he is so well as he +seemed to Dr. Barnardiston. It is a subject I do not love to +talk on; but I know I tremble every time the bell rings at my +gate at an unusual hour. + +Have you seen Mr. Granger's Supplement? Methinks it grows too +diffuse. I have hinted to him that fewer panegyrics from +funeral orations would not hurt it. Adieu! + + + +Letter 76 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Sunday, Oct. 16, 1774. (page 106) + +I received this morning your letter of the 6th from Strasburg; +and before you get this you will have had three from me by Lady +Ailesbury. One of them should have reached you much sooner; +but Lady Ailesbury kept it, not being sure where you was. It +was in answer to one in which you told me an anecdote, which in +this last you ask if I had received. + +Your letters are always so welcome to me, that you certainly +have no occasion for excusing what you say or do not say. Your +details amuse me, and so would what you suppress; for, though I +have no military genius or curiosity, whatever relates to +yourself must interest me. The honours you have received, +though I have so little taste for such things myself, gave me +great satisfaction; and I do not know whether there is not more +pleasure in not being a prophet in one's own country, when one +is almost received like Mahomet in every other. To be an idol +at home, is no assured touchstone of merit. Stocks and stones +have been adored in fifty regions, but do not bear +transplanting. The Apollo Belvidere and the Hercules Farnese +may lose their temples, but never lose their estimation, by +travelling. + +Elections, you may be sure, are the only topic here at +present--I mean in England--not on this quiet hill, where I +think of them as little as of the spot where the battle of +Blenheim was fought. They say there will not be much +alteration, but the phoenix will rise from its ashes with most +of its old plumes, or as bright. Wilkes at first seemed to +carry all before him, besides having obtained the mayoralty of +London at last. Lady Hertford told me last Sunday, that he +would carry twelve members. I have not been in town since, nor +know any thing but what I collect from the papers; so. if my +letter is opened, M. de Vergennes will not amass any very +authentic intelligence from my despatches. + +What I have taken notice of, is as follows: For the city Wilkes +will have but three members: he will lose Crosby, and Townsend +will carry Oliver. In Westminster, Wilkes will not have one; +his Humphrey Cotes is by far the lowest on the poll; Lord Percy +and Lord T. Clinton are triumphant there. Her grace of +Northumberland sits at a window in Covent-garden, harangues the +mob, and is "Hail, fellow, well met!" At Dover, Wilkes has +carried one, and probably will come in for Middlesex himself +with Glynn. There have been great endeavours to oppose him, +but to no purpose. Of this I am glad, for I do not love a mob +so near as Brentford especially, as my road lies through it. +Where he has any other interest I am too ignorant in these +matters to tell you. Lord John Cavendish is opposed at York, +and at the beginning of the poll had the fewest numbers. +Charles Fox, like the ghost in Hamlet, has shifted to many +quarters; but in most the cock crew, and he walked off.(136) In +Southwark there has been outrageous rioting; but I neither know +the candidates, their connexions, nor success. This, perhaps, +will appear a great deal of news at Paris: here, I dare to say, +my butcher knows more. + +I can tell you still less of America. There are two or three +more ships with forces going thither, and Sir William Draper as +second in command. + +Of private news, except that Dyson has had a stroke of palsy +and will die, there is certainly none; for I saw that shrill +Morning Post, Lady Greenwich, two hours ago, and she did not +Know a paragraph. + +I forgot to mention to you M. de Maurepas. He was by far the +ablest and most agreeable man I knew at Paris: and if you stay, +I think I could take the liberty of giving you a letter to him; +though, as he is now so great a man, and I remain so little an +one, I don't know whether it would be quite so proper--though +he was exceedingly good to me, and pressed me often to make him +a visit in the country. But Lord Stormont can certainly carry +you to him--a better passport. + +There was one of my letters on which I wish to hear from you. +There are always English coming from Paris, who would bring +such a parcel: at least, you might send me one volume at a +time, and the rest afterwards: but I should not care to have +them ventured by the common conveyance. Madame du Deffand is +negotiating for an enamel picture for me; but, if she obtains +it, I had rather wait for it till you come. The books I mean, +are those I told you Lady Ailesbury and Mrs. Damer would give +you a particular account of, for they know my mind exactly. +Don't reproach me with not meeting you at Paris. Recollect +what I suffered this time two years; and, if you can have any +notion of fear, imagine my dread of torture for five months and +a half! When all the quiet of Strawberry did but just carry me +through it, could I support it in the noise of a French hotel! +and, what would be still worse, exposed to receive all visits? +for the French, you know, are never mor in public than in the +act of death. I am like animals, and love to hide myself when +I am dying. Thank God, I am now two days beyond the crisis +when I expected my dreadful periodic visitant, and begin to +grow very sanguine about the virtue of the bootikins. I shall +even have courage to go to-morrow to Chalfont for two days, as +it is but a journey of two hours. I would not be a day's +journey from hence for all Lord Clive's diamonds. This will +satisfy you. I doubt Madame du Deffand is not so easily +convinced--therefore, pray do not drop a hint before her of +blaming me for not meeting you rather assure her you are +persuaded it would have been too great a risk for me at this +season. I wish to have her quite clear of my attachment to +her; but that I do not always find so easy. You, I am sure, +will find her all zeal and entpressement for you and yours. +Adieu! Yours ever. + + +(136) Mr. Fox was returned for Malmesbury.-E. + + + +Letter 77 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 29, 1774. (page 108) + +I have received your letter of the 23d, and it certainly +overpays me, when you thank instead of scolding me, as I +feared. A passionate man has very little merit in being in a +passion, and is sure of saying many things he repents, as I do. +I only hope you think that I could not be so much in the wrong +for every body; nor should have been, perhaps, even for you, if +I had not been certain I was the only person, at that moment, +that could serve you essentially: and at such a crisis, I am +sure I should take exactly the same part again, except in +saying some things I did, of which I am ashamed!(137) I will +say no more now on that topic, nor on any thing relating to it, +because I have written my mind very fully, and you will know it +soon. I can only tell you now, that I approve extremely your +way of thinking, and hope you will not change it before you +hear from me, and know some material circumstances. You and +Lady Ailesbury and I agree exactly, and she and I certainly +consider only you. I do not answer her last, because I could +not help telling you how very kindly I take your letter. All I +beg is, that you would have no delicacy about my serving you +any way. You know it is a pleasure to me: any body else may +have views that would embarrass you; and, therefore, till you +are on the spot, and can judge for yourself (which I always +insist on, because you are cooler than I, and because, though I +have no interests to serve, I have passions, which equally +mislead one,) it will be wiser to decline all kind of proposals +and offers. You will avoid the plague of contested elections +and solicitations: and I see no reasons, at present, that can +tempt you to be in a hurry.(138) + +You must not expect to be Madame du Deffand's first favourite. +Lady Ailesbury has made such a progress there, that you will +not easily supplant her. I have received volumes in her +praise.(139) You have a better chance with Madame de Cambis, +who is very agreeable; and I hope you are not such an English +husband as not to conform to the manners of Paris while you are +there. + +I forgot to mention one or two of my favourite objects to Lady +Ailesbury, nay, I am not sure she will taste one of them, the +church of the C`elestines. it is crowded with beautiful old +tombs; one of Francis II. whose beatitude is presumed from his +being husband of the martyr Mary Stuart. - Another is of the +first wife of John Duke of Bedford, the Regent Of France. I +think you was once there with me formerly. The other is +Richelieu's tomb, at the Sorbonne--but that every body is +carried to see. The H`otel de Carnavalet,(140) near the Place +Royale, is worth looking at, even for the fa`cade, as you drive +by. But of all earthly things the most worth seeing is the +house at Versailles, where the King's pictures, not hung up, +are kept. There is a treasure past belief, though in sad +order. and piled one against another. Monsieur de Guerchy once +carried me thither; and you may certainly get leave. At the +Luxembourg are some hung up, and one particularly is worth +going to see alone: it is the Deluge by Nicolo Poussin, as +winter. The three other seasons are good for nothing: but the +Deluge is the first picture in the world of its kind. You will +be shocked to see the glorious pictures at the Palais Royal +transplanted to new canvasses, and new painted and varnished, +as if they were to be scenes at the Opera-at least, they had +treated half-a-dozen of the best so, three years ago, and were +going on. The Prince of Monaco has a few fine, but still worse +used; one of them shines more than a looking glass. I fear the +exposition of pictures is over for this year; it is generally +very diverting.(141) I, who went into every church of Paris, +can assure you there are few worth it, but the Invalids-except +the scenery at St. Roch, about one or two o'clock at noon, when +the sun shines; the Carmelites, for the Guido and the portrait +of Madame de la Vali`ere as a Magdalen; the Val de Grace, for a +moment; the treasure at Notre Dame; the Sainte Chapelle, where +in the ante-chapel are two very large enamelled portraits; the +tomb of Cond`e at the Great Jesuits in the Rue St. Antoine, if +not shut up; and the little church of St. Louis in the Louvre, +where is a fine tomb of Cardinal Fleury, but large enough to +stand on Salisbury-plain. One thing some of u must remember, +as you return; nay, it is better to go soon to St. Denis, and +Madame du Deffand must get you a particular order to be shown +(which is never shown without) the effigies of the Kings.(142) +They are in presses over the treasure which is shown, and where +is the glorious antique cameo-cup; but the countenance of +Charles IX. is so horrid and remarkable, you would think he had +died on the morrow of the St. Barthelemi, and waked full of the +recollection. If you love enamels and exquisite medals, get to +see the collection of a Monsieur d'Henery, who lives in the +corner of the street where Sir John Lambert lives--I forget its +name. There is an old man behind the Rue de Colombier, who has +a great but bad collection of old French portraits; I delighted +in them, but perhaps you would not. I, you may be sure, hunted +out every thing of that sort. The convent and collection of +St. Germain, I mean that over against the H`otel du Parc Royal, +is well worth seeing--but I forget names strangely--Oh! +delightful!--Lord Cholmondeley sends me word he goes to Paris +on Monday: I shall send this and my other letter by him. It +was him I meant; I knew he was going and had prepared it. + +Pray take care to lock up your papers in a strong box that +nobody can open. They imagine you are at Paris on some +commission, and there is no trusting French hotels or servants. +America is in a desperate situation, The accounts from the +Congress are not expected before the 10th, and expected very +warm. I have not time to tell you some manoeuvres against them +that will make your blood curdle. Write to me when you can by +private hands, as I will to you. There are always English +passing backwards and forwards. + +(140) Where Madame de S`evign`e resided. + +(141) He means from their extreme bad taste. + +(142) The abbey of St. Denis was shorn of its glories during +the Revolution. On the 16th of October 1793, the coffin of +Louis XV. was taken out of the vaults; and, after a stormy +debate, it was decided to throw the remains of all the kings, +even those of Henry IV. and Louis XIV. which were yet to a +great degree preserved entire, into a pit, to melt down their +leaden coffins on the spot, and to take +away and cast into bullets whatever +lead remained in the church; not even excepting the roof.-E. + + + +Letter 78 To The Countess Of Ailesbury. +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 7, 1774. (page 110) + +I have written such tomes to Mr. Conway, Madam, and have so +nothing new to write, that I might as well, methinks, begin and +like the lady to her husband: "Je vous `ecris parce que je n'ai +rien `a faire: je finis parce que je n'ai rien `a vous dire." +Yes, I have two complaints to make, one of your ladyship, the +other of myself. You tell me nothing of Lady Harriet; have you +no tongue, or the French no eyes? or are her eyes employed in +nothing but seeing? What a vulgar employment for a fine +woman's eyes, after she has risen from her toilet! I declare I +will ask no more questions--what is it to me, whether she is +admired or not? I should know how charming she is, though all +Europe were blind. I hope I am not to be told by any barbarous +nation upon earth what beauty and grace are. + +For myself, I am guilty of the gout in my elbow; the left- +-witness my handwriting. Whether I caught cold by the deluge +in the night, or whether the bootikins, like the water of Styx, +can only preserve the parts they surround, I doubt they have +saved me but three weeks, for so long my reckoning has been +out. However, as I feel nothing in my feet, I flatter myself +that this Pindaric transition will not be a regular ode, but a +fragment, the more valuable for being imperfect. + +Now for my gazette.--Marriages--Nothing done. Intrigues--More +in the political than civil way. Births--Under par since Lady +Berkeley left off breeding. Gaming--Low water. Deaths--Lord +Morton, Lord Wentworth, Duchess Douglas. Election stock--More +buyers than sellers. Promotions--Mr. Wilkes as high as he can +go.--Apropos, he was told the Lord Chancellor intended to +signify to him, that the King did not approve the City's +choice: he replied, "Then I shall signify to his lordship, that +I am at least as fit to be Lord Mayor as he to be Lord +Chancellor." This being more gospel than every thing Mr. +Wilkes says, the formal approbation was given. + +Mr. Burke has succeeded in Bristol, and Sir James Peachey will +miscarry in Sussex. But what care you, Madam, about our +Parliament? You will see the rentr`ee of the old one, with +songs and epigrams into the bargain. We do not shift our +Parliaments with so much gaiety. Money in one hand, and abuse +in t'other--those are all the arts we know. Wit and a gamut I +don't believe ever signified a Parliament,(143) whatever the +glossaries may say; for they never produce pleasantry and +harmony. Perhaps you may not taste this Saxon pun, but I know +it will make the Antiquarian Society die with laughing. + +Expectation hangs on America. The result of the general +assembly is expected in four or five days. If one may believe +the papers, which one should not believe, the other side of the +waterists are not doux comme des moutons, and yet we do intend +to eat them. I was in town on Monday; the Duchess of Beaufort +graced our loo, and made it as rantipole as a Quaker's meeting. +Louis Quinze ,(144) I believe, is arrived by this time, but I +fear without quinze louis. + +Your herb-snuff and the four glasses are lying in my warehouse, +but I can hear of no ship going to Paris. You are now at +FOntainbleau, but not thinking of Francis 1. the Queen of +Sweden, and Monaldelschi. It is terrible that one cannot go to +courts that are gone! You have supped with the Chevalier de +Boufflers: did he act every thing in the world, and sing every +thing in the world, and laugh at every thing in the world? Has +Madame de Cambis sung to you "Sans d`epit, sans +l`egert`e?"(145) Has Lord Cholmondeley delivered my pacquet? +I hear I have hopes of Madame d'Olonne.(146) Gout or no gout, I +shall be little in town till after Christmas. My elbow makes +me bless myself that I am not at Paris. Old age is no such +uncomfortable thing, if one gives oneself up to it with a good +grace, and don't drag it about + +"To midnight dances and the public show." + +If one stays quietly in one's own house in the country, and +cares for nothing but oneself, scolds one's servants, condemns +every thing that is new, and recollects how charming a thousand +things were formerly that were very disagreeable, one gets over +the winters very well, and the summers get over themselves. + +(143) Witenagemoot. + +(144) This was a cant name given to Lady Powis, who was very +fond of loo, and had lost much money at the game. + +(145) The first words of a favourite French air. + +(146) The Portrait in enamel of Madame d'Olonne by Petitot, +which Walpole afterwards purchased.-E. + + + +Letter 79 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 11, 1774. (page 112) + +I am sorry there is still time, my dear lord, to write to you +again; and that though there is, I have so little to amuse you +with. One is not much nearer news for being within ten miles +of London than if in Yorkshire; and besides, whatever reaches +us, Lady Greenwich catches at the rebound before me, and Sends +you before I can. Our own circle furnishes very little. +Dowagers are good for propagating news when planted, but have +done with sending forth suckers. Lady Blandford's coffee-house +is removed to town, and the Duchess of Newcastle's is little +frequented, but by your sister Anne, Lady Browne, and me. This +morning, indeed, I was at a very fine concert at old Franks's +at Isleworth, and heard Leoni,(147) who pleased me more than +any thing I have heard these hundred years. There is a full +melancholy melody in his voice, though a falsetto, that nothing +but a natural voice ever compasses. Then he sung songs of +Handel in the genuine simple style, and did not put one in pain +like rope-dancers. Of the Opera I hear a dismal account; for I +did not go to it to sit in our box like an old King dowager by +myself. Garrick is treating the town, as it deserves and likes +to be treated, with scenes, fireworks, and his own writing. A +good new play I never expect to see more, nor have seen since +The Provoked Husband, which came out when I was at school. + +Bradshaw is dead, they say by his own hand: I don't know +wherefore. I was told it was a great political event. If it +is, our politics run as low as our plays. From town I heard +that Lord Bristol was taken speechless with a stroke of the +palsy. If he dies, Madam Chudleigh(148) must be tried by her +peers, as she is certainly either duchess or countess. Mr. +Conway and his company are so pleased with Paris, that they +talk of staying till Christmas. I am glad; for they will +certainly be better diverted there than here. Your lordship's +most faithful servant. + +(147) Leoni, a celebrated singer of the day, considered one of +the best in England. He was a Jew, and engaged at the +synagogues, from which he is said to have been dismissed for +singing in the Messiah of Handel.-E. + +(148) The Duchess of Kingston; against whom an indictment for +bigamy was found on the 8th of December, she having married the +Duke of Kingston, having been previously married to the Hon. +Augustus John Hervey, then living, and who, by the death of his +brother, in March, 1775, became Earl of Bristol.-E. + + + +Letter 80 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 12, 1774. (page 112) + +I have received a delightful letter from you of four sheets, +and another since. I shall not reply to the campaigning part +(though much obliged to you for it), because I have twenty +other subjects -more pressing to talk of The first is to thank +you for your excessive goodness to my dear old friend-she has +some indiscretions, and you must not have any to her; but she +has the best heart in the world, and I am happy,, at her great +age, that she has spirits enough not to he always upon her +guard. A bad heart, especially after long experience,, is but +too apt to overflow inwardly with prudence. At least, as I am +but too like her, and have corrected too few of my faults, I +would fain persuade myself that some of them flow from a good +principle--but I have not time to talk of myself, though you +are much too Partial to me, and give me an opportunity; yet I +shall not take it. + +Now for English news, and then your letter again. There has +been a great mortality here; though Death has rather been pri`e +than a volunteer. Bradshaw, as I told Lady Ailesbury last +post, shot himself. He is dead, totally undone. Whether that +alone was the cause, or whether he had not done something +worse, I doubt. I cannot conceive that, with his resources, he +should have been hopeless--and, to suspect him of delicacy, +impossible! + + A ship is arrived from America, and I doubt with very bad +news; for none but trifling letters have yet been given out- +-but I am here, see nobody that knows any thing,,and only hear +by accident from people that drop in. The sloop that is to +bring the result of the general assembly is not yet come. +There are indeed rumours, that both the non-importation, and +even non-exportation have been decreed, and that the flame is +universal. I hope this is exaggerated! yet I am told the +stocks will fall very much in a day or two. + +I have nothing to tell Lady Ailesbury, but that I hear a +deplorable account of the Opera. There is a new puppet-show at +Drury Lane, as fine as scenes can make it, called "The Maid of +the Oaks,"(149) and as dull as the author could not help making +it. + +Except M. d'Herouville, I know all the people you name. C. I +doubt, by things I have heard formerly, may have been a +concessionnaire. The Duke, your protecteur(150) is mediocre +enough; You would have been more pleased with his wife. The +Chevalier's(151) bon-mot is excellent, and so is he. He has as +much buffonnerie as the Italians, With more wit and novelty. +His impromptu verses often admirable. Get Madame du Deffand to +show you his embassy to the Princess Christine, and his verses +on his eldest uncle, beginning Si Monsieur de Veau. His second +uncle has parts, but they are not so natural. Madame de +Caraman is a very good kind of woman, but has not a quarter of +her sister's parts.(152) Madame de Mirepoix is the agreeable +woman of the world when she pleases-but there, must not be a +card in the room. Lord * * * * has acted like himself; that +is, unlike any body else. You know, I believe, that I think +him a very good spetcr; but I have little opinion of his +judgment and knowledge of the world, and a great Opinion of his +affectation and insincerity. The Abb`e Raynal, though he wrote +that fine work on the Commerce des Deux Indes, is the most +tiresome creature in the world. The first time I met him was +at the dull Baron d'Olbach's: we were twelve at table: I +dreaded opening My Mouth in French, before so many people and +so many servants: he began questioning me, cross the table, +about our colonies, which I understand as little as I do +Coptic. I made him signs I was deaf. After dinner, he found I +was not, and never forgave me. Mademoiselle do Raucoux I never +saw till you told me Madame du Deffand said she was d`emoniaque +sans chaleur! What painting! I see her now. Le Kain sometimes +pleased me, oftener not. Mol`e is charming in genteel, or in +pathetic comedy, and would be fine in tragedy, if he was +stronger. Preville is always perfection. I like his wife in +affected parts, though not animated enough. There was a +delightful woman who did the Lady Wishforts, I don't know if +there still, I think her name Mademoiselle Drouin; and a fat +woman, rather elderly, who sometimes acted the soubrette. But +you have missed the Dumenil, and Caillaut! What irreparable +losses! Madame du Deffand, perhaps--I don't know--could obtain +your hearing the Clairon, yet the Dumenil was infinitely +preferable. + +I could now almost find in my heart to laugh at you for liking +Boutin's garden.(153) Do you know, that I drew a plan of it, +as the completest absurdity I ever saw. What! a river that +wriggles at right angles through a stone gutter, with two tansy +puddings that were dug out of it, and three or four beds in a +row, by a corner of the wall, with samples of grass, corn, and +of en friche, like a tailor's paper of patterns! And you like +this! I will tell Park-place--Oh! I had forgot your audience in +dumb show--Well, as Madame de S`evign`e said, "Le Roi de +Prusse, c'est le plus grand Roi du monde still."(154) My love +to the old Parliament; I don't love new ones. + +I went several times to Madame do Monconseil's, who is just +what you say. Mesdames de Tingri et de la Vauguion I never +saw: Madame de Noailles once or twice, and enough. You say +something of Madame de Mallet, which I could not read; for, by +the way, your brother and I agree that you are grown not to +write legibly: is that lady in being? I knew her formerly. +Madame de Blot(155) I know, and Monsieur de Paulmy I know; but +for Heaven's sake who is Colonel Conway?(156) Mademoiselle +Sanadon is la sana donna, and not Mademoiselle Celadon,(157) as +you call her. Pray assure my good Monsieur Schouwalov(158)of +my great regard: he is one of the best of beings. + +I have said all I could, at least all I should. I reserve the +rest of my paper for a postscript; for this is but Saturday, +and my letter cannot depart till Tuesday: but I could not for +one minute defer answering your charming volumes, which +interest me so much. I grieve for Lady Harriet's swelled face, +and wish for both their sakes .She could transfer it to her +father. I assure her I meant nothing by desiring you to see +the verses to the Princess Christine,(159) wherein there is +very profane mention of a pair of swelled cheeks. I hear +nothing of Madame d'Olonne. Oh! make Madame du Deffand show +you the sweet portrait of Madame de Prie, the Duke of Bourbon's +mistress. Have you seen Madame de Monaco, and the remains of +Madame de Brionne? If -you wish to see Mrs. A * * *, ask for +the Princesse de Ligne. If you have seen Monsieur de Maurepas, +you have seen the late Lord Hardwicke.(160) By your not naming +him, I suppose the Duc de Nivernois, is not at Paris. Say a +great deal for me to M. de Guisnes.. You will not see my +passion, the Duchess de Chatillon. if You see Madame de +Nivernois, you will think the Duke of Newcastle is come to life +again. Alas! where is my Postscript? Adieu! Yours ever. + +(149) Written by General Burgoyne. Walpole's opinion of the +General's abilities as a writer totally changed upon the +appearance of "The Heiress", which he always called the +greatest comedy in the English language.-E. + +(150) The Duc de la Vali`ere: whom Mr. Conway had said, that, +when presented to him, "his reception was what might be called +good but rather de protection." + +(151) The Chevalier de Boufflers; well known for his "Letters +from Switzerland," addressed to his mother; his "Reine de +Golconde," a tale; and a number of very pretty vers de +soci`et`e.-E. + +(152) Madame de Cambis.-E. + +(153) See another ludicrous description of this garden in a +letter to Mr. Chute; ante, P. 55, letter 31.-E. + +(154) This alludes to Mr. Conway's presentation to the King of +France, Louis XVI. at Fontainbleau, of which, in his letter to +Mr. Walpole he gives the following account:-- "on St. Hubert's +day in the morning I had the honour of being presented to the +King: 'twas a good day, and an excellent deed. You may be sure +I was well received! the French are so polite! and their court +so Polished! The Emperor, indeed, talked to me every day; so +did the King of Prussia, regularly and much; but that was not +to be compared to the extraordinary reception of his most +Christian Majesty, who, when I was presented, did not stop nor +look to see what sort of an animal was offered to his notice, +but carried his head, as it seemed, somewhat higher, and passed +his way." + +(155) Wife Of M. Chavigny de Blot, attached to the service of +the Duke of Orleans: she Was sister to the Comte d'Hennery, who +died at St. Domingo, where he was commander-in-chief. + +(156) An officer in the French service. + +(157) Mademoiselle Sanadon, a lady who lived with Madame du +Deffand. She was niece to the P`ere Sanadon, well known by his +translation of Horace, accompanied with valuable notes, and by +his elegant Poems and orations in the Latin language.-E. + +(158) The Russian minister at Paris. + See vol. iii., Letter to the Earl of Hertford, March 26, 1765, +letter 245. Madame du Deffand thus describes the Count in a +letter to Walpole:--"Je trouve notre bon ami un peu ennuyeux; +il n'a nulle inflexion dans la parole, nul mouvement dans +l'`ame; ce qu'il dit est une lecture sans p`en`etration."-E. + +(159) BY the Chevalier do Boufflers. + + +(160) He means, from their personal resemblance. + + + +Letter 81 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street, Nov. 27, 1774. (page 115) + +I have received your delightful Plump packet with a letter of +six pages, one from Madame du Deffand, the Eloges,(161) and the +Lit de Justice. Now, observe my gratitude: I appoint you my +resident at Paris, but you are not to resemble all our +ministers abroad, and expect to live at home, which would +destroy my Lord Castlecomer's(162) view in your staying at +Paris. However, to prove to you that I have some gratitude +that is not totally selfish, I will tell you what little news I +know, before I answer your letter; for English news, to be +sure, is the most agreeable circumstance in a letter from +England. + +On my coming to town yesterday, there was nothing but more +deaths--don't you think we have the plague? The Bishop of +Worcester,(163) Lord Breadalbane, Lord Strathmore. The first +fell from his horse, or with his horse, at Bath, and the +bishopric was incontinently given to Bishop North. + +America is still more refractory, and I doubt will outvote the +ministry. They have picked General Gage's pocket of three +pieces of cannon,(164) and intercepted some troops that were +going to him. Sir William Draper is writing plans of +pacification in our newspapers; and Lord Chatham flatters +himself that he shall be sent for when the patient is given +over; which I don't think at all unlikely to happen. My poor +nephew is very political too: so we shall not want mad doctors. +Apropos, I hear Wilkes says he will propose Macreth for +Speaker. + +The Ecclesiastical Court are come to a resolution that the +Duchess of Kingston is Mrs. Hervey; and the sentence will be +public in a -fortnight. It is not so certain that she will +lose the estate. Augustus(165) is not in a much more pleasant +predicament than she is. I saw Lord Bristol last night: he +looks perfectly well, but his speech is much affected, and his +right hand. + +Lady Lyttelton, who, you know, never hears any thing that has +happened, wrote to me two days ago, to ask if it would not be +necessary for you to come over for the meeting of the +Parliament. I answered, very gravely, that to be sure you +ought: but though Sir James Morgan threatened you loudly with a +petition, yet, as it could not be heard till after Christmas, I +was afraid you could not be persuaded to come sooner. I hope +she will inquire who Sir James Morgan is, and that people will +persuade her she has made a confusion about Sir James Peachy. +Now for your letter. + +I have been in the Chambre de Parlement, I think they call it +the Grande Chambre; and was shown the corner in which the +monarchs sit, and do not wonder you did not guess where it was +they sat. It is just like the dark corner, under the window, +where I always sat in the House of Commons. What has happened, +has passed exactly according to my ideas. When one King breaks +one parliament, and another, what can the result be but +despotism? or of what else is it a proof? If a Tory King +displaces his father's Whig lord +chamberlain, neither lord chamberlain has the more or the less +power ,over the theatres and court mournings and birthday +balls. All that can arrive is, that the people will be still +more attached to the old parliament, from this seeming +restitution of a right--but the people must have some power +before their attachment can signify a straw. The old +parliament, too, may some time or other give itself more airs +on this confession of right; but that too cannot be but in a +minority, when the power of the crown is lessened by reasons +that have nothing to do with the parliament. I will answer for +it, they will be too grateful to give umbrage to their +restorer. Indeed, I did not think the people would be so +quick-sighted at once, as to see the distinction of old and new +was without difference. Methinks France and England are like +the land and the sea; one gets a little sense when the other +loses it. + +I am quite satisfied with all you tell me about my friend. My +intention is certainly to see her again, if I am able; but I am +too old to lay plans, especially when it depends on the despot +gout to register or cancel them. It is even melancholy to see +her, when it will probably be but once more; and still more +melancholy, when we ought to say to one another, in a different +sense from the common, au revoir! However, as mine is a pretty +cheerful kind of philosophy, I think the best way is to think +of dying, but to talk and act as if one was not to die; or else +one tires other people, and dies before one's time. I have +truly all the affection and attachment for her that she +deserves from me, or I should not be so very thankful as I am +for your kindness to her. The Choiseuls will certainly return +at Christmas, and will make her life much more agreeable. The +Duchess has as much attention to her as I could have; but that +will not keep me from making her a visit. + +I have only seen, not known, the younger Madame de Boufflers. +For her musical talents, I am little worthy of them-yet I am +just going to Lady Bingham's to hear the Bastardella, whom, +though the first singer in Italy, Mrs. Yates could not or would +not agree with,(166) and she is to have twelve hundred pounds +for singing twelve times at the Pantheon, where, if she had a +voice as loud as Lord Clare's, she could not be heard. The two +bon-mots You sent me are excellent; but, alas! I had heard them +both before; consequently your own, which is very good too, +pleased me much more. M. de Stainville I think you will not +like: he has sense, but has a dry military harshness, that at +least did not suit me--and then I hate his barbarity to his +Wife.(167) + +You was very lucky indeed to get one of the sixty tickets.(168) +Upon the whole, your travels have been very fortunate, and the +few mortifications amply compensated. If a Duke(169) has been +spiteful when your back was turned, a hero-king has been all +courtesy. If another King has been silent, an emperor has been +singularly gracious- -Frowns or silence may happen to anybody: +the smiles have been addressed to you particularly. So was the +ducal frown indeed-but would you have earned a smile at the +price set on it? One cannot do right and be always applauded-- +but in such cases are not frowns tantamount? + +As my letter will not set forth till the day after to-morrow, I +reserve the rest for my additional news, and this time will +reserve it. + +St. Parliament's day, 29th, after breakfast. + +The speech is said to be firm, and to talk of the +rebellion(170) of our province of Massachusetts. No sloop is +yet arrived to tell us how to call the rest. Mr. Van(171) is +to move for the expulsion of Wilkes; which will distress, and +may produce an odd scene. Lord Holland is certainly dead; the +papers say, Robinson too, but that I don't know--so many deaths +of late make report kill to right and left. + +(161) Two rival Eloges of Fontenelle, by ChamPfort and La +Harpe.-E. + +(162) A cant phrase of Mr. Walpole's; which took its rise from +the following story:--The tutor of a young Lord Castlecomer, +who lived at Twickenham with his mother, having broken his leg, +and somebody pitying the poor man to Lady Castlecomer, she +replied, "Yes indeed, it is very inconvenient to my Lord +Castlecomer."-E. + +(163) Dr. James Johnson.-E. + +(164) The seizure of Fort William and Mary, near Portsmouth, in +New Hampshire, by the provincial militia, in which they found +many barrels of gunpowder, several pieces of cannon, etc.-E. + +(165) Augustus Hervey, to whom she was first married. + +(166) Mrs. Yates was at this time joint manager of the Opera +with Mrs. Brook. In November 1773, she spoke a Poetical +exordium, by which it appeared that she intended mixing plays +with operas, and entertaining the public with singing and +declamation alternately; but permission could not be obtained +from the Lord Chamberlain to put this plan into execution.-E. + +(167) Upon a suspicion OF gallantry with Clairval, an actor, +she was confined for life in the convent Of les filles de +Sainte Marie, at Nancy.-E. + +(168) To see the Lit de Justice held by Louis XVI. when he +recalled the Parliament of Paris, at the instigation of the +Chancellor Maupeou, and suppressed the new one of their +creation. + +(169) The Duke de Choiseul. + +(170) The King's Speech announced, "that a most daring spirit +of resistance and disobedience to the law still unhappily +prevailed in the province of Massachusett's Bay;" and expressed +the King's "firm and steadfast resolution to withstand every +attempt to weaken or impair the supreme authority Of this +legislature over all the dominions of his crown: the +maintenance of which he considered as essential to the dignity, +the safety, and welfare of the British empire."-E. + +(171) Charles Van, Esq. member for Brecon town. No motion for +the expulsion of Wilkes took place.-E. + + + +Letter 82 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street, Dec. 15, 1774. (page 118) + +As I wrote to Lady Ailesbury but on Tuesday, I should not have +followed it so soon with this, if I had nothing to tell you but +of myself. My gouts are never dangerous, and the shades of +them not important. However, to despatch this article at once, +I will tell you, that the, pain I felt yesterday in my elbow +made me think all former pain did not deserve the name. +Happily the torture did not last above two hours; and, which is +more surprising, it is all the real pain I have felt; for +though my hand has been as sore as if flayed, and that both +feet are lame, the bootikins demonstrably prevent or extract +the sting of it, and I see no reason not to expect to get out +in a fortnight more. Surely, if I am laid up but one month in +two years, instead of five or six, I have reason to think the +bootikins sent from heaven. + +The long expected sloop is arrived at last, and is indeed a man +of war! The General Congress have voted a non-importation, a +non-exportation, a non-consumption; that, in case of +hostilities committed by the troops at Boston, the several +provinces will march to the assistance of their countrymen; +that the cargoes of ships now at sea shall be sold on their +arrival, and the money arising thence given to the poor at +Boston.; that a letter, in the nature of a petition of rights, +shall be sent to the King; another to the House of Commons; a +third to the people of England; a demand of repeal of all the +acts of Parliament affecting North America passed during this +reign, as also of the Quebec-bill: and these resolutions not to +be altered till such repeal is obtained. + +Well, I believe you do not regret being neither in parliament +nor in administration! As you are an idle man, and have +nothing else to do, you may sit down and tell one a remedy for +all this. Perhaps you will give yourself airs, and say you was +a prophet, and that prophets are not honoured in their own +country. Yet, if you have any inspiration about you, I assure +you it will be of great service-we are at our wit's end-which +was no great journey. Oh! you conclude Lord Chatham's crutch +will be supposed a wand, and be sent for. They might as well +send for my crutch; and they should not have it; the stile is a +little too high to help them over. His Lordship is a little +fitter for raising a storm than laying one, and of late seems +to have lost both virtues. The Americans at least have acted +like men,(172) gone to the"bottom at once, and set the whole +upon the whole. Our conduct has been that of pert children: we +have thrown a pebble at a mastiff, and are surprised that it +was not frightened. Now we must kill the guardian of the house +which will be plundered the moment little master has nothing +but the old nurse to defend it. But I have done with +reflections; you will be fuller of them than I. + +(172) "I have not words to express my satisfaction," says Lord +Chatham in a letter of the 24th, "that the Congress has +conducted this most arduous and delicate business with such +manly Wisdom and calm resolution, as do the highest honour to +their deliberations. Very few are the things contained in +their resolves, that I could wish had been otherwise." +Correspondence, vol. ii, p. 368.-$. + + + +Letter 83 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street, Dec. 26, 1774. (page 119) + +I begin my letter to-day, to prevent the fatigue of dictating +two to-morrow. In the first and best place, I am very near +recovered; that is, though still a mummy, I have no pain left, +nor scarce any sensation of gout except in my right hand, which +is still in complexion and shape a lobster's claw. Now, unless +any body can prove to me that three weeks are longer than five +months and a half, they will hardly convince me that the +bootikins are not a cure for fits of the gout and a Very short +cure, though they cannot prevent it: nor perhaps is it to be +wished they should; for, if the gout prevents every thing else, +would not one have something that does? I have but one single +doubt left about the bootikins, which is, whether they do not +weaken my breast: but as I am sensible that my own spirits do +half the mischief, and that, if I could have held my tongue, +and kept from talking and dictating letters, I should not have +been half so bad as I have been, there remains but half due to +bootikins on the balance: and surely the ravages of the last +long fit, and two years more in age, ought to make another +deduction. Indeed, my forcing myself to dictate my last letter +to you almost killed me; and since the gout is not dangerous to +me, if I am kept perfectly quiet, my good old friend must have +patience, and not insist upon letters from me but when it is +quite easy to me to send them. So much for me and my gout. I +will now endeavour to answer such parts of your last letters as +I can in this manner, and considering how difficult it is to +read your writing in a dark room. + +I have not yet been able to look into the French harangues you +sent me. Voltaire's verses to Robert Covelle are not only very +bad, but very contemptible. + +I am delighted with all the honours you receive, and with all +the amusements they procure you, which is the best part of +honours. For the glorious part, I am always like the man in +Pope's Donne, + +"Then happy he who shows the tombs, said I." + +That is, they are least troublesome there. The +serenissime(173) you met at Montmorency is one of the least to +my taste; we quarrelled about Rousseau, and I never went near +him after my first journey. Madame du Deffand will tell you +the story, if she has not forgotten it. + +It is supposed here, that the new proceedings of the French +Parliament will produce great effects: I don't suppose any such +thing. What America will produce I know still less; but +certainly something very serious. The merchants have summoned +a meeting for the second of next month, and the petition from +the Congress to the King is arrived. The heads have been shown +to Lord Dartmouth; but I hear one of the agents is again +presenting it; yet it is thought it will be delivered, and then +be ordered to be laid before Parliament. The whole affair has +already been talked of there on the army and navy-days; and +Burke, they say, has shone with amazing Wit and ridicule on the +late inactivity of Gage, and his losing his cannon and straw; +on his being entrenched in a town with an army of observation; +with that army being, as Sir William Meredith had said, an +asylum for magistrates, and to secure the port. Burke said, he +had heard of an asylum for debtors and whores, never for +magistrates; and of ships never of armies securing a port. +This is all there has been in Parliament, but elections. +Charles Fox's place did not come into question. Mr. * * *, who +is one of the new elect, has opened, but with no success. +There is a seaman, Luttrell,(174) that promises much better. + +I am glad you like the Duchess de Lauzun:(175) she is one of my +favourites. The H`otel du Chatelet promised to be very fine, +but was not finished when I was last at Paris. I was much +pleased with the person that slept against St. Lambert's poem: +I wish I had thought of the nostrum, when Mr. Seward, a +thousand years ago, at Lyons, would read an epic poem to me +just as I had received a dozen letters from England. St. +Lambert is a great Jackanapes, and a very tiny genius: I +suppose the poem was The Seasons, which is four fans spun out +into a Georgic. If I had not been too ill, I should have +thought of bidding you hear midnight mass on Christmas-eve in +Madame du Deffand's tribune, as I used to do. To be sure, you +know that her apartment was part of Madame du Montespan's, +whose arms are on the back of the grate in Madame du Deffand's +own bedchamber. Apropos, ask her to show you Madame de Prie's +pinture, M. le Duc's mistress--I am very fond of it--and make +her tell you her history.(176) + +I have but two or three words more. Remember my parcel of +letters from Madame du Deffand,(177) and pray remember this +injunction not to ruin yourselves in bringing presents. A very +slight fairing of a guinea or two obliges as much, +is much more fashionable, and not a moment sooner forgotten +than a magnificent one; and then you may very cheaply oblige +the more persons; but as the sick fox, in Gay's Fables, says +(for one always excepts oneself), + +"A chicken too might do me good." + +i allow you to go as far as three or even five guineas for a +snuff-box for me; and then, as ***** told the King, when he +asked for the reversion of the lighthouse for two lives, and +the King reproached him, with having always advised him against +granting reversions; he replied, "Oh! Sir, but if your Majesty +will give me this, I will take care you shall never give away +another." Adieu, with my own left hand. + +(173) The Prince de Conti. + +(174) The Hon. James Luttrell, fourth son of Lord Irnham, a +lieutenant in the navy.-E. + +(175) She became Duchesse de Biron upon the death of her +husband's uncle, the Marechal Duke de Biron. See vol. iii., +Letter to John Montagu, Feb. 4, 1766, letter 294. Her person +is thus described by Rousseau:--"Am`elie de Boufflers a une +figure, une douceur, une timidit`e devierge: rien de plus +aimable et de plus int`eressant que sa figure; rien de plus +tendre et de plus chaste que +les sentiments qu'elle inspire."-E. + +(176) Madame de Prie was the mistress of the Regent Duke of +Orleans. A full account of her family, character, etc. will be +found in Duclos's Memoirs.-E. + +(177) At Walpole's earnest solicitation, Madame du Deffand +returned by General Conway all the letters she had received +from him. In so doing, she thus wrote to him:--"Vous aurez +longtemps de quoi allumer votre feu, surtout si vous joignez `a +ce que j'avais de vous avez de moi, et rien ne serait plus +juste: mais je m'en rapporte `a votre prudence; je ne suivrai +pas l'exemple de m`efiance que vous me donnez."-E. + + + +Letter 84 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street, Dec. 31, 1774. (page 121) + +No child was ever so delighted to go into breeches, as I was +this morning to get on a pair of cloth shoes as big as Jack +Harris's: this joy may be the spirits of dotage-but what +signifies whence one is happy? Observe, too, that this is +written with my own right hand, with the bootikin actually upon +it, which has no distinction of fingers: so I no longer see any +miracle in Buckinger, who was famous for writing without hands +or feet; as it was indifferent which one uses, provided one has +a pair of either. Take notice, I write so much better without +fingers than with, that I advise you to try a bootikin. To be +sure, the operation is a little slower; but to a prisoner, the +duration of his amusement is of far more consequence than the +vivacity of it. + +Last night I received your very kind, I might say your letter +tout court, of Christmas-day. By this time I trust you are +quite out of pain about me. My fit has been as regular as +possible; only, as if the bootikins were post-horses, it made +the grand tour of all my limbs in three weeks. If it will +always use the same expedition, I m content it should take the +journey once in two years. You must not mind my breast: it was +always the weakest part of a very weak system ; yet did not +suffer now by the gout, but in consequence of it; and would not +have been near so bad, if I could have kept from talking and +dictating letters. The moment I am out of pain, I am in high +spirits ; and though I never take any medicines, there is one +thing absolutely necessary to be put into my mouth--a gag. At +present, the town is so empty that my tongue is a sinecure. + +I am well acquainted with the Biblioth`eque du Roi, and the +medals, and the prints. I spent an entire day in looking over +the English portraits, and kept the librarian without his +dinner till dark night, till I was satisfied. Though the +Choiseuls(178) will not acquaint with you, I hope their Abb`e +Barthelemil(179) is not put under the same quarantine. Besides +great learning, he has infinite wit and polissonnerie and is +one of the best kind of men in the world. As to the +grandpapa,(180) il ne nous aime pas nous autres, and has never +forgiven Lord Chatham. Though exceedingly agreeable himself, I +don't think his taste exquisite. Perhaps I was piqued; but he +seemed to like Wood better than any of US. Indeed, I am a +little afraid that my dear friend's impetuous zeal may have +been a little too prompt in pressing you upon them d'abord:-- +but don't say a word of this--it is her great goodness.--I +thank you a million of times for all yours to her:-she is +perfectly grateful for it. The Chevalier'S(181) verses are +pretty enough. I own I like Saurin's(182) much better than you +seem to do. Perhaps I am prejudiced by the curse on the +Chancellor at the end. + +Not a word of news here. In a sick room one hears all there +is, but I have not even a lie; but as this will not set out +these three days, it is to be hoped some charitable Christian +will tell a body one. Lately indeed we heard that the King of +Spain had abdicated; but I believe it was some stockjobber that +had deposed him. + +Lord George Cavendish, for my solace in my retirement, has +given me a book, the History of his own Furness-abbey, written +by a Scotch ex-Jesuit.(183) I cannot say that this unnatural +conjunction of a Cavendish and a Jesuit has produced a lively +colt; but I found one passage worth any money. It is an +extract of a constable's journal kept during the civil war; and +ends thus: "And there was never heard of such troublesome and +distracted times as these five years have been, but especially +for constables." It is so natural, that inconvenient to my +Lord Castlecomer is scarce a better proverb. + +Pray tell Lady Ailesbury that though she has been so very good +to me, I address my letters to you rather than to her, because +my pen is not always-upon its guard, but is apt to say whatever +comes into its nib; and then, if she peeps over your shoulder, +I am cens`e not to know it. Lady Harriet's wishes have done me +great good: nothing but a father's gout could be obdurate +enough to resist them. My Mrs. Damer says nothing to me; but I +give her intentions credit, and lay her silence on you. + +January 1. 1775. a happy new year! + +I walk! I walk! walk alone!--I have been five times quite +round my rooms to-day, and my month is not up! The day after +to-morrow I shall go down into the dining-room; the next week +to take the air: and then if Mrs. * * * * is very pressing, +why, I don't know what may happen. Well! but you want news, +there are none to be had. They think there is a ship lost with +Gage's despatches. Lady Temple gives all her diamonds to Miss +Nugent.(184) Lord Pigot lost 400 pounds the other night at +Princess Amelia's. Miss Davis(185) has carried her cause +against Mrs. Yates and is to sing again at the Opera. This is +all my coffee-house furnished this morning. + +(178) Mr. Conway and the ladies of his party had met with the +most flattering and distinguished reception at Paris from every +body but the Duc and Duchesse de Choiseul, who rather seemed to +decline their acquaintance. + +(179) The author of the Voyage du Jenne Anacharsis. + +(180) A name given to the Duc de Choiseul by Madame du Deffand. + +(181) Verses written by the Chevalier de Boufflers, to be +presented by Madame du Deffand to the Duke and Duchess of +Choiseul. + +(182) They were addressed to M. do Malesherbes, then premier +president de la Cour des Aides; afterwards, still more +distinguished by his having been the intrepid advocate Selected +by the unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth on his trial. He soon +after perished by the same guillotine, from which he could not +preserve his ill-fated master-E. + +(183) "The Antiquities of Furness; or +an account of the Royal Abbey of St. mary, in the vale Of +Nightshade, near Dalton, in Furness." London, 1774 4to. This +volume, which was dedicated to Lord George Cavendish, Was +written by Thomas West, the antiquary, who was likewise the +author of "A Guide to the Lakes in Cumberland, Westmoreland, +and Lancashire."-E. + +(184) Mary, only daughter and heiress +of Robert Earl Nugent, of the kingdom of Ireland. She was +married, on the 16th of May, 1775, to George Grenville, second +Earl Temple, who then assumed, by royal permission, the +surnames of Nugent and Temple before that of Grenville, and the +privilege of signing Nugent before all titles whatsoever. In +1784, he was created Marquis of Buckingham.-E. + +(185) Cecilia Davis known in Italy by the name of L'Inglesina, +first appeared at the +Opera in 1773. +She was considered on the Continent as second only to Gabrieli, +and in England is said to have been surpassed only by Mrs. +Billington. She was a pupil of the celebrated Hasse and, after +having taught several crowned heads, died at an advanced age, +and in very distressed circumstances, in 1836.-E. + + + +Letter 85To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Jan. 9, 1775. (page 124) + +I every day intended to thank you for the copy of Nell Gwyn's +letter, till it was too late; the gout came, and Made me moult +my goosequill. The letter is very curious, and I am as well +content as with the original. It is lucky you do not care for +news more recent Than the Reformation. I should have none to +tell you; nay, nor earlier neither. Mr. Strutt's(186) second +volume I suppose you have seen. He showed me two or three much +better drawings from pictures in the possession of Mr. Ives. +One of them made me very happy; it is a genuine portrait of +Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and is the individual same face +as that I guessed to be his in my Marriage of Henry VI. They +are infinitely more like each other, than any two modern +portraits of one person by different painters. I have been +laughed at for thinking the skull of Duke Humphrey at St. +Albans proved my guess; and yet it certainly does, and is the +more like, as the two portraits represent him very bald, with +only a ringlet of hair, as monks have. Mr. Strutt is going to +engrave his drawings. Yours faithfully. + + +(186) His " Complete Views of the Manners, Customs, Arms, +Habits, etc. of the Inhabitants of England from the arrival of +the Saxons till the reign of Henry the VIII.; with a short +Account of the Britons during the Government of the Romans."-E. + + + +Letter 86 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street, Jan, 15, 1775. (page 124) + +You have made me very happy by saying your journey to Naples is +laid aside. Perhaps it made too great an impression on me; but +you must reflect, that all my life I have satisfied myself with +your being perfect, instead of trying to be so myself. I don't +ask you to return, though I wish it: in truth there is nothing +to invite you. I don't want you to come and breathe fire and +sword against the Bostonians, like that second Duke of Alva, +the inflexible Lord George Germain; or to anathematize the +court and its works, like the incorruptible Burke, who scorns +lucre, except when he can buy a hundred thousand acres from +naked Caribs for a song. I don't want you to do any thing like +a party-man. I trust you think of every party as I do, with +contempt, from Lord Chatham's mustard-bowl down to Lord +Rockingham's hartshorn. All, perhaps, will be tried in their +turns, and yet, if they had genius, might not be Mighty enough +to save us. From some ruin or other I think nobody can, and +what signifies an option of mischiefs? An account is come of +the Bostonians having voted an army of sixteen thousand men, +who are to be called minute-men, as they are to be ready at a +minute's warning. Two directors or commissioners, I don't know +what they are called, are appointed. There has been too a kind +of mutiny in the fifth regiment. A soldier was found drunk on +his post. Gage, in his time of danger, thought vigour +necessary, and sent the fellow to a court-martial. They +ordered two hundred lashes. The general ordered them to +improve their sentence. Next day it was published in the +Boston Gazette. He called them before him, and required them +on oath to abjure the communication, three officers refused. +Poor Gage is to be scape-goat, not for this, but for what was a +reason against employing him, incapacity. I Wonder at the +precedent! Howe is talked of for his successor. Well, I have +done with you!--Now I shall go gossip with Lady Ailesbury + +You must know, Madam, that near Bath is erected a new +Parnassus, composed of three laurels,- a myrtle-tree, a +weeping-willow, and a view of the Avon, which has been +new-christened Helicon. Ten years ago there lived a Madam +Riggs, an old rough humourist who passed for a wit; her +daughter, who passed for nothing, married to a Captain Miller, +full of good-natured officiousness. These good folks were +friends of Miss Rich,(187) who carried me to dine with them at +Batheaston, now Pindus. They caught a little of what was then +called taste, built and planted, and begot children, till the +whole caravan- were forced to. go abroad to retrieve. Alas! +Mrs. Miller is returned-' a beauty, a genius, a Sappho, a +Muse, as romantic as Mademoiselle Scuderi, and as sophisticated +as Mrs. Vesey. The captain's fingers are loaded with cameos, +his tongue runs over with virt`u, and that both may contribute +to the improvement of their own country, they have introduced +bouts-rim`es as a new discovery. They hold a Parnassus-fair +every Thursday, give out rhymes and themes, and all the flux of +quality at Bath contend for the prizes. A Roman vase dressed +with pink ribands and myrtles receives the poetry which is +drawn out every festival; six judges of these Olympic games +retire and select the brightest compositions, which the +respective successful acknowledge, kneel to Mrs. Calliope +Miller, kiss her fair hand, and are crowned by it with myrtle, +with--I don't know what. You may think this is fiction, or +exaggeration. Be dumb, unbelievers! The collection is printed, +published. (188) Yes, on my faith, there are bouts-rim`es on a +buttered muffin, made by her grace the Duchess of +Northumberland;(189) receipts to make them by Corydon the +venerable, alias George Pitt; others very pretty, by Lord +Palmerston;(190) some by Lord Carlisle; many by Mrs. Miller +herself, that have no fault but wanting metre; and immortality +promised to her without end or measure. In short, since folly, +which never ripens to madness but in this hot climate, ran +distracted, there was never any thing so entertaining or so +dull--for you cannot read so long as I have been telling.(191) + +January 17. + +Before I could finish this, I received your despatches by Sir +Thomas Clarges, and a most entertaining letter in three tomes. +It is being very dull, not to be able to furnish a quarter so +much from your own country-but what can I do? You are embarked +in a new world, and I am living on the scraps of an old one, of +which I am tired. The best I can do is to reply to your +letter, and not attempt to amuse you when I have nothing to +say. I think the Parliament meets today, or in a day or +two-but I hope you are coming. Your brother says so, and +Madame du Deffand says so; and sure it is time to leave Paris, +when you know ninety of the inhabitants.(192) There seems much +affectation in those that will not know you;(193) and +affectation is always a littleness--it has been even rude: but +to be sure the rudeness one feels least, was that which is +addressed to one before there has been any acquaintance. + +Ninon came,(194) because, on Madame du Deffand's mentioning it, +I concluded it a new work, and am disappointed. I can say this +by heart. The picture of Madame de Prie, which you don't seem +to value, and so Madame du Deffand says, I believe I shall +dispute with you; I think it charming, but when offered to me +years ago, I would not take it--it was now given to you a +little a mon intention. + + I am sorry that, amongst all the verses you have sent me, you +should have forgotten what you commend the most, Les trois +exclamations. I hope you will bring them with you. Voltaire's +are intolerably stupid, and not above the level of officers in +garrison. Some of M. de Pezay's are very pretty, though there +is too much of them; and in truth I had seen them before. +Those on Madame de la Vali`ere pretty too, but one is a little +tired of Venus and the Graces. I am most pleased with your +own--and if you have a mind to like them still better, make +Madame du Deffand show you mine, which are neither French, nor +measure, nor metre. She is unwilling to tell me so-, which +diverts me. Yours are really genteel and new. + +I envy you the Russian Anecdotes(195) more than M. de +Chamfort's Fables, of which I know nothing; and as you say no +more, I conclude I lose not much. The stories of Sir +Charles(196) are so far not new to me, that I heard them of him +from abroad after he was mad: but I believe no mortal of his +acquaintance ever heard them before; nor did they at all +correspond with his former life, with his treatment of his +wife, or his history with Mrs. Woffington, qui n'`etait pas +dupe. I say nothing on the other stories you tell me of +billets dropped,(197) et pour cause. + +I think I have touched all your paragraphs, and have nothing +new to send you in return. In truth, I go nowhere but into +private rooms,; for I am not enough recovered to relaunch into +the world, when I have so good an excuse for avoiding it. The +bootikins have done wonders; but even two or three such +victories will cost too dear. I submit very patiently to my +lot. I am old and broken, and it never was my system to impose +upon myself when one can deceive nobody else. I have spirits +enough for my use, that is, amongst my friends and +contemporaries: I like Young people and their happiness for +every thing but to live with; but I cannot learn their +language, nor tell them old stories, of which I must explain +every step as I go. Politics' the proper resource of age, I +detest--I am Contented, but see few that are so--and I never +will be led by any man's self-interest. A great scene is +opening, of which I cannot expect to see the end! I am pretty +sure not a happy end--so that, in short, I am determined to +think the rest of my life but a postscript: and as this has +been too long an One, I will wish You good night, repeating +what you know already, that the return of you three is the most +agreeable prospect I expect to see realized. Adieu! + +(187) Daughter of Sir Robert Rich, and sister to the second +wife of George Lord Lyttelton. + +(188) They were published under the title of "Poetical +Amusements at a Villa near Bath." An edition appeared in 1781, +in four volumes.-E. + +(189) "The pen which I now take and brandish +Has long lain useless in my standish. +Know, every maid, from her on patten, +To her who shines in glossy satin, +That could they now prepare an oglio +>From best receipt of book in folio, +Ever so fine, for all their puffing, +I should prefer a butter'd muffin; +A muffin Jove himself might feast on, +If eat with Miller at Batheaston."-E. + +(190) The following are the concluding lines of a poem on +Beauty, by Lord Palmerston:-- + +"In vain the stealing hand of Time +May pluck the blossoms of their prime; +Envy may talk of bloom decay'd, +How lilies droop and roses fade; +But Constancy's unalter'd truth, +Regardful of the vows of youth, +Affection that recalls the past, +And bids the pleasing influence last, +Shall still preserve the lover's flame +In every scene of life the same; +And still with fond endearments blend +The wife, the mistress, and the friend!"-E. + +(191) "Lady Miller's collection of verses by fashionable +people, which were put into her vase at Batheaston, in +competition for honourary prizes being mentioned, Dr. Johnson +held them very cheap: 'Bouts-rim`es,' said be, 'is a mere +conceit, and an old conceit; I wonder how people were persuaded +to write in that manner for this lady.' I named a gentleman of +his acquaintance who wrote for the vase. Johnson--'He was a +blockhead for his pains!' Boswell. 'The Duchess of +Northumberland wrote.' Johnson: 'Sir, the Duchess of +Northumberland may do what she pleases; nobody will say any +thing to a lady of her high rank: but I should be apt to throw +* * * *'s verses in his face.'" Boswell. vol. v. p. 227.-E. + +(192) Madame du Deffand, writing of General Conway to Walpole, +had said--"Savez-vous combien il connait d`ej`a de personnes +dans Paris? Quatre.vingt dix. Il n'est nullement sauvage."-E. + +(193) The Duc du Choiseul. + +(194) The Life of Ninon de l'Enclos. + +(195) The account of the revolution in Russia which placed +Catherine II. on the throne, by M. de la Rulhi`ere, afterwards +Published. Mr. Conway had heard it read in manuscript in a +private society. + +(196) Sir Charles Hanbury Williams. + +(197) This alludes to circumstances Mr. Conway mentions as +having taken place at a ball at Versailles. + + + +Letter 87 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(198) +January 22, 1775. (page 128) + +After the magnificent overture for peace from Lord Chatham, +that I announced to Madame du Deffand, you will be most +impatient for my letter. Ohin`e! you will be sadly +disappointed. Instead of drawing a circle with his wand round +the House of Lords, and ordering them to pacify America, on the +terms he prescribed before they ventured to quit the +circumference of his commands, he brought a ridiculous, +uncommunicated, unconsulted motion for addressing the King +immediately to withdraw the troops from Boston, as an earnest +of lenient measures. The Opposition stared and shrugged; the +courtiers stared and laughed. His own two or three adherents +left him, except Lord Camden and Lord Shelburne, and except +Lord Temple, who is not his adherent and was not there. +Himself was not much animated, but very hostile; particularly +on Lord Mansfield, who had taken care not to be there. He +talked of three millions of Whigs in America, and told the +ministers they were checkmated and had not a move left to make. +Lord Camden was as strong. Lord Suffolk was thought to do +better than ever, and Lord Lyttelton's declamation was +commended as usual. At last, Lord Rockingham, very punily, and +the Duke of Richmond joined and supported the motion; but at +eight at night it was rejected by 68 to 18, though the Duke of +Cumberland voted for it.(199) + +This interlude would be only entertaining, if the scene was not +so totally gloomy. The cabinet have determined on civil war, +and regiments are going from Ireland and our West Indian +islands. On Thursday the plan of the war is to be laid before +both Houses. To-morrow the merchants carry their petition; +which, I suppose, will be coolly received, since, if I hear +true, the system is to cut off all traffic with America at +present--as, you know, we can revive it when we please. There! +there is food for meditation! Your reflections, as you +understand the subject better than I do, will go further than +mine could. Will the French you converse with be civil and +keep their countenances? + +George Damer(200) t'other day proclaimed your departure for the +25th; but the Duchess of Richmond received a whole cargo of +letters from ye all on Friday night, which talk of a fortnight +or three weeks longer. Pray remember it is not decent to be +dancing at Paris, when there is a civil war in your own +country. You would be like the Country squire, who passed by +with his hounds as the battle of Edgehill began. + +January 24. + +I am very sorry to tell you the Duke of Gloucester is dying. +About three weeks ago the physicians said it was absolutely +necessary for him to go abroad immediately. He dallied, but +was actually preparing. He now cannot go, and probably will +not live many days, as he has had two shivering fits, and the +physicians give the Duchess no hopes.(201) Her affliction and +courage are not to be described; they take their turns as she +is in the room with him or not. His are still greater. His +heart is broken, and yet his firmness and coolness amazing. I +pity her beyond measure; and it is not a time to blame her +having accepted an honour which so few women could have +resisted, and scarce one ever has resisted. + +The London and Bristol merchants carried their petitions +yesterday to the House of Commons. The Opposition contended +for their being heard by the committee of the whole House, who +are to consider the American papers; but the Court sent them to +a committee(202) after a debate till nine at night, with +nothing very remarkable, on divisions of 197 to 81, and 192 to +65. Lord Stanley(203) spoke for the first time; his voice and +manner pleased, but his matter was not so successful. +Dowdeswell(204 is dead, and Tom Hervey.(205) The latter sent +for his Wife and acknowledged her. Don't forget to inform me +when my letters must stop. Adieu! Yours ever. + +(198) Now first printed. + +(199) In the Chatham correspondence will be found another, and +a very different, account of this debate, in a letter to Lady +Chatham, from their son William:--"Nothing," he says, +"prevented my father's speech from being the most forcible that +can be imagined, and the administration fully felt it. The +matter and manner were striking; far beyond what I can express. +It was every thing that was superior; and though it had not the +desired effect on an obdurate House of Lords, it must have an +infinite effect without doors, the bar being crowded with +Americans, etc. Lord Suffolk, I cannot say answered him, but +spoke after him. He was a contemptible orator indeed, with +paltry matter and a whining delivery. Lord Shelburne spoke +well, and supported the motion warmly. Lord Camden was +supreme, with only One exception, and as zealous as possible. +Lord Rockingham spoke shortly, but sensibly; and the Duke of +Richmond well, and with much candour as to the Declaratory act. +Upon the whole, it was a noble debate. The ministry were +violent beyond expectation, almost to madness. instead of +recalling the troops now there, they talked of sending more. +My father has had no pain, but is lame in one ankle near the +instep from standing so long. No wonder he is lame: his first +speech lasted above an hour, and the second half an hour; +surely, the two finest speeches that ever were made before, +unless by himself!" Dr. Franklin too, who heard the debate, +says, in reference to Lord Chatham's speech-"I am filled with +admiration of that truly great man. I have seen, in the course +of my life, sometimes eloquence without wisdom and often wisdom +without eloquence: in the present instance, I see both united, +and both, as I think, in the highest degree possible." Vol. iv. +pp. 375, 385.-E. + +(200) Afterwards second Earl of Dorchester-E. + +(201) His Royal Highness survived this illness more than thirty +years.-E. + +(202) This committee was wittily called by Mr. Burke, and +afterwards generally known as "the committee of oblivion."-E. + +(203) Afterwards Earl of Derby-E. + +(204) The Right Hon. William Dowdeswell, of Pull Court, member +for the county of Worcester. He died at Nice, whither he had +gone for the recovery of his health.-E. + +(205) The Hon. Thomas Hervey, second son of John first Earl of +Bristol.-E. + + + +Letter 88 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, April 11, 1775. (page 129) + +I thank you, dear Sir, for your kind letter., and the good +account YOU give of yourself-nor can I blame your change from +writing that is, transcribing, to reading--sure you ought to +divert yourself rather than others-though I should not say s, +if your pen had not confined itself to transcripts. + +I am perfectly well, and heed not the weather; though I wish +the seasons came a little oftener into their own places instead +of each Other's. From November, till a fortnight ago, we had +much warmth that I should often be glad of in summer--and since +we are not sure of it then, was rejoiced when I could get it. +For myself, I am a kind of delicate Hercules; and though made +of paper, have, by temperance, by using as much cold water +inwardly and outwardly as I can, and by taking no precautions +against catching cold, and braving all weathers, become capable +of suffering by none. My biennial visitant, the gout, has +yielded to the bootikins, and stayed with me this last time but +five weeks in lieu of five months. Stronger men perhaps would +kill themselves by my practice, but it has done so long with +me, I shall trust to it. + +I intended writing to you on Gray's Life,(206) if you had not +prevented me. I am charmed with it, and prefer it to all the +biography I ever saw. The style is excellent, simple, +unaffected; the method admirable, artful, and judicious. He +has framed the fragments, as a person said, so well, that they +are fine drawings, if not finished pictures. For my part, I am +so interested in it, that I shall certainly read it over and +over. I do not find that it is likely to be the case with many +yet. Never was a book, which people pretended to expect so +much with impatience, less devoured-at least in London, where +quartos are not of quick digestion. Faults are found, I hear, +at Eton with the Latin Poems for false quantities-no +matter-they are equal to the English -and can one say more? + +At Cambridge, I should think the book would both offend much +and please; at least if they are as sensible to humour as to +ill-humour; and there is orthodoxy enough to wash down a camel. +The Scotch and the Reviewers will be still more angry. and the +latter have not a syllable to pacify them. So they who wait +for their decisions will probably miss of reading the most +entertaining book in the world--a punishment which they who +trust to such wretched judges deserve; for who are more +contemptible than such judges, but they who pin their faith on +them? + +In answer to you, yourself, my good Sir, I shall not subscribe +to your censure of Mr. Mason, whom I love and admire, and who +has shown the greatest taste possible in the execution of this +work. Surely he has said enough in gratitude, and done far +beyond what gratitude could demand., It seems delicacy in +expatiating on the legacy; particularizing more gratitude would +have lessened the evidence of friendship, and made the 'justice +done to Gray's character look more like a debt.,_ He speaks of +him in slender circumstances, not as distressed: and so he was +till after the deaths of his parents and aunts; and even then +surely not rich. I think he does somewhere say that he meant to +be buried with his mother, and not specifying any other place +confirms it. In short, Mr. Mason shall never know your +criticisms; he has a good heart, and would feel them, though +certainly not apprised that he would merit them. A man who has +so called out all his -friend's virtues, could not want them +himself. + +I shall be much obliged to you for the prints you destine for +me. The Earl of Cumberland I have, and will not rob you of. I +wish you had been as successful with Mr. G. as with Mr. T. I +mean, if you are not yet paid-now is the time, for he has sold +his house to the Duke of Marlborough-I suppose he will not keep +his prints long: he changes his pursuits Continually and +extravagantly-and then sells to indulge new fancies. + +I have had a piece of luck within these two days. I have long +lamented our having no certain piece written by Anne Boleyn's +brother, Lord Rochford. I have found a very pretty copy of +verses by him in the new published volume of the Nuge Antiquae, +though by mistake he is called, Earl of, instead Of Viscount, +Rochford. They are taken from a MS-dated twenty-eight years +after the author's death, and are much in the manner of Lord +Surrey's and Sir T. Wyat's poems. I should at first have +doubted if they were not counterfeited, on reading my Noble +Authors; but then the blunder of earl for viscount would hardly +have been committed. A little modernized and softened in the +cadence, they would be very pretty. + +I have got the rest of the Digby pictures, but at a very high +rate. There is one very large of Sir Kenelm, his wife, and two +sons, in exquisite preservation, though the heads of him and +his wife are not so highly finished as those I have--yet the +boys and draperies are so that, together with the size, it is +certainly the most capital miniature in the world: there are a +few more, very fine too. I shall be happy to show them to you, +whenever You Burnhamize--I mean before August, when I propose +making MY dear old blind friend a visit at Paris--nothing else +would carry me thither. I am too old to seek diversions, and +too indolent to remove to a distance by choice, though not so +immovable as YOU to much less distance. Adieu! Pray tell me +what you hear is said of Gray's Life at Cambridge. + +(206) "The Poems of Mr. Gray: to which are prefixed Memoirs of +his Life and Writings; by W, Mason, M A, York, 1775." At the +end of Mason's work Mr. Cole wrote the following memorandum:-- +"I am by no means satisfied with this Life; it has too much the +affectation of classical shortness to please me, More +circumstances would have suited my taste better; besides, I +think the biographer had a mind to revenge himself of the +sneerings Mr. Gray put upon him, though he left him, I guess, +above a thousand pounds, which is slightly hinted at only; yet +Mr. Walpole was quite satisfied with the work when I made my +objection." A copy of Gray's will is given in the Rev. J. +Mitford's very valuable edition of the poet's works, published +by Pickering, in four volumes, in 1836.-E. + + + +Letter 89 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, April 5, 1775. (page 132) + +The least I can do, dear Sir, in gratitude for the cargo of +prints I have received to-day from you, is to send you a +medicine. A pair of bootikins will set out to-morrow morning +in the machine that goes from the Queen's-head in +Gray's-inn-lane. To be certain, you had better send for them +where the machine inns, lest they should neglect delivering +them at Milton. My not losing a moment shows my zeal; but if +you can bear a little pain, I should not press you to use them. +I have suffered so dreadfully, that I constantly wear them to +diminish the stock of gout in my constitution; but as your fit +is very slight, and will not last, and as you are pretty sure +by its beginning so late, that you will never have much; and s +the gout certainly carries off other complaints, had not you +better endure a little, when it is rather a remedy than a +disease? I do not desire to be entirely delivered from the +gout, for all reformations do but make room for some new +grievance: and in my opinion a disorder that requires no +physician, is preferable to any that does. However, I have put +relief in your power, and you will judge for yourself. You +must tie them as tight as you can bear, the flannel next to the +flesh; and, when you take them off, it should be in bed: rub +your feet with a warm cloth, and put on warm stockings, for +fear of catching cold while the pores are open. It would kill +any body but me, who am of adamant, to walk out in the dew in +winter in my slippers in half an hour after pulling off the +bootikins. A physician sent me word, good-naturedly, that +there was danger of catching cold after the bootikins, unless +one was careful. I thanked him, but told him my precaution +was, never taking any. All the winter I pass five days in a +week without walking out, and sit often by the fireside till +seven in the evening. When I do go out, whatever the weather +is, I go with both glasses of the coach down, and so I do at +midnight out of the hottest room. I have not had a single +cold, however slight, these two years. + +You are too candid in submitting at once to my defence of Mr. +Mason. It is true I am more charmed with his book than I almost +ever was with one. I find more people like the grave letters +than those of humour, and some think the latter a little +affected, which is as wrong a judgment as they could make; for +Gray never wrote any thing easily but things of humour. Humour +was his natural and original turn--and though from his +childhood he was grave and reserved, his genius led him to see +things ludicrously and satirically; and though his health and +dissatisfaction gave him low spirits, his melancholy turn was +much more affected than his pleasantry in writing. You knew +him enough to know I am in the right-but the world in general +always wants to be told how to think, as well as what to think. +The print, I agree with you, though like, is a very +disagreeable likeness, and the worst likeness of him. It gives +the primness he had under constraint; and there is a blackness +in the countenance which was like him only the last time I ever +saw him, when I was much struck with it: and, though I did not +apprehend him in danger, it left an impression on me that was +uneasy, and almost prophetic of what I heard but too soon after +leaving him. Wilson drew the picture under such impression, +and I could not bear it in my room; Mr. Mason altered it a +little, but Still it is not well, nor gives any idea of the +determined virtues of his heart. It just serves to help the +reader to an image of the person whose genius and integrity +they must admire, if they are so happy as to have a taste for +either. + +The Peep into the Gardens at Twickenham is a silly little book, +of which a few little copies were printed some years ago for +presents, and which now sets up for itself as a vendible book. +It is a most inaccurate, superficial, blundering account of +Twickenham and other places, drawn up by a Jewess, who has +married twice, and turned Christian, poetess, and authoress. +She has printed her poems, too, and one complimentary copy of +mine, which, in good breeding, I could not help Sending her in +return for violent compliments in verse to me. I do not +remember that hers were good; mine I know were very bad, and +certainly never intended for the press. + +I bought the first volume of Manchester, but could not read it; +it was much too learned for me, and seemed rather an account of +Babel than Manchester, I mean in point of antiquity.(207) To +be sure, it is very kind in an author to promise one the +history of a country town, and give one a circumstantial +account of the antediluvian world into the bargain. But I am +simple and ignorant, and desire no more than I pay for. And +then for my progenitors, Noah and the Saxons, I have no +curiosity about them. Bishop Lyttelton used to plague me to +death about barrows, and tumuli, and Roman camps, and all those +bumps in the ground that do not amount to a most imperfect +ichnography; but, in good truth, I am content with all arts +when perfected, nor inquire how ingeniously people contrive to +do without them--and I care still less for remains of art that +retain no vestiges of art. Mr. Bryant,)208) who is sublime in +unknown knowledge, diverted me more, yet I have not finished +his work, no more than he has. There is a great ingenuity in +discovering all his history [though it has never been written] +by etymologies. Nay, he convinced me that the Greeks had +totally mistaken all they went to learn in Egypt, etc. by +doing, as the French do still, judge wrong by the ear--but as I +have been trying now and then for above forty years to learn +something, I have not time to unlearn it all again, though I +allow this our best sort of knowledge. If I should die when I +am not clear in the History of the World below its first three +thousand years, I should be at a sad loss on meeting with Homer +and Hesiod, or any of those moderns in the Elysian fields, +before I knew what I ought to think of them. Pray do not +betray my ignorance: the reviewers and such literati have +called me a learned and ingenious gentleman. I am sorry they +ever heard my name, but don't let them know how irreverently I +speak of the erudite, whom I dare to say they admire. These +wasps, I suppose, will be very angry at the just contempt Mr. +Gray had for them, and will, as insects do, attempt to sting, +in hopes that their twelvepenny readers will suck a little +venom from the momentary tumour they raise--but good night-and +once more, thank you for the prints. Yours ever. + +(207) "The History of Manchester," by John Whitaker, B. D. +London, 1771-3-5. 2 vols. 4to. "We talked," says Boswell, "of +antiquarian researches. Johnson. 'All that is really known Of +the ancient state of Britain is contained in a few Pages. We +can know no more than what the old writers have told us; Yet +what large books we have upon it; the whole of which, excepting +such parts as are taken from these old writers, is all a dream, +such as Whitaker's Manchester.'" Life of Johnson, vol. vii. p. +189.-E. + +(208) Jacob Bryan, the learned author of "A New System; or, n +Analysis of Ancient Mythology," 4to. 1774-6, 3 vols.; and of +many other works. His character was thus finely drawn, in +1796, by Mr. Matthias, in "The Pursuits of Literature:"--"No +man of literature can pass by the name of Mr. Bryant without +gratitude and reverence. He is a gentleman of attainments +peculiar to himself, and of classical erudition without an +equal in Europe. His whole life has been spent in laborious +researches, and the most curious investigations. He has a +youthful fancy and a playful wit; with the mind, and +occasionally with the pen of a poet; and with an ease and +simplicity of style aiming only at perspicuity, and, as I +think, attaining it. He has lived to see his eightieth winter +(and May he yet long live!) with the esteem of the wise and +good; in honourable retirement from the cares of life; with a +gentleness of manners, and a readiness and willingness of +literary communication seldom found. He is admired and sought +after by the young who are entering on a course of study, and +revered, and often followed, by those who have completed it. +Nomen in exemplum sero servabirnus evo!" Mr. Bryant died in +1804, in his eighty-ninth year, in consequence Of a wound on +his Shin, occasioned by his foot slipping from a chair which he +had stepped on to reach a book in his library-E. + + + +Letter 90 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, June 5, 1775. (page 134) + +I am extremely concerned, dear Sir, to hear you have been so +long confined by the gout. The painting of your house may, +from the damp, have given you cold-I don't conceive that paint +can affect one otherwise, if it does not make one sick, as it +does me of all things. Dr. Heberden(209) (as every physician, +to make himself talked of, will Set up Some new hypothesis,) +pretends that a damp house, and even damp sheets, which have +ever been reckoned fatal, are wholesome: to prove his faith he +went into his own new house totally Unaired, and survived it. +At Malvern, they certainly put patients into sheets just dipped +in the spring-however, I am 'glad you have a better proof that +dampness is not mortal, and it is better to be too cautious +than too rash. I am perfectly well, and expect to be so for a +year and a half-I desire no more of the bootikins than to +curtail my fits. + +Thank you for the note from North's Life, though, having +reprinted my Painters, I shall never have an opportunity of +using it. I am still more obliged to you for the offer of an +Index to my Catalogue but, as I myself know exactly where to +find every thing in it, and as I dare to say nobody else will +want it, I shall certainly not put YOU to that trouble. + +Dr. Glynn will certainly be most welcome to see my house, and +shall, if I am not at home:-still I had rather know a few days +before, because else he may happen to come when I have company, +as I have often at this time of the year, and then it is +impossible to let it be seen, as I cannot ask my company, who +may have come to see it too, to go out, that somebody else may +see it, and I should be Very sorry to have the Doctor +disappointed. These difficulties, which have happened more +than once, have obliged me to give every ticket for a +particular day; therefore, if Dr. Glynn will be so good as to +advertise me of the day he intends to come here, with a +direction, I shall send him word what day he can see it. + +I have just run through the two vast folios of Hutchins's +Dorsetshire.(210) He has taken infinite pains; indeed, all but +those that would make it entertaining. + +Pray can you tell me any thing of some relations of my own, the +Burwells? My grandfather married Sir Jeffery Burwell's +daughter, of Rongham, in Suffolk. Sir Jeffery's mother, I +imagine, was daughter of a Jeffery Pitman, of Suffolk; at least +I know there was such a man in the latter, and that we quarter +the arms of Pitman. But I cannot find who Lady Burwell, Sir +Jeffery's wife, was. Edmondson has searched in vain in the +Heralds' office; and I have outlived all the ancient of my +family so long, that I know not of whom to Inquire, but you of +the neighbourhood. There is an old walk in the park at +Houghton, called "Sir Jeffery's Walk," where the old gentleman +used to teach my father (Sir Robert) his book. Those very old +trees encouraged my father to plant at Houghton. When people +used to try to persuade him nothing would grow there, he said, +why Will not other trees grow as well as those in Sir Jeffery's +Walk?--Other trees have grown to some purpose! Did I ever tell +you that ,my father was descended from Lord Burleigh? The +latter's granddaughter, by his son Exeter, married Sir Giles +Allington, whose daughter married Sir Robert Crane, father of +Sir Edward Walpole's .'Wife. I want but Lady Burwell's name to +Make my genealogic tree Shoot out stems every way. I have +recovered a barony in fee, which has no defect but in being +antecedent to any summons to Parliament, that of the Fitz +Osberts: and On MY Mother's side it has mounted the Lord knows +whither by the Philipps,s to Henry VIII. and has sucked in +Dryden for a great-uncle: and by Lady Philipps's mother, Darcy, +to Edward III. and there I stop for brevity's sake--especially +as Edward III. is a second Adam; who almost is not descended +from Edward 1 as posterity will be from Charles II. and all the +princes in Europe from James I. I am the first antiquary of my +race. People don't know how entertaining a study it is. Who +begot whom is a most amusing kind of hunting; one recovers a +grandfather instead of breaking one's own neck--and then one +grows so pious to the memory of a thousand persons one never +heard of before. One finds how Christian names came into a +family, with a world of other delectable erudition. You cannot +imagine how vexed I was that Bloomfield(211) died before he +arrived at Houghton--I had promised myself a whole crop of +notable ancestors-but I think I have pretty well unkennelled +them myself. Adieu! Yours ever. + +P. S. I found a family of Whaplode in Lincolnshire who give our +arms, and have persuaded myself that Whaplode is a corruption +of Walpole, and came from a branch when we lived at Walpole in +Lincolnshire. + +(209) Dr. William Heberden, the distinguished physician and +medical writer, who died on the 17th of March, 1801, at the +advanced age of ninety-one.-E. + +(210) "The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset." +London, 1774, in two volumes, folio. A second edition, +corrected, augmented, and improved, by Richard Gough and John +Bowyer Nichols, in four Volumes, folio, appeared in +1796-1815.-E. + +(211) The Rev. Francis Blomefield, the author of an " Essay +towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk," +which was left unfinished by him, and continued by the Rev. +Charles Parkin. It was first printed in five folio volumes: +1739-1773. A second edition, in eleven volumes, octavo, +appeared in 1805-1810.-E. + + + +Letter 91 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, July 9, 1775. (page 136) + +The whole business of this letter would lie in half a line. +Shall you have room for me on Tuesday the 18th? I am putting +myself into motion that I may go farther. I told Madame du +Deffand how you had scolded me on her account, and she has +charged me to thank you, and tell you how much she wishes to see +you, too. I would give any thing to go-But the going!--However, +I really think I shall, but I grow terribly affected with a +maladie de famille, that of taking root at home. + +I did but put my head into London on Thursday, and more bad news +from America.(211) I wonder when it will be bad enough to make +folks think it so, without going on! The stocks, indeed, begin +to grow a little nervous, and they are apt to affect other +pulses. I heard this evening here that the Spanish fleet is +sailed, and that we are not in the secret whither-but I don't +answer for Twickenham gazettes, and I have no better. I have a +great mind to tell you a Twickenham story; and yet it will be +good for nothing, as I cannot send you the accent in a letter. +Here it is, and you must try to set it to the right emphasis. +One of our maccaronis is dead, a Captain Mawhood, the teaman's +son. He had quitted the army, because his comrades called him +Captain Hyson, and applied himself to learn the classics and +freethinking; and was always disputing with the parson of the +parish about Dido and his own soul. He married Miss Paulin's +warehouse, who had six hundred a-year; but, being very much out +of conceit with his own canister, could not reconcile himself to +her riding-hood--so they parted beds in three nights. Of late he +has taken to writing comedies, which every body was welcome to +hear him read, as he could get nobody to act them. Mrs. Mawhood +has a friend, one Mrs. V * * *, a mighty plausible good sort of +body, who feels for every body, and a good deal for herself, is +of a certain age, wears well, has some pretensions that she +thinks very reasonable still, and a gouty husband. Well! she was +talking to Mr. Rafter about Captain Mawhood a little before he +died. "Pray, Sir, does the Captain ever communicate his writings +to Mrs. Mawhood?" "Oh, dear no, Madam; he has a sovereign +contempt for her understanding." "Poor woman!" "And pray, Sir,- +- give me leave to ask you: I think I have heard they very seldom +sleep together!" "Oh, never, Madam! Don't you know all that?" +"Poor woman!" I don't know whether you will laugh; but Mr. +Raftor,(213) who tells a story better than any body, made me +laugh for two hours. Good night! + +(212) Of the commencement of hostilities with the Americans at +Lexington on the 19th of April.-E. + +(213) Mr. Raftor brother to Mrs. Clive.-E. + + + +Letter 92 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(214) +Strawberry Hill, August 9, 1775. (page 137) + +Well, I am going tout de bon, and I heartily wish I was returned. +It is a horrid exchange, the cleanness and verdure and +tranquillity of 'Strawberry, for a beastly ship, worse inns, the +pav`e of the roads bordered with eternal rows of maimed trees, +and the racket of an h`otel garni! I never doat on the months of +August and September, enlivened by nothing but Lady Greenwich's +speaking-trumpet--but I do not want to be amused--at least never +at the expense of being put in motion. Madame du Deffand, I am +sure, may be satisfied with the sacrifice I make to her!(215) + +You have heard, to be sure, of the war between your brother and +Foote; but probably do not know how far the latter has carried +his impudence. Being asked, why Lord Hertford had refused to +license his piece, he replied, "Why, he asked me to make his +youngest son a box-keeper, and because I would not, he stopped my +play."(216) The Duchess of Kingston offered to buy it off, but +Foote would not take her money, and swears he will act her in +Lady Brumpton; which to be sure is very applicable. + +I am sorry to hear Lord Villiers is going to drag my lady through +all the vile inns in Germany. I think he might go alone. + +George Onslow told me yesterday, that the American Congress had +sent terms of accommodation, and that your brother told him so; +but a strange fatality attends George's news, which is rarely +canonical; and I doubt this intelligence is far from being so.. +I shall know more to-morrow, when I go to town to prepare for my +journey on Tuesday. Pray let me hear from you, enclosed to M. +Panchaud. + +I accept with great joy Lady Ailesbury's offer Of coming hither +in October, which will increase my joy in being at home again. I +intend to set out on my return the 25th Of next month. Sir +Gregory Page has left Lord Howe eight thousand pounds at present, +and twelve more after his aunt Mrs. Page's death. + +Thursday, 10th. + +I cannot find any ground for believing that any proposals are +come from the Congress. On the contrary, every thing looks as +melancholy as possible. Adieu! + +(214) Now first printed. + +(215) In her letter of the 5th of August, Madame du Deffand, by +way of inducement to Walpole to take the journey, says--"Je vous +jure que je ne me soucierai de rien pour vous; c'est `a dire, de +vous faire faire une chose Plut`ot qu'une autre: vous serez +totalement libre de toutes vos pens`ees, paroles, et actions, +vous ne me verrez pas un souhait un d`esir qui Puisse contredire +vos pens`ees et Vos volont`es: je saurai que M. Walpole est `a +Paris, il saura que je demeure `a St. Joseph; il sera maitre d'y +arriver, d'y rester, de s'en aller, comme il lui plaira."-E. + +(216) The piece was entitled "The Trip to Calais;" in which the +author having ridiculed, under the name of Kitty Crocodile, the +eccentric Duchess of Kingston she offered him a sum of money to +strike out the part. A correspondence took place between the +parties, which ended in the Duchess making an application to Lord +Hertford, at that time Lord Chamberlain, who interdicted the +performance. Foote, however, brought it out, with some +alterations, in the following year, under the title of "The +Capuchin."-E. + + + +Letter 93 To The Countess Of Ailesbury. +>From t'other side of the water, August 17, 1775.(217) (page 138) + +Interpreting your ladyship's orders in the most personal sense, +as respecting the dangers of the sea, I -write the instant I am +landed. I did not, in truth, set out till yesterday morning at +eight o'clock; but finding the roads, horses, postilions, tides, +winds, moons, and Captain Fectors in the pleasantest humour in +the world, I embarked almost as soon as I arrived at Dover, and +reached Calais before the sun was awake;-and here I am for the +sixth time in my life, with only the trifling distance of +seven-and-thirty years between my first voyage and the present. +Well! I can only say in excuse, that I am got into the land of +Struldburgs, where one is never too old to be young, and where la +b`equille du p`ere Barnabas blossoms like Aaron's rod, or the +Glastonbury thorn. Now, to be sure, I shall be a little +mortified, if your ladyship wanted a letter of news, and did not +at all trouble your head about my navigation. However, you will +not tell one so; and therefore I will persist in believing that +this good news will be received with transport at Park-place, and +that the bells of Henley will be set a ringing. The rest of my +adventures, must be deferred till they have happened, which is +not always the case of travels. I send you no Compliments from +Paris, because I have not got thither, nor delivered the bundle +which Mr. Conway sent me. I did, as Your ladyship commanded; buy +three pretty little medallions in frames of filigraine, for our +dear old friend. They will not ruin you, having cost not a +guinea and a half; but it was all I could find that was genteel +and portable; and as she does not measure by guineas, but +attentions, she will be as much pleased as if you had sent her a +dozen acres of Park-place. As they are in bas-relief, too, they +are feelable, and that is a material circumstance to her. I wish +the Diomede had even so much as a pair of Nankin! + +Adieu, toute la ch`ere famille! I think of October with much +satisfaction; it will double the pleasure of my return. + +(217) Mr. Walpole reached Paris on the 19th of August and left it +on the 19th of October.-E. + + + +Letter 94 To The Countess Of Ailesbury. +Paris, August 20, 1775. (page 139) + +I have been sea-sick to death: I have been poisoned by dirt and +vermin; I have been stifled by beat, choked by dust, and starved +for want of any thing I could touch: and yet, Madam, here, I am +perfectly well, not in the least fatigued; and, thanks to the +rivelled parchments, formerly faces, which I have seen by +hundreds, I find myself almost as young as When I came hither +first in the last century. In spite of my whims, and delicacy, +and laziness, none of my grievances have been mortal: I have +borne them as well as if I had set up for a philosopher, like the +sages of this town. Indeed, I have found my dear old woman So +well, and looking so much better than she did four years ago, +that I am transported with pleasure, and thank your ladyship and +Mr. Conway for driving me hither. Madame du Deffand came to me +the instant I arrived, and sat by me whilst I stripped and +dressed myself; for, as she said, since she cannot see there was +no harm in my being stark.(218) She was charmed with your +present; but was so Kind as to be so much more charmed with my +arrival, that she did not think of it a moment. I sat with her +till half an hour after two in the morning, and had a letter from +her before MY eyes were open again. In short, her soul is +immortal, and forces her body to bear it company. + +This is the very eve of Madame Clotilde's(219) Wedding - but +Monsieur Turgot, to the great grief of Lady Mary Coke, will +suffer no cost, but one banquet, one ball, and a play at +Versailles. Count Viry gives a banquet, a bal masqu`e, and a +firework. I think I shall see little but the last, from which I +will send your ladyship a rocket in my next letter. Lady Mary, I +believe, has had a private audience of the ambassador's leg,(220) +but en tout bien, et honneur, and only to satisfy her ceremonious +curiosity about any part of royal nudity. I am just going to +her, as she is to Versailles; and I have not time to add a word +more to the vows of your ladyship's most faithful. + +(218) Madame du Deffand had just completed her seventy-eighth +year.-E. + +(219) Madame Clotilde, sister of Louis XV1. Turgot was the new +minister of finance, who, With his colleagues were endeavouring, +by every practicable means, to reduce the enormous expenditure of +the country.-E. + +(220) Mr. Walpole alludes to the ceremony of the marriages of +princesses by proxy.-E. + + + +Letter 95 To Mrs. Abington(221) +Paris, September [1775.] (page 140) + +If I had known, Madam, of your being at Paris, before I heard it +from Colonel Blaquiere, I should certainly have prevented your +flattering invitation, and have offered you any services that +could depend on my acquaintance here. It is plain I am old, and +live with very old folks, when I did not hear of your arrival. +However, Madam, I have not that fault at least of a veteran, the +thinking nothing equal to what they admired in their youth. I do +impartial justice to your merit, and fairly allow it not only +equal to that of any actress I have seen, but believe the present +age will not be in the wrong, if they hereafter prefer it to +those they may live to see. Your allowing me to wait on you in +London, Madam, will make me some amends for the loss I have had +here; and I shall take an early opportunity of assuring you how +much I am, Madam, your most obliged humble servant. + +(221) Now first printed. This elegant and fashionable actress +was born in 1735, quitted the stage in 1799, and died in 1815.-E. + + + +Letter 96 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Paris, Sept 8, 1775. (page 140) + +The delays of the post, and its departure before its arrival, +saved me some days of anxiety for Lady Ailesbury, and prevented +my telling you how concerned I am for her accident; though I +trust, by this time, she has not even pain left. I feel the +horror you must have felt during her suffering in the dark, and +on the sight of her arm;(222) and though nobody admires her +needlework more than I, still I am rejoiced that it will be the +greatest sufferer. However, I am very impatient for a farther +account. Madame du Deffand, who, you know, never loves her +friends by halves, and whose impatience never allows itself time +to inform itself, was out of her wits, because I could not +explain exactly how the accident happened, and where. She wanted +to write directly, though the post was just gone; and, as soon as +I could make her easy about the accident, she fell into a new +distress about her fans for Madame de Marchais, and concludes +they have been overturned, and broken too. In short, I never saw +any thing like her. She has made engagements for me till Monday +se'nnight; in which are included I don't know how many journeys +into the country; and as nobody ever leaves her without her +engaging them for another time, all these parties will be so many +polypuses, that will shoot out into new ones every way. Madame +de Jonsac,(223) a great friend of mine, arrived the day before +yesterday, and Madame du Deffand has pinned her down to meeting +me at her house four times before next Tuesday, all parentheses, +that are not to interfere with our other suppers; and from those +suppers I never get to bed before two or three o'clock. In +short, I need have the activity of a squirrel, and the strength +of a Hercules, to go through my labours--not to count how many +d`em`el`es I have had to raccommode, and how many m`emoires to +present against Tonton,(224) who grows the greater favourite the +more people he devours. As I am the only person who dare correct +him, I have already insisted on his being confined in the Bastile +every day to after five o'clock. T'other night he flew at Lady +Barrymore's face, and I thought would have torn her eye out; but +it ended in biting her finger. She was terrified: she fell into +tears. Madame du Deffand, who has too much parts not to see +every thing in its true light, perceiving that she had not beaten +Tonton half enough, immediately told us a story of a lady, whose +dog, having bitten a piece out of a gentleman's leg, the tender +dame in a great fright, cried out, "Won't it make my dog sick?" + +Lady Barrymore(225) has taken a house. She will be glutted with +conquests: I never saw any body so much admired. I doubt her +poor little head will be quite overset. + +Madame de Marchais(226) is charming: eloquence and attention +itself I cannot stir for peaches, nectarines, grapes, and bury +pears. You would think Pomona was in love with me. I am not so +transported with N * * * * cock and hen. They are a tabor and +pipe that I do not understand. He mouths and she squeaks and +neither articulates. M. d'Entragues I have not seen. Upon the +whole, I am much more pleased with Paris than ever I was; and, +perhaps, shall stay a little longer than I intended. The Harry +Grenville's(227) are arrived. I dined with them at Madame de +Viry's,(228) who has completed the conquest of France by her +behaviour on Madame Clotilde's wedding, and by the f`etes she +gave. Of other English I wot not, but grieve the Richmonds do +not come. I am charmed with Dr. Bally; nay, and with the King of +Prussia--as much as I can be with a northern monarch. For your +Kragen, I think we ought to procure a female one, and marry it to +Ireland, that we may breed some new islands against we have lost +America. I know nothing of said America. There is not a +Frenchman that does not think us distracted. + +I used to scold you about your bad writing, and perceive I have +written in such a hurry, and blotted my letter so much, that you +will not be able to read it: but consider how few moments I have +to myself. I am forced to stuff my ears with cotton to get any +sleep. However, my journey has done me good. I have thrown off +at least fifteen years. Here is a letter for my dear Mrs. Damer +from Madame de Cambis, who thinks she doats on you all. Adieu! + +P. S. I shall bring you two `eloges of Marshal Catinat; not +because I admire them, but because I admire him, because I think +him very like you. + +(222) Lady Ailesbury had been overturned in her carriage at +Park-place, and dislocated her wrist. + +223) La Comtesse de Jonsac, sister of the President Henault. + +(224) A favourite dog of Madame du Deffand's. + +(225) Third daughter of William second Earl of Harrington, and +wife of Richard sixth Earl of Barrymore, who, dying in 1780, left +issue Richard and Henry, each of whom became, successively, Earl +of Barrymore; a title which expired upon the death of the latter, +in 1823.-E. + +(226) Madame de Marchais, n`ee Laborde, married to a +valet-de-chambre of Louis XV1. From her intimacy with M. +d'Angivillier, Directeur des B`atiments, Jardins, etc. du Roi, +She had the opportunity of obtaining the finest fruits and +flowers.-E. + +(227) Henry Grenville, brother to Earl Temple. He married Miss +Margaret Banks. He died in 1784.-E. + +(228) Miss Harriet Speed. She had married M. le Comte do Viry +when he was minister at London from the Court of Turin. She is +one of the ladies to whom Gray's "Long Story" is addressed. For +an account of her, see Vol. iii. P. 160, letter 102.-E. + + + +Letter 97 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Paris, Oct. 6, 1775. (page 142) + +It will look like a month since I wrote to you; but I have been +coming, and am. Madame du Deffand has been so ill, that the day +she was seized I thought she would not live till night. Her +Herculean weakness, which could not resist strawberries and cream +after supper, has surmounted all the ups and downs which followed +her excess; but her impatience to go every where, and to do every +thing has been attended with a kind of relapse, and another kind +of giddiness: so that I am not quite easy about her, as they +allow her to take no nourishment to recruit, and she will die of +inanition, if she does not live upon it. She cannot lift her +head from the pillow without `etourdissemens; and yet her spirits +gallop faster than any body's, and so do her repartees. She has +a great supper to-night for the Due de Choiseul, and was in such +a passion yesterday with her cook about it, and that put Tonton +into such a rage, that nos dames de Saint Joseph thought the +devil or the philosophers were flying away with their convert! As +I have scarce quitted her, I can have had nothing to tell you. +If she gets well, as I trust, I shall set out on the 12th; but I +cannot leave her in any danger--though I shall run many myself, +if I stay longer. I have kept such bad hours with this malade +that I have had alarms of gout; and bad weather, worse inns, and +a voyage in winter, will ill suit me. The fans arrived at a +propitious moment, and she immediately had them opened on her +bed, and felt all the patterns, and had all the papers described. +She was all satisfaction and thanks, and swore me to do her full +justice to Lady Ailesbury, and Mrs. Damer. Lord Harrington and +Lady Harriet are arrived; but have announced and persisted in a +strict invisibility. I know nothing of my ch`ere patrie, but +what I learn from the London Chronicle; and that tells me, that +the trading towns are suing out lettres de noblesse, that is, +entreating the King to put an end to commerce, that they may all +be gentlemen. Here agriculture, economy, reformation, +philosophy, are the bon-ton even at court. The two nations seem +to have crossed over and figured in; but as people that copy take +the bad with the good, as well as the good with the bad, there +was two days ago a great horserace in the plain de Sablon, +between the Comte d'Artois,(229) the Duc de Chartres,(230) +Monsieur de Conflans, and the Duc de Lauzun.(231) The latter won +by the address of a little English postilion, who is in such +fashion, that I don't know whether the Academy will not give him +for the subject of an `eloge. + +The Due de Choiseul, I said, is here; and, as he has a second +time put off his departure, cela fait beaucoup de bruit. I shall +not at all be surprised if he resumes the reins, as (forgive me a +pun) he has the Reine at ready. Messrs. de Turgot and +Malesherbes certainly totter--but I shall tell you no more till I +see you; for though this goes by a private hand, it is so +private, that I don't know it, being an English merchant's, who +lodges in this hotel, and whom I do not know by sight: so, +perhaps, I may bring you word of this letter myself. I flatter +myself Lady Ailesbury's arm has recovered its straightness and +its cunning. . . + +Madame du Deffand says, I love you better than any thing in the +world. If true, I hope you have not less penetration: if you +have not, or it is not true, what would professions avail?-So I +leave that matter in suspense. Adieu! + +October 7. + +Madame du Deffand was quite well yesterday; and at near one this, +morning I left the Duc de Choiseul, the Duchess de Grammont, the +Prince and the Princess of Beauveau, Princess Of Poix,(232) the +Mar`echale de Luxembourg, Duchess de Lauzun, Ducs de Gontaut(233) +et de Chabot, and Caraccioli, round her chaise longue; and she +herself was not a dumb personage. I have not heard yet how she +has slept, and must send away my letter this moment, as I must +dress to go to dinner with Monsieur de Malesherbes at Madame de +Villegagnon's. I must repose a great while after all this living +in company; nay, intend to go very little into the world again, +as I do not admire the French way of burning one's candle to the +very snuff in public. Tell Mrs. Damer, that the fashion now is +to erect the toup`ee into a high detached tuft of hair, like a +cockatoo's crest; and this toup`ee they call la physionomie--I +don't guess why. + +My laquais is come back from St. Joseph's, and says Marie(234) de +Vichy has had a very good night, and is quite well.--Philip!(235) +let my chaise be ready on Thursday.(236) + +(229) Afterwards Charles the Tenth.-E. + +(230) On the death of his father, in 1785, he became Duke of +Orleans. In 1792, he was chosen a member of the +National-Convention, when he adopted the Jacobinical title of +Louis-Philippe-Joseph Egalit`e; and, in November 1793, he +suffered by the guillotine. -E. + +(231) The Duc de Lauzun, son of the Duc de Gontaut, the maternal +nephew of the Duchesse de Choiseul.-E. + +(232) Wife of the Prince de Poix, eldest son of the Mar`echal de +Mouchy, and daughter of the Prince de Beauveau. The Prince de +Poix retired to this country on the breaking out of the French +revolution, accompanied by his son, Comte Charles de Noailles, +who married the daughter of La Borde, the great banker.-E. + +(233) The Duc de Gontaut, brother to the Mar`echal Duc de Biron, +and father to the Duc de Lauzun. The Duchesse de Gontaut was a +sister of the Duchesse de Choiseul-E. + +(234) The maiden name of Madame du Deffand was Marie de Vichy +Chamrond. She was born in 1697, of a noble family in the +province of Burgundy; and, as her fortune was small, she was +married by her parents, in 1718, to the Marquis du Deffand; the +union being settled with as little attention to her feelings as +was usual in French marriages of that age. A separation soon +took place; but Walpole says they always continued on good terms, +and that upon her husband's deathbed, at his express desire, she +saw him.-E. + +(235) Mr. Walpole's valet-de-chambre. + +(236) Walpole left Paris on the 12th; upon which day, Madame du +Deffand thus wrote to him--"Adieu! ce mot est bien triste! +Souvenez que vous laissez ici la personne dont vous `etes le plus +aim`e, et dont le bonheur et le malheur consistent dans ce que +vous pensez pour elle. Donnez-moi de vos nouvelles le plus t`ot +qu'il sera possible."-E. + + + +Letter 98 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Dec. 10, 1775. (page 144) + +I was very sorry to have been here, dear Sir, the day you called +on me in town. It is so difficult to uncloister you, that I +regret not seeing you when you are out of your own ambry. I have +nothing new to tell you that is very old; but you can inform me +of something within your own district. Who is the author, E. B. +G. of a version of Mr. Gray's Latin Odes into English,(237) and +of an Elegy on my wolf-devoured dog, poor Tory? a name you will +marvel at in a dog of mine; but his godmother was the widow of +Alderman Parsons, who gave him at Paris to Lord Conway, and he to +me. The author is a poet; but he makes me blush, for he calls +Mr. Gray and me congenial pair. Alas! I have no genius; and if +any symptom of talent, so inferior to Gray's, that Milton and +Quarles might as well be coupled together. We rode over the Alps +in the same chaise, but Pegasus drew on his side, and a +cart-horse on mine. I am too jealous of his fame to let us be +coupled together. This author says he has lately printed at +Cambridge a Latin translation of the Bards; I should be much +obliged to you for it. + +I do not ask you if Cambridge has produced any thing, for it +never does. Have you made any discoveries? Has Mr. Lort? Where +is he? Does Mr. Tyson engrave no more? My plates for Strawberry +advance leisurely. I am about nothing. I grow old and lazy, and +the present world cares for nothing but politics, and satisfies +itself with writing in newspapers. If they are not bound up and +preserved in libraries, posterity will imagine that the art of +printing was gone out of use. Lord Hardwicke(238) has indeed +reprinted his heavy volume of Sir Dudley Carleton's Despatches, +and says I was in the wrong to despise it. I never met with any +body that thought otherwise. What signifies raising the dead so +often, when they die the next minute? Adieu! + +(237) Edward Burnaby Greene, formerly of Bennet College, but at +that time a brewer in Westminster, He likewise published +translations of Pindar, Persius, Apollonius Rhodius, Anacreon, +etc.-E. + +(238) Philip Yorke, second Earl of Hardwicke, when Lord Royston, +published the "Letters to and from Sir Dudley Carleton, Knight, +during his Embassy in Holland, from January 1615-16 to December +1620," 4to. 1727; and, in 1775, a second edition, "with large +additions to the Historical Preface."-E. + + + +Letter 99 To The Countess Of Ailesbury. +Arlington Street, Dec. 11, 1775. (page 145) + +Did you hear that scream?--Don't be frightened, Madam; it was +only the Duchess of Kingston last Sunday was sevennight at +chapel: but it is better to be prepared; for she has sent word to +the House of Lords, that her nerves are so bad she intends to +scream for these two months, and therefore they must put off her +trial. They are to take her throes into consideration to-day; +and that there may be sufficient room for the length of her veil +and train, and attendants, have a mind +to treat her with Westminster-hall. I hope so, for I should like +to see this com`edie larmoyante; and, besides, I conclude, it +would bring your ladyship to town. You shall have +timely notice. + +There is another comedy infinitely worth seeing--Monsieur Le +Texier. He is Pr`eville, and Caillaud, and Garrick, and Weston, +and Mrs. Clive, all together; and as perfect in the most +insignificant part, as in the most difficult.(239) To be sure, +it is hard to give up loo in such fine weather, when one can play +from morning till night. In London, Pam can scarce get a house +till ten o'clock. If you happen to see the General your husband, +make my compliments to him, Madam; his friend the King of Prussia +is going to the devil and Alexander the Great. + +(239) M. Le Texier was a native of Lyons, where he was directeur +des fermes. The following account of the readings of this +celebrated Frenchman, is from a critique on Boaden's Life of +Kemble, in the Quarterly Review, vol. xxxiv. p. 241:--"On one of +the author's incidental topics we must pause for a moment with +delightful recollection. We mean the readings of Le Texier, who, +seated at a desk, and dressed in plain clothes, reads French +plays with such modulation of voice, and such exquisite point of +dialogue, as to form a pleasure different from that of the +theatre, but almost as great as we experience in listening to a +first-rate actor. When it commenced, M. Le Texier read over the +dramatis persome, with the little analysis of character usually +attached to each name, Using the voice and manner with which he +afterwards read the part: and so accurately was the key-note +given, that he had no need to name afterwards the person who +spoke; the stupidest of the audience could not miss to recognise +him." Madame du Deffand, in a letter to Walpole, says of him-- +"Soyez s`ur, que lui tout seul est la meilleure troupe que nous +avons:" and again in one to Voltaire--"Assis dans un fauteuil, +avec un livre `a la main, il jouc les comedies o`u1 il y a sept, +huit, dix, douze personnages, si parfaitement bien, qu'on ne +saurait croire, m`eme en le regardant, que ce soit le m`eme homme +qui Parle. Pour moi, l'illusion est parfaitc."-E. + + + +Letter 100 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Dec. 14, 1775. (page 146) + +Our letters probably passed by each other on the road, for I +wrote to you on Tuesday, and have this instant received one from +you, which I answer directly, to beg pardon for my incivility, +nay, ingratitude, in not thanking you for your present of a whole +branch of most respectable ancestors, the Derehaughs--why, the +Derehaughs alone would make gentlemen of half the modern peers, +English or Irish. I doubt my journey to France was got into my +head, and left no room for an additional quarter-but I have given +it to Edmondson, and ordered him to take care that I am born +again from the Derehaughs. This Edmondson has got a ridiculous +notion into his head that another, and much ancienter of my +progenitors, Sir Henry Walpole, married his wife Isabella +Fitz-Osbert, when she was widow to Sir Walter Jernegan; whereas, +all the Old Testament says Sir Walter married Sir Henry's widow. +Pray send me your authority to confound this gainsayer, if you +know any thing particular of the matter. + +I had not heard of the painting you tell me of. As those +boobies, the Society of Antiquaries, have gotten hold of it, I +wonder their piety did not make them bury it again, as they did +the clothes of Edward I.(240) I have some notion that in +Vertue's MSS. or somewhere else, I don't know where, I have read +of some ancient painting at the Rose Tavern. This I will tell +you-but Mr. Gough is such" a bear, that I shall not satisfy him +about it. That Society, when they are puzzled, have recourse to +me; and that would be so often, that I shall not encourage them. +They may blunder as they please, from their heavy president down +to the pert Governor Pownall, who accounts for every thing +immediately, before the Creation or since. Say only to Mr. +Gough, that I said I had not leisure now to examine Vertue's MSS. +If I find any thing there, you shall know-but I have no longer +any eagerness to communicate what I discover. When there was so +little taste for MSS. which Mr. Gray thought worth transcribing, +and which were so valuable, would one offer more pearls? + +Boydel brought me this morning another number of the Prints from +the pictures at Houghton. Two or three in particular are most +admirably executed--but alas! it will be twenty years before the +set is completed. That is too long to look forward to at any +age!--and at mine!--Nay, people will be tired in a quarter of the +time. Boydel, who knows this country, and still more this town, +thinks so too. Perhaps there will be newer, or at least more +fashionable ways of engraving, and the old will be despised--or, +which is still more likely, nobody will be able to afford the +expense. Who would lay a plan for any thing in an overgrown +metropolis hurrying to its fall! + +I will return you Mr. Gough's letter when I get a frank. Adieu! + +(240) The Society of Antiquaries, having obtained permission to +do so, had, on the 2d of May 1774, opened the tomb of Edward the +First in Westminster. The body was found in perfect +preservation, and most superbly attired. The garments were, of +course, carefully replaced in the tomb.-E. + + + +Letter 101 To Thomas Astle, Esq. +December 19, 1775. (page 147) + +Sir, +I am much obliged, and return you my thanks for the paper you +have sent me. You have added a question to it, which, if I +understand it, you yourself, Sir, are more capable than any body +of answering. You say, "Is it probable that this instrument was +framed by Richard Duke of Gloucester?" If by framed you mean +drawn up, I should think princes of the blood, in that barbarous +age, were not very expert in drawing acts of attainder, though a +branch of the law more in use then than since. But as I suppose +you mean forged, you, Sir, so conversant in writings of that age, +can judge better than any man. You may only mean forged by his +order. Your reading, much deeper than mine, may furnish you with +precedents of forged acts of attainder: I never heard of one; nor +does my simple understanding suggest the use of such a forgery, +on cases immediately pressing; because an act of attainder being +a matter of public notoriety, it would be revolting to the common +sense of all mankind to plead such an one', if it had not really +existed. If it could be carried into execution by force, the +force would avail without the forgery, and would be at once +exaggerated and weakened by it. I cannot, therefore, conceive +why Richard should make use of so absurd a trick, unless that +having so little to do in so short and turbulent a reign, he +amused himself with treasuring up in the tower a forged act for +the satisfaction of those who, three hundred years afterwards, +should be glad of discovering new flaws in his character. As +there are men so bigoted to old legends, I am persuaded, Sir, +that you would please them, by communicating your question to +them. They would rejoice to suppose that Richard was more +criminal than even the Lancastrian historians represent him; and +just at this moment I don't know whether they would not believe +that Mrs. Rudd assisted him. I, who am, probably, as absurd a +bigot on the other side, see nothing in the paper you have sent +me, but a confirmation of Richard's innocence of the death of +Clarence. As the Duke of Buckingham was appointed to superintend +the execution, it is incredible that he should have been drowned +in a butt of malmsey, and that Richard should have been the +executioner. When a seneschal of England, or as we call it, a +lord high steward, is appointed for a trial, at least for +execution, with all his officers, it looks very much as if, even +in that age, proceedings were carried on with a little more +formality than the careless writers of that time let us think. +The appointment, too, of the Duke of Buckingham for that office, +seems to add another improbability [and a work of supererogation] +to Richard's forging the instrument. Did Richard really do +nothing but what tended to increase his unpopularity by glutting +mankind with lies, forgeries, absurdities, which every man living +could detect? + I take this opportunity, Sir, of telling you how sorry I am not +to have seen you long, and how glad I shall be to renew our +acquaintance, especially if you like to talk over this old story +with me, though I own it is of little importance, and pretty well +exhausted.(241) I am, Sir, with great regard, your obliged +humble servant. + +(241) To the above letter it was intended to subjoin the +following queries:-- + +"If there was no such Parliament held, would Richard have dared +to forge an act for it? + +"Would Henry VII. never have reproached him with so absurd a +forgery? + +"Did neither Sir T. More nor Lord Bacon ever hear of that +forgery? + +"As Richard declared his nephew the Earl of Warwick his +successor, would he have done so, if he had forged an act of +attainder of Warwick's father? + +"if it is supposed he forged the act, when he set aside Warwick, +could he pretend that act was not known when he declared him his +heir? Would not so recent an act's being unknown have proved it a +forgery; and if there had been no such Parliament as that which +forged it, would not that have proved it a double forgery? The +act, therefore, and the parliament that passed it, must have been +genuine, and existed, though no other record appears. The +distractions of the times, the evident insufficiency or +partiality of the historians of that age, and the interest of +Henry VII to destroy all records that gave authority to the House +Of York and their title, account for our wanting evidence of that +Parliament." + + + +Letter 102 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +January 26, 1776. (page 148) + +I have deferred answering your last letter, dear Sir, till I +cannot answer with my own hand. I made a pilgrimage at Christmas +to Queen's Cross, at Ampthill, was caught there by the snow, +Imprisoned there for a fortnight, and sent home bound hand and +foot by the gout. The pain, I suppose, is quite frozen, for I +have had none; nothing but inflammation and swelling, and they +abate. In reality, this is owing to the bootikins, which -though +they do not cure the gout, take out its sting. You, who are +still more apt to be an invalid, feel, I fear, this Hyperborean +season; I should be glad to hear you did not. + +I thought I had at once jumped upon a discovery of the subject of +the painted room at the Rose Tavern, but shall not plume myself +upon my luck till I have seen the chamber, because Mr. Gough's +account seems to date the style of the painting earlier than +-will serve my hypothesis. I had no data to go upon but the site +having belonged to the family of Tufton (for I do not think the +description at all answers to the taking of Francis I., nor is it +at all credible that there should be arms in the painting, and +yet neither those of France or Austria). I turned immediately to +Lord Thanet's pedigree, in Collins's Peerage, and found at once +an heroic adventure performed by one of the family, that accords +remarkably with the principal circumstance. It is the rescue of +the Elector Palatine, son of our Queen of Bohemia, from an +ambuscade laid for him by the Duke of Lorrain. The arms, Or, and +Gules, I thought were those of Lorrain, which I since find are +Argent and Gules. The Argent indeed may be turned yellow by age, +as Mr. Gough says he does not know whether the crescent is red or +black. But the great impediment is, that this achievement of a +Tufton was performed in the reign of Charles II. Now in that +reign, when +we were become singularly ignorant of chivalry, anachronisms and +blunders might easily be committed by a modern painter, yet I +shall not adhere to my discovery, unless I find the painting +correspond with the style of the modern time to which I would +assign it; nor will I see through the eyes of my hypothesis, but +fairly. + +I shall now turn to another subject. Mr. Astle, who has left me +off ever Since the fatal era of Richard III. for no reason that +I can conceive but my having adopted his discovery, which for +aught I know may be a reason with an antiquary, lately sent me +the attainder of George Duke of Clarence, which he has found in +the Tower and printed; and on it, as rather glad to confute me +and himself, than to have found a curiosity, he had written two +or three questions which tended to accuse Richard of having +forged the instrument, though to the instrument itself is added +another, which confirms my acquittal of Richard of the murder of +Clarence-but, alas! passion is a spying glass that does but make +the eyes of folly more blind. + +I sent him an answer, a copy of which I enclose. Since that, I +have heard no more of him, nor shall, I suppose, till I see this +new proof of Richard's guilt adopted into the annals of the +Society, against which I have reserved some other stigmas for it. +Mr. Edmondson has found a confirmation of Isabella Fitz-Osbert +having married Jernegan after Walpole. I forget where I found my +arms of the Fitz-Osberts. Though they differ from yours of Sir +Roger, the colours are the same, and they agree with yours of +William Fitz-Osborne. There was no accuracy in spelling names +even till much later ages; and you know that different branches +of the same family made little variation in their coats. + +I am very sorry for the death of poor Henshaw, of which I had not +heard. I am yours most sincerely. + +P. S. The queries added to the letter to Mr. Astle were not sent +with it; and, as I reserve them for a future answer, I beg you +will show them to nobody. + + + +Letter 103To Edward Gibbon, Esq.(242) +(February 1776.] (page 149) + +Mr. Walpole cannot express how much he is obliged to Mr. Gibbon +for the valuable present he has received;(243) nor how great a +comfort it is to him, in his present situation, in which he +little expected to receive singular pleasure. Mr. Walpole does +not say this at random, nor from mere confidence in the author's +abilities, for he has already (all his weakness would permit) +read the first chapter, and it is in the greatest admiration of +the style, manner, method, clearness, and intelligence. Mr. +Walpole's impatience to proceed will struggle with his disorder, +and give him such spirits, that he flatters himself he shall owe +part of his recovery to Mr. Gibbon; whom, as soon as that is a +little effected, he shall beg the honour of seeing. + +(242) Now first collected. + +(243) The first quarto volume of the History of the Decline and +Fall of the Roman Empire.-E. + + + +Letter 104 To Edward Gibbon, Esq.(244) +February 14, 1776. (page 150) + +After the singular pleasure of reading you, Sir, the next +satisfaction is to declare my admiration. I have read great part +of your volume, and cannot decide to which of its various merits +I give the preference, though I have no doubt of assigning any +partiality to one virtue of the author, which, seldom as I meet +with it, always strikes me superiorly. Its quality will +naturally prevent your guessing which I mean. It is your amiable +modesty. How can you know so much, judge so well, possess your +subject, and your knowledge, and your power of judicious +reflection so thoroughly, and yet command yourself and betray no +dictatorial arrogance of decision? How unlike very ancient and +very modern authors! You have, unexpectedly, given the world a +classic history. The fame it must acquire will tend every day +to acquit this panegyric of flattery.(245) The impressions it +has made on me are very numerous. The strongest is the thirst of +being better acquainted with you--but I reflect that I have been +a trifling author, and am in no light profound enough to deserve +your intimacy, except by confessing your superiority so frankly, +that I assure you honestly, I already feel no envy, though I did +for a moment. The best proof I can give you of my sincerity, is +to exhort you, warmly and earnestly, to go on with your noble +work--the strongest, though a presumptuous mark of my friendship, +is to warn you never to let your charming modesty be corrupted by +the acclamations your talents will receive. The native qualities +of the man should never be sacrificed to those of the author, +however shining. I take this liberty as an older man, which +reminds me how little I dare promise myself that I shall see your +work completed! But I love posterity enough to contribute, if I +can, to give them pleasure through you. + +I am too weak to say more, though I could talk for hours on your +history. But one feeling I cannot suppress, though it is a +sensation of vanity. I think, nay, I am sure I perceive, that +your sentiments on government agree with my own. It is the only +point on which I suspect myself of any partiality in my +admiration. It is a reflection of a far inferior vanity that +pleases me in your speaking with so much distinction of that, +alas! wonderful period, in which the world saw five good monarchs +succeed each other.(246) I have often thought of treating that +Elysian era. Happily it has fallen into better hands! + +I have been able to rise to-day, for the first time, and flatter +myself that if I have no relapse, you will in two or three days +more give' me leave, Sir, to ask the honour of seeing you. In +the mean time,,be just; and do not suspect me of flattering you. +You will always hear that I say the same of you to every body. I +am, with the greatest regard, Sir, etc. + +(244) now first collected. + +(245) "I am at a loss," says Gibbon, in his Memoirs, "how to +describe the success of the work without betraying the vanity of +the writer. The first impression was exhausted in a few days; a +second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the demand; +and the bookseller's property was twice invaded by the pirates of +Dublin. My book was on every table, and almost on every +toilette; the historian was crowned by the taste or fashion of +the day; nor was the general voice disturbed by the barking of +any profane critic."-E. + +(246) Walpole, in August 1771, had said, "The world will no more +see Athens, Rome, and the Medici again, than a succession of five +good Emperors, like Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, and the two +Antonines." See ante, p. 56-E. + + + +Letter 105 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, March 1, 1776. (page 151) + +I am sorry to tell you that the curious old painting at the +Tavern in Fleet Street is addled, by the subject turning out a +little too old. Alas! it is not the story of Francis I., but of +St. Paul. All the coats of arms that should have been French and +Austrian, and that I had a mind to convert into Palatine and +Lorrain, are the bearings of Pharisaic nobility. In short, Dr. +Percy was here yesterday, and tells me that over Mr. Gough's +imaginary Pavia is written Damascus in capital letters. Oh! our +antiquaries! + +Mr. Astle has at last called on me, but I was not well enough to +see him. I shall return his visit when I can go out. I hope +this will be in a week: I have no pain left, but have a codicil +of nervous fevers, for which I am taking the bark. I have +nothing new for you in our old way, and therefore will not +unnecessarily lengthen my letter, which was only intended to +cashier the old painting, though I hear the antiquaries still go +on with having a drawing taken from it. Oh! our antiquaries! + + + +Letter 106 To Dr. Gem.(247) +Arlington Street, April 4, 1776 (page 151) + +It is but fair, when one quits one's party, to give notice to +those one abandons--at least, modern patriots, who often imbibe +their principles of honour at Newmarket, use that civility. You +and I, dear Sir, have often agreed in our political notions; and +you, I fear, will die without changing your opinion. For my +part, I must confess I am totally altered; and, instead of being +a warm partisan of liberty, now admire nothing but despotism. +You will naturally ask what place I have gotten, or what bribe I +have taken? Those are the criterions of political changes in +England-but, as my conversion is of foreign extraction, I shall +not be the richer for it. In One word, it is the relation du lit +de justice(248) that has operated the miracle. When two +ministers(249) are found so humane, so virtuous, so excellent as +to study nothing but the welfare and deliverance of the people; +when a king listens to such excellent men; and when a parliament, +from the basest, most interested motives, interposes to intercept +the blessing, must I not change my opinions, and admire arbitrary +power? or can I retain my sentiments, without varying the object? + +Yes, Sir, I am shocked at the conduct of the Parliament-- one +would think it was an English one! I am scandalized at the +speeches of the Ivocat-g`en`eral,(250) who sets up the odious +interests of the nobility and clergy against the cries and groans +of the poor; and who employs his wicked eloquence to tempt the +good young monarch, by personal views, to sacrifice the mass of +his subjects to the privileges of the few. But why do I call it +eloquence? The fumes of interest had so clouded his rhetoric, +that he falls into a downright Iricism. He tells the King, that +the intended tax on the proprietors of land will affect the +property not only of the rich, but of the poor. I should be glad +to know what is the Property of the poor? Have the poor landed +estates? Are those who have landed estates the poor? Are the +poor that will suffer by the tax, the wretched labourers who are +dragged from their famishing families to work on the roads? But +it is wicked eloquence when it finds a reason, or gives a reason +for continuing the abuse. The Advocate tells the King, those +abuses are presque consacr`es par l'anciennet`e. Indeed, he says +all that can be said for nobility, it is consacr`ee par +l'anciennet`e--and thus the length of the pedigree of abuses +renders them respectable! + +His arguments are as contemptible when he tries to dazzle the +King by the great names of Henri Quatre and Sully, of Louis XIV. +and Colbert, two couple whom nothing but a mercenary orator would +have classed together. Nor, were all four equally venerable, +would it prove any thing. Even good kings and good ministers, if +such have been, may have erred; nay, may have done the best they +could. They would not have been good, if they wished their +errors should be preserved, the longer they had lasted. + +In short, Sir, I think this resistance of the Parliament to the +adorable reformation planned by Messrs. de Turgot and +Malesherbes, is more phlegmatically scandalous than the wildest +tyranny of despotism. I forget what the nation was that refused +liberty when it was offered. This opposition to so noble a work +is worse. A whole people may refuse its own happiness; but these +profligate magistrates resist happiness for others, for millions, +for posterity! Nay, do they not half vindicate Maupeou, who +crushed them? And you, dear Sir, will you now chide my apostacy? +Have-I not cleared myself to your eyes? I do not see a shadow of +sound logic in all Monsieur Seguier's but in his proposing that +the soldiers should work on the roads, and that passengers should +contribute to their fabric; though, as France is not so +luxuriously mad as England, I do not believe passengers could +support the expense of the roads. That argument, therefore, is +like another that the Avocat proposes to the King, and which, he +modestly owns, he believes would be impracticable. + +I beg your pardon, Sir, for giving you this long trouble; but I +could not help venting myself, when shocked to find such renegade +conduct in a Parliament that I was rejoiced had been restored. +Poor human kind! is it always to breed serpents from its own +bowels? In one country, it chooses its representatives, and they +sell it and themselves--in others, it exalts despots--in another, +it resists the despot when he consults the good of his people! +Can we -wonder mankind is wretched, when men are such beings? +Parliaments run wild with loyalty, when America is to be enslaved +or butchered. They rebel, when their country is to be set free! +I am not surprised at the idea of the devil being always at our +elbows. They who invented him, no doubt could not conceive how +men could be so atrocious to one another, without the +intervention of a fiend. Don't you think, if he had never been +heard of before, that he would have been invented on the late +partition of Poland! Adieu, dear Sir. Yours most sincerely. + +(247) An English physician long settled at Paris, no less +esteemed for his professional knowledge, than for his kind +attention to the poor who applied to him for medical assistance. + +(248) The first lit de justice held by Louis XVI. + +(249) Messieurs de Malesherbes and Turgot. When the intrigues +which had been set on foot to overthrow the administration of +Turgot had accomplished that object, an event which took place +shortly after the date of this letter Louis XVI requested +Malesherbes to remain in office; but when he refused to do so, +seeing that his friend Turgot had been dismissed, Louis conscious +of the increased anxieties in which he should be involved, +exclaimed, with a sigh, "Que vous `etes heureux! que ne Puis-je +aussi quitter ma place."-E. + +(250) Monsieur de Seguier. + + + +Letter 107 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +April 16, 1776. (page 153) + +You will be concerned, my good Sir, for what I have this minute +heard from his nephew, that poor Mr. Granger was seized at the +communion table on Sunday With an apoplexy, and died yesterday +morning at five. I have answered the letter with a word of +advice about his manuscripts, that they may not fall into the +hands of booksellers. He had been told by idle people so many +gossiping stories, that it would hurt him and living persons, to +be printed; for as he Was incapable of 1, if all his collections +were telling an untruth himself, he suspected nobody else--too +great goodness in a biographer. + +P. S. The whole world is occupied with the Duchess of Kingston's +trial.(251) I don't tell you a word of it; for you will not care +about it these two hundred years. + +(251) in Westminster Hall, before the House of Peers, for +intermarrying with the Duke of Kingston during the lifetime of +her first husband. She was found guilty, but, pleading her +privilege, was discharged without any punishment. Hannah More +gives the following description of the scene:--"Garrick would +have me take his ticket to go to the trial f the Duchess of +Kingston; a sight which, for beauty and magnificence, exceeded +any thing which those who were never present at a coronation or a +trial by peers can have the least notion of. Mrs. Garrick and I +were in full dress by seven. You will imagine the bustle of five +thousand people getting into one hall! yet, in all this hurry, we +walked in tranquilly. When they were all seated, and the +King-at-arms had commanded silence, on pain of imprisonment, +(which, however, was very ill observed,) the gentleman of the +black rod was commanded to bring in his prisoner. Elizabeth, +calling herself Duchess dowager of Kingston, walked in, led by +Black Rod and Mr. La Roche, courtesying profoundly to her judges. +The peers made her a slight bow. The prisoner was dressed in +deep mourning; a black hood on her head; her hair modestly +dressed and powdered; a black silk sacque, with crape trimmings; +black gauze, deep ruffles, and black gloves. The counsel spoke +about an hour and a quarter each. Dunning's manner is +insufferably bad, coughing and spitting at every three words, but +his sense and his expression pointed to the last degree: he made +her grace shed bitter tears. The fair victim had four virgins in +white behind the bar. She imitated her great predecessor, Mrs. +Rudd, and affected to write very often, though I plainly +perceived she only wrote, as they do their love epistles on the +stage, without forming a letter. The Duchess has but small +remains of that beauty of which kings and princes were once so +enamoured. She looked much like Mrs. Pritchard. She is large +and ill-shaped; there was nothing white but her face and, had it +not been for that, she would have looked like a bale of +bombazeen. There was a great deal of ceremony, a great deal of +splendour, and a great deal of nonsense: they adjourned upon the +most foolish pretences imaginable, and did nothing with such an +air of business as was truly ridiculous. I forgot to tell you +the Duchess was taken ill, but performed it badly." In a +subsequent letter, she says--"I have the great satisfaction of +telling you that Elizabeth, calling herself Duchess-dowager of +Kingston, was, this very afternoon, Undignified and unduchessed, +and very narrowly escaped being burned in the hand. If you have +been half as much interested against this unprincipled, artful, +licentious woman as I have, you will be rejoiced at it as I am. +Lord Camden breakfasted with us. He is very angry that she was +not burned in the hand. He says, as he was once a professed +lover of hers, he thought it would have looked ill-natured and +ungallant for him to propose it; but that he should have acceded +to it most heartily, though he believes he should have +recommended a cold iron." Memoirs, vol. i. Pp. 82, 85.-E. + + + + Letter 108 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. + +Strawberry Hill, June 1, 1776. (page 154) + +Mr. Granger's papers have been purchased by Lord Mount +Stewart,(252) who has the frenzy of portraits as well as I; and, +though I am at the head of the sect, I have no longer the rage of +propagating it, nor would I on any account take the trouble of +revising and publishing the manuscripts. Mr. Granger had drowned +his taste for portraits in the ocean of biography; and, though he +began with elucidating prints, he at last only sought prints that +he might write the lives of those they represented. His work was +grown and growing so voluminous, that an abridgment only could +have made it useful to collectors. I am not surprised that you +wilt not assist Kippis;(253) Bishop Laud and William Prynne could +never agree. You are very justly more averse to Mr. Masters who +is a pragmatic fellow, and at best troublesome. + +If the agate knives you are so good as to recommend to me can be +tolerably authenticated, have any royal marks, or, at least, old +setting of the time, and will be sold for two guineas, I should +not dislike having them - though I have scarce room to stick a +knife and fork. But if I trouble you to pay for them, you must +let me know all I owe you already, for I know I am in your debt +for prints and pamphlets, and this new debt will make the whole +considerable enough to be remitted. I have lately purchased +three apostle-spoons to add to the one you was so kind as to give +me. What is become of Mr. Essex? does he never visit London? I +wish I could tempt him thither or hither. I am not only thinking +of building my offices in a collegiate style, for which I have a +good design and wish to consult him, but am actually wanting +assistance at this very moment, about a smaller gallery that I +wish to add' this summer; and which, if Mr. Essex was here, he +should build directly. + +It is scarce worth asking him to take the journey on purpose, +though I would pay for his journey hither and back, and would +lodge him here for the necessary time. I can only beg you to +mention it to him as an idle jaunt, the object is so trifling. I +wish more that YOU Could come with him: do you leave your poor +parishioners and their souls to themselves? if you do, I hope +Dr. Kippis will seduce them. Yours ever. + +(252) John Lord Mountstuart; in March 1796, created Marquis of +Bute. He died in Geneva in November 1814, when the marquisate +descended to his grandson.-E. + +(253) Dr. Andrew Kippis, well-known for the active part he took +in producing the second edition of the" Biographia Britannnica, +of which he was the editor, and in a great measure the writer. +He had applied to 'Mr. Cole for assistance; and Walpole's +satisfaction at Cole's refusal is to be accounted for by the fact +of Kippis having threatened to expose Sir Robert Walpole in the +course of that work. Walpole had called the " Biographia +Britannica" an apology for every body. This Kippis happened to +hear of; upon which he is said to have retorted, "that the Life +of Sir Robert Walpole should prove that the Biographia was not an +apology for every body.'-E. + + + +Letter 109 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, June 11, 1776. (page 155) + +I am grieved, and feel for your gout; I know the vexations and +disappointments it occasions, and how often it will return when +one thinks it going or gone: it represents life and its +vicissitudes. At last I know it makes me content when one does +not feel actual pain,--and what contents may be called a +blessing; but it is a sort of blessing that extinguishes hopes +and views, and is not so luxurious but one can bear to relinquish +it. I seek amusements now to amuse me; I used to rush into them, +because I had an impulse and wished for what I sought. My want +of Mr. Essex has a little of both kinds, as it is for an addition +to this place, for which my fondness is not worn out. I shall be +very glad to see him here either on the 20th or 21st of this +month, and shall have no engagement till the 23d, and will gladly +pay his journey. I am sorry I must not hope that you will +accompany him. + + + +Letter 110 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, June 30, 1776. (page 156) + +I was very glad to receive your letter, not only because always +most glad to hear of you, but because I wished to write to you, +and had absolutely nothing to say till I had something to answer. +I have lain but two nights in town since I saw you; have been, +else, Constantly here, very much employed, though doing, hearing. +knowing exactly nothing. I have had a Gothic architect from +Cambridge to design me a gallery, Which will end in a mouse, that +is, in an hexagon closet, of seven feet diameter. I have been +making a beauty-room, which was effected by buying two dozen of +small copies of Sir Peter Lely, and hanging them up; and I have +been making hay, which is not made, because I put it off for +three days, as I chose it should adorn the landscape when I was +to have company; and so the rain is come, and has drowned it. +However, as I can even turn calculator when it is to comfort me +for not minding my interest, I have discovered that it is five to +one better for me that my hay should be spoiled than not-, for, +as the cows will eat it if it is damaged, which horses will not, +and as I have five cows and but one horse, is not it plain that +the worse my hay is the better? Do not you with your refining +head go, and, out of excessive friendship, find out something to +destroy my system. I had rather be a philosopher than a rich +man; and yet have so little philosophy, that I had much rather be +content than be in the right. + +Mr. Beauclerk and Lady Di.(254) have been here four or five days +-so I had both content and exercise for my philosophy. I wish +Lady Ailesbury was as fortunate! The Pembrokes, Churchills, Le +Texier, as you will have heard, and the Garricks have been with +us. Perhaps, if alone, I might have come to you--but you are all +too healthy and harmonious. I can neither walk nor sing -nor, +indeed, am fit for any thing but to amuse myself in a sedentary +trifling way. What I have most certainly not been doing, is +writing any thing: a truth I say to you, but do not desire you to +repeat. I deign to satisfy scarce any body else. Whoever +reported that I was writing any thing, must have been so totally +unfounded, that they either blundered by guessing without reason, +or knew they lied-and that could not be with any kind intention; +though saying I am going to do what I am not going to do, is +wretched enough. Whatever is said of me without truth, any body +is welcome to believe that pleases. In fact, though I have +scarce a settled purpose about any thing, I think I shall never +write any more. I have written a great deal too much, unless I +had written better, and I know I should now only write still +worse. One's talent, whatever it is, does not improve at +sixty-yet, if I liked it, I dare say a good reason would not stop +my inclination;--but I am grown most indolent in that respect, +and most absolutely indifferent to every purpose of vanity. Yet +without vanity I am become still prouder and more contemptuous. +I have a contempt for my countrymen that makes me despise their +approbation. The applause of slaves and of the foolish mad is +below ambition. Mine is the haughtiness of an ancient Briton, +that cannot write what would please this age, and would not, if +he could. Whatever happens in America this country is undone. I +desire to be reckoned of the last age, and to be thought to have +lived to be superannuated, preserving my senses only for myself +and for the few I value. I cannot aspire to be traduced like +Algernon Sydney, and content myself with sacrificing to him +amongst my lares. Unalterable in my principles, careless about +most things below essentials, indulging myself in trifles by +system, annihilating myself by choice, but dreading folly at an +unseemly age, I contrive to pass my time agreeably enough, yet +see its termination approach without anxiety. This is a true +picture of my mind; and it must be true, because drawn for you, +whom I would not deceive, and could not, if I would. Your +question on my being writing drew it forth, though with more +seriousness than the report deserved--yet talking to one's +dearest friend is neither wrong nor out of season. Nay, you are +my best apology. I have always contented myself with your being +perfect, or, if your modesty demands a mitigated term, I will +say, unexceptionable. It is comical, to be sure, to have always +been more solicitous about the virtue of one's friend than about +one's own-yet, I repeat it, you are my apology -though I never +was so unreasonable as to make you answerable for my faults in +return; I take them wholly to myself. But enough of this. When +I know my own mind, for hitherto I have settled no plan ,for my +summer, I will come to you. Adieu! + +(254) Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of Charles, Duke of +Marlborough; born in 1734; married, in 1757, to Viscount +Bolingbroke; from whom she was divorced in 1768, and married +immediately after to Mr. Topham Beauclerk.-E. + + + +Letter 111 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +July 23, 1776. (page 157) + +You are so good to me, my dear Sir, that I am quite ashamed. I +must not send back your charming present, but wish you would give +me leave to pay for it, and I shall have the same obligation to +you, and still more. It is beautiful in form and colours, and +pleases me excessively. In the mean time, I have in a great +hurry (for I came home but at noon to meet Mr. Essex) chosen out +a few prints for you, Such as I think you will like, and beg you +to accept them: they enter Into no one of my sets. I am heartily +grieved at your account of yourself, and know no comfort but +submission. I was absent to 'General Conway, who is far from +well. We must take our lot as it falls! joy and 'sorrow is mixed +till the scene closes. I am out of spirits, and shall not mend +yours. Mr. Essex is just setting out, and I write in great +haste, but am, as I have so long been, most truly yours. + + + +Letter 112To The Rev. Mr. Cole +Strawberry Hill, July 24, 1776. (page 158) + +I wrote to you yesterday, dear Sir, not only in great haste, but +in great confusion, and did not say half I ought to have done for +the pretty vase you sent me, and for your constant obliging +attention to me. All I can say is, that gratitude attempted even +in my haste and concern to put in its word: and I did not mean to +pay you, (which I hope you will really allow me to do) but to +express my sensibility of your kindness. The fact was, that to +avoid disappointing Mr. Essex, when I had dragged him hither from +Cambridge, I had returned hither precipitately, and yet late, +from Park-place whither I went the day before to see General +Conway, who has had a little attack of the paralytic kind. You, +who can remember how very long and dearly I have loved so near a +relation and particular friend, and who are full of nothing but +friendly sensations, can judge how shocked I was to find him more +changed than I expected. I suffered so much in constraining and +commanding myself, that I was not sorry, as the house was full of +relations, to have the plea of Mr. Essex, to get away, and came +to sigh here by myself. It is, perhaps, to prevent my concern +that I write now. Mr. Conway is in no manner of danger, is +better, his head nor speech are affected, and the physicians, who +barely allow the attack to be of the paralytic nature, are clear +it is local, in the muscles of the face. Still has it operated +such a revolution in my mind, as no time, at my age, can efface. +It has at once damped every pursuit which my spirits had even now +prevented me from being weaned from, I mean a Virt`u. It is like +a mortal distemper in myself; for can amusements amuse, if there +is but a glimpse, a vision, of outliving one's friends? I have +had dreams in which I thought I wished for fame--it was not +certainly posthumous fame at any distance: I feel, I feel, it was +confined to the memory of those I love. It seems to me +impossible for a man who has no friends to do any Thing for +fame--and to me the first position in friendship is, to intend +one's friends should survive one-but it is not reasonable to +oppress you, who are suffering gout, with my melancholy ideas. +Let me know as you mend. What I have said, will tell you, what I +hope so many years have told you, that I am very constant and +sincere to friends of above forty years. I doubt Mr. Essex +perceived that my mind was greatly bewildered- He gave me a +direction to Mr. Penticross, who I recollect, Mr. Gray, not you, +told me was turned a Methodist teacher. He was a blue-coat boy, +and came hither then to some of my servants, having at that age a +poetic turn. As he has reverted to it, I hope the enthusiasm +will take a more agreeable plea. I have not heard of him for +many Years, and thought he was settled somewhere near Cambridge: +I find it is at Wallingford. I wonder those madmen and knaves do +not begin to wear out, as their folly is no longer new, and as +knavery can turn its hand to any trade according to the humour of +the age, which in countries like this is seldom constant. Yours +most faithfully. + + + +Letter 113 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, August 19, 1776. (page 159) + +I have time but to write you a line, and it is as usual to beg +your help in a sort of literary difficulty. I have received a +letter dated , "Catherine Hall" from "Ken. Prescot," whom I doubt +I have forgotten; for he begins "Dear Sir," and I protest I +cannot recollect him, though I ought. He says he wants to send +me a few classical discourses, and e speaks with respect of my +father, and, by his trembling hand, seems an old man. All these +are reasons for my treating him with great regard; and, being +afraid of hurting him, I have written a short and very civil +answer, directed to the "Rev. Dr. Prescot." God knows whether he +is a clergyman or a doctor, and perhaps I may have betrayed my +forgetfulness; but I -thought it was best to err on the over +civil side. Tell me something about him; I dread his Discourses. +Is he the strange man that a few years ago sent me a volume of an +uncommon form, and of more uncommon matter? I suspect so.(255) + +You shall certainly have two or three of my prints by Mr. Essex +when he returns hither and hence, and any thing else you will +command. I am just now in great concern for the terrible death +of General Conway's son-in-law, Mr. Damer,(256) of which, +perhaps, you in your solitude have not heard.-You are happy who +take no part but in the past world, for the mortui non mordent, +nor do any of the extravagant and distressing things that perhaps +they did in their lives. I hope the gout, that persecutes even +in a hermitage, has left you. Yours most sincerely. + +(255) Dr. Kenrick Prescot, master of Catherine Hall, and author +of a quarto volume, published at Cambridge in 1773, entitled, +"Letters concerning Homer the Sleeper, in Horace; with additional +classic Amusements."-E. + +(256) John, eldest son of Joseph Damer, Esq, Lord Milton; +afterwards Earl of Dorchester.-E. + + + +Letter 114 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 9, 1776. (page 160) + +May I trouble you, dear Sir, when you see our friend Mr. Essex, +to tell him that the tower is covered in, and that whenever he +has nothing to do, after this week, I shall be very glad to see +him here, if he will only send me a line two or three days +beforehand. I have carried this little tower higher than the +round one, and it has an exceedingly pretty effect, breaking the +long line of the house picturesquely, and looking very ancient. +I must correct a little error in the spelling of a name in the +pedigree you was so kind as to make out for me last year. The +Derehaughs were not of Colton, but of Coulston-hall. This I +discovered only this morning. On opening a patch-box that +belonged to my mother, and which I have not opened for many +years, I found an extremely small silver collaring, about this +size--O--but broad and flat. I remember it was in an old satin +bag of coins that my mother found in old Houghton when she first +married. I call it a collar from the breadth; for it would not +be large enough for a fairy's lap-dog. It was probably made for +an infant's little finger, and must have been for a ring, not a +collar; for I believe, though she was an heiress, young ladies +did not elope so very early in those days. I never knew how it +came into the family, but now it is plain, for the inscription on +the outside is, "of Coulstonhall, Suff." and it is a confirmation +of your pedigree. I have tied it to a piece of paper, with a +long inscription, and it is so small, it will not be melted down +for the weight; and if not lost from its diminutive person, may +remain in the family a long while, and be preserved when some +gamester may Spend every other bit of silver he has in the world; +at least, if one would make heir-looms now, one must take care +that they have no value in them. + +P. S. I was turning over Edmonson this evening, and observed an +odd occurrence of circumstances in the present Lord +Carmarthen.(257) By his mother he is the representative of the +great Duke of Marlborough, and of old Treasurer Godolphin;(258) +by his father, of the Lord treasurer Duke of Leeds;(259) and by +his grandmother, is descended from the Lord-treasurer +Oxford.(260) Few men are so well ancestored in so short a +compass of time. + +(257) Francis Godolphin, Marquis of Carmarthen, only surviving +son of Thomas Duke of Leeds; and who, upon the death of his +father, in 17 9 succeeded to the dukedom.-E + +(258) Mary Duchess of Leeds, wife of Thomas, fourth duke, was +second daughter, and eventually sole heiress, of Francis Earl Of +Godolphin, by Henrietta Duchess of Marlborough, eldest daughter +and coheir of the great Duke of Marlborough.-E. + +(259) Sir Thomas Osborne, lord high treasurer of England, the +first Duke of Leeds; who, having been successively honoured with +the Barony of Osborne, the Viscounty of Latimer, the Earldom of +Danby, and the Marquisate Of Carmarthen, was, on the 4th of May +1694, created Duke of Leeds.-E. + +(260) Elizabeth, the first wife of Peregrine Hyde, third Duke of +Leeds, was the youngest daughter of Robert Harley, the great Earl +of Oxford.-E. + + + +Letter 115 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Thursday, Oct. 31, 1776. (page 161) + +Thank you for your letter. I send this by the coach. You will +have found a new scene,(261) not an unexpected one by you and me, +though I do not pretend I thought it so near. I rather imagined +France would have instigated or winked at Spain's beginning with +us. Here is a solution of the Americans declaring themselves +independent. Oh! the folly, the madness, the guilt of having +plunged us into this abyss! Were we and a few more endued with +any uncommon penetration? No: they who did not see as far, would +not. I am impatient to hear the complexion of to-day. I suppose +it will, on the part of administration, have been a wretched +farce of fear, daubed over with airs of bullying. You, I do not +doubt, have acted like yourself, feeling for our situation, above +insulting, and unprovoked but at the criminality that has brought +us to this pass. Pursue your own path, nor lean to the court +that may be paid to you on either side, as I am sure you will not +regard their being displeased that you do not go as far as their +interested views may wish. If the court should receive any more +of what they call good news, I think the war with France will be +unavoidable. It was the victory at Long Island(262) and the +frantic presumption it occasioned, that has ripened France's +measures--And now we are to awe them by pressing--an act that +speaks our impotence!--which France did not want to learn! + +I would have come to town, but I had declared so much I would +not, that I thought it would look as if I came to enjoy the +distress of the ministers-but I do not enjoy the distress of my +country. I think we are undone; I have always thought so-- +whether we enslaved America, or lost it totally--so we that were +against the war could expect no good issue. If you do return to +Park-place to-morrow, you will oblige me much by breakfasting +here - you know it wastes you very little time. + +'I am glad I did not know of Mrs. Damer's sore throat till it is +almost well. Pray take care and do not catch it. + +Thank you for your care of me: I will not stay a great deal here, +but at present I never was better in my life-and here I have no +vexatious moments. I hate to dispute; I scorn to triumph myself, +and it is very difficult to keep my temper when others do. I own +I have another reason for my retirement, which is prudence. I +have thought of it late, but, at least, I will not run into any +new expense. it would cost me more than I care to afford to buy +a house in town, Unless I do it to take some of my money out of +the stocks, for which I tremble a little. My brother is seventy; +and if I live myself, I Must not build too much on his life; and +you know, if he fails, I lose the most secure part of my income. +I refused from Holland, and last year from Lord North, to accept +the place for my own life; and having never done a dirty thing, I +will not disgrace myself at fifty-nine. I should like to live as +well as I have done; but what I wish more, is to secure what I +have already saved for those I would take care of after me. +These are the true reasons of my dropping all thought of a better +house in town, and of living so privately here. I -will not +sacrifice my health to my prudence; but my temper is so violent, +that I know the tranquillity I enjoy here in solitude is of much +more benefit to my health, than the air of the country is +detrimental to it. You see I can be reasonable when I have time +to reflect; but philosophy has a poor chance with me when my +warmth is stirred--and yet I know, that an angry old man out of +parliament, and that can do nothing but be angry, is a ridiculous +animal. + +(261) On the opening of the session. + +(262) On the 17th of August 1776, when the English army, under +the command of General Howe, defeated the Americans at Flat Bush, +in Long Island.-E. + + + +Letter 116 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 2, 1776. (page 162) + +Though inclination, and consciousness that a man of my age, who +is neither in parliament nor in business, has little to do in the +world, keep me a good deal out of it, yet I will not, my dear +lord, encourage you in retirement; to which, for the interest of +your friends, you have but too much propensity. The manners of +the age cannot be agreeable to those who have lived in something +soberer times; nor do I think, except in France, where old people +are never out of fashion, that it is reasonable to tire those +whose youth and spirits may excuse some dissipation. Above all +things, it is my resolution never to profess retirement, lest, +when I have lost all my real teeth, the imaginary one, called a +colt's, should hurry me back and make me ridiculous. But one +never outlives all one's contemporaries; one may assort with +them. Few Englishmen, too, I have observed, can bear solitude +without being hurt by it. Our climate makes us capricious, and +we must rub off our roughness and humours against one another. +We have, too, an always increasing resource, which is, that +though we go not to the young, they must come to us: younger +usurpers tread on their heels, as they did on ours, and revenge +us that have been deposed. They may retain their titles, like +Queen Christina, Sir M * * * N * * *, and Lord Rivers; but they +find they have no subjects. If we could but live long enough, we +should hear Lord Carlisle, Mr. Storer, etc. complain of the airs +and abominable hours of the youth of the age. YOU see, my dear +lord, my easy philosophy can divert itself with any thing, even +with visions; which perhaps is the best way of treating the great +vision itself, life. For half one's time one should laugh with +the world, the other half at it--and then it is hard if we want +amusement. + +I am heartily glad, for your lordship's and Lady Anne Conolly's +sakes, that General Howe(263) is safe. I sincerely interest +myself for every body you are concerned for. I will say no more +on a subject on which I fear I am so unlucky as to differ very +much with your lordship, having always fundamentally disapproved +our conduct with America. indeed, the present prospect of war +with France, when we have so much disabled ourselves, and are +exposed in so many quarters, is a topic for general lamentation, +rather than for canvassing Of Opinions, which every man must form +for himself: and I doubt the moment is advancing when we shall be +forced to think alike, at least on the present. + +I have not yet above a night at a time in town--but shall be glad +to give your lordship and Lady Strafford a meeting there whenever +you please. Your faithful humble servant. + +(263) General Sir William Howe, brother of the Admiral, was then +commander-in-chief of the British forces in America. He was +married to a daughter of Lady Anne Conolly, and consequently to a +niece of Lord Strafford.-E. + + + +Letter 117 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Dec. 9, 1776. (page 163) + +I know you love an episcopal print, and, therefore, I send you +one of two, that have just been given to me. As you have time +and patience, too, I recommend you to peruse Sir John Hawkins's +History Of Music.(264) It is true, there are five huge volumes +in quarto, and perhaps you may not care for the expense; but +surely you can borrow them in the University, and, though you may +no more than I, delight in the scientific, there is so much about +cathedral service, and choirs, and other old matters, that I am +sure you will be amused with a great deal, particularly the two +last volumes, and the facsimiles of old music in the first. I +doubt it is a work that will not sell rapidly, but it must have a +place in all great libraries. + +(264) A work full of amusement, and deserving of Walpole's good +word, notwithstanding the witty criticism which Dr. Calcott +passed upon it in his well known catch, "Have You Sir John +Hawkins's History?" in which he makes the name of the rival work, +"Burney's (Burn-HIS) History," express the fate which Hawkins's +volumes deserved.-E. + + + +Letter 118 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Feb. 20, 1777. (page 163) + +Dear Sir, +You are always my oracle in any antique difficulties. I have +bought at Mr. Ives's(265) sale (immensely dear) the shutters of +the altar at Edmondsbury: Mr. Ives had them from Tom Martin,(266) +who married Peter Leneve's widow; so you see no shutters can be +better descended on the mother's side. Next to high birth, +personal merit is something: in that respect, my shutters are far +from defective: on the contrary, the figures in the inside are so +very good, as to amaze me who could paint them here in the reign +of Henry VI.; they are worthy of the Bolognese school--but they +have suffered in several places, though not considerably. Bowes +is to repair them, under oath of only filling up the cracks, and +restoring the peelings off, but without repainting or varnishing. + +The possession of these boards, invaluable to me, was essential. +They authenticate the sagacity of my guesses, a talent in an +antiquary coequal with prophecy in a saint. On the outside is an +archbishop, unchristened by the late possessors, but evidently +Archbishop Kempe, or the same person with the prelate in my +Marriage of Henry VI.,_ and you will allow from the collateral +evidence that it must be Kempe, as I have so certainly discovered +another person in my picture. The other outside is a cardinal, +called by Mr. Ives, Babington; but I believe Cardinal Beaufort, +for the lion of England stands by him, which a bastardly prince +of the blood was more likely to assume than a true one. His face +is not very like, nor very unlike, the face in my picture; but +this is -shaven.-But now comes the great point. On the inside is +Humphrey Duke of Gloucester kneeling--not only exactly resembling +mine as possible, but with the same almost bald head, and the +precisely same furred robe. An apostle-like personage stands +behind him, holding a golden chalice, as his royal highness's +offering, and, which is remarkable, the duke's velvet cap of +state, with his coronet of strawberry-leaves. + +I used to say, to corroborate my hypothesis, that the skull of +Duke Humphrey at St. Alban's was very like the form of head in my +picture, which argument diverted the late Lord Holland +extremely--but I trust now that nobody will dispute any longer my +perfect acquaintance with all Dukes of Gloucester.--By the way, +did I ever tell You that when I published my Historic Doubts on +Richard III., my niece's marriage not being then acknowledged, +George Selwyn said, he did not think I should have doubted about +the Duke of Gloucester? On the inside of another shutter is a +man unknown: he is in a stable, as Joseph might be, but over him +hangs a shield of arms, that are neither Joseph's nor Mary's. +The colours are either black and white, or so changed as not to +be distinguishable. * * " * I conclude the person who is in red +and white was the donor of the altar-piece, or benefactor; and +what I want of you is to discover him and his arms; and to tell +me whether Duke Humphrey, Beaufort, Kempe, and Babington were +connected with St. Edmondsbury, or whether this unknown person +was not a retainer of Duke Humphrey, at least of the royal +family. + +At the same sale I bought a curious pair, that I conclude came +from Blickling, with Hobart impaling Boleyn from which latter +family the former enjoyed that seat. How does this third winter +of the season agree with you? The wind to-day is sharper than a +razor, and blows icicles into one's eyes. I was confined for +seven weeks with the gout " yet am so well recovered as to have +been abroad to-day, though it is as mild under the pole. + +Pray can you tell me the title of the book that Mr. Ives +dedicated to me? I never saw it, for he was so odd (I cannot call +it modest, lest I should seem not so myself) as never to send it +me, and I never could get it. Yours truly. + +(265) John Ives the antiquary, author of "Remarks upon the +Garianonum of the Romans the Site and Remains fixed and +described."-E. + +(266) Tom Martin of Palgrave, the well known antiquary, whose +"History of Thetford"was published in 1779, by Gough, who has +prefixed to it a Biographical Sketch of the Author.-E. + + + +Letter 119 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +February 27, 1777. (page 165) + +You see, dear Sir, that we thought on each other just at the same +moment; but, as usual, you was thinking of obliging me, and I, of +giving YOU trouble. You have fully satisfied me of the Connexion +between the Lancastrian Princes and St. Edmondsbury. Edmondson, +I conclude, will be able to find out the proprietor of the arms, +impaling Walrond. + +I am well acquainted with Sir A. Weldon(267) and the Aulicus +Coquinanae,(268) and will return them with Mr. Ives's tracts, +which I intend to buy at the sale of his books. Tell me how I +may convey them to you most safely. You say, "Till I show an +inclination to borrow more of your MSS." I hope you do not think +my appetite for that loan is in the least diminished. I should +at all minutes, and ever, be glad to peruse them all--but I was +not sure you wished to send them to me, though you deny me +nothing--and my own fear of their coming to any mischance made me +very modest about asking for them--but now, whenever you can send +me any of them with perfect security, I eagerly and impudently +ask to see them: you cannot oblige me more, I assure you. + +I am sorry Dr. E * * n is got into such a dirty scrape. There is +scarce any decent medium observed at present between wasting +fortunes and fabricating them--and both by any disreputable +manner; for, as to saving money by prudent economy, the method is +too slow in proportion to consumptions: even forgery, alas!(269 +seems to be the counterpart or restorative of the ruin by gaming. +I hope at least that robbery on the highway will go out of +fashion as too piddling a profession for gentlemen. + +I enclose a card for your friends, but must advertise them that +March is in every respect a wrong month for seeing Strawberry. +It not only wants its leaves and beauty then, but most of the +small pictures and curiosities, which are taken down and packed +up in winter, are not restored to their places till the weather +is fine and I am more there. Unless they are confined in time, +your friends had much better wait till May-but, however, they +will be very welcome to go when they please. I am more +personally interested in hoping to See you there this summer--you +must visit my new tower. Diminutive as it is, it adds much to +the antique air of the whole in both fronts. You know I shall +sympathize with your gout, and you are always master of your own +hours. + +(267) Sir Anthony Weldon was the author of "The Court and +Character of King James; written and taken by Sir A. W., being an +eye and ear witness." London, 1650. A work which has been +pronounced, by competent authority, " a despicable tissue of +filth and obscenity, of falsehood and malignity."-E. + +(268) "Aulicus Coquinanae; or, an Answer to the Court and +Character of King James." London, 1650. This work has been +ascribed to William Sanderson, and to Dr. Heylin; and is, as well +as Weldon's, reprinted in the "Secret History of the Court of +King James." Edinburgh, 1811-E. + +(269) Alluding to Dr. Dodd; whose trial for forgery had taken +place on the 22d, at the Old Bailey.-E. + + + +Letter 120 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, May 22, 1777. (page 166) + +It is not Owing to forgetfulness, negligence, or idleness--to +none of which I am subject, that you have not heard from me since +I saw you, dear Sir, but to my miserable occupation with my poor +nephew, who engrosses my whole attention, and will, I doubt, +destroy my health, if he does not recover his. I have got him +within fourteen miles of town with difficulty. He is rather +worse than better, may recover in an instant, as he did last +time, or remain in his present sullenness. I am far from +expecting he should ever be perfectly in his senses; which, in my +opinion, he scarce ever was. His intervals expose him to the +worst people ; his relapses overwhelm me. + +I have-put together some trifles I promised you, and will beg Mr. +Lort to be the bearer when he goes to Cambridge, if I know of it. +At present I have time for nothing I like. My age and +inclination call for retirement: I envied your happy hermitage, +and leisure to follow your inclination. I have always lived +post, and shall not die before I can bait-yet it is not my wish +to be unemployed, could I but choose my occupations. I wish I +could think of the pictures you mention, or had time to see Dr. +Glynn and the master of Emmanuel. I doat on Cambridge, and could +like to be often there. The beauty of King's College Chapel, now +it is restored, penetrated me with a visionary longing to be a +monk in it; though my life has been passed in turbulent scenes, +in pleasures-or rather pastimes, and in much fashionable +dissipation, still books, antiquity, and virt`u kept hold of a +corner of my heart, and since necessity has forced me of late +years to be a man of business, my disposition tends to be a +recluse for what remains-but it will not be my lot: and though +there is some excuse for the young doing what they like, I doubt +an old man should do nothing but what he ought, and I hope doing +one's duty is the best preparation for death. Sitting with one's +arms folded to think about it, is a very lazy way of preparing +for it. If Charles V. had resolved to make some amends for his +abominable ambition by doing good, his duty as a King, there +would have been infinitely more merit than going to doze in a +convent.(270) One may avoid active guilt in a sequestered life; +but the virtue of it is merely negative, though innocence is +beautiful. + +I approve much of 'Your corrections on Sir J. Hawkins, and send +them to the Magazine. I want the exact blazon of William of +Hatsfield his arms,--I mean the Prince buried at York. Mr. Mason +and I are going to restore his monument, and I have not time to +look for them-: I know you will be so good as to assist. Yours +most sincerely. + +(270) "The Spaniard, when the lust of sway +Had lost its quickening spell, +Cast crowns for rosaries away, +An empire for a cell! + +"A strict accountant of his beads, +A subtle disputant on creeds, +His dotage trifled well: +Yet better had he neither known +A bigot's shrine nor despot's throne." Byron.-E. + + + +Letter 121 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, June 19, 1777. (page 167) + +I thank YOU for your notices, dear Sir, and shall remember that +on Prince William. I did see the Monthly Review, but hope one is +not guilty of the death of every man who does not make one the +dupe of a forgery. I believe M'Pherson's success with Ossian was +more The ruin of Chatterton than I. Two years passed between my +doubting the authenticity of Rowley's(271) poems and his death. +I never knew he had been in London till some time after he had +undone and poisoned himself there. The poems he sent me were +transcripts in his own hand, and even in that circumstance he +told a lie: he said he had them from the very person at Bristol +to whom he had given them. If any man was to tell you that +monkish rhymes had been dug up at Herculaneum, which was +destroyed several centuries before there was any such poetry, +should you believe it? Just the reverse is the case of Rowley's +pretended poems. They have all the elegance of Waller and Prior, +and more than Lord Surrey--but I have no objection to any body +believing what he pleases. I think poor Chatterton was an +astonishing genius-but I cannot think that Rowley foresaw metres +that were invented long after he was dead, or that our language +was more refined at Bristol in the reign of Henry V. than it was +at court under Henry VIII. One of the chaplains of the Bishop of +Exeter has found a line of Rowley in Hudibras-the monk might +foresee that too! The prematurity of Chatterton's genius is, +however, full as wonderful, as that such a prodigy as Rowley +should never have been heard of till the eighteenth century. The +youth and industry of the former are miracles, too, yet still +more' credible. There is not a symptom in the poems, but the old +words, that savours of Rowley's age--change the old words for +modern, and the whole construction is of yesterday. + +(271) See in Walpole's Works, vol. iv. the Papers relative to +Chatterton; see also vol- i. P. 61 of this collection.-E. + + + +Letter 122 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, July 10, 1777. (page 168) + +Don't be alarmed at this thousandth letter in a week. This is +more to Lady Hamilton(272) than to you. Pray tell her I have +seen Monsieur la Bataille d'.Agincourt.(273) He brought me her +letter yesterday: and I kept him to sup, sleep in the modern +phrase, and breakfast here this morning; and flatter myself he +was, and she will be, content with the regard I paid to her +letter. + +The weather is a thought warmer to-day, and I am as busy as bees +are about their hay. My hayssians(274) have cost me as much as +if I had hired them of the Landgrave.(275) + +I am glad your invasion(276) is blown over. I fear I must invite +those flat-bottomed vessels hither, as the Swissess Necker has +directed them to the port of Twickenham. Madame de Blot is too +fine, and Monsieur Schomberg one of the most disagreeable, cross, +contemptuous savages I ever saw. I have often supped with him at +the Duchess de Choiseul's, and could not bear him; and now I must +be charm`e, and p`en`etr`e, and combl`e, to see him: and I shall +act it very ill, as I always do when I don't do what I like. +Madame Necker's letter is as affected and pr`ecieuse, as if +Marmontel had written it for a Peruvian milk-maid. She says I am +a philosopher, and as like Madame de S`evign`e as two peas--who +was as unlike a philosopher as a gridiron. As I have none of +Madame de S`evign`e's natural easy wit, I am rejoiced that I am +no more like a philosopher neither, and still less like a +philosophe; which is a being compounded of D'Urfey and Diogenes, +a pastoral coxcomb, and a supercilious brute. + +(272) The first wife of Sir William Hamilton, envoy extraordinary +at the court of Naples. She was a Miss Barlow-E. + +(273) M. le Chevalier d'Agincourt, a French antiquary, long +settled in Italy. 1. B. L. Seroux d'Agincourt, born at Beauvais +in 1730, died at Rome in 1814, having, during thirty-six years, +laboured assiduously in the composition of his grand work, +"Histoire de l'Art par les Monumens depuis sa D`ecadence au +Quatri`eme Si`ecle jusqu'`a son Renouvellement au Seizi`eme". Of +this splendid book, in six vols. folio, which was not published +until 1823, nine years after the death of the author, an +interesting review will be found in the seventh volume of the +Foreign Quarterly Review.-E. + +(274) Hessians. + +(275) An allusion to the seventeen thousand which had been hired +for the American service, by treaties entered into the preceding +year with the Landgravine of Hesse Cassel, the Duke of Brunswick, +and the Hereditary Prince of Hesse Cassel.-E. + +(276) A party of French nobility then in England, who were to +have made a visit at Parkplace. + + + +Letter 123 To Robert Jephson, Esq.(277) +Strawberry Hill, July 13, 1777. (page 169) + +You have perhaps, Sir, paid too much regard to the observations I +took the liberty to make, by your order, to a few passages in +"Vitellia," and I must hope they were in consequence of your own +judgment too. I do not doubt of its success on the stage, if +well acted but I confess I would answer for nothing with the +present set of actors, who are not capable in tragedy of doing +any justice to it. Mrs. Barry seems to me very unequal to the +principal part, to which Mrs. Yates alone is suited. Were I the +author, I should be very sorry to have my tragedy murdered, +perhaps miscarry. Your reputation is established; you will never +forfeit it yourself-and to give your works to unworthy performers +is like sacrificing a daughter to a husband of bad character. As +to my offering it to Mr. Colman, I could merely be the messenger. +I am scarce known to him, have no right to ask a favour of him, +and I hope you know me enough to think that I am too conscious of +my own insignificance and private situation to give myself an air +of protection, and more particularly to a work of yours, Sir. +What could I say, that would carry greater weight, than "This +piece is by the author of Braganza?"(278) + +A tragedy can never suffer by delay: a comedy may, because the +allusions or the manners represented in it maybe temporary. I +urge this, not to dissuade your presenting Vitellia to the stage, +but to console you if both theatres should be engaged next +winter. My own interests, from my time of life, would make me +with reason more impatient than you to see it represented, but I +am jealous of the honour Of your poetry, and I should grieve to +see Vitellia, at Covent-garden not that, except Mrs. Yates, I +have any partiality to the tragic actors at Drury-lane, though +Smith did not miscarry in Braganza-but I speak from experience. +I attended "Caractacus" last winter, and was greatly interested, +both from my friendship for Mr. Mason and from the excellence of +the poetry. I was out of all patience; for though a young Lewis +played a subordinate part very well, and Mrs. Hartley looked her +part charmingly, the Druids were so massacred and Caractacus so +much worse, that I never saw a more barbarous exhibition. +Instead of hurrying "The Law of Lombardy,"(279) which, however, I +shall delight to see finished, I again wish you to try comedy. +To my great astonishment there were more parts performed +admirably in "The School for Scandal,"(280) than I almost ever +saw in any play. Mrs. Abington was equal to the first of her +profession, Yates, the husband, Parsons, Miss Pope, and Palmer, +all shone. It seemed a marvellous resurrection of the stage. +Indeed, the play had as much merit as the actors. I have seen no +comedy that comes near it since the "Provoked Husband." + +I said I was Jealous of your fame as a poet, and I truly am. The +more rapid your genius is, labour will but the more improve it. +I am very frank, but I am sure that my attention to your +reputation will excuse it. Your facility in writing exquisite +poetry may be a disadvantage; as it may not leave you time to +study the other requisites of tragedy so much as is necessary. +Your writings deserve to last for ages; but to make any work +last, it must be finished in all parts to perfection. You have +the first requisite to that perfection, for you can sacrifice +charming lines, when they do not tend to improve the whole. I +admire this resignation so much, that I wish to turn it to your +advantage. Strike out your sketches as suddenly as you please, +but retouch and retouch them, that the best judges may for ever +admire them. The works that have stood the test of ages, and +been slowly approved at first, are not those that have dazzled +contemporaries and borne away their applause, but those whose +intrinsic and laboured merit have shone the brighter on +examination. I would not curb your genius, Sir, if I did not +trust it would recoil with greater force for having obstacles +presented to it. + +You will forgive my not having sent you the "Thoughts on Comedy," +(281) as I promised, I have had no time to look them over and put +them into shape. I have been and am involved in most unpleasant +affairs of family, that take up my whole thoughts and attention. +The melancholy situation of my nephew Lord Orford, engages me +particularly, and I am not young enough to excuse postponing +business and duties for amusement. In truth, I am really too old +not to have given up literary pleasures. Nobody will tell one +when one grows dull, but one's time of life ought to tell it one. +I long ago determined to keep the archbishop in Gil Blas in my +eye. when I should advance to his caducity; but as dotage steals +in at more doors than one, perhaps the sermon I have been +preaching to you is a symptom of it. You must judge of that, +Sir. If I fancy I have been wise, and have only been peevish, +throw my lecture into the fire. I am sure the liberties I have +taken with you deserve no indulgence, if you do not discern true +friendship at the bottom of them. + +(277) Now first printed. +Robert Jephson, Esq. was born in Ireland in 1736. He attained +the rank of captain in the 73d regiment, and when it was reduced +at the peace of 1763, he retired on half-pay, and procured, +through the influence of Mr. Gerard Hamilton, a Pension on the +Irish establishment. Besides several tragedies, he wrote the +farce of "Two Strings to your Bow," and "Roman Portraits," a +poem. Hardy, in his Memoirs of Lord Charlemont, says, "he was +much caressed 'and sought after by several of the first societies +in Dublin, as he possess'd much wit and pleasantry, and, when not +overcome by the spleen, was extremely amusing and entertaining." +He was a member of the Irish House of Commons, and died in 1803. +Walpole's "Thoughts on Tragedy" had been addressed, in 1775, to +this gentleman.-E. + +(278) "Braganza" came out at Drury-lane theatre in 1775, and was +very successful. Walpole supplied the epilogue.-E. + +(279) "The Law of Lombardy" was brought out at Drury-lane in +1779, but was only acted nine nights.-E. + + +(280) Sheridan's "School for Scandal" was first performed at +Drury-lane on the 8th of May, 1777. + +(281) Walpole's "Thoughts on Comedy" were written in 1775 and +1776, and will be found in his Works.-E. + + + +Letter 124 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, August 31, 1777. (page 171) + +You are very kind, dear Sir, in giving me an account of your +health and occupations, and inquiring after mine. I am very +sorry you are not as free from gout, as I have been ever since +February; but I trust it will only keep you from other +complaints, and never prevent your amusing yourself, which you +are one of those few happy beings that can always do; and your +temper is so good, and your mind so naturally philosophic, +composed, and contented, that you neither want the world, care +about it, nor are affected by any thing that occurs in it. This +is true wisdom, but wisdom which nothing can give but +constitution. Detached amusements have always made a great part +of my own delight, and have sown my life with some of its best +moments. My intention was, that they should be the employments +of my latter years, but fate seems to have chalked out a very +different scene for me! The misfortune of my nephew has involved +me in business, and consequently care, and opens a scene of +disputes, with which I shall not molest your tranquillity. + +The dangerous situation in which his Royal Highness the Duke of +Gloucester has been, and out of which I doubt he is scarce yet +emerged, though better, has added more thorns to my uneasy mind. +The Duchess's daughters are at Hampton-court, and partly under my +care. In one word, my whole summer has been engrossed by duties, +which has confined me at home, without indulging myself in a +single pursuit to my taste. + +In short, as I have told you before, I often wish myself a monk +at Cambridge. Writers on government condemn, very properly, a +recluse life, as contrary to Nature's interest, who loves +procreation; but as Nature seems not very desirous that we should +procreate to threescore years and ten, I think convents very +suitable retreats for those whom our Alma Mater does not +emphatically call to her Opus Magnum. And though, to be sure, +gray hairs are fittest to conduct state affairs, yet as the +Rehoboams of the world (Louis XVI. excepted) do not always trust +the rudder of government to ancient hands, old gentlemen, +methinks, are very ill placed [when not at the council-board] any +where but in a cloister. As I have no more vocation to the +ministry than to carrying on my family, I sigh after a dormitory; +and as in six weeks my clock will strike sixty, I wish I had +nothing more to do with the world. I am not tired of living, +but-what signifies sketching visions? One must take one's lot as +it comes; bitter and sweet"are poured into every cup. To-morrow +may be pleasanter than to-day. Nothing lasts of one colour. One +must embrace the cloister, or take the chances of the world as +they present themselves; and since uninterrupted happiness would +but embitter the certainty that even that must end, rubs and +crosses should be softened by the same consideration. I am not +so busied, but I shall be very glad of a sight of your +manuscript, and will return it carefully. I will thank you, too, +for the print of Mr. Jenyns, which I have not, nor have seen.' +Adieu! Yours most cordially. + + + +Letter 125 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 16, 1777. (page 172) + +I have received your volume safely, dear Sir, and hasten to thank +you before I have read a page, that you may be in no pain about +its arrival. I will return it with the greatest care as soon as +I have finished it, and at the same time will send Mr. Essex the +bills, as I beg you will let him know. I have no less reason for +writing immediately, to thank you for the great confidence you +place in me. You talk of nonsense; alas! what are all our +opinions else? if we search for truth before we fix our +principles, what do we find but doubt? And which of us begins +the search a tabula rasa? Nay, where can we hunt but in volumes +of error or purposed delusion? Have not we, too, a bias in our +Minds--our passions? They will turn the scale in favour of the +doctrines most agreeable to them. Yet let us be a little vain: +you and I differ radically in our principles, and yet in forty +years they have never cast a gloom over our friendship. We could +give the world a reason that it would not like. We have both +been sincere, have both been consistent, and neither adopted our +principles nor have varied them for our interest. + +Your labour, as far as I am acquainted with it, astonishes me: it +shows what can be achieved by a man that does not lose a moment; +and, which is still better, how happy the man is who can always +employ himself I do not believe that the proud prelate, who would +not make you a little happier, is half so much to be envied. +Thank you for the print of Soame Jenyns: it is a proof of Sir +Joshua's art, who could give a strong resemblance of so uncouth a +countenance without leaving it disagreeable. + +The Duke of Gloucester is miraculously revived. For two whole +days I doubted whether he was not dead. I hope fatalists and +omenmongers will be confuted; and thus, as his grandfather broke +the charm of the second of the name being an unfortunate prince, +the Duke will baffle that, which has made the title of Gloucester +unpropitious. Adieu! + + + +Letter 126 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Tuesday evening, Sept. 16, 1777. (page 173) + +I have got a delightful plaything, if I had time for play. It is +a new sort of camera-obscura(282) for drawing the portraits of +persons, or prospects, or insides of rooms, and does not depend +on the sun or any thing. The misfortune is, that there is a vast +deal of machinery and putting together, and I am the worst person +living for managing it. You know I am impenetrably dull in every +thing that requires a grain of common sense. The inventor is to +come to me on Friday, and try if he can make me remember my right +hand from my left. I could as soon have invented my machine as +manage it; yet it has cost me ten guineas, and may cost me as +much more as I please for improving it. u will conclude it was +the dearness tempted me. I believe I must keep an astronomer, +like Mr. Beauclerk, to help me play with my rattle. The +inventor, who seems very modest and simple, but I conclude an +able flatterer, was in love with my house, and vowed nothing ever +suited his camera so well. To be sure, the painted windows and +the prospects, and the Gothic chimneys, etc. etc. were the +delights of one's eyes, when no bigger than a silver penny. You +would know how to manage it, as if you had never done any thing +else. Had not you better come and see it? You will learn how to +conduct it, with the pleasure of correcting my awkwardness and +unlearnability. Sir Joshua Reynolds and West have each got one; +and the Duke of Northumberland is so charmed with the invention, +that I dare say he can talk upon and explain it till I should +understand ten times less of the matter than I do. Remember, +neither Lady Ailesbury, nor you, nor Mrs. Damer, have seen my new +divine closet, nor the billiard-sticks with which the Countess of +Pembroke And Arcadia used to play with her brother Sir Philip; +nor the portrait of la belle Jennings in the state bedchamber. I +go to town this day s'ennight for a day or two; and as, to be +sure, Mount Edgecumbe has put you out of humour with Park-place, +you may deign to leave it for a moment. I never did see +Cotchel,(283) and am sorry. Is not the old wardrobe there still? +There was one from the time of Cain; but Adam's breeches and +Eve's under-petticoat were eaten by a goat in the ark. +Good-night! + +(282) The machine called a Delineator. + +(283) The old residence of the family of Edgecumbe, twelve miles +distant from Mount Edgecumbe. + + + +Letter 127 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 22, 1777. (page 173) + +I return YOU Your manuscript, dear Sir, with a thousand thanks, +and shall be impatient to hear that you receive it safe. It has +amused me much, and I admire Mr. Baker(284) for having been able +to show so much sense on so dry a subject. I wish, as you say +you have materials for it, that you would write his life. He +deserved it much more than most of those he has recorded. His +book on the Deficiencies of Learning is most excellent, and far +too little known. I admire his moderation, too, which was +extraordinary in a man who had suffered so much for his +principles. Yet they warped even him, for he rejects Bishop +Burnet's character of Bishop Gunning in p. 200, and yet in the +very next page gives the same character of him. Burnet's words +are, "he had a great confusion of things in his head, but could +bring nothing into method:" pray compare this with p. 201. I see +nothing in which they differ, except that Mr. Burnet does not +talk so much of his comeliness as Mr. Baker. + +I Shall not commend your moderation, when you excuse such a man +as Bishop Watson. Nor ought you to be angry with Burnet, but +with the witnesses on whose evidence Watson was convicted. To +tell you the truth, I am glad when such faults are found with +Burnet; for it shows his enemies are not angry at his telling +falsehoods, but the truth. Must not an historian say a bishop +was convicted Of Simony, if he was? I will tell you what was +said of Burnet's History, by one whose testimony you yourself +would not dispute--at least you would not in any thing else. +That confessor said, "Damn him, he has told a great deal of +truth, but where the devil did he learn it?" This was St. +Atterbury's testimony. + +I shall take the liberty of reproving you, too, dear Sir, for +defending that abominable murderess Queen Christina--and how can +you doubt her conversation with Burnet? you must know there are +a thousand evidences of her laughing at the religion she +embraced. If you approve her, I will allow YOU to Condemn Lord +Russel and Algernon Sidney. Well, as we shall never have the +same heroes, we Will not dispute about them, nor shall I find +fault when you have given me so much entertainment: it would be +very Ungrateful, and I have a thousand obligations to you, and +want to have more. I want to see more of your manuscripts: they +are full of curiosities, and I love some of your heroes, too: I +honour Bishop Fisher, and love Mr. Baker. If I might choose, I +should like to see your account of the persons educated at +King's-but as you may have objections, I insist, if you have, +that you make me no word of answer. It is, perhaps, impertinent +to ask it, and silence will lay neither of us under any +difficulty. I have no right to make such a request, nor do now, +but on the foot of its proving totally indifferent to you. You +will make me blame +myself, if it should a moment distress you; and I am sure you are +too good-natured to put me out of humour with myself, which your +making no answer would not do. + +I enclose my bills for Mr. Essex, and will trouble you to send +them to him. I again thank you, and trust you will be as +friendly free with me, as I have been with you: you know I am a +brother monk in every thing but religious and political opinions. +I only laugh at the thirty' nine articles: but abhor Calvin as +much as I do the Queen of Sweden, for he was as thorough an +assassin. Yours ever. + +P. S. As I have a great mind, and, indeed, ought, when I require +it, to show moderation, and when I have not, ought to confess it, +which I do, for I Own I am not moderate on certain points; if you +are busy yourself and will send me the materials, I will draw up +the life 4 Mr. Baker; and, if you are not content with it, you +shall burn it in Smithfield. In good truth, I revere +conscientious martyrs, of all sects, communions, and parties--I +heartily pity them, if they are weak men. When they are as +sensible as Mr. Baker, I doubt my own understanding more than +his. I know I have not his virtues, but should delight in doing +justice to them; and, perhaps, from a man of a different party +the testimony would be more to his honour. I do not call myself +of different principles; because a man that thinks himself bound +by his oath, can be a man of no principle if he violates it. I +do not mean to deny that many men might think King James's breach +of his oath a dispensation from theirs; but, if they did not +think so, or did not think their duty to their country obliged +them to renounce their King, I should never defend those who took +the new oaths from interest. + +(284) Thomas Baker, the learned author of "Reflections on +Learning, wherein is shown the insufficiency thereof in its +several particulars, in order to evince the usefulness and +necessity Of Revelation;" a work which has gone through numerous +editions, and /was at one time one of the most popular books in +the language, He was born at Durham in 1656, and died in the +office of commoner master of st. John's College, Cambridge, in +July 1740.-E. + + + +Letter 128 To Robert Jephson, Esq.(285) +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 1, 1777. (page 175) + +To confer favours, Sir, is certainly not giving trouble: and had +I the most constant occupation, I should contrive to find moments +for reading your works. I have passed a most melancholy summer, +from different distresses in my family; and though my nephew's +situation and other avocations prevent my having but very little +time for literary amusements, I did not mean to debar myself of +the pleasure of hearing from my friends. Unfortunately, at +present, it is impossible for me to profit of your kindness; not +from my own business, but from the absence of Mr. Garrick. He is +gone into Staffirdshire to marry a nephew, and thence will pass +into Wales to superintend a play that is to be acted at Sir +Watkin Williams's. I am even afraid I shall not be the first +apprised of his return, as I possibly may remove to town in +expectation of the Duchess of Gloucester,' before he is at home +again. I shall not neglect my own satisfaction; but mention this +circumstance, that you may not suspect me of inattention, if I +should not get sight of your tragedy so soon as I wish. I am, +Sir, with great regard. + +(285) Now first printed. + + + +Letter 129 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Oct. 5, 1777. (page 176) + +You are so exceedingly good, I shall assuredly accept your +proposal in the fullest sense, and to ensure Mrs. Damer, beg I +may expect you on Saturday next the 11th. If Lord and Lady +william Campbell will do me the honour of accompanying YOU, I +shall be most happy to see them, and expect Miss Caroline.(286) +Let me know about them that the state bedchamber may be aired. + +My difficulties about removing from home arise from the +consciousness of my own weakness. I make it a rule, as much as I +can, to conform wherever I go. Though I am threescore to-day, I +should not think that an age for giving every thing up; but it +is, for whatever one has not strength to perform. You, though +not a vast deal younger, are as healthy and strong, thank God! as +ever you was: and you cannot have ideas of the mortification of +being stared at by strangers and servants, when one hobbles, or +cannot do as others do. I delight in being with you, and the +Richmonds, and those I love and know; but the crowds of young +people, and Chichester folks, and officers, and strange servants, +make me afraid of Goodwood, I own My spirits are never low; but +they seldom will last out the whole day; and though I dare to say +I appear to many capricious, and different from the rest of the +world, there is more reason in my behaviour than there seems. +You know in London I seldom stir out in a morning, and always +late; it is because I want a great deal of rest. Exercise never +did agree with me: and it is hard if I do not know myself by this +time; and what has done so well for me will probably suit me best +for the rest of my life. It would be ridiculous to talk so much +of myself, and to enter into such trifling details, but you are +the person in the world that I wish to convince that I do not act +merely from humour or ill-humour; though I confess at the same +time that I want your bonhommie, and have a disposition not to +care at all for people that I do not absolutely like. I could +say a great deal more on this head, but it is not proper; though, +when one has pretty much done with the world, I think with Lady +Blandford, that One may indulge one's self in one's own whims and +partialities in one's own house. I do not mean, still less to +profess, retirement, because it is less ridiculous to go on with +the world to the last, than to return to it; but in a quiet way +it has long been my purpose to drop a great deal of it. Of all +things I am farthest from not intending to come often to +Park-place, whenever you have little company; and I had rather be +with you, in November than July, because I am so totally unable +to walk farther than a snail. I will never say any more on these +subjects, because there may be as much affectation in being over +old, as folly in being over young. My idea of age is, that one +has nothing really to do but what one ought, and what is +reasonable. All affectations are pretensions; and pretending to +be any thing one is not, cannot deceive when one is known, as +every body must be That has lived long. I do not mean that old +folks may not have pleasures if they can; but then I think those +pleasures are confined to being comfortable, and to enjoying the +few friends one has not outlived. I am so fair as to own, that +one's duties are not pleasures. I have given up a great deal of +my time to nephews and nieces, even to some I can have little +affection for. I do love my nieces, nay like them; but people +above forty years younger are certainly not the society I should +seek. They can only think and talk of what is, or is to come; I +certainly am more disposed to think and talk of what is past: and +the obligation of passing the end of a long life in sets of +totally new company is more irksome to me than passing a great +deal of my time, as I do, quite alone. Family love and pride +make me interest myself about the young people of my own +family-for the whole rest of the Young world, they are as +indifferent to me as puppets or black children. This is my +creed, and a key to my whole conduct, and the more likely to +remain my creed, as I think it is raisonn`e. If I could paint my +Opinions instead of writing them I don't know whether it would +not make a new sort of alphabet-I should use different colours +for different affections at different ages. When I speak of +love, affection, friendship, taste, liking, I should draw them +rose colour, carmine, blue, green, yellow, for my contemporaries: +for new comers, the first would be of no colour; the others, +purple, brown, crimson, and changeable. Remember, one tells +one's creed only to one's confessor, that is sub sigillo. I +write to you as I think; to others as I must. Adieu! + +(286) Miss Caroline Campbell, eldest daughter of Lord William +Campbell. + + + +Letter 130 To Robert Jephson, Esq.(287) +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 17, 1777. (page 177) + +Mr. Garrick returned but two days ago, Sir, and I did not receive +your tragedy(288) till this morning; so I could only read it once +very rapidly and without any proper attention to particular +passages though, even so, some struck me as very fine. You have +encouraged me rather to criticise than flatter you; and you are +in the right, for you have even profited of so weak a judgment as +mine, and always improved the passages I objected to. Indeed, +this is not quite a fair return, as it was inverting my method, +by flattering instead of finding fault with me; and a critic that +meets with submission, is apt to grow vain, and insolent, and +capricious. Still as I am persuaded that all criticisms, though +erroneous, before an author appeals to the public, are friendly, +I will fairly tell you what parts of your tragedy have struck me +as objectionable on so superficial a perusal. + +In general, the language appears to me too metaphoric; especially +as used by all the characters. You seem to me to have imitated +Beaumont and Fletcher, though your play is superior to all +theirs. In truth, I think the diction is sometimes obscure from +being so figurative, especially in the first act. Will you allow +me to mention two instances? + +"And craven Sloth, moulting his sleepless plumes, +Nods drowsy wonder at th' adventurous wing +That soars the shining azure o'er his head." + +I own I do not understand why Sloth's plumes are sleepless; and I +think that nodding wonder, and soaring azure, are expressions too +Greek to be so close together, and too poetic for dialogue. The +other passage is-- + +"The wise should watch th' event on Fortune's wheel," + +and the seven following lines. The images are very fine, but +demand more attention than common audiences are capable of. In +Braganza every image is strikingly clear. + +I am afraid I am not quite satisfied with the conduct of your +piece. Bireno's conduct on the attack on the princess seems too +precipitate, and not managed. It is still more incredible, that +Paladore should confess his passion to his rival; and not less +so, that a private man and a stranger should doubt the princess's +faith, when she had preferred him to his rival, a prince of the +blood and her destined husband; and that without the smallest +inquiry he should believe Bireno was admitted privately to her +apartment, when on her not rejecting him, he might have access to +her openly. One cannot conceive her meaning in offending her +father by refusing so proper a match, `and intriguing with the +very man she was to marry, and whom she had refused. Paladore's +credulity is not of a piece with the account given of his wisdom, +which had made him admitted to the king'S Counsels. + +I think, when you bestow Sophia on Paladore, you forget that the +king had declared he was obliged to give his daughter to a prince +of his own blood; nor do I see any reason for Bireno's stabbing +Ascanio, who was sure of being put to death when their treachery +was discovered. + +The character of the princess is very noble and well sustained. +When I said I did not conceive her meaning, I expressed myself +ill. I did not suppose she, did intrigue with Bireno; but I +meant that it was not natural Paladore should suspect she did, +since it is inconceivable that a princess should refuse her +cousin in marriage for the mere caprice of intriguing with him. +Had she managed her father, and, from the dread of his anger, +temporized about Bireno, Paladore would have had more reason to +doubt her. Would it not too be more natural for Bireno to +incense the king against Paladore than to endeavour to make the +latter jealous of Sophia? At least I think Bireno would have +more chance of Poisoning Paladore's mind, if he did not discover +to him that he knew of his passion. Forgive me, Sir but I cannot +reconcile to probability Paladore's believing that Sophia had +rejected Bireno for a husband, though it would please her father, +and yet chose to intrigue with him in defiance of so serious and +extraordinary a law. Either his credulity or his jealousy reduce +Paladore to a lover very unworthy of such a woman as Sophia. For +her sake I wish to see him more deserving of her. + +You are so great a poet, Sir, that you have no occasion to labour +any thing but your plots. You can express any thing you please. +If the conduct is natural, you will not want words. Nay, I +rather fear your indulging your poetic vein too far, for your +language is sometimes sublime enough for odes, which admit the +height of enthusiasm, which Horace will not allow to tragic +writers. You could set up twenty of our tragic authors with +lines that you could afford to reject, though for no reason but +their being too fine, as in landscape-painting some parts must be +under-coloured to give the higher relief to the rest. Will you +not think me too difficult and squeamish, when I find the +language of "The Law of Lombardy" too rich? + +I beg your pardon, but it is more difficult for you to please me, +than any body. I interest myself in your success and your glory. +You must be perfect in all parts, in nature, simplicity, and +character, as well as in the most charming poetry, or I shall not +be content. If I dared, I would beg you to trust me with your +plots, before you write a line. When a subject seizes you, your +impetuosity cannot breathe till you have executed your plan. You +must be curbed, as other poets want to be spurred. When your +sketch is made, you must study the characters and the audience. +It is not flattering you to say, that the least you have to do is +to write your play. + +(287) Now first printed. + +(288) "The Law of Lombardy;" see ant`e, p. 170, letter 123.-E. + + + +Letter 131 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 19, 1777. (page 179) + +Thank you much, dear sir, for the sight of the book, which I +return by Mr. Essex It is not new to me that Burnet paid his +court on the other side in the former part of his life* nor will +I insist that he changed On conviction, which might be said, and +generally is, for all converts, even those who shift their +principles the most glaringly from interest. Duke +Lauderdale,(289) indeed, was such a dog, that the least honest +man must have been driven to detest him, however connected with +him. I doubt Burnet could not be blind to his character, when he +wrote the dedication. In truth, I have given up many of my +saints, but not on the accusations of such wretches as +Dalrymple(290) and Macpherson;(291) nor can men, so much their +opposites, shake my faith in Lord Russel and Algernon Sidney. I +do not relinquish those that scaled their integrity with their +blood, but such as have taken thirty pieces of silver. + +I was sorry you said we had any variance. We have differed in +sentiments, but not in friendship. Two men, however unlike in +principles, may be perfect friends, when both are sincere in +their opinions as we are. Much less shall we quarrel about those +of our separate parties, since very few on either side have been +so invariably consistent as you and I have been; and therefore we +are more sure of each other's integrity, than that of men whom we +know less and who did vary from themselves. As you and I are +only speculative persons, and no actors, it would be very idle to +squabble about those that do not exist. In short, we are, I +trust, in as perfect good humour with each other as we have been +these forty years. + +Pray do not hurry yourself about the anecdotes of Mr. Baker, nor +neglect other occupations on that account. I shall certainly not +have time to do any thing this year. I expect the Duke and +Duchess of Gloucester in a very few days, must go to town as soon +as they arrive, and shall probably have not much idle leisure +before next summer. + +It is not very discreet to look even so far forward, nor am I apt +any longer to lay distant plans. A little sedentary literary +amusement is indeed no very lofty castle in the air, if I do lay +the foundation in idea seven or eight months beforehand. + +Whatever manuscripts you lend me, I shall be very grateful for. +They entertain me exceedingly, and I promise you we will not have +the shadow of an argument about them. I do not love disputation, +even with those most indifferent to me. Your pardon I most +sincerely beg for having contested a single point with you. I am +sure it was not with a grain of ill-humour towards you: on the +contrary, it was from wishing at that moment that you did not +approve though I disliked--but even that I give up as +unreasonable. + +You are in the right, dear Sir, not to apply to Masters for any +papers he may have relating to Mr. Baker.(292) It is a trumpery +fellow', from whom one would rather receive a refusal than an +obligation. + +I am sorry to hear Mr. Lort has the gout, and still more +concerned that you still suffer from it. Such patience and +temper as yours are the only palliatives. As the bootikins have +so much abridged and softened my fits, I do not expect their +return with the alarm and horror I used to do, and that is being +cured of one half the complaints. I had scarce any pain last +time, and did not keep my bed a day, and had no gout at all in +either foot. May not I ask you if this is not some merit in the +bootikins? To have cured me of my apprehensions is to me a vast +deal, for now the intervals do not connect the fits. You will +understand, that I mean to speak a word to you in favour of the +bootikins, for can one feel benefit, and not wish to impart it to +a suffering friend? Indeed I am yours most sincerely. + +(289) John second Earl of Lauderdale, who, having distinguished +himself-by his zealous and active exertions in the royal cause +during the civil wars, was, after the restoration created in May +1672, Marquis Of March and Duke of Lauderdale, in Scotland.-E. + +(290) Sir John Dalrymple, author of "Memoirs of Great Britain and +Ireland." Edinburgh, 1771-1773-1788; 3 vols. 4to.-E. + +(291) James M'Pherson, the editor of Ossian, who had published a +"History of Great Britain from the Restoration in 1660 to the +Accession of the House of Hanover," 1775, 2 Vols. 4to - and also +"An Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland." +London, 4to. 1771.-E. + +(292) The papers which Masters possessed he himself eventually +published, in 1784, under the title of,, Memoirs of the Life and +Writings of Thomas Baker, from the Papers of Dr. Zachary Grey: +with a Catalogue of his Manuscript Collections. By R. +Masters."-E. + + + +Letter 132 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, March 31, 1778. (page 181) + +I did think it long, indeed, dear Sir, since I heard from you, +and am very sorry the gout was the cause. I hope after such long +persecution you will have less now than you apprehend. I should +not have been silent myself, had I had any thing to tell you that +you would have cared to hear. + +Politics have been the only language, and abuse the only +expression of the winter, neither of which are, or deserve to be, +inmates of your peaceable hermitage. I wish, however, they may +not have grown so serious as to threaten every retreat with +intrusion! I will let you know when I am settled at +Strawberry-hill, and can look over your kind collections relating +to Mr. Baker. He certainly deserves his place in the Biographia, +but I am not surprised that you would not submit to his being +instituted and inducted by a Presbyterian. In troth, I, who have +not the same zeal against dissenters, do not at all desire to +peruse the History of their Apostles, which are generally very +uninteresting. + +YOU must excuse the shortness of this, in which, too, I have been +interrupted: my nephew is as suddenly recovered as he did last +time; and, though I am far from thinking him perfectly in his +senses, a great deal of his disorder is removed, which, though it +will save me a great deal of trouble, hurries me at present, and +forces me to conclude. + + + +Letter 133 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, April 23, 1778. (page 181) + +I thank you, dear Sir, for the notice of William Le +Worcestre's(293) appearance, and will send for my book as soon as +I go to town, which will not be till next week. I have been here +since Friday as much a hermit as yourself. I wanted air and +quiet, having been much fatigued on my nephew's amendment, trying +to dissuade him from making the campaign with his militia; but in +vain! I now dread hearing of some eccentric freak. I am sorry +Mr. Tyson has quite dropped me, though he sometimes comes to +town. I am still more concerned at your frequent disorders-I +hope their chief seat is unwillingness to move. + +Your Bakeriana will be very welcome about June: I shall not be +completely resident here till then, at least not have leisure, as +May is the month I have most visits from town. As few spare +hours as I have, I have contrived to go through Mr. Pennant's +Welsh Tour, and Warton's second Volume;(294) both which come +within the circle of your pursuits. I have far advanced, too, in +Lord Hardwicke's first volume of State Papers.(295) I have yet +found nothing that appears a new scene, or sets the old in a new +light; yet they are rather amusing, though not in proportion to +the bulk of the volumes. One likes to hear actors speak for +themselves; but, on the other hand, they use a great many more +words than are necessary: and when one knows the events from +history, it is a little tiresome to go back to the details and +the delays. + +I should be glad to employ Mr. Essex on my offices, but the +impending war with France deters me. It is not a season for +expense! I could like to leave my little castle complete; but, +though I am only a spectator, I cannot be indifferent to the +aspect of the times, as the country gentleman was, who was going +out with his hounds as the two armies at Edge-hill were going to +engage. I wish for peace and tranquillity, and should be glad to +pass my remaining hours in the idle and retired amusements I +love, and without any solicitude for my country. Adieu! + +(293) "Itineraria Symonis, Simeonis et Willelmi de Worcestre." +Cantab. 1778, 8vo.; edited by Dr. James Nasmith, who published +the excellent Catalogue of MSS, which Archbishop Parker left to +Corpus Christi College, at Cambridge.-E. + +(294) Thomas Warton's "History Of English Poetry."-E. + +(295) Miscellaneous State Papers, from 1501 to 1726, published by +the Earl of Hardwicke, in two volumes 4to.-E. + + + +Letter 134 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, May 21, 1778. (page 182) + +I will not flatter you: I was not in the least amused with either +Simon, Simeon, or William of Worcestre. If there was any thing +tolerable in either, it was the part omitted, or the part I did +not read, which was the Journey to Jerusalem, about which I have +not the smallest curiosity. I thank you for mentioning the +Gentleman's Magazine, which I sent for. + +Mr. Essex has called upon me, and left me the drawing of a +bridge, with which I am perfectly pleased-but I was unluckily out +of town; he left no direction, and I know not where to seek him +in this overgrown bottle of hay. I still hope he will call again +before his return. + +May not I, should not I, wish you joy on the restoration of +popery?(296) I expect soon to see Capuchins tramping about, and +Jesuits in high places. We are relapsing fast to our pristine +state, and have nothing but our island, and our old religion. + +Mr. Nasmith's publication directed me to the MSS. in Benet +Library, which I did not know was printed. I found two or three +from which I should be glad to have transcripts, and would +willingly pay for; but I left the book at Strawberry, and must +trouble you another time with that commission. + +The city wants to bury Lord Chatham(297) in St. Paul's; which, as +a person said to me this morning, would literally be "robbing +Peter to pay Paul." I wish it could be so, that there might be +some decoration in that nudity, en attendant the re-establishment +of various altars. It is not my design to purchase the new +edition of the Biographia; I trust they will give the old +purchasers the additions as a supplement. I had corrected the +errata of the press, throughout my copy, but I could not take the +trouble of transcribing them, nor could lend them the originals, +as I am apt to scribble notes in the margins of all my books that +interest me at all. Pray let me know if Baker's Life is among +the additions, and whether you are satisfied with it, as there +could not be events enough in his retired life to justify two +accounts of it. + +There are no new old news, and you care for nothing Within the +memory of man. I am always intending to draw up an account of my +intercourse with Chatterton, which I take very kindly you remind +me of, but some avocation or other has still prevented it. My +perfect innocence of having indirectly been an ingredient in his +dismal fate, which happened two years after our correspondence, +and after he had exhausted both his resources and his +constitution, have made it more easy to prove that I never saw +him, knew nothing of his ever being in London, and was the first +person, instead of the last, on whom he had practised his +impositions, and founded his chimeric hopes of promotion. My +very first, or at least second letter, undeceived him in those +views, and our correspondence(298) was broken off before he +quitted his aster's business at Bristol-so that his +disappointment with me was but his first ill success; and he +resented my incredulity so much, that he never condescended to +let me see him. Indeed, what I have said now to you, and which +cannot be controverted by a shadow of a doubt, would be +sufficient vindication. I could only add to the proofs, a vain +regret of never having known his distresses, which his amazing +genius would have tempted me to relieve, though I fear he had no +other claim to compassion. Mr. Warton has said enough to open +the eyes of every one who is not greatly prejudiced to his +forgeries. Dr. Milles is one who will not make a bow to Dr. +Percy for not being as wilfully blind as himself-but when he gets +a beam in his eye that he takes for an antique truth, there is no +persuading him to submit to be coached. Adieu! + +(296) Walpole alludes to the bill for the Relief of the Roman +Catholics which released their priests from prosecution, and +allowed members of that religion to purchase lands and take them +by descent. It passed both houses without opposition.-E. + +(297) The Earl of Chatham died on the 10th Of May 1778. His +remains were honoured with a public funeral in Westminster Abbey, +his debts were paid by the nation, and an annuity of four +thousand pounds settled upon the earldom of Chatham.-E. + +(298) Walpole's correspondence with Chatterton took place in +March and April 1769. The death Of the young poet happened in +August 1770, in consequence of a dose Of arsenic, at his lodgings +in Brook-street, Holborn.-E. + + + +Letter 135 To The Rev. William Mason. +[1778.)(299) (page 184) + +The purport of Dr. Robertson's visit was to inquire where he +could find materials for the reigns of King William and Queen +Anne, which he means to write as a supplement to David Hume. I +had heard of his purpose, but did not own I knew it, that my +discouragement might seem the more natural. I do not care a +straw what he writes about the church's wet-nurse, Goody Anne; +but no Scot is worthy of being the historian of William, but Dr. +Watson.(300) When he had told me his object, I said, "Write the +reign of King William, Dr. Robertson! That is a great task! I +look on him as the greatest man of modern times since his +ancestor William Prince of Orange." I soon found the Doctor had +very little idea of him, or had taken upon trust the pitiful +partialities of Dalrymple and Macpherson. I said, "Sir, I do not +doubt but that King William came over with a view to the crown. +Nor was he called upon by patriotism, for he was not an +Englishman to assert our liberties. No; his patriotism was of a +higher rank. He aimed not at the crown of England from ambition, +but to employ its forces and wealth against Louis XIV. for the +common cause of the liberties of Europe. The Whigs did not +understand the extent of his views, and the Tories betrayed him. +He has been thought not to have understood us; but the truth was, +he took either party as it was predominant, that he might sway +the Parliament to support his general plan." The Doctor, +suspecting that I doubted his principles being enlarged enough to +do justice to so great a character, told me he himself had been +born and bred a Whig, though he owned he was not a moderate one- +-I believe, a very moderate one. I said Macpherson had done +great injustice to another hero, the Duke of Marlborough, whom he +accuses of betraying the design on Brest to Louis XIV. The truth +was, as I heard often in my youth from my father, my uncle, and +old persons who had lived in those times, that the Duke trusted +the Duchess with the secret, and she her sister the popish +Duchess of Tyrconnel, who was as poor and as bigoted as a church +mouse. A corroboration of this was the wise and sententious +answer of King William to the Duke, whom he taxed with having +betrayed the secret. "upon my honour, Sir," said the Duke, "I +told it to nobody but my wife." "I did not tell it to mine!" +said the King. + +I added, that Macpherson's and Dalrymple's invidious scandals +really serve but to heighten the amazing greatness of the King's +genius; for, if they +say true, he maintained the crown on his head though the +nobility, the churchmen, the country gentlemen, the people were +against him; and though almost all his own ministers betrayed +him--"But," said I, "nothing is so silly as to suppose that the +Duke -of Marlborough and Lord Godolphin ever meant seriously to + restore King James. Both had offended him too much to +expect forgiveness, especially from so remorseless a nature. Yet +a re-revolution was so probable, that it is no wonder they kept +up a correspondence with him, at least to break their fall if he +returned. But as they never did effectuate the least service in +his favour, when they had the fullest power, nothing can be +inferred but King James's folly in continuing to lean on them. +To imagine they meant to sacrifice his weak daughter, whom they +governed absolutely, to a man who was sure of being governed-by +others, one must have as little sense as James himself had." + +The precise truth I take to have been this. Marlborough and +Godolphin both knew the meanness and credulity of James's +character. They knew that he must be ever dealing for partisans; +and they might be sure, that if he could hope for support from +the General and the Lord-treasurer he must be less solicitous for +more impotent supporters. "Is it impossible," said I to the +Doctor, "but they might correspond with the King even by Anne's +own consent? Do not be surprised, Sir," said I: "such things have +happened. My own father often received letters from the +Pretender, which he always carried to George II and had them +endorsed by his Majesty- I myself have seen them countersigned by +the King's own hand." + +In short,. I endeavoured to impress him with Proper ideas of his +subject, and painted to him the difficulties., and the want of +materials. But- the booksellers will out-argue me, and the +Doctor will forget his education--Panem et Circenses, if you will +allow me to use the latter for those that are captivated by +favour in the circle, will decide his writing and give the +colour. I once wished he should write the History of King +William; but his Charles V. and his America have opened my eyes, +and the times have shut his.(301) Adieu! + +(299) This letter, which is without date, was most probably +written in April or May 1778; at which time Dr. Robertson was in +London.-E. + +(300) Dr. Watson's History of the Reign of philip II. of Spain +was published, in two quarto volumes, in 1777.-E. + +(301) By the life of Dr. Robertson, in Chamvers's Scottish +Biography, it will be seen, that several persons suggested to him + a History of Great Britain from the Revolution to the +accession of the House of Hanover; and it appears, from a letter +to Dr. Waddilour, Dean of Rippon, written in July of this year, +that he had made up his mind to encounter the responsibility of +the task, but abandoned it, in consequence of a correspondence +with his friend, Mr. James Macpherson, had, three years +before, published a history of the same reigns.-E. + + + +Letter 136 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, June 3, 1778. (page 186) + +I will not dispute with you, dear Sir, on patriots and politics. +One point is Past controversy, that the ministers have ruined +this country; and if the church of England is satisfied with +being reconciled with the church of Rome, and thinks it a +compensation for the loss of America and all credit in Europe, +she is as silly an old woman as any granny in an almshouse. +France is very glad we are grown such fools, and soon saw that +the Presbyterian Dr. Franklin(302) had more sense than our +ministers together. She has got over all her prejudices, has +expelled the Jesuits, and made the Protestant Swiss, Necker, her +comptroller-general. It is a little woful, that we are relapsing +into the nonsense the rest of Europe is shaking off! and it is +more deplorable, as we know by repeated experience, that this +country has always been disgraced by Tory administrations. The +rubric is the only gainer by them in a few martyrs. + +I do not know yet what is settled about the spot of Lord +Chatham's interment. I am not more an enthusiast to his memory +than you. I knew his faults and his defects-yet one fact Cannot +Only not be controverted, but I doubt more remarkable every day-- +I mean, that under him we attained not only our highest +elevation, but the most solid authority in Europe. When the +names of Marlborough and Chatham are still pronounced with awe in +France, our little cavils make a puny sound. Nations that are +beaten cannot be mistaken. + +I have been looking out for your friend a set of my heads of +painters, and I find I want six or seven. I think I have some +odd ones in town; if I have not, I will have deficiencies +supplied from the plates, though I fear they will not be good, as +so many have been taken off. I should be very ungrateful for all +your kindnesses, if I neglected any opportunity of obliging you, +dear Sir. Indeed, our old +and unalterable friendship is creditable to us both, and very +uncommon between two persons who differ so much in their opinions +relative to church and state. I believe the reason is, that we +are both sincere, and never meant to take advantage of our +principles; which I allow is too common on both sides, and I own, +too, fairly more common on my side of the question than on yours. +There is a reason, too, for that; the honours and emoluments are +in the gift of the crown: the nation has no separate treasury to +reward its friends. + +If Mr. Tyrwhit(303) has opened his eyes to Chatterton's +forgeries, there is an instance of conviction against strong +prejudice! I have drawn up an account of my transaction with +that marvellous young man; you shall see it one day or other, but +I do not intend to print it.(304) I have taken a thorough +dislike to being an author; and if it would not look like begging +you to Compliment me, by contradicting me, I would tell you, what +I am most seriously convinced of, that I find what small share of +parts I had, grown dulled--and when I perceive it myself, I may +well believe that others would not be less sharpsighted. It is +very natural; mine were spirits rather than parts; and as time +has abated the one, it must surely destroy their resemblance to +the other: pray don't say a syllable in reply on this head, or I +shall have done exactly what I said I would not do. Besides, as +you have always been too partial to me, I am on my guard, and +when I will not expose myself to my enemies, I must not listen to +the prejudices of my friends; and as nobody is more partial to me +than you, there is nobody I must trust less in that respect. +Yours most sincerely. + +(302) Dr. Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane were publicly +received at the court of France, as ambassadors from America in +the preceding March-.E. + +(303) Mr. Tyrwhit, the learned editor of Chaucer's Canterbury +Tales, considered one of the best edited books in the English +language, had, on the appearance of the Rowley Poems, believed +them genuine; but being afterwards convinced of the contrary, he +did not hesitate to avow his conviction.-E. + +(304) It was entitled "A Letter to the Editor of the Miscellanies +of Thomas Chatterton," and will be found in the edition of +Walpole's works.-E. + + + +Letter 137 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, June 10, 1778. (page 187) + +I am as impatient and in as much hurry as you was, dear Sir, to +clear myself from the slightest intention of censuring your +politics. I know the sincerity and disinterested goodness of +your heart, and when I must be convinced how little certain we +are all of what is truth, it would be very presumptuous to +condemn the opinions of any good man, and still less an old and +unalterable friend, as I have ever found 'You, The destruction +that violent arbitrary principles have drawn on this blinded +country has moved my indignation. We never were a great and +happy country till the Revolution. The system of these days +tended to overturn, and has overturned, that establishment, and +brought on the disgraces that ever attended the foolish and +wicked Councils of the house of Stuart. If man is a rational +being, he has a right to make use of his reason, and to enjoy his +liberty. We, we alone almost had a constitution that every other +nation upon earth envied or ought to envy. This is all I contend +for. I will give you up whatever descriptions of men you please; +that is, the leaders of parties, not the principles. These +cannot change, those generally do, when power falls into the +hands of them or their party, because men are corruptible, which +truth is not. But the more the leaders of a party dedicated to +liberty are apt to change, the more I adore the principle, +because it shows that extent of power is not to be trusted even, +with those that are the most sensible of the value of liberty. +Man is a domineering animal; and it has not only been my +principle. but my practice, too. to quit every body at the gate +of the palace. I trust we shall not much differ on these +outlines, but we will bid adieu to the subject. It is never an +agreeable one to those who do not mean to make a trade of it. + +I heartily wish you may not find the pontiff what I think the +order, and what I know him, if you mean the high priest of +Ely.(305) He is all I have been describing and worse; and I have +too good an opinion of you, to believe that he will ever serve +you. + +What I said of disclaiming authorship by no means alluded to Mr. +Baker's life. It would be enough that you desire it, for me to +undertake it. Indeed, I am inclined to it because he was what +you and I are, a party-man from principle, not from interest: and +he, who was so candid, surely is entitled to the strictest +candour. You shall send me your papers whenever you please. If +I can succeed to your satisfaction, I shall be content: though I +assure you there was no affectation in my saying that I find my +small talent decline. I shall write the life to oblige you, +without any thoughts of publication, unless I am better pleased +than I expect to be, and even then not in my own life. I had +rather show that I am sensible of my own defects, and that I have +judgment enough not to hope praise for my writings: for surely +when they are not obnoxious, and one only leaves them behind one, +it is a mark that one is not very vain of them. + +I have found the whole set of my Painters, and will send them the +first time I go to town: and I will have my papers on Chatterton +transcribed for you, though I am much chagrined at your giving me +no hope of seeing you again here. I will not say more of it; +for, while it is in my power, I will certainly make you a visit +now and then, if there is no other way of our meeting Mr. +Tyrwhit, I hear, has actually published an Appendix, in which he +gives up Mr. Rowley. I have not seen it, but will. Shall I beg +you to transcribe the passage in which Dr. Kippis abuses my +father and Me;(306) for I shall not buy the new edition, only to +purchase abuse on me and mine: I may be angry with liberties he +takes with Sir Robert, but not with myself; I shall rather take +it as a flattery to be ranked with him; though there can be +nothing worse said of my father than to place us together. Oh! +that great, that good man! Dr. Kippis may as well throw a stone +at the sun. + +I am sorry you have lost poor Mr. Bentham. Will you say a civil +thing for me to his widow, if she is living, and you think it not +improper? I have not forgotten their kindness to me. Pray send +me your papers on Mr. Prior's generosity to Mr. Baker.(307) I am +sorry it was not so. Prior is much a favourite with me, though a +Tory, nor did I ever hear any thing ill of him. He left his +party, but not his friends, and seems to me to have been very +amiable. Do you know I pretend to be very impartial sometimes. +Mr. Hollis(308) wrote against me for not being Whig enough. I am +offended with Mrs. Macaulay(309) for being too much a Whig. In +short, we are all silly animals, and scarce ever more so than +when we affect sense. Yours ever. + +(305) Dr. Edmund Keene-E. + +(306) See ant`e, p. 155, letter 108. + +(307) The Biograpbia Britannica had asserted, that Prior ceded to +Mr. Baker the profits of his fellowship after his expulsion.-E. + +(308) Thomas Hollis, Esq. the editor of Toland's Life of Milton; +Algernon Sidney's Discourses on Government; Algernon Sidney's +Works, etc. He died in 1774.-E. + +(309) The celebrated Catherine Macaulay, well known by her +"History of England."-E. + + + +Letter 138 To The Countess Of Ailesbury. +Strawberry Hill, June 25, 1778. (page 189) + +I am quite astonished, Madam, at not hearing of Mr. Conway's +being returned! What is he doing? Is he revolting and setting +up for himself, like our nabobs in India? or is he forming +Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark, into the united provinces +in the compass of a silver penny? I should not wonder if this +was to be the fate of our distracted empire, which we seem to +have made so large, only that it might afford to split into +separate kingdoms. I told Mr. C. I should not write any more, +concluding he would not stay a twinkling; and your ladyship's +last encouraged my expecting him. In truth, I had nothing to +tell him if he had written. + +I have been in town but one single night this age, as I could not +bear to throw away this phoenix June. It has rained a good deal +this morning, but only made it more delightful. The flowers are +all Arabian. I have found but One inconvenience, which is the +hosts of cuckoos: one would not think one was in Doctors' +Commons. It is very disagreeable, that the nightingales should +sing but half a dozen songs, and the other beasts squall for two +months together. + +Poor Mrs. Clive has been robbed again in her own lane, as she was +last year, and has got the jaundice, she thinks, with the fright. +I don't make a visit without a blunderbuss; so one might as well +be invaded by the French. Though I live in the centre of +ministers, I do not know a syllable of politics; and though +within hearing of Lady Greenwich, who is but two miles off, I +have not a word of news to send your ladyship. I live like +Berecynthia, surrounded by nephews and nieces; yet Park-place is +full as much in my mind, and I beg for its history. I am, Madam, +etc. + + + +Letter 139 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, July 8, 1778. (page 189) + +I have had some conversation with a ministerial person, on the +subject of pacification with France; and he dropped a hint, that +as 'we should not have Much chance of a good peace, the +Opposition would make great clamour on it. I said a few words on +the duty of ministers to do what they thought right, be the +consequence what it ,Would., But as honest men do not want such +lectures, and dishonest will not let them weigh, I waived that +theme, to dwell on what is more likely to be persuasive, and +which I am firmly persuaded is no less true than the former +maxim; and that was, that the ministers are still so strong, that +if they could get a peace that would save the nation, though not +a brilliant or glorious one, the nation in general would be +pleased with it, and the clamours of the Opposition be +insignificant. I added, what I think true, too, that no time is +to be lost in treating not only for preventing a blow, but from +the consequences the first misfortune would have. The nation is +not yet alienated from the court, but it is growing so; is grown +so enough, for any calamity to have violent effects. Any +internal disturbance would advance the hostile designs of France. +An insurrection from distress would be a double invitation to +invasion; and, I am sure, much more to be dreaded, even +personally, by the ministers, than the ill-humours of Opposition +for even an inglorious peace. To do the Opposition justice, it +is not composed of incendiaries. Parliamentary speeches raise no +tumults: but tumults would be a dreadful thorough bass to +speeches. The ministers do not know the strength they have left +(supposing they apply it in time), if they are afraid of making +any peace. They were too sanguine in making war; I hope they +will not be too timid of making peace. + +What do you think of an idea of mine, of offering France a +neutrality? that is, to allow her to assist both us and the +Americans. I know she would assist only them: but were it not +better to connive at her assisting them, without attacking us, +than her doing both? A treaty with her would perhaps be followed +by one with America. We are sacrificing all the essentials we +can recover, for a few words and risking the independence of this +country, for the nominal supremacy over America. France seems to +leave us time for treating. She made no scruple of begging peace +of us in '63, that she might lie by and recover her advantages. +Was not that a wise precedent? Does not she now show that it was? +Is not policy the honour of nations? I mean, not morally, but +has Europe left itself any other honour? And since it has really +left itself no honour, and as little morality, does not the +morality of a nation consist in its preserving itself in as much +happiness as it can? The invasion of Portugal by Spain in the +last war, and the partition of Poland, have abrogated the law Of +nations. Kings have left no ties between one another. Their +duty to their people is still allowed. He is a good King that +preserves his people: and if temporizing answers that end, is it +not justifiable? You who are as moral as wise, answer my +questions. Grotius is obsolete. Dr. Joseph(310) and Dr. +Frederic(311) with four hundred thousand commentators, are +reading new lectures--and I should say, thank God, to One +another, if the four hundred thousand commentators were not in +worse danger than they.(312) Louis XVI. is grown a casuist +compared to those partitioners. Well, let US Simple individuals +keep our honesty, and bless our stars that we have not armies at +our command, lest we should divide kingdoms that are at our +biens`eance! What a dreadful thing it is for such a wicked +little imp as man to have absolute power!--But I have travelled +into Germany, when I meant to talk to you only of England; and it +is too late to recall My text. Good night! + +(310) The Emperor of Germany. + +(311) Frederic II. King of Prussia. + +(312) The Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia having some +dispute about Bavaria, brought immense armies into the field, but +found their forces so nearly balanced, that neither ventured to +attack the other; and the Prussian monarch falling back upon +Silesia, the affair was, through the intervention of the Empress +of Russia, settled by negotiation, which ended in the peace of +Teschen.-E. + + + +Letter 140 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +July 12, 1778. (page 191) + +Mr. Lort has delivered your papers to me, dear Sir, and I have +already gone through them. I will try if I can make any thing of +them, but I fear I have not art enough, as I perceive there is +absolutely but one fact--the expulsion. You have certainly very +clearly proved that Mr. Baker was neither supported by Mr. Prior +nor Bishop Burnet; but these are mere negatives. So is the +question, whether he intended to compile an Athenae +Cantabrigienses or not; and on that you say but little, as you +have not seen his papers in the Museum. I will examine the +printed Catalogue, and try if I can discover the truth thence, +when I go to town. I will also borrow the new Biographia, as I +wish to know more of the expulsion. As it is our only fact, one +would not be too dry on it. Upon the whole, I think that it +would be preferable to draw up an ample character of Mr. Baker, +rather than a life. The one was most beautiful, amiable, +conscientious; the other totally barren of more than one event: +and though you have taken excellent pains to discover all that +was possible, yet there is an obscurity hangs over the +circumstances that even did attend him; as his connexion with +Bishop Crewe and his living. His own modesty comes out the +brighter, but then it composes a character, not a life. + +As to Mr. Kippis and his censures, I am perfectly indifferent to +them. He betrays a pert malignity in hinting an intention of +being severe on my father, for the pleasure of exerting a right I +allowed, and do allow, to be a just One, though it is not just to +do it for that reason; however, let him say his pleasure. The +truth will not hurt my father; falsehood will recoil on the +author. His asserting, that my censure of Mr. Addison's +character of Lord Somers is not to be justified, is a silly ipse +dixit, as he does not, in truth cannot, show why it is not to be +justified. The passage I alluded to is the argument of an old +woman; and Mr. Addison's being a writer of true humour is not +justification of his reasoning like a superstitious gossip. In +the other passage you have sent me, Mr. Kippis is perfectly in +the right, and corrects me very justly. Had I seen Archbishop +Abbot's(313) Preface, with the outrageous flattery on, And lies +of James I., I should certainly never have said, "Honest Abbot +could not flatter!" I should have said, and do say, I never saw +grosser perversion of truth. One can almost excuse the faults of +James when his bishops were such base sycophants. What can a +king think of human nature, when it produces such wretches? I am +too impartial to prefer Puritans to clergymen, or vice versa, +when Whitgift and Abbot only ran a race of servility and +adulation: the result is, that priests of all religions are the +same. James and his Levites were worthy of each other; the +golden calf and the idolaters were well coupled, and it is Pity +they ever came out of the wilderness. I am very glad Mr. Tyson +has escaped death and disappointment: pray wish him joy 'of both +from me. Has not this Indian summer dispersed your complaints? +We are told we are to be invaded. Our Abbots and Whitgifts now +see with what successes and consequences their preaching up a +crusade against America has been crowned! Archbishop +Markham(314) may have an opportunity of exercising his martial +prowess. I doubt he would resemble Bishop Crewe more than good +Mr. Baker. Let us respect those only who are Israelites indeed. +I surrender Dr. Abbot to you. Church and presbytery are terms +for monopolies, Exalted notions of church matters are +contradictions in terms to the lowliness and humility of the +gospel. There is nothing sublime but the Divinity. Nothing is +sacred but as His work. A tree or a brute stone is more +respectable as such, than a mortal called an Archbishop, or an +edifice called a Church, which are the puny and perishable +productions of men. Calvin and Wesley had just the same views as +the Pope; power and wealth their objects. I abhor both, and +admire Mr. Baker. + +P. S. I like Popery as well as you, and have shown I do. I like +it as I like chivalry and romance. They all furnish one with +ideas and visions, which presbyterianism does not. A Gothic +church or a convent fills one with romantic dreams-but for the +mysterious, the Church in the abstract, it is a jargon that means +nothing, or a great deal too much, and I reject it and its +apostles, from Athanasius to Bishop Keene.(315) + +(313) Dr. George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, born at +Guildford, in Surrey, 1562. In 1604, when the translation of the +Scriptures now in use was commenced by direction of King James, +Dr. Abbot was the second of eight divines of Oxford to whom was +committed the care of translating the New Testament, with the +exception of the Epistles, He died at the palace at Croydon, in +1633.-E. + +(314) Dr. William Markham, translated to the see of York from +Chester in 1776. He died in 1807.-E. + +(315) Dr. Edmund Keene, Bishop of Ely.-E. + + + +Letter 141 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Saturday, July 18, 1778. (page 192) + +Yesterday evening the following notices were fixed up in Lloyd's +coffee-house:-That a merchant in the city had received an express +from France, that the Brest fleet, consisting, of twenty-eight +ships of the line, were sailed, with orders to burn, sink, and +destroy. That Admiral Keppel was at Plymouth, and had sent to +demand three more ships of the line to enable him to meet the +French. On these notices stocks sunk three-and-a-half per cent. +An account I have received this morning from a good hand says, +that on Thursday the Admiralty received a letter from Admiral +Keppel, who was off the Land's End, saying that the Worcester was +in sight; that the Peggy had joined him, and had seen the +Thunderer making sail for the fleet; that he was waiting for the +Centaur, Terrible, and Vigilant; and that having received advice +from Lord Shuldham that the Shrewsbury was to sail from Plymouth +on Thursday, he should likewise wait for her. His fleet will +then consist of thirty ships of the line; and he hoped to have an +opportunity of trying his strength with the French fleet on our +own coast: if not, he would seek them on theirs. The French +fleet sailed on the 7th, consisting of thirty-one ships of the +line, two fifty-gun ships, and eight frigates. This state is +probably more authentic than those at Lloyd's. + +Thus you see how big the moment is! and, unless far more +favourable to us in its burst than good sense allows one to +promise, it must leave us greatly exposed. Can we expect to beat +with considerable loss?--and then, where have we another fleet? +I need not state the danger from a reverse. The Spanish +ambassador certainly arrived on Monday. + +I shall go to town on Monday for a day or two; therefore, if you +write to-morrow, direct to Arlington-street. I add no more: for +words are unworthy of the situation; and to blame now, would be +childish. It is hard to be gamed for against one's consent; but +when one's country is at stake, one must throw oneself out of the +question. When one, is old and nobody, one must be whirled with +the current, and shake one's wings like a fly, if one lights on a +pebble. The prospect is so dark, that one shall rejoice at +whatever does not happen that may. Thus I have composed a sort +of philosophy for myself, that reserves every possible chance. +You want none of these Artificial aids to your resolution. +Invincible courage and immaculate integrity are not dependent on +the folly of ministers or on the events of war. Adieu! + + + +Letter 142 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, July 24, 1778. (page 193) + +Upon reviewing your papers, dear Sir, I think I can make more of +them than I at first conceived. I have even commenced the life, +and do not dislike my ideas for it, if the execution does but +answer, At present, I am interrupted by another task, which you, +too, have wished me to undertake. In a word, somebody has +published Chatterton's works, and charged me heavily for having +discountenanced him. He even calls for the indignation of the +public against me. It is somewhat singular, that I am to be +offered up as a victim at the altar of a notorious impostor! but +as Many saints have been impostors, so many innocent persons have +been sacrificed to them. However, I shall not be patient under +this attack, but shall publish an answer-the narrative I +mentioned to you. I would, as you know, have avoided entering +into this affair if I could; but as I do not despise public +esteem, it is necessary to show how groundless the accusation is. +Do not speak of my intention, as perhaps I shall not execute it +immediately. + +I am not in the least acquainted with the Mr. Bridges you +mention, nor know that I ever saw him. The tomb for Mr. Gray is +actually erected, and at the generous expense of Mr. Mason, and +with an epitaph of four lines,(316) as you heard, and written by +him--but the scaffolds are not yet removed. I was in town +yesterday, and intended to visit it, but there is digging a vault +for the family of Northumberland, which obstructs the removal of +the boards. + +I rejoice in your amendment, and reckon it among my obligations +to the fine weather, and hope it will be the most lasting of +them. Yours ever. + +(316) "No more the Grecian Muse unrivall'd reigns; +To Britain let the nations homage pay: +She felt a Homer's fire in Milton's strains, +A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray."-E. + + + +Letter 143 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, August 15, 1778. (page 194) + +Your observation of Rowley not being mentioned by William of +Wyrcestre, is very strong, indeed, dear Sir, and I shall +certainly take notice of it. It has suggested to me that he is +not named by Bale or Pitts(317)--is he? Will you trouble +yourself to look? I conclude he is not, or we should have heard +of it. Rowley is the reverse of King Arthur, and all those +heroes that have been expected a second time; he is to come again +for the first time-I mean, as a great poet. My defence amounts +to thirty pages of the size of this paper: yet I believe I shall +not publish it. I abhor a controversy; and what is it to me +whether people believe in an impostor or not? Nay, shall I +convince every body of my innocence, though there is not the +shadow of reason for thinking I was to blame? If I met a beggar +in the street, and refused him sixpence, thinking him strong +enough to work, and two years afterwards he should die of +drinking, might not I be told I had deprived the world of a +capital rope-dancer? In short, to show one's self sensible to +such accusations, would only invite more; and since they accuse +me of contempt, I will have it for my accusers. + +My brass plate for Bishop Walpole was copied exactly from the +print in Dart's Westminster, of the tomb of Robert Dalby, Bishop +of Durham, with the sole alteration Of the name. I shall return, +as soon as I have time, to Mr. Baker's Life; but I shall want to +Consult you, or, at least, the account of him in the new +Biographia, as your notes want some dates. I am not satisfied +yet with what I have sketched; but I shall correct it. My small +talent was grown very dull. This attack about Chatterton has a +little revived it; but it warns me to have done , for, if*one +comes to want provocatives,-the produce will soon be feeble. +Adieu! Yours most sincerely. + +(317) John Bale, Bishop of Ossory. The work to which Walpole +alludes is his "Catalog's Scriptorum illustrium Majoris +Brytannie." Basle, 1557-E.--John Pitts wrote, in opposition to +Bale, "De illustribus Angliae Scriptoribus." Paris, 1619.-E. + + + +Letter 144 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, August 21, 1778. (page 195) + +I think it so very uncertain whether this letter will find you, +that I write merely to tell you I received yours to-day. I +recollect nothing particularly worth seeing in Sussex that you +have not seen (for I think you have seen Coudray and Stansted, +and I know you have Petworth), but Hurst Monceaux, near Battle; +and I don't know whether it is not pulled down. The site of +Arundel Castle is fine, and there are some good tombs of the +Fitzalans at the church, but little remains of the castle; in the +room of which is a modern brick house; and in the late Duke's +time the ghost of a giant walked there, his grace said--but I +suppose the present Duke has laid it in the Red Sea of claret. + +Besides Knowle and Penshurst, I should think there were several +seats of old families in Kent worth seeing; but I do not know +them. I poked out Summer-hill(318) for the sake of the +Babylonienne in Grammont; but it is now a mere farmhouse. Don't +let them Persuade you to visit Leeds Castle, which is not worth +seeing. + +You have been near losing me and half a dozen fair cousins today. +The Goldsmiths, Company dined in Mr. Shirley's field, next to +Pope's. I went to Ham with my three Waldegrave nieces and Miss +Keppel, and saw them land, and dine in tents erected for them, +from the opposite shore. You may imagine how beautiful the sight +was in such a spot and in such a day! I stayed and dined at Ham, +and after dinner Lady Dysart, with Lady Bridget Tollemache took +our four nieces on the water to see the return of the barges but +were to set me down at Lady Browne's. We were, with a footman +and the two watermen, ten in a little boat. As we were in the +middle of the river, a larger boat full of people drove directly +upon us on purpose. I believe they were drunk. We called to +them, to no purpose; they beat directly against the middle of our +little skiff--but, thank you, did not do us the least harm--no +thanks to them. Lady Malpas was in Lord Strafford's garden, and +gave us for gone. In short, Neptune never would have had so +beautiful a prize as the four girls. + +I hear an express has been sent to * * * * to offer him the +mastership of the horse. I had a mind to make you guess, but you +never can--to Lord Exeter! Pray let me know the moment you +return to Park-place. + +(318) Formerly a country-seat of Queen Elizabeth, and the +residence of Charles the Second when the court was at Tunbridge.- +E. + + + +Letter 145 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, August 22, 1778. (page 196) + +I beg YOU Will feel no uneasiness, dear Sir, at having shown my +name to Dr. Glynn. I Can never suspect you, who are giving me +fresh proofs of your friendship, and solicitude for my +reputation, of doing any thing unkind. It is true I do not think +I shall publish any thing about Chatterton. IS not it an affront +to innocence, not to be perfectly satisfied in her? My pamphlet, +for such it would be, is four times as large as the narrative in +your hands, and I think Would not discredit me--but, in truth, I +am grown much fonder of truth than fame; and scribblers or their +patrons shall not provoke me to sacrifice the one to the other. +Lord Hardwicke, I know, has long been my enemy,--latterly, to get +a sight of the Conway Papers, he has paid great court to me, +which, to show how little I regarded his enmity, I let him see, +at least the most curious. But as I set as little value on his +friendship, I did not grant another of his requests. Indeed, I +have made more than one foe by not indulging the vanity of those +who have made application to me; and I am obliged to them, when +they augment my contempt by quarrelling with me for that refusal. +It was the case of Mr. Masters, and is now of Lord Hardwicke. He +solicited me to reprint his Boeotian volume of Sir Dudley +Carleton's Papers, for which he had two motives. The first he +inherited from his father, the desire of saving money; for though +his fortune is so much larger than mine, he knew I would not let +out my press for hire, but should treat him with the expense, as +I have done for those I have obliged. The second was, that the +rarity of my editions makes them valuable, and though I cannot +make men read dull books, I can make them purchase them. His +lordship, therefore, has bad grace in affecting to overlook one, +whom he had in vain courted, yet he again is grown my enemy, +because I would not be my own. For my Writings, they do not +depend on him or the venal authors he patronizes (I doubt very +frugally), but On their own merits or demerits. It is from men +of sense they must expect their sentence, not from boobies and +hireling authors, whom I have always shunned, with the whole fry +of minor wits, critics, and monthly censors. I have not seen the +Review you mention, nor ever do, but when something particular is +pointed out to me. Literary squabbles I know preserve one's +name, when one's work will not; but I despise the fame that +depends on scolding till one is remembered, and remembered by +whom? The scavengers of literature! Reviewers are like sextons, +who in a charnel-house can tell you to what John Thompson or to +what Tom-Matthews such a skull or such belonged--but who wishes +to know? The fame that is only to be found in such vaults, is +like the fires that burn unknown in tombs, and go out as fast as +they are discovered. Lord Hardwicke is welcome to live among the +dead if he likes',,it, and can contrive to live nowhere else. + +Chatterton did abuse me under the title of Baron of Otranto,(319) +but unluckily the picture is more like Dr. Milles and +Chatterton's own devotees' than to me, who am but a recreant +antiquary, and, as the poor lad found by experience, did not +swallow every fragment that 'Was offered to me as an antique; +though that is a feature he has bestowed Upon me. + +I have seen, too, the criticism you mention on the Castle of +Otranto, in the preface to the Old English Baron.(320) It is not +at all oblique, but, though mixed with high compliments, directly +attacks the visionary part, which, says the author or authoress, +makes one laugh. I do assure you, I have not had the smallest +inclination to return that attack. It would even be ungrateful, +for the work is a professed imitation of mine, only stripped of +the marvellous; and so entirely stripped, except in one awkward +attempt at a ghost or two, that it is the most insipid dull +nothing you ever saw. It certainly does not +make me laugh; but what makes one doze, seldom makes one merry. + +I am very sorry to have talked for near three pages on what +relates to myself, who should be of no consequence, if people did +not make me so, whether I will or not.- My not replying to them, +I hope, is a proof I do not seek to make myself the topic of +conversation. How very foolish are the squabbles of authors! +They buzz and are troublesome, to-day, and then repose for ever +on some shelf in a college' library, close by their antagonists, +like Henry VI. and Edward IV. at Windsor. + +I shall be in town in a few days, and will send You the heads of +painters, which I left there; and along with them for yourself a +translation of a French play,(321) that I have just printed +there. It is not for your reading, but as one of the Strawberry +editions, and one of the rarest; for I have printed but +seventy-five copies. It was to oblige Lady Craven, - the +translatress; and will be an aggravation of my offence to Sir +Dudley's State Papers. + +I hope this Elysian summer, for it has been above Indian, has +dispersed all your complaints. Yet it does not agree with fruit; +the peaches and nectarines are shrivelled to the size of damsons, +and half of them drop. Yet you remember what portly bellies the +peaches had at Paris, where it is generally as hot. I suppose +our fruit-trees are so accustomed to rain, that they don't know +how to behave without it. Adieu! + +P. S. I can divert you with a new adventure that has happened to +me in the literary way. About a month ago, I received a letter +from Mr. Jonathan Scott, at Shrewsbury, to tell me he was +possessed of MS. of Lord Herbert's Account of the Court of +France,(322) which he designed to publish by subscription, and +which he desired me to subscribe to, and to assist in the +publication. I replied, that having been obliged to the late +Lord Powis and his widow, I could not meddle with any such thing, +without knowing that it had the consent of the present Earl and +his mother. + +Another letter, commending my reserve, told me Mr. Scott had +applied for it formerly, and would again now. This showed me +they did not consent. I have just received a third letter, +owning the approbation has not yet arrived; but to keep me +employed in the mean time, the modest Mr. Scott, whom I never +saw, nor know more of than I did of Chatterton, proposes to me to +get his fourth son a place in the civil department in India: the +father not choosing it should be in the military, his three +eldest sons being engaged in that branch already. If this fourth +son breaks his neck, I suppose it will be laid to my charge! +Yours ever. + +(319) Chatterton exhibited a ridiculous portrait of Walpole: in +the "Memoirs of a Sad Dog," +under the character of "the redoubted Baron Otranto, who has +spent his whole life in conjectures."-E. + +(320) The Old English Baron, a romance of considerable repute +which has been frequently reprinted, was the production of Clara +Reeve. This Ingenious lady had published, in 1772, a translation +of Barclay's Latin romance of Argenis, under the title of "The +Phoenix, or the History of Polyarchus and Argenis." She was born +at Ipswich, in 1738, died there in 1808.-E. + +(321) "the Sleep Walker;" Strawberry Hill, 1778. It was +translated from the French of M. Pont de Veyle, by Lady Craven, +afterwards Margravine of Anspach.-E. + +(322) By Lord Herbert's Account of the Court of France, Mr. Scott +most probably referred to his "Letters written during his +residence at the French Court" and which were first published +from the originals, in the edition of his Life which appeared in +1826.-E. + + + +Letter 146 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +September 1, 1778. (page 198) + +I have now seen the Critical Review, with Lord Hardwicke's note, +in which I perceive the sensibility of your friendship for me, +dear Sir, but no rudeness on his part. Contemptuous it was to +reprint Jane Shore's letter without any notice of my having given +it before: the apology, too, is not made to me-but I am not +affected by such incivilities, that imply more ill-will than +boldness. As I expected more from your representation, I believe +I expressed myself with more warmth than the occasion deserved; +and, as I love to be just, I will, now I am perfectly cool, be so +to Lord Hardwicke. His dislike of me was meritorious in him, as +I conclude it was founded on my animosity to his father, as mine +had been, from attachment to my own who was basely betrayed by +the late Earl. The present has given me formerly many peevish +marks of enmity; and I suspect, I don't know if justly, that he +was the mover of the cabal in the Antiquarian Society against me- +-but all their Misunderstandings were of a size that made me +smile rather than provoked me. The Earl, as I told you, has +since been rather wearisome in applications to me; which I +received rather civilly, but encouraged no farther. When he +wanted me to be his printer, I own I was not good Christian +enough, not to be pleased with refusing, and yet in as well-bred +excuses as I could form, pleading what was true at the time, as +you know, that I had laid down my press-but so much for this idle +story. I shall think no more of it, but adhere to my specific +system. The antiquarians will be as ridiculous as they used to +be; and, since it is impossible to infuse taste into them, they +will be as dry and dull as their predecessors. One may revive +what perished, but it will perish again, if more life is not +breathed into it than it enjoyed originally. Facts, dates, and +names will never please the multitude, unless there is some style +and manner to recommend them, and unless some novelty is struck +out from their appearance. The best merit of the society lies in +their prints; for their volumes, no mortal will ever touch them +but an antiquary. Their Saxon and Danish discoveries are not +worth more than monuments of the Hottentots; and for Roman +remains in Britain, they are upon a foot with what ideas we +should get of Inigo Jones, if somebody was to publish views of +huts and houses, that our officers run up at Senegal and Goree. +Bishop Lyttelton used to torment me with barrows and Roman camps, +and I would as soon have attended to the turf graves in our +churchyards. I have no curiosity to know how awkward and clumsy +men have been in the dawn of arts, or in their decay. + +I exempt you entirely from my general censure on antiquaries, +both for your singular modesty in publishing nothing yourself, +and for collecting stone and bricks for others to build with. I +wish your materials may ever fall into good hands--perhaps they +will! our empire is falling to pieces! we are relapsing to a +little island. n that state men are apt to inquire how great +their ancestors have been; and, when a kingdom is past doing any +thing, the few that are studious look into the memorials of past +time; nations, like private persons, seek lustre from their +progenitors, when they have none in themselves, and the farther +they are from the dignity of their source. When half its +colleges are tumbled down, the ancient university of Cambridge +will revive from your Collections,(323) and you will be a living +witness that saw its splendour. + +Since I began this letter, I have had another curious adventure. +I was in the Holbein chamber, when a chariot stopped at my door. +A letter was brought up--and who should be below but--Dr. Kippis. +The letter was to announce himself and his business, flattered me +on My Writings, desired my assistance, and particularly my +direction and aid for his writing the life of my father. I +desired he would walk up, and received him very civilly, taking +not the smallest notice of what you had told me of his flirts at +me in the new Biographia. I told him if I had been applied to, I +could have pointed out many errors in the old edition, but as +they were chiefly in the printing, I supposed they would be +corrected. With regard to my father's life, I said, it might be +partiality, but I had such confidence in my father's virtues, +that I was satisfied the more his life was examined, the clearer +they would appear. That I also thought that the life of any man +written under the direction of his family, did nobody honour; and +that, as I was persuaded my father's would stand the test, I +wished that none of his relations should interfere in it. That I +did not doubt but the Doctor would speak impartially, and that +was all I desired. He replied, that he did suppose I thought in +that manner, and that all he asked was to be assisted in facts +and dates. I said, if he would please to write the life first, +and then communicate it to me, I would point out any errors in +facts that I should perceive. He seemed mightily well +satisfied-and so we parted-but is it not odd. that people are +continually attacking me, and then come to me for' assistance?-- +but when men write for profit, they are not very delicate. + +I have resumed Mr. Baker's life, and pretty well arranged my +plan; but I shall have little time to make any progress till +October, as I am going soon to make some visits. Yours ever. + +(323) His valuable Collections, in about a hundred volumes, in +folio fairly written in his own band, Mr. Cole, on his death in +1782, left to the British Museum, to be locked up for twenty +years. His Diary, as will be seen by a specimen or two, is truly +ludicrous:--Jan. 25, 1766. Foggy. My beautiful Parrot died at +ten at night, without knowing the Cause of his illness, he being +very well last night.--Feb. 1. Fine day, and cold. Will. Wood +carried three or four loads of dung Baptized William, the son of +William Grace, blacksmith, whom I married about six months +before. March 3. I baptized Sarah, the bastard daughter of the +Widow Smallwood, of Eton, aged near fifty, whose husband died +about a year ago.--March 6, Very fine weather. My man was +blooded. I sent a loin Of pork and a spare-rib to Mr. +Cartwright, in London.--27. I sent my two French wigs to my +London barber to alter, they being made so miserably I could not +wear them.--June 17. I went to our new Archdeacon's visitation +at Newport-Pagnel. took young H. Travel with me on my dun horse, +in order that he might hear the organ, he being a great +psalm-singer. The most numerous appearance of clergy that I +remember: forty-four dined with the Archdeacon; and what is +extraordinary, not one smoked tobacco. My new coach-horse +ungain.--Aug. 16. Cool day. Tom reaped for Joe Holdom. I +cudgelled Jem for staying so long on an errand," etc.-E. + + + +Letter 147 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 18, 1778. (page 200) + +I have run through the new articles in the Biographia, and think +them performed but by a heavy hand. Some persons have not +trusted the characters of their ancestors, as I did my father's, +to their own merits. On the contrary, I have met with one whose +corruption is attempted to be palliated by imputing its +punishment to the revenge of my father-which, by the way, is +confessing the guilt of the convict. This was the late Lord +Barrington,(324) who, i believe, was a very dirty fellow; for, +besides being expelled the House of Commons on the affair of the +Harburgh lottery, he was reckoned to have twice sold the +Dissenters to the court; but in short, what credit can a +Biographia Britannica, which ought to be a standard work, +deserve, when the editor is a mercenary writer, who runs about to +relations for direction, and adopts any tale they deliver to him? +This very instance is proof that it is not a jot more creditable +than a peerage. The +authority is said to be a nephew of Judge Foster, (consequently, +I suppose, a friend of Judge Barrington), and he pretends to have +found a scrap of paper, nobody knows on what occasion written, +that seems to be connected with nothing, and is called a +palliative, if not an excuse of Lord Barrington's crime. A man +is expelled from Parliament for a scandalous job, and it is +called a sufficient excuse to say the minister was his enemy; and +this nearly forty years after the death of both! and without any +impeachment of the justice of the sentence: instead of which we +are told that Lord Barrington was suspected of having offended +Sir Robert Walpole, who took that opportunity of being revenged. +Supposing he did--which at most you see is a suspicion--grounded +on a suspicion--it would at least Imply, that he had found a good +opportunity. A most admirable acquittal! Sir Robert Walpole was +expelled for having endorsed a note that was not for his own +benefit, nor ever supposed to be, and it Was the act of a whole +outrageous party; yet, abandoned as parliaments sometimes are, a +minister would not find them very complaisant In gratifying his +private revenge against a member without some crime. Not a +syllable is said of any defence the culprit made:; and,' had my +father been guilty of such violence and injustice, it is totally +incredible that he, whose minutest acts and his most innocent +were so rigorously scrutinized, tortured, and blackened, should +never have heard that act of power complained of. The present +Lord Barrington who opposed him, saw his fall, and the secret +committee appointed' to canvass his life, when a retrospect of +twenty years was desired and only ten allowed, would certainly +have pleaded for the longer term, had he had any thing to say, in +behalf of his father's sentence. Would so warm a patriot then, +though so obedient a courtier now, have suppressed the charge to +this hour? This Lord Barrington, when I was going to publish the +second edition of my Noble Authors, begged it as a favour of me +suppress all mention of his father--a strong presumption that he +was ashamed of him. I am well repaid! but I am certainly 11 +record that good man. I shall-and s ow at liberty to hall take +notice of the satisfactory manner in which his sons have +whitewashed their patriarch. I recollect a saying of the present +peer that will divert you when contrasted with forty years of +servility which even in this age makes him a proverb. It was in +his days of virtue. He said, "If I should ever be so unhappy as +to have a place that would make it necessary for me to have a +fine coat on a birthday, I would pin a bank-bill on my sleeve." +He had a place in less than two years, I think--and has had +almost every place that every administration could bestow.(325) +Such were the patriots that opposed that excellent man, my +father; allowed by all parties as incapable of revenge as ever +minister was--but whose experience of mankind drew from him that +memorable saying, "that very few men ought to be prime ministers, +for it is not fit many should know how bad men are;"--one can see +a little of it without being a prime minister. "one shuns +mankind and flies to books, one meets with their meanness and +falsehood there, too! one has reason to say, there is but one +good, that is God. Adieu! Yours ever. + +(324) John Shute, first Viscount Barrington in the peerage of +Ireland, expelled the House of Commons in February 1723, for +having promoted, abetted, and carried on that fraudulent +undertaking, the Harburgh lottery. This lottery took its name +from the place where it Was to be drawn, the town and port of +Harburgh, on the +river Elbe, where the projector was to settle a trade for the +woollen manufacture between England and Germany. Lord Barrington +was distinguished for theological learning, and published +"Miscellanea Critica" and an "Essay on the several Dispensations +of God to Mankind." He died in 1734, leaving five sons, who had +the rare fortune of each rising to high stations in the church, +the state, the law, the army, and the navy.-E. + + +(325) See vol. i. p. 258, letter 69. Among the Mitchell MSS. is +a letter from Lord Barrington, in which he says, "No man knows +what is good for him: my invariable rule, therefore, is to ask +nothing, to refuse nothing; to let Others place me, and to do my +best wherever I am placed. The same strange fortune which made +me secretary of war five years ago has made me chancellor of the +exchequer; it may perhaps at last make me pope. I think i am +equally fit to be at the head of the church as the exchequer."-E. + + + +Letter 148 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Oct, 14, 1778. (page 202) + +I think you take in no newspapers, nor do I believe condescend to +read any more modern than the Paris `a la Main at the time of the +Ligue; consequently you have not seen a new scandal on my father, +which you will not wonder offends me. You cannot be interested +in his defence; but, as it comprehends some very curious +anecdotes, you will not grudge my indulging myself to a friend in +vindicating a name so dear to me. In the accounts of Lady +Chesterfield's(326) death and fortune, it is said that the late +King, at the instigation of Sir Robert Walpole, burnt his +father's will which contained a large legacy to that, his +supposed, daughter, and I believe his real one; for she was very +like him, as her brother General Schulembourg, is, in black, to +the late King. The fact of suppressing the will is indubitably +true; the instigator most false, as I can demonstrate thus:-- +When the news arrived of the death of George the First, my father +carried the account from Lord Townshend to the then Prince of +Wales. One of the first acts of royalty is for the new monarch +to make a speech to the privy council. Sir Robert asked the King +who he would please to have draw the Speech, which was, in fact, +asking who was to be prime minister; to which his Majesty +replied, Sir Spencer Compton. It is a wonderful anecdote, and +but little known, that the new premier, a very dull man, could +not draw the Speech, and the person to whom he applied was the +deposed premier. The Queen, who favoured my father, observed how +unfit a man was for successor, who was reduced to beg assistance +of his predecessor. The council met as soon as possible, the +next morning at latest. There Archbishop Wake, with whom one +copy of the will had been deposited, (as another was, I think, +with the Duke of Wolfenbuttle, who had a pension for sacrificing +it, which, I know, the late Duke of Newcastle transacted,) +advanced and delivered the will to the King, who put it into his +pocket, and went out of council without opening it, the +Archbishop- not having courage or presence of mind to desire it +to b' read,. as he ought to have done. + +These circumstances, which I solemnly assure you are strictly +true, prove that my father neither advised, nor was consulted; +nor is it credible that the King in one night's time should have +passed from the intention of disgracing him, to make him his +bosom Confidant on so delicate an affair. + +I was once talking to the late Lady Suffolk, the former mistress, +on that extraordinary event. She said, "I cannot justify the +deed to the legatees; but towards his father, the late King was +justifiable, for George the First had burnt two wills made in +favour of George the Second." I suppose these were the +testaments of the Duke and Duchess of Zell, parents of George the +First's wife, whose treatment of her they always resented. + +I said, I know the transactions of the Duke of Newcastle. The +late Lord Waldegrave showed me a letter from that Duke to The +first Earl of Waldegrave, then ambassador at Paris, with +directions about that transaction, or, at least, about payment of +the pension, I forget which.(327) I have somewhere, but cannot +turn to it now, a memorandum of that affair, and who the Prince +was, whom I may mistake in calling Duke of Wolfenbuttle. There +was a third COPY of the will, I likewise forget with whom +deposited. The newspaper says, which is true, that Lord +Chesterfield filed a bill in chancery against the late King to +oblige him to produce the will, and was silenced, I think, by +payment of twenty thousand Pounds. There was another legacy to +his own daughter, the Queen of Prussia, which has at times been, +and, I believe, is still claimed by the King of Prussia. + +Do not mention any part of this story, but it is worth +preserving, I am sure you are satisfied with my scrupulous +veracity. It may Perhaps be authenticated hereafter by +collateral evidence that may come out. If ever true history does +come to light my father's character will have just honour paid to +it. Lord Chesterfield, one of his sharpest enemies, has not, +with all his +prejudices, left a very unfavourable account of him, and it would +alone be raised by a comparison of their two characters. Think +of one who calls Sir Robert the corrupter of youth, leaving a +system of education to poison them from their nursery! +Chesterfield, Pulteney, and Bolingbroke were the saints that +reviled my father! I beg your pardon, but you will allow Me to +open my heart to you when it is full. Yours ever. + +(326) Malosine de Schulenbourg, a natural daughter of George I. +by Miss Schulenbourg, afterwards created Duchess of Kendal. She +was created, in 1722, Countess of Walsingham and Baroness of +Aldborough, and was the widow of Philip Dormer Stanhope, the +celebrated Earl of Chesterfield, who died in 1773-E. + +(327) See Walpole's Memoires of George the second, vol. ii., p. +458-E. + + + +Letter 149 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Oct. 23, 1778. (page 204) + +* * * * * Having thus told you all I know, I shall add a few +words, to say I conclude you have known as much, by my not having +heard from you. Should the post-office or secretary's o(fice set +their wits at work to bring to light all the intelligence +contained under the above hiatus, I am confident they will +discover nothing, though it gives an exact description of all +they have been about themselves. + +My personal history is very short. I have had an assembly and +the rheumatism-and am buying a house-and it rains-and I shall +plant the roses against my treillage to-morrow. Thus you know +-what I have done, suffered, am doing, and shall do. Let me know +as much of you, in quantity, not in quality. Introductions to, +and conclusions of, letters are as much out of fashion, as to at, +etc. on letters. This sublime age reduces every thing to its +quintessence: all periphrases and expletives are so much in +disuse, that I suppose soon the only way of making love will be +to say "Lie down." Luckily, the lawyers will not part with any +synonymous words, and will, consequently preserve the +redundancies of our language--Dixi. + + + +Letter 150 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +October 26, 1778. (page 204) + +I have finished the life of Mr. Baker, will have it transcribed, +and send it to you. I have omitted several little particulars +that are in your notes, for two reasons; one, because so much is +said in the Biographia; and the other, because I have rather +drawn a character of him, than meant a circumstantial life. In +the justice I have done to him, I trust I shall have pleased you. +I have much greater doubt of that effect in what I have said of +his principles and party. It is odd, perhaps, to have made use +of the life of a high churchman for expatiating on my own very +opposite principles; but it gave me SO fair an opportunity of +discussing those points, that I very naturally embraced it. I +have done due honour to his immaculate conscience, but have not +spared the cause in which he fell,-or rather rose,-for the ruin +of his fortune was the triumph of his virtue. + +As you know I do not love the press, you may be sure I have no +thoughts of printing this life at present; nay, I beg you will +not only not communicate it, but take care it never should be +printed without my consent. I have written what presented +itself; I should perhaps choose to soften several passages; and I +trust to you for Your own satisfaction, not as a finished thing, +or as I am determined it should remain. + +Another favour I beg of you is to criticise it as largely and +severely As you please: you have A right so to do, as it is built +with your own materials, nay, you have a right to scold if I +have, nay, since I have, employed them so differently from your +intention. All my excuse is, that you communicated them to one +who did not deceive you, and you was pretty sure would make +nearly the use of them that he has made. Was not you? did you +not suspect a little that I could not write even a Life of Mr. +Baker without talking Whiggism!--Well, if I have ill-treated the +cause, I am sure I have exalted the martyr. I have thrown new +light on his virtue from his notes on the Gazettes, and you will +admire him more, though you may love me less, for my chymistry. +I should be truly sorry if I did lose a scruple of your +friendship. You have ever been as candid to me, as Mr. Baker was +to his antagonists, and our friendship is another proof that men +of the most opposite principles can agree in every thing else, +and not quarrel about them. + +As my manuscript contains above twenty pages of my writing on +larger paper than this, you cannot receive it speedily--however, +I have Performed my promise, and I hope you will not be totally +discontent, though I am not satisfied with myself. I have +executed it by snatches and by long interruptions; and not having +been eager about it, I find I wanted that ardour to inspire me; +another proof of what I told you, that my small talent is waning, +and wants provocatives. It shall be a warning to me. Adieu! + + + +Letter 151 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Nov. 4, 1778. (page 205) + +You will see by my secretary's hand, that I am not able to write +myself; indeed, I am in bed with the gout in six places, like +Daniel in the den; but, as the lions are slumbering round me, and +leave me a moment of respite, I employ it to give you one. + You have misunderstood me, dear Sir: I have not said a word that +will lower Mr. Baker's character; on the contrary, I think he +will come out brighter from my ordeal. In truth, as I have drawn +out his life from your papers, it is a kind of Political epic, in +which his conscience is the hero that always triumphs over his +interest +upon the most opposite occasions. Shall you dislike your saint +in this light! I had transcribed about half when I fell ill last +week. If the gout does not seize my right hand, I shall Probably +have recovery full leisure to finish it during my recovery, but +shall certainly not be + able to send it to you by Mr. Lort. + +Your promise fully satisfies me. My life can never extend to +twenty years.(328) Anyone that saw me this moment would not take +me for a Methusalem. I have not strength to dictate more now, +except to add, that if Mr. Nicholls has seen my narrative about +Chatterton, it can only be my letter to Mr. Barrett, of which you +have a copy; the larger one has not yet been out of my own house. +Yours most sincerely. + +(328) Mr. Cole had informed Walpole that his collections were not +to be opened until twenty years after his death. See ant`e, P. +199, letter 146, note 323. + + + +Letter 152 To Lady Browne.(329) +Arlington Street, Nov, 5, 1778. (page 206) + +Your ladyship is exceedingly kind and charitable, and the least I +can do in return is to do all I can--dictate a letter to you. I +have not been out of bed longer than it was necessary to have it +made, once a day, since last Thursday. The gout is in both my +feet, both my knees, and in my left hand and elbow. Had I a mind +to brag, I could boast of a little rheumatism too, but I scorn to +set value on such a trifle; nay, I will own that I have felt but +little acute pain. My chief propensity to exaggeration would be +on the miserable nights I have passed; and yet whatever I should +say would not be beyond what I thought I suffered. I have been +constantly as broad awake as Mrs. Candour that is always gaping +for Scandal,(330) except when I have taken opiates, and then my +dreams have been as extravagant as Mrs. Candour adds to what she +hears. In short, Madam, not to tire you with more details, +though you have ordered them, I am so weak that I am able to see +nobody at all, and when I shall be recovered enough to take +possession of this new lease, as it is called, the mansion, I +believe, will be so shattered that it won't be worth repairs. Is +it not very foolish, then, to be literally buying a new house? Is +it not verifying Pope's line, when I choose a Pretty situation, + +"But just to look about us and to die?" + +I am sorry Lady Jane's lot is fallen in Westphalia, where so +great a hog is lord of the manor. He is like the dragon of +Wantley, + +"And houses and churches +To him are geese and turkeys;" + +so I don't wonder that he has gobbled her two cows. + +Lady Blandford is delightful in congratulating me upon having the +gout in town, and staying in the country herself. Nay, she is +very insolent in presuming to be the only person invulnerable. +If I could wish her any, harm, it should be that she might feel +for one quarter of an hour a taste of the mortifications that I +suffered from eleven last night till four this morning, and I am +sure she would never dare to have a spark of courage again. I +can only wish her in Grosvenor-square, where she would run no +risks. Her reputation for obstinacy is so well established, that +she might take advice from her true friends for a twelvemonth, +before we should believe our own ears. However, as every body +has some weak part, I know she will do for others more than for +herself; and, therefore, pray Madam, tell her, that I am sure it +is bad for Your ladyship to stay in the country at this time of +year, and that reason, I am sure will bring you both. I really +must rest. + +(329) Now first printed. See vol. iii., letter to George +Montagu, Esq., Nov. 1, 1767, letter 332. + + +(330) Sheridan's popular comedy of the "School for Scandal" which +came out at Drury-lane theatre in May 1777, was at this time as +much the favourite of the town as ever.-E. + + + +Letter 153 To Lady Browne.(331) +Arlington Street, Dec. 18, 1778. (page 207) + +My not writing with my own hand, to thank Your ladyship for your +very obliging letter, is the worst symptom that remains with me, +Madam: all pain and swelling are gone; and I hope in a day or two +to get a glove even on my right hand, and to walk with help into +the room by the end of next week. I did I confess, see a great +deal too much company too early; and was such an old child as to +prattle abundantly, till I was forced to shut myself up for a +week and see nobody; but I am quite recovered, and the emptiness +of the town will soon preserve me from any excesses. + +I am exceedingly glad to hear your ladyship finds so much benefit +from the air: I own I thought you looked ill the last time I had +the honour of seeing you; and though I am sorry to hear you talk +with so much satisfaction of a country life, I am not selfish +enough to wish you to leave Tusmore(332) a day before your health +is quite re-established, nor to envy Mr. Fermor so agreeable an +addition to his society and charming seat. + +Poor Lady Albemarle is indeed very miserable and full of +apprehensions; though the incredible zeal. of the navy for +Admiral Keppel crowns him with glory, and the indignation of and +the indignation of mankind, and the execration of Sir Hugh, add +to the triumph. Indeed, I still think Lady A.'s fears may be +well founded: some slur may be Procured on her son; and his own +bad nerves, and worse constitution, may not be able to stand +agitation and suspense.(333) + +Lady Blandford has had a cold, but I hear is well again, and has +generally two tables. She will be a loss indeed to all her +friends, and to hundreds more; but she cannot be immortal, nor +would be, if she could. + +The writings are not yet signed, Madam, for my house, but I am in +no doubt of having it; yet I shall not think of going into it +till the spring, as I cannot enjoy this year's gout in it, and +will not venture catching a codicil, by going backwards and +forwards to it before it is aired. + +I know no particular news, but that Lord Bute was thought in +great danger yesterday; I have heard nothing of him to-day. I do +not know even a match, but of some that are going to be divorced; +the fate of one of the latter is to be turned into an exaltation, +and is treated by her family and friends in quite a new style, to +the discomfit of all prudery. It puts me in mind of Lord +Lansdowne's lines in the room in the Tower where my father had +been confined, + +"Some fall so hard, they bound and rise again." + +Methinks, however, it is a little hard on Lord George Germaine, +that in four months after seeing a Duchess of Dorset, he may see +a Lord Middlesex too; for so old the egg is said to be, that is +already prepared. If this trade goes on, half the peeresses will +have two eldest sons with both fathers alive at the same time. +Lady Holderness expresses nothing but grief and willingness to +receive her daughter(334) again on any terms, which probably will +happen; for the daughter has already opened her eyes, is sensible +of her utter ruin, and has written to Lord Carmarthen and Madam +Cordon, acknowledging her guilt, and begging to be remembered +only with pity, which is sufficient to make one pity her. + +I would beg pardon for so long a letter, but your ladyship +desired THE intelligence, and I know a long letter from London is +not uncomfortable at Christmas, even. in the most comfortable +house in the country. Perhaps my own forced idleness has a +little contributed to lengthen it; still I hope it implies great +readiness to obey your ladyship's commands, in your most obedient +humble servant. + +(331) Now first printed. + +(332) Lady Browne's first husband was Henry Fermor Esq., +grandfather of Mr. Fermor of Tusmore House. She was Miss +Sheldon.-E. + +(333) Some charges having been brought against Admiral Keppel for +his conduct at the battle of Ushant, +by Sir Hugh Palliser, his vice-admiral, he was tried for the +same, and not only unanimously acquitted, but the prosecution +declared malicious. This verdict gave such general satisfaction, +that London was illuminated for two nights; upon one, +of which a mob, consisting in great part of sailors who had +served under Keppel, broke all the windows in the house of his +accuser. The city of London voted the Admiral the freedom of the +corporation. In 1782, he was Created Viscount Keppel, and +appointed first lord of the admiralty. He died unmarried, in +October 1786. The following is a part of Mr. Burke's beautiful +panegyric on him, at the conclusion of his letter to a noble +Lord:--"I ever looked on Lord Keppel as one of the greatest and +best men of his age, and I loved and cultivated him accordingly. +It was at his trial that he gave me this picture. With what zeal +and anxious affection I attended him through that his agony of +glory; what part my son took in the early flush and enthusiasm of +his virtue, and the pious passion with which he attached himself +to all my connexions; with what prodigality we both squandered +ourselves in courting almost every sort of enmity for his sake, I +believe he felt, just as I should have felt such friendship on +such an occasion. I partook, indeed, of this honour with several +of the first, and best, and ablest in the kingdom; but I was +behind with none of them - and I am sure that if, to the eternal +disgrace of this nation, and to the total annihilation of every +trace of honour and virtue in it, things had taken a different +turn from what they did, I should have attended him to the +quarterdeck with no less good-will and more pride, though with +far other feelings, than I partook of the general flow of +national joy that attended the justice that was done to his +virtue."-E. + +(335) Amelia D'Arcy, Baroness Conyers, daughter of Robert, fourth +Earl of Holderness, Married to Lord Carmarthen; who had eloped +with Captain John Byron, father of the great poet.-E. + + + +Letter 154 To The Earl Of Buchan.(336) +Arlington Street, Dec. 24, 1778. (page 209) + +It was an additional mortification to my illness, my lord, that I +was nut able to thank your lordship with my own hand for the +honour of your letter, and for your goodness in remembering an +old man, who must with reason consider himself as forgotten, when +he never was of importance, and is now almost useless to himself. +Frequent severe fits of the gout have a good deal disabled me +from pursuing the trifling studies in which I could pretend to +know any thing; or at least has given me an indifference, that +makes me less ready in answering questions than I may have been +formerly; and as my papers are in the country, whither at present +I am not able to go, I fear I can give but unsatisfactory replies +to your lordship's queries. + +The two very curious pictures of King James and his Queen (I +cannot recollect whether the third or fourth of the name, but I +know that she was a princess of Sweden or Denmark,(337) and that +her arms are on her portrait,) were at the palace at Kensington, +and I imagine are there still. I had obtained leave from the +Lord Chamberlain to have drawings made of them, and Mr. Wale +actually +began them for me, but made such slow progress, and I was so +called off from the thought of them by indispositions and other +avocations, that they were never finished; and Mr.. Wale may, +perhaps, still have the beginnings he made. + +At the Duke of Devonshire's at Hardwicke, there is a valuable +though poorly painted picture of James V. and Mary of Guise, his +second queen: it is remarkable from the great resemblance of Mary +Queen of Scots to her father; I mean in Lord Morton's picture of +her, and in the image of her on her tomb at Westminster, which +agree together, and which I take to be the genuine likeness. I +have doubts on Lord Burlington's picture, and on Dr. Mead's. The +nose in both is thicker, and also fuller at bottom than on the +tomb; though it is a little supported by her coins. + +There is a much finer portrait,--indeed, an excellent head,--of +the Lady Margaret Douglas at Mr. Carteret's at Hawnes in +Bedfordshire, the late Lord Granville's. It is a shrewd +countenance, and at the same time with great goodness of +character. Lord Scarborough has a good picture, in the style of +Holbein at least, of Queen Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry +VII., and of her second or third husband (for, if I don't +mistake, she had three); but indeed, my lord, these things are so +much out of my memory at present, that I speak with great +diffidence. I cannot even recollect any thing else to your +lordship's purpose; but I flatter myself, that these imperfect +notices will at least be a testimony of my readiness to obey your +lordship's commands, as that I am, with great respect, my lord, +your lordship's obedient humble servant. + +(336) Now first printed. David Stewart Erskine, eleventh Earl of +Buchan. He was intended for public life, but shortly after +succeeding to the family honours, in 1767, he retired to +Scotland, and devoted himself to literature. His principal works +were, an Essay on the lives of Fletcher of Saltoun and the Poet +Thomson, and a Life of Napier of Merchiston. He died at Dryburgh +Abbey in 1829 at the age of eighty-seven.-E. + +(337) James the First married, in 1590, Anne, daughter of +Frederick King of Denmark.-E. + + + +Letter 155 To Edward Gibbon, Esq.(338) +[1778.] (page 210) + +Dear Sir, +I have gone through your Inquisitor's attack(339) and am far from +being clear that it deserves your giving yourself the trouble of +an answer, as neither the detail nor the result affects your +argument. So far from it, many of his reproofs are levelled at +your having quoted a wrong page; he confessing often that what +you have cited is in the author, referred to, but not precisely +in the individual spot. If St. Peter is attended by a corrector +of the press, you will certainly never be admitted where he is a +porter. I send you my copy, because I scribbled my remarks. I +do not send them with the impertinent presumption of suggesting a +hint to you, but to prove I did not grudge the trouble of going +through such a book when you desired it, and to show how little +struck me as of any weight. + +I have set down nothing on your imputed plagiarisms; for, if they +are so, no argument that has ever been employed must be used +again, even where the passage necessary is applied to a different +purpose. An author is not allowed to be master of his own works; +but, by Davis's new law, the first person that cites him would be +so. You probably looked into Middleton, Dodwell, etc.; had the +same reflections on the same circumstances, or conceived them so +as to recollect them, without remembering what suggested them. +Is this plagiarism? If it is, Davis and such cavillers might go a +short step further, and insist that an author should peruse every +work antecedently written on every subject at all collateral to +his own.-not to assist him, but to be sure to avoid every +material touched by his predecessors. I will make but one remark +on such divine champions. Davis and his prototypes tell you +Middleton, etc. have used the same objections, and they have +been confuted: answering, in the theologic dictionary, signifying +confuting; no matter whether there is sense, argument, truth, in +the answer or not. + +Upon the whole I think ridicule is the only answer such a work is +entitled to.' The ablest, answer which you can make (which would +be the ablest answer that could be made) would never have any +authority with the cabal, yet would allow a sort of dignity to +the author. His patrons will always maintain that he vanquished +you, unless u made him too ridiculous for them to dare to revive +his name. You might divert yourself, too, with Alma Mater, the +church, employing a goviat to defend the citadel, while the +generals repose in their tents. If irenaeus, St. Augustine, etc. +did not set apprentices and proselytes to combat Celsus and the +adversaries of the new religion---but early bishops had not five +or six thousand pounds a-year. + +In short, dear Sir, I wish you not to lose your time; that is, +either ,not reply, or set your mark on your answer, that it may +always be read with the rest of your works. + +(338) Now first collected. + +(339) "An Examination of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of +Mr. Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. +By Henry Edward Davis, B.A. of Baliol College, Oxford." He was +born in 1756 and died in 1784, at the early age of twenty-seven. +He was a native of Windsor, and is believed to have received a +present from George the Third for this production.-E. + + + +Letter 156 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Jan. 3, 1779. (page 211) + +At last, after ten weeks I have been able to remove hither, in +hopes change of air and the frost will assist my recovery; though +I am not one of those ancients that forget the register, and +think they are to be as well as ever after every fit of illness. +As yet I can barely creep about the room in the middle of the +day. + +I have made my printer (now my secretary) copy out the rest of +Mr. Baker's Life; for my own hand will barely serve to write +necessary letters, and complains even of them. If you know of +any very trusty person passing between London and Cambridge, I +would send it to you, but should not care to trust it by the +coach, nor to any giddy undergraduate that comes to town to see a +play; and, besides, I mean to return you your own notes. I Will +Say no more than I have said in my apology to you for the manner +in which I have written this life. With regard to Mr. Baker +himself, I am confident you will find that I have done full +justice to his work and character. i +do not expect You to approve the inferences I draw against some +other persons; and yet, if his conduct was meritorious, it would +not be easy to excuse those who -were active after doing what he +would not do. You will not understand this sentence till you +have seen the Life. + +I hope you have not been untiled or unpaled by the tempest on +New-year's morning.(340) I have lost two beautiful elms in a row +before my windows here, and had the skylight demolished in town. +Lady Pomfret's Gothic house in my street lost one of the stone +towers, like those at King's Chapel, and it was beaten through +the roof The top of our cross, too, at Ampthill was thrown down, +as I hear from Lady Ossory this morning. I remember to have been +told that Bishop Kidder and his wife were killed in their bed in +the palace of Gloucester in 1709,(341) and yet his heirs were +sued for dilapidations. Lord de Ferrers,(342) who deserves his +ancient honours, is going to repair the castle at Tamworth, and +has flattered me that he will Consult me. He has a violent +passion for ancestry--and, consequently, I trust will not stake +the patrimony of the Ferrars, Townshends, and Comptons, at the +hazard-table. A little pride would not hurt our nobility, cock +and hen. Adieu, dear Sir; send me a good account of yourself +Yours ever. + +(340) On the 1st of January, 1779, London was visited by one of +the most violent tempests ever known. Scarcely a public building +in the metropolis escaped without damage.-E. + +(341) The memorable storm here alluded to took place in November, +1703, and Bishop Kidder and his lady perished in their bed at the +episcopal palace at Wells by the fall of a stack of chimneys. +They were privately interred in the cathedral; and one of his +daughters, dying single, directed by her will a monument to be +erected for her parents.-E. + +(342) Robert, sixth Earl Ferrers. He had just succeeded to the +title, by the death of his brother Washington, vice-admiral of +the blue,; who had begun to rebuild the mansion of Stanton +Harold, in Leicestershire, according to a plan of his own, and +lived to see it nearly finished.-E. + + + +Letter 157 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street; Jan. 9, 1779. (page 212) + +Your flight to Bath would have much surprised me, if Mr. +Churchill, who, I think, heard it from Stanley, had not prepared +me for it. Since you was amused, I am glad you went, especially +as you escaped being initiated in Mrs. Miller's follies at +Batheaston,(343) which you would have mentioned. She would +certainly have sent some trapes of a Muse to press you, had she +known what good epigrams you write. + +I went to Strawberry partly out of prudence, partly from ennui. +I thought it best to air myself before I go in and out of hot +rooms here, and had my house thoroughly warmed for a week +previously, and then only stirred from the red room to the blue +on the same floor. I stayed five days, and was neither the +better nor the worse for it. I was quite tired with having +neither company, books, nor amusement of any kind. Either from +the emptiness of the town, or that ten weeks of gout have worn +out the patience of all my acquaintance, but I do not see three +persons in three days. This gives me but an uncomfortable +prospect for my latter days: it is but probable that I may be a +cripple in a fit or two more, if I have strength to go through +them; and, as that will be long life, one outlives one's +acquaintance. I cannot make new acquaintance, nor interest +myself at all about the young, except those that belong to me; +nor does that go beyond contributing to their pleasures, without +having much satisfaction in their conversation-But-one must take +every thing as it comes, and make the best of it., I have had a +much happier life than I deserve, and than millions that deserve +better. I should be very weak if I could not bear the +uncomfortableness of old age, when I can afford what comforts it +is capable of. How many poor old people have none of them! I am +ashamed whenever I am peevish, and recollect that I have fire and +servants to help me. + +I hear Admiral Keppel is in high spirits with the great respect +and zeal expressed for him. In my own opinion, his constitution +will not stand the struggle. I am very uneasy too for the Duke +of Richmond, who is at Portsmouth, and will be at least as much +agitated. + +Sir William Meredith has written a large pamphlet, and a very +good one. It is to show, that whenever the Grecian republics +taxed their dependents, the latter resisted, and shook off the +yoke. He has printed but twelve copies: the Duke of Gloucester +sent me one of them. There is an anecdote of my father, on the +authority of old Jack White, which I doubt. It says, he would +not go on with the excise scheme, though his friends advised it, +I cannot speak to the particular event, as I was, then at school; +but it was more like him to have yielded, against his sentiments, +to Mr. Pelham and his candid--or say, plausible--and timid +friends. I have heard him say, that he never did give up his +opinion to such men but he always repented it. However, the +anecdote in the, book would be more to his honour. But what a +strange man is Sir William! I suppose, now he has written this +book, he will change his opinion, and again be for carrying on +the war--or, if he does not know his own mind for two years +together, why will he take places, to make every body doubt his +honesty? + +(343) See ant`e, P. 125, letter 86.-E. + + + +Letter 158 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +January 15, 1779. (page 213) + +I sent you by Dr. Jacob, as you desired, my Life of Mr. Baker, +and with it your own materials. I beg you will communicate my +Manuscript to nobody, but if you think it worth your trouble I +will consent to your transcribing it; but on one condition, and a +silly one for Me to exact, who am as old as You, and broken to +pieces, and very unlikely to survive you; but, should so +improbable a thing happen, I must exact that you will keep your +transcript sealed up, with orders written on the cover to be +restored to me in case of an accident, for I should Certainly +dislike very much to see it printed without my consent. I should +not think of your copying it, if you did not love to transcribe, +and sometimes things of as little value as my manuscript. I +shall beg to have it returned to me by a safe hand as soon as you +can, for I have nothing but the foul copy, which nobody can read, +I believe, but I and my secretary. + +I am actually printing my Justification about Chatterton, but +only two hundred copies to give away; for I hate calling in the +whole town to a fray, of which otherwise probably not one +thousand persons would ever hear. You shall have a copy as soon +as ever it is finished, which my printer says will be in three +weeks. + +You know my printer is my secretary too: do not imagine I am +giving myself airs of a numerous household of officers. I shall +be glad to see the letter of Mr. Baker you mentioned. You will +perceive two or three notes in my manuscript in a different hand +from mine, or that of my amanuensis (still the same officer;) +they were added by a person I lent it to, and I have effaced part +of the last. + +I must finish, lest Dr. Jacob should call, and my parcel not be +ready. I hope your sore throat is gone; my gout has returned +again a little with taking the air only, but did not stay-- +however, I am still confined, and almost ready to remain so, to +prevent disappointment. Yours most sincerely. + + + +Letter 159 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, Jan. 28, 1779. (page 214) + +I write in as much hurry as you did, dear Sir, and thank you for +the motive of yours mine is to prevent your fatiguing yourself in +copying my manuscript, for which I am not in the least haste: +pray keep it till another safe conveyance presents itself. You +may bring the gout, that is, I am sorry to hear, flying about +you, into your hand by wearying it. + +How can you tell me I may well be cautious about my manuscript +and yet advise me to print it?--No-I shall not provoke nests of +hornets, till I am dust, as they will be too. + +If I dictated tales when ill in my bed, I must have been worse +than I thought; for, as I know nothing of it, I must have been +light-headed. Mr. Lort was certainly misinformed, though he +seems to have told you the story kindly to the honour of my +philosophy or spirits-but I had rather have no fame than what I +do not deserve. + +I am fretful or low-spirited at times in the gout, like other +weak old men, and have less to boast than most men. I have some +strange things in my drawer, even wilder than the Castle of +Otranto, and called Hieroglyphic Tales; but they were not written +lately, nor in the gout, nor, whatever they may seem, written +when I was out of my senses. I showed one or two of them to a +person since my recovery, who may have mentioned them, and +occasioned Mr. Lort's misintelligence. I did not at all perceive +that the latter looked ill; and hope he is quite recovered. You +shall see Chatterton soon. Adieu! + + + +Letter 160To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +February 4, 1779. (page 215) + +I have received the manuscript, and though you forbid my naming +the subject more, I love truth, and truth in a friend so much, +that I must tell you, that so far from taking your sincerity ill, +I had much rather you should act with your native honest +sincerity than say you was pleased with my manuscript. I have +always tried as much as is in human nature to divest myself of +the self-love of an author; in the present case I had less +difficulty than ever, for I never thought my Life of Mr. Baker +one of my least indifferent works. You might, believe me, have +sent me your long letter; whatever it contained, it would not +have made a momentary cloud between us. I have not only +friendship, but great gratitude for you, for a thousand instances +of kindness; and should detest any writing of mine that made a +breach with a friend, and still more, if it could make me forget +obligations. + + + +Letter 161 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +February 18, 1779. (page 215) + +I sent you my Chattertoniad(344) last week,,in hopes it would +sweeten your pouting; but I find it has not, or has miscarried; +for You have not 'acknowledged the receipt with your usual +punctuality. + +Have you seen Hasted's new History of Kent?(345) I am sailing +through it, but am stopped every minute by careless mistakes. +They tell me the author has good materials, but is very +negligent, and so I perceive, He has not even given a list of +monuments in the churches, which I do not remember in any history +of a county; but he is rich in pedigrees; though I suppose they +have many errors too, as I have found some in those I am +acquainted with- It is unpardonable to be inaccurate in a work in +which one nor expects nor demands any thing but fidelity.(346) + +We have a great herald arising in a very noble race, Lord de +Ferrers. I hope to make him a Gothic architect too, for he is +going to repair Tamworth Castle and flatters me that I shall give +him sweet counseil! I enjoin him to kernellare. Adieu! Yours +ever. + +(344) "A Letter to the Editor of the Miscellanies of Thomas +Chatterton." Strawberry Hill, 1779, 8vo.-E. + +(345) "The History and Topographical Survey of the County of +Kent; by Edward Hasted," four volumes, folio, 1778-1799. A +second and improved edition, in twelve volumes, octavo, appeared +in 1797-1801. Mr. Hasted died in 1812 at the age of eighty.-E. + +(346) in a memoir of himself, which, he drew up for the +Gentleman's Magazein, to be published after his death, he says, +"his laborious History of Kent took him more than forty years; +during the whole series of which +he spared neither pains nor expense to bring it to maturity."-E. + + + +Letter 162 To Sir David Dalrymple.(347) +Arlington Street, March 12, 1779. (page 216) + +I have received this moment from your bookseller, Sir, the +valuable present of the second volume of your "Annals," and beg +leave to return you my grateful thanks for so agreeable a gift, +of which I can only have taken a look enough to lament that you +do not intend to continue the work. Repeated and severe attacks +of the gout forbid my entertaining- visions of pleasures to come; +but though I might not have the advantage of your labours, Sir, I +wish too well to posterity not to be sorry that you check your +hand. + +Lord Buchan did me the honour lately of consulting me on +portraits of illustrious Scots. I recollect that there is at +Windsor a very good portrait of your countryman Duns Scotus,(348) +whose name struck me on just turning over your volume. A good +print was made from that picture some years ago, but I believe it +is not very scarce: as it is not worth while to trouble his +lordship with another letter for that purpose only, may I take +the liberty, Sir, of begging you to mention it to his lordship? + +(347) Now first collected. + +(348) Granger considers the portrait of Windsor not to be +genuine. Of Duns Scotus, he says, "It requires one half of a +man's life to read the works of this profound doctor, and the , +other to understand his subtleties. His printed works are in +twelve volumes in folio! His manuscripts are sleeping in Merton +College, Oxford. Voluminous works frequently arise from the +ignorance and confused ideas of the authors: if angels, says Mr. +Norris, were writers, we should have few folios. He was the head +of the sect of schoolmen called scotists. He died in 1308."-E. + + + +Letter 163 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, March 28, 1779. (page 216) + +Your last called for no answer; and I have so little to tell you, +that I only write to-day to avoid the air of remissness. I came +hither on Friday, for this last week has been too hot to stay in +London; but March is arrived this morning with his northeasterly +malice, and I suppose will assert his old-style claim to the +third of April. The poor infant apricots will be the victims to +that Herod of the almanack. I have been much amused with new +travels through Spain by a Mr. Swinburne(349)--at least with the +Alhambra, of the inner parts of which there are two beautiful +prints. The Moors were the most polished, and had the most taste +of any people in the Gothic ages; and I hate the knave Ferdinand +and his bigoted Queen for destroying them. These new travels are +simple, and do tell you a little more than late voyagers, by +whose accounts one would think there was nothing in Spain but +muleteers and fandangos. In truth, there does not seem to be +much worth seeing but prospects; and those, unless I were a bird, +I would never visit, when the accommodations are so wretched. + +Mr. Cumberland has given the town a masque, called Calypso,(350) +which is a prodigy of dulness. Would you believe, that such a +sentimental Writer would be so gross as to make cantharides one +of the ingredients of a love-potion, for enamouring Telemachus? +If you think I exaggerate, here are the lines: + +"To these, the hot Hispanian fly +Shall bid his languid pulse beat high." + +Proteus and Antiope are Minerva's missioners for securing the +prince's virtue, and in recompense they are married and crowned +king and queen! + +I have bought at Hudson's sale a fine design of a chimney-piece, +by Holbein, for Henry VIII. If I had a room left I would erect. +It is certainly not so Gothic as that in my Holbein room; but +there is a great deal of taste for that bastard style; perhaps it +was executed at Nonsuch. I do intend, under Mr. Essex's +inspection, to begin my offices next spring. It is late in my +day, I confess, to return to brick and mortar but I shall be glad +to perfect my plan, or the' next possessor will marry my castle +to a Doric stable. There is a perspective through two or three +rooms in the Alhambra, that might easily be improved into Gothic, +though there seems but small affinity between them; and they +might be finished within with Dutch tiles, and painting, or bits +of ordinary marble, as there must be gilding. Mosaic seems to be +their chief ornaments, for walls, ceilings, and floors. Fancy +must sport in the furniture, and mottos might be gallant, and +would be very Arabesque. I would have a mixture of colours, but +with a strict attention to harmony and taste; and some one should +predominate, as supposing it the favourite colour of the lady who +was sovereign of the knight's affections who built the house. +Carpets are classically Mahometans, and fountains--but, alas! our +climate till last summer was never romantic! Were I not so old, I +would at least build a Moorish novel-for you see my head Turns on +Granada-and by taking the most picturesque parts of the Mahometan +and Catholic religions, and with the mixture of African and +Spanish names, one might make something very agreeable--at least +I will not give the hint to Mr. Cumberland. Adieu! Yours ever. + +(349) "Travels through Spain in the Years 1775 and 1776; in which +several Monuments of Roman and Moorish Architecture are +illustrated by accurate Drawings taken on the spot. By Henry +Swinburne." London, 1779, 4to. Mr. Swinburne also published, in +1783-5 his "Travels in the Two Sicilies during the Years +1777-8-9, and 1780." This celebrated traveller was the youngest +son of Sir John Swinburne, of Capheaton, Northumberland; the +long-established seat of that ancient Roman Catholic family. +Pecuniary embarrassments, arising from the marriage of his +daughter to Paul Benfield, Esq. and consequent involvement in +the misfortunes of that adventurer, induced him to obtain a Place +in the newly-ceded settlement of Trinidad, where he died in +1803.-E. + +(350) "Calypso" was brought out at Covent-Garden theatre, but was +performed only a few nights. \ It was imprudently ushered in by +a prelude, in which the author treated the newspaper editors as a +set of unprincipled fellows.-E. + + + +Letter 164 To Edward Gibbon, Esq.(351) +(1779.] (page 218) + +The penetration, solidity, and taste, that made you the first of +historians, dear Sir, prevent my being surprised at your being +the best writer of controversial pamphlets too.(352) I have read +you with more precipitation than such a work deserved, but I +could not disobey you and detain it. Yet even in that hurry I +could discern, besides a thousand beauties and strokes of wit, +the inimitable eighty-third page, and the conscious dignity that +you maintain throughout, over your monkish antagonists. When you +are so superior in argument, it would look like insensibility to +the power of your reasoning, to select transient passages for +commendation; and yet I must mention one that pleased me +particularly, from the delicacy of the severity, and from its +novelty too; it is, bold is not the word. This is the feathered +arrow of Cupid, that is more formidable than the club of +Hercules. I need not specify thanks, when I prove how much I +have been pleased. Your most obliged. + +(351) Now first collected. + +(352) Gibbon's celebrated "Vindication" of the Fifteenth and +Sixteenth Chapters of his History appeared early in the year +1779. "I adhered," he says in his Memoirs, "to the wise +resolution of trusting myself and my writing to the candour of +the public, till Mr. Davis of Oxford presumed to attack, not the +faith but the fidelity of the historian. My Vindication, +expressive of less anger than contempt, amused for a moment the +busy and idle metropolis; and the most rational Part of the +laity, and even of the clergy, appear to have been satisfied of +my innocence and accuracy I would not print it in quarto, lest it +should be bound and preserved with the history itself At the +distance of twelve years, I calmly affirm my judgment of Davis, +Chelsum, etc. A victory over such antagonists was a sufficient +humiliation. They, however were rewarded in this world, Poor +Chelsum was, indeed, neglected; and I dare not boast the making +Dr. Watson a bishop: he is a prelate of a large mind and a +liberal spirit: but I enjoyed the pleasure of giving a royal +pension to Mr. Davis, and of collating Dr. Althorpe to an +archiepiscopal living."-E. + + + +Letter 165 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, April 12, 1779. (page 218) + +As your gout was so concise, I will not condole on it, but I am +sorry you are liable to it if you do but take the air. Thank you +for telling me of the vendible curiosities at the Alderman's. +For St. Peter's portrait to hang to a fairie's watch, I shall not +think of it, both as I do not believe it very like, and as it is +composed of invisible Writing, for which my eyes are not young +enough. In truth, I have almost left off making purchases: I +have neither room for any thing more, nor inclination for them, +as I reckon every thing very dear when One has so little time to +enjoy it. However, I cannot say but the plates by Rubens do +tempt me a little--yet, as I do not care to, buy even Rubens in a +poke, I should wish to know if the Alderman would let me see. if +it were but one. Would he be persuaded? I would pay for the +carriage, though I should not buy them. + +Lord de Ferrers will be infinitely happy with the sight of the +pedigree, and I will certainly tell him of it, and how kind you +are. + +Strype's account, or rather Stow's, of Richard's person is very +remarkable--but I have done with endeavouring at truth. Weeds +grow more naturally than what one plants. I hear your +Cantabrigians are still unshaken Chattertonians. Many men are +about falsehood like girls about the first man that makes love to +them: a handsomer, a richer, or even a sincerer lover cannot +eradicate the first impression--but a sillier swain, or a sillier +legend, sometimes gets into the head of a miss or the learned +man, and displaces the antecedent folly. Truth's kingdom is not +of this world. + +I do not know whether our clergy are growing Mahometans or not: +they certainly are not what they profess themselves--but as you +and I should not agree perhaps in assigning the same defects to +them, I will not enter on a subject which I have promised you to +drop. All I allude to now is, the shocking murder of Miss +Ray(353) by a divine. In my own opinion we are growing more fit +for Bedlam, than for Mahomet's paradise. The poor criminal in +question, I am persuaded, is mad--and the misfortune is, the law +does not know how to define the shades of madness; and thus there +-are twenty outpensioners of Bedlam, for the one that is +confined. You, dear Sir, have chosen a wiser path to happiness +by depending on yourself for amusement. Books and past ages draw +one into no scrapes, and perhaps it is best not to know much of +men till they are dead. I wish you health -,You want nothing +else. I am, dear Sir, yours most truly. + +(353) On the 7th of April, Miss Reay, who had been the mistress +of Lord Sandwich for twenty years, by whom she was the mother of +many children, was shot, on her leaving Covent-Garden theatre, by +the Rev. James Hackman, who had the living of Wiverton, in +Norfolk, a young man not half her age, who had imbibed a violent +passion for her, whom he first met at Lord Sandwich's seat at +Hinchinbroke, where he had been frequently invited to dine while +commanding a recruiting party at Huntingdon; he being, previously +to his entering the church, a lieutenant in the 68th regiment of +foot. Having shot Miss Reay, he fired a pistol at himself; but, +being only wounded by it, he was tried at the Old Bailey, +convicted, and executed.-E. + + + +Letter 166 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, April 20, 1779. (page 219) + +Dear Sir, +I have received the plates very safely, but hope You nor the +Alderman,(354) will take it ill that I return them. They are +extremely pretty, and uncommonly well preserved; but I am sure +they are not by Rubens, nor I believe after his designs, for I am +persuaded they are older than his time. In truth, I have a great +many Of the same sort, and do not wish for more. I shall send +them back on Thursday by the Fly, and will beg you to inquire +after them; and I trust they will arrive as safely as they did to +Yours ever. + +(354) Alderman John Boydell, an English engraver; distinguished +as an encourager of the fine arts. In 1790 he held the office of +Lord Mayor of London, and died in 1804.-E. + + + +Letter 167 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +April 23, 1779. (page 220) + +I ought not to trouble you so often when you are not well; but +that is the very cause of my writing now. You left off abruptly +from disorder, and therefore I wish to know it is gone. The +plates I hope got home safe. They are pretty, especially the +reverses; but the drawing in general is bad. + +Pray tell me what you mean by a priced catalogue of the pictures +at Houghton. Is it a printed one? if it is, where is it to be +had?--odd questions from me, and which I should not wish to have +mentioned as coming from me. I have been told to-day that they +are actually sold to the Czarina--sic transit! mortifying enough, +were not every thing transitory! we must recollect that our +griefs and pains are so, as well as our joys and glories; and, by +balancing the account, a grain of comfort is to be extracted! +Adieu! I shall be heartily glad to receive a better account of +you. + + + +Letter 168 To Mrs. Abington.(355) +(1779.] (page 220) + +Mr. Walpole cannot express how much he is mortified that he +cannot accept of Mrs. Abington's obliging invitation, as he had +engaged company to dine with him on Sunday at Strawberry-hill; +whom he would put off, if not foreigners who are leaving England. +Mr. Walpole hopes, however, that this accident will not prevent +an acquaintance, which his admiration of Mrs. Abington'S genius +has made him long desire; and which he hopes to cultivate at +Strawberry Bill, when her leisure will give him leave to trouble +her with an invitation. + +(355) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 169 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Arlington Street, May 21, 1779. (page 221) + +As Mr. Essex has told me that you still continue out of order, I +am impatient to hear from yourself how you are. Do send me a +line: I hope it will be a satisfactory one. you know that Dr. +Ducarel has published a translation of a +History of the Abbey of Bec! There is a pretty print to it: and +one very curious circumstance, at least valuable to us disciples +of Alma Mater Etonensis. The ram-hunting was derived from the +manor of Wrotham in Norfolk, which formerly belonged to Bec, and +being forfeited, together with other alien priories, was bestowed +by Henry VI. on our college. I do not repine at reading any +book from which I can learn a single fact that I wish to know. +For the lives of the abbots, they were, according to the author, +all pinks of piety and holiness but there are few other facts +amusing, especially with regard to the customs of those savage +times-excepting that the Empress Matilda was buried in a bull's +hide, and afterwards had a tomb covered with silver. There is +another new book called "Sketches from Nature," in two volumes, +by Mr. G. Keate, in which I found one fact too, that, if +authentic, is worth knowing. The work is an imitation of Sterne, +and has a sort of merit, though nothing that arrives at +originality. + +For the foundation of the church of Reculver, he quotes a +manuscript said to be written by a Dominican friar of Canterbury, +and preserved at Louvain. The story is evidently metamorphosed +into a novel. and has very little of an antique air; but it +affirms that the monkish author attests the beauty of Richard +III. This is very absurd, if invention has nothing to do with +the story; and therefore one should suppose it genuine. I have +desired Dodsley to ask Mr. Keate, if there truly exists such, a +manuscript: if there does, I own I wish he had printed it rather +than his own production; for I am with Mr. Gray, "that any man +living may make a book worth reading, if he will but set down +with truth what he has seen or heard, no matter whether the book +is well written or not." Let those who can write, glean. + + + +Letter 170 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Arlington Street, May 22, 1779. (page 221) + +If you hear of us no oftener than we of you, you will be as much +behindhand in news as my Lady Lyttelton. We have seen a +traveller that saw you in your island,(356) but it sounds like +hearing of Ulysses. Well! we must be content. + YOU are not only not dethroned, but owe the safety of your +dominions to your own skill in fortification. if we do not hear +of your extending your conquests, why, is it not less than all +our modern heroes have done, whom prophets have foretold and +gazettes celebrated--or who have foretold and celebrated +themselves. Pray be content to be cooped up in an island that +has no neighbours, when the Howes and Clintons and Dunmores and +Burgoynes and Campbells are not yet got beyond the great river-- +Inquiry!(357) To-day's papers say, that the little Prince of +Orange(358) is to invade you again; but we trust Sir James +Wallace has clipped his wings so close, that they will not grow +again this season, though he is so ready to fly. + +Nothing material has happened since I wrote last-so, as every +moment of a civil war is precious, every one has been turned to +the interest of diversion. There have been three masquerades, an +Installation, and the ball of the knights at the Haymarket this +week; not to mention Almack's festino, Lady Spencer's, Ranelagh +and Vauxhall, operas and plays. The Duchess of Bolton too saw +masks--so many, that the floor gave way, and the company in the +dining-room were near falling on the heads of those in the +parlour, and exhibiting all that has not yet appeared in Doctors' +Commons. At the knights' ball was such a profusion of +strawberries, that people could hardly get into the supper-room. +I could tell you more, but I do not love to exaggerate. Lady +Ailesbury told me this morning that Lord Bristol has got a calf +with two feet to each leg--I am convinced it is by the Duchess +of Kingston, who has got two of every thing where others have but +one.(359) Adieu! I am going to sup with Mrs. Abington--and hope +Mrs. Clive will not hear of it. + +(356) Mr. Conway was now at his government of Jersey. + +(357) The parliamentary inquiry which took place in the House of +Commons on the conduct of the American war. + +(358) The Prince of Nassau, who had commanded the attack upon +Jersey, claiming relationship to the great house of Nassau Mr. +Walpole calls him the "little Prince of Orange." Gibbon, in a +letter to Mr. Holroyd, of the 7th, says, "You have heard of the +Jersey invasion; every body praises Arbuthnot's decided spirit. +Conway went last night to throw himself into the island."-E. + +(359) "Do you know, my lord," said the Duchess, then Miss +Chudleigh, to Lord Chesterfield, "the world says I have had +twins!" "Does it?" said his lordship; "I make a point of +believing only one-half of what it says."-E. + + + +Letter 171 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, June 2, 1779. (page 222) + +I am most sincerely rejoiced, dear Sir, that you find yourself at +all better, and trust it is an omen of farther amendment. Mr. +Essex surprised me by telling me, that you, who keep yourself so +warm and so numerously clothed, do yet sometimes, if the sun +shines, sit and write in your garden for hours at a time. It is +more than I should readily do, whose habitudes are so very +different from yours. Your complaints seem to demand +perspiration--but I do not venture to advise. I understand no +constitution but my own, and should kill Milo, if I managed him +as I treat myself. I sat in a window on Saturday, with the east +wind blowing on my neck till near two in the morning-and it seems +to have done me good, for I am better within these two days than +I have been these six months. My spirits have been depressed, +and my nerves so aspen, that the smallest noise disturbed me. +To-day I do not feel a complaint; which is something at near +sixty-two. + +I don't know whether I have not misinformed you, nor am sure it +was Dr. Ducarel who translated the account of the Abbey of Bec-- +he gave it to Mr. Lort; but I am not certain he ever published +it. You was the first that notified to me the fifth volume of +the Archaeologia--I am not much more edified than usual; but +there are three pretty prints of Reginal Seats. Mr. Pegge's +tedious dissertation, which he calls a brief one, about the +foolish legend of St. George, is despicable: all his arguments +are equally good for proving the existence of the dragon. What +diversion might laughers make of the society! Dolly Pentraeth, +the old woman of Mousehole, and Mr. Penneck's nurse. p. 81, would +have furnished Foote with two personages for a farce. The same +grave dissertation on patriarchal customs seems to have as much +to do with British antiquities, as the Lapland: witches that sell +wind--and pray what business has the Society With Roman +inscriptions in Dalmatia! I am most pleased With the account of +Nonsuch, imperfect as it is: it appears to have been but a villa, +and not considerable for a royal one. You see lilacs were then a +novelty. Well, I am glad they publish away. The vanity of +figuring in these repositories will make many persons contribute +their manuscripts, and every now and then something valuable Will +come to light, which its own intrinsic merit might not have +saved. +\ +I know nothing more of Houghton. I should certainly be glad to +have the priced catalogue; and if you will lend me yours, my +printer shall transcribe it-but I am in no hurry. I Conceive +faint hopes, as the sale is not concluded: however, I take care +not to flatter myself. + +I think I told you I had purchased, at Mr. Ives's sale, a +handsome coat in painted glass, of Hobart impaling Boleyn--but I +can find no such match in my pedigree--yet I have heard that +Blickling belonged to Ann Boleyn's father. Pray reconcile all +this to me. ' + +Lord de Ferrers is to dine here on Saturday; and I have got to +treat him with an account of ancient painting, formerly in the +hall of Tammworth Castle; they are mentioned in Warton's +Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol i. p. 43. + +Do not put yourself' to pain to answer this--only be assured I +shall be happy to know when you are able to write with ease. You +must leave Your cloister, if Your transcribing leaves you. +Believe me, dear Sir, Ever most truly. + + + +Letter 172 To The Rev. Dr. Lort. +Strawberry Hill, June 4, 1779. (page 224) + +I am sorry, dear Sir, you could not let me have the pleasure of +your company; but, I own, you have partly, not entirely, made me +amends by the sight of your curious manuscript, which I return +you, with your other book of inaugurations. + +The sight of the manuscript was particularly welcome to me, +because the long visit of Henry VI. and his uncle Gloucester, to +St. Edmund's Bury, accounts for those rare altar tablets that I +bought at Mr. Ives's sale, on which are incontestably the +portraits of Duke Humphrey, Cardinal Beaufort, and the same +archbishop that is in my Marriage of Henry VI. I know the house +of Lancaster were patrons of St. Edmund's Bury; but so long a +visit is demonstration. + +The fourth person on my panels is unknown. Over his head is a +coat of arms. but may be that of W. Curteys the abbot, or the +alderman, as he is in scarlet. His figure and the Duke's are far +superior to the other two, and worthy of a good Italian master. +The Cardinal and the Archbishop are in the dry hard manner of the +age. I wish you would call and look at them; they are at Mr. +Bonus's in Oxford-road; the two prelates are much damaged. I +peremptorily enjoined Bonus to repair only, and not to repaint +them; and thus, by putting him out of his way, I have put him so +much out of humour too, that he has kept them these two years, +and not finished them yet. I design them for the four void +spaces in my chapel, on the sides of the shrine. The Duke of +Gloucester's face is so like, though younger, that it proves I +guessed right at his figure in my Marriage. The tablets came out +of the abbey of Bury; were procured by old Peter Le Neve, Norroy; +and came by his widow's marriage to Tom Martin, at whose sale Mr. +Ives bought them. We have very few princely portraits so +ancient, so authentic, and none so well painted as the Duke and +fourth person. These were the insides of the doors, which I had +split into two, and value them extremely. This account I think +will be more satisfactory to you than notes. + +Pray tell me how you like the pictures when you have examined +them. I shall search in Edmondson's new Vocabulary of Arms for +the coat which contains three bulls' heads on six pieces; but the +colours are either white and black. or the latter is become so +by time. I hope you are not going out of town yet; I shall +probably be there some day in next week. + +I see advertised a book something in the way of your +inaugurations, called Le Costume; do you know any thing of it? +Can YOU tell me who is the author of the Second Anticipation on +the Exhibition? Is not it Barry the painter? + + + +Letter 173 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Saturday, June 5, 1779. (page 225) + +I write to you more seldom than I am disposed to do, from having +nothing positive to tell you, and from being unwilling to say and +unsay every minute something that is reported positively. The +confident assertions of the victory over D'Estaing are totally +vanished-and they who invented them, now declaim as bitterly +against Byron, as if he had deceived them-and as they did against +Keppel. This day se'nnight there was a great alarm about +Ireland-which was far from being all invention, though not an +absolute insurrection, as it was said." The case, I believe, was +this:-The court, in order to break the volunteer army established +by the Irish themselves, endeavoured to persuade a body in Lady +Blayney's county of Monaghan to enlist in the militia--which they +took indignantly. They said, they had great regard for Lady +Blayney and Lord Clermont; but to act under them, would be acting +under the King, and that was by no means their intention. There +have since been motions for inquiries what steps the ministers +have taken to satisfy the Irish-and these they have imprudently +rejected-which will not tend to pacification. The ministers have +been pushed too on the article of Spain, and could not deny that +all negotiation is at an end--though they will not own farther. +However, the Spanish ambassador is much out of humour. From +Paris they write confidently of the approaching declaration;(360) +and Lord Sandwich, I hear, has said in a very mixed company, that +it was folly not to expect it. There is another million asked, +and given on a vote of credit; and Lord North has boasted of such +mines for next year,,that one would think he believed next year +would never Come. + +The Inquiry(361) goes on, +and Lord Harrington did honour himself and Burgoyne. Barr`e and +Governor Johnstone have had warm words,(362) and Burke has been +as frantic for the Roman Catholics as Lord George Gordon against +them. The Parliament, it is said, is to rise on the 21st. + +YOU Will not collect from all this that our prospect clears up. +I fear there is not more discretion in the treatment of Ireland +than of America. The court seems to-be infatuated and to think +that nothing is of any consequence but a majority in +Parliament-though they have totally lost all power but that of +provoking. Fortunate it had been for the- King and kingdom, had +the court had no majority for these six years! America had still +been ours -and all the lives and all the millions we have +squandered! A majority that has lost thirteen provinces by +bullying and vapouring, and the most childish menaces, will be a +brave countermatch for France and Spain, and a rebellion in +Ireland! In short, it is plain that there is nothing a majority +in Parliament can do, but outvote a minority; and by their own +accounts one would think they could not even do that. I saw a +paper t'other day that began with this Iriscism, "As the minority +have lost us thirteen provinces," etc. I know nothing the +minority have done, or been suffered to do, but restore the Roman +Catholic religion-and that too was by the desire of the court. + +This is however the present style. They announced with infinite +applause a new production of Tickell:--it has appeared, and is a +most paltry performance. It is called the Cassette Verte of M. +de Sartine, and pretends to be his correspondence with the +opposition. Nay, they are so pitifully mean as to laugh at Dr. +Franklin, who has such thorough reason to sit and laugh at them. +What triumph it must be to him to see a miserable pamphlet all +the revenge they can take! There is another, still duller, called +Opposition Mornings, in which you are lugged in. In truth, it is +a compliment to any man to except him out of the number of those +that have contributed to the shocking disgraces inflicted on this +undone country. When Lord Chatham was minister, he never replied +to abuse but by a victory. + +I know no private news: I have been here ever since Tuesday, +enjoying my tranquillity, as much as an honest man can do who +sees his country ruined. It is just such a period as makes +philosophy wisdom. There are great moments when every man is +called on to exert himself-but when folly, infatuation, delusion, +incapacity, and profligacy fling a nation away, and it concurs +itself, and applauds its destroyers, a man who has lent no hand +to the mischief, and can neither prevent nor remedy the mass of +evils, is fully justified in sitting aloof and beholding the +tempest rage, with silent scorn and indignant compassion. Nay, I +have, I own, some comfortable reflections. I rejoice that there +is still a great continent of Englishmen who will remain free and +independent, and who laugh at the impotent majorities of a +prostitute Parliament. I care not whether General Burgoyne and +Governor Johnstone cross over and figure in, and support or +oppose; nor whether Mr. Burke, or the superior of the Jesuits, is +high commissioner to the kirk of Scotland. My ideas are such as +I have always had, and are too plain and simple to comprehend +modern confusions; and, therefore, they suit with those of few +men. What will be the issue of this chaos, I know not, and, +probably, shall not see. I do see with satisfaction, that what +was meditated has failed by the grossest folly; and when one has +escaped the worst, lesser evils must be endured with patience. + +After this dull effusion, I will divert you with a story that +made me laugh this morning till I cried. You know my Swiss +David, and his incomprehensible pronunciation. He came to me, +and said, "Auh! dar is Meses Ellis wants some of your large flags +to put in her great O." With much ado, I found out that Mrs. +Ellis had sent for leave to take up some flags out of my meadow +for her grotto. + +I hope in a few days to see Lady Ailesbury and Miss Jennings +here; I have writ to propose it. What are your intentions? Do +you stay till you have made your island impregnable? I doubt it +will be our only one that will be so. + +(360) On the breaking out of the war between this country and +America, Spain had offered to mediate between them; but, +receiving a refusal, she at once declared herself a principal in +the war and ready to fulfil the terms of the family compact.-E. + +(361) The Inquiry into the Conduct of the American war. + +(362) In the course of a debate in the House of Commons, on the +3d of June, +Governor Johnstone told Colonel Barr`e, that he was making a +scaramouch of himself. The Colonel got up to demand an +explanation, but the Speaker put an end to the altercation.-E. + + + +Letter 174 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, June 16, 1779. (page 227) + +Your Countess was here last Thursday, and received a letter from +you, that told us how slowly you receive ours. When you will +receive this I cannot guess; but it dates a new era, which you +with reason did not care to look at as possible. In a word, +behold a Spanish war! I must detail a little to increase your +wonder. I heard here the day before yesterday that it was +likely; and that night received a letter from Paris, telling me +(it was of the 6th) that Monsieur de Beauveau was going, they +knew not whither, at the head of twenty-five thousand men, with +three lieutenant-generals and six or eight mar`echaux de camp +under him. Yesterday I went to town, and Thomas Walpole happened +to call on me. He, who used to be informed early, did not +believe a word either of a Spanish war or a French expedition. I +saw some other persons in the evening as ignorant. At night I +went to sup at Richmond-house. The Duke said the Brest fleet was +certainly sailed, and had got the start of ours by twelve days: +that Monsieur de Beauveau was on board with a large sum of money, +and with white and red cockades; and that there would certainly +be a Spanish war. He added, that the Opposition were then +pressing in the House of Commons to have the Parliament continue +sitting, and urging to know if we were not at the eve of a +Spanish war; but the ministers persisted in the prorogation ,for +to-morrow or Friday, and would not answer on Spain. + +I said I would make you wonder-But no-Why should the Parliament +continue to sit? Are not the ministers and the Parliament the +same thing? And how has either House shown that it has any +talent for war? + +The Duke of Richmond does not guess whither the Brest fleet is +gone. He thinks, if to Ireland, we should have known it by this +time. He has heard that the Prince of Beauveau has said he was +going on an expedition that would be glorious in the eyes of +posterity. asked, if that might not mean Gibraltar? The Duke +doubts, but hopes it, as he thinks it no wise measure on their +side: yet he was very melancholy, as you will be, on this heavy +accession to our distresses. + +Well! here we are, aris et +focis and all at stake! What can we be meaning? Unable to +conquer America before she was assisted--scarce able to keep +France at bay--are we a match for both, and Spain too? What can +be our view? nay, what can be Our expectation? I sometimes +think we reckon it will be more creditable to be forced by France +and Spain to give up America, than to have the merit with the +latter of doing it with grace.-But, as Cato says, + +"I'm weary of conjectures--this must end them;" + +that is, the sword:--and never, I believe, did a Country Plunge +itself into such difficulties step by step, and for six years, +together, without once recollecting that each foreign war +rendered the object of the civil war more unattainable; and that +in both the foreign wars we have not an object in prospect. +Unable to recruit our remnant of an army in America, are we to +make conquests on France and Spain? They may choose their +attacks: we can scarce choose what we will defend. + +Ireland, they say, is more temperate than was expected. That is +some consolation-yet many fear the Irish will be tempted to unite +with America, which would throw all that trade into their +convenient harbours; and I own I have apprehensions that the +Parliament's rising without taking a step in their favour may +offend them. Surely at least we have courageous ministers. I +thought my father a stout man:--he had not a tithe of their +spirit. + +The town has wound up the season perfectly in character by a +f`ete at the Pantheon by subscription. Le Texier managed it; but +it turned out sadly. The company was first shut into the +galleries to look down on the supper, then let to descend to it. +Afterwards they were led into the subterraneous apartment, which +was laid with mould, and planted with trees, and crammed with +nosegays: but the fresh earth, and the dead leaves, and the +effluvia of breaths made such a stench and moisture, that they +were suffocated; and when they remounted, the legs and wings of +chickens, and remnants Of ham (for the supper was not removed) +poisoned them more. A druid in an arbour distributed verses to +the ladies; then the Baccelli(363) and the dancers of the Opera +danced; and then danced the company; and then it being morning, +and the candles burnt out, the windows were opened; and then the +stewed-danced assembly were such shocking figures, that they fled +like ghosts as they looked.--I suppose there +will be no more balls unless the French land, and then we shall +show we do not mind it. + +Thus I have told you all I know. You will ponder over these +things in your little distant island, when we have forgotten +them. There is another person, one Doctor Franklin, who, I +fancy, is not sorry that we divert ourselves so well. Yours +ever. + +(363) After the departure of Mademoiselle Heinel, no dancing so +much delighted the frequenters of the Opera as that of +Mademoiselle Baccelli and M. Vestris le jeune.-E. + + + +Letter 175 To The Hon. George Hardinge.(364) +Strawberry Hill, July 4, 1779. (page 229) + +I have now received the drawings of Grignan, and know not how to +express my satisfaction and gratitude but by a silly witticism +that is like the studied quaintness of the last age. In short, +they are so much more beautiful than I expected, that I am not +surprised at your having surprised me by exceeding even what I +expected from your well-known kindness to me; they are charmingly +executed, and with great taste. I own too that Grignan is +grander, and in a much finer situation, than I had imagined; as I +concluded that the witchery of Madame de S`evign`e's ideas and +style had spread the same leaf-gold over places with which she +gilded her friends. All that has appeared of them since the +publication of her letters has lowered them. A single letter of +her daughter, that to Paulina, with a description of the Duchess +of Bourbon's toilette, is worthy of the mother. Paulina's own +letters contain not a little worth reading: one just divines that +she might have written well if she had had any thing to write +about (which, however, would not have signified to her +grandmother.) Coulanges was a silly good-humoured glutton, that +flattered a rich widow for her dinners. His wife was sensible, +but dry, and rather peevish at growing old. Unluckily nothing +more has come to light of Madame de S`evign`e's son, whose short +letters in the collection I am almost profane enough to prefer to +his mother's; and which makes me astonished that she did not love +his wit, so unaffected, and so congenial to her own, in +preference to the eccentric and sophisticated reveries of her +sublime and ill-humoured daughter. Grignan alone maintains its +dignity, and shall be consecrated here among other monuments of +that bewitching period, and amongst which one loves to lose +oneself, and drink oblivion of an era so very unlike; for the +awkward bigots to despotism of our time have not Madame de +S`evign`e's address, nor can paint an Indian idol with an hundred +hands as graceful as the Apollo of the Belvidere. When will you +come and accept my thanks? will Wednesday next suit you? But do +you know that I must ask you not to leave your gown behind You, +which indeed I never knew you put on Willingly, but to come in +it. I shall want your protection at Westminster Hall. Yours +most cordially. + +(364) Son of Nicholas Hardinge, Esq. one of the joint secretaries +of the treasury, and member for the borough of Eye. He was +educated at Eton school, and finished his studies at Trinity +College, Cambridge, where Dr. Watson was his tutor, He was called +to the bar in 1769, and was subsequently appointed solicitor- +general to the Queen. in 1787, he was made a Welsh judge, and +died in 1816. In 1818, the works of this clever and eccentric +scholar were published, with an account of his life, by Mr. John +Nichols.-E. + + + +Letter 176 To The Countess Of Ailesbury. +Saturday night, July 10, 1779. (page 230) + +I could not thank your ladyship before the post went out to-day, +as I was getting into my chaise to go and dine at Carshalton with +my cousin Thomas Walpole when I received your kind inquiry about +my eye. It is quite well again, and I hope the next attack of +the gout will be any where rather than in that quarter. + +I did not expect Mr. Conway would think of returning just now. +As you have lost both Mrs. Damer and Lady William Campbell, I do +not see why your ladyship should not go to Goodwood. + +The Baroness's increasing peevishness does not surprise me. When +people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun +with nettles. She knows nothing of politics, and no wonder talks +nonsense about them. It is silly to wish three nations had but +one neck; but it is ten times more absurd to act as if it was so, +which the government has done;--ay, and forgetting, too, that it +has not a scimitar large enough to sever that neck, which they +have in effect made one. It is past the time, Madam, of making +Conjectures. How can one guess whither France and Spain will +direct a blow that is in their option? I am rather inclined to +think that they will have patience to ruin us in detail. +Hitherto France and America have carried their points by that +manoeuvre. Should there be an engagement at sea, and the French +and Spanish fleets, by their great superiority, have the +advantage, one knows not what might happen. Yet, though there +are such large preparations making on the French coast, I do not +much expect a serious invasion, as they are sure they can do us +more damage by a variety of other attacks, where we can make +little resistance. Gibraltar and Jamaica can but be the +immediate objects of Spain. Ireland is much worse guarded than +this island:--nay, we must be undone by our expense, should the +summer pass without any attempt. My cousin thinks they will try +to destroy Portsmouth and Plymouth--but I have seen nothing in +the present +French ministry that looks like bold enterprise. We are much +more adventurous, that set every thing to the hazard: but there +are such numbers of baronesses that both talk and act with +passion, that one would think the nation had lost its senses. +Every thing has miscarried that has been undertaken, and the +worse we succeed, the more is risked;--yet the nation is not +angry! How can one conjecture during such a delirium? I +sometimes almost think I must be in the wrong to be of so +contrary an opinion to most men--yet, when every Misfortune that +has happened had been foretold by a few, why should I not think I +have been in the right? Has not almost every single event that +has been announced as prosperous proved a gross falsehood, and +often a silly one? Are we not at this moment assured that +Washington cannot possibly amass an army of above 8000 men! and +yet Clinton, with 20,000 men, and with the hearts, as we are +told, too, of three parts of the colonies, dares not show his +teeth without the walls of New York? Can I be in the wrong in not +believing what is so contradictory to my senses We could not +Conquer America when it stood alone; then France supported it, +and we did not mend the matter. To make it still easier, we have +driven Spain into the alliance. Is this wisdom? Would it be +presumption, even if one were single, to think that we must have +the worst in such a contest? Shall I be like the mob, and expect +to conquer France and Spain, and then thunder upon America? Nay, +but the higher mob do not expect such success. They would not be +so angry at the house of Bourbon, if not morally certain that +those kings destroy all our passionate desire and expectation of +conquering America. We bullied, and threatened, and begged, and +nothing would do. Yet independence was still the word. Now we +rail at the two monarchs--and when they have banged us, we shall +sue to them as humbly as We did to the Congress. All this my +senses, such as they are, tell me has been and will be the case. +What is worse, all Europe is of the same opinion; and though +forty thousand baronesses may be ever SO angry, I venture to +prophesy that we shall make but a very foolish figure whenever we +are so lucky as to obtain a peace; and posterity, that may have +prejudices of its own, will still take the liberty to pronounce, +that its ancestors were a woful set of politicians from the year +1774 to--I wish I knew when. + +If I might advise, I would recommend Mr. Burrell to command the +fleet in the room of Sir Charles Hardy. The fortune of the +Burrells is powerful enough to baffle calculation. Good night, +Madam! + +P. S. I have not written to Mr. Conway since this day sevennight, +not having a teaspoonful of news to send him. I will beg your +ladyship to tell him so. + + + +Letter 177 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, July 12, 1779. (page 231) + +I am concerned, dear sir, that you gave yourself the trouble of +transcribing the catalogue and prices, which I received last +night, and for which I am exceedingly obliged to you. Partial as +I am to the pictures at Houghton, I confess I think them much +overvalued. My father's whole collection, of which alone he had +preserved the prices, cost but 40,000 pounds; and after his death +there were three sales of pictures, among which were all the +whole-lengths of Vandyke but three, which had been sent to +Houghton, but not fitting any of the ,spaces left, came back to +town. Few of the rest sold were very fine, but no doubt Sir +Robert had paid as dear for many of them; as purchasers are not +perfect connoisseurs at first. Many of the valuations are not +only exorbitant, but injudicious. They who made the estimate +seem to have considered the rarity of the hands more than the +excellence. Three-The, Magi's Offering, by Carlo Maratti, as it +is called, and two supposed Paul Veronese,-are very indifferent +copies, and yet all are roundly valued, and the first +ridiculously. I do not doubt of another picture in the +collection but the Last Supper, by Raphael, and yet this is set +down at 500 pounds. I miss three pictures, at least they are not +set down, the Sir Thomas Wharton, and Laud and Gibbons. The +first is most capital; yes, I recollect I have had some doubts on +the Laud, though the University of Oxford once offered 400 pounds +for it--and if Queen Henrietta is by Vandyke, it is a very +indifferent One. The affixing a higher value to the Pietro +Cortona than to the octagon Guido is most absurd--I have often +gazed on the latter, and preferred it even to the Doctor's. In +short, the appraisers were determined to see what the Czarina +Could give, rather than what the pictures were really worth--I am +glad she seems to think so, for I hear no more of the sale--it is +not very wise in me still to concern myself, at my age, about +what I have SO little interest in-it is still less wise to be so +anxious on trifles, when one's country is sinking. I do not know +which is most Mad, my nephew, or our ministers--both the one and +the other increase my veneration for the founder of Houghton! + +I will not rob you of the prints you mention, dear Sir; one of +them at least I know Mr. Pennant gave me. I do not admire him +for his punctiliousness with you. Pray tell me the name Of your +glass-painter; I do not think I shall want him, but it is not +impossible. Mr. Essex agreed With me, that Jarvis's windows for +Oxford, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, will not succeed. Most of his +colours are opake, and their great beauty depending on a spot of +light for Sun or moon, is an imposition. When his paintings are +exhibited at Charing-cross, all the rest of the room is darkened +to relieve them. That cannot be done at New College; or if done, +the chapel would be too dark. If there are other lights, the +effect will be lost. + +This sultry weather will, I hope, quite restore YOU; People need +not go to Lisbon and Naples, if we continue to have such summers. +Yours most sincerely. + + + +Letter 178 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, August 12, 1779. (page 232) + +I write from decency, dear Sir, not from having any thing +particular to say, but to thank you for your offer of letting me +see the arms of painted glass; which, however, I will decline, +lest it should be broken, and as at present I have no occasion to +employ the painter. If I build my offices, perhaps I may have; +but I have dropped that thought for this year. The disastrous +times do not inspire expense. Our alarms, I conclude, do not +ruffle your hermitage. We are returning to our state of +islandhood, and shall have little, I believe, to boast but of +what we have been. + +I see a History of Alien Priories announced;(365) do you know any +thing of it, or of the author? I am ever yours. + +(365) This was Mr. Gough's well-known work, entitled "Some +Account of the Alien Priories, and of such Lands as they are +known to have possessed in England and Wales," in two volumes +octavo.-E. + + + +Letter 179 To The Countess Of Ailesbury. +Strawberry Hill, Friday night, 1779. (page 233) + +I am not at all surprised, my dear Madam, at the intrepidity of +Mrs. Damer;(366) she always was the heroic daughter of a hero. +Her sense and coolness never forsake her. I, who am not so firm, +shuddered at your ladyship's account. Now that she has stood +fire for four hours, I hope she will give as clear proofs of her +understanding, of which I have as high opinion as of her courage, +and not return in any danger. + +I am to dine at Ditton to-morrow, and will certainly talk on the +subject You recommend; yet I am far, till I have heard more, from +thinking with your ladyship, that more troops and artillery at +Jersey would be desirable. Any considerable quantity of either, +especially of the former, cannot be spared at this moment, when +so big a cloud 'hangs over this island, nor would any number +avail if the French should be masters at sea. A large garrison +would but tempt the French thither, were it but to distress this +country; and, what is worse, would encourage Mr. Conway to make +an impracticable defence. If he is to remain in a situation so +unworthy of him, I confess I had rather he was totally incapable +of making any defence. I love him enough not to murmur at his +exposing himself where his country and his honour demand him; but +I would not have him measure himself in a place untenable against +very superior force. My present comfort is, as to him, that +France at this moment has a far vaster object. I have good +reason to believe the government knows that a great army is ready +to embark at St. Maloes, but will not stir till after a +sea-fight, which we do not know but may be engaged at this +moment. Our fleet is allowed to be the finest ever set forth by +this country; but it is inferior in number by seventeen ships to +the united squadron of the Bourbons. France, if successful, +means to pour in a vast many thousands on us, and has threatened +to burn the capital itself, Jersey, my dear Madam, does not enter +into a calculation of such magnitude. The moment is singularly +awful; yet the vaunts of enemies are rarely executed successfully +and ably. Have we trampled America under our foot? + +You have too good sense, Madam, to be imposed upon by my +arguments, if they are insubstantial. You do know that I have +had my terrors for Mr. Conway; but at present they are out of the +question, from the insignificance of his island. DO not listen +to rumours, nor believe a single one till it has been canvassed +over and over. Fear, folly, fifty Motives, Will coin new reports +every hour at such a conjuncture. When one is totally void of +credit and power, patience is the only wisdom. I have seen +dangers still more imminent. They were dispersed. Nothing +happens in proportion to what is meditated. Fortune, whatever +fortune is, is more constant than is the common notion. I do not +give this as one of my solid arguments, but I have encouraged +myself in being superstitious on the favourable side. I never, +like most superstitious people, believe auguries against my +wishes. We have been fortunate in the escape of Mrs. Damer, and +in the defeat at Jersey even before Mr. Conway arrived-, and +thence I depend on the same future prosperity. From the +authority of persons who do not reason on such airy hopes, I am +seriously persuaded, that if the fleets engage, the enemy will +not gain advantage without deep-felt loss, enough probably to +dismay their invasion. Coolness may succeed, and then +negotiation. Surely, if we, can weather the summer, we shall, +obstinate as we are against conviction, be compelled by the want +of money to relinquish our ridiculous pretensions, now proved to +be utterly impracticable; for, with an inferior navy at home, can +we assert sovereignty over America? It is a contradiction in, +terms and in fact. It may be hard of digestion to relinquish it, +but it is impossible to pursue it. Adieu, my dear Madam! I have +not left room for a line more. + +(366) The packet in which she was crossing from Dover to Ostend +was taken by a French frigate, after a running fight of several +hours. + + + +Letter 180 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 13, 1779. (page 234) + +I am writing to you at random; not knowing whether or when this +letter will go: but your brother told me last night that an +officer, whose name I have forgot, was arrived from Jersey, and +would return to you soon. I am sensible how very seldom I have +written to you-but you have been few moments out of my thoughts. +What they have been, you who know me so minutely may well guess, +and why they do not pass my lips. Sense, experience, +circumstances, can teach One to command one's self. outwardly, +but do not divest a most friendly heart of its feelings. I +believe the state of my Mind has contributed to bring on a very +weak and decaying body my present disorders. I have not been +well the whole summer; but for these three weeks much otherwise. +It has at last ended in the gout, which to all appearance will be +a short fit. + +On public affairs I cannot speak. Every thing is so exaggerated +on all sides, that what grains of truth remain in the sieve would +appear cold and insipid; and the great manoeuvres you learn as +soon as I. In the naval battle between Byron and D'Estaing, our +captains were worthy of any age in our story. + +You may imagine how happy I am at Mrs. Damer's return, and at her +not being at Naples, as she was likely to have been, at the +dreadful explosion of Vesuvius.(367) Surely it will have glutted +Sir William's rage for volcanoes! How poor Lady Hamilton's nerves +stood it I do not conceive. Oh, mankind! mankind! Are there not +calamities enough in store for us, but must destruction be our +amusement and pursuit? + +I send this to Ditton,(368) where it may wait some days; but I +would not suffer a sure opportunity to slip without a line. You +are more obliged to me for all I do not say, than for whatever +eloquence itself could pen. + +P. S. I unseal my letter to add, that undoubtedly you will come +to the Meeting of Parliament, which will be in October. Nothing +can or ever did make me advise you to take a step unworthy of +yourself. But surely you have higher and more sacred duties than +the government of a mole-hill! + +(367) On the 10th of August when the eruption was so great, that +several villages were destroyed; a hunting seat belonging to the +King of Naples, called Caccia Bella, shared the like fate.-E. + +(368) Where Lord Hertford had then a +villa. + + + +Letter 181 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Nov. 16, 1779. (page 235) + +You ought not to accuse yourself only, when I have been as silent +as you. Surely we have been friends too long to admit ceremony +as a go-between. I have thought of writing to you several times, +but found I had nothing worth telling you. I am rejoiced to hear +your health has been better: mine has been worse the whole summer +and autumn than ever it was without any positive distemper, and +thence I conclude it is a failure in my constitution-of which, +being a thing of course, we will say no more-nobody but a +physician is bound to hear what he cannot cure-and if we will pay +for what we cannot expect, it is our own fault. + +I have seen Doctor Lort, who seems pleased with becoming a limb +of Canterbury. I heartily wish the mitre may not devolve before +it has beamed substantially on him. In the meantime he will be +delighted with ransacking the library at Lambeth; and, to do him +justice, his ardour is literary, not interested. + +I am much obliged to you, dear Sir, for taking the trouble of +transcribing Mr. Tyson's Journal, which is entertaining. But I +am so Ignorant as not to know where Hatfield Priory is. The +three heads I remember on the gate at Whitehall; there were five +more. The whole demolished structure was transported to the +great Park at Windsor, by the late Duke of Cumberland, who +intended to re-edify it, but never did; and now I suppose + +Its ruins ruined, as its Place no more. + +I did not know what was become of the heads, and am glad any are +preserved. I should doubt their being the works of Torregiano. +Pray who is Mr. Nichols, who has published the Alien Priories; +there are half a dozen or more pretty views of French cathedrals. +I cannot say that I found any thing else in the book that amused +me-but as you deal more in ancient lore than I do, perhaps you +might be better pleased. + +I am told there is a new History of Gloucestershire, very large, +but ill executed, by one Rudder(369)--still I have sent for it, +for Gloucestershire is a very historic country. + +It was a wrong scent on which I employed you. The arms I have +impaled were certainly not Boleyn's. You lament removal of +friends -alas! dear Sir, when one lives to our age, one feels +that in a higher degree than from their change of place! but one +must not dilate those common moralities. You see by my date I +have changed place myself. I am got into an excellent, +comfortable, cheerful house; and as, from necessity and +inclination, I live much more at home than I used to do, it is +very agreeable to be so pleasantly lodged, and to be in a warm +inn as one passes through the last Vale. Adieu! Yours ever. + +(369) "The History and Antiquities of Gloucestershire; comprising +the Topography, Antiquities, Curiosities, Produce, Trade, and +Manufactures of that County:" by Samuel Rudder, printer, +Cirencester, folio.-E. + + + +Letter 182 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Dec. 1779. (page 236) + +I have two good reasons against writing: nothing to say and a +lame muffled hand; and therefore I choose to write to you, for it +shows remembrance. For these six weeks almost I have been a +prisoner with the gout, but begin to creep about my room. How +have you borne the late deluge and the present frost? How do you +like an earl-bishop?(370) Had not we one before in ancient days? +I have not a book in town; but was not there Anthony Beck, or a +Hubert de Burgh, that was Bishop of Durham and Earl of Kent, or +have I confounded them? + +Have you seen Rudder's new History of Gloucestershire? His +additions to Sir Robert Atkyns make it the most sensible history +of a county that we have had yet; for his descriptions of the +scite, soil, products, and prospects of each parish are extremely +good and picturesque; and he treats fanciful prejudices, and +Saxon etymologies, when unfounded, and traditions, with due +contempt. + +I will not spin this note any further, but shall be glad of a +line to tell me you are well. I have not seen Mr. Lort since he +roosted under the metropolitan Wings of his grace of Lambeth. +Yours ever. + +(370) The Hon. and Rev, Frederick Hervey, bishop of Derry, had +just succeeded to the earldom of Bristol, as fifth Earl, by the +death of his brother. Hardy, in his memoirs of Lord Charlemont +gives the following account of this singular man:--"His family +was famous for talents, equally so for eccentricity; and the +eccentricity of the whole race shone out and seemed to be +concentrated in him. In one respect he was not unlike Villiers +Duke of Buckingham, 'every thing by starts, and nothing long!' +Generous, but uncertain; splendid, but fantastical; an admirer of +the fine arts, without any just selection: engaging, often +licentious in conversation- extremely polite, extremely violent. +His distribution of church livings, chiefly, as I have been +informed, among the older and respectable clergy in his own +diocese, must always be mentioned with that warm approbation +which it is justly entitled to. His progress from his diocese to +the metropolis, and his entrance into it, were perfectly +correspondent to the rest of his conduct. Through every town on +the road, he seemed to court, and was received with, all warlike +honours; and I remember seeing him pass by the Parliament-house +in Dublin (Lords and Commons were then both sitting), escorted by +a body of dragoons, full of spirits and talk, apparently enjoying +the eager gaze of the surrounding multitude, and displaying +altogether the self-complacency of a favourite marshal of France +on his way to Versailles, rather than the grave deportment of a +prelate of the Church of England." He died in 1803.-E. + + + +Letter 183 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Jan. 5, 1780. (page 237) + +When you said that you feared that your particular account of +your very providential escape would deter me from writing to you +again, I am sure, dear Sir, that you spoke only from modesty, and +not from thinking me capable of being so criminally indifferent +to any thing, much less under such danger as you have run, that +regards so old a friend, and one to whom I owe so many +obligations. I am but too apt to write letters on trifling or no +occasion's: and should certainly have told you the interest I +take in your accident, and how happy I am that it had no +consequences of any sort. It is hard that temperance itself, +which you are, should be punished for a good-natured +transgression of your own rules, and where the excess was only +staying out beyond your usual hour. I am heartily glad you did +not jump out of your chaise; it has often been a much worse +precaution than any consequences from risking to remain in it; as +you are lame too, might have been very fatal. Thank God! all +ended so well. Mr. Masters seems to have been more frightened, +with not greater reason. What an absurd man to be impatient to +notify a disagreeable event to you, and in so boisterous a +manner, and which he could not know was true, since it was not! + +I shall take extremely kind your sending me your picture in +glass. I have carefully preserved the slight outline of yourself +in a gown and nightcap, which you once was' so good as to give +me, because there was some likeness to your features. though it +is too old even now. For a portrait of me in return you might +have it by sending the painter to the anatomical school, and +bidding him draw the first skeleton he sees. I should expect any +limner would laugh in my face if I offered it to him to be +copied. + +I thought I had confounded the ancient count-bishops, as I had, +and YOU have set me right. The new temporal-ecclesiastical peers +estate is more than twelve thousand a Year, though I can scarce +believe it is eighteen, as the last lord said. + +The picture found near the altar in Westminster-Abbey, about +three years ago, was of King Sebert; I saw it, and it was well +preserved, with some others worse--but they have foolishly buried +it again behind their new altar-piece; and so they have a very +fine tomb of Ann of Cleve, close to the altar, which they did not +know till I told them whose it was, though her arms are upon it, +and though there is an exact plate of it in Sandford. They might +at least have cut out the portraits, and removed them to a +conspicuous situation; but though this age is grown so +antiquarian, it has not gained a grain more of sense in that +walk--witness as you instance in Mr. Grose's Legends, and in the +dean and chapter reburying the crown, robes, and sceptre of +Edward I.--there would surely have been as much piety in +preserving them in their treasury, as in consigning them again to +decay. I did not know that the salvation of robes and crowns +depended on receiving Christian burial. At the same time, the +chapter transgress that prince's will, like all their +antecessors; for he ordered his tomb to be opened every year or +two years, and receive a new cerecloth or pall; but they boast +now of having enclosed him so substantially that his ashes cannot +be violated again. + +It was the present Bishop Dean who showed me the pictures and +Ann's tomb, and consulted me on the new altar-piece. I advised +him to have a light octangular canopy, like the cross at +Chichester, placed over the table or altar itself, which would +have given dignity to it, especially if elevated by a flight of +steps; and from the side arches of the octacon, I would have had +a semicircle of open arches that should have advanced quite to +the seats of the prebends, which would have discovered the +pictures; and through the octagon itself you would have perceived +the shrine of Edward the Confessor, which is much higher than the +level of the choir--but men who ask advice seldom follow it, if +you do not happen to light on the same ideas with themselves. + +P. S. The Houghton pictures are not lost-but to Houghton and +England!(371) + +(371) They had been sold to the Empress of Russia in the +preceding September, and immediately transferred to that +country.-E. + + + +Letter 184 To Robert Jephson, Esq.(372) +Berkeley Square, January 25, 1780. (page 238) + +It was but yesterday, Sir, that I received the favour of your +letter, and this morning I sent, according to your permission, to +Mr. Sheridan the elder, to desire the manuscript of your +tragedy;(373) for as I am but just recovering of a fit of the +gout, which I had severely for above two months, I was not able +to bear the fatigue of company at home; nor could I have had the +pleasure of attending to the piece so much as I wished to do, if +I had invited ladies to hear it, to whom I must have been doing +the honours. + +I have read your play once, Sir, rapidly, though alone, and +therefore cannot be very particular on the details; but I can say +already, with great truth, that you have made a great deal more +than I thought possible out of the skeleton of a story.; and have +arranged it so artfully, that unless I am deceived by being too +familiar with it, it will be -very intelligible to the audience, +even if they have not read the original fable; and you have had +the address to make it coherent, without the marvellous, though +so much depended on that part. In short, you have put my +extravagant materials in an alembic, and drawn off only what was +rational. + +Your diction is very beautiful, often poetic, and yet what I +admire, very simple and natural; and when necessary, rapid, +concise, and sublime. + +If I did not distrust my own self-love, I should say that I think +it must be a very interesting piece: and yet I might say so +without vanity, so much of the disposition of the scenes is your +own. I do not yet know, Sir, what alterations you propose to +make; nor do I perceive where the second and fourth acts want +amendment. The first in your manuscript is imperfect. If I +wished for any correction, it would be to shorten the scene in +the fourth act between the Countess, Adelaide, and Austin, which +rather delays the impatience of the audience for the catastrophe, +and does not contribute to it, but by the mother's orders to the +daughter at the end of the scene to repair to the great church. +In the last scene I should wish to have Theordore fall into a +transport of rage and despair immediately on the death of +Adelaide, and be carried off by Austin's orders; for I doubt the +interval is too long for him to faint after Narbonne's speech. +The fainting, fit, I think, might be better applied to the +Countess; it does not seem requisite that she should die, but the +audience might be left in suspense about her. + +My last observations will be very trifling indeed, Sir; but I +think you use nobleness, niceness, etc. too often, which I doubt +are not classic terminations for nobility, nicety, etc. though I +allow that nobility will not always express nobleness. My +children's timeless deaths can scarce be said for untimely; nor +should I choose to employ children's as a plural genitive case, +which I think the s at the end cannot imply. "Hearted +preference" is very bold for preference taken to heart. Raymond, +in the last scene says-- + +"Show me thy wound--oh, hell! 'tis through her heart!" + +This line is quite unnecessary, and infers an obedience in +displaying her wound which would be shocking; besides, as there +is often a buffoon in an audience at a new tragedy, it might be +received dangerously. The word "Jehovah" will certainly not be +suffered on the stage. + +In casting the parts I conclude Mrs. Yates, as women never cease +to like acting young parts, would prefer that of Adelaide, though +the Countess is more suitable to her age; and it is foolish to +see her representing the daughter of women fifteen or twenty +years younger. As my bad health seldom allows of my going to the +theatre, I never saw Mr. Henderson but once. His person and +style should recommend him to the parts of Raymond or Austin. +Smith, I suppose, would expect to be Theodore; but Lewis is +younger, handsomer, and, I think, a better actor; but you are in +the right, Sir, in having no favourable idea of our stage at +present. + +I am sorry, Sir, that neither my talents nor health allow me to +offer to supply you with Prologue and Epilogue. Poetry never was +my natural turn; and what little propensity I had to it, is +totally extinguished by age and pain. It is honour enough to me +to have furnished the canons of your tragedy; I should disgrace +it by attempting to supply adventitious ornaments. The +clumsiness of the seams would betray my gouty fingers. I shall +take the liberty of reading your play once more before I return +it. It will be extraordinary indeed if it is not accepted, but I +cannot doubt but it will be, and very successful; though it will +be great pity but you should have some zealous friend to attend +to it, and who is able to bustle, and see justice done to it by +the managers. I lament that such a superannuated being as myself +is not only totally incapable Of that office, but that I am +utterly' unacquainted -with the managers, and now too retired to +form new Connexions. I was still more concerned, Sir, to hear of +your unhappy accident, though the bad consequences are past. + +(372) now first published. + +(373) Mr. Jephson's tragedy of The Count of Narbonne, founded on +Walpole's Gothic story of the Castle of Otranto. It will be +seen, that it was brought out, in the following year, With +considerable success, at Covent Garden theatre. "On Friday +evening" says Hannah More, in a letter to one of her sisters, "I +went to Mr. Tighe's to hear him read Jephson's tragedy. +'Praise,' says Dr. Johnson, 'is a tribute which every man is +expected to pay for the grant of perusing a manuscript;' and +indeed I could praise without hurting my Conscience, for The +Count of Narbonne has considerable merit; the language is very +Poetical, and parts of the fable very interesting; the plot +managed with art, and the characters well drawn. The love scenes +I think are the worst: they are prettily written, and full of +flowers, but are rather cold; they have more poetry than passion. +I do not mean to detract from Mr. Jephson's merit by this remark; +for it does not lessen a poet's fame to say he excels more in +Painting the terrible, than the tender passions."-Memoirs, vol. +i, P, 206.-E. + + + +Letter 185 To Robert Jephson, Esq.(374) +Berkeley Square, Jan. 27, 1780. (page 240) + +I have returned Your tragedy, Sir, to Mr. Sheridan, after having +read it again, and without wishing any more alterations than the +few I hinted before. There may be some few incorrectnesses, but +none of much consequence. I must -again applaud your art and +judgment, Sir, in having made so rational a play out of my wild +tale - and where you have changed the arrangement of the +incidents, you have applied them to great advantage The +Characters of the mother and daughter you have rendered more +natural by giving jealousy to the mother, and more passion to the +daughter. In short, you have both honoured and improved my +outlines: my vanity is content, and truth enjoins me to do +justice. Bishop Warburton, in his additional notes to Pope's +works, which I saw in print in his bookseller's hands, though +they have not yet been published, observed that the plan of The +Castle of Otranto was regularly a drama(375) (an intention I am +sure I do not pretend to have conceived; nor, indeed, can I +venture to affirm that I had any intention at all but to amuse +myself--no, not even a plan, till some pages were written). You, +Sir, have realized his idea, and yet I believe the Bishop would +be surprised to see how well you have succeeded. One cannot be +quite ashamed of one's follies, if genius condescends to adopt, +and put them to a sensible use. Miss Aikin flattered me even by +stooping to tread in my eccentric steps. Her " Fragment," though +but a specimen, showed her talent for imprinting terror. I +cannot compliment the author of the " Old English Baron," +professedly written in imitation, but as a corrective of The +Castle of Otranto. It was totally void of imagination and +interest, had scarce 'any incidents, and, though it condemned the +marvellous, admitted a ghost. I suppose the author thought a +tame ghost might come within the laws of probability. You alone, +Sir, have kept within nature, and made superstition supply the +place of phenomenon, yet acting as the agent of divine justice--a +beautiful use of bigotry. + +I was mistaken in thinking the end of the first act deficient. +The leaves stuck together, and, there intervening two or three +blank pages between the first and second acts, I examined no +farther, but concluded the former imperfect, which on the second +reading I found it was not. + +I imagine, Sir, that the theatres of Dublin cannot have fewer +good Performers than those of London; may I ask why you prefer +ours? Your own directions and instructions would be of great +advantage to your play; especially if you suspect antitragic +prejudices in the managers. You, too, would be the best judge of +the rehearsal of what might be improvements. Managers will take +liberties, and often curtail necessary speeches, so as to produce +nonsense. Methinks it is unkind to send a child, of which you +have so much reason to be proud, to a Foundling Hospital. + +(374) NOW first printed. + + +(375) Bishop Warburton's panegyric on the Castle of Otranto +appears in a note to the following lines in Pope's imitation of +one of Horace's epistles:-- + +"Then peers grew proud in horsemanship t'excel, +Newmarket's glory rose as Britain's fell' +The soldier breathed the gallantries of France, +And ev'ry flow'ry courtier Writ Romance." + +"Amidst all this nonsense," says the Bishop, "when things were at +the worst, we have been lately entertained with what I will +venture to call, a masterpiece in the Fable; and of a new species +likewise. The piece I mean is, The Castle of Otranto. The scene +is laid in Gothic chivalry; where a beautiful imagination, +supported by strength of judgment, has enabled the author to go +beyond his Subject, and effect the full purpose of the ancient +tragedy; that is, to purge the passions by Pity and terror, in +colouring as great and harmonious as in any of the best dramatic +writers."-E. + + + +Letter 186 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 5, 1780. (PAGE 242) + +I have been turning over the new second volume of the Biographia, +and find the additions very poor and lean performances. The +lives entirely new are partial and flattering, being +contributions of the friends of those whose lives are recorded. +This publication made at a time when I have lived to see several +of my contemporaries deposited in this national temple of fame +has made me smile, and reflect that many preceding authors, who +have been installed there with much respect, may have been as +trifling personages as those we have l(nown and now behold +consecrated to memory. Three or four have struck me +particularly, as Dr. Birch,(376) who was a worthy, good-natured +soul, full of industry and activity, and running about like a +young setting-dog in quest of any thing, new or old, and with no +parts, taste, or judgment. Then there is Dr. Blackwell,(377) the +most impertinent literary coxcomb upon earth--but the editor has +been so just as to insert a very merited satire on his Court of +Augustus. + +The third is Dr. Brown, that mountebank, who for a little time +made as much noise by his Estimate, as ever quack did by a +nostrum. I do not know if I ever told you how much I was struck +the only time I ever saw him. You know one object, and the +anathemas of his Estimate was the Italian Opera; yet did I find +him one evening, in Passion Week, accompanying some of the +Italian singers, at a concert at Lady Carlisle's. A clergyman, +no doubt, is not obliged to be on his knees the whole week before +Easter, and music and a concert are harmless amusements; but when +Cato or Calvin are out of character, reformation becomes +ridiculous--but poor Dr. Brown was mad,(378) and therefore might +be in earnest, whether he played the fool or the reformer. + +You recollect, perhaps, the threat of Dr. Kippis to me, which is +to be executed on my father, for my calling the first edition of +the Biographia the Vindicatio Britannica--but observe how truth +emerges at last! In his new volume he confesses that the article +of Lord Arlington, which I had specified as one of the most +censurable, is the one most deserving that censure, and that the +character of Lord Arlington is palliated beyond all truth and +reason"-words stronger than mine--yet mine deserved to draw +vengeance on my father! so a Presbyterian divine inverts divine +judgment, and visits the sins of the children on the parents! + +Cardinal Beaton's character, softened in the first edition, +gentle Dr. Kippis pronounces "extremely detestable"--yet was I to +blame for hinting such defects in that work!--and yet my words +are quoted to show that Lord Orrery's poetry was ridiculously +bad. In like manner Mr. Cumberland, who assumes the whole honour +of publishing his grandfather's Lucan, and does not deign to +mention its being published at Strawberry Hill, (though by the +way I believe it will be oftener purchased for having been +printed there, than for wearing Mr. Cumberland's name to the +dedication,) and yet he quotes me for having praised his ancestor +in one of my publications. These little instances of pride and +spleen divert me, and then make me reflect sadly on human +weaknesses. I am very apt myself to like what flatters my +opinions or passions, and to reject scornfully what thwarts them, +even in the same persons. The more one lives, the more one +discovers one's uglinesses in the features of others! Adieu! dear +Sir; I hope you do not suffer by this severe season. + +P. S. I remember two other instances, where my impartiality, or +at least sincerity, have exposed me to double censure. You +perhaps condemned my severity on Charles the First; yet the late +Mr. Hollis wrote against me in the newspapers, for condemning the +republicans for their destruction of ancient monuments. Some +blamed me for undervaluing the Flemish and Dutch pictures in my +preface to the Aedes Walpolianae. Barry the painter, because I +laughed at his extravagances, says, in his rejection of that +school, "But I leave them to be admired by the Hon. Horace +Walpole, and such judges." +Would not one think I had been their champion! + +(376) See vol. i. p. 434, letter 177.-E. + +(377) Dr. Thomas Blackwell, principal of the Marischal College in +Aberdeen. Besides the above work, he wrote "An Enquiry into the +Life and Writings of Homer," and "Letters concerning Mythology." +He died in 1757. + +(378) In September, 1766, he destroyed himself in a fit of +insanity. See vol. ii. p. 232, letter 119, note 234.-E. + + + +Letter 187 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 27, 1780. (PAGE 243) + +Unapt as you are to inquire after news, dear Sir, you wish to +have Admiral Rodney's victory confirmed.(379) I can now assure +you, that he has had a considerable advantage, and took at least +four Spanish men-of-war, and an admiral, who they say is since +dead of his wounds. We must be glad of these deplorable +successes--but I heartily wish we had no longer occasion to hope +for the destruction of any of our species but, alas! it looks as +if devastation would still open new fields of blood! The +prospect darkens even at home--but, however you and I may differ +in our political principles, it would be happy. if every body +would pursue others with as little rancour. How seldom does it +happen in political contests, that any side can count any thing +but its wounds! your habitudes seclude you from meddling in our +divisions; so do my age and my illnesses me. Sixty-two is not a +season for bustling among young partisans. Indeed, if the times +grow perfectly serious, I shall not wish to reach sixty-three. +Even a superannuated spectator is then a miserable being; for +though insensibility is one of the softenings of old age, neither +one's feelings nor enjoyments can be accompanied with +tranquillity. We veterans must hide ourselves in inglorious +security, and lament what we cannot prevent; nor shall be +listened to, till misfortunes have brought the actors to their +senses; and then it will be too late, or they will calm +themselves faster than they could preach--but I hope the +experience of the last century will have some operation and check +our animosities. Surely, too, we shall recollect the ruin a +civil war would bring on, when accompanied by such collaterals as +French and Spanish wars. Providence alone can steer us amidst +all these rocks. I shall watch the interposition of its aegis +with anxiety and humility. It saved us this last summer, and +nothing else I am sure did; but often the mutual follies of +enemies are the instruments Of Heaven. If it pleases not to +inspire wisdom, I shall be content if it extricates us by the +reciprocal blunders and oversights of all parties--of which, at +least, we ought never to despair. It is almost my systematic +belief, that as cunning and penetration are seldom exerted for +good ends, it is the absurdity of mankind that often acts as a +succedaneum, and carries on and maintains the equilibrium that +Heaven designed should subsist. Adieu, dear Sir! Shall we live +to lay down our heads in peace? Yours ever. + +28th.--A second volume of Sir George Rodney's exploits arrived +to-day. I do not know the authentic circumstances, for I have +not been abroad yet, but they say he has taken four more Spanish +ships of the line and five frigates; of the former, one of ninety +guns. Spain was sick of the war before--how fortunate if she +would renounce it! + +I have just got a new History of Leicester, in six small volumes. +It seems to be superficial; but the author is young, and talks +modestly which, if it Will not serve instead of merit, makes one +at least hope he will improve, and not grow insolent on age and +more knowledge. I have also received from Paris a copy of an +illumination from La Cit`e des Dames of Christina of Pisa, in the +French King's library. There is her own portrait with three +allegoric figures. I have learnt much more about her, and of +her amour with an English peer;(380) but I have not time to say +more at present. + +(379) Admiral Sir George Rodney, who had been despatched to the +relief of Gibraltar, the garrison of which was much distressed +for provisions, after taking a convoy of Spanish ships bound to +the Caraccas, fell in, on the 16th of February off Cape St. +Vincent, with the Spanish fleet, commanded +by Don Juan Langara, which he defeated, and captured + four sail of the line.-E. + +(380) John Montacute, Earl of Salisbury; who arriving in Paris, +as ambassador from Richard II. to demand in marriage the Princess +Isabel, daughter of Charles V., soon after the death of Castel, +the husband of Christine, was so struck with her beauty and +accomplishments as to offer her his hand. This Christine +respectfully declined; upon which the Earl bade adieu to love, +renounced marriage, and, with her consent, brought her eldest son +with him to England, to educate and protect.-E. + + + +Letter 188 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. + +Berkeley Square, March 6, 1780. (PAGE 245) + +I have this moment received your portrait in glass, dear Sir, and +am impatient to thank you for it, and tell you how much I value +it. It is better executed than I own I expected, and yet I am +not quite satisfied with it. The drawing is a little incorrect, +the eyes too small in proportion, and the mouth exaggerated. In +short, it is a strong likeness of your features, but not of your +countenance, which is better, and more serene. However, I am +enough content to place it at Strawberry amongst all my +favourite, brittle, transitory relics, which will soon vanish +with their founder--and with his no great unwillingness for +himself. + +I take it ill, that you should think I should suspect you of +asking indirectly for my Noble Authors-and much more if you would +not be so free as to ask for them directly-a most trifling +present surely--and from you who have made me a thousand! I know +I have some copies in my old house in Arlington-street, I hope of +both volumes, I am sure of the second. I will soon go thither +and look for them. + +I have gone through the six volumes of Leicester. The author is +so modest and so humble, that I am quite sorry it is so very bad +a work; the arrangement detestable, the materials trifling, his +reflections humane but silly. He disposes all under reigns of +Roman emperors and English kings, whether they did any thing or +nothing at Leicester. I am sorry I have such predilection for +the histories of particular counties and towns: there certainly +does not exist a worse class of reading. + +Dr. E. made me a visit last week. He is not at all less +vociferous for his disgrace. I wish I had any Guinea-fowls. I +can easily get you some eggs from Lady Ailesbury, and will ask +her for some, that you may have the pleasure of rearing your own +chicks--but how can you bear their noise? they are more +discordant and clamorous than peacocks. How shall I convey the +eggs? + +I smiled at Dr. Kippis's bestowing the victory on Dean Milles, +and a sprig on Mr. Masters. I regard it as I should, if the +sexton of Broad Street St. Giles's were to make a lower bow to a +cheese-monger of his own parish than to me. They are all three +haberdashers of small wares, and welcome to each other's +civilities. When such men are summoned to a jury on one of their +own trade, it is natural they should be partial. They do not +reason, but recollect how much themselves have overcharged some +yards of buckram. Adieu! + +P. S. Mr. Pennicott has shown me a most curious and delightful +picture. It is Rose, the royal gardener, presenting the first +pine-apple ever raised in England to Charles II. They are In a +garden, with a view of a good private house, such as there are +several at Sunbury and about london. It is by far the best +likeness of the King I ever saw; the countenance cheerful, +good-humoured, and very sensible. He is in brown, lined with +orange, and many black ribands, a large flapped hat, dark wig, +not tied up, nor yet bushy, a point cravat, no waistcoat, and a +tasselled handkerchief, hanging from a low pocket. The whole is +of the smaller landscape size, and extremely well coloured, with +perfect harmony. \It was a legacy from London, grandson of him +who was partner with Wise. + + + +Letter 189 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, March 13, 1780.(PAGE 246) + +You compliment me, my good friend, on a sagacity that is surely +very common. How frequently do we see portraits that have +catched the features and missed the countenance or character, +which is far more difficult to hit; nor is it unfrequent to hear +that remark made. + +I have confessed to you that I am fond of local histories. It is +the general execution of them that I condemn, and that I call +"the worst kind of reading." I cannot comprehend but that they +might be performed with taste. I did mention this winter the new +edition of Atkyns's Gloucestershire, as having additional +descriptions of situations that I thought had merit. I have just +got another, a View of Northumberland, in two volumes, quarto, +with cuts;(381) but I do not devour it fast; for the author's +predilection is to Roman antiquities, which, such as are found in +this island, are very indifferent, and inspire me with little +curiosity. A barbarous country, so remote from the seat of +empire, and occupied by a few legions that very rarely decided +any great events, is not very interesting, though one's own +country; nor do I care a straw for a stone that preserves the +name of a standard-bearer of a cohort, or of a colonel's +daughter. Then I have no patience to read the tiresome disputes +of antiquaries to settle forgotten names of vanished towns, and +to prove that such a village was called something else in +Antoninus's Itinerary. I do not say the Gothic antiquities I +like are of more importance; but at least they exist. The site +of a Roman camp, of which nothing remains but a bank, gives me +not the smallest pleasure. One knows they had square camps-has +one a clearer idea from the spot, which is barely +distinguishable? How often does it happen, that the lumps of +earth are so imperfect, that it is never clear whether they are +Roman, Druidic, Danish, or Saxon fragments: the moment it is +uncertain, it is plain they furnish no specific idea of art or +history, and then I neither desire to see or read them. I have +been diverted, too, by another work, in which I am personally a +little concerned. Yesterday was published an octavo, pretending +to contain the correspondence of Hackman and Miss Ray, that he +murdered.(382) I doubt whether the letters are genuine; and yet, +if fictitious, they are executed well, and enter into his +character: hers appears less natural, and yet the editors were +certainly more likely to be in the possession of hers than his. +It is not probable that Lord Sandwich should have sent what he +found in her apartments to the press. No account is pretended to +be given of how they came to light. + +You will wonder how I should be concerned in this correspondence, +who never saw either of the lovers in my days. In fact, my being +dragged in is a reason for doubting the authenticity; nor can I +believe that the long letter in which I am frequently mentioned +could be written by the wretched lunatic. It pretends that Miss +Ray desired him to give her a particular account of Chatterton. +He does give a most ample one; but is there a glimpse of +probability that a being so frantic should have gone to Bristol, +and sifted Chatterton's sister and others with as much cool +curiosity as Mr. Lort could do? and at such a moment! Besides, he +murdered Miss Ray, I think, in March; my printed defence was not +at all dispersed before the preceding January or February, nor do +I conceive that Hackman could even see it. There are notes, +indeed, by the editor, who has certainly seen it; but I rather +imagine that the editor, whoever he is, composed the whole +volume. I am acquitted of' being accessory to the man's death, +which is gracious; but much blamed for speaking of his bad +character, and for being too hard on his forgeries, though I took +so much pains to Specify the innocence of them; and for his +character, I only quoted the words of his own editor and +panegyrist. I did not repeat what Dr. Goldsmith told me at the +Royal Academy, where I first heard of his death, that he went by +the appellation of the "Young Villain;" but it is not new to me, +as you know, to be blamed by two opposite parties. The editor +has in one place confounded me and my uncle; who, he says, as is +true, checked Lord Chatham for being too forward a young man in +1740. In that year I was not even come into Parliament; and must +have been absurd indeed if I had taunted Lord Chatham with youth, +who was, at least, six or seven years younger than he was; and +how could he reply by reproaching me with old age, who was then +not twenty-three? I shall make no answer to these absurdities, +nor to any part of the work. Blunder, I see, people will, and +talk of what they do not understand @ and what care I? There is +another trifling mistake of still less consequence. The editor +supposes it was Macpherson who communicated Ossian to me. It was +Sir David Dalrymple who sent me the first specimen.(383) +Macpherson did once come to me, but my credulity was then a +little shaken. + +Lady Ailesbury has promised me Guinea-eggs for you, but they have +not yet begun to lay I am well acquainted with Lady Craven's +little tale, dedicated to me.(384) It is careless and incorrect, +but there are very pretty things in it. I will stop, for I fear +I have written to you too much lately. One you did not mention: +I think it was of the 28th of last month. + +(381) "A View of Northumberland; with an Excursion to the Abbey +of Melrose, Scotland, in the year 1776;" by William Hutchinson, +F. A. S. Two volumes 4to.; 1778-80.-E. + +(382) the work here alluded to was written by Sir Herbert Croft, +Bart. It was a compound of fact and fiction called "Love and +Madness, a Story too true, in a Series of Letters between +Parties, whose names would, perhaps, be mentioned, were they less +known or less lamented. London, 1780." The work ran through +several editions. In 1800, Sir Herbert published, "Chatterton +and Love and Madness, in a Letter from Sir Herbert Croft to Mr. +Nichols." Boswell says, that Dr. Johnson greatly disapproved of +mingling real facts with fiction, and on this account censured +"Love and Madness."-E. + + +(383) See vol. iii. p. 63, letter 25, note 64.-E. + +(384) Entitled "The Miniature Picture."-E. + + + +Letter 190 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, March 30, 1780. (page 248) + +I cannot be told that you are extremely ill, and refrain from +begging to hear that you are better. Let me have but one line; +if it is good, 'it will satisfy me. If you was not out of order, +I would scold you for again making excuses about the Noble +Authors; it was not kind to be so formal about a trifle. + +We do not differ so much in politics as you think, for when they +grow too serious, they are so far from inflaming my zeal, they +make me more moderate: and I can as easily discern the faults on +my own side as on the other; nor would assist Whigs more than +Tories in altering the constitution. The project of annual +parliaments, or of adding a hundred members to the House of +Commons would, I think, be very unwise, and will never have my +approbation--but a temperate man is not likely to be listened to +in turbulent times; and when one has not youth and lungs, or +ambition, to make oneself attended to, one can only be silent and +lament, and preserve oneself blameless of any mischief that is +done or attempted. + + + +Letter 191 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, May 11, 1780. (page 248) + +Mr. Godfrey, the engraver, told me yesterday that Mr. Tyson is +dead.(385) I am sorry for it, though he had left me off. A much +older friend of mine died yesterday; but of whom I must say the +same, George Montagu, whom you must remember at Eton and +Cambridge. I should have been exceedingly concerned for him a +few years ago but he had dropped me, partly from politics and +partly from caprice, for we never had any quarrel; but he was +grown an excessive humourist, and had shed almost all his friends +as well as me. He had parts, and infinite vivacity and +originality till of late years; and it grieved me much that he +had changed towards me, after a friendship of between thirty and +forty years. + +I am told that a nephew of the provost of King's has preached and +printed a most flaming sermon, which condemns the whole +Opposition to the stake. Pray who is it, and on what occasion? +Mr. Bryant has published an Answer to Dr. Priestley.(386) I +bought it, but though I have a great value for the author, the +subject is so metaphysical, and so above human decision, I soon +laid it aside. I hope you can send me a good account of +yourself, though the spring is so unfavourable. Yours most +sincerely. + +(385) Mr. Cole, in a letter of the 14th, says, "the loss of poor +Mr. Tyson shocked and afflicted me more than I thought it +possible I could have been afflicted: since the loss of Mr. Gray, +I have lamented no one so much. God rest his soul! I hope he is +happy; and, was it not for those he has left behind, I am so much +of a philosopher, now the affair is over, I would prefer the +exchange."-E. + +(386) It was entitled "An Address to Dr. Priestley upon his +Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity Illustrated."-E. + + + +@Letter 192 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Friday night, May 19, 1780. (page 249) + +By tomorrow's coach you will receive a box of Guinea-hens' eggs, +which Lady Ailesbury sent me to-day from Park-place. I hope they +will arrive safe and all be hatched. + +I thank you for the account of the sermon and the portrait of the +uncle. They will satisfy me without buying the former. As I +knew Mr. Joseph Spence,(387) I do not think I should have been so +much delighted as Dr. Kippis with reading his letters. He was a +good-natured, harmless little soul, but more like a silver penny +than a genius. It was a neat, fiddle-faddle, bit of sterling, +that had read good books and kept good company, but was too +trifling for use, and only fit to please a child. + +I hesitate on purchasing Mr. Gough's second edition. I do not +think there was a guinea's worth of entertainment in the first; +how can the additions be worth a guinea and a half? I have been +aware of the royal author you tell me of, and have noted him for +a future edition; but that will not appear in my own time; +because, besides that, it will have the castrations in my +original copy, and other editions, that I am not impatient to +produce. I have been solicited to reprint the work, but do not +think it fair to give a very imperfect edition when I could print +it complete, which I do not choose to do, as I have an aversion +to literary squabbles: one seems to think one's self too +important when one engages in a controversy on one's writings; +and when one does not vindicate them, the answerer passes for +victor, as you see Dr. Kippis allots the palm to Dr. Milles, +though you know I have so much more to say in defence of my +hypothesis. I have actually some hopes of still more, of which I +have heard, but till I see it, I shall not reckon upon it as on +my side. + +Mr. lort told me of King James's Procession to St. Paul's; but +they ask such a price for it, and I care so little for James I., +that I have not been to look at the picture. + +Your electioneering will probably be increased immediately. Old +Mr. Thomas Townshend is at the point of death.(388) The +Parliament will probably be dissolved before another session. We +wanted nothing but drink to inflame our madness, which I do not +confine to politics; but what signifies it to throw out general +censures? We old folks are apt to think nobody wise but +ourselves. I wish the disgraces of these last two or three years +did not justify a little severity more than flows from the +peevishness of years! Yours ever. + +(387) See Vol. I. p, 168, letter 29.-E. + +(388) The Right Hon. Thomas Townshend, son of Charles second +Viscount Townshend, many years member for the University of +Cambridge. He died a few days after the date of this letter. He +was a most elegant scholar, and lived in acquaintance and +familiarity with most of the considerable men of his time. In +early life he entered into the secretary of state's office under +his father, whom he accompanied in his journeys to Germany with +George the First and Second. At the time of his death he was in +his seventy-ninth year.-E. + + + +Letter 193 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, May 30, 1780. (page 250) + +I hope you will bring your eggs to a fair market. At last I have +got from Bonus my altar-doors which I bought at Mr. Ives's; he +has repaired them admirably. I would not suffer him to repaint +or varnish them. There are indubitably Duke Humphrey of +Gloucester, Cardinal Beaufort, and Archbishop Kemp. The fourth I +cannot make out. It is a man in a crimson garment lined with +white, and not tonsured. He is in the stable with cattle, and +has the air of Joseph; but over his head hangs a large shield +with these arms. * * *(389) The Cornish choughs are sable on +or; the other three divisions are gules, on the first of which is +a gold crescent. + +The second arms have three bulls' heads sable, horned or. The +chevron was so changed that Bonus thought it sable; but I think +it was gules, and then it would be Bullen or Boleyn. Lord de +Ferrars says, that the first are the arms of Sir Bartholomew +Tate, who he finds married a Sanders. Edmondson's new Dictionary +of Heraldry confirms both arms for Tate and Sanders, except that +Sanders bore the chevron erminc, which it may have been. But +what I wish to discover IS, whether Sir Bartholomew Tate was a +benefactor to St. Edmundsbury, whence these doors came, or was in +any shape a retainer to the Duke of Gloucester or Cardinal +Beaufort. The Duke's and Sir Bartholomew's figures were on the +insides of the doors (which I have had sawed into four panels,) +and are painted in a far superior style to the Cardinal and the +Archbishop, which are very hard and dry. The two others are so +good that they are in the style of the school of the Caracci. +They at least were painted by some Italian; the draperies have +large and bold folds, and One wonders how they could be executed +in the reign of Henry VI. I shall be very glad if you can help +me to any lights, at least about Sir Bartholomew. I intend to +place them in my chapel, as they will aptly accompany the shrine. +The Duke and Archbishop's agree perfectly with their portraits in +my Marriage of Henry VI., and prove how rightly I guessed. The +Cardinal's is rather a longer and thinner visage, but that he +might have in the latter end of life; and in the Marriage he has +the red bonnet on, which shortens his face. On the door he is +represented in the character he ought to have possessed, a pious, +contrite look, not the truer resemblance which Shakspeare drew-- +"He dies, and makes no sign!"--but Annibal Caracci himself could +not paint like our Raphael poet! Pray don't venture yourself in +any more electioneering riots: you see the mob do not respect +poets, nor, I suppose, antiquaries. + +P. S. I am in no haste for an answer to my queries. + +(389) Here Mr. Walpole had sketched in a rough draught of the +arms. + + + +Letter 194 To Mrs. Abington.(390) +Strawberry Hill, June 11, 1780. (page 251) + +Madam, +You may certainly always command me and my house. My common +custom is to give a ticket for only four persons at a time but it +would be very insolent in me, when all laws are set at nought, to +pretend to prescribe rules. At such times there is a shadow of +authority in setting the laws aside by the legislature itself; +and though I have no army to supply their place, I declare Mrs. +Abington may march through all my dominions at the head of as +large a troop as she pleases. I do not say, as she can muster +and command; for then I am sure my house would not hold them. +The day, too, is at her own choice; and the master is her very +obedient humble servant. + +(390) Now first printed. + + + +Letter 195 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, June 12, 1780. (page 251) + +My dear lord, +If the late events had been within the common proportion of news, +I would have tried to entertain your lordship with an account of +them; but they were far beyond that size, and could only create +horror and indignation. Religion has often been the cloak of +injustice, outrage, and villany: in our late tumults,(391) it +scarce kept on its mask a moment; its persecution was downright +robbery; and it was so drunk that it killed its banditti faster +than they could plunder. The tumults have been carried on in so +violent and scandalous a manner, that I trust they will have no +copies. When prisons are levelled to the ground, when the Bank +is aimed at, and reformation is attempted by conflagrations, the +savages of Canada are the only fit allies of Lord George +Gordon(392) and his crew. The Tower is much too dignified a +prison for him-but he had left no other. + +I came out of town on Friday, having seen a good deal of the +shocking transactions of Wednesday night--in fact, it was +difficult to be in London, and not to see or think some part of +it in flames. I saw those of the King's Bench, New Prison, and +those on the three sides of the Fleet-market, which turned into +one blaze.(393) The town and parks are now one camp--the next +disagreeable sight to the capital being in ashes. It will still +not have been a fatal tragedy, if it brings the nation one and +all to their senses. It will still be not quite an unhappy +country, if we reflect that the old constitution, exactly as it +was in the last reign, was the most desirable of any in the +universe. It made us then the first people in Europe--we have a +vast deal of ground to recover--but can we take a better path +than that which King William pointed out to us? I mean the +system he left us at the Revolution. I am averse to all changes +of it--it fitted us just as it was. + +For some time even individuals must be upon their guard. Our new +and now imprisoned apostle has delivered so many Saint Peters +from gaol, that one hears of nothing but robberies on the +highway. Your lordship's sister, Lady Browne, and I have been at +Twickenham-park this evening, and kept together, and had a +horseman at our return. Baron d'Aguilar was shot at in that very +lane on Thursday night. A troop of the fugitives had +rendezvoused in Combe Wood, and were dislodged thence yesterday +by the light horse. + +I do not know a syllable but what relates to these disturbances. +The newspapers have neglected few truths. Lies, without their +natural propensity to falsehoods, they could not avoid, for every +minute produces some, at least exaggerations. We were threatened +with swarms of good Protestants `a br`uler from all quarters, and +report +sent various detachments on similar errands; but thank God they +have been but reports! Oh! when shall we have peace and +tranquility? I hope your lordship and Lady Strafford will at +least enjoy the latter in your charming woods. I have long +doubted which of our passions is the strongest--perhaps every one +of them is equally strong in some person or other-but I have no +doubt but ambition is the most detestable, and the most +inexcusable; for its mischiefs are by far the most extensive, and +its enjoyments by no means proportioned to its anxieties. The +latter, I believe, is the case of most passions--but then all but +ambition cost little pain to any but the possessor. An ambitious +man must be divested of all feeling but for himself. The torment +of others is his high-road to happiness. Were the transmigration +of souls true, and accompanied by consciousness, how delighted +would Alexander or Croesus be to find themselves on four legs, +and divested of a wish to conquer new worlds, or to heap up all +the wealth of this! Adieu, my dear lord! + +(391) The riots of 1780, when Lord George Gordon raised a +no-popery cry, and assembled many thousand persons in St. +George's Fields, to accompany him to the House of Commons, with a +petition for the repeal of the act passed for the relief of the +Roman Catholics in the preceding session. The petition was, of +course, rejected; which being communicated to the mob by Lord +George, they dispersed for a while, but on that evening commenced +their work of mischief, destroying two Catholic chapels in +Duke-street and Warwick-street: Newgate and all the other prisons +were likewise fired; the Bank was attempted; and the riot was not +quelled until 210 persons were killed and 248 wounded, of whom +seventy-five died in the hospitals. Lord George was committed to +the Tower; and many of the ringleaders, after being tried by +special commissioners, suffered the extreme penalty of the +law.-E. + +(392) Lord George Gordon was brother of Alexander Duke of Gordon. +He was considered not to be at all times of sound mind. Some +years after his acquittal, on the indictment preferred against +him in the Court of King's Bench as instigator of the riots, he +was convicted of a libel on Marie Antoinette and Count d'Ademar, +one of the French ministry. To avoid punishment, he fled the +country; but shortly afterwards was discovered at Birmingham in +the garb of a Jew, and committed to Newgate, pursuant to his +sentence, where he lived some time, professing the Jewish +religion, having undergone the extreme rites of it, and where he +died, in November 1793.-E. + +(393) In her reply to a letter from Walpole, giving an account of +these riots, Madame du Deffand says--"Rien n'est plus affreux que +tout ce qui arrive chez vous. Votre libert`e ne me s`eduit +point; cette libert`e tant vant`ee me paroit bien plus on`ereuse +que notre esclavage; mais il ne m'appartient pas de traitor de +telles mati`eres: permettez-moi de bl`amer votre indiscr`etion, +de vous aller promener dans les rues pendant ce vacarme."-E. + + + +Letter 196 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, June 15, 1780. (page 253) + +You may like to know one is alive, dear Sir, after a massacre, +and the conflagration of a capital. I was in it, both on the +Friday and on the Black Wednesday; the most horrible sight I ever +beheld, and which, for six hours together, I expected to end in +half the town being reduced to ashes. I can give you little +account of the original of this shocking affair; negligence was +certainly its nurse, and religion only its godmother. The +ostensible author is in the Tower. Twelve or fourteen thousand +men have quelled all tumults; and as no bad account is come from +the country, except for a moment at Bath, and as eight days have +passed,--nay, more, since the commencement, I flatter myself the +whole nation is shocked at the scene; and that, if plan there +was, it was laid only in and for the metropolis. The lowest and +most villanous of the people, and to no great amount, were almost +the sole actors. + +/I hope your electioneering riotry(394) has not, nor will mix in +these tumults. It would be most absurd; for Lord Rockingham, the +Duke of Richmond, Sir George Saville, and Mr. Burke, the patrons +of toleration, were devoted to destruction as much as the +ministers. The rails torn from Sir George's house were the chief +weapons and instruments of the mob. For the honour of the nation +I should be glad to have it proved that the French were the +engineers. You and I have lived too long for our comfort--shall +we close our eyes in peace? I will not trouble you more about +the arms I sent you: I should like that they were those of the +family of Boleyn; and since I cannot be sure they were not, why +should not I fancy them so? I revert to the prayer for peace. +You and I, that can amuse ourselves with our books and papers, +feel as much indignation at the turbulent as they have scorn for +us. It is hard at least that they who disturb nobody can have no +asylum in which to pursue their innoxious indolence Who is secure +against Jack Straw and a whirlwind? How I abominate Mr. Banks +and Dr. Solander, who routed the poor Otaheitans out of the +centre of the ocean, and carried our abominable passions amongst +them! not even that poor little specie could escape European +restlessness. Well, I have seen many tempestuous scenes, and +outlived them! the present prospect is too thick to see through- +-it is well hope never forsakes us. Adieu! + +(394) Of the "electioneering riotry" going on at this time in +Cambridgeshire, Mr. Cole, in a letter of the 14th of May, gives +the following account:--"Electioneering madness and faction have +inflamed this country to such a degree, that the peace it has +enjoyed for above half a century may take as long a time before +it returns again. Yesterday, the three candidates were +nominated; the Duke of Rutland's brother, the late Mr. Charles +Yorke's son, and Sir Sampson Gideon, whose expenses for this +month have been enormous, beyond all belief. Sending my servant +on a particular message to Sir Sampson, he found him in bed, not +well, and probably half asleep; for he not only wrote the +direction to two covers which I sent him, but sealed them both, +though they were only covers. I wonder, indeed, that he is +alive, considering the immense fatigue and necessary drinking he +must undergo--a miserable hard task to get into Parliament!" The +contest terminated in the return of Lord Robert Manners, who +died, in April 1782, of the wounds he received in the great +sea-fight in the West Indies; and of Mr. Philip Yorke, who, in +1790, succeeded his uncle as Earl of Hardwicke.-E. + + + +Letter 197 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, July 4, 1780. (page 254) + +I answer your letter the moment I receive it, to beg you will by +no means take any notice, not even in directly and without My +name, of the Life of Mr. Baker. I am earnest against its being +known to exist. I should be teased to show it. Mr. Gough might +inquire about it--I do not desire his acquaintance; and above all +am determined, if I can help it, to have no controversy while I +live. You know I have hitherto suppressed my answers to the +critics of Richard III. for that reason; and above all things, I +hate theologic or political controversy-nor need you fear my +disputing with you, though we disagree very considerably indeed +about Papist's and Presbyterians. I hope you have not yet sent +the manuscript to Mr. Lort, and if you have not, do entreat you +to deface undecipherably what you have said about my Life of Mr. +Baker. + +Pray satisfy me that no mention of it shall appear in print. I +can by no means consent to it, and I am sure you will prevent it. +Yours sincerely. + + + +Letter 198 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 9, 1780. (page 255) + +I am very happy at receiving a letter from your lordship this +moment, as I thought it very long since we had corresponded, but +am afraid of being troublesome, when I have not the excuse of +thanking you, or something worth telling you, which in truth is +not the case at present. No soul, whether interested or not, but +deafens one about elections. I always detested them, even when +in Parliament; and when I lived a good deal at White's, preferred +hearing of Newmarket to elections; for the former, being uttered +in a language I did not understand, did not engage my attention; +but as they talked of elections in English, I could not help +knowing what they said. It does surprise me, I own, that people +can choose to stuff their heads with details and circumstances. +of which in six weeks they will never hear or think more. The +weather till now has been the chief topic of conversation. Of +late it has been the third very hot summer; but refreshed by so +little rain, that the banks of the Thames have been and are, I +believe, like those of the Manzanares. The night before last we +had some good showers, and to-day a thick fog has dissolved in +some as thin as gauze. Still I am not quite sorry to enjoy the +weather of adust climates without their tempests and insects. +Lady Cowper I lately visited, and but lately: if what I hear is +true, I shall be a gainer, for they talk of Lord Duncannon having +her house at Richmond: like your lordship, I confess I was +surprised at his choice. I know nothing to the prejudice of the +young lady;(395) but I should not have selected, for so gentle +and very amiable a man, a sister of the empress of fashion,(396) +nor a daughter of the goddess of wisdom.(397) + +They talk of great disssatisfactions in the fleet. Geary and +Barrington are certainly retired. It looks, if this deplorable +war should continue, as if all our commanders by sea and land +were to be disgraced or disgusted. + +The people here have christened Mr. Shirley's new house, +Spite-hall.(398) It is dismal to think that one may live to +seventy-seven, and go out of the world doing as ill-natured an +act as possible! When I am reduced to detail the gazette of +Twickenham, I had better release your lordship; but either way it +is from the utmost attention and respect for your lordship and +Lady Strafford, as I am ever most devotedly and gratefully yours. + +(395) In the following November, Lord Duncannon married +Henrietta-Frances, second daughter of John first Earl Spencer.-E. + +(396) Georgiana, eldest daughter of John first Earl Spencer; +married, in 1774, to the Duke of Devonshire.-E. + +(397) Margaret-Georgiana, daughter of the Right Hon. Stephen +Poyntz; married, in 1755, to John first Earl Spencer.-E. + +(398) Because built, it was said, on purpose to intercept a view +of the Thames from his opposite neighbour. + + + +letter 199 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 27, 1780. (page 256) + +Dear Sir, +I MUST inquire how you do after all your election agitations, +which have growled even around your hermitage. Candidates and +their emissaries are like Pope's authors, + +"They pierce our thickets, through our groves they glide." + +However, I have barred my doors; and when I would not go to an +election for myself, I would not for any one else. + +Has not a third real summer, and so very dry one, assisted your +complaints? I have been remarkably well, and better than for +these five years. Would I could say the same of all my friends-- +but, alas! I expect every day to hear that I have lost my dear +old friend Madame du Deffand.(399) She was indeed near +eighty-four, but retained all her interior faculties--two days +ago the letters from Paris forbade all hopes. So I reckon myself +dead as to France, where I have kept up no other connexion. + +I am going at last to publish my fourth volume of Painters, +which, though printed so long, I have literally treated by +Horace's rule, "Nonumque prematur in nonum." Tell me how I shall +send it to you. Yours ever. + +(399) In the last letter Madame du Deffand ever wrote to Walpole, +dated the 22d of August, she thus describes her situation:--"Je +vous mandai dans ma derni`ere que je ne me portais pas bien; +c'cst encore pis aujourd'hui. Je suis d'une faiblesse et d'un +abattement excessifs; Ma voix est `eteinte, je ne puis me +soutenir sur mes jambes, je ne puis me donner aucun mouvement, +j'ai le coeur envolopp`e; j'ai de la peine `a croire que cet +`etat ne m'annonce une fin prochaine. Je n'ai pas la force d'en +`etre effray`ee; et, ne vous devant revoir de ma vie, je n'a rien +`a regretter. Divertissez-vous, mon ami, le plus que vous +pourrez; ne vous affligez point de mon `etat; nous `etions +presque perdus l'un pour l'autre; nous ne nous devions jamais +revoir! vous me regretterez, parce qu'on est bien-aise de se +savoir aim`e. Peut-`etre que par la suite Wiart vous mandera de +mes nouvelles; c'est une fatigue pour moi de dicter." From this +day she kept her bed. On the 8th of September Mr. Walpole had +written to her, expressing his great anxiety for her. To his +inquiries she was unable to dictate an answer. Her anteroom +continued every day crowded with the persons who had before +surrounded her supper-table. Her weakness became excessive; but +she suffered no pain, and possessed her memory, understanding, +and ideas till within the last eight days of her existence, when +a lethargic insensibility took which terminated in death, without +effort or struggle, on the 24th of September. She was buried, +according to her own direction, in the plainest manner, in her +parish church of St. Sulpice. To Mr. Walpole she bequeathed the +whole of her manuscripts, papers, letters, and books, of every +description; with a permission to the Prince of Beauvau to take a +copy of any of the papers he might desire.-E. + + + +Letter 200 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Oct. 3, 1780. (page 256) + +I did not go to Malvern, and therefore cannot certify you, my +good Sir, whether Tom Hearne mistook stone for brass or not, +though I dare to say your criticism is just. + +My book, if I can possibly, shall go to the inn to-morrow, or +next day at least. You will find a great deal of rubbish in it, +with all your partiality--but I shall have done with it. + +I cannot thank you enough for your goodness about your notes that +you promised Mr. Grose; but I cannot possibly be less generous +and less disinterested, nor can by any means be the cause of your +breaking your word. In short, I insist on your sending your +notes to him--and as to my Life of Mr. Baker, if it is known to +exist, nobody can make me produce it sooner than I please, nor at +all if I do not please; so pray send your accounts, and leave me +to be stout with our antiquaries, or curious. I shall not +satisfy the latter, and don't care a straw for the former. + +The Master of Pembroke (who he is, I don't know(400)) is like the +lover who said, + +"Have I not seen thee where thou hast not been?" + +I have been in Kent with Mr. Barrett, but was not at Ramsgate; +the Master, going thither, perhaps saw me. It is a mistake not +worth rectifying. I have no time for more, being in the midst of +the delivery of my books. Yours ever. + +(400) Dr. James Brown; see ante, p. 62, letter 36.-E. + + + +Letter 201 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Nov. 11, 1780. (page 257) + +I am afraid you are not well, my good Sir; for you are so +obligingly punctual, that I think you would have acknowledged the +receipt of my last volume, if you were not out of order. + +Lord Dacre lent me the new edition of Mr. Gough's Topography, and +the ancient maps and quantity of additions tempted me to buy it. +I have not gone through much above the half of the first volume, +and find it more entertaining than the first edition. This is no +partiality; for I think he seems rather disposed, though civilly, +to find cavils with me. Indeed, in the passage in which I am +most mentioned, he not only gives a very confused, but quite a +wrong account: as in other places, he records some trifles in my +possession not worth recording--but I know that we antiquaries +are but too apt to think, that whatever has had the honour of +entering our ears, is worthy of being laid before the eyes of +every body else. The story I mean is P. ix. of the preface. Now +the three volumes of drawings and tombs, by Mr. Lethueillier and +Sir Charles Frederick, for which Mr. Gough says I refused two +hundred pounds, are now Lord Bute's, are not Lord Bute's, but +mine, and for which I never was offered two hundred pounds, and +for which I gave sixty pounds--full enough. The circumstances +were much more entertaining than Mr. G.'s perplexed account. +Bishop Lyttelton told me Sir Charles Frederick complained of Mr. +L.'s not bequeathing them to him, as he had been a joint labourer +with him; and that Sir Charles wished I Would not bid against him +for them, as they were to be sold by auction. I said this was a +very reasonable request, and that I was ready to oblige Sir +Charles; but as I heard others meant to bid high for the books, I +should wish to know how far he would go, and that I would not +oppose him; but should the books exceed the price Sir Charles was +willing to give, I should like to be at liberty to bid for them +against others. However, added I, as Sir Charles (who lived then +in Berkelyey-square, as I did then in Arlington-street,) passes +by my door every time he goes to the House of Commons, if he will +call on me, We will make such agreement. You will scarce believe +the sequel. The dignity of Sir Charles Frederick was hurt that I +should propose his making me the first visit, though to serve +himself--nothing could be more out of my imagination than the +ceremonial of visits; though when he was so simple as to make a +point of it, I could not see how in any light I was called on to +make the first visit--and so the treaty ended; and so I bought +the books. There was another work, I think in two volumes, which +was their Diary of Their Tour, with a few slight views. Bishop +Lyttelton proposed them to me, and engaged to get them for me +from Mr. Lethueillier's sister for ten guineas. She hesitated, +the Bishop died, I thought no more of them, and they may be what +Lord Bute has. There is another assertion in Mr. Gough, which I +can authentically Contradict. He says Sir Matthew Decker first +introduced ananas, p. 134. My very curious picture of Rose, the +royal gardener, presenting the first ananas to Charles II. proves +the culture here earlier by several years. + +At page 373, he seems to doubt my assertion of Gravelot's making +drawings of tombs in Gloucestershire, because he never met with +any engravings from them. I took my account from Vertue, who +certainly knew what he said. I bought at Vertue's own sale some +of Gravelot's drawings of our regal monuments, which Vertue +engraved: but, which is stronger, Mr. Gough himself a few pages +after, viz. in p. 387, mentions Gravelot's drawing of Tewkesbury +church; which being in Gloucestershire, Mr. G. might have +believed me that Gravelot did draw in that county. This is a +little like Mr. Masters's being angry with me for taking +liberties with bishops and chancellors, and then abusing grossly +one who had been both bishop and chancellor. I forgot that in +the note on Sir Charles Frederick, Mr. Gough calls Mr. Worseley, +Wortley. In page 354, he says Rooker exhibited a drawing of +Waltham-cross to the Royal Academy of Sciences--pray where is +that academy? I suppose he means that of painting. I find a few +omissions; one very comical; he says Penshurst was celebrated by +Ben Jonson, and seems Perfectly in the dark as to how much more +fame it owes to Waller. We antiquaries are a little apt to get +laughed at for knowing what every body has forgotten, and for +being ignorant of what every child knows. Do not tell him of +these things, for I do not wish to vex him. I hope I was +mistaken, and shall hear that you are well. Yours ever. + + + +Letter 202 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Nov. 24, 1780. (page 259) + +I am sorry I was so much in the right in guessing you had been +ill, but at our age there is little sagacity in such divination. +In my present holidays from the gout, I have a little rheumatism, +or some of those accompaniments. + +I have made several more notes to the new Topography, but none of +consequence enough to transcribe. It is well it is a book only +for the adept, or the scorners would often laugh. Mr. Gough +speaking of some cross that has been removed, says, there is now +an unmeaning market-house in its place. Saving his reverence and +our prejudices, I doubt there is a good deal more meaning in a +market-house than in a cross. They tell me that there are +numberless mistakes. Mr. Pennant, whom I saw yesterday, says so. +He is not one of our plodders; rather the other extreme. His +corporal spirits (for I cannot call them animal) do not allow him +time to digest any thing. He gave a round jump from ornithology +to antiquity; and, as if they had any relation, thought he +understood every thing between them. These adventures divert me +who am got on shore, and find how sweet it is to look back on +those who are toiling in deep waters, whether in ships, or +cock-boats, or on old rotten planks. I am sorry for the Dean of +Exeter; if he dies, I conclude the leaden mace of the Antiquarian +Society will be given to Judge Barrington,(401) + +Et simili frondescet Virga metallo." + +I endeavoured to give our antiquaries a little wrench towards +taste--but it was in vain. Sandby and our engravers have lent +them a great deal--but there it stops. Captain Grose's +dissertations are as dull and silly as if they were written for +the Ostrogoth maps of the beginning of the new Topography: and +which are so square and incomprehensible, that they look as if +they were ichnographics of the New Jerusalem. I am delighted +with having done with the professions of author and printer, and +intend to be most comfortably lazy, I was going to say idle (but +that would not be new) for the rest of my days. + +If there was a peace, I would build my offices--if there is not +soon, we shall be bankrupt--nay, I do not know what may happen as +it is. Well! Mr. Grose will have plenty of ruins to engrave! +The Royal Academy will make a fine mass, with what remains of old +Somerset-house. + +Adieu! my good Sir. Let me know you are well. You want nothing +else, for you can always amuse Yourself, and do not let the +foolish world disturb you. Yours most sincerely. + +(401) The Hon. Daines Barrington, fourth son of John first +Viscount Barrington, second Justice of Chester, and author of +"Observations on the Statutes," etc. He was eminent in natural +history, and in several branches of literature; and died in +1800.-E. + + + +Letter 203 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Nov. 30, 1780. (page 260) + +I am sorry, my dear Sir, that you should be so humble with me, +your ancient friend, and to whom you have ever been so liberal, +as to make an apology for desiring me to grant the request of +another person. I am not less sorry that I shall not, I fear, be +able to comply with it; and you must have the patience to hear my +reason,,-,. The first edition of the Anecdotes was of three +hundred, of the two first volumes; and of as many of the third +volume, and of the volume of Engravers. Then there was an +edition of three hundred of all four. Unluckily, I did not keep +any number back of the two first volumes, and literally have none +but those I reserved for myself. Of the other two I have two or +three: and, I believe, I have a first, but without the cuts. If +I can,.with some odd volumes that I kept for corrections, make +out a decent set, the library of the University shall have them; +but you must not promise them, lest I should not be able to +perform. + +Of my new fourth volume I printed six hundred; but as they can be +had, I believe not a third part is sold. This is a very plain +lesson to me, that my editions sell for their curiosity, and not +for any merit in them: and so they would if I printed Mother +Goose's Tales, and but a few. As my Anecdotes of Painting have +been published at such distant periods, and in three divisions, +complete sets will be seldom seen; so, If I am humbled as an +author, I may be vain as a printer; and, when one has nothing +else to be vain of, it is certainly very little worth while to be +proud of that. + +I will now trust you with a secret, but beg Mr. Gough may not +know it, for he will print it directly. Though I forgot Alma +Mater, I have not forgotten my Alma Nutrices, wet or dry, I mean +Eton and King's. I have laid aside for them, and left them in my +will, as complete a set as I could, of all I have printed. A few +I did give them at first; but I have for neither a perfect set of +the Anecdotes, I mean not the two first volumes. I should be +much obliged to you, if, without naming me, you could inform +yourself if I did send to King'S those two first volumes--I +believe not. ' + +I will now explain what I said above of Mr. Gough. He has +learnt, I suppose from my engravers, that I have had some views +of Strawberry-hill engraved. Slap-dash, down it went, and he has +even specified each view in his second volume. This curiosity is +a little impertinent; but he has made me some amends by a new +blunder, for he says they are engraved for a second edition of my +Catalogue. Now I have certainly printed but one edition, for +which the prints are designed. He says truly, that I printed but +a few for use; consequently, I by no means wished the whole world +should know it; but he is silly, and so I will say no more about +him. Dr. Lort called yesterday, and asked if I had any message +for you; but I had written too lately. + +Mr. Pennant has been, as I think I told you, in town: by this +time I conclude he is, as Lady Townley says of fifty pounds, all +over the kingdom. When Dr. Lort returns, I shall be very glad to +read your transcript of Wolsey's Letters; for, in your hand, I +can read them. I will not have them but by some very safe +conveyance, and will return them with equal care. + +I can have no objection to Robin Masters being wooden-head of the +Antiquarian Society; but, I suppose, he is not dignified enough +for them. I should prefer the Judge too, because a coif makes +him more like an old woman, and I reckon that Society the +midwives of superannuated miscarriages. I am grieved for the +return of your headaches--I doubt you write too much. Yours most +sincerely. + +P. S. It will be civil to tell Dr. Farmer that I do not know +whether I can obey his commands , but that I will if I can. As +to a distinguished place, I beg not to be preferred to much +better authors; nay, the more conspicuous, the more likely to be +stolen for the reasons I have given you, of there being few +complete sets, and true collectors are mighty apt to steal. + + + +Letter 204 To Sir David Dalrymple.(402) +Dec. 11, 1780. (page 261) + +I should have been shamefully ungrateful, Sir, if I could ever +forget all the favours I have received from you, and had omitted +any mark of respect to you that it was in my power to show. +Indeed, what you are so good as to thank me for was a poor +trifle, but it was all I had or shall have of the kind. It was +imperfect too, as some painters Of name have died since it was +printed, which was nine years ago. They will be added with your +kind notices, should I live, which is not probable, to see a new +edition wanted. Sixty-three years, and a great deal of illness, +are too speaking mementos not to be attended to; and when the +public has been more indulgent than one had any right to expect, +it is not decent to load it with one's dotage. + +I believe, Sir, that I may have been over-candid to Hogarth, and +fail his spirit and youth and talent may have hurried him into +more real caricatures than I specified . yet he certainly +restrained his bent that way pretty early. Charteris(403) I have +seen; but though Some years older than you, Sir, I cannot say I +have at all a perfect idea of him: nor did I ever hear the +curious anecdote you tell me of ' the banker and my father. I +was much better acquainted with bishop Blackbourne. He lived +within two doors of my father in Downing Street, and took much +notice of me when I was near man. It is not to be ungrateful and +asperse him, but to amuse you, if I give you some account of him +from what I remember.(404) He was perfectly a fine gentleman to +the last, to eighty-four; his favourite author was Waller, whom +he frequently quoted. In point of decorum, he was not quite so +exact as you have been told, Sir. I often dined with him, his +mistress, Mrs. Conwys, sat at the head of the table, and +Hayter,(405) his natural son by another woman, and very like him, +at the bottom, as chaplain: he was afterwards Bishop of London. +I have heard, but do not affirm it, that Mrs. Blackbourne, before +she died, complained of Mrs. Conwys being brought under the same +roof. To his clergy he was, I have heard, very imperious. One +story I recollect, which showed how much he was a man of this +world: and which the Queen herself repeated to my father. On the +King's last journey to Hanover, before Lady Yarmouth came over, +the Archbishop being With her Majesty, said to her, "Madam, I +have been with your minister Walpole, and he tells me that you +are a wise woman, and do not mind your husband's having a +mistress." He was a little hurt at not being raised to +Canterbury on Wake's death, and said to my father, "You did not +think on me: but it is true, I am too old, I am too old." +Perhaps, Sir, these are gossiping stories, but at least they hurt +nobody now. + +I can say little, Sir, for my stupidity or forgetfulness about +Hogarth's poetry, which I still am not sure I ever heard, though +I knew him so well; but it is an additional argument for my +distrusting myself, if my memory fails, which is very possible. +A whole volume of Richardson's poetry has been published since my +volume was printed, not much to the honour of his muse, but +exceedingly so to that of his piety and amiable heart. You will +be pleased, too, Sir, with a story Lord Chesterfield told me (too +late too) of Jervas, who piqued himself on the reverse, on total +infidelity. One day that he had talked very indecently in that +strain, Dr. Arbuthnot, who was as devout as Richardson, said to +him, "Come, Jervas, this is all an air and affectation; nobody is +a sounder believer than you." "I!" said Jervase, "I believe +nothing." "Yes, but you do," replied the Doctor; "nay, you not +only believe, but practise: you are so scrupulous an observer of +the commandments, that you never make the likeness of any thing +that is in heaven, or on the earth beneath, or," etc. + +I fear, Sir, this letter is too long for thanks, and that I have +been proving what I have said, of my growing superannuated; but, +having made my will in my last volume, you may look on this as a +codicil. + +P. S. I had sealed my letter, Sir, but break it open, lest you +should think soon, that I do not know what I say, or break my +resolution lightly. I shall be able to send you in about two +months a very curious work that I am going to print, and is +actually in the press; but there is not a syllable of my writing +in it. It is a discovery just made of two very ancient +manuscripts, copies of which were found in two or three libraries +in Germany, and of which there are more complete manuscripts at +Cambridge. They are of the eleventh century at longest, and +prove that painting in oil was then known, above three hundred +years before the pretended invention of Van Dyck. The +manuscripts themselves will be printed, with a full introductory +Dissertation by the discoverer, Mr. Raspe, a very learned German. +formerly librarian to the Landgrave of Hesse, and who writes +English surprisingly well. The manuscripts are in the most +barbarous monkish Latin, and are much such works as our +booksellers publish of receipts for mixing colours, varnishes, +etc. One of the authors, who calls himself Theophilus, was a +monk; the other, Heraclitis, is totally unknown; but the proofs +are Unquestionable. As my press is out of order, and that +besides it would take up too much time to print them there, they +will be printed here at my expense, and if there is any surplus, +it will be for Raspe's benefit. + +(402) Now first collected. + +(403) The notorious Colonel Francis Charteris, to whom Hogarth +has accorded a conspicuous place in the first plate of his +Harlot's Progress. Pope describes him as "a man infamous for all +manner of vices," and thus introduces him into his third Moral +Essay:-- + +"Riches in effect, +No grace of Heaven, or token of th' Elect; +Given to the fool, the mad, the vain, the evil, +To Ward, to Waters, Chartres, and the devil!" + +He died in Scotland, in 1731, at the age of sixty-two. The +populace, at his funeral, raised a great riot, almost tore the +body out of the coffin, and cast dead dogs, etc. into the grave +along with it.-E. + +(404) See the note to vol. i. p. 314, letter 101.-E. + +(405) For a refutation of Walpole's assertion, that Bishop Hayter +was a natural son of bishop Blackbourn's, see vol. ii. p. 100, +letter 39.-E. + + + +Letter 205 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Dec. 19, 1780. (page 263) + +I cannot leave you for a moment in error, my good Sir, when you +transfer a compliment to me, to which I have not the most slender +claim, and defraud another of it to whom it is due. + +The friend of Mr. Gray, in whom authorship caused no jealousy or +variance, as Mr. Mainwaring says truly, is Mr. Mason. I +certainly never excelled in poetry, and never attempted the +species of poetry alluded to, odes. Dr. Lort, I suppose, is +removing to a living or a prebend, at least; I hope so. He may +run a risk if he carries his book to Lambeth. "Sono sonate venti +tre ore e mezza," as Alexander VIII. said to his nephew, when he +was chosen pope in extreme old age. My Lord of Canterbury's is +not extreme, but very tottering. I found in Mr. Gough's new +edition, that in the Pepysian library is a view of the theatre in +Dorset Gardens, and views of four or five other ancient great +mansions. Do the folk of Magdalen ever suffer copies of such +things to be taken? If they would, is there any body at +Cambridge that could execute them, and reasonably? Answer me +quite at your leisure; and, also, what and by whom is the altar- +piece that Lord Carlisle has given to King's. I did not know he +had been of our college. I have two or three plates of +Strawberry more than those you mention; but my collections are so +numerous, and from various causes my prints have been in such +confusion, that at present I neither know where the plates or +proofs are. I intend next summer to set about completing my plan +of the Catalogue and its prints; and when I have found any of the +plates or proofs, you shall certainly have those you want. There +are two large views of the house, one of the cottage, one of the +library, one of the front to the road, and the chimney-piece in +the Holbein room. I think these are all that are finished--oh! +yes, I believe the prior's garden; but I have not seen them these +two years. I was so ill the summer before last, that I attended +to nothing; the little I thought of in that way last summer, was +to get out my last volume of the Anecdotes; now I have nothing to +trouble myself about as an editor, and that not publicly, but to +finish my Catalogue--and that will be awkwardly enough; for so +many articles have been added to my collection since the +description was made, that I must add them in the appendix or +reprint it: and, what is more inconvenient, the positions of many +of the pictures have been changed; and so it will be a lame piece +of work. Adieu, my dear Sir! Yours most cordially. + + + +Letter 206 To Sir David Dalrymple.(406) +Berkeley Square, Jan. 1, 1781. (page 264) + +Your favourable opinion of my father, Sir, is too flattering(r to +me not to thank you for the satisfaction it gave me. Wit, I +think he had not naturally, though I am sure he had none from +affectation, as simplicity was a predominant feature in his +amiable composition. but he possessed that, perhaps, most true +species of wit, which flows from experience and deep knowledge of +mankind, and consequently had more in his later than in his +earlier years; which is not common to a talent that generally +flashes from spirits, though they alone cannot bestow it. When +you was once before so good, Sir, as to suggest to me an attempt +at writing my father's life, I probably made you one answer that +I must repeat now, which is, that a son's encomiums would be +attributed to partiality; and with my deep devotion to his +memory, I should ever suspect it in myself. But I will set my +repugnance in a stronger light, by relating an anecdote not +incurious. In the new edition of the Biographia Britannica, Dr. +Kippis, the tinker of it, reflecting on my having called the +former, Vindicatio Britannica, or Defence of Every body, +threatened that when he should come to my father's life he would +convince me that the new edition did not deserve that censure. I +confess I thought this but an odd sort of historian equity, to +reverse scripture and punish the sins of children upon their +fathers! However, I said nothing. Soon after Dr. Kippis himself +called on me, and in very gracious terms desired I would favour +him with anecdotes of my father's life. This was descending a +little from his censorial throne, but I took no notice; and only +told him, that I was so persuaded of the fairness of my father's +character, that I chose to trust it to the most unprejudiced +hands; and that all I could consent to was, that when he shall +have written it, if he would communicate it to me, I would point +out to him any material facts, if I should find any, that were +not truly noted. This was all I could contribute. Since that +time I have seen in the second volume a very gross accusation of +Sir Robert, at second or third hand, and to which the smallest +attention must give a negative. Sir Robert is accused of having, +out of spite, influenced the House of Commons to expel the late +Lord Barrington for the notorious job of the Hamburg +lottery.(407) Spite was not the ingredient most domineering in +my father's character; but whatever has been said of the +corruption or servility of Houses of Commons, when was there one +so prostitute, that it would have expelled one of their own +members for a fraud not proved, to gratify the vengeance of the +minister? and a minister must have been implacable indeed, and a +House of Commons profligate indeed, to inflict such a stigma on +an innocent man, because he had been attached to a rival +predecessor of the minister. It is not less strange that the +Hamburgher's son should not have vindicated his parent's memory +at the opportunity of the secret committee on Sir Robert, but +should wait for a manuscript memorandum of Serjeant Skinner after +the death of this last. I hope Sir Robert will have no such +apologist! + +I do not agree less with you, Sir, in your high opinion of King +William. I think, and a far better judge, Sir Robert, thought +that Prince one of the wisest men that ever lived. Your bon-mot +of his was quite new to me. There are two or three passages in +the Diary of the second Earl of Clarendon that always struck me +as instances of wisdom and humour at once, particularly his +Majesty's reply to the lords who advised him (I think at +Salisbury,) to send away King James; and his few words, after +long patience, to that foolish lord himself, who harangued him on +the observance of his declaration. Such traits, and several of +Queen Anne (not equally deep) in the same journal, paint those +princes as characteristically as Lord Clarendon's able father +would have drawn them. There are two letters in the "Nugae +Antiquae," that exhibit as faithful pictures of Queen Elizabeth +and James the First, by delineating them in their private life +and unguarded hours. + +You are much in the right, Sir, in laughing at those wise +personages, who not only dug up the corpse of Edward the First, +but restored Christian burial to his crown and robes. Methinks, +had they deposited those regalia in the treasury of the church, +they would have committed no sacrilege. I confess I have not +quite so heinous an idea of sacrilege as Dr. Johnson. Of all +kinds of robbery, that appears to me the lightest species which +injures nobody. Dr. Johnson is so pious, that in his journey to +your country, he flatters himself that all his readers will join +him in enjoying the destruction of two Dutch crews, who were +swallowed up by the ocean after they had robbed a church.(408) I +doubt that uncharitable anathema is more in the spirit of the Old +Testament than of the New. + +(406) Now first published. + +(407) See ant`e, p. 201, letter 147.-E. + +(408) The following are Johnson's words:--"The two churches of +Elgin were stripped, and the lead was shipped to be sold in +Holland: I hope every reader will rejoice that this cargo of +sacrilege was lost at sea."-E. + + + +Letter 207 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +January 3, 1781. (page 266) + +After I had written my note to you last night, I called on * * * +* who gave me the dismal account of Jamaica,(409) that you will +see in the Gazette, and of the damage done to our shipping. +Admiral Rowley is safe; but they are in apprehensions for +Walsingham. He told me too what is not in the Gazette; that of +the expedition against the Spanish settlements, not a single man +survives! The papers to-day, I see, speak of great danger to +Gibraltar. + +Your brother repeated to me his great desire that you should +publish your speech,(410) as he told you. I do not conceive why +he is so eager for it, for he professes total despair about +America. It looks to me as if there was a wish of throwing the +blame somewhere; but I profess I am too simple to dive into the +objects of shades of intrigues: nor do I care about them. We +shall be reduced to a miserable little island; and from a mighty +empire sink into as insignificant a country as Denmark or +Sardinia! When our trade and marine are gone, the latter of +which we keep up by unnatural efforts, to which our debt will put +a stop, we shall lose the East Indies as Portugal did; and then +France will dictate to us more imperiously than ever we did to +Ireland, which is in a manner already gone too! These are +mortifying reflections, to -which an English mind cannot easily +accommodate itself. But, alas! we have been pursuing the very +conduct that France would have prescribed, and more than with all +her presumption she could have dared to expect. Could she +flatter herself that we would take no advantage of the +dilatoriness and unwillingness of Spain to enter into the war? +that we would reject the disposition of Russia to support us? and +that our still more natural friend, Holland,(411) would be driven +into the league against us? All this has happened; and, like an +infant, we are delighted with having set our own frock in a +blaze! I sit and gaze with astonishment at our frenzy. Yet why? +Are not nations as liable to intoxication as individuals? Are +not predictions founded on calculation oftener rejected than the +prophecies of dreamers? Do we not act precisely like Charles +Fox, who thought he had discovered a new truth in figures, when +he preached that wise doctrine, that nobody could want money that +would pay enough for it? The consequence was, that in two years +he left himself without the possibility of borrowing a shilling. +I am not surprised at the spirits of' a boy of parts; I am not +surprised at the people; I do wonder at government, that games +away its consequence. For what are we now really at war with +America, France, Spain, and Holland!--Not with hopes of +reconquering America; not with the smallest prospect of +conquering a foot of land from France, Spain, or Holland. No; we +are at war on the defensive to protect what is left, or more +truly to stave off, for a year perhaps, a peace that must +proclaim our nakedness and impotence. I would not willingly +recur to that womanish vision of something may turn up in our +favour! That something must be a naval victory that will +annihilate at once all the squadrons of Europe--must wipe off +forty millions of new debt--reconcile the affections of America, +that for six years we have laboured to alienate; and that must +recall out of the grave the armies and sailors that are perished- +-and that must make thirteen provinces willing to receive the +law, without the necessity of keeping ten thousand men amongst +them. The gigantic imagination of Lord Chatham would not +entertain such a chimera. Lord * * * * perhaps would say he did, +rather than not undertake; or Mr. Burke could form a metaphoric +vision that would satisfy no imagination but his own: but I, who +am nullius addiclus itrare in verba, have no hopes either in our +resources or in our geniuses, and look on my country already as +undone! It is grievous--but I shall not have much time to lament +its fall!(412) + +(409) On the 3d of October occurred one of the most dreadful +hurricanes ever experienced in the West Indies. In Jamaica, +Savannah la Mar, with three hundred inhabitants, was utterly +swept away by an irruption of the sea; and at Barbados, on the +10th, Bridgetown, the capital of the island, was almost levelled +to the ground, and several thousands of the inhabitants +perished.-E. + +(410) "Introductory of a motion for leave to bring in a bill for +quieting the troubles that have for some time subsisted between +Great Britain and America, and enabling his Majesty to send out +commissioners with full power to treat with America for that +purpose." The motion was negatived by 123 against 81. For the +speech of General Conway, and a copy of his proposed bill, see +Parl. History, vol, Nxi. pp. 570, 588.-E. + +(411) Mr. Henry Laurens, president of the American council, +having been taken by one of the King's frigates early in October +1780, on his passage to Holland, and it being discovered by the +papers in his possession that the American States had been long +carrying on a secret correspondence with Amsterdam, Sir Joseph +Yorke, the British minister at the Hague, demanded a satisfactory +explanation; but the same not being afforded, hostilities against +Holland were declared on the 28th of December 1780.-E. + +(412) To this passage the editor of Walpole's Works subjoined, in +March 1798, the following note:--"It may be some comfort, in a +moment no less portentous and melancholy than the one here +described, to recollect the almost unhoped-for recovery of +national prosperity, which took place from the peace of 1782 to +the declaration of war against France in the year 1793. May our +exertions procure the speedy application of a similar remedy to +our present evils, and may that remedy be productive of equally +good effects!"-E. + + + +Letter 208 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 7, 1781. (page 268) + + +Dear Sir, +I will not leave you a moment in suspense about the safety of +your very valuable volume, which you have so kindly sent me, and +which I have just received, with the enclosed letters, and your +other yesterday. I have not time to add a word more at present, +being full of business, having the night before last received an +account of Lady Orford's death at Pisa,(413) and a copy of her +will, which obliges me to write several letters, and to see my +relations. She has left every thing in her power to her friend +Cavalier Mozzi, at Florence; but her son comes into a large +estate, besides her great jointure. You may imagine, how I +lament that he had not patience to wait sixteen months, before he +sold his pictures! + +I am very sorry you have been at all indisposed. I will take the +utmost care of your fifty-ninth volume (for which I give you this +receipt), and will restore it the instant I have had time to go +through it. Witness my hand. + +(413) See vol. i. p. 243, letter 61.-E. + + + +Letter 209 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +February 9, 1781. (page 268) + +I had not time, dear Sir, when I wrote last, to answer your +letter, nor do more than cast an eye on your manuscripts. To say +the truth, my patience is not tough enough to go through Wolsey's +negotiations. I see that your perseverance was forced to make +the utmost efforts to transcribe them. They are immeasurably +verbose, not to mention the blunders of the first copyist. As I +road only for amusement, I cannot, so late in my life, purchase +information on what I do not much care about, at the price of a +great deal of ennui. The old wills at the end of your volume +diverted me much more than the obsolete politics. I shall say +nothing about what you call your old leaven. Every body must +judge for himself in those matters: nor are you or I of an age to +change long-formed opinions, as neither of us is governed by +self-interest. Pray tell me how I may most safely return your +volume. I value all your manuscripts so much, that I should +never forgive myself, if a single one came to any accident by +your so obligingly lending them to me. They are great treasures, +and contain something or other that must suit most tastes: not to +mention your amazing industry, neatness, legibility, with notes, +arms, etc. I know no such repositories. You will receive with +your manuscript Mr. Kerrick's and Mr. Gough's letters. The +former is very kind. The inauguration of the Antiquated Society +is burlesque and so is the dearth of materials for another +volume; can they ever want such rubbish as compose their +preceding annals? + +I think it probable that story should be stone: however, I never +piqued myself on recording every mason. I have preserved but too +many that did not deserve to be mentioned. I dare to say, that +when I am gone, many more such will be added to my volumes. I +had not heard of poor Mr. Pennant's misfortune. I am very sorry +for it, for I believe him to be a very honest good-natured man. +He certainly was too lively for his proportion of understanding, +and too impetuous to make the best use of what he had. However, +it is a credit to us antiquaries to have one of our class +disordered by vivacity. I hope your goutiness is dissipated, and +that this last fine week has set you on your feet again. + + + +Letter 210 To The Earl Of Buchan.(414) +Berkeley Square, Feb. 10, 1781. (page 269) + +I was honoured yesterday with your lordship's card, with the +notification of the additional honour of my being elected an +honourary member of the Society of the Antiquaries of +Scotland;(415) a grace, my lord, that I receive with the respect +and gratitude due to so valuable a distinction; and for which I +must beg leave, through your lordship's favour, to offer my most +sincere and humble thanks to that learned and respectable +Society. My very particular thanks are still due to your +lordship, who, in remembrance of ancient partiality, have been +pleased, at the hazard of your own judgment, to favour an old +humble servant, who can only receive honour from, but can reflect +none on, the Society into which your lordship and your associates +have condescended to adopt him. In my best days, my lord, I +never could pretend to more than having flitted over some flowers +of knowledge. Now worn out and near the end of my course, I can +Only be a broken monument to prove that the Society of the +Antiquaries of Scotland are zealous to preserve even the least +valuable remains of a former age, and to recompense all who have +contributed their mite towards illustrating our common island. I +am, etc. + +(414) Now first printed. + +(415) The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Scotland had been +formed at Edinburgh in the preceding December, when the Earl of +Buchan was elected president.-E. + + + +Letter 211 To Sir David Dalrymple.(416) +Strawberry Hill, Feb. 10, 1781. (page 270) + +I was very intimate, Sir, with the last Lord Finlater when he was +Lord Deskford. We became acquainted at Rome on our travels, and +though during his illness and long residence in Scotland, we had +no intercourse, I had the honour of seeing him sometimes during +his last visit to England; but I am an entire stranger to the +anecdote relative to my father and Sir William Windham. I have +asked my brother, who was much more conversant in the scenes of +that time, for I was abroad when Sir William died, and returned +to England but about six months before my father's retirement, so +that having been at school and at Cambridge, or in my infancy, +during Sir Robert's administration, the little I retain from him +was picked up in the last three years of his life, which is an +answer, Sir, to your inquiries why, among other reasons, I have +always declined writing his life; for I could in reality say but +little on my own knowledge; and yet should have the air of being +good authority, at least better than I should truly be. My +brother, Sir Edward, who is eleven years older than I am, never +heard of your anecdote. I may add, that latterly I lived in +great intimacy with the Marchioness of Blandford, Sir William's +widow, who died but a year and a half ago at Sheepe, here in my +neighbourhood; and with Lady Suffolk, who could not but be well +acquainted with the history of those times from her long +residence at court, and with whom, for the last five or six years +of her life here at Twickenham, I have had many and many long +conversations on those subjects, and yet I never heard a word of +the supposed event you mention. I myself never heard Sir W. +William speak but once in the House of Commons, but have always +been told that his style and behaviour were most liberal and like +a gentleman and my brother says, there never passed any +bitterness or acrimony between him and our father.(417) + +I will answer you as fairly and candidly, Sir, about Archibald +Duke of Argyll, of whom I saw at least a great deal. I do +believe Sir Robert had a full opinion of his abilities as a most +useful man. In fact, it is plain he had; for he depended on the +Duke, when Lord Islay, for the management of your part of the +island, and, as I have heard at the time, disobliged the most +firm of the Scottish Whigs by that preference. Sir Robert +supported Lord Islay against the Queen herself, who hated him for +his attachment to Lady Suffolk, and he was the only man of any +consequence whom her Majesty did not make feel how injudicious it +was (however novel) to prefer the interest of the mistress to +that of the wife. On my father's defeat his warm friends loudly +complained of Lord Islay as having betrayed the Scottish +boroughs, at the election of Sir Robert's last Parliament, to his +brother, Duke John. It is true too, that Sir Robert always +replied, "I do not accuse him." I Must own, knowing my father's +manner, and that when he said but little, it was not a favourable +symptom, I did think, that if he would not accuse, at least he +did not acquit. Duke Archibald was undoubtedly a dark shrewd +man. I recollect an instance for which I should not choose to be +quoted just at this moment, though it reflects on nobody living. +I forget the precise period, and even some of the persons +concerned; but it was in the minority of the present Duke of +Gordon, and you, Sir, can probably adjust the dates. A regiment +had been raised of Gordons. Duke Archibald desired the command +of it to a favourite of his own. The Duchess-dowager insisted on +it for her second husband. Duke A. said, "Oh! to be sure her +grace must be obeyed;" but instantly got the regiment ordered to +the East Indies, which had not been the reckoning of a widow +remarried to a young fellow.(418) + +At the time of the rebellion, I remember that Duke Archibald was +exceedingly censured in London for coming thither, and pleading +that he was not empowered to take up arms. But I believe that I +have more than satisfied your curiosity, Sir, and that you will +not think it very prudent to set an old man on talking of the +days of his Youth. + +I have just received the favour of a letter from Lord Buchan, in +which his lordship is so good as to acquaint me with the honour +your new Society of Antiquaries have done me in nominating me an +honourary member. I am certainly much flattered by the +distinction, but am afraid his lordship's partiality and +patronage will in this only instance do him no credit. My +knowledge even of British antiquity has ever been desultory and +most superficial; I have never studied any branch of science +deeply and solidly, nor ever but for temporary \amusement, and +without any system, suite, or method. Of late years I have +quitted every connexion with societies, not only Parliament, but +those of our Antiquaries and of Arts and Sciences, and have not +attended the meetings of the Royal Society. I have withdrawn +myself in a great measure from the world, and live in a very +narrow circle idly and obscurely. Still, Sir, I could not +decline the honour your Society has been pleased to offer me, +lest it should be thought a want of respect and gratitude, +instead of a mark of humility and conscious unworthiness. I am +so sensible of this last, that I cannot presume to offer my +services in this part of' our island to so respectable an +assembly; but if you, Sir, who know too well my limited +abilities, can at any time point out any information that it is +in my power to give to the Society, (as in the case of Royal +Scottish portraits, on which Lord Buchan was pleased to Consult +Me,) I shall be very proud to obey your and their commands, and +shall always be with great regard their and your most obedient +humble servant. + +P. S. I do not know whether I ever mentioned to you or Lord +Buchan, Sir, a curious and excellent head in oil of the Lady +Margaret Douglas at Mr. Carteret's, at Hawnes in Bedfordshire, +the seat of his grandfather Lord Granville; I know few better +portraits. It is at once a countenance of goodness and cunning, +a mixture I think pleasing. It seems to imply that the person's +virtue was not founded on folly or ignorance of the world; it +implies perhaps more, that the person would combat treachery and +knavery, and knew how. I could fancy the head in question was +such a character as Margaret Queen of Navarre, sister of Francis +the First. who was very free in her conversation and writings, +yet strictly virtuous; debonnaire, void of ambition; yet a +politician when her brother's situation required it. If your +Society should give into engraving historic portraits, this head +would deserve an early place. There is at Lord Scarborough's in +Yorkshire, a double portrait, perhaps by Holbein or Lucas de +Heere, of Lady Margaret's mother, Queen Margaret, and her second +husband. + +(416) Now first collected. + +(417) Pope in his second Dialogue for the Year 1738, has +transmitted Sir William's character to posterity-- + +"How can I, Pultney, Chesterfield, forget, +While Roman spirit charms, and Attic wit? +Or Wyndham, just to freedom and the throne, +The master of our passions and his own?" + +Speaker Onslow says, "there was a spirit and power in his +speaking that always animated himself and his hearers, and with +the decoration of his manner, which was, indeed, very ornamental, +produced, not only the most attentive, respectful, but even a +reverend regard, to whatever he spoke."-E. + +(418) See Memoires of George the Second, vol. i. p. 240. "In his +private life," says Walpole, "he had more merit, except in the +case of his wife, whom, having been deluded into marrying without +a fortune, he punished by rigorous and unrelaxed confinement in +Scotland. He had a great thirst for books; a head admirably +turned to mechanics; was a patron of ingenious men, a promoter of +discoveries, and one of the first encouragers of planting in +England; most of the curious exotics which have been familiarized +to this climate being introduced by him. He died suddenly in his +chair after dinner, at his house in Argyle-buildings, London, +April 15, 1761."-E. + + + +Letter 212 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, March 2, 1781. (page 272) + +Dear Sir, +My Lady Orford ordered herself to be buried at Leghorn, the only +place in Tuscany where Protestants have burial; therefore I +suppose she did not affect to change. On the contrary, I believe +she had no preference for any sect, but rather laughed at all. I +know nothing new, neither in novelty nor antiquity. I have had +no gout this winter, and therefore I call it my leap-year. I am +sorry it is not yours too. It is an age since I saw Dr. lort. I +hope illness is not the cause. You will be diverted with hearing +that I am chosen an honourary member of the new Antiquarian +Society at Edinburgh. I accepted for two reasons: first, it is a +feather that does not demand my flying thither; and secondly, to +show contempt for our own old fools.(419) To me it will be a +perfect sinecure; for I have moulted all my pen feathers, and +shall have no ambition of nestling into their printed +transactions. Adieu, my good Sir. Your much obliged. + +(419) Cole, in a letter to Mr. Gough, acquainting him with +Walpole's election, adds--"The admission of a few things into our +Archaeologia, has, I fear, estranged for ever one of the most +lively, learned, and entertaining members on our list."-E. + + + +Letter 213 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +March 5, 1781. (PAGE 273) + +I do not in the least guess or imagine what you mean by Lord +Hardwicke's publication of a Walpoliana.(420) Naturally it +should mean a collection of sayings or anecdotes of my father, +according to the French Anas, which began, I think, with those of +Menage. Or, is it a collection of letters and state-papers, +during his administration? I own I am curious to know at least +what this piece contains. I had not heard a word of it; and, +were it not for the name, I should have very little +inquisitiveness about it: for nothing upon earth ever was duller +than the three heavy tomes his lordship printed of Sir Dudley +Carleton's Negotiations, and of what he called State-papers. +Pray send me an answer as soon as you can, at least of as much as +you have heard about this thing. + +(420) "Walpoliana; or a few Anecdotes of Sir Robert Walpole"--an +agreeable little collection of anecdotes relative to Sir Robert +Walpole, made by Philip second Earl of Hardwicke; printed in +quarto, but never published.-E. + + + +Letter 214 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, March 29, 1781. (PAGE 273) + +You are so good-natured that I am sure you will be glad to be +told that the report of Mr. Pennant being disordered is not true. +He is come to town--has been with me, and at least is as composed +as ever I saw him. He is going to publish another part of his +Welsh Tour, which he can well afford; though I believe he does +not lose by his works. An aunt is dead, exceedingly rich, who +had given some thousands to him and his daughter, but suddenly +changed her mind and left all to his sister, who has most nobly +given him all that had been destined in the cancelled will. Dr. +Nash has just published the first volume of his Worcestershire. +It is a folio of prodigious corpulence, and yet dry enough; but +then it is finely dressed, and has many heads and views.(421) +Dr. Lort was with me yesterday, and I never saw him better, nor +has he been much out of order. I hope your gout has left you; +but here are winds bitter enough to give one any thing. Yours +ever. + +(421) Dr. Threadway Nash's "Collections for the History of +Worcestershire;" 1781-1799; in two volumes, folio.-E. + + + +Letter 215 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +April 3, 1781.(PAGE 274) + +I am very sorry, dear Sir, that, in my last letter but one, I +took notice of what you said of Lord Hardwicke; the truth was, I +am perfectly indifferent about what he prints or publishes. +There is generally a little indirect malice but so much more +dulness, that the latter soon suffocates the former. This is +telling you that I could not be offended at any thing you said of +him, nor am I likely to suspect a sincere friend of disobliging +me. You have proved the direct contrary these forty years. I +have not time to say more, but am ever most truly yours. + + + +Letter 216 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, May 4, 1781. (PAGE 274) + +I shall not only be ready to show Strawberry Hill, at any time he +chooses, to Dr. Farmer, as your friend, but to be honoured with +his acquaintance, though I am very shy now of contracting new. I +have great respect for his character and abilities and Judicious +taste, and am very clear that he has elucidated Shakspeare(422) +in a more reasonable and satisfactory manner than any of his +affected commentators, who only complimented him with learning +that he had not, in order to display their own. + +Pray give me timely notice whenever I am likely to see Dr. +Farmer, that I may not be out of the way when I can have an +opportunity of showing attention to a friend of yours, and pay a +small part of your gratitude to him. There shall be a bed at his +service; for you know Strawberry cannot be seen in a moment, nor +are Englishmen so liants as to get acquainted in the time they +are walking through a house. + +But now, my good Sir, how could you suffer your prejudiced +partiality to me to run away with you so extravagantly, as to +call me one of the greatest characters of the age? You are too +honest to flatter, too much a hermit to be interested, and I am +too powerless and insignificant to be an object of court, were +you capable of paying it from mercenary views. I know then that +it could proceed from nothing but the warmth of your heart; but +if you are blind towards me, I am not so to myself. I know not +how others feel on such occasions, but if any one happens to +praise me, all my faults rush into my face, and make me turn my +eyes inward and outward with horror. What am I but a poor old +skeleton tottering towards the grave, and conscious of a thousand +weaknesses, follies, and worse! And for talents, what are mine +but trifling and superficial; and, compared with those of men +with real genius, most diminutive! Mine a great character! Mercy +on me! I am a composition of Anthony Wood and Madame Danois,(423) +and I know not what trumpery writers. This is the least I can +say to refute your panegyric, which I shall burn presently; for I +will not have such an encomiastic letter found in my possession, +lest I should seem to have been pleased with it. I enjoin you, as +a penance, not to contradict one tittle I have said here; for I +am not begging more compliments, and shall take it seriously ill +if you ever pay me another. We have been friends above forty +years; I am satisfied of your sincerity and affection; but does +it become us, at past threescore each, to be saying fine things +to one another? Consider how soon we shall both be nothing! + +I assure you, with great truth, I am at this present very sick of +my little vapour of fame. My tragedy has wandered into the hands +of some banditti booksellers, and I am forced to publish it +myself to prevent piracy.(424) All I can do is to condemn it +myself, and that I shall. I am reading Mr. Pennant's new Welsh +Tour; he has pleased me by making very handsome mention of you; +but I will not do, what I have been blaming. + +My poor dear Madame du Deffand's little dog is arrived. She made +me promise to take care of it the last time I saw her: that I +will most religiously, and make it as happy as is possible.(425) +I have not much curiosity to see your Cambridge Raphael, but +great desire to see you, and will certainly this summer, accept +your invitation,, which I take much kinder than your great +character, though both flowed from the same friendship. Mine for +you is exactly what it has been ever since you knew (and few men +can boast so uninterrupted a friendship as yours and that of--) +H. W. + +(422) In his well-known "Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare."-E. + +(423) Madame d'Aulnoy, the contemporary of Perrault, and, like +him, a writer of fairy tales. She was the authoress of "The +Lady's Travels in Spain," and many other works, which have been +translated into English.-E. + +(424) Walpole had printed fifty copies of"The Mysterious Mother" +at Strawberry Hill as early as the year 1765; but a surreptitious +edition of it being announced in 1781, he consented to Dodsley's +publishing a genuine one.-E. + +(425) In his reply to this letter, of the 7th of May, the worthy +antiquary says-"I congratulate the little Parisian dog, that he +has fallen into the hands of so humane a master. I have a little +diminutive dog, Busy, full as great a favourite, and never out of +my lap: I have already, in case of an accident, ensured it a +refuge from starvation and ill-usage. It is the least we can do +for poor harmless, shiftless, pampered animals that have amused +us, and we have spoilt." A brother antiquary, on reading this +passage, exclaimed, "How could Mr. Cole ever get through the +transcript of a Bishop's Registry, or a Chartulary, with Busy +never out of his lap!"-E. + + + +Letter 217 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill,, Sunday evening, May 6, 1781. (PAGE 275) + +I supped With your Countess on Friday at Lord Frederick +Campbell's, where I heard of the relief of Gibraltar by Darby. +The Spanish fleet kept close in Cadiz: however, he lifted up his +leg, and just squirted contempt on them. As he is disembarrassed +of his transports, I suppose their ships will scramble on shore +rather than fight. Well, I shall be perfectly content with our +fleet coming back in a whole skin; it will be enough to have +outquixoted Don Quixote's own nation. As I knew, your Countess +would write the next day, I waited till she was gone out of town +and would not have much to tell you--not that I have either; and +it is giving myself an air to pretend to know more at Twickenham +than she can at Henley. Though it is a bitter northeast, I came +hither to-day to look at my lilacs, though `a la glace; and to +get from pharaoh, for which there is a rage. I doted on it above +thirty years ago; but it is not decent to sit up all night now +with boys and girls. My nephew, Lord Cholmondeley, the banker `a +la mode, has been demolished. He and his associate, Sir +Willoughby Aston, went early t'other night to Brookcs's, before +Charles Fox and Fitzpatrick, who keep a bank there, were come; +but they soon arrived, attacked their rivals, broke their bank, +and won above four thousand pounds. "There," said Fox, "so +should all usurpers be served!" He did still better; for he sent +for his tradesmen, and paid as far as the money would go. In the +mornings he continues his war on Lord North, but cannot break +that bank. The court has carried a secret committee for India +affairs, and it is supposed that Rumbold is to be the sacrifice; +but as he is near as rich as Lord Clive, I conclude he will +escape by the same golden key. + +I told you in my last that Tonton was arrived. I brought him +this morning to take possession of his new villa, but his +installation has not been at all pacific. As he has already +found out that he may be as despotic as at Saint Joseph's, he +began with exiling my beautiful little cat; upon which, however, +we shall not quite agree. He then flew at one of my dogs,(426) +who returned it by biting his foot till it bled, but was severely +beaten for it. I immediately rung for Margaret,(427) to dress +his foot: but in the midst of my tribulation could not keep my +countenance; for she cried, "Poor little thing, he does not +understand my language!" I hope she will not recollect too that +he is a Papist! + +Berkeley Square, Tuesday, May 8. + +I came before dinner, and found your long letter of the 3d. You +have mistaken Tonton's sex, who is a cavalier, and a little of +the mousquetaire still; but if I do not correct his vivacities, +at least I shall not encourage them like my dear old friend. + +You say nothing of your health; therefore, I trust it is quite +re-established: my own is most flourishing for me. They say the +Parliament will rise by the birthday; not that it seems to be any +grievance or confinement to any body. I hope you will soon come +and enjoy a quiet summer under the laurels of your own +conscience. They are at least as spreading as any body's else; +and the soil will preserve their verdure for ever. Methinks we +western powers might as well make peace. since we make war so +clumsily. Yet I doubt the awkwardness of our enemies will not +have brought down our stomach. Well, I wish for the sake of +mankind there was an end of their sufferings! Even spectators +are not amused--the whole war has passed like the riotous murmurs +of the upper gallery before the play begins--they have pelted the +candle-snuffers, the stage has been swept, the music has played, +people have taken their places--but the deuce a bit of any +performance!--And when folks go home, they will have seen nothing +but a farce, that has cost fifty times more than the best +tragedy! + +(426) This does not quite accord with the favourable character +given of Tonton by Madame du Deffand's secretary, Wyrt, in a +letter to Walpole:--"Je garderai," he says, "Tonton jusqu'au +d`epart de M. Thomas Walpole; j'en ai le plus grand soin. Il est +tr`es doux; il ne mord personne; il n'`etait m`echant qu'aupr`es +de sa maitresse."-E. + +(427) Mr. Walpole's housekeeper. + + + +Letter 218 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Berkeley Square, May 28, 1781. (PAGE 277) + +This letter, like an embarkation, will not set out till it has +gotten its complement; but I begin it, as I have just received +your second letter. I wrote to you two days ago, and did not +mean to complain; for you certainly cannot have variety of matter +in your sequestered isle: and since you do not disdain trifling +news, this good town, that furnishes nothing else, at least +produces weeds, which shoot up in spite of the Scotch thistles, +that have choked all good fruits. I do not know what Lady Craven +designs to do with her play; I hope, act it only in private; for +her other was murdered, and the audience did not exert the least +gallantry to so pretty an authoress, though she gave them so fair +an opportunity. For my own play, I was going to publish it in my +own defence, as a spurious edition was advertised here, besides +one in Ireland. My advertisement has overlaid the former for the +present, and that tempts me to suppress mine, as I have a +thorough aversion to its appearance. Still, I think I shall +produce it in the dead of summer, that it may be forgotten by +winter; for I could not bear having it the subject of +conversation in a full town. It is printed; so I can let it +steal out in the midst of the first event that engrosses the +public; and as it is not quite a novelty, I have no fear but it +will be stillborn, if it is twin with any babe that squalls and +makes much noise. + +At the same time with yours I received a letter from another +cousin at Paris, who tells me Necker is on the verge, and in the +postscript says, he has actually resigned. I heard so a few days +ago; but this is a full confirmation. Do you remember a +conversation at your house, at supper, in which a friend of yours +spoke, very unfavourably of Necker, and seemed to wish his fall? +In my own opinion they are much in the wrong. It is true, Necker +laboured with all his shoulders to restore their finances; yet I +am persuaded that his attention to that great object made him +clog all their military operations. They will pay dearer for +money; but money they will have: nor is it so dear to them, for, +when they have gotten it, they have only not to pay. A Monsieur +Joly de Fleury is comptroller-general. I know nothing of him; +but as they change so often, some able man will prove minister at +last--and there they will have the advantage again. + +Lord Cornwallis's courier, Mr. Broderick, is not yet arrived; so +you are a little precipitate in thinking America so much nearer +to be subdued, which you have often swallowed up as if you were a +minister; and yet, methinks, that era has been so frequently put +off, that I wonder you are not cured of being sanguine--or +rather, of believing the magnificent lies that every trifling +advantage gives birth to. If a quarter of the Americans had +joined the Royalists, that have been said to join, all the +colonies would not hold them. But, at least, they have been like +the trick of kings and queens at cards; where one Of two goes +back every turn to fetch another. However, this Is only for +conversation for the moment. With such aversion to disputation, +I have no zeal for making converts to my own opinions not even on +points that touch me nearer. + +Thursday, May 31. + +If you see the papers, you will find that there was a warm debate +yesterday on a fresh proposal from Hartley(428) for pacification +with America; in which the ministers were roundly reproached with +their boasts of the returning zeal of the colonies and which, +though it ought by their own accounts to be so much nearer +Complete, they could not maintain to be at all effectual; though +even yesterday a report was revived of a second victory of Lord +Cornwallis. This debate prevented another on the Marriage-bill, +which Charles Fox wants to get repealed, and which he told me he +was going to labour. I mention this from the circumstance of the +moment when he told ne so. I had been to see if Lady Ailesbury +was come to town; as I came up St. James's-street, I saw a cart +and porters at Charles's door; coppers and old chests of drawers +loading. In short, his success at faro has awakened his host of +creditors; but unless his bank had swelled to the size of the +bank of England, it could not have yielded a sop apiece for each. +Epsom, too, had been unpropitious; and One creditor has actually +seized and carried off his goods, which did not seem worth +removing. As I returned full of this scene, whom should I find +sauntering by my own door but Charles? He came up and talked to +me at the coach-window, on the Marriage-bill(429) With as much +sang-froid as if he knew nothing of what had happened. I have no +admiration for insensibility to one's own faults, especially when +committed out of vanity. Perhaps the whole philosophy consisted +in the commission. If you could have been as much to blame, the +last thing you would bear well would be your own reflections. +The more marvellous Fox's parts are, the more one is provoked at +his follies, which comfort so many rascals and blockheads, and +make all that is admirable and amiable in him only matter of +regret to those who like him as I do. + +I did intend to settle at Strawberry on Sunday; but must return +on Thursday, for a party made at Marlborough-house for Princess +Amelia. I am continually tempted to retire entirely; and should, +if I did not see how very unfit English tempers are for living +quite out of the world. We grow abominably peevish and severe on +others, if we are not constantly rubbed against and polished by +them. I need not name friends and relations of yours and mine as +instances. My prophecy on the short reign of faro is verified +already. The bankers find that all the calculated advantages of +the game do not balance pinchbeck parolis and debts of honourable +women. The bankers, I think, might have had a previous and more +generous reason, the very bad air of holding a bank:--but this +country is as hardened against the petite morale, as against the +greater.--What should I think of the world if I quitted it +entirely? + +(428) On the preceding day, Mr. Hartley had moved for leave to +bring in a bill to invest the Crown with sufficient power to +treat upon the means of restoring peace with the provinces of +north America. It was Negatived by 106 against 72.-E. + +(429) On the 7th of June Mr. Fox moved for leave to bring in a +bill to amend the act of the 26th of George the Second, for +preventing clandestine marriages. The bill passed the Commons, +but was rejected by the Lords.-E. + + + +Letter 219 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, June 3, 1781. (PAGE 279) + +You know I have more philosophy about you than courage, yet for +once I have been very brave. There was an article in the papers +last week that said, a letter from Jersey mentioned apprehensions +of being attacked by four thousand French. Do you know that I +treated the paragraph with scorn? No, no; I am not afraid for +your island, when you are at home in it, and have had time to +fortify it, and have sufficient force. No, no; it will not be +surprised when you are there, and when our fleet is returned, and +Digby before Brest. However, with all my valour, I could not +help going to your brother to ask a few questions; but he had +heard of no such letter. The French would be foolish indeed if +they ran their heads a third time against your rocks, when +watched by the most vigilant of all governors. Your nephew +George(430) is arrived with the fleet: my door opened t'other +morning; I looked towards the common horizon of heads, but was a +foot and a half below any face. The handsomest giant in the +world made but one step across my room, and seizing my hand, gave +it such a robust gripe that I squalled; for he crushed my poor +chalk-stones to powder. When I had recovered from the pain of +his friendly salute, I said, "It must be George Conway! and yet, +is it possible? Why, it is not fifteen months ago since you was +but six feet high!" In a word, he is within an inch of Robert and +Edward, with larger limbs; almost as handsome as Hugh, with all +the bloom of youth; and, in short, another of those comely sons +of Anak, the breed of which your brother and Lady Hertford have +piously restored for the comfort of the daughters of Sion. He is +delighted with having tapped his warfare with the siege of +Gibraltar, and burns to stride to America. The town, he says, is +totally destroyed, and between two and three hundred persons were +killed.--Well, it is a pity Lady Hertford has done breeding: we +shall want such a race to repeople even the ruins we do not lose! +The rising generation does give one some hopes. I confine myself +to some of this year's birds. The young William Pitt(431) has +again displayed paternal oratory. The other day, on the +commission of accounts, he answered Lord North, and tore him limb +from limb. If Charles Fox could feel, one should Think such a +rival, with an unspotted character, would rouse him. What, if a +Pitt and Fox should again be rivals! A still newer orator has +appeared in the India business, a Mr. Bankes,(432) and against +Lord North too; and with a merit that the very last crop of +orators left out of their rubric--modesty. As young Pitt is +modest too, one would hope some genuine English may revive!(433) + +Tuesday, June 5. + +This is the season of opening my cake-house. I have chosen a bad +spot, if I meant to retire; and calculated ill, when I made it a +puppet-show. Last week we had two or three mastiff-days; for +they were fiercer than our common dog-days. It is cooled again; +but rain is as great a rarity as in Egypt; and father Thames is +so far from being a Nile, that he is dying for thirst himself. +But it would be prudent to reserve paragraphs of weather till +people are gone out of town; for then I can have little to send +you else from hence. + +Berkeley Square, June 6. + +As soon as I came to town to-day Le Texier called on me, and told +me he has miscarried of Pygmalion. The expense would have +mounted to 150 pounds and he could get but sixty subscribers at a +guinea apiece. I am glad his experience and success have taught +him thrift. I did not expect it. Sheridan had a heavier +miscarriage last night. The two Vestris had imagined a f`ete; +and, concluding that whatever they designed would captivate the +town and its purses, were at the expense of 1200 pounds and, +distributing tickets at two guineas apiece, disposed of not two +hundred. It ended in a bad opera, that began three hours later +than usual, and at quadruple the price. There were bushels of +dead flowers, lamps, country dances--and a cold supper. Yet they +are not abused as poor Le Texier was last year. + +June 8. + +I conclude my letter, and I hope our present correspondence, very +agreeably; for your brother told me last night, that you have +written to Lord Hillsborough for leave to return. If all our +governors could leave their dominions in as good plight, it were +lucky. Your brother owned, what the Gazette with all its +circumstances cannot conceal, that Lord Cornwallis's triumphs +have but increased our losses, without leaving any hopes. I am +told that his army, which when he parted from Clinton amounted to +seventeen thousand men, does not now contain above as many +hundred, except the detachments. The Gazette, to my sorrow and +your greater sorrow, speaks of Colonel O'Hara having received two +dangerous wounds. Princess Amelia was at Marlborough-house last +night, and played at faro till twelve o'clock. There ends the +winter campaign! I go to Strawberry-hill to-morrow; and I hope, +a l'Irlandaise, that the next letter I write to you will be not +to write to you any more. + +(430) Lord George Seymour Conway, seventh son of Francis, first +Earl and Marquis of Hertford; born 1763.-E. + +(431) The young William Pitt," afterwards, as Walpole +anticipated, the proud rival of Charles Fox, and for so long a +period the prime-minister of England, delivered his maiden speech +in the House of Commons, on the 26th of February, in favour of +Mr. Burke's bill for an economical reform in the civil list. +"Never," says his preceptor, Bishop Tomline, "were higher +expectations formed of any person upon his first coming into +Parliament, and never were expectations more completely answered. +They were, indeed, much more than answered; such were the fluency +and accuracy of language, such the perspicuity of arrangement, +and such the closeness of reasoning, and manly and dignified +elocution,--generally, even in a much less degree, the fruits of +long habit and experience,--that it could scarcely be believed to +be the first speech of a young man not yet two-and-twenty. On +the following day, knowing my anxiety upon every subject which +related to him, Mr. Pitt, with his accustomed kindness, wrote to +me at Cambridge, to inform me that 'he had heard his own voice in +the House of Commons,' and modestly expressed his satisfaction at +the manner in which his first attempt at parliamentary speaking +had been received."-E. + +(432) Henry Bankes, Esq. of Kingston Hall. He represented +Corfe-Castle from 1780 to 1826, and the county of Dorset from +that time until 1831. In 1818, he published "The Civil and +Constitutional History of Rome, from the Foundation to the Age of +Augustus," in two volumes, 8vo; and died in 1834.-E. + +(433) Mr. Wilberforce, in a letter to a friend, of the 9th of +June, says--"The papers will have informed you how Mr. William +Pitt, second son of the late Lord Chatham has distinguished +himself: he comes out as his father did, a ready-made orator, and +I doubt not but that I shall one day or other, see him the first +man in the country." Life, vol. 1. p. 22.-E. + + + +Letter 220 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, June 13, 1781. (PAGE 281) + +It was very kind, my dear lord, to recollect me so soon: I wish I +Could return it by amusing you; but here I know nothing, and +suppose it is owing to age that even in town I do not find the +transactions of the world very entertaining. One must sit up all +night to see or hear any thing; and if the town intends to do any +thing, they never begin to do it till next day. Mr. Conway will +certainly be here the end of this month, having thoroughly +secured his island from surprise, and it is not liable to be +taken any other way. I wish he was governor of this bigger one +too, which does not seem quite so well guaranteed. + +Your lordship will wonder at a visit I had yesterday: it was from +Mr. Storer, who has passed a day and night here. It was not from +my being a fellow-scholar of Vestris, but from his being turned +antiquary; the last passion I should have thought a macaroni +would have taken. I am as proud of such a disciple as of having +converted Dicky Bateman from a Chinese to a Goth. Though he was +the founder of the Sharawadgi taste in England, I preached so +effectually that his every pagoda took the veil. The Methodists +say, one must have been very wicked before one can be of the +elect--yet is that extreme more distant from the ton, which avows +knowing and liking nothing but the fashion of the instant, to +studying what were the modes of five hundred years ago? I hope +this conversion will not ruin Mr. Storer's fortune under the Lord +Lieutenant of Ireland. How his Irish majesty will be shocked +when he asks how large Prince Boothby's shoe-buckles are grown, +to be answered, he does not know, but that Charles Brandon's +cod-piece at the last birthday had three yards of velvet in it! +and that the Duchess of Buckingham thrust out her chin two inches +farther than ever in admiration of it! and that the Marchioness +of Dorset had put out her jaw by endeavouring to imitate her! + +We have at last had some rains, which I hope extended to +Yorkshire, and that your lordship has found Wentworth Castle in +the bloom of verdure. I always, as in duty bound, wish +prosperity to every body and every thing there, and am your +lordship's ever devoted and grateful humble servant. + + + +Letter 221To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, June 16, 1781. (PAGE 282) + +Your last account of yourself was so indifferent, that I am +impatient for a better: pray send me a much better. + +I know little in your way but that Sir Richard Worseley has just +published a History of the Isle of Wight, with many views poorly +done enough.(434) Mr. Bull(435) is honouring me, at least my +Anecdotes of Painting, exceedingly. He has let every page into a +pompous sheet, and is adding every print of portrait, building, +etc. that I mention, and that he can get, and specimens of all +our engravers. It will make eight magnificent folios, and be a +most valuable body of our arts. Nichols the printer has +published a new Life of Hogarth,(436) of near two hundred pages- +-many more, in truth, than it required: chiefly it is the life of +his works, containing all the variations, and notices of any +persons whom he had in view. I cannot say there are discoveries +of many prints which I have not mentioned, though I hear Mr. +Gulston(437) says he has fifteen such; but I suppose he only +fancies so. Mr. Nichols says our printsellers are already adding +Hogarth's name to several spurious. Mr. Stevens, I hear, has +been allowed to ransack Mrs. Hogarth's house for obsolete and +unfinished plates, which are to be completed and published. +Though she was not pleased with my account of her husband, and +seems by these transactions to have encouraged the second, I +assure you I have much more reason to be satisfied than she has, +the editor or editors being much civiller to living me than to +dead Hogarth--yet I should not have complained. Every body has +the same right to speak their sentiments. Nay, in general, I +have gentler treatment than I expected, and I think the world and +I part good friends. + +I am now setting about the completion of my AEdes Strawberrianae. +A painter is to come hither on Monday to make a drawing of the +Tribune, and finish T. Sandby's fine view of the gallery, to +which I could never get him to put the last hand. They will Then +be engraved with a few of the chimney-pieces, which will complete +the plates. I must add an appendix of curiosities, purchased or +acquired since the Catalogue was printed. This will be awkward, +but I cannot afford to throw away an hundred copies. I shall +take care if I can that Mr. Gough does not get fresh intelligence +from my engravers, or he will advertise my supplement, before the +book appears. I do not think it was very civil to publish such +private intelligence, to which he had no right without my leave; +but every body seems to think he may do what is good in his own +eyes. I saw the other day, in a collection of seats (exquisitely +engraved), a very rude insult on the Duke of Devonshire. The +designer went to draw a view of Chiswick, without asking leave, +and was not hindered, for he has given it; but he says he was +treated illiberally, the house not being shown without tickets, +which he not only censures, but calls a singularity, though a +frequent practice in other places, and practised there to my +knowledge for these thirty years: so every body is to come into +your house if he pleases, draw it whether you please or not, and +by the same rule, I suppose, put any thing into his pockets that +he likes. I do know, by experience, what a grievance it is to +have a house worth being seen, and though I submit in consequence +to great inconveniences, they do not save me from many +rudenesses. Mr. Southcote(438) was forced to shut up his +garden, for the savages who came as connoisseurs scribbled a +thousand brutalities, in the buildings, upon his religion. I +myself, at Canons, saw a beautiful table of oriental alabaster +that had been split in two by a buck in boots jumping up +backwards to sit upon it. + +I have placed the oaken head Of Henry the Third over the middle +arch of the armoury. Pray tell me what the church of Barnwell, +near Oundle, was, which his Majesty endowed, and whence his head +came. Dear Sir, Yours most sincerely. + +(434) Sir Richard Worsley is better known by his splendid work, +the "Museum Worsleianum; or, a Collection of antique +Basso-relievos, Bustos, Statues, and Gems; with views of places +in the Levant, taken on the spot, in the years 1785-6-7;" in two +volumes, folio. Sir Richard sat many years in Parliament for the +borough of Newport, and was governor of the Isle of Wight, where +he died in 1805.-E. + +(435) Richard Bull, Esq. a famous collector of portraits.-E. + +(436) " Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth; and a +Catalogue of his Works, chronologically arranged; with occasional +Remarks."-E. + +(437) Joseph Gulston, Esq. also an eminent portrait collector.-E. + +(438) Philip Southcote, Esq. of Wooburn Farm, Chertsey: one of +the first places improved according to the principles of modern +gardening.-E. + + + +Letter 222 To The Earl Of Charlemont.(439) +Strawberry Hill, July 1, 1781. (PAGE 284) + +I should have been exceedingly flattered, my lord, by receiving a +present from your lordship, which at once proves that I retain a +place in your lordship's memory, and you think me worthy of +reading what you like. I could not wait to give your lordship a +thousand thanks for so kind a mark of your esteem till I had done +through the volume, which I may venture to say I shall admire, as +I find it contains some pieces which I had seen, and did admire, +without knowing their author. That approbation was quite +impartial. Perhaps my future judgment of the rest will be not a +little prejudiced, and yet on good foundation; for if Mr. +Preston(440) has retained my suffrage in his favour by dedicating +his poems to your lordship, it must at least be allowed that I am +biassed by evidence of his taste. He would not possess the +honour of your friendship unless he deserved it; and, as he knows +you, he would not have ventured to prefix your name, my lord, to +poems that did not deserve your patronage. I dare to say they +will meet the approbation of better judges than I can pretend to +be. I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, esteem, +and gratitude. + +(439) Now first collected. + +(440) William Preston, Esq. a young Irish gentleman, of whom Lord +Charlemont had become the friend and patron. He afterwards +published "Thoughts on Lyric Poetry, with an Ode to the Moon;" an +"essay on Ridicule, Wit, and Humour;" and a translation of the +Argonautics of Appollonius Rhodius. He died in 1807.-E. + + + +Letter 223 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, July 7, 1781. (PAGE 284) + +My good Sir, you forget that I have a cousin, eldest son of Lord +Walpole, and of a marriageable age, who has the same Christian +name as I. The Miss Churchill he has married is my niece, second +daughter of my sister, Lady Mary Churchill; so that if I were in +my dotage, I must have looked out for another bride--in short, I +hope you will have no occasion to wish me joy of any egregious +folly. I do congratulate you on your better health, and on the +Duke of Rutland's civilities to you. I am a little surprised at +his brother, who is a seaman, having a propensity to divinity, +and wonder you object to it; the church navigant would be an +extension of its power. As to orthodoxy, excuse me if I think it +means nothing at all but every man's own opinion. Were every man +to define his faith, I am persuaded that no two men are or ever +were exactly of the same opinion in all points and as men are +more angry at others for differing with them on a single point, +than satisfied with their Concurrence in all others, each would +deem every body else a heretic. Old or new Opinions are exactly +of the same authority, for every opinion must have been new when +first started; and no man has nor ever had more right than +another to dictate, unless inspired. St. Peter and St. Paul +disagreed from the earliest time, and who can be sure which was +in the right? and if one of the apostles was in the wrong, who +may not be mistaken? When you will tell me which was the +orthodox, and which the heterodox apostle, I will allow that you +know what orthodoxy is.(441) You and I are perhaps the two +persons who agree the best with very different ways of thinking; +and perhaps the reason is, that we have a mutual esteem for each +other's sincerity, and, from an experience of more than forty +years, are persuaded that neither of us has any interested +views.(442) For my own part, I confess honestly that I am far +from having the same charity for those whom I suspect of +mercenary views. If Dr. Butler, when a private clergyman, wrote +Whig pamphlets, and when Bishop of Oxford preaches Tory sermons, +I should not tell him that he does not know what orthodoxy is, +but I am convinced he does not care what it is. The Duke of +Rutland seems much more liberal than Butler or I, when he is so +civil to you, though you voted against his brother. I am not +acquainted with his grace, but I respect his behaviour; he is +above prejudices. + +The story of poor Mr. Cotton(443) is shocking, whichever way it +happened, but most probably it was accident. + +I am ashamed at the price of my book, though not my fault; but I +have so often been guilty myself of giving ridiculous prices for +rarities, though of no intrinsic value, that I must not condemn +the same folly in others. Every thing tells me how silly I am! I +pretend to reason, and yet am a virtuoso! Why should I presume +that, at sixty-four, I am too wise to marry? and was you, who +know so many of my weaknesses, in the wrong to suspect me of one +more? Oh! no, my good friend: nor do I see any thing in your +belief of it, but the kindness with which you wish me felicity on +the occasion. I heartily thank you for it, and am most cordially +yours. + +(441) On Lord Sandwich's observing that he did not know the +difference between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, Bishop Warburton is +said to have replied, "Orthodoxy, my lord, is my doxy, and +heterodoxy is another man's doxy."-E. + +(442) Cole, in a letter to 'Mr. Gough, of the 10th of August, +says--"Mr. Walpole and myself are as opposite in political +matters as possible; yet we continue friends. Your political and +religious opinions possibly may be as dissimilar; yet I hope we +shall all meet in a better world, and be happy."-E. + +(443) A son of Sir John Cotton, who was accidentally killed +whilst shooting in his father's Woods.-E. + + + +Letter 224 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, July 26, 1781. (PAGE 286) + +I will not delay thanking you, dear Sir, for a second letter, +which you wrote out of kindness, though I have time but to say a +word, having my house full of company. I think I have somewhere +or other mentioned the "Robertus Comentarius," (probably on some +former information from you, which YOU never forget to give me,) +at least the name sounds familiar to me; but just now I cannot +consult my papers or books from the impediment of my guests. As +I am actually preparing a new edition of my Anecdotes, I shall +very soon have occasion to search. I am sorry to hear you +complain of the gout, but trust It will be a short parenthesis. +Yours most gratefully. + + + +Letter 225 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, August 31, 1781. (page 286) + +Your lordship's too friendly partiality sees talents in me which +I am sure I do not possess. With all my desire of amusing you, +and with all my sense of gratitude for your long and unalterable +goodness, it is quite impossible to send you an entertaining +letter from hence. The insipidity of my life, that is passed +with a few old people that are wearing out like myself, after +surviving so many of my acquaintance, can furnish no matter of +correspondence. What few novelties I hear, come stale, and not +till they have been hashed in the newspapers and though we are +engaged in such big and wide wars, they produce no striking +events, nor furnish any thing but regrets for the lives and +millions we fling away to no purpose! One cannot divert when one +can only compute, nor extract entertainment from prophecies that +there is no reason to colour favourably. We have, indeed, +foretold success for seven years together, but debts and taxes +have been the sole completion. + +If one turns to private life, what is there to furnish pleasing +topics? Dissipation, without object, pleasure, or genius, is the +only colour of the times. One hears every day of somebody +undone. but can we or they tell how, except when it is by the +most expeditious of all means, gaming? And now, even the loss of +an hundred thousand pounds is not rare enough to be surprising. +One may stare or growl, but cannot relate any thing that is worth +hearing. I do not love to censure a younger age; but in good +truth, they neither amuse me nor enable me to amuse others. + +The pleasantest event I know happened to myself last Sunday +morning when General Conway very unexpectedly walked in as I was +at breakfast, in his way to Park-place. He looks as well in +health and spirits as ever I saw him; and though he stayed but +half an hour, I was perfectly content, as he is at home. + +I am glad your lordship likes the fourth book of The Garden,(444) +which is admirably coloured. The version of Fresnoy I think the +finest translation I ever saw. It is a most beautiful poem, +extracted from as dry and prosaic a parcel of verses as could be +put together: Mr. Mason has gilded lead, and burnished it +highly. Lord and Lady Harcourt I should think would make him a +visit, and I hope, for their sakes, will visit Wentworth Castle. +As they both have taste, I should be sorry they did not see the +perfectest specimen of architecture I know. + +Mrs. Damer certainly goes abroad this winter. I am glad of it +for every reason but her absence. I am certain it will be +essential to her health; and she has so eminently a classic +genius, and is herself so superior an artist, that I enjoy the +pleasure she will have in visiting Italy. + +As your lordship has honoured all the productions of my press +with your acceptance, I venture to enclose the last, which I +printed to oblige the Lucans. There are many beautiful and +poetic expressions in it. A wedding to be sure, is neither a new +nor a promising subject, nor will outlast the favours: still I +think Mr. Jones's Ode(445) is uncommonly good for the occasion; +at least, if it does not much charm Lady Strafford and your +lordship, I know you will receive it kindly as a tribute from +Strawberry Hill, as every honour is due to you both from its +master. Your devoted servant. + +(444) The fourth book of Mason's "English Garden" had just made +its appearance.-E. + +(445) Mr. afterwards Sir William, Jones's Ode on the marriage of +Lord Althorpe, afterwards Earl Spencer, with Miss Bingham.-E. + + + +Letter 226 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 16, 1781. (page 227) + +I am not surprised that such a mind as yours cannot help +expressing gratitude: it would not be your mind, if it could +command that sensation as triumphantly as it does your passions. +Only remember that the expression is unnecessary. I do know that +you feel the entire friendship I have for you; nor should I love +you so well if I was not persuaded of it. There never was a +grain of any thing romantic in my friendship for you. We loved +one another from children, and as so near relations; but my +friendship grew up with your virtues, which I admired though I +did not imitate. We had scarce one in common but +disinterestedness. Of the reverse we have both, I may say, been +so absolutely clear, that there is nothing so natural and easy as +the little moneyed transactions between us - and therefore, +knowing how perfectly indifferent I am upon that head, and +remembering the papers I showed you, and what I have said to you +when I saw you last, I am sure you will have the complaisance +never to mention thanks more.-Now, to answer your questions. + +As to coming to you, as that feu gr`egeois Lord George Gordon has +given up the election, to my great joy, I can come to you on +Sunday next. It is true, I had rather you visited your regiment +first, for this reason: I expect summons to Nuneham every day; +and besides, having never loved two journeys instead of one, I +grow more covetous of my time, as I have little left, and +therefore had rather take Park-place, going and coming, on my way +to Lord Harcourt. + +I don't know a word of news, public or private. I am deep in my +dear old friend's papers.(446) There are some very delectable; +and though I believe, nay, know, I have not quite all, there are +many which I almost wonder, after the little delicacy they(447) +have shown, ever arrived to my hands. I dare to say they will +not be quite so just to the public; for though I consented that +the correspondence with Voltaire should be given to the editors +of his works, I am persuaded that there are many passages at +least which they will suppress, as very contemptuous to his chief +votaries: I mean, of the votaries to his sentiments; for, like +other heresiarchs, he despised his tools. If I live to see the +edition, it Will divert me to collate it with what I have in my +hands. + +You are the person in the world the fittest to encounter the +meeting you mention for the choice of a bridge.(448) You have +temper and patience enough to bear with fools and false taste. +I, so unlike you, have learned some patience with both sorts too, +but by a more summary method than by waiting to instil reason +into them. Mine is only by leaving them to their own vagaries, +and by despairing that sense and taste should ever extend +themselves. Adieu! + +P. S. In 'Voltaire's letters are some bitter traits on the King +of Prussia, which, as he is defender of their no-faith, I +conclude will be ray`es too. + +(446) Madame du Deffand, who died in September 1780, and left all +her papers to Mr. Walpole. See ant`e, p. 256, letter 199.-E. + +(447) The executors of Madame du Deffand; whom Walpole suspected +of having abstracted some of her papers.-E. + +(448) The bridge over the Thames at Henley, to the singular +beauty of which the good taste of mr. Conway materially +contributed. + + + +Letter 227 To John Nichols, Esq. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 31, 1781. (page 288) + +I am glad to hear, Sir, that your account of Hogarth calls for +another edition; and I am very sensible of your great civility in +offering to change any passages that criticise my own work. +Though I am much obliged by the offer, I should blush to myself +if I even wished for that complaisance. Good God! Sir, what am I +that I should be offended at or above criticism or correction? I +do not know who ought to be; I am sure, no author. I am a +private man, of no consequence, and at best an author of very +moderate abilities. In a work that comprehends so much biography +as my Anecdotes of Painting, it would have been impossible, even +with much more diligence than I employed, not to make numberless +mistakes. It is kind to me to point out those errors; to the +world it is justice. Nor have i a reason to be displeased even +with the manner. I do remember that in many passages you have +been very civil to me. I do not recollect any harsh phrases. As +my work is partly critical as well as biographic, there too I had +no reason or right to expect deference to my opinions. +Criticism, I doubt, has no very certain rule to go by; in matters +of taste it is a still more vague and arbitrary science. + +As I am very sincere, Sir, in what I say, I will with the same +integrity own, that in one or two places of your book I think the +criticisms on me are not well founded. For instance; in p. 37 I +am told that Hogarth did not deserve the compliment I pay him of +not descending to the indelicacy of the Flemish and Dutch +painters. It is very true that you have produced some instances, +to which I had not adverted, where he has been guilty of the same +fault, though I think not in all you allege, nor to the degree +alleged: in some I think the humour compensates for the +indelicacy, which is never the case with the Dutch; and in one +particular I think it is a merit,--I mean in the burlesque Paul +before Felix,--for there, Sir, you should recollect that Hogarth +himself meant to satirize, not to imitate the painters of Holland +and Flanders. + +You have also instanced, Sir, many more portraits in his satiric +prints than come within my defence of him as not being a personal +satirist; but in those too, with submission, I think you have +gone too far; as, though you have cited portraits, are they all +satiric? Sir John Gouson is the image of an active magistrate +identified; but it is not ridiculous, unless to be an active +magistrate is being ridiculous. Mr. Pine,(449) I think you +allow, desired to sit for the fat friar in the Gates of Calais-- +certainly not with a view to being turned into derision. + +With regard to the bloody fingers of Sigismunda, you Say, Sir, +that my memory must have failed me, as you affirm that they are +unstained with blood. Forgive me if I say that I am positive +they were so originally. I saw them so, and have often mentioned +that fact. Recollect, Sir, that you yourself allow, p. 46, in +the note, that the picture was continually "altered, upon the +criticism of one connoisseur or another." May not my memory be +more faithful about so striking a circumstance than the memory of +another who would engage to recollect all the changes that +remarkable picture underwent? + +I should be very happy, Sir, if I could contribute any additional +lights to your new publication; indeed, what additional lights I +have gained are from your work, which has furnished me with many. +I am going to publish a new edition of all the five volumes of my +Anecdotes of Painting, in which I shall certainly insert what I +have gathered from you. This edition will be in five thin +octaves, without cuts, to make the purchase easy to artists and +such as cannot afford the quartos, which are grown so +extravagantly dear, that I am ashamed of it. Being published too +at different periods, and being many of them cut to pieces for +the heads, since the race for portraits has been carried so far, +it is very rare to meet with a complete set. My corrected copy +is now in the printer's hands, except the last volume, in which +are my additions to Hogarth from your list, and perhaps one or +two more but that volume also I have left in town, though not at +the printer's, as, to complete it, I must wait for his new works, +which Mrs. Hogarth is to publish. When I am settled in town, +Sir, I shall be very ready, if you please to call on me in +Berkeley Square, to communicate any additions I have made to my +account of Hogarth. + +(449) John Pine the artist, who published "The Procession and +Ceremonies at the Installation of the Knights of the Bath, 17th +of June, 1725;" folio, 1730; and, in 1739, "The Tapestry Hangings +of the House of Lords," etc. sat for the Fat Friar in Hogarth's +Gates of Calais, and received from that circumstance the name of +"Friar Pine," which he retained till his death. E. + + + +Letter 228 To Robert Jephson, Esq.(450) +Berkeley Square, Nov. 7. 1781. (page 290) + +Yesterday, Sir, I received the favour of your letter with the +inclosed prologue,(451) and am extremely pleased with it; not +only as it omits mention of me, for which I give you my warmest +thanks, but as a composition. The thoughts are just and happily +expressed; and the conclusion is so lively and well conceived, +that Mr. Harris, to whom I carried it this morning, thinks it +will have great effect. We are very sorry you have not sent us +an epilogue too; but, before I touch on that, I will be more +regular in my details. Miss Younge has accepted the part very +gracefully; and by a letter I have received from her, in answer +to mine, will, I flatter myself, take care to do justice to it. +Nay, she is so zealous, that Mr. Harris tells me she has taken +great pains with the young person who is to play the daughter, +but whose name I cannot at this moment recollect.(452) + +I must now confess that I have been again alarmed. I had a +message from Mr. Harris on Saturday last to tell me that the +performers had been so alert, and were so ready with their parts, +and the many disappointments that had happened this season had +been so prejudicial to him, that it would be easy and necessary +to bring out your play next Saturday the 10th, and desired to +have the prologue and epilogue. This precipitation made me +apprehend that justice would not be done to your tragedy. Still +I did not dare to remonstrate; nor would venture to damp an +ardour which I could not expect to excite again. Instead of +objecting to his haste, I only said I had not received your +prologue and epilogue, but had written for them and expected them +every Minute, though, as it depended on winds, one could never be +sure. I trusted to accidents for delay; at least I thought I +could contrive some, without seeming to combat what he thought +for his interest. + +I have not been mistaken. On receiving your prologue yesterday, +I came to town to-day and carried it to him, to show him I lost +no time. He told me Mr. Henderson was not enough recovered, but +he hoped would be well enough to bring out the play on Saturday +se'nnight. That he had had a rough rehearsal yesterday morning, +with which he had been charmed; and was persuaded, and that the +performers think so too. that your play will have great effect. +All this made me very easy. There is to be a regular rehearsal +on Saturday, for which I shall stay in town on purpose; and, if I +find the performers perfect, I think there will be no objection +to its appearance on Saturday se'nnight. I shall rather prefer +that day to a later; as, the Parliament not being met, it will +have a week's run before politics interfere. + +Now, Sir, for the epilogue. I have taken the liberty of desiring +Mr. Harris to have one prepared, in case yours should not arrive +in time. It is a compliment to him, (I do not mean that he will +write it himself,) will interest him still more in the cause; +and, though he may not procure a very good one, a manager may +know better than we do what will suit the taste of the times. +The success of a play being previous, cannot be hurt by an +epilogue, though some plays have been saved; and if it be not a +good one, it will not affect you. If you send us a good one, +though too late, it may be printed with the play. + +I must act about the impression just the reverse of what I did +about the performance, and must beg you would commission some +friend to transact that affair; for I know nothing of the terms, +and should probably disserve you if I undertook the treaty with +the booksellers, nor should I have time to supervise the +correction of the press. In truth, it is so disagreeable a +business, that I doubt I have given proofs at my own press of +being too negligent; and as I am actually at present reprinting +my Anecdotes of Painting, I have but too much business of that +sort on my hands. You will forgive my saying this, especially +when you consider that my hands are very lame, ind that this +morning in Mr. Harris's room, the right one shook so, that I was +forced to desire him to write a memorandum for me. + +I think I have omitted nothing material. Mr. Wroughton is to +play the Count. I do not know who will speak the prologue; +probably not Mr. Henderson, as he has been so very ill: nor +should I be very earnest for it; for the Friar's is so central +and so laborious a part, that I should not wish to abate his +powers by any previous exertion. Perhaps I refine too much, but +I own I think the non-appearance of a principal actor till his +part opens is an advantage. + +I will only add that I must beg you will not talk of obligations +to me. You have at least overpaid me d'avance by the honour you +have done me in adopting the Castle of Otranto. + +(450) Now first printed. + +(451) To the tragedy of the Count of Narbonne. See ant`e, p. +238, letter 184.-E. + +(452) Miss Satchell. + + + +Letter 229 To Robert Jephson, Esq.(453) +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 10, 1781. (page 292) + +As I have been at the rehearsal of your tragedy to-day, Sir, I +must give you a short a(-count of it; though I am little able to +write, having a good deal of gout in my right hand, which would +have kept me away from any thing else, and made me hurry back +hither the moment it was over, lest I should be confined to town. +Mr. Malone, perhaps, who was at the playhouse too, may have +anticipated me; for I could not save the post to-night, nor will +this go till to-morrow. + +Mr. Henderson is still too ill to attend, but hopes to be abroad +by Tuesday: Mr. Hull read his part very well. Miss Younge is +perfectly mistress of her part, is pleased with it, and I think +will do it justice. I never saw her play so ably. Miss +Satchell, who is to play Adelaide, is exactly what she should be: +very young, pretty enough, natural and simple. She has already +acted Juliet with success. Her voice not only pleasing, but very +audible; and, which is much more rare, very articulate: she does +not gabble, as most young women do, even off the stage. Mr. +Wroughton much exceeded my expectation. He enters warmly into his +part, and with thorough zeal. Mr. Lewis was so very imperfect in +his part, that I cannot judge quite what he will do, for he could +not repeat two lines by heart; but he looked haughtily, and as he +pleased me in Percy, which is the same kind of character, I +promise myself he will succeed in this. + +Very, very few lines will be omitted; and there will be one or +two verbal alterations to accommodate the disposition, but which +will not appear in the printed copies, of which Mr. Malone says +he will take the management. As Mr. Harris and the players all +seemed zealous and in good humour, I will not contest some +trifles; and, indeed, they were not at all unreasonable. I an) +to see the scenes on Friday, if I am able: and if Mr. Henderson +is well enough, the play will be performed on the 17th or +immediately after. Some slight delays, which one cannot foresee, +may always happen. In truth-, I little expected so much +readiness and compliance both in manager and actors; nor, from +all I have heard of the stage, could conceive such facilities. +>From the moment Mr. Harris consented to perform your play, there +has not been one instance of obstinacy or wrongheadedness +anywhere. If the audience is as reasonable and just, you may, +Sir, promise yourself complete success. + +(453) Now first printed. + + + +Letter 230 To Robert Jephson, Esq.(454) +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 13, 1781. )page 293) + +I have, this minute, Sir, received the corrected copy of your +tragedy, which is almost all I am able to say, for I have so much +gout in this hand, and it shakes so much, that I am scarce able +to manage my pen. I will go to town if I can, and consult Mr. +Henderson on the alterations; though I confess I think it +dangerous to propose them so late before representation, which +the papers say again is to be on Saturday if Mr. Henderson is +well enough. Mr. Malone shall have the corrected copy for +impression. + +I own I cannot suspect that Mr. Sheridan will employ any +ungenerous arts against your play. I have never heard any thing +to give me suspicions of his behaving unhandsomely; and as you +indulge my zeal and age a liberty of speaking like a friend, I +would beg you to suppress your sense of the too great +prerogatives of theatric monarchs. I hope you will again and +again have occasion to court the power of their crowns; and, +therefore if not for your own, for the sake of the public, do not +declare war with them. It has not been my practice to preach +slavery; but, while one deals with and depends on mimic +sovereigns, I would act policy, especially when by temporary +passive obedience one can really lay a lasting obligation on +one's country, which your plays really are. + +I am glad you approve what I had previously undertaken, Mr. +Harris's procuring an epilogue; he told me on Saturday that he +should have one. You are very happy in friends, Sir; which is +another proof of your merit. Mr. Malone is not less zealous than +Mr. Tighe, to whom I beg my compliments. + +(454) Now first printed. + + + +Letter 231 To Robert Jephson, Esq.(455) +Berkeley Square, Nov. 18, 1781. (page 293) + +As Mr. Malone undertook to give you an account, Sir, by last +night's post, of the great success of the tragedy, I did not +hasten home to write; but stayed at the theatre, to talk to Mr. +Harris and the actors, and learn what was said, besides the +general applause. Indeed I never saw a more unprejudiced +audience, nor more attention. There was not the slightest +symptom of disapprobation to any part, and the plaudit was loud +and long when given out again for Monday. I mention these +circumstances in justification of Mr. Sheridan, to whom I never +spoke in MY life, but who certainly had not sent a single person +to hurt you. The prologue was exceedingly liked; and, for +effect, no play ever produced more fears. In the green-room I +found that Hortensia's sudden death was the only incident +disapproved; as we heard by intelligence from the pit; and it is +to be deliberated tomorrow whether it may not be preferable to +carry her off as in a swoon. When there is Only SO slight an +objection, you cannot doubt of your full success. It is +impossible to say how much justice Miss Younge did to your +writing. She has shown herself' a great mistress of her +profession, mistress of dignity, passion, and of all the +sentiments you have put into her hands. The applause given to +her description of Raymond's death lasted some minutes, and +recommenced; and her scene in the fourth act, after the Count's +ill-usage, was played in the highest perfection. Mr. Henderson +was far better than I expected from his weakness, and from his +rehearsal yesterday, with which he was much discontented himself. +Mr. Wroughton was very animated, and played the part of the Count +much better than any man now on the stage would have done. I +wish I could say Mr. Lewis satisfied me; and that poor child Miss +Satchell was very inferior to what she appeared at the +rehearsals, where the total silence and our nearness deceived us. +Her voice has no strength, nor is she yet at all mistress of the +stage. I have begged Miss Younge to try what she can do with her +by Monday. However, there is no danger to your play: it is fully +established. I confess I am not only pleased on your account, +Sir, but on Mr. Harris's, as he has been very obliging to me. I +am not likely to have any more intercourse with the stage; but I +shall be happy if I leave my interlude there by settling an amity +between you and Mr. Harris, whence I hope he will draw profit and +you more renown. + +(455) Now first printed. + + + +Letter 232 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Berkeley Square, Sunday morning, Nov. 18, 1781. (page 294) + +I have been here again for three days, tending and nursing and +waiting on Mr. Jephson's play. I have brought it into the world, +was well delivered of it, it can stand on its own legs--and I am +going back to My Own quiet hill, never likely to have any thing +more to do with theatres. Indeed it has seemed strange to me, +who for these three or four years have not been so many times in +a playhouse, nr knew six of the actors by sight, to be at two +rehearsals, behind the scenes, in the green-room, and acquainted +with half the company. The Count of Narbonne was played last +night with great applause, and without a single murmur of +disapprobation. Miss Younge has charmed me.(456) She played +with intelligence that was quite surprising. The applause to one +of her speeches lasted a minute, and recommenced twice before the +play could go on. I am sure you will be pleased with the conduct +and the easy beautiful language of the play, and struck with her +acting. + +(456) In 1786, this celebrated actress was married to Mr. Pope, +the comedian. She died in 1797, and was buried in Westminster +Abbey.-E. + + + +Letter 233 To Robert Jephson, Esq.(457) +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 21, 1781. (page 295) + +I have just received your two letters, Sir, and the epilogue, +which I am sorry came so late, as there are very pretty things in +it: but I believe it would be very improper to produce it now, as +the two others have been spoken. + +I am sorry you are discontent with there being no standing figure +of Alphonso, and that I acquiesced in its being cumbent. I did +certainly yield, and I think my reasons will justify me. In the +first place, you seemed to have made a distinction between the +statue and the tomb; and, had both been represented, they would +have made a confusion. But a more urgent reason for my +compliance was the shortness of the time, which did not allow the +preparation of an entire new scene, as I proposed last year and +this, nay, and mentioned it to Mr. Harris. When I came to the +house to see the scene prepared, it was utterly impossible to +adjust an erect figure to it; nor, indeed, do I conceive, were +the scene disposed as you recommend, how Adelaide could be +stabbed behind the scenes. As I never disguise the truth, I must +own,.-for I did think myself so much obliged to Mr. Harris,--that +I was unwilling to heap difficulties on him, when I did not think +they would hurt your piece. I fortunately was not mistaken: the +entrance of Adelaide wounded had the utmost effect, and I believe +much greater than would have resulted from her being stabbed on +the stage. In short, the success has been so complete, and both +your poetry and the conduct of the tragedy are so much and so +justly admired, that I flatter myself you will not blame me for +what has not produced the smallest inconvenience. Both the +manager and the actors were tractable, I believe, beyond example; +and it is my nature to bear some contradiction, when it will +carry material points. The very morning, the only morning, I had +to settle the disposition, I had another difficulty to +reconcile,-the competition of the two epilogues, which I was so +lucky as to compromise too. I will say nothing of my being three +hours each time, on two several days, in a cold theatre with the +gout on me; and perhaps it was too natural to give up a few +points in order to get home, for which I ask your pardon. Yet +the event shows that I have not injured you and if I was in one +instance impatient, I flatter myself that my solicitations to Mr. +Harris and Miss Younge, and the zeal I have shown to serve you, +will atone for my having in one moment thought of myself, and +then only when the reasons that weighed with me were so +plausible, that without a totally new scene, which the time would +not allow, I do not see how they could have been obviated. Your +tragedy, Sir, has taken such a rank upon the stage, that one may +reasonably hope it will hereafter be represented with all the +decorations to your mind; and I admire it so truly, that I shall +be glad to have it conducted by an abler mechanist than your +obedient humble servant. + +(457) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 234 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Berkeley Square, Nov. 27, 1781. (page 296) + +Each fresh mark of your lordship's kindness and friendship, calls +on me for thanks and an answer: every other reason would enjoin +me silence. I not only grow so old, but the symptoms of age +increase so fast, that, as they advise me to keep out of the +world, that retirement makes me less fit to be informing or +entertaining. Those philosophers who have sported on the verge +of the tomb, or they who have affected to sport in the same +situation, both tacitly implied that it was not out of their +thoughts; and however dear what we are going to leave may be, all +that is not particularly dear must cease to interest us much. If +those reflections blend themselves with our gayest thoughts, must +not their hue grow more dusky when public misfortunes and +disgraces cast a general shade?(458) The age, it is true, soon +emerges out of every gloom, and wantons as before. But does not +that levity imprint a still deeper melancholy on those who do +think? Have any of our calamities corrected us? Are we not +revelling on the brink of the precipice? Does administration grow +more sage, or desire that we should grow more sober? Are these +themes for letters, my dear lord! Can one repeat common news with +indifference, while our shame is writing for future history by +the pens of all our numerous enemies? When did England see two +whole armies lay down their arms and surrender themselves +prisoners? Can venal addresses efface such stigmas, that will be +recorded in every country in Europe? Or will such disgraces have +no consequences? Is not America lost to us? Shall we offer up +more human victims to the demon of obstinacy; and shall we tax +ourselves deeper to furnish out the sacrifice? These are +thoughts I cannot stifle at the moment that enforces them; and +though I do not doubt but the same spirit of dissipation that has +swallowed up all our principles will reign again in three days +with its wonted sovereignty, I had rather be silent than vent my +indignation. Yet I cannot talk, for I cannot think, on any other +subject. It was not six days ago, that in the midst of four +raging wars I saw in the papers an account of the Opera and of +the dresses of the company; and thence the town, and thence of +course the whole nation were informed that Mr. Fitzpatrick had +very little powder in his hair.(459) Would not one think that +our newspapers were penned by boys just come from school for the +information of their sisters and cousins? Had we had Gazettes +and Morning Posts in those days, would they have been filled with +such tittle-tattle after the battle of Agincourt, or in the more +resembling weeks after the battle of Naseby? Did the French +trifle equally even during the ridiculous war of the Fronde? If +they were as impertinent then, at least they had wit in their +levity. We are monkeys in conduct, and as clumsy as bears when +we try to gambol. Oh! my lord! I have no patience with my +country! and shall leave it without regret!--Can we be proud +when all Europe scorns us? It was wont to envy us, sometimes to +hate us, but never despised us before. James the First was +contemptible, but he did not lose an America! His eldest +grandson sold us, his younger lost us--but we kept ourselves. +Now we have run to meet the ruin--and it is coming! + +I beg your lordship's pardon, if I have said too much--but I do +not believe I have. You have never sold yourself, and therefore +have not been accessary to our destruction. You must be happy +now not to have a son, who would live to grovel in the dregs of +England. Your lordship has long been so wise as to secede from +the follies of your countrymen. May you and Lady Strafford long +enjoy the tranquillity that has been your option even in better +days!--and may you amuse yourself without giving loose to such +reflections as have overflowed in this letter from your devoted +humble servant! + +(458) The fatal intelligence of the surrender of the British +forces at Yorktown, under the command of Lord Cornwallis, to the +combined armies of America and France, under General Washington, +had reached England on the 25th.-E. + +(459) The following picture of fashionable life at the time of +Walpole's lament, is by Mr. Wilberforce:--"When I +left the University, so little did I know of general society, +that I came up to London stored with arguments to +prove the authenticity Of Rowley's poems; and now +I was at once immersed in politics and fashion. The very first +time I went to Boodle's, I won twenty.five guineas +of the Duke of Norfolk. I belonged at this time to five clubs- +-Miles and Evans's, Brookes's, Boodle's, White's, Goostree's. +The first time I was at Brookes's, scarcely +knowing any one, I joined, from niere shyness, in play at the + faro-table, where George Selwyn kept bank. A friend, +who knew my inexperience, and regarded me as a victim decked out +for sacrifice, called to me, 'What, Wilberforce! is +that you?' Selwyn quite resented the interference; and, turning +to him, said, in his most expressive tone, 'O, +Sir, don't interrupt Mr. Wilberforce; he could not be better +employed!' Nothing could be more luxurious than the style of +these clubs, Fox, Sheridan, Fitzpatrick, and all +your leading men, frequented them, and associated upon the +easiest terms; you chatted, played at cards, or gambled, as you +pleased. I was one of those who met to spend an +evening in memory of Shakspeare, at the Boar's Head, Eastcheap. +Many professed wits were present, but Pitt was the most amusing +of the party. He played a good deal at +Goostree's; and I well remember the intense earnestness which he +displayed when joining in those games of chance. he perceived +their increasing fascination, and soon after suddenly abandoned +them for ever." Life, vol, i. p, 16.-E. + + + +Letter 235To The Earl Of Buchan.(460) +Berkeley Square, Dec. 1, 1781. (page 297) + +I am truly sensible of, and grateful for, your lordship's +benevolent remembrance of me, and shall receive with great +respect and pleasure the collection your lordship has been +pleased to order to be sent to me. I must admire, too, my lord, +the generous assistance that you have lent to your adopted +children; but more forcibly than all I feel your pathetic +expressions on the distress of the public, which is visible even +in this extravagant and thoughtless city. The number of houses to +be let in every street, whoever runs may read. + +At the time of your writing your letter, your lordship did not +know the accumulation of misfortune and disgrace that has fallen +on us;(461) nor should I wish to be the trumpeter of my country's +calamities. Yet as they must float on the surface of the mind, +and blend their hue -with all its emanations, they suggest this +reflection, that there can be no time so proper for the +institution of inquiries into past story as the moment of the +fall of an empire,--a nation becomes a theme for antiquaries, +when it ceases to be one for an historian!--and while its ruins +are fresh and in legible preservation. + +I congratulate your lordship on the discovery of the Scottish +monarch's portrait in Suabia, and am sorry you did not happen to +specify of which; but I cannot think of troubling your lordship +to write again on purpose; I may probably find it mentioned in +some of the papers I shall receive. + +There is one passage in your lordship's letter in which I cannot +presume to think myself included; and yet if I could suppose I +was, it would look like most impertinent neglect and unworthiness +of the honour that your lordship and the society have done me, if +I did not at least offer. very humbly to obey it. You are pleased +to say, my lord, that the members, when authors, have agreed to +give copies of such of their works as any way relate to the +objects of the institution. Amongst my very trifling +publications, I think there are none that can pretend even +remotely to that distinction, but the Catalogue of Royal and +Noble Authors, and the Anecdotes of Painting, in each of which +are Scottish authors or artists. If these should be thought +worthy of a corner on any shelf of the society's library, I +should be proud sending, at your lordship's command, the original +edition of the first. Of the latter I have not a single set left +but my own. But I am printing a new edition in octavo, with many +additions and corrections, though without cuts, as the former +edition was too dear for many artists to purchase. The new I will +send when finished, if I could hope it would be acceptable, and +your lordship would please to tell me by what channel. + +I am ashamed, my lord, to have said so much, or any thing +relating to myself. I ask your pardon too for the slovenly +writing of my letter; but my hand is both lame and shaking, and I +should but write worse if I attempted transcribing. + +I have the honour to be, with great respect, my lord, your +lordship's most obedient and obliged humble servant. + +P. S. It has this moment started into my mind, my lord, that I +have heard that at the old castle at Aubigny, belonging and +adjoining to the Duke of Richmond's house, there are historic +paintings or portraits of the ancient house of Lennox. I +recollect too that Father Gordon, superior of the Scots College +at Paris, showed me a whole-length of Queen Mary, young, and +which he believed was painted while she was Queen of France. He +showed me too the original letter she wrote, the night before her +execution, some deeds of Scottish kings, and one of King (I think +Robert) Bruce, remarkable for having no seal appendent, which +Father Gordon said was executed in the time of his so great +distress, that he was not possessed of a seal. I shall be happy +if these hints lead to any investigations of use. + +(460) Now first collected. + +(461) The surrender of the British army at Yorktown. See ant`e, +p. 296, letter 234.-E. + + + +Letter 236 To Robert Jephson, Esq.(462) +Berkeley Square, Dec. 3, 1781. (page 299) + +I have not only a trembling hand, but scarce time to save the +post; yet I write a few lines to beg you will be perfectly easy +on my account, who never differ seriously with my friends, when I +know they do not mean ill to me. I was sorry you took so much to +heart an alteration in the scenery of your play,(463) which did +not seem to me very material; and which, having since been +adjusted to your wish, had no better effect. I told you that it +was my fault, not Mr. Malone's, who is warmly your friend; and I +am sure you will be sorry if you do him injustice. I regret no +pains I have taken, since they have been crowned with your +success; and it would be idle in either of us to recall any +little cross circumstance that may have happened, (as always do +in bringing a play on the stage,) when they have not prevented +its appearance or good fortune. Be assured, Sir, if that is +worth knowing, that I have taken no offence, and have all the +same good wishes for you that I ever had since I was acquainted +with your merit and abilities. I can easily allow for the +anxiety of a parent of your genius for his favourite offspring; +and though I have not your parts, I have had the warmth, though +age and illness have chilled it: but, thank God! they have not +deprived me of my good-humour, and I am most good-humouredly and +sincerely your obedient humble servant. + +(462) Now first collected. + +(463) See ant`e, p. 295, letter 233.-E. + + + +Letter 237 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Dec. 30, 1781. (page 299) + +We are both hearty friends, my dear Sir, for I see we have both +been reproaching ourselves with silence at the same moment. I am +much concerned that you have had cause for yours.(464) I have +had less, though indisposed too in a part material for +correspondence--my hand, which has been in labour of chalk-stones +this whole summer, and at times so nervous as to tremble so much, +that, except when quite necessary, I have avoided a pen. I have +been delivered of such a quantity of chalky matter, that I am not +only almost free from pain, but hope to avoid a fit this winter. +How there can be a doubt what the gout is, amazes me! what is it +but a concretion of humours, that either Stop up the fine +vessels, cause pain and inflammation, and pass away only by +perspiration; or which discharge themselves into chalk-stones, +which sometimes remain in their beds, sometimes make their +passage outwardly? I have experienced all three. It may be +objected, that the sometimes instantaneous removal of pain from +one limb to another is too rapid for a current of chalk--true, +but not for the humour before coagulated. As there is, +evidently, too, a degree of wind mixed in the gout, may not that +wind be impregnated with the noxious effluvia, especially as the +latter are pent up in the body and may be corrupted? I hope your +present complaint in the foot will clear the rest of your person. +Many thanks for your etching of Mr. Browne Willis: I shall value +it not only as I am a collector, but because he was your friend. +What shall I say about Mr. Gough? He is not a pleasant man, and +I doubt will tease me about many things, some of which I have +never cared about, and all which I interest myself little about +now, when I seek to pass my remnant in the most indolent +tranquillity. He has not been very civil to me, he worships the +fools I despise, and I conceive has no genuine taste; yet as to +trifling resentments, when the objects have not acted with bad +hearts, I can most readily lose them. Please Mr. Gough, I +certainly shall not; I cannot be very grave about such idle +studies as his and my own, and am apt to be impatient, or laugh +when people imagine I am serious about them. But there is a +stronger reason why I shall not satisfy Mr. Gough. He is a man +to minute down whatever one tells him that he may call +information, and whip it into his next publication. However, +though I am naturally very frank, I can regulate myself by those +I converse with; and as I shall be on my guard, I will not +decline visiting Mr. Gough, as it would be illiberal or look +surly if I refused. You shall have the merit, if you please, of +my assent; and shall tell him, I shall be glad to see him any +morning at eleven o'clock. This will save you the trouble of +sending me his new work, as I conclude he will mention it to me. + +I more willingly assure you that I shall like to see Mr. +Steevens,(465) and to show him Strawberry. You never sent me a +person you commended, that I did not find deserved it. + +You will be surprised when I tell you, that I have only dipped +into Mr. Bryant's book, and lent the Dean's before I had cut the +leaves, though I had peeped into it enough to see that I shall +not read it. Both he and Bryant are so diffuse on our antiquated +literature, that I had rather believe in Rowley than go through +their proofs. Dr. Warton and Mr. Tyrwhitt have more patience, +and intend to answer them--and so the controversy will be two +hundred years out of my reach. Mr. Bryant, I did find, begged a +vast many questions, which proved to me his own doubts. Dr. +Glynn's foolish evidence made me laugh, and so did Mr. Bryant's +sensibility for me; he says that Chatterton treated me very +cruelly in one of his writings. I am sure I did not feel it so. +I suppose Bryant means under the title of Baron of Otranto, which +is written with humour. I must have been the sensitive plant if +any thing in that character had hurt me! Mr. Bryant too, and the +Dean, as I see by extracts in the papers, have decorated +Chatterton with sanctimonious honour--think of that young +rascal's note, when, summing up his gains and losses by writing +for and against Beckford, he says, "Am glad he is dead by three +pounds 13 shillings 6pence." There was a lad of too nice honour +to be capable of forgery! and a lad who, they do not deny, +forged the poems in the style of Ossian, and fifty other things. +In the parts I did read, Mr. Bryant, as I expected, reasons +admirably, and staggered me; but when I took up the poems called +Rowley's again, I protest I cannot see the smallest air of +antiquity but the old words. The whole texture is conceived on +ideas of the present century. The liberal manner of thinking of +a monk so long before the Reformation is as stupendous; and where +he met with Ovid's Metamorphoses, eclogues, and plans of Greek +tragedies, when even Caxton, a printer, took Virgil's AEneid for +so rare a novelty, are not less incomprehensible: though on these +things I speak at random, nor have searched for the era when the +Greek and Latin classics came again to light-at present I imagine +long after our Edward the Fourth. + +Another thing struck me in my very cursory perusal of Bryant. He +asks where Chatterton could find so much knowledge of English +events? I could tell him where he might, by a very natural +hypothesis, though merely an hypothesis. It appears by the +evidence, that Canninge left six chests of manuscripts, and that +Chatterton got possession of some or several. Now what was +therein so probably as a diary drawn up by Canninge himself, or +some churchwarden or wardens, or by a monk or monks? Is any +thing more natural than for such a person, amidst the events at +Bristol, to set down other public facts as happened in the rest +of the kingdom? Was not such almost all the materials of our +ancient story? There is actually such an one, with some curious +collateral facts, if I am not mistaken,--for I write by memory,-- +in the History of Furnese or Fountains Abbey, I forget which: if +Chatterton found such an one, did he want the extensive +literature on which so much stress is laid. Hypothesis for +hypothesis,--I am sure this is as rational an one as the +supposition that six chests were filled with poems never else +heard of. + +These are my indigested thoughts on this matter--not that I ever +intend to digest them--for I will not, at sixty-four, sail back +into the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and be drowned in an +ocean of monkish writers of those ages or of this! Yours most +sincerely. + +(464) Mr. Cole, in a letter of the 31st says, "About six weeks +ago, the gout was harassing both my feet; on Christmas-day it +shifted its quarters, and got into my left hand; and +inexpressible have been the pain and torment I have endured, with +sleepless nights, racking pain, and no rest nor relief by day. I +hope the worst is over, as I had a comfortable sleep for the +whole night last night: but my hopes are like those in a ship in +a storm; when one billow is past, another and greater is at the +heels of it: for a water-drinker my lot is hard."-E. + +(465) George Steevens, Esq. In 1770, this eminent scholar and +learned commentator became associated with Dr. Johnson, in the +edition of Shakspeare which goes by their joint names. A fourth +edition, with large additions, was published in 1793, in fifteen +volumes octavo. In the preparation of it for the press, Mr. +Steevens gave an instance of editorial activity and perseverance, +which is, probably, without a parallel. For a period of eighteen +months, he devoted himself solely and exclusively to the work; +and, during that time, left his house every morning at one +o'clock with the Hampstead patrols, and proceeded, without any +consideration of weather or season, to the chambers of his +friend, Isaac Reed, in Staple's Inn, where he found a sheet of +the Shakspeare letterpress was ready for his revision: thus, +while the printers were asleep, the editor was @ awake; and the +fifteen large volumes were completed in the short space of twenty +months. The feat is recorded by Mr. Matthias, in the Pursuits of +Literature: + +"Him late, from Hampstead journeying to his book, +Aurora oft for Cophalus mistook; +What time he brush'd her dews with hasty pace, +To meet the printer's dev'let face to face." + +He died at Hampstead in 1800, and in his sixty-fourth year.-E. + + + +Letter 238 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Jan. 27, 1782. (page 302) + +For these three weeks I have had the gout in my left elbow and +hand, and can yet but just bear to lay the latter on the paper +while I write with the other. However, this is no complaint, for +it is the shortest fit I have had these sixteen years, and with +trifling pain: therefore, as the fits decrease, it does ample +honour to my bootikins regimen, and method. Next to my +bootikins, I ascribe much credit to a diet-drink of dock-roots, +of which Dr. Turton asked me for my receipt, as the best he had +ever seen, and which I will send you if you please. It came from +an old physician at Richmond, who did amazing service with it in +inveterate scurvies,--the parents, or ancestors, at least, I +believe, of all gouts. Your fit I hope is quite gone. + +Mr. Gough has been with me. I never saw a more dry or more cold +gentleman. He told me his new plan is a series of English +monuments. I do like the idea, and offered to lend him drawings +for it. + +I have seen Mr. Steevens too, who is much more flowing. I wish +you had told me it was the editor of Shakspeare, for, on his +mentioning Dr. Farmer, I launched out and said, he was by much +the most rational of Shakspeare's commentators, and had given the +only sensible account of the authors our great poet had +consulted. I really meant those -who Wrote before Dr. Farmer. +Mr. Steevens seemed a little surprised, which made me discover +the blunder I had made. For which I was very sorry, though I had +meant nothing by it; however, do not mention it. I hope be has +too much sense to take it ill, as he must have seen I had no +intention of offending him; on the contrary, that my whole +behaviour marked a desire of being civil to him as your friend, +in which light only you had named him to me. Pray take no notice +of it, though I could not help mentioning it, as it lies on my +conscience to have been even undesignedly and indirectly unpolite +to any body you recommend. I should not, I trust, have been so +unintentionally to any body, nor with intention, unless provoked +to it by great folly or dirtiness. Adieu! + + + +Letter 239 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 14, 1782. (page 303) + +I have received such treasures from you, dear Sir, through the +channel of Mr. Nichols, that I neither know how to thank you, nor +to find time to peruse them so fast as I am impatient to do. You +must complete your kindness by letting me detain them a few days, +till I have gone through them, when I will return them most +carefully by the same intervention; and particularly the curious +piece of enamel; for though you are, as usual, generous enough to +offer it to me, I have plundered you too often already; and +indeed I have room left for nothing more, nor have that miserly +appetite of continuing to hoard what I cannot enjoy, nor have +much time left to possess. + +I have already looked into your beautiful illuminated manuscript +copied from Dr: Stukeley's letter, and with Anecdotes of the +Antiquaries of Bennet College; and I have found therein so many +charming instances of your candour, humility, and justice, that I +grieve to deprive Mr. Gough for a minute even of the possession +of so valuable a tract. I will not Injure him or it, by begging +you to cancel what relates to me, as it would rob you of part of +your defence of Mr. Baker. If I wish to have it detained from +Mr. Gough till the period affixed in the first leaf, or rather to +my death, which will probably precede yours, it is for this +reason only: Mr. Gough is apt, as we antiquaries are, to be +impatient to tell the world all he knows, which is unluckily much +more than the world is at all impatient of knowing. For what you +call your flaming zeal, I do not in the least object to it. We +have agreed to tolerate each other, and certainly are neither of +us infallible. I think, on what we differ most is, your calling +my opinions fashionable; they were when we took them up: I doubt +it is yours that are most in fashion now, at least in this +country. The Emperor seems to be of our party; but, if I like +his notions, I do not admire his judgment, which is too +precipitate to be judgment. + +I smiled at Mr. Gough's idea of my declining his acquaintance as +a member of that Obnoxious Society of Antiquaries. It is their +folly alone that is obnoxious to me, and can they help that? I +shall very cheerfully assist him. + +I am glad you are undeserved about the controversial piece in the +Gentleman's Magazine, which I should have assured You, as you now +know, that it was not mine. I declared, in my Defence,(466) that +I would publish nothing more about that question. I have not, +nor intend it. Neither was it I that wrote the prologue to the +Count of Narbonne, but Mr. Jephson himself. On the opposite page +I will add the receipt for the diet-drink: as to my regimen, I +shall not specify it. Not only you would not adopt it, but I +should tremble to have you. In fact, I never do prescribe it, as +I am persuaded it would kill the strongest man in England, who +was not exactly of the same temperament with me, and who had not +embraced it early. It consists in temperance to quantity as to +eating--I do not mind the quality; I am persuaded that great +abstinence with the gout is dangerous; for, if one does not take +nutriment enough, there cannot be strength sufficient to fling +out the gout, and then it deviates to palsies. But my great +nostrum is the use of cold water, inwardly and outwardly, on all +occasions, and total disregard of precaution against +catching cold. A hat you know I never wear, my breast I never +button, nor wear great-coats, etc. I have often had the gout in +my face (as last week) and eyes, and instantly dip my head in a +pail of cold water, which always cures it, and does not send it +anywhere else. All this I do, because I have so for these forty +years, weak as I look; but Milo would not have lived a week if he +had played such pranks. My diet-drink is not all of so Quixote a +disposition; any of the faculty will tell you how innocent it is, +at least. In a few days, for I am a rapid reader when I like my +matter, I will return all your papers and letters; and in the +mean time thank you most sincerely for the use of them. + +(466) Hannah More, in a letter to Mrs. Boscawen, says, "Many +thanks for Mr. Walpole's sensible, temperate, and humane +pamphlet. I am not quite a convert yet to his side in the +Chatertonian controversy, though this elegant writer and all the +antiquaries and critics are against me: I like much the candid +regret he every where discovers at not having fostered this +unfortunate lad, whose profligate manners, however, I too much +fear, would not have done credit to any patronage. Mrs. Garrick +read it, and was more interested than I have ever seen her."-E. + + + +Letter 240 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +February 15, 1782. (page 304) + +I was SO impatient to peruse all the literary stores you sent me, +my dear Sir, that I stayed at home on purpose to give up a whole +evening to them. I have gone through all; your own manuscript, +which I envy Mr. Gough, his specimen, and the four letters to you +from the latter and Mr. Steevens. I am glad they were both +satisfied with my reception. In truth, you know I am neither +formal nor austere, nor have any grave aversion to our +antiquities, though I do now and then divert myself with their +solemnity about arrant trifles; yet perhaps we owe much to their +thinking those trifles of importance, or the Lord knows how they +would have patience to investigate them so indefatigably. Mr. +Steevens seemed pleasant, but I doubt I shall never be demure +enough to conciliate Mr. Gough. Then I have a wicked quality in +an antiquary, nay, one that annihilates the essence: that is, I +cannot bring myself to a habit of minute accuracy about very +indifferent points. I do not doubt but there is a swarm of +diminutive inaccuracies in my Anecdotes--well! if there is, I +bequeath free leave of correction to the microscopic intellects +of my continuators. I took dates and facts from the sedulous and +faithful Vertue,(467) and piqued myself on little but on giving +an idea of the spirit of the times with regard to the arts at the +different periods. + +The specimen you present me of Mr. Gough's detail of our +monuments is very differently treated, proves vast industry, and +shows most circumstantial fidelity. It extends, too, much +farther than I expected; for it seems to embrace the whole mass +of our monuments, nay, of some that are vanished. It is not what +I thought, an intention of representing our modes of dress, from +figures on monuments, but rather a history of our tombs. It is +fortunate, though he may not think so, that so many of the more +ancient are destroyed, since for three or four centuries they +were clumsy, rude, and ugly. I know I am but a fragment of an +antiquary, for I abhor all Saxon doings, and whatever did not +exhibit some taste, grace, or elegance, and some ability in the +artists. Nay, if I may say so to you, I do not care a straw for +archbishops, bishops, mitred abbots, and cross-legged knights. +When you have one of a sort, you have seen all. However, to so +superficial a student in antiquity as I am, Mr. Gough's work is +not unentertaining. It has frequently anecdotes and +circumstances of kings, queens, and historic personages, that +interest me though I care not a straw about a series of bishops +who had only Christian names, or were removed from one old church +to a newer. Still I shall assist Mr. Gough with whatever he +wants in my possession. I believe he is a very worthy man, and I +should be a churl not to oblige any man who is so innocently +employed. I have felt the selfish, the proud avarice of those +who hoard literary curiosities for themselves alone, as other +misers do money. + +I observed in your account of the Count-Bishop Hervey, that you +call one of his dedicators Martin Sherlock, Esquire.(468) That +Mr. Sherlock is an Irish clergyman; I am acquainted with him. He +is a very amiable good-natured man, and wants judgment, not +parts. He is a little damaged by aiming at Sterne's capricious +pertness which the original wore out; and which, having been +admired and cried up to the skies by foreign writers of reviews, +was, on the contrary, too severely treated by our own. That +injustice shocked Mr. Sherlock, who has a good heart and much +simplicity, and sent him in dudgeon last year to Ireland, +determined to write no more; yet I am persuaded he will, so +strong Is his propensity to being an author; and if he does, +correction may make him more attentive to what he says and +writes. He has no gall; on the contrary, too much benevolence in +his indiscriminate praise; but he has made many ingenious +criticisms. He is a just, a due enthusiast to Shakspeare: but, +alas! he scarce likes Richardson less. + +(467) George Vertue, the engraver, was born in London in 1684, +and died in 1756. Walpole has given a short sketch of his active +life in his Anecdotes of Painting in England; a work, for the +materials of which he was in a great measure, indebted to the +collections of Vertue, which he bought of his widow. "These +collections," he says, "amounted to nearly forty volumes, large +and small: in one of his pocket-books I found a note of his first +intention of compiling such a work; it was in 1713, and he +continued it assiduously to his death."-E. + +(468) This eccentric and original writer had published a book at +Rome in Italian, and two others at Paris, in French. The first +volume of his "Letters from an English Traveller," translated by +the Rev. John Duncombe, appeared in London in 1779, the author's +return from the Continent, and before it was known he was in holy +orders. The Letters were dedicated to the Hon. and Rev. +Frederick Augustus Hervey, Bishop of Derry, and afterwards Earl +of Bristol. (See ant`e, p. 236, letter 182.) This volume was +republished, revised and corrected by the author, in 1780, and +was soon followed by "New Letters of an English Traveller." In +1781, Mr. Sherlock had a strong inclination to revisit the +Continent, and actually caused the following article to be +inserted in a public journal:--"It is now generally supposed, +that, whoever may be honoured with the negotiation at Vienna, Mr. +Sherlock, the celebrated English traveller and chaplain to the +Earl of Bristol, will be appointed secretary to his embassy. His +great literary and political accomplishments, are in high +estimation throughout the Continent; and he is, perhaps, the only +Englishman who can boast of having familiarly conversed with the +high potentates whose alliance at this important juncture it +would be desirable to obtain. His being in orders is an +objection which will vanish, when it is recollected that the very +same important office was, in 1708, intended for Dr. Swift: a +name which, however deservedly revered in Great Britain and +Ireland, must, in every other kingdom of Europe, give precedence +to those of Sherlock, Rousseau, and Sterne, the luminaries of the +present century." In June of the same year he was presented, by +the Bishop of Killala, with a living of 200 pounds a-year. Upon +which occasion he wrote to his publisher, "I think it may be of +use to our sale to let the world know it in the newspaper; and I +am persuaded that doubling the value of the living will make the +books sell better. The world (God bless it!) is very apt to +value a man's writing according to his rank and fortune. I am +sure they will think more highly of my Letters, if they believe I +have 400 a-year, than if they think I have only two. Pope, you +know, says something like this-- + +'A saint in crape, is twice a saint in lawn.' + +Will you then be so good as to have this paragraph put into the +Morning Herald, the Morning Chronicle, the Morning Post, and any +other fourth paper you choose? 'We hear that the Rev. Martin +Sherlock, M.A., etc., is collated to the united vicarages of +Castleconner and Rilglass, worth 400 a-year.' Is there any news +of me in London? Am I abused or well-spoken of in print? Are +the writers as uneasy as they used to be about my vanity? Keep +all printed things, reviews, newspapers, etc., about me, till I +have an opportunity of sending for them. I think I shall have +something for you by next week; but keep that a secret. wish, +for your sake, I was a bishop; for then, I will answer for it, my +works would sell well." An elegant edition of all Mr. Sherlock's +Letters was published by Mr. Nichols in 1802, in two volumes +octavo. It is now a very scarce book. In 1788, he was collated +to the rectory and vicarage of Streen, and soon afterwards to the +archdeaconry of Killala. He died in 1797.-E. + + + +Letter 241 To The Rev. William Mason. +(page 307) + +I have been reading a new French translation of the elder +Pliny,(469) of whom I never read but scraps before; because, in +the poetical manner in which we learn Latin at Eton, we never +become acquainted with the names of the commonest things, too +undignified to be admitted into verse; and, therefore, I never +had patience to search in a dictionary for the meaning of every +substantive. I find I shall not have a great deal less trouble +with the translation, as I am not more familiar with their common +drogues than with the Latin. However, the beginning goes off +very glibly, as I am not yet arrived below the planets: but do +you know that this study, of which I have never thought since I +learnt astronomy at Cambridge, has furnished me with some very +entertaining ideas! I have long been weary of the common jargon +of poetry. You bards have exhausted all the nature we are +acquainted with; you have treated us with the sun, moon, and +stars, the earth and the ocean, mountains and valleys, etc. etc. +under every possible aspect. In short, I have longed for some +American Poetry, in which I might find new appearances of nature, +and consequently of art. But my present excursion into the sky +has afforded me more entertaining prospects, and newer phenomena. +If I was as good a poet, as you are, I would immediately compose +an idyl, or an elegy, the scene of which should be laid in Saturn +or Jupiter: and then, instead of a niggardly soliloquy by the +light of a single moon, I would describe a night illuminated by +four or five moons at least, and they should be all in a +perpendicular or horizontal line, according as Celia's eyes (who +probably in that country has at least two pair) are disposed in +longitude or latitude. You must allow that this system would +diversify poetry amazingly.--And then Saturn's belt! which the +translator says in his notes, Is not round the planet's waist, +like the shingles; but is a globe of crystal that encloses the +whole orb, as You may have seen an enamelled watch in a case of +glass. If you do not perceive what infinitely pretty things may +be said, either in poetry or romance. on a brittle heaven of +crystal, and what furbelowed rainbows they must have in that +country, you are neither the Ovid nor natural philosopher I take +you for. Pray send me an eclogue directly upon this plan--and I +give you leave to adopt my idea of Saturnian Celias having their +every thing quadrupled--which would form a much more entertaining +rhapsody than Swift's thought of magnifying or diminishing the +species in his Gulliver. How much more execution a fine woman +would do with two pair of piercers! or four! and how much longer +the honeymoon would last, if both the sexes have (as no doubt +they have) four times the passions, and four times the means of +gratifying them!--I have opened new worlds to you--You must be +four times the poet you are, and then you will be above Milton, +and equal to Shakspeare, the only two mortals I am acquainted +with who ventured beyond the visible diurnal sphere, and +preserved their intellects. Dryden himself would have talked +nonsense, and, I fear, indecency, on my plan; but you are too +good a divine, I am sure, to treat my quadruple love but +platonically. In Saturn, notwithstanding their glass-case, they +are supposed to be very cold; but platonic love of itself +produces frigid conceits enough, and you need not augment the +dose.--But I will not dictate, The Subject is new; and you, who +have so much imagination, will shoot far beyond me. Fontenelle +would have made something of the idea, even in prose; but +Algarotti would dishearten any body from attempting to meddle +with the system of the universe a second time in a genteel +dialogue.(470) Good night! I am going to bed.--Mercy on me! if I +should dream of Celia with four times the usual attractions! + +(469) By Poinsinet de Sivry, in twelve Volumes quarto.-E. + +(470) A translation of Count Algarotti's "Newtonianismo per Le +Dame," by Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, under the title of "Sir Isaac +Newton'S Philosophy explained for the Use of the Ladies; in six +Dialogues of Light and Colours," appeared in 1739.-E. + + + +Letter 242 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +February 2, 1782. (page 308) + +I doubt you are again in error, my good Sir, about the letter I +in the Gentleman's Magazine against the Rowleians, unless Mr. +Malone sent it to you; for he is the author, and not Mr. +Steevens, from whom I imagine you received it.(471) There is a +report that some part of Chatterton's forgery is to be produced +by an accomplice; but this I do not answer for, nor know the +circumstances. I have scarce seen a person who is not persuaded +that the forging of the poems was Chatterton's own, though he +might have found some old stuff to work upon, which very likely +was the case; but now that the poems have been so much examined, +nobody (that has an ear) can get over the modernity of the +modulations, and the recent cast of the ideas and phraseology, +corroborated by such palpable pillage of Pope and Dryden. Still +the boy remains a prodigy, by whatever means he procured or +produced the edifice erected; and still It will be found +inexplicable how he found time or materials for operating such +miracles. + +You are in another error about Sir Harry Englefield, who cannot +be going to marry a daughter of Lord Cadogan, unless he has a +natural one, of whom I never heard. Lord Cadogan has no daughter +by his first wife, and his oldest girl by My niece is not five +years old.(472) The act of the Emperor to which I alluded, is +the general destruction of convents in Flanders, and, I suppose, +in his German dominions too. The Pope suppressed the carnival, +as mourning and proposes a journey to Vienna to implore +mercy.(473) This is a little different from the time when the +pontiffs trampled on the necks of emperors, and called it +trampling super Aspidem et Draconent. I hope you have received +your cargo back undamaged. I was much obliged to you, and am +yours ever. + +(471) It was afterwards published separately, under the title of +"Cursory Observations on the Poems Attributed to Thomas Rowley, a +priest of the fifteenth century."-E. + +(472) Lord Cadogan married, in 1747, Frances, daughter of the +first Lord Montfort; and secondly, in 1777, Mary, daughter of +Charles Churchill, Esq. by Lady Mary, daughter of Sir Robert +Walpole.-E. + +(473) The Emperor Joseph, having been restrained during the +lifetime of Maria Theresa from acting as he wished in +ecclesiastical matters, upon her death, in November, 1780, issued +two ordinances respecting religious orders: by one forbidding the +Roman Catholics to hold correspondence with their chief in +foreign parts; and by the other forbidding any bull or ordinance +of the Pope from being received in his dominions, until +sanctioned by him. In 1782, he directed the suppression of the +religious houses; upon which he was visited at Vienna by the +Pope, who was received with great respect, but was unable to +procure any intermission in the Emperor's ecclesiastical +reforms.-E. + + + +Letter 243 To The Hon. George Hardinge. +March 8, 1782. (page 309) + +It is very pleasing to receive congratulation from a friend on a +friend's success: that success, however, is not so agreeable as +the universal esteem allowed to Mr. Conway's character, which not +only accompanies his triumph,(474) but I believe contributed to +it. To-day, I suppose, all but his character will be reversed; +for there must have been a miraculous change if the Philistines +do not bear as ample a testimony to their Dagon's honour, as +conviction does to that of a virtuous man. In truth, I am far +from desiring that the Opposition should prevail yet: the nation +is not sufficiently changed, nor awakened enough, and it is sure +of having its feelings repeatedly attacked by more woes; the blow +will have more effect a little time hence: the clamour must be +loud enough to drown the huzzas of five hoarse bodies, the +Scotch, Tories, Clergy, Law, and Army, who would soon croak if +new ministers cannot do what the old have made impossible; and +therefore, till general distress involves all in complaint, and +lays the cause undeniably at the right doors, victory will be but +momentary, and the conquerors would soon be rendered more +unpopular than the vanquished; for, depend upon it, the present +ministers would not be as decent and as harmless an Opposition as +the present. Their criminality must be legally proved and +stigmatised, or the pageant itself would soon be restored to +essence. Base money will pass till cried down. I wish you may +keep your promise of calling upon me better than you have done. +Remember, that though you have time enough before you, I have +not; and, consequently, must be much more impatient for our +meeting than you are, as I am, dear Sir, yours most sincerely. + +(474) General Conway had, on the 27th of February, distinguished +himself in the House of Commons by a motion, "That the farther +prosecution of offensive war on the continent of America, for the +purpose of reducing the revolted colonies to obedience by force, +will be the means of weakening the efforts of this country +against her European enemies; tend, under the present +circumstances, to increase the mutual enmity so fatal to the +interests both of Great Britain and America; and, by preventing a +happy reconciliation with that country, to frustrate the earnest +desire graciously expressed by his Majesty, to restore the +blessings of public tranquility." This motion was carried by a +majority of 234 to 213; upon which the General moved an humble +address to his Majesty thereupon, which was carried without a +division.-E. + + + +Letter 244 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, March 9, 1782. (page 310) + +Though I have scarce time, I must write a line to thank you for +the print of Mr. Cowper, and to tell you how ashamed I am that +You should have so much attention to me, on the slightest wish I +express, when I fear my gratitude is not half so active, though +it ought to exceed obligations. + +Dr. Farmer has been with me; and though it was but a short visit, +he pleased me so much by his easy simplicity and good sense, that +I wish for more acquaintance with him. + +I do not know whether the Emperor will atone to you for +demolishing the cross, by attacking the crescent. The papers say +he has declared war with the Turks. He seems to me to be a +mountebank who professes curing all diseases. As power is his +Only panacea, the remedy methinks is worse than the disease. +Whether Christianity will be laid aside, I cannot say. As +nothing of the spirit is left, the forms, I think, signify very +little. Surely it is not an age of morality and principle; does +it import whether profligacy is baptized or not? I look to +motives, not to professions. I do not approve of convents: but, +if Caesar wants to make soldiers of monks, I detest his +reformation, and think that men had better not procreate than +commit murder; nay, I believe that monks get more children than +soldiers do; but what avail abstracted speculations? Human +passions wear the dresses of the times, and carry on the same +views, though in different habits. Ambition and interest set up +religions or pull them down, as fashion presents a handle; and +the conscientious must be content when the mode favours their +wishes, or sigh when it does not. + + + +Letter 245 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +April 13, 1782. (page 310) + +Your partiality to me, my good Sir, is much overseen, if you +think me fit to correct your Latin. Alas! I have not skimmed ten +pages of Latin these dozen years. I have dealt in nothing but +English, French, and a little Italian; and do not think. if my +life depended on it, I could write four lines of pure Latin. I +have had occasion, once or twice to speak the language, and soon +found that all my verbs were Italian with Roman terminations. I +would not on any account draw you into a scrape, by depending on +my skill in what I have half forgotten. But you are in the +metropolis of Latium. If you distrust your own knowledge, which +I do not, especially from the specimen you have sent me, surely +you must have good critics at your elbow to consult. + +In truth, I do not love Roman inscriptions in lieu of our own +language, though, if any where, proper in an university; neither +can I approve writing what the Romans themselves would not +understand. What does it avail to give a Latin tail to a +Guildhall? Though the word used by moderns, would mayor convey +to Cicero the idea of a mayor? Architectus, I believe, is the +right word; but I doubt whether veteris jam perantiquae is +classic for a dilapidated building--but do not depend on me; +consult some better judges. + +Though I am glad of the late revolution,(475) a word for which I +have great reverence, I shall certainly not dispute with you +thereon. I abhor exultation. If the change produces peace, I +shall make a bonfire in my heart. Personal interest I have none; +you and I shall certainly never profit by the politics to which +we are attached. The Archaeologic Epistle I admire exceedingly, +though I am sorry it attacks Mr. Bryant, whom I love and respect. +The Dean is so absurd an oaf, that he deserves to be ridiculed. +Is any thing more hyperbolic than his preference of Rowley to +Homer, Shakspeare, and Milton. Whether Rowley or Chatterton was +the author, are the poems in any degree comparable to those +authors? is not a ridiculous author an object of ridicule? I do +not even guess at your meaning in your conclusive paragraph on +that subject. Dictionary writer I suppose alludes to Johnson; +but surely you do not equal the compiler of a dictionary to a +genuine poet? Is a brickmaker on a level with Mr. Essex? Nor +can I hold that exquisite wit and satire are Billingsgate; if +they were, Milles and Johnson would be able to write an answer to +the epistle. I do as little guess whom you mean that got a +pension by Toryism: if Johnson too, he got a pension for having +abused pensioners, and yet took one himself, which was +contemptible enough. Still less know I who preferred opposition +to principles, which is not a very common case; whoever it was, +as Pope says, + +"The way he took was strangely round about." + +With Mr. Chamberlayne I was very little acquainted, nor ever saw +him six times in my life. It was with Lord Walpole's branch he +was intimate, and to whose eldest son Mr. Chamberlayne had been +tutor. This poor gentleman had a most excellent character +universally, and has been more feelingly regretted than almost +any man I ever knew.(476) This is all I am able to tell you. I +forgot to say, I am also in the, dark as to the person you guess +for the author of the Epistle. it cannot be the same person to +whom it is generally attributed; who certainly neither has a +pension nor has deserted his principles, nor has reason to be +jealous of those he laughed at; for their abilities are far below +his. I do not mean that it is his, but is attributed to him. It +was sent to me; nor did I ever see a line of it till I read it in +print. In one respect it is most credible to be his; for there +are not two such inimitable poets in England.(477) I smiled on +reading it, and said to myself, "Dr. Glynn is well off to have +escaped!" His language Indeed about me has been Billingsgate; +but peace be to his and the manes of Rowley, if they have ghosts +who never existed. The Epistle has not put an end to that +controversy, which was grown so tiresome. I rejoice at having +kept my resolution of not writing a word more on that subject. +The Dean had swollen it to an enormous bladder; the Archaeologic +poet pricked it with a pin; a sharp one indeed, and it burst. +Pray send me a better account of yourself if you can. + +(475) The resignation of Lord North, and the formation of the +Rockingham administration.-E. + +(476) Edward Chamberlayne, Esq. recently appointed secretary of +the treasury. He was so overcome by a nervous terror of the +responsibility of the office, that he committed suicide, by +throwing himself out of a window on the 6th of April. On the +following day, Hannah More sent the subjoined account of this +melancholy event to her sister:--"Chamberlayne! the amiable, the +accomplished, the virtuous, the religious Chamberlayne! in the +full vigour of his age, high in reputation, happy in his +prospects, threw him self out of the Treasury window, was taken +up alive, and lived thirty-six hours in the most perfect +possession of his mental activity, his religion, and his +reasoning faculties. With an astonishing composure he settled +his affairs with both worlds. He never seemed to feel any +remorse, or to reproach his conscience with the guilt of suicide. +In vain had they entreated him to accept of this place. In a +fatal moment he consented: after this, he never had a moment's +peace, and little or no sleep; this brought on a slow nervous +fever, but not to confine him a moment. I saw him two days +before. He looked pale and eager, and talked with great disgust +of his place, on my congratulating him on such an acquisition. +We chatted away, however, and he grew pleasant; and we parted-- +never to meet again."-E. + +(477) In a review of the edition of the Works of Mason which +appeared in 1816, the quarterly Review, after expressing a wish +that this and the Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers had been +included in the collection, says, "The Archaeological Epistle was +an hasty but animated effusion, drawn forth by the Rowleian +Controversy, and dressed in the garb of old English verse, in +order to obviate the argument drawn from the difficulty of +writing in the language of the fifteenth century. The task might +indeed have been per; formed by many; but the sentiments accorded +with the known declarations of Mason." Vol. xv. p. 385.-E. + + + +Letter 246 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, May 24, 1782. (page 312) + +You are always kind to me, dear Sir, in all respects, but I have +been forced to recur to a rougher prescription than ass's milk. +The pain and oppression on my breast obliged me to be blooded two +days together, which removed my cold and fever; but, as I +foresaw, left me the gout in their room. I have had it in my +left foot and hand for a week, but it is going. This cold is very +epidemic. I have at least half a dozen nieces and great-nieces +confined with it. but it is not dangerous or lasting. I shall +send you, within this day or two, the new edition of my Anecdotes +of Painting; you will find very little new: it is a cheap edition +for the use of artists, and that at least they who really want +the book, and not the curiosity, may have it, without being +forced to give the outrageous price at which the Strawberry +edition sells, merely because it is rare. + +I could assure Mr. Gough, that the Letter on Chatterton cost me 6 +very small pains. I had nothing to do but recollect and relate +the exact truth. There has been published another piece on it, +which I cannot tell whether meant to praise or to blame me, so +wretchedly is it written; and I have received another anonymous +one, dated Oxford, (which may be to disguise Cambridge) and which +professes to treat me very severely, though stuffed with fulsome +compliments. It abuses me for speaking modestly of myself--a +fault I hope I shall never mend; avows agreeing with me on the +supposition of the poems, which may be a lie, for it is not +uncharitable to conclude that an anonymous writer is a liar; +acquits me of being at all accessory to the poor lad's +catastrophe; and then, with most sensitive nerves, is shocked to +death, and finds me guilty of it, for having, after it happened, +dropped, that had he lived he might have fallen into more serious +forgeries, though I declare that I never heard that he did. To +be sure, no Irishman ever blundered more than to accuse one of an +ex post facto murder! If this Hibernian casuist is smitten +enough with his own miscarriage to preserve it in a magazine +phial, I shall certainly not answer it, not even by this couplet +which is suggested: + +So fulsome, yet so captious too, to tell you much it grieves me, +That though your flattery makes me sick, your peevishness +relieves me. + +Adieu, my good Sir. Pray inquire for your books, if you do not +receive them: they go by the Cambridge Fly. + + + +Letter 247 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, June 1, 1782. (page 313) + +I thank you much, dear Sir, for your kind intention about +Elizabeth of York;. but it would be gluttony and rapacity to +accept her: I have her already in the picture of her +marriage,(478) which was Lady Pomfret's; besides Vertue's print +of her, with her husband, son, and daughter-in-law. In truth I +have not room for any more pictures any where; yet, without +plundering you, or without impoverishing myself, I have +supernumerary pictures with which I can furnish your vacancies; +but I must get well first to look them out. As yet I cannot walk +alone; and my posture, as you see, makes me write ill. It is +impossible to recover in such weather--never was such a sickly +time. + +I have not yet seen Bishop Newton's life. I will not give three +guineas for what I would not give threepence, his Works; his +Life,(479) I Conclude, will be borrowed by all the magazines, and +there I shall see it. + +I know nothing of Acciliator--I have forgotten some of my good +Latin, and luckily never knew any bad; having always detested +monkish barbarism. I have just finished Mr. Pennant's new +volume, parts of which amused me; though I knew every syllable, +that was worth knowing before, for there is not a word of +novelty; and it is tiresome his giving such long extracts out of +Dugdale and other common books, and telling one long stories +about all the most celebrated characters in the English history, +besides panegyrics on all who showed him their houses: but the +prints are charming; though I cannot conceive why he gave one of +the Countess of Cumberland, who never did any thing worth memory, +but recording the very night on which she conceived. + +"The Fair Circassian" was written by a Mr. Pratt, who has +published several works under the name of Courtney Melmoth.(480) +The play might have been written by Cumberland, it is bad enough. +I did read the latter's coxcombical Anecdotes,(481) but saw +nothing on myself, except mention of my Painters. Pray what is +the passage you mean on me or Vertue? Do not write on purpose to +answer this, it is not worth while. + +(478) This picture of the marriage of Elizabeth of York with +Henry the Seventh was painted by Mabuse, and is described in +Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting.-E. + +(479) Shortly after the death of Bishop Newton, his Works were +published, with an autobiographical Memoir, in two volumes +quarto. The prelate, speaking, in this Memoir, of Johnson's +Lives of the Poets, having observed, that "candour was much hurt +and offended at the malevolence that predominated in every part," +the Doctor, in a conversation with Dr. Adams, master of Pembroke +College, Oxford, thus retaliated on his townsman:--"Tom knew he +should be dead before what he said of me would appear: he durst +not have printed it while he was alive." Dr. Adams: "I believe +his Dissertations on the Prophecies' is his great work." +Johnson: "Why, Sir, it is Tom's great work; but how far it is +great, or how much of it is Tom's, are other questions. I fancy +a considerable part of it was borrowed." Dr. Adams: "He was a +very successful man." Johnson: "I don't think so, Sir. He did +not get very high. He was late in getting what he did get, and +he did not get it by the best means. I believe he was a gross +flatterer."-Life, vol. viii. p. 286.-E. + +(480) Mr. Pratt was the author of "Gleanings in England," +"Gleanings through Wales, Holland, and Westphalia," and many +other works which enjoyed a temporary popularity, but are now +forgotten. Of Mr. Pratt, the following amusing anecdote is +related by Mr. Gifford, in the Maviad:--"This gentleman lately +put in practice a very notable scheme. Having scribbled himself +fairly out of notice, he found it expedient to retire to the +Continent for a few months, to provoke the inquiries of Mr. +Lane's indefatigable readers. Mark the ingratitude of the +creatures! No inquiries were made, and Mr. Pratt was forgotten +before he had crossed the channel. Ibi omnis efFusus labor--but +what! + +The mouse that is content with one poor hole, +Can never be a mouse of any soul: + +baffled in this expedient, he had recourse to another, and, while +we were dreaming of nothing less, came before us in the following +paragraph:--"A few days since, died at Basle in Switzerland, the +ingenious Mr. Pratt: his loss will be severely felt by the +literary world, as he joined to the accomplishments of the +gentleman the erudition of the scholar." This was inserted in +the London papers for several days successively; the country +papers too yelled out like syllables of dolour; at length, while +our eyes were yet wet for the irreparable loss we had sustained, +came a second paragraph as follows: "As no event of late has +caused a more general sorrow than the supposed death of the +ingenious Mr. Pratt, we are happy to have it in our power to +assure hiss numerous admirers, that he is as well as they can +wish and (what they will be delighted to hear) busied is +preparing his Travels for the press."-E. + +(481) "Anecdotes of Eminent Painters, in Spain during the +Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, with Cursory Remarks upon +the present State of Arts in that Kingdom." + + + +Letter 248 To John Nichols, Esq. +Berkeley Square, June 19, 1782. (page 315) + +Sir, +Just this moment, on opening your fifth volume of Miscellaneous +Poems, I find the translation of Cato's speech into Latin, +attributed (by common fame) to Bishop Atterbury. I can most +positively assure you, that that translation was the work of Dr. +Henry Bland, afterwards Head-master of Eton school, Provost of +the college there, and Dean of Durham. I have more than once +heard my father Sir Robert Walpole say, that it was he himself +who gave that translation to Mr. Addison, who was extremely +surprised at the fidelity and beauty of it. It may be worth +while, Sir, on some future occasion, to mention this fact in some +one of your valuable and curious publications. I am, Sir, with +great regard. + + + +Letter 249 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Berkeley Square, June 21, 1782. (page 315) + +It is no trouble, my good Sir, to write to you, for I am as well +recovered as I generally do. I am very sorry you do not, and +especially in your hands, as your pleasure and comforts so much +depend on them. Age is by no means a burden while it does not +subject one to depend on others; when it does, it reconciles one +to quitting every thing; at least I believe you and I think so, +who do not look on solitude as a calamity. I shall go to +Strawberry to-morrow, and will, as I might have thought of doing, +consult Dugdale and Collins for the Duke of Ireland's inferior +titles. Mr. Gough I shall be glad of seeing when I am settled +there, which will not be this fortnight. I think there are but +eleven parts of Marianne, and that it breaks off in the nun's +story, which promised to be very interesting. Marivaux never +finished Marianne, nor the Paysan Parvenu (which was the case too +with the younger Cr`ebillon with Les Egaremens.) I have seen two +bad conclusions of Marianne by other hands. Mr. Cumberland's +brusquerie is not worth notice, nor did I remember it. Mr. +Pennant's impetuosity you must overlook too; though I love your +delicacy about your friend's memory. Nobody that knows you will +suspect you of wanting it; but, in the ocean of books that +overflows every day, who will recollect a thousandth part of what +is in most of them? By the number of writers one should +naturally suppose there were multitudes of readers; but if there +are, which I doubt, the latter read only the productions of the +day. Indeed, if they did read former publications, they would +have no occasion to read the modern, which, like Mr. Pennant's, +are borrowed wholesale from the more ancient: it is sad to say, +that the borrowers add little new but mistakes. I have just been +turning over Mr. Nichols's eight volumes of Select Poems, which +he has swelled unreasonably with large collops of old authors, +most of whom little deserved revivifying. I bought them for +the biographical notes, in which I have found both inaccuracies +and blunders. For instance, one that made me laugh. In Lord +Lansdown's Beauties he celebrates a lady, one Mrs. Vaughan * +Mr. Nichols turns to the peerage of that time, and finds a Duke +of Bolton married a Lady Ann Vaughan; he instantly sets her down +for the lady in question, and introduces her to posterity as a +beauty. Unluckily, she was a monster, so ugly, that the Duke, +then Marquis of Winchester, being forced by his father to marry +her for her great fortune, was believed never to have +consummated' and parted from her as soon as his father died; but, +if our predecessors are exposed to these misrepresentations, what +shall we be, when not only all private history is detailed in the +newspapers, but scarce ever with tolerable fidelity! I have long +said, that if a paragraph in a newspaper contains a word of +truth, it is sure to be accompanied with two or three blunders; +yet, who will believe that papers published in the face of the +whole town should be nothing but magazines of lies, every one of +which fifty persons could contradict and disprove? Yet so it +certainly is, and future history will probably be ten times +falser than all preceding. Adieu! Yours most sincerely. + + + +Letter 250 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, July 23, 1782. (page 316) + +I have been more dilatory than usual, dear Sir, in replying to +your last; but it called for no particular answer, nor have I now +any thing worth telling you. Mr. Gough and Mr. Nichols dined +with me on Saturday last. I lent the former three-and-twenty +drawings of monuments out of Mr. Lethieullier's books, for his +large work, which will be a magnificent one. Mr. Nichols is, as +you say, a very rapid editor, and I must commend him for being a +very accurate one. I scarce ever saw a book so correct as his +Life of Mr. Bowyer. I wish it deserved the pains he has bestowed +on it every way, and that he would not dub so many men great. I +have known several of his heroes who were very little men. Dr. +Mead had nothing but pretensions; and Philip Carteret Webb was a +sorry knave, with still less foundation. To what a slender total +do those shrink who are the idols of their own age! How very few +are known at all at the end of the next century! But there is a +chapter in Voltaire that would cure any body of being a great man +even in his own eyes. It is a chapter in which a Chinese goes +into a bookseller's shop, and marvels at not finding any of his +own country's classics. It is a chapter that ought never to be +out of the sight of any vain author. I have just got the +catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Museum. It is every way +piteously dear; the method is extremely puzzling, and the +contents chiefly rubbish: who would give a rush for Dr. Birch's +correspondence? many of the pieces are in print. In truth, I +set little store by a collection of manuscripts. A work must be +of little value that never could get into print; I mean, if it +has existed half a century. The articles that diverted me most +were an absolute novelty; I knew Henry VIII. was a royal author, +but not a royal quack. There are several receipts of his own, +and this delectable one amongst others. "The King's Grace's +oyntement made at St. James's, to coole, and dry, and comfort the +--." Another, to the same purpose, was devised at Cawoode,--was +not that an episcopal palace? How devoutly was the head of the +church employed! I hope that you have recovered your spirits; +and that summer, which is arrived at last, will make a great +amendment in you. + + + +Letter 251To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, August 16, 1782. (page 317) + +If this letter reaches your lordship, I believe it must be +conveyed by a dove; for we are all under water, and a postman has +not where to set the sole of his foot. They tell me, that in the +north you have not been so drowned, which will be very fortunate: +for in these parts every thing is to be apprehended for the corn, +the sheep, and the camps: but, in truth, all kinds of prospects +are most gloomy, and even in lesser lights uncomfortable. Here +we cannot stir, but armed for battle. Mr. Potts, who lives at +Mr. Hindley's, was attacked and robbed last week at the end of +Gunnersbury-lane, by five footpads who had two blunderbusses. +Lady Browne and I do continue going to Twickenham park; but I +don't know how long it will be prudent, nor whether it is so now. + +I have not been at Park-place, for Mr. Conway is never there, at +least only for a night or two. His regiment was reviewed +yesterday at Ashford-common, but I did not go to see it. In +truth, I have so little taste for common sights, that I never yet +did see a review in my life: I was in town last week, yet saw not +Monsieur de Grasse;(482) nor have seen the giant or the dwarf. + +Poor Mrs. Clive is certainly very declining, but has been better +of late; and which I am glad of, thinks herself better. All +visions that comfort one are desirable: the conditions of +mortality do not bear being pryed into; nor am I an admirer of +that philosophy that scrutinizes into them: the philosophy of +deceiving one's self is vastly preferable. What signifies +anticipating what we cannot prevent? + +I do not pretend to send your lordship any news, for I do not +know a tittle, nor inquire. Peace is the sole event of which I +wish to hear. For private news, I have outlived almost all the +world with which I was acquainted, and have no curiosity about +the next generation, scarce more than about the twentieth +century. I wish I was less indifferent, for the sake of the few +with whom I correspond,-your lordship in particular, who are +always so good and partial to me, and on whom I should +indubitably wait, were I fit to take a long journey; but as I +walk no better than a tortoise, I make a conscience of not +incommodating my friends, whom I should Only Confine at home. +Indeed both my feet and hands are so lame, that I now scarce ever +dine abroad. Being so antiquated and insipid, I will release +your lordship; and am, with my unalterable respects to Lady +Strafford, your lordship's most devoted humble servant. + +(482) The Comte de Grasse, the admiral of the French fleet which +Rodney defeated on the 12th of April, 1782, and who had struck +his flag in that engagement to the Barbeur, and surrendered +himself to Sir Samuel Hood, landed at Portsmouth, as a prisoner +of war, on the 5th of August.-E. + + + +Letter 252 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(483) +Strawberry Hill, August 20, 1782. (page 318) + +You know I am too reasonable to expect to hear from you when you +are so overwhelmed in business, or to write when I have nothing +upon earth to say. I would come to town, but am to have company +on Thursday, and am engaged with Lady Cecilia at Ditton on +Friday, +and On Monday I am to dine and pass the day at Sion-hill; and, as +I am twenty years older than any body of my age, I am forced to +rest myself between my parties. I feel this particularly at this +moment, as the allied houses of Lucan and Althorpe have just been +breakfasting here, and I am sufficiently fatigued. + +I have not been at Oatlands for years; for consider I cannot +walk, much less climb a precipice; and the Duke of Newcastle has +none of the magnificence of petty princes in a romance or in +Germany, of furnishing calashes to those who visit his domains. +He is not undetermined about selling the place; but besides that +nobody is determined to buy it, he must have Lord Lincoln's +consent. + +I saw another proud prince yesterday, your cousin Seymour from +Paris, and his daughter. She was so dishevelled, that she looked +like a pattern doll that had been tumbled at the Custom-house. + +I am mighty glad that war has gone to sleep like a paroli at +faro, and that the rain has cried itself to death; unless the +first would dispose of all the highwaymen, footpads, and +housebreakers, or the latter drown them, for nobody hereabouts +dare stir after dusk, nor be secure at home. When you have any +interval Of Your little campaigns, I shall hope to see you and +Lady Ailesbury here. + +(483) Now first printed. + + + +Letter 253 To The Earl Of Buchan.(484) +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 15, 1782. (page 319) + +I congratulate your lordship on the acquisition of a valuable +picture by Jameson. The Memoirs of your Society I have not yet +received; but when I do, shall read it with great pleasure, and +beg your lordship to offer my grateful thanks to the members, and +to accept them yourself. + +No literature appears here at this time of the year. London, I +hear, is particularly empty. Not only the shooting season is +begun, but till about seventeen days ago, there was nothing but +incessant rains, and not one summer's day. A catalogue, in two +quartos, of the Manuscripts in the British Museum, and which +thence does not seem to contain great treasures, and Mr. +Tyrwhitt's book on the Rowleian controversy, which is reckoned +completely victorious, are all the novelties I have seen since I +left town. War and politics occupy those who think at all-no +great number neither; and most of those, too, are content with +the events of the day, and forget them the next. But it is too +like an old man to blame the age; and, as I have nothing to do +with it, I may as well be silent and let it please itself. I am, +with great regard, my lord, yours, etc. + +(484) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 254 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 17, 1782. (page 319) + +I had not time yesterday to say what I had to say about your +coming hither. I should certainly be happy to see you and Lady +Ailesbury at any time: but it would be unconscionable to expect +it when you have scarce a whole day in a month to pass at your +own house, and to look after your own works. Friends, I know, +lay as great stress upon trifles as upon serious points; but as +there never was a more sincere attachment than mine, so it is the +most reasonable one too for I always think for you more than +myself. Do whatever you have to do, and be assured, that is what +I like best that you should do. The present hurry cannot last +always. Your present object is to show how much more fit you are +for your post(485) than any other man; by which you will do +infinite service too, and will throw a great many private acts of +good-nature and justice into the account. Do you think I would +stand in the way of any of these things? and that I am not aware +of them? Do you think about me? If it suits you at any moment, +come. Except Sunday next, when I am engaged to dine abroad, I +have nothing to do till the middle of October, when I shall go to +Nuneham; and, going or coming, may possibly catch you at +Park-place. + +I am not quite credulous about your turning smoke into gold:(486) +it is perhaps because I am ignorant. I like Mr. Mapleton +extremely; and though I have lived so long, that I have little +confidence, I think you could not have chosen one more likely to +be faithful. I am sensible that my kind of distrust would +prevent all great enterprises; and yet I cannot but fear, that +unless one gives one's self' up entirely to the pursuit of a new +object, this risk must be doubled. But I will say no more; for I +do not even wish to dissuade you, as I am sure I understand +nothing of the matter, and therefore mean no more than to keep +your discretion awake. + +The tempest of Monday night alarmed me too for the fleet: and as +I have nothing to do but to care, I feel for individuals as well +as for the public, and think of all those who may be lost, and of +all those who may be made miserable by such loss. Indeed, I care +most for individuals; for as to the public, it seems to be +totally insensible to every thing! I know nothing worth +repeating; and having now answered all your letter, shall bid you +good night. Yours ever. + +(485) Mr. Conway was now commander-in-chief. + +(486) Alluding to the coke-ovens, for which Mr. Conway afterwards +obtained a patent. + + + +Letter 255 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 3, 1782. (page 320) + +I did think it long since I had the honour of hearing from your +lordship; but, conscious how little I could repay you with any +entertainment, I waited with patience. In fact, I believe +summer-correspondences often turn on complaints of want of news. +it is unlucky that that is generally the season of +correspondence, as it is of separation. People assembled in a +capital contrive to furnish matter, but then they have not +occasion to write it. Summer, being the season of campaigns, +ought to be more fertile: I am glad when that is not the case, +for what is an account of battles but a list of burials? +Vultures and birds of prey might write with pleasure to their +correspondents in the Alps of such events; but they ought to be +melancholy topics to those who have no beaks or talons. At this +moment if I was an epicure among the sharks, I should rejoice +that General Elliot has just sent the carcases of fifteen hundred +Spaniards down to market under Gibraltar;(487) but I am more +pleased that he despatched boats, and saved some of those whom he +had overset. What must a man of so much feeling have suffered at +being forced to do his duty so well as he has done! I remember +hearing such another humane being, that brave old admiral Sir +Charles Wager, say, that in his life be had never killed a fly. + +This demolition of the Spanish armada is a great event: a very +good one if it prevents a battle between Lord Howe and the +combined fleets, as I should hope; and yet better if it produces +peace, the only political crisis to which I look with eagerness. +Were that happy +moment arrived, there is ample matter to employ our great men, if +we have any, in retrieving the affairs of this country, if they +are to be retrieved. But though our sedentary politicians write +abundance of letters in the newspapers, full of plans of public +spirit, I doubt the nation is not sober enough to set about its +own work in earnest. When none reform themselves, little good is +to be expected, We see by the excess of highwaymen how far evils +may go before any attempt is made to cure them. I am sure, from +the magnitude of this inconvenience, that I am not talking merely +like an old man. I have lived here above thirty years, and used +to go every where round at all hours of the night without any +precaution. I cannot now stir a mile from my own house after +sunset without one or two servants with blunderbusses. I am not +surprised your lordship's pheasants were stolen: a woman was +taken last Saturday night loaded with nine geese, and they say +has impeached a gang Of fourteen housebreakers -but these are +undergraduates; when they should have taken their doctor's +degrees, they would not have piddled in such little game. Those +regius-professors the nabobs have taught men not to plunder for +farthings. + +I am very sensible of your lordship's kindness to my nephew Mr. +Cholmondeley. He is a sensible, well-behaved young man, and, I +trust, would not have abused your goodness. Mr. Mason writes to +me, that he shall be at York at the end of this month. I was to +have gone to Nuneham; but the house is so little advanced, that +it is a question whether they can receive me. Mason, I doubt, has +been idle there. I am sure, if he found no muses there, he could +pick up none at Oxford, where there is not so much as a bedmaker +that ever lived in a muse's family. Tonton begs his duty to all +the lambs, and trusts that Lady Strafford will not reject his +homage. + +(487) On the 13th of September, when General Elliot repulsed the +grand attack made on Gibraltar - and Captain Curtis of the +Brilliant, who commanded the marine brigade upon the occasion, +and his men, saved numbers of the Spaniards, at the hazard of +their own lives.-E. + + + +Letter 256 To The Rev. Mr. Cole. +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 5, 1782. (page 321) + +I had begun a letter in answer to another person, which I have +broken off on receiving yours, dear Sir. I am exceedingly +concerned at the bad account you give of yourself; and yet on +weighing it, I flatter myself that you are not Only out of all +danger, but have had a fortunate crisis, which I hope will +Prolong your life. A bile surmounted is a present from nature to +us, who are not boys: and though you speak as weary of life from +sufferings, and yet with proper resignation and philosophy, it +does not frighten me, as I know that any humour and gathering, +even in the gum, is strangely dispiriting. I do not write merely +from sympathizing friendship, but to beg that if your bile is not +closed or healing, you will let me know; for the bark is +essential, yet very difficult to have genuine. My apothecary +here, I believe, has some very good, and I will send you some +directly. + +I will thank you, but not trouble you with an account of myself. +I had no fit of the gout, nor any new complaint; but it is with +the utmost difficulty I keep the humour from laming me entirely, +especially in my hands, which are a mine of chalk-stones; but, as +they discharge themselves, I flatter myself they prevent heavier +attacks. + +I do take in the European Magazine, and think it in general one +of the best. I forgot what was said of me: sometimes I am +corrected, sometimes flattered, and care for neither. I have not +seen the answer to Mr. Warton, but will send for it. + +I shall not be sorry on my own account if Dr. Lort quits Lambeth, +and comes to Saville-row, which is in my neighbourhood; but I did +not think a wife was the stall where he would set up his staff. + +You have given me the only reason why I cannot be quite sorry +that you do not print what you had prepared for the press. No +kind intention towards me from you surprises me-but then I want +no new proofs. My wish, for whatever shall be the remainder of +my life is to be quiet and forgotten. Were my course to +recommence, and one could think in youth as one does at +sixty-five, I have no notion I should have courage to appear as +an author. Do you know, too, that I look on fame now as the +idlest of all visions? but this theme would lead me too far. + +I collect a new comfort from your letter. The writing is much +better than in most of your latest letters. If your pain were +not ceased, you could not have formed your letters so firmly and +distinctly. I will not say more, lest I should draw you into +greater fatigue; let me have but a single line in answer. Yours +most cordially.(488) + +(488) This is the last letter addressed by Walpole to Mr. Cole; +who died within six weeks of the date of it. The event is thus +recorded by Mr. Gough, in the second volume of his edition of +Camden's Britannia. "At Milton a small village on the Ely road, +was the retirement of the Rev. William Cole. Here, Dec. 16, +1782, in his sixty-eighth year, he closed a life spent in learned +research into the history and antiquities of this county in +particular, which nothing but his declining state of health +prevented this work from sharing the benefit of. He was buried +under the belfry of St. Clement's Church in Cambridge."-E. + + + +Letter 257 To George Colman, Esq.(489) +Strawberry Hill, May 10, 1783. (page 322) + +Dear Sir, +For so you must allow me to call you, after your being so kind as +to send me so valuable and agreeable a present as your +translation of Horace(490)--I wish compliment had left any term +uninvaded, Of which sincerity could make use without suspicion. +Those would be precisely what I would employ in commending your +poem; and, if they proved too simple to content my gratitude, I +would be satisfied with an offering to truth, and wait for a +nobler opportunity of sacrificing to the warmer virtue. If I +have not lost my memory, your translation is the best I have ever +seen of that difficult epistle. Your expression is easy and +natural, and when requisite, poetic. In short, it has a prime +merit, it has the air of an original. + +Your hypothesis in your commentary is very ingenious. I do not +know whether it is true, which now cannot be known; but if the +scope of the epistle was, as you suppose, to hint in a delicate +and friendly manner to the elder of Piso's sons that he had +written a bad tragedy, Horace had certainly executed his plan +with great address; and, I think, nobody will be able to show +that any thing in the poem clashes with your idea. Nay, if he +went farther, and meant to disguise his object, by giving his +epistle the air of general rules on poetry and tragedy, he +achieved both purposes; and while the youth his friend was at +once corrected and put to no shame, all other readers were kept +in the dark, except you, and diverted to different scents.(491) +Excuse my commenting your comment, but I had no other way of +proving that I really approve both your version and criticism +than by stating the grounds of my applause. If you have wrested +the sense of the original to favour your own hypothesis, I have +not been able to discover your art; for I do not perceive where +it has been employed. If you have given Horace more meaning than +he was intitled to, you have conferred a favour on him, for you +have made his whole epistle consistent, a beauty all the +spectacles of all his commentators could not find out-but, +indeed, they proceed on the profound laws of criticism, you by +the laws of common sense, which, marching on a plain natural +path, is very apt to arrive sooner at the goal, than they who +travel on the Appian Way; which was a very costly and durable +work, but is very uneasy, and at present does not lead to a +quarter of the places to which it was originally directed. + +I am, Sir, with great regard, your most +obedient and obliged humble servant. + +(489) Now first collected. + +(490) His translation of Horace's Epistola ad Pisones de Arte +Poeticae.-E. + +(491) It had been the opinion of Bishop Hurd, that - it was the +proper and sole purpose of ,Horace simply to criticise the Roman +drama;" but Mr. Colman assumed a contrary ground. "If my +partiality to my lamented friend, Mr. Colman," says Dr. Joseph +Warton, "does not mislead me, I should think his account of the +matter the most judicious of any yet published. He conceives +that the elder Piso had written, or meditated, a Poetical +work-probably, a tragedy, and had communicated his piece in +confidence to Horace; but Horace, either disapproving of the +work, or doubting of the poetical faculties of the elder Piso, or +both, wished to dissuade him from all thoughts of publication. +With this view he wrote his Epistle, addressing it, with a +courtliness and delicacy perfectly agreeable to his acknowledged +character, indifferently to the whole family, the father and his +two sons."-E. + + + +Letter 258 To The Earl Of Buchan.(492) +Strawberry Hill, May 12, 1783. (page 324) + +My lord, +I did not know, till I received the honour of your lordship's +letter, that any obstruction had been given to your charter. I +congratulate your lordship and the Society on the defeat of that +opposition, which does not seem to have been a liberal one. The +pursuit of national antiquities has rarely been an object, I +believe, with any university: why should they obstruct others +from marching in that track? I have often thought the English +Society of Antiquaries have gone out of their way when they +meddled with Roman remains, especially if not discovered within +our island. Were I to speak out, I should own, that I hold most +reliques of the Romans that have been found in Britain, of little +consequence, unless relating to such emperors as visited us. +Provincial armies stationed in so remote and barbarous a quarter +as we were then, acted little, produced little worth being +remembered. Tombstones erected to legionary officers and their +families, now dignified by the title of inscriptions; and banks +and ditches that surrounded camps, which we understand much +better by books and plans, than by such faint fragments, are +given with much pomp, and tell us nothing new. Your lordship's +new foundation seems to proceed on a much more rational and +useful plan. The biography of the illustrious of your country +will be an honour to Scotland, to those illustrious, and to the +authors: and may contribute considerably to the general history; +for the investigation of particular lives may bring out many +anecdotes that may unfold secrets of state, or explain passages +in such histories as have been already written; especially as the +manners of the times may enter into private biography, though +before Voltaire manners were rarely weighed in general history, +though very often the sources of considerable events. I shall be +very happy to see such lives as shall be published, while I +remain alive. I cannot contribute any thing of consequence to +your lordship's meditated account of John Law. I have heard many +anecdotes of him, though none that I can warrant, particularly +that of the duel for which he fled early.(493) I met the other +day with an account in some French literary gazette, I forget +which, of his having carried off the wife of another man. Lady +Catherine Law, his wife, lived, during his power in France, in +the most stately manner. Your lordship knows, to be sure, that +he died and is buried at Venice. I have two or three different +prints of him, and an excellent head of him in crayons by +Rosalba, the best of her portraits. It is certainly very like, +for, were the flowing wig converted into a female head-dress, it +would be the exact resemblance of Lady Wallingford, his daughter, +whom I See frequently at the Duchess of Montrose's, and who has +by no means a look of the age to which she is arrived. Law was a +very extraordinary man, but not at all an estimable one. + +I don't remember whether I ever told your lordship that there are +many charters of your ancient kings preserved in the Scots +College at Paris, and probably many other curiosities. I think I +did mention many paintings of the old house of Lenox in the +ancient castle at Aubigny. + +(492) Now first collected. + +(493) Evelyn, in his Diary, gives the following account of this +duel:--"April 22 1694. A very young man, named Wilson, the +younger son of one who had not above two hundred pounds a-year +estate, lived in the garb and equipage of the richest nobleman, +for house, furniture, coaches, saddle-horses, and kept a table +and all things accordingly, redeemed his father's estate, and +gave portions to his sisters, being challenged by one Laws, a +Scotchman, was killed in a duel, not fairly. The quarrel arose +from his taking away his own sister from a lodging in a house +where this Laws had a mistress , which the mistress of the house +thinking a disparagement to it, and losing by it, instigated Laws +to this duel. He was taken, and condemned for murder. The +mystery is, how this so young a gentleman, very sober and of good +fame, could live in such an expensive manner; it could not be +discovered by all possible industry, or entreaty of his friends +to make him reveal it. It did not appear that he was kept by +women, play, coining, padding, or dealing in chemistry; but he +would sometimes say, that, if he should live ever so long, he had +wherewith to maintain himself in the same manner, This was a +subject Of much discourse." Law was found guilty of murder, and +sentence of death was passed upon him. He however, found means +to escape, and got clear off to the Continent. A reward of fifty +bounds for is apprehension appeared in the London Gazette of the +7th of January, 1695.-E. + + + +Letter 259 To The Hon. George Hardinge. +Berkeley Square, May 17, 1783. (page 325) + +Though I shall not be fixed at Strawberry on this day fortnight, +I will accept your offer, dear Sir, because my time is more at my +disposal than yours, and you May not have any other day to bestow +upon me later. I thank you for your second: which I shall read +as carefully as I did the former. It is not your fault if you +have not yet made Sir Thomas Rumbold white as driven snow to +Me.(494) Nature has providentially given us a powerful antidote +to eloquence, or the criminal that has the best advocate would +escape. But, when rhetoric. and logic stagger my lords the +judges, in steps prejudice, and, without one argument that will +make a syllogism, confutes Messrs. Demosthenes, Tully, and +Hardinge, and makes their lordships see as clearly as any old +woman in England, that belief is a much better rule Of faith than +demonstration. This is Just my case: I do believe, nay, and I +will believe, that no man ever went to India with honest +intentions. If he returns with 100,000 pounds it is plain that I +was in the right. But I have still a stronger proof; my Lord +Coke says "Set a thief to catch a thief;" my Lord Advocate(495) +says, "Sir Thomas is a rogue:" ergo.--I cannot give so complete +an answer to the rest of your note, as I trust I have done to +your pleadings, because the latter is in print, and your note is +manuscript. Now, unfortunately, I cannot read half of it; for, +give me leave to say, that either your hand or my spectacles are +so bad, that I generally guess at your meaning rather than +decipher it, and this time the context has not served me well. + +(494) The bill of pains and penalties against Sir Thomas Rumbold, +late governor of Madras, was at this time in its progress through +the House of Commons. On the 1st of July, the further +proceedings upon the bill were adjourned to the 1st of October; +by which means the whole business fell to the ground.-E. + +(495) Mr. Dundas, afterwards Lord Melville. "I think him," said +Mr. Wilberforce, in June, 1781, "the first speaker on the +ministerial side in the House of Commons, and there is a +manliness in his character which prevents his running away from +the question; he grants all his adversaries' premises, and fights +them On their own ground." Life, vol. i. P. 21.-E. + + + +Letter 260 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, June 24, 1783. (page 326) + +Though your lordship's partiality extends even to my letters, you +must perceive that they grow as antiquated as the writer. News +are the soul of letters: when we give them a body of our own +invention, it is as unlike to life as a statue. I have withdrawn +so much from the -world, that the newspapers know every thing +before me, especially since they have usurped the province of +telling every thing, private as -well as public: and +consequently, a great deal more than I should -wish to know, or +like to report. When I do hear the transactions of much younger +people, they do not pass from my ears into my memory; nor does +your lordship interest yourself more about them than I do. Yet +still, when one reduces one's departments to such narrow limits, +one's correspondence suffers by it. However, as I desire to show +only my gratitude and attachment, not my wit, I shall certainly +obey your lordship as long as you are content to read my letters, +after I have told you fairly how little they can entertain you. + +For imports of French, I believe we shall have few more. They +have not ruined us so totally by the war, much less enriched +themselves so much by it, but that they who have been here, +complained so piteously of the expensiveness of England, that +probably they will deter others from a similar jaunt; nor, such +is their fickleness, are the French Constant to any thing but +admiration of themselves. Their Anglomanie I hear has mounted, +or descended, from our customs to our persons. English people +are in fashion at Versailles. A Mr. Ellis,(496) who wrote some +pretty verses at Bath two or three years ago, is a favourite +there. One who was so, or may be still, the Beau Dillon, came +upon a very different errand; in short, to purchase at any price +a book written by Linguet, which was just coming out, called +"Antoinette." That will tell your lordship why the Beau +Dillon(497) was the messenger. + +Monsieur de Guignes and his daughters came hither; but it was at +eight o'clock at night in the height of the deluge. You may be +sure I was much flattered by such a visit! I was forced to light +candles to show them any thing; and must have lighted the moon to +show them the views. If this is their way of seeing England, +they might as well look at it with an opera-glass from the shores +of Calais. + +Mr. Mason is to come to me on Sunday, and will find me mighty +busy in making my lock of hay, which is not Yet cut. I don't +know why, but people are always more anxious about their hay than +their corn, or twenty other things that cost them more. I +suppose my Lord Chesterfield, or some such dictator, made it +fashionable to care about one's hay. Nobody betrays solicitude +about getting in his rents. + +We have exchanged spring and summer for autumn and winter, as +well as day for night. If religion or law enjoined people to +love light, and prospect, and verdure, I should not wonder if +perverseness made us hate them; no, nor if society made us prefer +living always in town to solitude and beauty. But that is not +the case. The most fashionable hurry into the country at +Christmas and Easter, let the weather be ever so bad; and the +finest ladies, who will go no whither till eleven at night, +certainly pass more tiresome hours in London alone than they +would in the country. But all this is no business of mine: they +do what they like, and so do I; and I am exceedingly tolerant +about people who are perfectly indifferent to me. The sun and +the seasons were not gone out of fashion when I was young; and I +may do what I will with them now I am old: for fashion is +fortunately no law but to its devotees. Were I five-and-twenty, +I dare to say I should think every whim of my contemporaries very +wise, as I did then. In one light I am always on the side of the +Young, for they only silently despise those who do not conform to +their ordinances; but age is very apt to be angry at the change +of customs, and partial to others no better founded. It is happy +when we are occupied by nothing more serious. It is happy for a +nation when mere fashions are a topic that can employ its +attention; for, though dissipation may lead to graver moments, it +commences with ease and tranquillity: and they at least who live +before the scene shifts are fortunate, considering and comparing +themselves with the various regions who enjoy no parallel +felicity. I confess my reflections are couleur de rose at +present. I did not much expect to live to see peace, without far +more extensive ruin than has fallen on us. I will not probe +futurity in search of less agreeable conjectures. +Prognosticators may see many seeds of dusky hue; but I am too old +to look forwards. Without any omens, common sense tells one, +that in the revolution of ages nations must have unprosperous +periods. But why should I torment myself for what may happen in +twenty years after my death, more than for what may happen in two +hundred? Nor shall I be more interested in the one than in the +other. This is no indifference for my country: I wish it could +always be happy; but so I do to all other countries. Yet who +could ever pass a tranquil moment, if such future speculations +vexed him? + +Adieu, my good lord! I doubt this letter has more marks of +senility than the one I announced at the beginning. When I had +no news to send you, it was no reason for tiring you with +commonplaces. But your lordship's indulgence spoils me. Does +not it look as if I thought, that, because you commend my +letters, you would like whatever I say? Will not Lady Strafford +think that I abuse your patience? I ask both your pardons, and +am to both a most devoted humble servant. + +(496) George Ellis, Esq.; afterwards a contributor to "The +Rolliad;" a coadjutor of Mr. Canning and Mr. Frere in "The +Anti-Jacobin," and editor of "Specimens of Ancient English +Romances," etc. He died in 1815, at the age of seventy. Sir +Walter Scott, in the introduction to the fifth canto of Marmion, +thus addresses him- + + +Thou, who can give to lightest lay +An unpedantic moral gay, +Nor less the dullest theme bid flit +On wings of unexpected wit; +In letters as in life approved, +Example honour'd and beloved; +Dear Ellis! to the bard impart +A lesson of thy magic art + To win at once the head and heart,- +At once to charm, instruct, and mend, +My guide, my pattern, and my friend!"-E. + +(497) "Colonel Edward Dillon was particularly acquainted with +him," says Wraxall, in his posthumous Memoirs; "he descended, I +believe, collaterally from the noble Irish family of the Earls of +Roscommon, though his father carried on the trade of a +wine-merchant at Bordeaux; but he was commonly called 'Le Comte +Edouard Dillon,' and 'Le Beau Dillon.' In my estimation, he +possessed little pretense to the latter epithet: but surpassed +most men in stature, like Lord Whitworth, Lord Hugh Seymour, and +the other individuals on whom Marie Antoinette cast a favourable +eye. That she showed him some imprudent marks of predilection at +a ball, which, when they took place, excited Comment, is true; +but they prove only indiscretion and levity on her part."-E. + + + +Letter 261 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, August 1, 1783. (page 328) + +It would be great happiness indeed to me, my dear lord, if such +nothings as my letters could contribute to any part of your +lordship's; but as your own partiality bestows their chief merit +on them, you see they owe More to your friendship than to the +writer. It is not my interest to depreciate them; much less to +undermine the foundation of their sole worth. Yet it would be +dishonest not to warn your lordship, that if my letters have had +any intrinsic recommendation, they must lose of it every day. +Years and frequent returns of gout have made a ruin of me. +Dulness, in the form of indolence, grows upon me. I am inactive, +lifeless, and so indifferent to most things. that I neither +inquire after nor remember any topics that might enliven my +letters. Nothing is so insipid as my way of passing MY time. +But I need not specify what my letters speak. They can have no +spirit left; and would be perfectly inanimate, if attachment and +gratitude to your lordship were as liable to be extinguished by +old age as our more amusing qualities. I make no new connexions; +but cherish those that remain' with all the warmth of youth and +the piety of gray hairs. + +The weather here has been, and is, with very few intervals, +sultry to this moment. I think it has been of service to me; +though by overheating Myself I had a few days of lameness. The +harvest is half over already all round us; and so pure, that not +a poppy or cornflower is to be seen. Every field seems to have +been weeded like Brisco's bowling-green. If Ceres, who is at +least as old as many of our fashionable ladies, loves tricking +herself out in flowers as they do, she must be mortified: and +with more reason; for she looks well always with top-knots of +ultramarine and vermilion, which modern goddesses do not for half +so long as they think they do. As Providence showers so many +blessings on us, I wish the peace may confirm them! Necessary I +am sure it was; and when it cannot restore us, where should we +have been had the war continued? Of our situation and prospect I +confess my opinion is melancholy, not from present politics but +from past. We flung away the most brilliant position, I doubt, +for a long season! With politics I have totally done. I wish +the present ministers may last; for I think better of their +principles than of those of their opponents (with a few salvos on +both sides,) and so I do of their abilities. But it would be +folly in me to concern myself about new generations. How little +a way can I see of their progress! + +I am rather surprised at the new Countess of Denbigh. How could +a woman be ambitious of resembling Prometheus, to be pawed and +clawed and gnawed by a vulture?(498) I beg your earldom's +pardon; but I could not conceive that a coronet was so very +tempting! + +Lady Browne is quite recovered, unless she relapses from what we +suffer at Twickenham-park from a Lord Northesk,(499) an old +seaman, who is come to Richmond on a visit to the Duke of +Montrose. I think the poor man must be out of his senses, at +least he talks us out of ours. It is the most incessant and +incoherent rhapsody that ever was heard. He sits by the +card-table, and pours on Mrs. N * * * all that ever happened in +his voyages or his memory. He details the ship's allowance, and +talks to her as if she was his first-mate. Then in the mornings +he carries his daughter to town to see St. Paul's, and the Tower, +and Westminster Abbey; and at night disgorges all he has seen, +till we don't know the ace of spades from Queen Elizabeth's +pocket-pistol in the armoury. Mercy on us! And mercy on your +lordship too! Why should you be stunned with that alarum? Have +you had your earthquake, my lord? Many have had theirs. I +assure you I have had mine. Above a week ago, when broad awake, +the doors of the cabinet by my bedside rattled, without a breath +of wind. I imagined somebody was walking on the leads, or had +broken into the room under me. It was between four and five in +the morning. I rang my bell. Before my servant could come it +happened again; and was exactly like the horizontal tremor I felt +from the earthquake some years ago. As I had rung once, it is +plain I was awake. I rang again; but heard nothing more. I am +quite persuaded there was some commotion; nor is it surprising +that the dreadful eruptions of fire on the coasts of Italy and +Sicily(500) should have occasioned some alteration that has +extended faintly, hither, and contributed to the heats and mists +that have been so extraordinary. George Montagu said of our last +earthquake, that it was so tame you might have stroked it. It is +comfortable to live where one can reason on them without dreading +them! What satisfaction should you have in having erected such a +monument of your taste, my lord, as Wentworth Castle, if you did +not know but it might be overturned in a moment and crush you? +Sir William Hamilton is expected: he has been groping in all +those devastations. Of all vocations I would not be a professor +of earthquakes! I prefer studies that are couleur de rose; nor +would ever think of calamities, if I can do nothing To relieve +them. Yet this is a weakness of mind that I do not defend. They +are more respectable who can behold philosophically the great +theatre of events, or rather this little theatre of ours! In +some ampler sphere, they may look on the catastrophe of +Messina(501) as we do kicking to Pieces an ant-hill. + +Bless me! what a farrago is my letter! It is like the extracts +of books in a monthly magazine! I had no right to censure poor +Lord Northesk's ramblings! Lady Strafford will think he has +infected me. Good-night, my dear lord and lady! Your ever +devoted. + +(498) An allusion to Lord Denbigh's figure, and his arms blazoned +on a spread eagle.-E. + +(499) George, sixth Earl of Northesk, a naval officer of +distinction, who attained the rank of admiral of the white. He +died in 1792.-E. + +(500) In the course of this year a series of violent earthquakes +occurred in Calabria and Sicily. In February, the city of Casal +Nuova was entirely swallowed up; and the Princess Gerace +Grimaldi, with more than four thousand persons, perished in an +instant. The inhabitants of Scylla, who, headed by their Prince, +had descended from the rock and taken refuge on the sea-shore, +were all washed away by an enormous wave, on its return from the +land which it had inundated.-E. + +(501) Messina, and all the northern parts of Sicily, suffered +greatly by the convulsions of nature alluded to in the preceding +note.-E. + + + +Letter 262 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, August 15, 1783. (page 330) + +The address from the Volunteers is curious indeed, and upon the +first face a little Irish. What! would they throw off our +Parliament, and yet amend it? It is like correcting a question in +the House of Commons, and then voting against it. But I suppose +they rather mean to increase confusion here, that we may not be +at leisure to impede their progress; at least this may be the +intention of the leaders. Large bodies are only led by being +earnest in themselves, when their leaders are not so: but my head +is not clear enough to apply it to different matters, nor could I +do any good if it were. Our whole system is become a disjointed +chaos, and time must digest it, or blow it up shortly. I see no +way into it, nor expect any thing favourable but from chance, +that often stops confusion on a sudden. To restore us by any +system, it would require a single head furnished with wisdom, +temper, address, fortitude, full and undivided power, and sincere +patriotism divested of all personal views. Where is that prodigy +to be found? and how should it have the power, if it had all the +rest? And if it had the power, how could it be divested of that +power again? And if it were not, how long would it retain its +virtues? Power and wisdom would soon unite, like Antony and +Augustus, to annihilate their colleague virtue, for being a poor +creature like Lepidus. In short, the mass of matter is too big +for me: I am going Out of the world, and cannot trouble myself +about it. I do think of your part in it, and wish to preserve +you where you are, for the benefits that you may contribute. I +have a high opinion of Mr. Fox, and believe that by frankness you +may become real friends, which would be greatly advantageous to +the country. There is no competition in my mind where you are +concerned: but Fox is the minister with whom I most wish you +united,-indeed, to all the rest I am indifferent or adverse: but, +besides his superior abilities, he has a liberality of acting +that is to my taste; it is like my father's plainness, and has +none of the paltry little finesses of a statesman. + +Your parties do not tempt me, because I am not well enough to +join in them: nor yet will they stop me, though I had rather find +only you and Lady Ailesbury and Mrs. Damer. I am not seriously +ill; nay, am better upon the whole than I was last year: but I +perceive decays enough in myself to be sensible that the scale +may easily be inclined to the worst side. This observation makes +'me very indifferent to every thing that is not much at my heart. +Consequently what concerns you is, as it has always been for +above forty years, a principal object. Adieu! + + + +Letter 263To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(502) + +Strawberry Hill, Sunday, August 27, 1783. (page 331) + +Though I begin my letter on and have dated it Sunday, I recollect +that it may miss you if you go to town on Tuesday, and therefore +I shall not send it to the post till to-morrow. I can give you +but an indifferent account of myself. I went to Lord Dacre's: +but whether the heat and fatigue were too much for me, or whether +the thunder turned me sour, for I am at least as weak as +small-beer, I came back with the gout in my left hand and right +foot. The latter confined me for three days; but though my ankle +is still swelled, I do not stay in my house: however I am +frightened, and shall venture no more expeditions yet; for my +hands and feet are both SO lame, that I am neither comfortable to +myself or any body else, abroad, when I must confine them, stay +by myself or risk pain, which the least fatigue gives me. At +this moment I have a worse embargo even than lameness on me. The +Prince d'Hessenstein has written to offer me a visit--I don't +know when. I have just answered his note, and endeavoured to +limit its meaning to the shortest sense I could, by proposing to +give him a dinner or a breakfast. I would keep my bed rather +than crack our northern French together for twelve hours. + +I know nothing upon earth but my own disasters. Another is, that +all yesterday I thought all my gold-fish stolen. I am not sure +that they are not; but they tell me they keep at the bottom of +the water from the hot weather. It is all to be laded out +to-morrow morning, and then I shall know whether they are gone or +boiled. + +Whenever the weather cools to an English consistence, I will see +you at Park-place or in town: but I think not at the former +before the end of next month, unless I recover more courage than +I have at present; for if I was to get a real fit, and be +confined to my bed in such sultry days, I should not have +strength to go through it. I have just fixed three new benches +round my bowling-green, that I may make four journeys of the +tour. Adieu! + +Monday morning. + +As I was rising this morning, I received an express from your +daughter, that she will bring Madame de Cambis and Lady Melbourne +to dinner here to-morrow. I shall be vastly pleased with the +party, but it puts Philip and Margaret to their wit's end to get +them a dinner: nothing is to be had here; we must send to +Richmond, and Kingston, and Brentford; I must borrow Mr. Ellis's +cook, and somebody's confectioner, and beg somebody's fruit, for +I have none of these of my own, nor know any thing of the matter: +but that is Philip and Margaret's affair, and not mine; and the +worse the dinner is, the more Gothic Madame de Cambis will think +it. + +I have been emptying my pond, which was more in my head than the +honour of my kitchen; and in the mud of the troubled water I have +found all my gold, as Dunning and Barr`e(503) did last year. I +have taken out fifteen young fish of a year and a half old for +Lady Ailesbury, and reserved them as an offering worthy of +Amphitrite in the vase, in the cat's vase,(504) amidst the azure +flowers that blow. They are too portly to be carried in a +smelling-bottle in your pocket. I wish you could plan some way +of a waterman's calling for them, and transporting them to +Henley. They have not changed their colour, but will next year. +How lucky it would be, should you meet your daughter about +Turnham Green, and turn back with them! + +(502) Now first printed. + +503) In the preceding year, through the influence of Lord +Shelburne, a considerable pension had been granted to Colonel +Barr`e, and a peerage and pension to Mr. Dunning.-E. + +(504) The china vase in which Walpole's favourite cat Selima was +drowned. See Gray's Works, vol. i. p. 6.-E. + + + +Letter 264 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 12, 1783. (page 332) + +Your lordship tells me you hope my summer has glided pleasantly, +like our Thames- I cannot say it has passed very pleasantly to +me, though, like the Thames, dry and low; for somehow or other I +caught a rheumatic fever in the great heats, and cannot get rid +of it. I have just been at Park-place and Nuneham, in hopes +change of air would cure me; but to no purpose. Indeed, as want +of sleep is my chief complaint, I doubt I must make use of a very +different and more disagreeable remedy, the air of London, the +only place that I ever find agree with me when I am out of order. +I was there for two nights a fortnight ago, and slept perfectly +well. In vain has my predilection for Strawberry made me try to +persuade myself that this was all fancy: but, I fear, reasons +that appear strong, though contrary to our inclinations, must be +good ones. London at this time of year is as nauseous a drug as +any in an apothecary's shop. I could find nothing at all to do, +and so went to Astley's, `which indeed was much beyond my +expectation. I do not wonder any longer that Darius was chosen +king by the instructions he gave to his horse; nor that Caligula +made 'his consul. Astley can make his dance minuets and +hornpipes: which is more extraordinary than to make them vote at +an election, or act the part of a magistrate, which animals of +less capacities can perform as dexterously as a returning officer +or a master in chancery. But I shall not have even Astley now: +her Majesty the Queen of France, who has as much taste as +Caligula, has sent for the whole dramatis personae to Paris. Sir +William Hamilton was at Park-place, and gave us dreadful accounts +of Calabria: he looks much older, and has the patina of a bronze. + +At Nuneham I was much pleased with the improvements both within +doors and without. Mr. Mason was there; and as he shines in +every art, was assisting Mrs. Harcourt with his new discoveries +in painting, by which he will unite miniature and oil. Indeed, +she is a very apt and extraordinary scholar. Since our +professors seem to have lost the art of colouring, I am glad at +least that they have ungraduated assessors. + +We have plenty and peace at last; consequently leisure for +repairing some of our losses, if we have sense to set about the +task. On what will happen I shall make no conjectures, as it is +not likely I should see much of what is to come. Our + enemies have humbled us enough to content them; and we have +succeeded so ill in innovations, that surely we shall not tempt +new storms in haste. + +>From this place I can send your lordship new or entertaining, +nor expect more game in town, whither nothing but search of +health should carry me. Perhaps it is a vain chase at my age; +but at my age one cannot trust to Nature's operating cures +without aiding her; it is always time enough to abandon one's +self when no care will palliate our decays. I hope your lordship +and Lady Strafford will long be in no want of such attentions; +nor should I -have talked so Much of my own cracks, had I had any +thing else to tell you. It would be silly to aim at vivacity +when it is gone: and, though a lively old man is sometimes an +agreeable being, a pretending old man is ridiculous. Aches and +an apothecary cannot give one genuine spirits; 'tis sufficient if +they do not make one peevish' Your lordship is so kind as to +accept of me as I am, and you shall find nothing more counterfeit +in me than the sincere respect and gratitude with which I have +the honour to be your lordship's most devoted humble servant. + + + +Letter 265 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 11, 1783. (page 334) + +My rheumatism, I thank your lordship, is certainly better, though +not quite gone. It was very troublesome at night till I took the +bark; but that medicine makes me sleep like opium. But I will +say no more about it, nothing is so troublesome as to talk of +chronical complaints: has one any right to draw on the compassion +of others, when one must renew the address daily and for months? + +The aspect of Ireland is very tempestuous.(505) I doubt they +will hurt us materially without benefiting themselves. If they +obtain very short parliaments, they will hurt themselves more +than us, by introducing a confusion that will prevent their +improvements. Whatever country does adopt short parliaments, +will, I am entirely persuaded, be forced to recur to their former +practice; I mean, if the disorders introduced do not produce +despotism of some sort or other. I am very sorry Mr. Mason +concurs in trying to revive the Associations.(506) Methinks our +state is so deplorable, that every healing measure ought to be +attempted instead of innovations. For my own part, I expect +nothing but distractions, and am not concerned to be so old. I +am so old, that, were I disposed to novelties, I should think +they little became my age. I should be ashamed, when my hour +shall come, to be caught in a riot of country squires and +parsons, and haranguing a mob with a shaking head. A leader of +faction ought to be young and vigorous. If an aged gentleman +does get an ascendant, he may be sure that younger men are +counting on his exit, and only flatter him to succeed to his +influence, while they are laughing at his misplaced activity. At +least, these would be my thoughts, who of all things dread being +a jest to the juvenile, if they find me out of my sphere. + +I have seen Lord Carlisle's play, and it has a great deal of +merit--perhaps more than your lordship would expect. The +language and images are the best part, after the two principal +scenes, which are really fine.(507) + +I did, as your lordship knows and says, always like and esteem +Lady Fitzwilliam. I scarce know my lord; but, from what I have +heard of him in the House of Lords, have conceived a good opinion +of his sense; of his character I never heard any ill; which is a +great testimonial in his favour, when there are so many horrid +characters, and when all that are conspicuous have their minutest +actions tortured to depose against them. + +You may be sure, my dear lord, that I heartily pity Lady +Strafford's and your loss of four-legged friends. Sense and +fidelity are wonderful recommendations; and when one meets with +them, and can be confident that one is not imposed upon, I cannot +think that the two additional legs are any drawback. At least I +know that I have had friends who would never have vexed or +betrayed me, if they had walked on all-fours. + +I have no news to send your lordship; indeed I inquire for none, +nor wish to hear any. Whence is any good to come? I am every +day surprised at hearing people eager for news. If there is any, +they are sure of hearing it. How can one be curious to know one +does not know what; and perpetually curious to know? Has one +nothing to do but to hear and relate something new? And why can +one care about nothing but what one does not know? And why is +every event worth hearing, only because one has not heard it? +Have not there been changes enough? divorces enough? bankruptcies +and robberies enough? and, above all, lies enough? No: or +people would not be everyday impatient for the newspaper. I own, +I am glad on Sunday when there is no paper(508) and no fresh lies +circulating. Adieu, my good lord and lady! May you long enjoy +your tranquillity, undisturbed by villany, folly, and madness! + +(505) The Volunteer Corps of Ireland had long entertained +projects for reforming the parliamentary representation of the +country, and had appointed delegates for carrying that object +into effect. In September they met at Dungannon when a plan of +reform was proposed and agreed upon, and the 10th of November +fixed on for a convention at Dublin of the representatives of the +whole body of Volunteers. "Many gentlemen," says Mr. Hardy, in +his Memoirs of Lord Charlemont, "must have seen a letter of Mr. +Fox, then secretary of state, to General Burgoyne, at that time +commander-in-chief in Ireland, on the subject Convention. It was +written with the spirit of a patriot and wisdom of a true +statesman. In his ardour for a parliamentary reform, he yielded, +he said, to none of the Convention, but he dreaded the +consequences of such a proceeding; and would, he added, lament it +as the deepest misfortune of his life, if, by any untoward Steps +then taken, and whilst he was minister, the two kingdoms should +be separated, or run the Slightest risk of separation."-E. + +(506) "The Yorkshire Association had been formed in 1779, from +the gentry of moderate fortunes and the more substantial yeomen., +under the pressure of those burdens which resulted from the war +with America, with the view of obtaining, first, an economical, +and then a parliamentary reform; but in the various changes which +soon afterwards perplexed the political world, its first object +was almost forgotten, and its most important character was the +front Of Opposition which it now maintained against that powerful +aristocracy which had long ruled the country with absolute +dominion. It now declared against the Coalition administration." +Life of Wilberforce, vol. i. p. 51.-E. + +(507) Of Lord Carlisle's tragedy, entitled " The Father's +Revenge,' Dr. Johnson also entertained a favourable opinion. "Of +the sentiments," he says, "I remember not one I wished omitted. +in the imagery, I cannot forbear to distinguish the comparison of +joy succeeding grief to light rushing on the eye accustomed to +darkness. It seems to have all that can be desired to make it +please: it is new, just, and delightful. With the characters, +either as conceived or preserved, I have no fault to find; but +was much inclined to congratulate a writer, who, in defiance of +prejudice and fashion, made the Archbishop a good man, and +scorned all thoughtless applause which a vicious churchman would +have brought him." It was with reference to this tragedy, that +Lord Byron regretted the flippant and unjust sarcasms against his +noble relation, which he had admitted into the early editions of +his "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," under the mistaken +impression that Lord Carlisle had intentionally slighted him.-E. + +(508) What would Walpole say, if he could witness the alteration +which has taken place in this respect since the year 1783?-E. + + + +Letter 266 To Lady Browne.(509) +Berkeley Square, Oct. 19, 1783. (page 336) + +As it is not fit my better-half should be ignorant of the state +of her worse-half, lest the gossips of the neighbourhood should +suspect we are parted; let them know, my life, that I am much +better to-day. I have had a good deal of fever, and a bad night +on Wednesday; but the last was much better, and the fever is much +diminished to-day. In short, I have so great an opinion of +town-dried air, that I expect to be well enough to return to +Twickenham on Monday; and, if I do, I will call on you that +evening; though I have not been out of my house yet. Indeed, it +is unfortunate that so happy a couple, who have never exchanged a +cross word, and who might claim the flitch of bacon, cannot be +well--the one in town, the other in the country. + +(509) Now first printed + + + +Letter 267 To Governor Pownall. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 27, 1783. (page 336) + +I am extremely obliged to you, Sir, for the valuable +communication made to me.(510) It is extremely so to me, as it +does justice to a memory I revere to the highest degree; and I +flatter myself that it would be acceptable to that part of the +world that loves truth; and that part will be the majority, as +fast as they pass away -who have an interest in preferring +falsehood. Happily, truth is longer-lived than the passions of +individuals; and, when mankind are not misled, they can +distinguish white from black. I myself do not pretend to be +unprejudiced; I must be so to the best of fathers - I should be +ashamed to be quite impartial. No wonder, then, Sir, if I am +greatly pleased with so able a justification; yet I am not so +blinded, but that I can discern solid reasons for admiring your +defence. You have placed that defence on sound and nezo grounds; +and, though very briefly, have very learnedly stated and +distinguished the landmarks of our constitution, and the +encroachments made on it, by justly referring the principles of +liberty to the Saxon systern, and by imputing the corruptions of +it to the Norman. This was a great deal too deep for that +superficial mountebank, Hume, to go; for a mountebank he was. He +mounted a system in the garb of a philosophic empiric, but +dispensed no drugs but what he was authorized to vend by a royal +patent, and which were full of Turkish opium. He had studied +nothing relative to the English constitution before Queen +Elizabeth, and had selected her most arbitrary acts to +countenance those of the Stuarts: and even hers he +misrepresented; for her worst deeds were levelled against the +nobility, those of the Stuarts against the people. Hers, +consequently, were rather an obligation to the people; for the +most heinous part of despotism is, that it produces a thousand +despots instead of one. Muley Moloch cannot lop off many heads +with his own hands; at least, he takes those in his way. those +of his courtiers; but his bashaws and viceroys spread destruction +every where. The flimsy, ignorant, blundering manner in which +Hume executed the reigns preceding Henry the Seventh, is a proof +how little he had examined the history of our constitution. + +I could say much, much more, Sir, in commendation of your work, +were I not apprehensive of being biassed by the subject. Still, +that it would not be from flattery, I wilt prove, by taking the +liberty of making two objections; and they are only to the last +page but one. Perhaps you will think that my first objection +does show that I am too much biassed. I own I am sorry to see my +father compared to Sylla. The latter was a sanguinary usurper, a +monster; the former, the mildest, most forgiving, best-natured of +men, and a legal minister. Nor, I fear, will the only light in +which you compare them, Stand The test. Sylla resigned his power +voluntarily, insolently: perhaps timidly. as he might think he +had a better chance of dying in his bed, if he retreated, than by +continuing to rule by force. My father did not retire by his own +option. He had lost the majority of the House of Commons. +Sylla, you say, Sir, retired unimpeached; it is true, but covered +with blood. My father was not impeached, in our strict sense, Of +the word; but, to my great joy, he was in effect. A secret +committee, a worse inquisition than a jury, was named; not to try +him, but to sift his life for crimes: and Out Of Such a jury, +chosen in the dark, and not one of whom he might challenge, he +had some determined enemies, many opponents, and but two he could +suppose his friends. And what was the consequence ? A man +charged with every state crime almost, for twenty years, was +proved to have done--what? Paid some writers much more than they +deserved, for having defended him against ten thousand and ten +'thousand libels, (some of which had been written by his +inquisitors,) all which libels were confessed to have been lies +by his inquisitors themselves; for they could not produce a +shadow of one of the crimes with which they had charged him! I +must own, ,Sir, I think that Sylla and my father ought to be set +in opposition rather than paralleled. + +My other objection is still more serious: and if I am so happy as +to convince you, I shall hope that you will alter the paragraph; +as it seems to impute something to Sir Robert, of which he was +not only most innocent, but of which if he had been guilty, I +should think him extremely so, for he would have been very +ungrateful. You say he had not the comfort to see that he had +established his own family by any thing which he received from +the gratitude of that Hanover family, or from the gratitude of +that country, which he had saved and served! Good Sir, what does +this sentence seem to imply, but that either Sir Robert himself, +or his family, thought or think, that the Kings George . and II. +or England, were ungrateful in not rewarding his services? Defend +him and us from such a charge! He +nor we ever had such a thought. Was it not rewarding him to make +him prime minister, and maintain and support him against his +enemies for twenty years together? Did not George I. make his +eldest son a peer, and give to the father and son a valuable +patent place in the custom-house for three lives? Did not George +II. give my elder brother the auditor's place, and to my brother +and me other rich places for our lives; for, though in the gift +of the first lord of the treasury, do we not owe them to the King +who made him so? Did not the late King make my father an earl, +and dismiss him with a pension of 4000 pounds a-year for his +life? Could he or we not think these ample rewards? What +rapacious sordid wretches must he and we have been, and be, could +we entertain such an idea? As far have we all been from thinking +him neglected by his country. Did not his country see and know +these rewards? and could it think these rewards inadequate? +Besides, Sir, great as I hold my father's services, they were +solid and silent, not ostensible. They were of a kind to which I +hold your justification a more suitable reward than pecuniary +recompenses. To have fixed the house of Hanover on the throne, +to have maintained this country in peace and affluence for twenty +years, with the other services you record, Sir, were actions, the +`eclat of which must be illustrated by time and reflection; and +whose splendour has been brought forwarder than I wish it had, by +comparison with a period very dissimilar! If Sir Robert had not +the comfort of leaving his family in affluence, it was not +imputable to his King or his country. Perhaps I am proud that he +did not. He died forty thousand pounds in debt. That was the +wealth of a man that had been taxed as the plunderer of his +country! Yet, with all my adoration of my father, I am just +enough to own that it was his own fault if he died so poor. He +had made Houghton much too magnificent for the moderate estate +which he left to support it; and, as he never --I repeat it with +truth, never--got any money but in the South Sea and while he was +paymaster. his fondness for his paternal seat, and his boundless +generosity, were too expensive for his fortune. I will mention +one instance, which will show how little he was disposed to turn +the favour of the crown to his own profit. He laid out fourteen +thousand pounds of his own money on Richmond New Park. I could +produce other reasons too why Sir Robert's family were not in so +comfortable a situation, as the world, deluded by +misrepresentation, might expect to see them at his death. My +eldest brother had been a very bad economist during his father's +life, and died himself fifty thousand pounds in debt, or more; so +that to this day neither Sir Edward nor I have received the five +thousand pounds apiece which Sir Robert left us as our fortunes. +I do not love to charge the dead; therefore will only say, that +Lady Orford (reckoned a vast fortune, which till she died she +never proved,) wasted vast sums; nor did my brother or father +ever receive but the twenty thousand pounds which she brought at +first,'and which were spent on the wedding and christening; I +mean, including her jewels. + +I beg pardon, Sir, for this tedious detail, which is minutely, +perhaps too minutely, true; but, when I took the liberty of +contesting any part of a work which I admire so much, I owed it +to you and to myself to assign my reasons. I trust they will +satisfy you; and, if they do, I am sure you will alter a +paragraph against which it is the duty of the family to exclaim. +Dear as my father's memory is to my soul, I can never subscribe +to the position that he was unrewarded by the house of Hanover. + +(510) The Governor's "Character of Sir Robert Walpole." It will +be found among the original papers in COXe's Life of Sir +Robert.-E. + + + +Letter 268 To Governor Pownall. +Berkeley Square, Nov. 7, 1783. (page 339) + +You must allow me, Sir, to repeat my thanks for the second copy +of your tract on my father, and for your great condescension in +altering the two passages to which I presumed to object; and +which are not only more consonant to exactness, but, I hope, no +disparagement to the piece. To me they are quite satisfactory. +And it is a comfort to me too, that what I begged to have changed +was not any reflection prejudicial to his memory; but, in the +first point, a parallel not entirely similar in circumstances; +and, in the other, a sort of censure on 'others to which I could +not subscribe. With all my veneration for my father's memory, I +should not remonstrate against just censure on him. Happily, to +do justice to him, most iniquitous calumnies ought to be removed; +and then there would remain virtues and merits enough, far to +outweigh human errors, from which the best of men, like him, +cannot be exempt. Let his enemies, ay and his friends, be +compared with him, and then justice would be done! Your essay, +Sir, will, I hope, some time or other, clear the way to his +vindication. It points out the true way of examining his +character; and is itself, as far as it goes, unanswerable. As +such, what an obligation it must be to, Sir, etc. + + + +Letter 269To The Earl Of Strafford. +Berkeley Square, Nov. 10, 1783. (page 339) + +If I consulted my reputation as 'a writer, which your lordship's +partiality is so kind as to allot me, I should wait a few days +till my granary is fuller of stock, which probably it would be by +the end of next week; but, in truth, I had rather be a grateful, +and consequently a punctual correspondent, than an ingenious one; +as I value the honour of your lordship's friendship more than +such tinsel bits of fame as can fall to my share, and of which I +am particularly sick at present, as the Public Advertiser dressed +me out t'other day with a heap of that dross which he had +pillaged from some other strolling playwrights, who I did not +desire should be plundered for me. + +Indeed, when the Parliament does meet, I doubt, nay hope, it will +make less sensation than usual. The orators of Dublin have +brought the flowers of Billingsgate to so high perfection, that +ours comparatively will have no more scent than a dead dandelion. +If your lordship has not seen the speeches of Mr. Flood and Mr. +Grattan,(511) you may perhaps still think that our oyster-women +can be more abusive than members of parliament. Since I began my +letter, I hear that the meeting of the delegates from the +Volunteers is adjourned to the first of February.(512) This +seems a very favourable circumstance. I don't like a reformation +begun by a Popish army! Indeed, I did hope that peace would bring +us peace, at least not more than the discords incidental to a +free ,government: but we seem not to have attained that era yet! +I hope it will arrive, though I may not see it. I shall not +easily believe that any radical alteration of a constitution that +preserved us so long, and carried us to so great a height, will +recover our affairs. There is a wide difference between +correcting abuses and removing landmarks. Nobody disliked more +than I the strides that were attempted towards increasing the +prerogative; but as the excellence of our constitution, above all +others, consists in the balance established between the three +powers of King, Lords, and Commons, I wish to see that +equilibrium preserved. No single man, nor any private junta, has +a right to dictate laws to all three. In Ireland, truly,' a +still worse spirit I apprehend to be at bottom; in short, it is +frenzy or folly to suppose that an army composed of three parts +of Catholics can be intended for any good purposes. + +These are my sentiments, my dear lord, and, you know, very +disinterested. For myself, I have nothing to wish but ease and +tranquillity for the rest of my time. I have no enmities to +avenge. I do hope the present administration will last, as I +believe there are more honest men in it than in any set that +could replace them, though I have not a grain of partiality more +than I had for their associates. Mr. Fox I think by far the +ablest and soundest head in England, and am persuaded that the +more he is tried the greater man he will appear. + +Perhaps it is impertinent to trouble your lordship with my creed, +it is certainly of no consequence to any body; but I have nothing +else that could entertain you, and at so serious a crisis can one +think of trifles? In general I am not sorry that the nation is +most disposed to trifle; the less it takes part, the more leisure +will the ministers have to attend to the most urged points. When +so many individuals assume to be legislators, it is lucky that +very few obey their institutes. + +I rejoice to hear of Lady Strafford's good health, and am her and +your lordship's most faithful humble servant. + +(511) In the course of a debate in the Irish House of Commons, on +the 28th of October, upon Sir Henry Cavendish's motion for a +retrenchment of the public expenditure violent altercation had +taken place between the rival orators. While Mr. Grattan +animadverted, with disgraceful bitterness, on the " broken beak +and disastrous countenance" of his opponent, and charged him with +betraying every man who trusted in him, Mr. Flood broadly +insinuated that Mr. Grattan had betrayed his country for a sum of +gold; and, for prompt payment, had sold himself to the +minister.-E. + +(512) They assembled at Dublin on the 10th of November, when a +plan of reform was produced and considered by them; and on the +following day Mr. Flood moved, in the House of Commons for leave +to bring in a bill for the more equal representation of the +people in Parliament. The motion was rejected by 157 votes to +77.-E. + + + +Letter 270 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Berkeley Square, Dec. 11, 1783. (page 341) + +Your lordship is so partial to me and my idle letters, that I am +afraid of writing them; not lest they should sink below the +standard you have pleased to affix to them in your own mind, but +from fear of being intoxicated into attempting to keep them up to +it, which would destroy their only merit, their being written +naturally and without pretensions. Gratitude and good breeding +compel me to make due answers; but I entreat your lordship to be +assured, that, however vain I am of your favour, my only aim is +to preserve the honour of your friendship; that it is all the +praise I ask or wish; and that, with regard to letter-writing, I +am firmly persuaded that it is a province in which women will +always shine superiorly; for our sex is too jealous of the +reputation of good sense, to condescend to hazard a thousand +trifles and negligences, which give grace, ease, and familiarity +to correspondence.(513) I will say no more on that subject, for +I feel that I am on the brink of a dissertation; and though that +fault would prove the truth of my proposition, I will not punish +your lordship only to convince you that I am in the right. The +winter is not dull or disagreeable; on the contrary, it is +Pleasing, as the town is occupied on general subjects, and not, +as is too common, on private scandal, private vices, and follies. +The India-bill, air-balloons, Vestris, and the automaton, share +all attention. Mrs. Siddons, as less a novelty, does not engross +all conversation. If abuse still keeps above par, it confines +itself to its prescriptive province, the ministerial line. In +that walk it has tumbled a little into the kennel. The low +buffoonery of Lord Thurlow, in laying the caricatura of the +Coalition on the table of your lordship's House, has levelled it +to Sadler's Wells; and Mr. Flood, the pillar of invective, does +not promise to re-erect it; not, I conclude, from want of having +imported a stock of ingredients, but his presumptuous debut on +the very night of his entry was so wretched, and delivered in so +barbarous a brogue that I question whether he will ever recover +the blow Mr. Courtenay gave him.(514) A young man may correct +and improve, and rise from a first fall; but an elderly formed +speaker has not an equal chance. Mr. Hamilton,(515) Lord +Abercorn's heir, but by no means so laconic, had more success. +Though his first essay, ii was not at all dashed by bashfulness; +and though he might have blushed for discovering so much personal +rancour to Mr. Fox, he rather seemed to be impatient to discharge +it. + +Your lordship sees in the papers that the two Houses of Ireland +have firmly resisted the innovations of the Volunteers. Indeed, +it was time for the Protestant proprietors to make their stand; +for though the Catholics behave decently, it would be into their +hands that the prize would fall. The delegates, it is true, have +sent over a most loyal address; but I wish their actions may not +contradict their words! Mr. Flood's discomfiture here will, I +suppose, carry him back to a field wherein his wicked spirit may +have more effect. It is a very serious moment! I am in pain +lest your county, my dear lord, (you know what I mean) should +countenance such pernicious designs. + +(513) Some excellent advice on the subject of female +letter-writing, will be found in a letter written, in 1809, by +Lord Collingwood to one of his daughters:--"No sportsman," says +the gallant Admiral, "ever hits a partridge without aiming at it; +and skill is acquired by repeated attempts. When you write a +letter, give it your greatest care, that it may be as perfect in +all its parts as you can make it. Let the subject be sense, +expressed in the most plain, intelligible, and elegant manner +that you are capable of If in a familiar epistle you should be +playful and jocular, guard carefully that your wit be not sharp, +so as to, give pain to any person; and before You write a +sentence, examine it, even the words which it is composed, that +there be nothing vulgar or inelegant in them. Remember, my dear, +that your letter is the picture of Your brains; and those whose +brains are a compound of folly, nonsense, and impertinence, are +to blame to exhibit them to the contempt of the world, or the +pity of their friends. To write a letter with negligence, +without proper stops, with crooked lines and great, flourishing +dashes, is inelegant; it argues either great ignorance of what is +proper, or great indifference towards the person to whom it is +addressed, and is consequently disrespectful." Memoirs, p. +430.-E. + +(514) Mr. Flood took his seat for Winchester on the 8th of +December, and on the same evening addressed the House in +Opposition to Mr. Fox's East India bill. "He spoke," says +Wraxall, "with great ability and good sense, but the slow, +measured, and sententious style of enunciation which +characterized his eloquence, appeared to English ears cold and +stiff: unfortunately, too, for Flood, one of his own countrymen, +Courtenay, instantly Opened on him such a battery of ridicule and +wit, as seemed to overwhelm the new Member. He made no attempt +at reply, and under these circumstances began the division. It +formed a triumphant exhibition Of ministerial strength, the +Coalition numbering 208; while only 102 persons, of whom I was +one, followed Pitt into the lobby yet, within twelve days +afterwards he found himself first minister, and so remained above +seventeen years."-E. + +(515) John James Hamilton. In 1789, he succeeded his uncle as +ninth Earl of Abercorn, and second Viscount Hamilton; and in +1790, was created Marquis of Abercorn.-E. + + + +Letter 271 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Berkeley Square, Wednesday, May 5, 1784. (page 342) + +Your cherries, for aught I know, may, like Mr. Pitt, be half ripe +before others are in blossom; but at Twickenham, I am sure, I +could find dates and pomegranates on the quickset hedges, as soon +as a cherry in swaddling-clothes on my walls. The very leaves on +the horse-chestnuts are little snotty-nosed things, that cry and +are afraid of the north-wind, and cling to the bough as if old +poker was coming to take them away. For my part, I have seen +nothing like spring but a chimney-sweeper's garland; and yet I +have been three days in the country-and the consequence was, that +I was glad to come back to town. I do not wonder that you feel +differently; any thing is warmth and verdure when compared to +poring over memorials. In truth, I think you will be much +happier for being out of Parliament. You could do no good there; +you have no views of ambition to satisfy: and when neither duty. +nor ambition calls, (I do not condescend to name avarice, which +never is to be satisfied, nor deserves to be reasoned with, nor +has any place in your breast,) I cannot conceive what +satisfaction an elderly man can have in listening to the passions +or follies of others: nor is eloquence such a banquet, when one +knows that, whoever the cooks are, whatever the sauces, one has +eaten as good beef or mutton before, and perhaps, as well +dressed. It is surely time to live for one's self, when one has +not a vast while to live; and you, I am persuaded, Will live the +longer for leading a country life. How much better to be +planting, nay, making experiments on smoke (if not too dear), +than reading applications from officers, a quarter of whom you +could not serve, nor content three quarters! You had not time for +necessary exercise : and, I believe, would have blinded yourself. +In short, if you will live in the air all day, be totally idle, +and not read or write a line by candle-light, and retrench your +suppers, I shall rejoice in your having nothing to do but that +dreadful punishment, pleasing yourself. Nobody has any claims on +you; you have satisfied every point of honour; you have no cause +for being particularly grateful to the Opposition; and you want +no excuse for living for yourself. Your resolutions on economy +are not only prudent, but just; and, to say the truth, I believe +if you had continued at the head of the army, you would have +ruined yourself You have too much generosity to have curbed +yourself, and would have had too little time to attend to doing +so. I know by myself how pleasant it is to have laid up a little +for those I love, for those that depend on me, and for old +servants. Moderate wishes may be satisfied; and which is still +better, are less liable to disappointment. + +I am not preaching, nor giving advice, but congratulating you it +is certainly not being selfish, when I rejoice at your being +thrown by circumstances into a retired life, though it will +occasion my seeing less of you; but I have always preferred what +was most for your own honour and happiness; and as you taste +satisfaction already, it will not diminish, for they are the +first moments of passing from busy life to a quiet one that are +the most irksome. You have the felicity of being able to amuse +yourself with what the grave world calls trifles , but as gravity +does not happen to be wisdom, trifles are full as important as +what is respected as serious; and more amiable, and generally +more innocent. Most men are bad or ridiculous, sometimes both: +at least my experience tells me what my reading had told me before, that they are so in a great capital +of a sinking 'country. If immortal fame is his object, a Cato +may die but he will do no good. If only the preservation of his +virtue had been his point, he might have lived comfortably at +Athens, like Attieus who, by the way, happens to be as immortal; +though I will give him credit for having had no such view. +Indeed, I look upon this country as so irrecoverably on the verge +of ruin, from its enormous debt, from the loss of America, from +the almost as certain prospect of losing India, that my pride +would dislike to be an actor when the crash may happen. + +You seem to think that I might send you more news. So I might, +if I would talk of elections;(516) but those, you know, I hate, +as, in general, I do all details. How Mr. Fox has recovered such +a majority I do not guess, still less do I comprehend how there +could be so many that had not voted, after the poll had lasted so +long.(517) Indeed, I should be sorry to understand such +mysteries.-Of new peers, or new elevations I hear every day, but +am quite ignorant which are to be true. Rumour always creates as +many as the King, when he makes several. In fact, I do know +nothing. Adieu! + +P. S. The summer is come to town, but I hope is gone into the +country too. + +(516) The Parliament had been dissolved in March, and a new one +was summoned to meet on the 18th of May.-E. + +(517) Mr. Pitt says in a letter to Mr. Wilberforce, of the 8th of +April, "Westminster goes on well, in spite of the Duchess of +Devonshire and the other women of the people; but when the poll +will close is uncertain." At the close of it, on the 17th of +May, the numbers were, for Hood 6694, Fox 6233, Wray 5998. +Walpole, whose delicate health at this time confined him almost +entirely to his house, went in a sedan-chair to give his vote for +Mr. Fox. "Apropos of elections," writes Hannah More to her +sister," I had like to have got into a fine scrape the other +night. I was going to pass the evening at Mrs. Cole's, in +Lincoln's-inn Fields. I went in a chair: they carried me through +Covent-Garden: a number of people, as I went along, desired the +men not to go through the Garden, as there were a hundred armed +men, who, suspecting every chairman belonged to Brookes's, would +fall upon us. In spite of my entreaties, the men would have +persisted; but a stranger, out of humanity, made them set me +down; and the shrieks of the wounded, for there was a terrible +battle, intimidated the chairmen, who were at last prevailed upon +to carry me another way. A vast number of people followed me, +crying out, 'it is Mrs. Fox: none but Mr. Fox's wife would dare +to come into Covent-Garden in a chair; she is going to canvass in +the dark!' Though not a little frightened, I laughed heartily at +this; but shall stir no more in a chair for some time." Memoirs, +vol. I. p. 315.-E. + + + +Letter 272 To Miss Hannah More.(519) +May 6, 1784 (page 344) + +Mr. Walpole thanks Miss More a thousand times, not only for so +obligingly complying with his request, but for letting him have +the satisfaction of possessing and reading again and again her +charming and very genteel poem, the "Bas Bleu." He ought not, in +modesty, to commend so much a piece in which he himself is +flattered; but truth is more durable than blushing, and he must +be just, though he may be vain. The ingenuity with which she has +introduced, so easily, very difficult rhymes, is admirable; and +though there is a quantity of learning, it has all the air Of +negligence, instead of that of pedantry. As she, commands him, +he will not disobey; and, so far from giving a single copy, he +gives her his word that it shall not go out of his hands. He +begs his particular compliments to Mrs. Garrick, and is Miss +More's most devoted and much obliged humble servant. + +(519) Walpole's intimacy with Miss Hannah More commenced in the +year 1781. The following passages occur in her letters of that +and the following year:--"Mr. Walpole has done me the honour of +inviting me to Strawberry Hill: as he is said to be a shy man, I +must consider this as a great compliment."--" We dined the other +day at Strawberry Hill, and passed as delightful a day as elegant +literature, high breeding, and lively wit can afford. As I was +the greatest stranger, Mr. Walpole devoted himself to my +amusement with great politeness."-E. + + + +Letter 273 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, May 21, 1784. (page 345) + +I am perfectly satisfied with your epitaph,(520) and would not +have a Syllable altered. It tells exactly what it means to say, +and that truth being an encomium, wants no addition or +amplification. Nor do I love late language for modern facts, nor +will European tongues perish since printing has been discovered. +I should approve French least of all; it would be a kind of +insult to the vanquished: and, besides, the example of a hero +should be held out to his countrymen rather than to their +enemies. You must take care to have the word caused, in the last +line but one, spelt rightly, and not caus'd. + +I know nothing of the Parliament but what you saw in the papers. +I came hither yesterday, and am transported, like you, with the +beauty of the country; ay, and with its perfumed air too. The +lilac-time scents even the insides of the rooms. + +I desired Lady Ailesbury to carry you Lord Melcombe's Diary.(521) +It is curious indeed; not so much from the secrets it blabs, +which are rather characteristic than novel, but from the +wonderful folly of the author, who was so fond of talking of +himself, that he tells all he knew of himself, though scarce an +event that does not betray his profligacy; and (which is still +more surprising that he should disclose) almost every one exposes +the contempt in which he was held, and his consequential' +disappointments and disgraces! Was ever any man the better for +another's experience? What a lesson is here against versatility! +I, who have lived through all the scenes unfolded, am +entertained; but I should think that to younger readers half the +book must be unintelligible. He explains nothing but the +circumstances of his own situation; and, though he touches on +many important periods, he leaves them undeveloped, and often +undetermined. It is diverting to hear him rail at Lord Halifax +and others, for the very kind of double-dealing which he relates +coolly of himself in the next page. Had he gone backwards, he +might have given half a dozen volumes of his own life, with +similar anecdotes and variations. I am most surprised, that when +self-love is the whole groundwork of the performance, there +should be little or no attempt at shining as an author, though he +was one. As he had so much wit too, I am amazed that not a +feature of it appears. The discussion in the appendix, on the +late Prince's question for increase of allowance, is the only +part in which there is sense or honesty. There is, in the +imperfect account of Rochfort, a strong Circumstance or two that +pleased me much. There are many passages that will displease +several others throughout. + +Mr. Coxe's Travels(522) are very different: plain, clear, +sensible, instructive, and entertaining. It is a noble work, and +precious to me who delight in quartos: the two volumes contain +twelve hundred pages; I have already devoured a quarter, though I +have had them but three days. [The rest of this letter is lost.] + +(520) An epitaph for the monument erected by the states of Jersey +to the memory of Major Pearson, killed in the attack of that +island by the French in January 1781. + +(521) "The Diary of George Bubb Dodington, Baron of Melcombe +Regis, from March 8, 1749, to February 6, 1761; published by +Henry Penruddocke Wyndham." + +(522) Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark; +interspersed with Historical Relations and Political Inquiries; +by William Cox, M. A.," in two volumes quarto.-E. + + + +Letter 274 To The Countess Of Ailesbury. +Strawberry Hill, Tuesday night, June 8, 1784. (page 346) + +You frightened me for a minute, my dear Madam; but every letter +since has given me pleasure, by telling me how rapidly you +recovered, and how perfectly well you are again. Pray, however, +do not give me any more such Joys. I shall be quite content with +your remaining immortal, without the foil of any alarm. You gave +all your friends a panic, and may trust their attachment without +renewing it. I received as many inquiries the next day as if an +archbishop was in danger, and all the bench hoped he was going to +heaven. + +Mr. Conway wonders I do not talk of Voltaire's Memoirs. Lord +bless me! I saw it two months ago; the Lucans brought it from +Paris and lent it to me: nay, and I have seen most of it before; +and I believe this an imperfect copy, for it ends no how at all. +Besides, it was quite out of my head. Lord Melcombe's Diary put +that and every thing else out of my mind. I wonder much more at +Mr. Conway's not talking of this! It gossips about the living as +familiarly as a modern newspaper. I long to hear what say about +it. I wish the newspapers were as accurate! They have been +circumstantial about Lady Walsingham's birthday clothes, which to +be sure one is glad to know, Only unluckily there is no such +person. However, I dare to say that her dress was very becoming, +and that she looked charmingly. + +The month of June, according to custom immemorial, is as cold as +Christmas. I had a fire last night, and all my rose-buds, I +believe, would have been very glad to sit by it. I have other +grievances to boot; but as they are annuals too,--videlicet, +people to see my house,-- I will not torment Your ladyship with +them: yet I know nothing else. None of my neighbours are come +into the country yet: one would think all the dowagers were +elected into the new Parliament. Adieu, my dear Madam! + + + + Letter 275 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. + Strawberry Hill, June 25, 1784. (page 347) + + +I can answer you very readily in your own tone, that is, about +weather and country grievances, and without one word of news or +politics; for I know neither, nor inquire of them.(523) I am +very well content to be a Strulbrug, and to exist after I have +done being: and I am still better pleased that you are in the +same way of thinking, or of not thinking; for I am sure both your +health and your mind will find the benefits of living for +yourself and family only. It were not fit that the young should +concentre themselves in so narrow a circle; nor do the young seem +to have any such intention. Let them mend or mar the world as +they please; the world takes its own way upon the whole; and, +though there may be an uncommon swarm of animalcules for a +season, things return into their own channel from their own bias, +before any effectual nostrum or fumigation is discovered. In the +mean time, I am for giving all due weight to local grievances, +though with no natural turn towards attending to them: but they +serve for conversation. We have no newly invented grubs to eat +our fruit; indeed, I have no fruit to be eaten: but I should not +lament if the worms would eat my gardener, who, you know, is so +bad an one that I never have any thing in my garden. I am now +waiting for dry weather to cut my hay; though nature certainly +never intended hay should be cut dry, as it always rains all +June. But here is a worse calamity; one is never safe by day or +night: Mrs. Walsingham, who has bought your brother's late house +at Ditton, was robbed a few days ago in the high road, within a +mile of home, at seven in the evening. The di`a nimorum gentium +pilfer every thing. Last night they stole a couple of yards of +lead off the pediment of the door of my cottage. A gentleman at +Putney, who has three men servants, had his house broken open +last week, and lost some fine miniatures, which he valued so much +that he would not hang them up. You may imagine what a pain this +gives me in my baubles! I have been making the round of my +fortifications this morning, and ordering new works. + +I am concerned for the account you give me of your brother. Life +does not appear to be such a jewel as to preserve it carefully +for its own sake. I think the same of its good things; if they +do not procure amusement or comfort, I doubt they only produce +the contrary. Yet it is silly to repine; for, probably, whatever +any man does by choice, he knows will please him best, or at +least will prevent greater uneasiness. I therefore, rather +retract my concern; for, with a vast fortune, Lord Hertford might +certainly do what he would: and if, at his age, he can wish for +more than that fortune will obtain, I may pity his taste or +temper; but I shall think that you and I are much happier who can +find enjoyments in an humbler sphere, nor envy those who have no +time for trifling'. I, who have never done any thing else, am +not at all weary of my occupation. Even three days of continued +rain have not put me out of humour or spirits. C'est beaucoup +dire for an Anglais. Adieu! Yours ever. + +(523) "As politics spoil all conversation, Mr. Walpole, the other +night, proposed that every body should forfeit half a crown who +said any thing tending to introduce the idea, either of ministers +or opposition. I added, that whoever mentioned pit-coal or a +fox-skin muff, should be considered as guilty; and it was +accordingly voted." Hannah More, March 8, 1784.-E. + + + +Letter 276 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, June 30, 1784. (page 348) + +Instead of coming to you, I Am thinking of packing up and going +to town for winter, so desperate is the weather! I found a great +fire at Mrs. Clive's this evening, and Mr. Rafter hanging over it +like a smoked ham. They tell me my hay will be spoiled for want +of cutting; but I had rather it should be destroyed by standing +than by being mowed, as the former will cost me nothing but the +crop, and 'tis very dear to make nothing but a water-souchy of +it. + +You know I have lost a niece, and found another nephew: he makes +the fifty-fourth reckoning both sexes. We are certainly an +affectionate family, for of late we do nothing but marry one +another. Have not You felt a little twinge in a remote corner of +your heart on Lady Harrington's death?(524) She dreaded death so +extremely that I am glad she had not a moment to be sensible of +it. I have a great affection for sudden deaths; they save +oneself and every body else a deal of ceremony. + +The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough breakfasted here on Monday, +and seemed much pleased, though it rained the whole time with an +Egyptian darkness. I should have thought there had been deluges +enough to destroy all Egypt's other plagues: but the newspapers +talk of locusts: I suppose relations of your beetles, though +probably not so fond of green fruit; for the scene of their +campaign is Queen square, Westminster, where there certainly has +not been an orchard since the reign of Canute. + +I have, at last, seen an air-balloon; just as I once did see a +tiny review, by passing one accidentally on Hounslow-heath. I +was going last night to Lady Onslow at Richmond, and over Mr. +Cambridge's field I saw a bundle in the air not bigger than the +moon,(525) and she herself could not have descended with more +composure if she had expected to find Endymion fast asleep. It +seemed to 'light on Richmond-hill; but Mrs. Hobart was going by, +and her coiffure prevented my seeing it alight. The papers say, +that a balloon has been made at Paris representing the castle of +Stockholm, in compliment to the King of Sweden; but that they are +afraid to let it off: so, I suppose, it will be served up to him +in a dessert. No great progress.. surely, is made in these airy +navigations, if they are still afraid of risking the necks of two +or three subjects for the entertainment of a visiting sovereign. +There is seldom a feu de joie for the birth of a Dauphin that +does not cost more lives. I thought royalty and science never +haggled about the value of blood when experiments are in the +question. + +I shall wait for summer before I make you a visit. Though I dare +to say that you have converted your smoke-kilns into a +manufacture of balloons, pray do not erect a Strawberry castle in +the air for my reception, if it will cost a pismire a hair of its +head. Good night! I have ordered my bed to be heated as hot as +an oven, and Tonton and I must go into it. + +(524) See vol. i. p. 379, letter 143.-E.(525) "Lunardi's nest," +says Hannah More, " when I saw it yesterday, looking like a +pegtop, seemed, I assure you, higher than the moon, 'riding +towards her highest noon.'"-E. + + + +Letter 277 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, August 6, 1784. (page 349) + +I am very sorry, my dear lord, that I must answer your lordship's +letter by a condolence. I had not the honour Ur of being +acquainted with Mrs. Vyse, but have heard so much good of her, +that it is impossible not to lament her. Since this month began +we have had fine weather; and 'twere great pity if we had not, +when the earth is covered with Such abundant harvests! They talk +of an earthquake having been felt in London. Had Sir William +Hamilton been there, he would think the town gave itself great +airs. He, I believe, is putting up volcanos in his own country. +In my youth, philosophers were eager to ascribe every uncommon +discovery to the Deluge; now it is the fashion to solve every +appearance by conflagrations. If there was such an inundation +upon the earth, and such a furnace under it, I am amazed that +Noah and company were not boiled to death. Indeed, I am a great +sceptic about human reasonings; they predominate only for a time, +like other mortal fashions, and are so often exploded after the +mode is passed, that I hold them little more serious, though they +call themselves wisdom. How many have I lived to see established +and confuted! For instance, the necessity of a southern continent +as a balance was supposed to be unanswerable; and so it was, till +Captain Cook found there was no such thing. We are poor silly +animals: we live for an instant upon a particle of a boundless +universe, and are much like a butterfly that should argue about +the nature of the seasons and what creates their vicissitudes, +and does not exist itself to see one annual revolution of them! + +Adieu! my dear lord! If my reveries are foolish, remember, I give +them for no better, If I depreciate human wisdom, I am sure I do +not assume a grain to myself; nor have any thing to value myself +upon more than being your lordship's most obliged humble servant. + + + +Letter 278 To Mr. Dodsley.(526) +Strawberry Hill, August 8, 1784. (page 350) + +I must beg, Sir, that you will tell Mr. Pinkerton, that I am much +obliged to him for the honour he is willing to do me, though I +must deg his leave to decline it. His book(527) deserves an +eminent patron: I am too inconsiderable to give any relief to it, +and even in its own line am unworthy to be distinguished. One of +my first pursuits was a collection of medals; but I early gave it +over, as I could not afford many branches of virt`u, and have +since changed or given away several of my best Greek and Roman +medals. What remain, I shall be glad to show Mr. Pinkerton; and, +if it would not be inconvenient to him to come hither any morning +by eleven o'clock, after next Thursday, that he Will not only see +my medals, but any other baubles here that can amuse him. I am, +Sir, your most obedient humble servant. + +(526) Now first collected. + +(527) The first edition of Pinkerton's "Essay on Medals" was +published by Dodsley, in two volumes octavo, in this year, +without the name of the author.-E. + + + +Letter 279 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, August 14, 1784. (page 350) + +As Lady Cecilia Johnston offers to be postman, I cannot resist +writing a line, though I have not a word to say. In good sooth, +I know nothing hear Of nothing but robberies and housebreaking; +consequently never think of ministers, India directors, and such +honest men. Mrs. Clive has been broken open, and Mr. Raftor +miscarried, and died of the fright. Lady Browne has lost all her +liveries and her temper, and Lady Blandford has cried her eyes +out on losing a lurch and almost her wig. In short, as I do not +love exaggeration, I do not believe there have been above +threescore highway robberies within this week, fifty-seven houses +that have been broken open, and two hundred and thirty that are +to be stripped on the first opportunity. We are in great hopes, +however, that the King of Spain, now he has demolished Algiers, +the metropolitan see of thieves, will come and bombard Richmond, +Twickenham, Hampton-court, and all the suffragan cities that +swarm with pirates and banditti, as he has a better knack at +destroying vagabonds than at recovering his own. + +Ireland is in a blessed way; and, as if the climate infected +every body that sets foot there, the viceroy's aides-do-camp have +blundered into a riot, that will set all the humours afloat. I +wish you joy of the summer being come now it is gone, which is +better than not coming at all. I hope Lady Cecilia will return +with an account of your all being perfectly well. Adieu! Yours +ever. + + + +Letter 280 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(528) +Strawberry Hill, August 24, 1784. (page 351) + +I am much obliged to you, Sir, for the pieces you have sent me of +your own composition.(529) There is great poetic beauty and +merit in them, with great knowledge of the ancient masters and of +the best of the modern. You have talents that will succeed in +whatever you pursue, and industry to neglect nothing that will +improve them. Despise petty critics, and confute them by making +your works as perfect as you can. + +I am sorry you sent me the old manuscript; because, as I told +you, I have so little time left to enjoy any thing, that I should +think myself a miser if I coveted for a moment what I must leave +so soon. I shall be very glad, Sir, to see you here again, +whenever it is convenient to you. + +(528) This is the first of the series of letters addressed by Mr. +Walpole to Mr. Pinkerton. They are taken from his " Literary +Correspondence," first printed in 1830, in two volumes octavo, by +Dawson Turner, Esq. M.A. F.R.S. from the originals in his +valuable collection. Mr. Pinkerton was born at Edinburgh, in +February 1758, and died at Paris in May 1826. "He was," says Mr. +Dawson Turner, "a man of a capacious mind, great acuteness, +strong memory, restless activity, and extraordinary perseverance: +the anecdotes contained in this correspondence afford a striking +proof of the power of talent,, and industry to raise their +possessor in the scale of society, as well as in the opinion of +the world: unfortunately, they are also calculated to read us +another and not less instructive lesson, that somewhat more is +required to turn such advantages to their full account; and that +the endowments of the mind, unless accompanied by sound and +consistent principles, can tend but little to the happiness of +the individual, or to the good of society."-E. + +(529) In 1781, Mr. Pinkerton had published an octavo volume +entitled "Rimes;" a second edition of which, with additions, +appeared in the following year.-E. + + + +Letter 281 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 7, 1784. (page 351) + +The summer is come at last, my lord, drest as fine as a birthday, +though with not so many flowers on its head. In truth, the sun +is an old fool, who apes the modern people of fashion by arriving +too late: the day is going to bed before he makes his appearance; +and one has scarce time to admire his embroidery of green and +gold. It was cruel to behold such expanse of corn every where, +and yet see it all turned to a water-souchy. If I could admire +Dante,--which, asking Mr. Hayley's pardon, I do not,--I would +have written an olio of jews and Pagans, and sent Ceres to +reproach Master Noah with breaking his promise of the world never +being drowned again. But this last week has restored matters to +their old channel; and I trust we shall have bread to eat next +winter, or I think we must have lived on apples, of which to be +sure there is enough to prevent a famine. This is all I know, my +lord; and I hope no news to your lordship. I have exhausted the +themes of air-balloons and highwaymen; and if you will have my +letters, you must be content with my commonplace chat on the +seasons. I do nothing worth repeating, nor hear that others do: +and though I am content to rust myself, I should be glad to tell +your lordship any thing that would amuse you. I dined two days +ago at Mrs. Garrick's -with Sir William Hamilton, who is +returning to the kingdom of cinders. Mrs. Walsingham(530) Was +there with her son and daughter. He is a very pleasing young +man; a fine figure; his face like hers, with something of his +grandfather, Sir Charles Williams, without his vanity: very +sensible, and uncommonly well-bred. The daughter is an +imitatress of Mrs. Damer, and has modelled a bust of her brother. +Mrs. Damer herself is modelling two masks for the keystones of +the new bridge at Henley. Sir William, who has seen them, says +they are in her true antique style. I am in possession of her +sleeping dogs in terra cotta. She asked me if I would consent to +her executing them in marble for the Duke of Richmond? I said +gladly; I should like they should exist in a more durable +material; but I would not part with the original, Which is +sharper and more alive. Mr. Wyat the architect saw them here +lately; and said, he was sure that if the idea was given to the +best statuary in Europe, he would not produce so perfect a group. +Indeed with those dogs and the riches I possess by Lady Di,(531) +poor Strawberry may vie with much prouder collections. + +Adieu, my good lord! when I fold up a letter I am ashamed of it; +but it is your own fault. The last thing I should think of would +be troubling your lordship with such insipid stuff, if you did +not command it. Lady Strafford will bear me testimony how often +I have protested against it. + +(530) Charlotte, daughter of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Bart, +married to the Hon. Robert Boyle Walsingham.-E. + +(531) The number of original drawings by Lady Diana Beauclerc, at +Strawberry Hill. + + + +Letter 282 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(532) +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 27, 1784. (page 353) + +I have read your piece, Sir, very attentively; and, as I +promised, will give you my opinion of it fairly. There is much +wit in it, especially in the part of Nebuchadnezer and the +dialogue is very easy, and the dinouement in favour of Barbara +interesting. There are, however, I think, some objections to be +made, which, having written so well, you may easily remove, as +they are rather faults in the mechanism than in the writing. +Several scenes seem to me to finish too abruptly, and not to be +enough connected. Juliana is not enough distinguished, as of an +age capable of more elevated sentiments: her desire of playing at +hot-cockles and blind-man's-buff sounds more childish than +vulgar. There is another defect, which is in the conduct of the +plot: surely there is much too long an interval between the +discovery of the marriage of Juliana and Philip, and the anger of +her parents. The audience must expect immediate effect from it; +and yet the noise it is to make arrives so late, that it would +have been forgotten in the course of the intermediate scenes. + +I doubt a little, whether it would not be dangerous to open the +piece with a song that must be totally incomprehensible to at +least almost all the audience. It is safer to engage their +prejudices by something captivating. I have the same objection +to Julia's mistaking deposit for posset, which may give an ill +turn: besides, those mistakes have been too often produced on the +stage: so has the character of Mrs. Winter, a romantic old maid; +nor does she contribute to the plot or catastrophe. I am afraid +that even Mrs. Vernon's aversion to' the country is far from +novel; and Mr. Colman, more accustomed to the stage than I am, +would certainly think so. Nebuchadnezer's repartees of "Very +well, thank you!" and bringing in Philip, when bidden to go for a +rascal, are printed in the Terrce Filius, and, I believe, in +other jest-books; and therefore had better be omitted. + +I flatter myself, Sir, you will excuse these remarks; as they are +intended kindly, both for your reputation and interest, and to +prevent them being made by the manager, or audience, or your +friends the reviewers. I am ready to propose your piece to Mr. +Colman at any time; but, as I have sincerely an opinion of your +parts and talents, it is the part of a friend to wish you to be +very correct, especially in a first piece; for, such is the +ill-nature of mankind, and their want of judgment too, that, if a +new author does not succeed in a first attempt on the stage, a +prejudice is contracted against him, and may be fatal to others +of his productions, which might have prospered, had that bias not +been taken. An established writer for the stage may venture +almost any idleness; but a first essay is very different. + +Shall I send you your piece, Sir; and how? As Mr. Colman's +theatre will not open till next summer, you will have full time +to make any alterations you please. I mean, if you should think +any of my observations well founded, and which, perhaps, are very +trifling. I have little opinion of my own sagacity as a critic, +nor love to make objections; nor should have taken so much +liberty with you, if you had not pressed it. I am sure in me it +is a mark of regard, and which I never pay to an indifferent +author: my admiration of your essay on medals was natural, +uninvited, and certainly unaffected. My acquaintance with you +since, Sir, has Confirmed my opinion of your good sense, and +interested me In behalf of' your works; and, having lived SO long +in the world myself, if My experience can be of any service to +you, I cannot withhold it when you ask it; at the same time +leaving you perfectly at liberty to reject it, if not adopted by +your own judgment. The experience of old age Is very likely to +be balanced by the weaknesses incident to that age. I have not, +however, its positiveness yet; and willingly abandon my criticism +to the vigour of your judgment. + +(532) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 283 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(533) +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 6, 1784. (page 354) + +You have accepted my remarks with great good-humour, Sir: I wish +you may not have paid too much regard to them: and I should be +glad that you did not rest any alterations on my single judgment, +to which I have but little respect myself. I have not thought +often on theatric performances, and of late not at all. A chief +ground of my observations on your piece proceeded from having +taken notice that an English audience is apt to be struck with +some familiar sound, though there is nothing, ridiculous in the +passage; and fall into a foolish laugh, that often proves fatal +to the author. Such was my objection to hot-cockles. You have, +indeed, convinced me that I did not enough attend to your piece, +as a farce; and, you must excuse me, my regard for you and Your +wit made me consider it rather as a short comedy. Very probably +too, I have retained the pedantic impression,, of the French, and +demanded more observance of their rules than is necessary or +just: yet I myself have often condemned their too delicate +rigour. Nay, I have wished that farce and speaking harlequins +were more encouraged, in order to leave open a wider field of +invention to writers for the stage. Of late I have amply had my +wish: Mr. O'Keefe has brought our audiences to bear with every +extravagance; and, were there not such irresistible humour in his +utmost daring, it would be impossible to deny that he has passed +even beyond the limits of nonsense. But I confine this +approbation to his Agreeable Surprise. In his other pieces there +is much more untempered nonsense than humour. Even that +favourite performance I wondered that Mr. Colman dared to +produce. + +Your remark, that a piece full of marked characters would be void +of nature, is most just. This is so strongly my opinion, that I +thought it a great fault in Miss Burney's Cecilia, though it has +a thousand other beauties, that she has laboured far too much to +make all her personages talk always in character; whereas, in the +present refined or depraved state of human nature, most people +endeavour to conceal their real character, not to display it. A +professional man, as a pedantic fellow of a college or a seaman, +has a characteristic dialect; but that is very different from +continually letting out his ruling passion. This brings me, Sir, +to the alteration you offer in the personage of Mrs. Winter, whom +you wittily propose -to turn into a mermaid. I approve the idea +much: I like too the restoration of Mrs. Vernon to a plain +reasonable woman. She will be a contrast to the bad characters, +and but a gradation to produce Barbara, without making her too +glaringly bright without any intermediate shade. In truth, as +you certainly may write excellently if you please, I wish you to +bestow your utmost abilities on whatever you give to the public. +I am wrong when I would have a farce as chaste and sober as a +comedy; but I would have a farce made as good as it can be. I do +not know how that is to be accomplished; but I believe you do. +You are so obliging as to offer to accept a song of mine, if I +have one by me. Dear Sir, I have no more talent for writing a +song than for writing an ode like Dryden's or Gray's. It is a +talent per se; and given, like every other branch of genius, by +nature alone. Poor Shenstone was labouring through his whole +life to write a perfect song, and, in my opinion at least, never +once succeeded; not better than Pope did in a St. Cecilian ode. +I doubt whether we have not gone a long, long way beyond the +possibility of writing a good song. All the words in the +language have been so often employed on simple images (without +which such a song cannot be good), and such reams of bad verses +have been produced in that kind, that I question whether true +simplicity itself could please now. At least we are not likely +to have any such thing. Our present choir of poetic virgins +write in the other extreme. They colour their compositions so +highly with choice and dainty phrases, that their own dresses are +not more fantastic and romantic. Their nightingales make as many +divisions as Italian singers. But this is wandering from the +subject; and, while I only meant to tell you what I could not do +myself, I am telling you what others do ill..I will yet hazard +one other opinion, though relative to composition in general. +There are two periods favourable to poets: a rude age, when a +genius may hazard any thing, and when nothing has been +forestalled - the other is, when, after ages of barbarism and +incorrection, a master or two produces models formed by purity +and taste: Virgil, Horace, Boileau, Corneille, Racine, Pope., +exploded the licentiousness that reigned before them. What +happened? Nobody dared to write in contradiction to the severity +established; and very few had abilities to rival their masters. +insipidity ensues, novelty is dangerous, and bombast usurps the +throne which had been debased by a race of fain`eants. This +rhapsody will probably convince you, Sir, how much you was +mistaken in setting any value on my judgment. + +February will certainly be time enough for your piece to be +finished. I again beg you, Sir, to pay no deference to my +criticisms, against your own cool reflections. It is prudent to +consult others before one ventures on publication; but every +single person is as liable to be erroneous as an author. An +elderly man, as he gains experience, acquires prejudices too: +Day, old age has generally two faults; it is too quick-sighted +into the faults of the time being, and too blind to the faults +that reigned in his own youth, which, having partaken of or +having admired, though injudiciously, he recollects with +complacence. A key in writers for I confess, too, that there +must be two distinct views of writers 4 the stage, one of which +is more allowable to them than to other authors. The one is +durable fame; the other, peculiar to dramatic authors, the view +of writing to the present taste, (and, perhaps, as you say, to +the level of the audience). I do not mean for the sake of +profit; but even high comedy must risk a little of its +immortality by consulting the ruling taste; and thence comedy +always loses some of its beauties, the transient, and some of its +intelligibility. Like its harsher sister satire, many of its +allusions must vanish, as the objects it aims at correcting +ceases to be in vogue; and, perhaps, that cessation, the natural +death of fashion, is often ascribed by an author to his own +reproofs. Ladies would have left off patching on the Whig or +Tory side of their face, though Mr. Addison had not written his +excellent Spectator.(534) Probably even they who might be +corrected by his reprimand, adopted some new distinction as +ridiculous; not discovering that his satire was levelled at their +partial animosity, and not at the mode of placing their patches; +for, unfortunately, as the world cannot be cured of being +foolish, a preacher who eradicates one folly, does but make room +for some other. + +(533) Now first collected. + +(534) The singularly clever and witty paper here alluded to was +written by Addison himself; it is No. 81, "Female Party-spirit +Discovered by Patches," and was published June 2, 1711-D. T. + + + +Letter 284 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 15, 1784. (page 356) + +As I have heard nothing from you, I flatter myself Lady Ailesbury +mends, or I think you would have brought her again to the +physicians. you will, I conclude, next week, as towards the end +of it the ten days they named will be expired. I must be in town +myself about Thursday, on some little business of my own. + +As I was writing this, my servants called me away to see a +balloon. I suppose Blanchard's, that was to be let off from +Chelsea this morning. I saw it from the common field before the +window of my 'round tower. It appeared about the third of the +size of the moon, or less, when setting, something above the tops +of the trees on the level horizon. It was then descending; and, +after rising and declining a little, it sunk slowly behind the +trees, I should think about or beyond Sunbury, at five minutes +after one. But you know I am a very inexact guesser at measures +and distances, and may be mistaken in many miles; and you know +how little I have attended to those airgonaut;. only t'other +night I diverted myself with a sort of meditation on future +airgonation, supposing that it Will not only be perfected, but +will depose navigation. I did not finish it, because I am not +skilled, like the gentleman that used to write political +ship-news, in that style, which I wanted to perfect my essay -. +but in the prelude I observed how ignorant the ancients Were in +supposing that Icarus melted the wax of his Wings by too near +access to the sun, whereas he would have been frozen to death +before he made the first post on that road. Next, I discovered +an alliance between Bishop Wilkins's art Of flying, and his plan +of an universal language the latter of which he no doubt +calculated to prevent the want of an interpreter when he should +arrive at the moon. + +But I chiefly amused myself with ideas of the change that would +be made in the world by the substitution of balloons to ships. I +supposed our seaports to become deserted villages; and +Salisbury-plain, Newmarhet-heath, (another canvass for alteration +of ideas,) and all downs (but the Downs) arising into dock-yards +for aerial vessels. Such a field would be ample in furnishing +new speculations. But to come to my ship-news:-- + +"The good balloon Dedalus, Captain Wing-ate, will fly in a few +days for China; he will stop at the top of the Monument to take +in passengers. + +"Arrived on Brand-sands, the Vulture, Captain Nabob; the Tortoise +snow, from Lapland; the Pet-en-l'air, from Versailles; the +Dreadnought, from Mount Etna, Sir W. Hamilton commander; the +Tympany, Montgolfier; and the Mine-A-in-a-bandbox, from the Cape +of Good Hope. Foundered in a hurricane, the Bird of Paradise, +from Mount Ararat. The Bubble, Sheldon, took fire, and was burnt +to her gallery; and the phoenix is to be cut down to a +second-rate." + +In those days Old Sarum will again be a town and have houses in +it. There will be fights in the air with wind-guns and bows and +arrows; and there will be prodigious increase of land for +tillage, especially in France, by breaking up all public roads as +useless. But enough of my fooleries; for which I am sorry you +must pay double, postage. + + + +Letter 285 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(535) +October 28, 1784. (page 358) + +I would not answer your letter, Sir, till I could tell you that I +had put Your play into Mr. Colman's hands, which I have done. He +desired my consent to his carrying it into the country to read it +deliberately: you shall know as soon as I receive his +determination. I am Much obliged to you for the many civil and +kind expressions in your letter, and for the friendly information +you give me. Partiality, I fear, dictated the former; but the +last I can only ascribe to the goodness of your heart. I have +published nothing Of any size but the pieces you mention, and one +or two small tracts now out of print and forgotten. The rest +have been prefaces to my Strawberry editions, and to a few other +publications; and some fugitive pieces which I reprinted several +years ago in a small volume, and which shall be at your service, +with the Catalogue of Noble Authors. + +With regard to the bookseller who has taken the trouble to +collect my writings, (amongst which I do not doubt but he will +generously bestow on me many that I did not write, according to +the liberal practice of such compilers,) and who also intends to +write my life, to which, (as I never did any thing Worthy of the +notice of the public) he must likewise be a volunteer +contributor, it Would be vain for me to endeavour to prevent such +a design. Whoever has been so ill advised as to throw himself on +the public, must pay such a tax in a pamphlet or magazine when he +dies; but, happily, the insects that prey on carrion are still +more short-lived than the carcases were, from which they draw +their nutriment. Those momentary abortions live but a day, and +are thrust aside by like embryos. Literary characters, when not +illustrious, are known only to a few literary men; and amidst the +world of books, few readers can come to my share. Printing, that +secures existence (in libraries) to indifferent authors of any +bulk, is like those cases of Egyptian mummies which in catacombs +preserve bodies of one knows not Whom, and which are scribbled +over with characters that nobody attempts to read, till nobody +understands the language in which they were written. I believe +therefore it Will be most wise to swim for a moment on the +passing current, secure that it will soon hurry me into the ocean +where all things are forgotten. To appoint a biographer is to +bespeak a panegyric; and I doubt whether they who collect their +books for the Public, and, like me, are conscious of no intrinsic +worth, do but beg mankind to accept of talents (whatever they +were) in lieu of virtues. To anticipate spurious publications by +a comprehensive and authentic one, is almost as great an evil: it +is giving a body to scattered atoms; and such an act in one's old +age is declaring a fondness for the indiscretions of Youth, or +for the trifles of an age which, though more mature, is only the +less excusable. it is most true, Sir, that, so far from being +prejudiced in favour of my own writings I am persuaded that, had +I thought early as I think now, I would never have appeared as an +author. Age, frequent illness and pain, have given me as many +hours of reflection in the intervals of the two latter, as the +two latter have disabled from reflection; and, besides their +showing me the inutility of all our little views, they have +suggested an observation that I love to encourage in myself from +the rationality of it. I have learnt and practised the +humiliating task of comparing myself with great authors; and that +comparison has annihilated all the flattery that self-love could +suggest. I know how trifling my own writings are, and how far +below the standard that constitutes excellence: as for the shades +that distinguish the degrees of mediocrity, they are not worth +discrimination; and he must be very modest, or easily satisfied, +who can be content to glimmer for an instant a little more than +his brethren glow-worms. Mine, therefore, you find, Sir, is not +humility, but pride. When young, I wished for fame; not +examining whether I was capable of attaining it, nor considering +in what lights fame was desirable. There are two sorts of fame; +that attendant on the truly great, and that better sort that is +due to the good. I fear I did not aim at the latter, not- +discovered, till too late, that I could not compass the former. +Having neglected the best road, and having, instead of the other, +strolled into a narrow path that led to no good worth seeking, I +see the idleness of my journey, and hold it more graceful to +abandon my wanderings to chance or oblivion, than to mark +solicitude for trifles, which I think so myself. + +I beg your pardon for talking so much of myself; but an answer +was due to the unmerited attention which you have paid to my +writings. I turn with more pleasure to speak on yours. Forgive +me if I shall blame you, whether you either abandon your +intention, or are too impatient to execute it.(536) Your preface +proves that you are capable of treating the subject ably; but +allow me to repeat, that it is a work that ought not to be +performed impetuously. A mere recapitulation of authenticated +facts would be dry; a more enlarged plan would demand much +acquaintance with the characters of the actors, and with the +probable sources of measures. The present time is accustomed to +details and anecdotes; and the age immediately preceding one's +own is less known to any man than the history of any other +period. You are young en - ugh, Sir, to collect information on +many particulars that will occur in your progress, from living +actors, at least from their contemporaries; and, great as your +ardour may be, you will find yourself delayed by the want of +materials, and by further necessary inquiries. As you have a +variety of talents, why should not you exercise them on works +that will admit of more rapidity; and at the same time, in +leisure moments, commence, digest, and enrich your plan by +collecting new matter for it? + +In one word, I have too much zeal for your credit, not to +dissuade you from precipitation in a work of the kind you +meditate. That I speak sincerely you are sure; as accident, not +design, made you acquainted with my admiration of your tract on +medals. If I wish to delay your history, it must be from wishing +that it may appear with more advantages; and I must speak +disinterestedly, as my age will not allow me to hope to see it, +if not finished soon. I should not forgive myself if I turned +you from prosecution of your work; but, as I am certain that my +writings can have given you no opinion of my having sound and +deep judgment, pray follow your own, and allow no merit but that +of sincerity and zeal to the sentiments of yours, etc. + +(535) Now first collected. + +(536) Of writing a history of the reign of George the Second. + + + +Letter 286 To Miss Hannah More. +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 13, 1784. (page 360) + +Thank you a thousand times, dear Madam, for your obliging letter +and the new Bristol stones you have sent me, which would pass on +a more skilful lapidary than I am for having been brillianted by +a professed artist, if you had not told me that they came shining +-out of a native mine, and had no foreign diamond-dust to polish +them. Indeed, can one doubt any longer that Bristol Is as rich +and warm a soil as India? I am convinced it has been so of late +years, though I question its having been so luxuriant in Alderman +Canning's days; and I have MORE reasons for thinking so, than +from the marvels' of Chatterton.--But I will drop metaphors, lest +some nabob should take me au pi`e de la lettre, fit out an +expedition, plunder your city, and massacre you for weighing too +many carats. + +Seriously, Madam, I am surprised-and chiefly at the kind of +genius of this unhappy female.(537) Her ear, as you remark, is +perfect but that, being a gift of nature, amazes me less. Her +expressions are more exalted than poetic; and discover taste, as +you say, rather than discover flights of fancy and wild ideas, as +one should expect. I should therefore advise her quitting blank +verse, which wants the highest colouring, to distinguish it from +prose; whereas her taste, and probably good sense, might give +sufficient beauty to her rhymes. Her not being learned is +another reason against her writing in blank verse. Milton +employed all his reading, nay, all his geographic knowledge, to +enrich his language, and succeeded. They who have imitated him +in that particular, have been mere monkeys; and they who +neglected it, flat and poor. + +Were I not persuaded by the samples you have sent me, Madam, that +this woman has talents, I should not advise encouraging her +propensity, lest it should divert her from the care of her +family, and, after the novelty is over, leave her worse than she +was. When the late Queen patronized Stephen Duck,(538) who was +only a wonder at first, and had not genius enough to support the +character he had promised, twenty artisans and labourers turned +poets, and starved.(539) Your poetess can scarce be more +miserable than she is, and even the reputation of being an +authoress may procure her customers: but as poetry is one of your +least excellencies, Madam (your virtues will forgive 'me), I am +sure you will not only give her counsels for her works, but for +her conduct; and your gentleness will blend them so judiciously, +that she will mind the friend as well as the mistress. She must +remember that she is a Lactilla, not a Pastora; and is to tend +real cows, not Arcadian sheep. + +What! if I should go a step farther, dear Madam, and take the +liberty of reproving you for putting into this poor woman's hands +such a frantic thing as The Castle of Otranto? It was fit for +nothing but the age in which it was written: an age in which much +was known; that -required only to be amused, nor cared whether +its amusements were conformable to truth and the models of good +sense; that could not be spoiled; was in no danger of being too +credulous and rather wanted to be brought back to imagination, +than to be led astray by it:-but you will have made a hurly-burly +in this poor woman's head, which it cannot develop and digest. + +I will not reprove, without suggesting something in my turn. +Give her Dryden's Cock and Fox, the standard of good sense, +poetry, nature, and ease. I would recommend others of his tales: +but her imagination is already too gloomy, and should be +enlivened; for which reason I do not name Mr. Gray's Eton Ode and +Churchyard.' Prior's Solomon (for I doubt his Alma, though far +superior, is too learned for her limited reading,) would be very +proper. In truth, I think the cast of the age (I mean in its +compositions) is too sombre. The flimsy giantry of Ossian has +introduced mountainous horrors. The exhibitions at +Somerset-house are crowded with Brobdignag ghosts. Read and +explain to her a charming poetic familiarity called the +Blue-stocking Club. If she has not your other pieces, might I +take the liberty, Madam, of begging you to buy them for her, and +let me be in your debt? And that your lessons may win their way +more easily, even though her heart be good, will you add a guinea +or two, as you see proper? And though I do not love to be named, +yet, if it would encourage a subscription, I should have no +scruple. It will be best to begin moderately! for, if she should +take Hippocrene for Pactolus, we may hasten her ruin, not +contribute to her fortune. + +On recollection, you had better call me Mr. Anybody, than name my +name, which I fear is in bad odour at Bristol, on poor +Chatterton's account; and it may be thought that I am atoning his +ghost: though, if his friends would show my letters to him, you +would find that I was as tender to him as to your milkwoman: but +that they have never done, among other instances of their +injustice. However, I beg you to say nothing on that subject, as +I have declared I would not. + +I have seen our excellent friend in Clarges-street: she complains +as usual of her deafness; but I assure you it is at least not +worse, nor is her weakness. Indeed I think both her and Mr. +Vesey better than last winter. When will you blue-stocking +yourself and come amongst us? Consider how many of us are +veterans; and, though we do not trudge on foot according to the +institution, we may be out at heels-and the heel, you know, +Madam, has never been privileged. + +(537) Mrs. Yearsley, the milkwoman of Bristol, whose talent was +discovered by Miss Hannah More, who solicited for her the +protection of Mrs. Montagu, in a prefatory letter prefixed to her +Poems, published in quarto, in the year 1785.-E. + +(538) Some of Stephen Duck the thresher's verses having been +shown to Queen Caroline she settled twelve shillings a-week upon +him, and appointed him keeper of her select library at +Richmond.(539) He afterwards took orders, and obtained the +living of Byfleet, in Surrey; but growing melancholy, in 1750, he +threw himself into the river, near Reading, and was drowned. +Swift wrote upon him the following epigram-- + +The thresher, Duck, could o'er the Queen prevail; +The proverb says, No fence against a flail; +>From threshing corn, he turns to thresh his brains, +For which her Majesty allow him grains; +Though 'tis confest, that those who ever saw +His poems, think them all not worth a straw. +Thrice happy Duck! employ'd in threshing stubble, +Thy toil is lessen'd, and thy profits double."-E. + +(539) "Robert Bloomfield," says Mr. Crabbe, in his journal for +1817, "had better have rested as a shoemaker, or even a farmer's +boy; for he would have been a farmer perhaps in time, and now he +is an unfortunate poet." Poor John Clare, it will be +recollected, died in a workhouse.-E. + + + +Letter 287 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Sunday Night, Nov. 28, 1784. (page 362) + +I have received the parcel of papers you sent me, which I +conclude come from Lord Strafford, and will apply them as well as +I possibly can, you may be sure, but with little hope of doing +any good: humanity is no match for cruelty. There are now and +then such angelic beings as Mr. Hanway and Mr. Howard; but our +race in general is pestilently bad and malevolent. I have been +these two years wishing to promote my excellent friend Mr. +Porter's plan for alleviating the woes of chimney-sweepers, but +never could make impression on three people; on the contrary, +have generally caused a smile. + +George Conway's intelligence of hostilities commenced between the +Dutch and Imperialists makes me suppose that France will support +the former--or could they resist? Yet I had heard that France +would not. Some have thought, as I have done, that a combination +of partition would happen between Austria, France, and Prussia, +the modern law of nations for avoiding wars. I know nothing: so +my conjectures may all be erroneous; especially as one argues +reason; a very inadequate judge, as it leaves passions, caprices, +and accidents, out of its calculation. It does not seem the +interest of France, that the Emperor's power should increase in +their neighbourhood and extend to the sea. Consequently it is +France's interest to protect Holland in concert with Prussia. +This last is a transient power, and may determine on the death of +the present King; but the Imperial is a permanent force, and must +be the enemy of France, however present connexions may incline +the scale. + +In any case, I hope we shall no way be hooked into the quarrel +not only from the impotence of our circumstances, but as I think +it would decide the loss of Ireland, which seems tranquillizing: +but should we have any bickering with France, she would renew the +manoeuvres she practised so fatally in America. These are my +politics; I do not know with whose they coincide or disagree, nor +does it signify a straw. Nothing will depend on my opinion; nor +have I any opinion about them, but when I have nothing at all to +do that amuses me more, or nothing else to fill a letter. + +I can give you a sample of my idleness, what may divert Lady +Ailesbury and your academy of arts and sciences for a minute in +the evening. It came into my head yesterday to send a card to +Lady Lyttelton, to ask when she would be in town; here it is in +an heroic epistle:- From a castle as vast as the castles on +signs,-- + +>From a hill that all Africa's molehills outshines, +This epistle is sent to a cottage so small, +That the door cannot ope if you stand in the hall, +To a lady who would be fifteen, if her knight +And old swain were as young as Methusalem quite; +It comes to inquire, not whether her eyes +Are as radiant as ever, but how many sighs +He must vent to the rocks and the echoes around, +(Though nor echo nor rock in the parish is found,) +Before she, obdurate, his passion will meet-- +His passion to see her in Portugal-street? + +As the sixth line goes rather too near the core, do not give a +copy of it: however, I should be sorry if it displeased; though I +do not believe it will, but be taken with good-humour as it was +meant.(540) + +(540) It was taken in perfect good-humour; and Lady Lyttelton +returned the following answer, which Mr. Walpole owned was better +than his address:-- + +"Remember'd, though old by a wit and a beau! +I shall fancy, ere long, I'm a Ninon L'Enclos: +I must feel impatient such kindness to meet, +And shall hasten my flight into Portugal-street." +Ripley Cottage, 28th Nov. + + + +Letter 288 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, April 5, 1785. (page 363) + +Had I not heard part of your conversation with Mrs. Carter the +other night, Madam, I should certainly not have discovered the +authoress of the very ingenious anticipation of our future +jargon.(541) How should I? I am not fortunate Enough to know +all your talents; nay, I question whether you yourself suspect +all you possess. Your Bas Bleu is in a style very, different +from any of your other productions that I have seen; and this +letter, which shows your intuition Into the degeneracy of our +language, has a vein of humour and satire that could not be +calculated from your Bas Bleu, in which good nature and +good-humour had made a great deal of learning wear all the ease +of familiarity. I did wish you to write another Percy, but I beg +now that you will first produce a specimen of all the various +manners in which you can shine; for, since you are as modest as +if your issue were illegitimate, I don't know but, like some +females really in fault, you would stifle some of your pretty +infants, rather than be detected and blush. + +In the mean time, I beseech you not only to print your Specimen +of the Language that is to be in fashion, but have it entered at +Stationers' hall; or depend upon it, if ever a copy falls into +the hands of a fine gentleman yet unborn, who shall be able both +to read and write, he will adopt your letter for his own, and the +Galimatias will give the ton to the court, as Euphues did near +two hundred years ago; and then you will have corrupted our +language instead of defending it: and surely it is not your +interest, Madam, to have pure English grow obsolete. + +If you do not promise to grant my request, I will show your +letter every where to those that are worthy of seeing it; that +is, indeed, in very few places; for you shall have the honour of +it. It is one of those compositions that prove themselves +standards, by begetting imitations; and if the genuine parent is +unknown, it will be ascribed to every body that is supposed (in +his own set) to have more wit than the rest of the world. I +should be diverted, I own, to hear it faintly disavowed by some +who would wish to pass for its authors; but still there is more +pleasure in doing justice to merit, than in drawing vain +pretensions into a scrape; and, therefore, I think you and I had +better be honest and acknowledge it, though to you (for I am out +of the question, but as evidence) it will be painful; for though +the proverb says, "Tell truth and shame the devil," I believe he +is never half so much confounded as a certain amiable young +gentlewoman, who is discovered to have more taste and abilities +than she ever ventured to ascribe to herself even in the most +private dialogues with her own heart, especially when that native +friend is so pure as to have no occasion to make allowances even +for self-love. For my part, I am most seriously obliged to you, +Madam, for so agreeable and kind a communication. + +(541) This is an answer to the following anonymous letter, sent +to Mr. Walpole by Miss Hannah More, ridiculing the prevailing +adoption of French idioms into the English language. There is +not in this satirical epistle one French word nor one English +idiom:-- + +"A Specimen of the English Language, as it will probably be +written and spoken in the next century. In a letter from a lady +to her friend, in the reign of George the Fifth. + +Alamode Castle, June 20, 1840. + +Dear Madam, +"I NO sooner found myself here than I visited my new apartment, +which is composed of five pieces: the small room, which gives +upon the garden, is practised through the great one; and there is +no other issue. As I was quite exceeded with fatigue, I had no +sooner made my toilette, than I let myself fall on a bed of +repose, where sleep came to surprise me. + +" My lord and I are on the intention to make good cheer, and a +great expense; -and this country is in possession to furnish +wherewithal to amuse oneself. All that England has of +illustrious, all that youth has of amiable, or beauty of +ravishing, sees itself in this quarter. Render yourself here, +then, my friend; and you shall find assembled all that there is +of best, whether for letters, whether for birth. + +"Yesterday I did my possible to give to eat; the dinner was of +the last perfection, and the wines left nothing to desire. The +repast was seasoned with a thousand rejoicing sallies, full of +salt and agreement, and one more brilliant than another. Lady +France, charmed me as for the first time; she is made to paint, +has a great air, and has infinitely of expression in her +physiognomy; her manners have as much of natural as her figure +has of interesting. + +"I had prayed Lady B, to be of this dinner, as I had heard +nothing but good of her; but I am now disabused on her subject: +she is past her first youth, has very little instruction, is +inconsequent, and subject to caution; but having evaded with one +of her pretenders, her reputation has been committed by the bad +faith of a friend, on whose fidelity she reposed herself; she is, +therefore fallen into devotion, goes no more to spectacles, and +play is detested at her house. Though she affects a mortal +serious, I observed that her eyes were Of intelligence with those +of Sir James, near whom I had taken care to plant myself, though +this is always a sacrifice which costs. Sir James is a great +sayer of nothings; it is a spoilt mind, full of fatuity and +pretension: his conversation is a tissue of impertinences, and +the bad tone which reigns at present has put the last hand to his +defect,. He makes but little care of his word; but, as he lends +himself to whatever is proposed of amusing, the women all throw +themselves at his head. Adieu" + + + +Letter 289 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(542) +June 22, 1785. (page 365) + +Since I received your book,(543) Sir, I scarce ceased from +reading till I had finished it; so admirable I found it, and so +full of good sense, brightly delivered. Nay, I am pleased with +myself too for having formed the same opinions with you on +several points, in which we do not agree with the generality of +men. On some topics, I confess frankly, I do not concur with +you: Considering how many you have touched, it would be wonderful +if we agreed on all, or I should not be sincere if I said I did. +There are others on which I have formed no opinion; for I should +give myself an impertinent air, with no truth, if I pretended to +have any knowledge of many subjects, of which, young as you are, +you seem to have made yourself master. Indeed, I have gone +deeply into nothing, and therefore shall not discuss those heads +which we differ most: as probably I should not defend my own +opinions well. There is but one part of your work to which I +will venture any objection, though you have considered it much, +and I little, very little indeed, with regard to your proposal, +which to me is but two days old: I mean your plan for the +improvement of our language, which I allow has some defects, and +which wants correction in several particulars. The specific +amendment which you propose, and to which I object, is the +addition of a's and O's to our terminations. To change s for a +in the plural number for our substantives and adjectives would be +so violent an alteration, that I believe neither the power of +Power nor the power of Genius would be able, to effect it. In +most cases I am convinced that very strong innovations are more +likely to make impression than small and almost imperceptible +differences, as in religion, medicine, politics, etc.; but I do +not think that language can be treated in the same manner, +especially in a refined age. When a nation first emerges from +barbarism, two or three masterly writers may operate wonders; and +the fewer the number of writers, as the number is small at such a +period, the more absolute is their authority. But when a country +has been polishing itself for two or three centuries, and when +consequently authors are innumerable, the most supereminent +genius (or whoever is esteemed so, though without foundation,) +possesses very limited empire, and is far from meeting implicit +obedience. Every petty writer will contest very novel +institutions: every inch of change in language will be disputed; +and the language will remain as it was, longer than the tribunal +which should dictate very heterogeneous alterations. With regard +to adding a or o to final consonants, consider, Sir, should the +usage be adopted, what havoc it would make! All our poetry would +be defective in metre, or would become at once as obsolete as +Chaucer; and could we promise ourselves, that, though we should +have better harmony and more rhymes, we should have a new crop of +poets, to replace Milton, Dryden, Gray, and, I am sorry you will +not allow me to add, Pope! You might enjoin our prose to be +reformed, as you have done by the Spectator in your thirty-fourth +Letter; but try Dryden's Ode by your new institution. + +I beg your pardon for these trivial observations: I assure you I +could write a letter ten times as long, if I were to specify all +I like in your work. I more than like most of it; and I am +charmed with your glorious love of liberty, and your other humane +and noble sentiments. Your book I shall with great pleasure send +to Mr. Colman: may I tell him, without naming you, that it is +written by the author of the comedy I offered to him? He must be +struck with your very handsome and generous conduct in printing +your encomiums on him, after his rejecting your piece. It is as +great as uncommon, and gives me ,,Is good an opinion of your +heart, Sir, as your book does of your great sense. Both assure +me that you will not take ill the liberty I have used in +expressing my doubts on your plan for amending our language, or +for any I may use in dissenting from a few other sentiments in +your work; as I shall in what I think your too low opinion of +some of the French writers, of your preferring Lady Mary Wortley +to Madame de S`evign`e, and of your esteeming Mr. Hume a man of a +deeper and more solid understanding than Mr. Gray. In the two +last articles it is impossible to think more differently than we +do. In Lady Mary's Letters, which I never could read but once, I +discovered no merit of any sort; yet I have seen others by her +(unpublished)(544) that have a good deal of wit; and for Mr. Hume +give me leave to say that I think your opinion, "that he might +have ruled a state," ought to be qualified a little; as in the +very next page you say, his History is "a mere apology for +prerogative," and a very weak one. If he could have ruled a +state, one must presume, at best, that he would have been an able +tyrant; and yet I should suspect that a man, who, sitting coolly +in his chamber, could forge but a weak apology for the +prerogative, would not have exercised it very wisely. I knew +personally and well both Mr. Hume and Mr. Gray, and thought there +was no degree of comparison between their understandings; and, in +fact, Mr. Hume's writings were so superior to his conversation, +that I frequently said he understood nothing till he had written +upon it. What you say, Sir, of the discord in his history from +his love of prerogative and hatred of churchmen, flatters me +much; as I have taken notice of that very unnatural discord in a +piece I printed some years ago, but did not publish, and which I +will show to you when I have the pleasure of seeing you here; a +satisfaction I shall be glad to taste, whenever you will let me +know you are at leisure after the beginning of next week. I have +the honour to be, Sir, etc. + +(542) Now first collected. + +(543) His "Letters of Literature," published this year under the +name of Heron. "It had been well for Mr. Pinkerton's +reputation," observes Mr. Dawson Turner ,had these Letters never +been published at all. In a copy now before me, lately the +property of one of our most eminent critics, Mr. Fark, I read the +following very just quotation, in his handwriting: 'Multa +venust`e, multa tenuiter multa cuni bile.' Mr. Pinkerton +himself, in his 'Walpoliana,' admits that Heron's Letters was 'a +book written in early youth, and contained many juvenile crude +ideas long since abandoned by its author.' Would that the +crudeness of many of the ideas were the worst that was to be said +of it! but we shall find, in the course of this correspondence, +far heavier and not less just complaints. The name of Heron, +here assumed by Mr. Pinkerton, was that of his mother."-E. + +(544) See vol. iii. p. 217, letter 155.-E. + + + +Letter 290 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(545) +June 26, 1785. (page 367) + +I have sent your book to Mr. Colman, Sir, and must desire you in +return to offer my grateful thanks to Mr. Knight, who has done me +an honour, to which I do not know how I am entitled, by the +present of his poetry, which is very classic, and beautiful, and +tender, and of chaste simplicity. To your book, Sir, I am much +obliged on many accounts; particularly for having recalled my +mind to subjects of delight, to which. it was grown dulled by +age and indolence. In consequence of your reclaiming it, I asked +myself whence you feel so much disregard for certain authors +whose fame is established: you have assigned good reasons for +withholding your approbation from some, on the plea of their +being imitators: it was natural, then, to ask myself again, +whence they had obtained so much celebrity. I think I have +discovered a cause, which I do not remember to have seen noted; +and that cause I suspect to have been, that certain of those +authors possessed grace:--do not take me for a disciple of Lord +Chesterfield, nor Imagine that I mean to erect grace into a +capital ingredient of writing; but I do believe that it is a +perfume that will preserve from putrefaction, and is distinct +even from style, which regards expression. Grace, I think, +belongs to manner. It is from the charm of grace that I believe +some authors, not in Your favour, obtained part of their renown; +Virgil in particular: and yet I am far from disagreeing with you +on his subject in general. There is such a dearth of invention +in the -,Eneid, (and when he did invent, it was often so +foolishly,) so little good sense, so little variety, and so +little power over the passions, that I have frequently said, from +contempt for his matter, and from the charm of his harmony, that +I believe I should like his poem better, if I was to hear it +repeated, and did not understand Latin. On the other hand, he +has more than harmony: whatever he utters is said gracefully, and +he ennobles his images, especially in the Georgics; or at least +it is more sensible there from the humility of the subject. A +Roman farmer might not understand his diction in agriculture; but +he made a Roman courtier Understand farming, the farming of that +age, and could captivate a lord of Augustus's bedchamber, and +tempt him to listen to themes of rusticity. On the contrary, +Statius and Claudian, though talking of war, would make a soldier +despise them as bullies. That graceful manner of thinking in +Virgil seems to me to be more than style, if I do not refine too +much; and I admire, I confess, Mr. Addison's phrase, that Virgil +"tossed about his dung with an air of majesty." A style may be +excellent without grace: for instance, Dr. Swift's. Eloquence +may bestow an immortal style, and one of more dignity; yet +eloquence may want that ease, that genteel air that flows from or +constitutes grace. Addison himself was master of that grace, even +in his pieces of humour, and which do not owe their merit to +style; and from that combined secret he excels all men that ever +lived, but Shakspeare, in humour, by never dropping into an +approach towards burlesque and buffoonery', when even his humour +descended to characters that in any other hands would have been +vulgarly low. Is not it clear that Will Wimble(546) was a +gentleman, though he always lived at a distance from good company +. Fielding had as much humour, perhaps, as Addison; but, having +no idea of grace, is perpetually disgusting. +His innkeepers and parsons are the grossest of their profession +and his gentlemen are awkward, when they should be at their ease. + +The Grecians had grace in every thing; in poetry, in oratory, in +statuary, in architecture, and, probably, in music and painting. +The Romans, it is true, were their imitators; but, having grace +too, imparted it to their copies, which gave them a merit that +almost raises them to the rank of originals. Horace's Odes +acquired their fame, no doubt, from the graces of his manner and +purity of his style, the chief praise of Tibullus and Propertius, +who certainly cannot boast of more meaning than Horace's Odes. + +Waller, whom you proscribe, Sir, owed his reputation to the +graces of his manner, though he frequently stumbled, and even +fell flat; but a few of his smaller pieces are as graceful as +possible: one might say that he excelled in painting ladies in +enamel, but could not succeed in portraits in oil, large as life. +Milton had such superior merit, that I will only say, that if his +angels, his Satan, and his Adam have as much dignity as the +Apollo Belvidere, his Eve has all the delicacy and 'graces of the +Venus of Medicis; as his description of Eden has the colouring of +Albano. Milton's tenderness imprints ideas as graceful as +Guido's Madonnas: and the Allegro, Penseroso, and Comus might be +denominated from the three Graces; as the Italians gave similar +titles to two or three of Petrarch's best sonnets. + +Cowley, I think, would have had grace, (for his mind was +graceful,) if he had had any ear, or if his taste had not been +vitiated by the pursuit of wit; which, when it does not offer +itself naturally, degenerates into tinsel or pertness. Pertness +is the mistaken affectation of grace, as pedantry produces +erroneous dignity: the familiarity of the one, and the clumsiness +of the other, distort or prevent grace. Nature, that furnishes +samples of all qualities ', and on the scale of gradation +exhibits all possible shades, affords us types that are more +apposite than words. The eagle is sublime, the lion majestic, +the swan graceful, the monkey pert, the bear ridiculously +awkward. I mention these, as more expressive and comprehensive +than I could make definitions of my meaning; but I will apply the +swan only, under whose wings I will shelter an apology for +Racine, whose pieces give me an idea of that bird. The colouring +of the swan is pure; his attitudes are graceful; he never +displeases you when sailing on his proper element. His feet may +be ugly, his notes hissing, not musical, his walk not natural; he +can soar, but it is with difficulty:--still, the impression the +swan leaves is that of grace. So does Racine. + +Boileau may be compared to the dog, whose sagacity is remarkable, +as well as its fawning on its master, and its snarling at those +it dislikes. If Boileau was too austere to admit the pliability +of grace, he compensates by good sense and propriety. He is like +(for I will drop animals) an upright magistrate, whom you +respect, but whose justice and severity leaves an awe that +discourages familiarity. His copies of the ancients may be too +servile; but if a good translator deserves praise, Boileau +deserves more. He certainly does not fall below his originals; +and, considering at what period he wrote, has greater merit +still. By his imitations he held out to his countrymen models of +taste, and banished totally the bad taste of his Predecessors. +For his Lutrin, replete with excellent poetry, wit, humour, and +satire, he certainly was not obliged to the ancients. Excepting +Horace, how little idea had either Greeks or Romans of wit and +humour! Aristophanes and Lucian, compared with moderns, were, +the one a blackguard, and the other a buffoon. In my eyes, the +Lutrin, the Dispensary, and the Rape of the Lock, are standards +of grace and elegance, not to be paralleled by antiquity; and +eternal reproaches to Voltaire, whose indelicacy in the Pucelle +degraded him as much, when compared with the three authors I have +named, as his Henriade leaves Virgil, and even Lucan whom he more +resembles, by far his superiors. + +The Dunciad is blemished by the offensive images of the games but +the poetry appears to me admirable; and though the fourth book +has obscurities, I prefer it to the three others; it has +descriptions not surpassed by any poet that ever existed, and +which surely a writer merely ingenious(547) will never equal. +The lines on Italy, on Venice, on Convents, have all the grace +for which I contend as distinct from poetry, though united with +the most beautiful; and the Rape of the Lock, besides the +originality of great part of the invention, is a standard of +graceful writing. + +In general, I believe that what I call grace, is denominated +elegance; but by grace I mean something higher. I will explain +myself by instances--Apollo is graceful, Mercury elegant. +Petrarch, perhaps, owed his whole merit to the harmony of his +numbers and the graces of his style, They conceal his poverty of +meaning and want of variety. His complaints, too, may have added +an interest, which, had his passion been successful, and had +expressed itself with equal sameness, would have made the number +of his sonnets insupportable. Melancholy in poetry, I am +inclined to think, contributes to grace, when it is not disgraced +by pitiful lamentations, such as Ovid's and Cicero's in their +banishments. We respect melancholy, because it imparts a similar +affection, pity. A gay writer, who should only express +satisfaction without variety, would soon be nauseous. + +Madame de S`evign`e shines both in grief and gaiety. There is +too much sorrow for her daughter's absence; yet it is always +expressed by new terms, by new images, and often by wit, whose +tenderness has a melancholy air. When she forgets her concern, +and returns to her natural disposition-gaiety, every paragraph +has novelty; her allusions, her applications are the happiest +possible. She has the art of making you acquainted with all her +acquaintance, and attaches you even to the spots she inhabited. +Her language is correct, though unstudied; and, when her mind is +full of any great event, she interests you with the warmth of a +dramatic writer, not with the chilling impartiality of an +historian. Pray read her accounts of the death of Turenne, and +of the arrival of King James in France, and tell me whether you +do not know their persons as if you had lived at the, time, For +my part, if you will allow me a word of digression, (not that I +have written with any method,) I hate the cold impartiality +recommended to historians: "Si Vis me flere, dolendum est prim`um +ipsi tibi:" but, that I may not wander again, nor tire, nor +contradict you any more, I will finish now, and shall be glad if +you will dine at Strawberry Hill next Sunday and take a bed +there, when I will tell you how many more parts of your book have +pleased me, than have startled my opinions, or perhaps +prejudices. I have the honour to be, Sir, with regard, etc. + +(545) Now first collected. + + (546) See Spectator, No. 109. Will Wimble was a Yorkshire +gentleman, whose name was Thomas Morecroll-E. + +(547) Pinkerton had said Of Pope, that "he could only rank with +ingenious men," and that his works are superabundant with +superfluous and unmeaning verbiage - his translations even +replete with tautology, a fault which is to refinement as +midnight is to noonday; and, what is truly surprising, that the +fourth book of the Dunciad, his last publication, is more full of +redundancy and incorrectness than his Pastorals, which are his +first."-D. T. + + + +Letter 291 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(548) +Strawberry Hill, July 27, 1785. (page 371) + +You thank me much more than the gift deserved, Sir: my editions; +of such pieces as I have left, are waste paper to me. I will not +sell them at the ridiculously advanced prices that are given for +them: indeed, only such as were published for sale, have I sold +at all; and therefore the duplicates that remain with me are to +me of no value, but when I can oblige a friend with them. Of a +few of my impressions I have no copy but my own set; and, as I +could give you only an imperfect collection, the present was +really only a parcel of fragments. My memory was in fault about +the Royal and Noble Authors. I thought I had given them to you. +I recollect now that I only lent you my own copy; but I have +others in town, and you shall have them when I go thither. For +Vertue's manuscript I am in no manner of haste. I heard on +Monday, in London, that the Letters were written by a Mr. +Pilhington, probably from a confounded information of Maty's +Review; my chief reason for calling on you twice this week, was +to learn what you had heard, and shall be much obliged to you for +farther information; as I do not care to be too inquisitive,' +lest I should be suspected of knowing more of the matter. + +There are many reasons, Sir, why I cannot come into your idea of +printing Greek. In the first place, I have two or three +engagements for my press; and my time of life does not allow me +to look but a little way farther. In the next, I cannot now go +into new expenses of purchase: my fortune is very much reduced, +both by my brother's death, and by the late plan of reformation. +The last reason would weigh with me, had I none of the others. +My admiration of the Greeks was a little like that of the mob on +other points, not from sound knowledge. I never was a good Greek +scholar; have long forgotten what I knew of the language; and, as +I never disguise my ignorance of any thing, it would look like +affectation to print Greek authors. I could not bear to print +them, without owning that I do not Understand them; and such a +confession would perhaps be as much affectation as unfounded +pretensions. I must, therefore, stick to my simplicity, and not +go out of my line. It is difficult to divest one's self of +vanity, because impossible to divest one's self of self-love. If +one runs from one glaring vanity, one is catched by its opposite. +Modesty can be as vain-glorious on the ground, as Pride on a +triumphal car. Modesty, +however, is preferable; for, should she contradict her +professions, still she keeps her own secret, and does not hurt +the pride of others. I have the honour to be, Sir, with great +regard, yours. + +(548) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 292 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(549) +Strawberry Hill, August 18, 1785. (page 372) + +I am sorry, dear Sir, that I must give you unanswerable reasons +why I cannot print the work you recommend.(550) I have been so +much solicited since I set up my press to employ it for others, +that I was forced to make it a rule to listen to no such +applications. I refused Lord Hardwicke to print a publication of +his; Lady Mary Forbes, to print letters of her ancestor, Lord +Essex; and the Countess of Aldborough, to print her father's +poems, though in a piece as small as what you mention. + +These I recollect at once, besides others whose recommendations +do not immediately occur to my memory; though I dare to say they +do remember them, and would resent my breaking my rule. I have +other reasons which I will not detail now, as the post goes out +so early: I will only beg you not to treat me with so much +ceremony, nor ever use the word humbly to me, who am in no ways +entitled to such respect. + +One private gentleman is not superior to another in essentials: I +fear the virtues of an untainted young heart are preferable to +those of an old man long conversant with the world; and in the +soundness of understanding you have shown and will show a depth +which has not fallen to the lot of Your sincere humble servant. + +(549) Now first collected. + +(550) it is impossible to say with certainty what is the work +here alluded to; but most Probably, it was Ailred's Life of St. +Ninian of which it appears, from a letter from the Rev. Rogers +Ruding, dated August 4, 1785, that Mr. Pinkerton obtained at this +time a transcript through him from the manuscript in the Bodleian +Library. Pinkerton speaks of this manuscript, in the second +volume of his Early Scottish History, p. 266, as "a meagre piece, +containing very little as to Ninian's Pikish Mission." The +letter alluded to from Mr, Ruding, shows Pinkerton to have turned +his mind to the antiquities of Scotland with great +earnestness.-D. T. + + + +Letter 293 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(551) +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 17, 1785. (page 372) + +You are too modest, Sir, in asking my advice on a point on which +you could have no better guide than your own judgment. if I +presume to give you my opinion, it is from zeal for your honour. +I think it would be below you to make a regular answer to +anonymous scribblers in a Magazine: you had better wait to see +whether any formal reply is made to your book, and whether by any +avowed writer; to whom, if he writes sensibly and decently, you +may condescend to make an answer. Still, as you say you have +been misquoted, I should not wish you to be quite silent, though +I should like better to have you turn such enemies into ridicule. +A foe who misquotes you, ought to be a welcome antagonist. He is +so humble as to confess, when he censures what you have not said, +that he cannot confute what you have said; and he is so kind as +to furnish you with an opportunity of proving him a liar, as you +may refer to your book to detect him. + +This is what I would do; I would specify, in the same Magazine in +which he has attacked you, your real words, and those he has +imputed to you; and then appeal to the equity of the reader. You +may guess that the shaft comes from somebody whom you have +censured; and thence you may draw a fair conclusion, that you had +been in the right to laugh at one who was reduced to put his own +words into your mouth before he could find fault with them; and, +having so done, whatever indignation he has excited in the reader +must recoil on himself, as the offensive passages will come out +to have been his own, not yours. You might even begin with +loudly condemning the words or thoughts imputed to you, as if you +retracted them; and then, as if you turned to your book, and +found that you had said no such thing there as what you was ready +to retract, the ridicule would be doubled on your adversary. + +Something of this kind is the most I would stoop to; but I would +take the utmost care not to betray a grain of more anger than is +imp lied in contempt and ridicule. Fools can only revenge +themselves by provoking; for then they bring you to a level with +themselves. The good sense of your work will support it; and +there is scarce reason for defending it, but, by keeping up a +controversy, to make it more noticed; for the age is so idle and +indifferent, that few objects strike, unless parties are formed +for or against them. I remember many years ago advising some +acquaintance of mine, who were engaged in the direction of the +Opera, to raise a competition between +two of their singers, and have papers written pro and con.; for +then numbers would go to clap and hiss the rivals respectively, +who would not go to be pleased with the music. + +(551) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 294 George Colman, Esq.(552) +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 19, 1785. (page 374) + +Sir, +I beg your acceptance of a little work just printed here; and I +offer it as a token of my gratitude, not as pretending to pay YOU +for your last present. A translation, however excellent, from a +very inferior Horace,(553) would be a most inadequate return; but +there is so much merit in the enclosed version, the language is +so pure, and the imitations of our poets so extraordinary, so +Much more faithful and harmonious than I thought the French +tongue could achieve, that I flatter myself you will excuse my +troubling You with an old performance of my own, when newly +dressed by a master hand. As, too, there are not a great many +copies printed, and those only for presents, I have a particular +pleasure in making you one of the earliest compliments. + +(552) Now first printed. + +(553) The Due de Nivernois' translation of Walpole's Essay on +Gardening.-E. + + + +Letter 295 To The Earl Of Buchan.(554) +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 23, 1785. (page 373) + +Your lordship is too condescending when you incline to keep up a +correspondence with one who can expect to maintain it but a short +time, and whose intervals of health are resigned to idleness, not +dedicated, as they have sometimes been, to literary pursuits: for +what could I pursue with any prospect of accomplishment? or what +avails it to store a memory that must lose faster than it +acquires? Your lordship's zeal for illuminating your country and +countrymen is laudable; and you are young enough to make a +progress; but a man who touches the verge of his sixty-eighth +year, ought to know that he is unfit to contribute to the +amusement of more active minds. This consideration, my lord, +makes me much decline correspondence; having nothing new to +communicate, I perceive that I fill my letters with apologies for +having nothing to say. + +If you can tap the secret stores of the Vatican, your lordship +will probably much enrich the treasury of letters. Rome may have +preserved many valuable documents, as for ages intelligence from +all parts of Europe centred there; but I conclude that they have +hoarded little that might at any period lay open the share they +had in the most important transactions. History, indeed, is +fortunate when even incidentally and collaterally it light's on +authentic information. + +Perhaps, my lord, there is another repository, and nearer, which +it would be worth while to endeavour to penetrate: I mean the +Scottish College at Paris. I have heard formerly, that numbers +Of papers, of various sorts, were transported at the Reformation +to Spain and Portugal: but, if preserved there, they probably are +not accessible yet. If they were, how puny, how diminutive, +would all such discoveries, and others which we might call of far +greater magnitude, be to those of Herschel, who puts up millions +of covies of worlds at a beat! My conception is not ample enough +to take in even a sketch of his glimpses; and, lest I should lose +myself in attempting to follow his investigations, I recall my +mind home, and apply it to reflect on what we thought we knew, +when we imagined we knew something (which we deemed a vast deal) +pretty correctly. Segrais, I think, it was, who said with much +contempt, to a lady who talked of her star, "Your star! Madam, +there are but two thousand stars in all; and do you imagine that +you have a whole one to yourself?" The foolish dame, it seems, +was not more ignorant than Segrais himself. If our system +includes twenty millions of worlds, the lady had as much right to +pretend to a whole ticket as the philosopher had to treat her +like a servant-maid who buys a chance for a day in a state +lottery. + +Stupendous as Mr. Herschel's investigations are, and admirable as +are his talents, his expression of our retired corner of the +universe, seems a little improper. When a little emmet, standing +on its ant-hill, could get a peep into infinity, how could he +think he saw a corner in it?-a retired corner? Is there a bounded +side to infinitude! If there are twenty millions of worlds, why +not as many, and as many, and as many more? Oh! one's imagination +cracks! I ]one, to bait within distance of home, and rest at the +moon. Mr. Herschel will content me if he can discover thirteen +provinces there, well inhabited by men and women, and protected +by the law of nations;(555) that law, which was enacted by Europe +for its own emolument, to the prejudice of the other three parts +of the globe, and which bestows the property of whole realms on +the first person who happens to espy them, who can annex them to +the crown of Great Britain, in lieu of those it has lost beyond +the Atlantic. + +I am very ignorant in astronomy, as ignorant as Segrais or the +lady, and could wish to ask many questions; as Whether our +celestial globes must not be infinitely magnified? Our orreries, +too, must not they be given to children, and new ones +constructed, that will at least take in our retired corner and +all its OUtflying constellations? Must not that host of worlds +be christened? Mr. Herschel himself has stood godfather for his +Majesty to the new Sidus. His Majesty, thank God! has a numerous +issue; but they and all the princes and princesses in Europe +cannot supply appellations enough for twenty millions of new-born +stars: no, though the royal progenies of Austria, Naples, and +Spain, who have each two dozen saints for sponsors, should +consent to split their bead-rolls of names among the foundlings. +But I find I talk like an old nurse; and your lordship at last +will, I believe, be convinced that it is not worth your while to +keep up a correspondence with a man in his dotage, merely because +he has the honour of being, my lord, your lordship's most +obedient servant. + +(554) Now first printed. + +(555) The then thirteen United States of America. + + + +Letter 296 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(556) +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 30, 1785. (page 376) + +I do not possess, nor ever looked into one of the books you +specify; nor Mabillon's "Acta Sanctorum," nor O'Flaherty's +"Ogygia." My reading has been very idle., and trifling, and +desultory; not that perhaps it has not been employed on authors +as respectable as those you want to consult, nor that I had not +rather read the deeds of sinners than Acta Sanctorum. I have no +reverence but for sensible books, and consequently not for a +greater number; and had rather have read fewer than I have than +more. The rest may be useful on certain points, as they happen +now to be to you; who, I am sure, would not read them for general +use and pleasure, and are a very different kind of author. I +shall like, I dare to say, any thing you do write, but I am not +overjoyed at your wading into the history of dark ages' unless +you use it as a canvass to be embroidered with your opinions, and +episodes, and comparisons with more recent times. That is a most +entertaining kind of writing. In general, I have seldom wasted +time on the origin of nations, unless for an opportunity of +smiling at the gravity of the author, or at the absurdity of the +manners of those ages; for absurdity and bravery compose almost +all the anecdotes we have of them, except the accounts of what +they never did, nor thought of doing. I have a real affection +for Bishop Hoadley: he stands with me in lieu of what are called +the Fathers; and I am much obliged to you for offering to lend me +a book of his: but, as my faith in him and his doctrines has long +been settled, I shall not return to such grave studies, when I +have so little time left, and desire only to pass it 'tranquilly, +and without thinking of what I can neither propagate nor correct. +When youth made me sanguine, I hoped mankind might be set right. +Now that I am very, old, I sit down with this lazy maxim; that, +unless one could cure men of being fools, it is to no purpose to +cure them of any folly, as it is only making room for some other. +Self-interest is thought to govern every man yet, is it possible +to be less governed by self-interest than men are in the +aggregate? Do not thousands sacrifice even their lives for +single men? Is not it an established rule in France, that every +person in that kingdom should love every king they have in his +turn? What government is formed for general happiness? Where is +not it thought heresy by the majority, to insinuate that the +felicity of one man ought not to be preferred to that Of +Millions? Had not I better, at sixty-eight, leave men to these +preposterous notions, than return to Bishop Hoadley, and sigh? +Not but I have a heartfelt satisfaction when I hear that a mind +as liberal as his, and who has dared to utter sacred truths, +meets with approbation and purchasers of his work. You must not, +however, flatter yourself, Sir, that all your purchasers are +admirers. Some will buy your book, because they have heard of +opinions in it that offend them, and because they want to find +matter in it for abusing you. Let them: the more it is +discussed, the more strongly Will your fame be established. I +commend you for scorning any artifice to puff your book; but you +must allow me to hope it will be attacked. + +I have another satisfaction in the sale of your book-; it will +occasion a second edition. What if, as you do not approve of +confuting misquoters, you simply printed a list of their false +quotations, referring to the identical sentences, at the end of +your second edition? That will be preserving their infamy, which +else would perish where it was born; and perhaps would deter +others from similar forgeries. If any rational opponent staggers +you on any opinion of yours, I would retract it; and that would +be a second triumph. I am, perhaps, too impertinent and forward +with advice: it is at best a proof of zeal; and you are under no +obligation to follow my counsel. it is the weakness of old age +to be apt to give advice; but I will fairly arm you against +myself, by confessing that, when I was young, I was not apt to +take any. + +(556) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 297 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 6, 1785. (page 377) + +I wondered I did not hear from you, as I concluded you returned. +You have made me good amends by the entertaining story of your +travels. If I were not too disjointed for long journeys, I +should like to see much of what you have seen; but if I had the +agility of Vestris, I would not purchase all that pleasure for my +eyes at the expense of my unsociability, which could not have +borne the hospitality you experienced. It was always death to +me, when I did travel England, to have lords and ladies receive +me and show me their castles, instead of turning me over to their +housekeeper: it hindered my seeing any thing, and I was the whole +time meditating my escape; but Lady Ailesbury and you are not +such sensitive plants, nor shrink and close up if a stranger +holds out a hand. I don't wonder you was disappointed with +Jarvis's windows at New College; I had foretold their +miscarriage. The old and the new are as"mismatched as an orange +and a lemon, and destroy each other; nor is there room enough to +retire back and see half of the new; and Sir Joshua's washy +Virtues make the Nativity a dark spot from the darkness of the +Shepherds, which happened, as I knew it would, from most of +Jarvis's colours not being transparent. + +I have not seen the improvements at Blenheim. I used to think it +one of the ugliest places in England; a giant's castle, who had +laid waste all the country round him. Every body now allows the +merit of Brown's achievements there.(557) + +Of all your survey I wish most to see Beau Desert. Warwick +Castle and Stowe I know by heart. The first I had rather possess +than any seat upon earth: not that I think it the most beautiful +of all., though charming, but because I am so intimate with all +its proprietors for the last thousand years. + +I have often and often studied the new plan of Stowe: it is +pompous; but though the Wings are altered, they are not +lengthened. Though three parts of the edifices in the garden are +bad, they enrich that insipid country, and the vastness pleases +me more than I can defend. + +I rejoice that your jaunt has been serviceable to Lady Ailesbury. +The Charming man(558) is actually with me; but neither he nor I +can keep our promise incontinently. He expects two sons of his +brother Sir William, whom he is to pack up and send to the P`eres +de l'Oratoire at Paris. I expect Lord and Lady Waldegrave +to-morrow, who are to pass a few days with me; but both the +Charming man and I will be with you soon. I have no objection to +a wintry visit: as I can neither ride nor walk, it is more +comfortable when most of my time is passed within doors. If I +continue perfectly well, as I am, i shall not settle in town till +after Christmas: there will not be half a dozen persons there for +whom I care a straw. + + +I know nothing at all. The peace between the Austrian harpy and +the frogs is made. They were stout, and preferred being gobbled +to parting with their money. At last, France offered to pay the +money for them. The harpy blushed-for the first time-and would +not take it; but signed the peace, and will plunder somebody +else. + +Have you got Boswell's most absurd enormous book?(559) The best +thing in it is a bon-mot of Lord Pembroke.(560) "The more one +learns of Johnson, the more preposterous assemblage he appears +of' strong sense, of the lowest bigotry and prejudices, of pride, +brutality, fretfulness, and vanity; and Boswell is the ape of +most of his faults, without a grain of his sense. It is the +story of a mountebank and his zany. + +I forgot to say, that I wonder how, with your turn, and +knowledge, and enterprise, in scientific exploits, you came not +to visit the Duke of Bridgewater's operations; or did you omit +them, because I should not have understood a word you told me? +Adieu! + +(557) "Capability Brown;"for an account of whom, see vol. ii. p. +112, letter 46. "I took," says Hannah More, "a very agreeable +lecture from my friend Mr. Brown in his art, and he promised to +give me taste by inoculation. I am sure he has a charming one; +and he illustrates every thing he says about gardening by some +literary or grammatical allusion. He told me he compared his art +to literary composition. 'Now, there,' said he, pointing his +finger, 'I make a comma; and there,' pointing to another spot, +'where a more decided turn is proper, I make a colon: at another +part (where an interruption is desirable to break the view), a +parenthesis--now a full stop; and then I begin another subject.'" +Memoirs, vol. i. p. 26.-E. + +(558) Edward Jerningham, Esq. See post, September 4, 1789.-E. + +(559) The "enormous book," of which Walpole here speaks so +disparagingly, is Boswell's popular "Journal of his Tour to the +Highlands and Islands of Scotland with Dr. Johnson, in the autumn +of 1773." It is now incorporated with the author's general +narrative of the Doctor's life in Mr. Croker's edition of 1831 - +and not the least interesting circumstance connected with it is, +that Johnson himself read, from time to time, Boswell's record of +his sayings and doings; and, so far from being displeased with +its minuteness, expressed great admiration of its accuracy, and +encouraged the chronicler to proceed with his grand ulterior +proceeding. See Life, vol. i. P. viii. ed. 1835.-E. + +(560) "Lord Pembroke said Once to me at Wilton that Dr. Johnson's +sayings would not appear so extraordinary, were it not for his +bow-Wow way." Ibid. vol. iv, p. 8.-E. + + + +Letter 298 To The Earl Of Charlement.(561) +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 23, 1785. (page 379) + +As your lordship has given me this opportunity, I cannot resist +saying, what I was exceedingly tempted to mention two or three +years ago, but had not the confidence. In short, my lord, when +the order of St. Patrick was instituted, I had a mind to hint to +your lordship that it was exactly the moment for seizing an +occasion that has been irretrievably lost to this country. When +I was at Paris, I found in the convent of Les Grands Augustins +three vast chambers filled with the portraits (and their names +and titles beneath) of all the knights of the St. Esprit, from +the foundation of the order. Every new knight, with few +exceptions, gives his own portrait on his creation. Of the order +of St. Patrick, I think but one founder is dead yet; and his +picture perhaps may be retrieved. I will not make any apology to +so good a patriot as your lordship, for proposing a plan that +tends to the honour of his country, which I will presume to call +mine too, as it is both by union and my affection for it. I +should wish the name of the painter inscribed too, which would +excite emulation in your artists. But it is unnecessary to +dilate on the subject to your lordship; who, as a patron of the +arts, as well as a patriot, will improve on my imperfect +thoughts, and, if you approve of them, can give them stability. +I have the honour to beg my lord, etc. + +(561) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 299 To Lady Browne.(562) +Berkeley Square, Dec. 14, 1785. (page 379) + +I am extremely obliged to your ladyship for your kind letter; +and, though I cannot write myself, I can dictate a few lines. +This has not been a regular fit of the gout, but a worse case: +one of my fingers opened with a deposit of chalk,(563) and +brought on gout, and both together an inflammation and swelling +almost up to my shoulder. in short, I was forced to have a +surgeon, who has managed me so Judiciously, that both the +inflammation and swelling are gone; and nothing remains but the +wound in my finger, which will heal as soon as all the chalk is +discharged. My surgeon wishes me to take the air; but I am so +afraid of a relapse, that I have not yet consented. + +My poor old friend is a great loss;(564) but it did not much +Surprise me, and the manner comforts me. I had played at cards +with her at Mrs. Gostling's three nights before I came to town, +and found her extremely confused, and not knowing what she did: +indeed, I perceived something Of the sort before, and had found +her much broken this autumn. It seems, that the day after I saw +her, she went to General Lister's burial and got cold, and had +been ill for two or three days. On the Wednesday morning she +rose to have her bed made; and while sitting on the bed, with her +maid by her, sunk down at once, and died without a pang or a +groan. Poor Mr. Raftor is struck to the greatest degree, and for +some days would not see any body. I sent for him to town to me; +but he will not come till next week. Mrs. Prado has been so +excessively humane as to insist on his coming to her house till +his sister is buried, which is to be to-night. + +The Duchess does not come till the 26th. Poor Miss Bunbury is +dead; and Mrs. Boughton, I hear, is in a very bad way. Lord John +Russell has sent the Duchess of Bedford word, that he is on the +point of marrying Lord Torrington's eldest daughter; and they +suppose the wedding is over.(565) Your ladyship, I am sure, will +be pleased to hear that Lord Euston is gone to his father, who +has written a letter with the highest approbation of Lady +Euston.(566) You will be diverted, too, Madam, to hear that +Hecate has told Mrs. Keppel, that she was sure that such virtue +would be rewarded at last. + +(562) Now first printed. + +(563) "Neither years nor sufferings," writes Hannah More to her +sister, "can abate the entertaining powers of the pleasant +Horace, which rather improve than decay; though he himself says +he is only fit to be a milk-woman, as the chalk-stones at his +fingers' ends qualify him for nothing but scoring; but he +declares he will not be a Bristol milk.woman. I was obliged to +recount to him all that odious tale." Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 14.-E. + +(564) The incomparable Kitty Clive; who died at Twickenham on the +6th of December, in her seventy-second year.-E. + + +(565) Lord John Russell, who, in 1802, succeeded his brother +Francis as sixth Duke of Bedford, married, at Brussels, in March +1786, Georgiana Elizabeth, second daughter of Lord Torrington.-E. + +(566) Lord Euston, who, in 1811, succeeded his father as fourth +Duke of Grafton, married, in November 1784, Charlotte Maria, +daughter of the Earl of Waldegrave.-E. + + + +Letter 300 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 9, 1786. (page 380) + +It is very cruel, my dear Madam, when you send me such charming +lines, and say such kind and flattering things to me and of me, +that I cannot even thank you with my own poor hand; and yet my +hand is as much obliged to you as my eye, and ear, and +understanding. My hand was in great pain when your present +arrived. I opened it directly, and set to reading, till your +music and my own vanity composed a quieting draught that glided +to the ends of my fingers, and lulled the throbs into the +deliquium that attends opium when it does not put one absolutely +to sleep. I don't believe that the deity who formerly practised +both poetry and physic, when gods got their livelihood by more +than one profession, ever gave a recipe in rhyme; and therefore, +since Dr. Johnson has prohibited application to pagan divinities, +and Mr. Burke has not struck medicine and poetry out of the list +of sinecures, I wish you may get a patent for life for exercising +both faculties. It would be a comfortable event for me for, +since I cannot wait on you to thank you, nor dare ask you + +----to call your doves yourself, + +and visit me in your Parnassian quality, I might send for you as +my physicianess. Yet why should I not ask you to come and see +me? You are not such a prude as to + +----blush to show compassion, + +though it should + +not chance this year to be the fashion,(567) + +And I can tell you, that powerful as your poetry is, and old as I +am, I believe a visit from you would do me as much good almost as +your verses.(568) In the meantime, I beg you to accept of an +addition to your Strawberry editions; and believe me to be, with +the greatest gratitude, your too much honoured, and most obliged +humble servant. + +See "Florio," a poetical tale, which Miss Hannah More had +recently published with the "Bas Bleu."-E. + +(568) on the 11th, Hannah More paid him a visit. "I made poor +Vesey," she says, "go with me on Saturday to see Mr. Walpole, who +has had a long illness. Notwithstanding his sufferings, I never +found him so pleasant, so witty, and so entertaining. He said a +thousand diverting things about 'Florio;' but accused me of +having imposed on the world by a dedication full of falsehood; +meaning the compliment to himself: I never knew a man suffer pain +with such entire patience. This submission is certainly a most +valuable part of religion; and yet, alas! he is not religious. I +must however, do him the justice to say, that, except the delight +he has in teasing me for what he calls over-strictness, I never +heard a sentence from him which savoured of infidelity." Memoirs, +vol. ii, p. 11.-E. + + + +Letter 301 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Sunday night, June 18, 1786. (page 301) + +I suppose you have been swearing at the east wind for parching +your verdure, and are now weeping for the rain that drowns your +hay. I have these calamities in common, and my constant and +particular one,-people that come to see my house, which +unfortunately is more in request than ever. Already I have had +twenty-eight sets, have five more tickets given out; and +yesterday, before I had dined, three German barons came. My +house is a torment, not a comfort! + +I was sent for again to dine at Gunnersbury on Friday, and was +forced to send to town for a dress-coat and a sword. There were +the Prince of Wales, the Prince of Mecklenburg, the Duke of +Portland, Lord Clanbrassil, Lord and Lady Clermont, Lord and Lady +Southampton, Lord Pelham, and Mrs. Howe. The Prince of +Mecklenburg went back to Windsor after coffee; and the Prince and +Lord and Lady Clermont to town after tea, to hear some new French +players at Lady William Gordon's. The Princess, Lady Barrymore, +and the rest of us, played three pools at commerce till ten. I +am afraid I was tired and gaped. While we were at the dairy, the +Princess insisted on my making some verses on Gunnersbury. I +pleaded being superannuated. She would not excuse me. I +promised she should have an ode on her next birthday, which +diverted the Prince; but all would not do. So, as I came home, I +made the following stanzas, and sent them to her breakfast next +morning:-- + +In deathless odes for ever green +Augustus' laurels blow; +Nor e'er was grateful duty seen +In warmer strains to flow. + +Oh! why is Flaccus not alive, +Your favourite scene to sing? +To Gunnersbury's charms could give +His lyre immortal spring. + +As warm as his my zeal for you, +Great princess! could I show it; +But though you have a Horace too-- +Ah, Madam! he's no poet. + +If they are poor verses, consider I am sixty-nine, was half +asleep, and made them almost extempore-and by command! However, +they succeeded, and I received this gracious answer:-- + +" I wish I had a name that could answer your pretty verses. Your +yawning yesterday opened your vein for pleasing me; and I return +you my thanks, my good Mr. Walpole, and remain sincerely your +friend, Amelia." + +I think this very genteel at seventy-five. + + +Do you know that I have bought the Jupiter Serapis as well as the +Julio Clovio!(569) Mr. * * * * assures me he has seen six of the +head, and not one of them so fine, or so well preserved. I am +glad Sir Joshua Reynolds saw no more excellence in the Jupiter +than in the Clovio; or the Duke of Portland, I suppose, would +have purchased it, as he has the vase for a thousand pounds. I +would not change. I told Sir William Hamilton and the late +Duchess, when I never thought it would be mine, that I had rather +have the head than the vase.- I shall long for Mrs. Damer to make +a bust to it, and then it will be still more valuable. I have +deposited both the Illumination(570) and the Jupiter in Lady +Di.'s cabinet,(571) which is worthy of them. And here my +collection winds up; I will not purchase trumpery after such +jewels. Besides, every thing is much dearer in old age, as one +has less time to enjoy. Good night! + +(569) At the sale Of the Duchess-dowager of Portland. + +(570) The Book of Psalms, with twenty-one illuminations, by Don +Julio Clovio, scholar of Julio Romano-E. + +(571) A cabinet at Strawberry Hill, built in 1776, to receive +seven incomparable drawings of Lady Diana Beauclere, for +Walpole's tragedy of "The Mysterious Mother."-E. + + + +Letter 302 To Richard Gough, Esq. +Berkeley Square, June 21, 1786. (page 383) + +On coming to town yesterday upon business, I found, Sir, your +very magnificent and most valuable present,(572) for which I beg +you will accept my most grateful thanks. I am impatient to +return to Twickenham, to read it tranquilly. As yet I have only +had time to turn the prints over, and to read the preface; but I +see already that it is both a noble and laborious work, and -will +do great honour both to you and to your country. Yet one +apprehension it has given me-I fear not living to see the second +part! Yet I shall presume to keep it Unbound; not only till it +is perfectly dry and secure, but, as I mean the binding should be +as fine as it deserves, I should be afraid of not having both +volumes exactly alike. + +Your partiality, I doubt, Sir, has induced you to insert a paper +not so worthy of the public regard as the rest of your splendid +performance. My letter to Mr. Cole,(573) which I am sure I had +utterly forgotten .to have ever written, was a hasty indigested +sketch, like the rest of my scribblings, and never calculated to +lead such well-meditated and accurate works as yours. Having +lived familiarly with Mr. Cole, from our boyhood, I used to write +to him carelessly on the occasions that occurred. As it was +always on subjects of' no importance, I never thought of +enjoining secrecy. I could not foresee that such idle +Communications would find a place in a great national work, or I +should have been more attentive to 'what I said. Your taste, +Sir, I fear, has for once been misled; and I shall be sorry for +having innocently blemished a single page. Since your partiality +(for such it certainly was) has gone so far, I flatter myself you +will have retained enough to accept, not a retribution, but a +trifling mark of my regard, in the little volume that accompanies +this; in which you will find that another too favourable reader +has bestowed on me more distinction than I could procure for +myself, by turning my slight Essay on Gardening(574) into the +pure French of the last age;(575) and, which is wonderful, has +not debased Milton by French poetry: on the contrary, I think +Milton has given a dignity to French poetry--nay, and harmony; +both which I thought that language almost incapable of receiving. +As I would wish to give all the value I can to my offering, I +Will mention, that I have printed but four hundred copies, half +of which went to France; and as this is an age in which mere +rarities are preferred to commoner things of intrinsic worth,-as +I have found by the ridiculous prices given for some of my +insignificant publications, merely because they are scarce,-I +hope, under the title of a kind of curiosity, my thin piece will +be admitted into your library. If you would indulge me so far, +Sir, as to let me know when I might hope to see the second part, +I would calculate how many more fits of the gout I may weather, +and would be still more strict in my regimen. I hope, at least, +that you will not wait for the engravers, but will accomplish the +text for the sake of the world: in this I speak disinterestedly. +Though you are much younger than I am, I would have your part of +the work secure - engravers may always proceed, or be found; +another author cannot. + +(572) The first volume of Mr. Gough's "Sepulchral Monuments in +Great Britain."-E. + +(573) See vol. iii., Aug. 12, 1769, letter 366.-E. + +(574) The author of "The Pursuits of Literature",-- + +"Well pleased to see +Walpole and Nature may, for once, agree," + +adds, in a note, "read (it well deserves the attention) that +quaint, but most curious and learned writer's excellent Essay on +Modern Gardening."-E. + +(575) Besides Walpole's Essay on Modern Gardening, the Duc do +Nivernois translated Pope's Essay on Man, and a portion of +Milton's Paradise Lost, into French verse.-E. + + + +Letter 303 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, August 29, 1786. (page 384) + +Since I received the honour of your lordship's last, I have been +at Park-place for a few days. Lord and Lady Frederick Campbell +and Mrs. Damer were there. We went on the Thames to see the new +bridge at Henley, and Mrs. Damer's colossal masks. There is not +a sight in the island more worthy of being visited. The bridge +is as perfect as if bridges were natural productions, and as +beautiful as if it had been built"for Wentworth Castle; and the +masks, as if the Romans had left them here. We saw them in a +fortunate moment; for the rest of the time was very cold and +uncomfortable, and the evenings as chill as many we have had +lately. In short, I am come to think that the beginning of an +old ditty, which passes for a collection of blunders, was really +an old English pastoral, it is so descriptive of our climate: + +"Three children sliding on the ice +All on a summer's day----" + +I have been overwhelmed more than ever by visitants to my house. +Yesterday I had Count Oginski,(576) who was a pretender to the +crown of Poland at the last election, and has been stripped of +most of a vast estate. He had on a ring of the new King of +Prussia, or I should have wished him joy on the death Of One of +the plunderers of his country.(577) + +It has long been my opinion that the out-pensioners of Bedlam are +so numerous, that the shortest and cheapest way would be to +confine in Moorfields the few that remain in their senses, who +would then be safe; and let the rest go at large. They are the +out-pensioners who are for destroying poor dogs! The whole +canine race never did half so much mischief as Lord George +Gordon; nor even worry hares, but when hallooed on by men. As it +is a persecution of animals, I do not love hunting; and what old +writers mention as a commendation makes me hate it the more, its +being an image of war. Mercy on us! that destruction of any +species should be a sport or a merit! What cruel unreflecting +imps we are! Every body is unwilling to die; yet sacrifices the +lives of others to momentary -pastime, or to the still emptier +vapour, fame! A hero or a sportsman who wishes for longer life is +desirous of prolonging devastation. We shall be crammed, I +suppose, with panegyrics and epitaphs on the King of Prussia; I +am content that he can now have an epitaph. But, alas! the +Emperor will write one for him probably in blood! and, while he +shuts up convents for the sake of population, will be stuffing +hospitals .With maimed soldiers, besides making thousands of +widows! + +I have just been reading a new published history of the Colleges +in Oxford, by Anthony Wood; and there found a feature in a +character that always offended me, that of Archbishop Chicheley, +who prompted Henry the Fifth to the invasion of France, to divert +him from squeezing the overgrown clergy. When that priest +meditated founding All Souls, and "consulted his friends (who +seem to have been honest men) what great matter of piety he had +best perform to God in his old age, he was advised by them to +build an hospital for the wounded and sick soldiers that daily +returned from the wars then had in France;"-I doubt his grace's +friends thought as I do of his artifice "but," continues the +historian, "disliking those motions, and valuing the welfare of +the deceased more than the wounded and diseased, he resolved with +himself to promote his design, which was, to have masses said for +the King, Queen, and himself, etc. while living, and for their +souls when dead." And that mummery the old foolish rogue thought +more efficacious than ointments and medicines for the wretches he +had made! And of the chaplains and clerks he instituted in that +dormitory, one was to teach grammars and another prick-song. How +history makes one shudder and laugh by turns! But I fear I have +wearied your lordship with my idle declamation, and you will +repent having commanded me to send you more letters. + +(576) Father of Count Michel Oginski, the associate +of Kosciusko, and author of "Memoires sur la Pologne et les +Polonais, depuis 1788 jusqu'`a la fin de 1815;" in four volumes +octavo. Paris, 1826.-E. + +(577) Frederick the Great had died on the 17th, at Berlin.-E. + + + +Letter 304 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 29, 1786. (page 386) + +I was sorry not to be apprised of your intention of going to +town, where I would have met you; but I knew it too late, both as +I was engaged, and as you was to return so soon. I mean to come +to Park-place in a week or fortnight: but I should like to know +what company you expect, or do not expect; for I had rather fill +up your vacancies than be a supernumerary. Lady Ossory has sent +me two charades made by Colonel Fitzpatrick: the first she says +is very easy, the second very difficult. I have not come within +sight of the easy one; and, though I have a guess at the other, I +do not believe I am right; and so I send them to you, who are +master-general of the Oedipuses. + +The first, that is so easy:-- + +"In concert, song, or serenade, +My first requires my second's aid. +To those residing near the pole +I would not recommend my whole." + +The two last lines, I conclude, neither connect with the two +first, nor will help one to deciphering them. + +The difficult one:-- + +"Charades of all things are the worst, +But my best have been my first. +Who with my second are concern'd, +Will to despise my whole have learn'd." + +This sounds like a good one, and therefore I will not tell you my +solution; for, if it is wrong, it might lead you astray; and if +it is right, it would prove the charade is not a good one. Had I +any thing better, I would not send you charades, unless for the +name of the author. + +I have had a letter from your brother, who tells me that he has +his grandson Stewart(578) with him, who is a prodigy. I say to +myself, Prodigies are grown so frequent, +That they have lost their name. +I have seen prodigies in plenty of late, ah, and formerly too; +but, divine as they have all been, each has had a mortal heel, +and has trodden back a vast deal of their celestial path 1 1 beg +to be excused from any more credulity. + +I am sorry you have lost your fac-totum Stokes. I suppose he had +discovered that he was too necessary to you. Every day cures one +of reliance on others; And we acquire a prodigious stock of +experience, by the time that we shall cease to have occasion for +any. Well! I am not clear but making or solving charades is as +wise as any thing we can do. I should pardon professed +philosophers if they would allow that their wisdom is only +trifling, instead of calling their trifling wisdom. Adieu! + +(578) Robert, eldest son of Robert Stewart, by Lady Sarah-Frances +Seymour, second daughter of Francis, first Marquis of Hertford; +afterwards so distinguished in the Political world as Viscount +Castlereagh. In 1821, he succeeded his father as second Marquis +of Londonderry, and died at his seat at North Cray, in August, +1822; at which time he was secretary of state for foreign +affairs.-E. + + + +Letter 305 To The Right Hon. Lady Craven.(579) +Berkeley Square, Nov. 27, 1786. (page 387) + +To my extreme surprise, Madam, when I knew not in what quarter of +the known or unknown world you was resident or existent, my maid +in Berkeley-square sent me to Strawberry-hill a note from your +ladyship, offering to call on me for a moment,-for a whirlwind, I +suppose, was waiting at your door to carry you to Japan; and, as +balloons have not yet settled any post-offices in the air, you +could not, at least did not, give me any direction where to +address you, though you did kindly reproach me with my silence. +I must enter into a little justification before I proceed. I +heard from you from Venice, then from Poland, and then, having +whisked through Tartary, from Petersburgh; but still with no +directions. I said to myself, "I will write to Grand Cairo, +which, probably, will be her next stage." Nor was I totally in +the wrong, for there came a letter from Constantinople, with a +design mentioned of going to the Greek islands, and orders to +write to you at Vienna; but with no banker or other address +specified. + +For a great while I had even stronger reasons than these for +silence. For several months I was disabled by the gout from +holding a pen; and you must know, Madam, that one can't write +when one cannot write. Then, how write to la Fianc`ee du Roi de +Garbe? You had been in the tent of the Cham of Tartary, and in +the harem of the Captain Pacha, and, during your navigation of +the AEgean, were possibly fallen into the terrible power of a +corsair. How could I suppose that so many despotic infidels +would part with your charms? I never expected you again on +Christian ground. I did not doubt your having a talisman to make +people in love with you; but antitalismans are quite a new +specific. + +Well, while I was in this quandary, I received a delightful +drawing Of the Castle of Otranto; but still provokingly without +any address. However, my gratitude for so very agreeable. and +obliging a present could not rest till I found you out. I wrote +to the Duchess of Richmond, to beg, she would ask your brother +Captain Berkeley for a direction to you; and he has this very day +been so good as to send me one, and I do not lose a moment in +making use of it. + +I give your ladyship a million of thanks for the drawing, which +was really a very valuable gift to me. I did not even know that +there was a Castle of Otranto. When the story was finished, I +looked into the map of the kingdom of Naples for a well-sounding +name, and that of Otranto was very sonorous. Nay, but the +drawing is so satisfactory, that there are two small windows, one +over another, and looking into the country, that suit exactly to +the small chambers from one of which Matilda heard the young +peasant singing beneath her. Judge how welcome this must be to +the author; and thence judge, Madam, how much you must have +obliged him. + +When you take another flight towards the bounds of the western +ocean, remember to leave a direction. One cannot always shoot +flying. Lord Chesterfield directed a letter to the late Lord +Pembroke, who was always swimming, "To the Earl of Pembroke in +the Thames, over against Whitehall." That was sure of finding +him within a certain number of fathom; but your ladyship's +longitude varies so rapidly, that one must be a good bowler +indeed, to take one's ground so judiciously that by casting wide +of the mark one may come in near to the jack. + +(579) This celebrated lady was the daughter of Augustus, fourth +Earl of Berkeley. In 1767, she was married to William, who, in +1769, succeeded his uncle as sixth Lord Craven: she had seven +children by him; but, after a union of thirteen years, a +separation taking place, she left England for France, and +travelled in Italy, Austria, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and Greece. +In 1789, she published her "Journey through the Crimea to +England." Subsequently, she settled at Anspach, and, becoming a +widow in September, 1791, was united in the following month to +the Margrave of Anspach; who, having sold his principality to the +King of Prussia, settled in England; where he died in 1806. In +1825, the Margravine published her Memoirs, She died at Naples in +1828-E. + + + +Letter 306 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, Jan. 1, 1787. (page 388) + +Do not imagine, dear Madam, that I pretend in the most distant +manner to pay you for charming poetry with insipid prose; much +less that I acquit a debt of gratitude for flattering kindness +and friendship, by a meagre tale that does not even aim at +celebrating you. No; I have but two motives for offering you the +accompanying trifle;(580) the first, to prove that the moment I +have finished any thing you are of the earliest in my thoughts: +the second, that, Coming from my press, I wish it may be added to +your Strawberry editions. It is so far from being designed for +the public, that I have printed but forty copies; which I do not +mention to raise its value, though it will with mere collectors, +but lest you should lend it and lose it, when I may not be able +to supply its place. + + Christina, indeed, has some title to connexion with you, both +from her learning and her moral writings; as you are justly +entitled to a lodging in her "C it`e des Dames," where I am sure +her three patronesses would place you, as a favourite `el`eve of +some of their still more amiable sisters, who must at this moment +be condoling With their unfortunate sister Gratitude, whose +vagabond foundling has so basely disgraced her and herself. You +fancied that Mrs. Yearsley was a spurious issue of a muse; and to +be sure, with all their immortal virginity, the parish of +Parnassus has been sadly charged with their bantlings; and, as +nobody knows the fathers, no wonder some of the misses have +turned out woful reprobates! + +(580) Christine de Pise. + + + +Letter 307 To The Right Hon. Lady Craven. +Berkeley Square, Jan. 2, 1787. (page 389) + +Your ladyship tells me, that you have kept a journal of your +travels: you know not when your friends at Paris will give you +time to put it au net; that is, I conclude and hope, prepare it +for the press. I do not wonder that those friends, whether +talismanic or others, are so assiduous, if you indulge them - +but, unless they are of the former description, they are +unpardonable, if they know what they interrupt; and deserve much +more that you should wish they had fallen into a ditch, than the +poor gentlemen who sigh more to see you in sheets of holland than +of paper. To me the mischief is enormous. How proud I should be +to register a noble authoress of my own country, who has +travelled over more regions and farther than any female in print! +Your ladyship has visited those islands and shores whence +formerly issued those travelling sages and legislators who sought +and imported wisdom, laws, and religion into Greece; and though +we are so perfect as to want none Of those commodities, the fame +of those philosophers is certainly diminished when a fair lady +has gone so far in quest of knowledge. You have gone in an age +when travels are brought to a juster standard, by narrations +being limited to truth. Formerly the performers of the longest +voyages destroyed half the merit of their expeditions by +relating, not what they had, but had not seen; a sort of +communication that they might have imparted without stirring a +foot from home. Such exaggerations drew discredit on travels, +till people would not believe that there existed in other +countries any thing very different from- what they saw in their +own; and because no Patagonians, or gentry seven or eight feet +high, were really discovered, they would not believe that there +were Laplanders or pigmies of three and four. Incredulity went +so far, that at last it Was doubted whether China so much as +existed; and our countryman Sir John Mandeville(581) got an ill +name, because, though he gave an account of it, he had not +brought back its right name:(582) at least +if I do not mistake, this was the case; but it is long since I +read any thing about the matter, and I am willing to begin my +travels again under your ladyship's auspices. I am sorry to +hear, Madam, that by your account Lady Mary Wortley was not so +accurate and faithful as modern travellers. The invaluable art +of inoculation, which she brought from Constantinople, so dear to +all admirers of beauty, and to which we owe, perhaps, the +preservation of yours, stamps her an universal benefactress; and +as you rival her in poetic talents, I had rather you would employ +them to celebrate her for her nostrum, than detect her for +romancing. However, genuine accounts of the interior of +seraglios would be precious; and I was in hopes would become the +greater rarities, as I flattered myself that your friends the +Empress of Russia and + the Emperor were determined to level Ottoman tyranny. His +Imperial Majesty, who has demolished the prison bars of so many +nunneries, would perform a stilt more Christian act in setting +free so many useless sultanas; and her Czarish Majesty, I trust, +would be as great a benefactress to our sex, by ,abolishing The +barbarous practice that reduces us to be of none. Your +ladyship's indefatigable peregrinations should have such great +objects in view, when you have the ear of sovereigns. + +Peter the Hermit conjured up the first crusadoes against the +infidels by running about from monarch to monarch. Lady Craven +should ,be as zealous and as renowned; and every fair Circassian +would acknowledge, that one English lady had repaid their country +for the secret which another had given to Europe from their +practice. + +(581) As an instance of the monstrous exaggerations of this +ancient Munchausen, take the following:--"I am a liar if I have +not seen in Java, a single shell in which three men might +completely hide themselves, and all white!" He also states +himself to have met with whole nations of giants, twenty-fie feet +high; and of pigmies, as many inches.-E. + +(582) In a conversation with Mr. Windham, Dr. Johnson, a few days +before his death, recommended, for an account of China, Sir John +Mandeville's Travels." See Boswell's Johnson, vol. ix. p. 317, +ed. 1835.-E. + + + +Letter 308 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 8, 1787. (page 390) + +Dear madam, +I not only send you "La Cit`e des Dames," but Christina's Life of +Charles the Fifth, which will entertain you more; and which, when +I wrote my brief history of her, I did not know she had actually +composed. Mr. Dutens told me of it very lately, and actually +borrowed it for me; and but yesterday my French bookseller sent +me three-and-twenty other volumes of those M`emoires +Historiques,(583) which I had ordered him to get for me, and +which will keep my eyes to the oar for some time, whenever I have +leisure to sail through such an ocean; and yet I shall embark +with pleasure, late as it is for me to undertake such a hugeous +voyage: but a crew of old gossips are no improper company, and we +shall sit in a warm cabin, and hear and tell old stories of past +times. + +Pray keep the volume as long as you please, and borrow as many +more as you please, for each volume is a detached piece. Yet I +do not suppose your friends will allow you much time for reading; +and I hope I shall often be the better for their hindering +you.(584) Yours most sincerely. + +(583) "Collection des meilleurs Ouvrages Francais compos`es par +des Femmes." by Mademoiselle Keralio. + +(584) Miss More, in a letter written a few days after, says--"Mr. +Walpole is remarkably well: yesterday he sent me a very agreeable +letter, with some very thick volumes of curious French M`emoires, +desiring me, if I like them, to send for the other twenty-three +volumes; a pretty light undertaking, in this mad town and this +sort of life." memoirs, vol. ii. p. 49.-E. + + + +Letter 309 To The Rev. Henry Zouch.(585) +Berkeley Square, March 13, 1787. (page 391) + +It is very true, Sir, as Lord Strafford told you, that I have +taken care that letters of living persons to me shall be restored +to the writers when I die. I have burnt a great many, and, as +you desire it, would do so by yours; but, having received a like +intimation some time ago, I put yours into a separate paper, with +a particular direction that they should be delivered to you: and, +therefore, I imagine it will be more satisfaction to you, as it +will be to me too, that you should receive them yourself; and +therefore if you please to let me know how I shall convey them, I +will bring them from Strawberry Hill, where they are, the first +time I go thither. I hope you enjoy your health, and I have the +honour to be, Sir, etc. + +(585) Now first printed. + + + +Letter 310 To Miss Hannah More.(596) +Strawberry Hill, June 15, 1787. (page 391) + +In your note, on going out of town, you desired me to remember +you; but as I do not like the mere servile merit of obedience, I +took time, my dear Madam, to try to forget you; and, having +failed as to my wish, I have the free-born pleasure of thinking +of you in spite of my teeth, and without any regard to your +injunction. No queen upon earth, as fond as royal persons are of +their prerogative, but would prefer being loved for herself +rather than for her power; and I hope you have not more majesty + +"Than the whole race of queens!" + +Perhaps the spirit of your command did not mean that I should +give you such manual proof of' my remembrance; and you may not +know what to make of a subject who avows a mutinous spirit, and +at the same time exceeds the measure of his duty. It is, I own, +a kind of Irish loyalty; and, to keep up the Irish character, I +will confess that I never was disposed to be so loyal to any +sovereign that was not a subject. if you collect from all this +galai-Datias that I am cordially your humble servant, I shall be +content. The Irish have the best hearts in the three kingdoms, +and they never blunder more than when they attempt to express +their zeal and affection: the reason, I suppose, is, that cool +sense never thinks of attempting impossibilities; but a warm +heart feels itself ready to do more than is possible for those it +loves. I am sure our poor friend in Clarges-street(597) would +subscribe to this last sentence. What English heart ever +excelled hers? I should have almost said equalled, if I were not +writing to one that rivals her. + +The last time I saw her before I left London, Miss Burney(598) +passed the evening there, looking quite recovered and well, and +so cheerful and agreeable, that the court seems only to have +improved the ease of her manner, instead of stamping more reserve +on it, as I feared: but what slight graces it can give, will not +compensate to us and the world for the loss of her company and +her writings. Not but that some young ladies who can write, can +stifle their talent as much as if they were under lock and key in +the royal library. I do not see but a cottage is as pernicious +to genius as the Queen's waiting-room. Why should one remember +people that forget themselves? Oh! I am sorry I used that +expression, as it is commonly applied to such self-oblivion as +Mrs. -; and light and darkness are not more opposite than the +forgetfulness to which I alluded, and hers. The former +forgetfulness can forget its own powers and the injuries of +others; the latter can forget its own defects, and the +obligations and services it has received. How poor is that +language which has not distinct terms for modesty and virtue, and +for excess of vanity and ingratitude! The Arabic tongue, I +suppose, has specific words for all the shades of oblivion, +which, you see, has its extremes. I think I have heard that +there are some score of different terms for a lion in Arabic, +each expressive of a different quality; and consequently its +generosity and its appetite for blood are not confounded in one +general word. but if an Arabian vocabulary were as numerous in +proportion for all the qualities that can enter into a human +composition, it would be more difficult to be learned therein, +than to master all the characters of the Chinese. + +You did me the honour of asking me for my "Castle of Otranto," +for your library at Cowslip Green. May I, as a printer, rather +than as an author, beg leave to furnish part of a shelf there? +and as I must fetch some of the books from Strawberry Hill, will +you wait till I can send them all together? And will you be so +good as to tell me whither I shall send them, or how direct and +convey them to you at Bristol? I shall have a satisfaction in +thinking that they will remain in your rising cottage (in which, +I hope, you will enjoy a long series of happy hours); and that +they will sometimes, when they and I shall be forgotten in other +places, recall to Miss More's memory her very sincere humble +servant. + +(596) Now first collected. + +(597) In a letter to Walpole, written at this time from Cowslip +Green, Miss More says, "When I sit in a little hermitage I have +built in my garden,-not to be melancholy in, but to think upon my +friends, and to read their works and letters,-Mr. Walpole +seldomer presents himself to my mind as the man of wit than as +the tender-hearted and humane friend of my dear infirm, +broken-spirited Mrs. Vesey. One only admires talents, and +admiration is a cold sentiment, with which affection has commonly +nothing to do; but one does more than admire them when they are +devoted to such gentle purposes. My very heart is softened when +I consider that she is now out of the way of your kind +attentions' and I fear that nothing else on earth gives her the +smallest pleasure." Memoirs, VOL ii, p. 72-E. + +(598) This highly-gifted young lady had, in the preceding year, +been appointed keeper of the robes to the Queen.-E. + + + +Letter 311 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, June 17, 1787. (page 393) + +I have very little to tell you since we met but disappointments, +and those of no great consequence. On Friday night Lady Pembroke +wrote to me that Princess Lubomirski was to dine with her the +next day, and desired to come in the morning to see Strawberry. +Well, my castle put on its robes, breakfast was prepared, and I +shoved another company out of the house, who had a ticket for +seeing it. The sun shone, my hay was cocked, we looked divinely; +and at half an hour after two, nobody came but a servant to Lady +Pembroke, to say her Polish altitude had sent her word she had +another engagement in town that would keep her too late:-so Lady +Pembroke's dinner was addled; and we had nothing to do, but, like +good Christians, if we chose it, to compel every body on the +road, whether they chose it or not, to come in and eat our soup +and biscuits. Methinks this liberum veto was rather impertinent, +and I begin to think that the partition of Poland was very right. + +Your brother has sent me a card for a ball on Monday, but I have +excused myself. I have not yet compassed the whole circuit of my +own garden, and I have had an inflammation in one of my eyes, and +don't think I look as well as my house and my verdure; and had +rather see my haycocks, than the Duchess of Polignac and Madame +Lubomirski. "The Way to Keep Him" had the way to get me, and I +could crawl to it because I had an inclination; but I have a +great command of myself when I have no mind to do any thing. +Lady Constant was worth an hundred ars and irskis. Let me hear +of you when you have nothing else to do; though I suppose you +have as little to tell as you see I had. + + + +Letter 312 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, July 28, 1787. (page 394) + +St. Swithun is no friend to correspondence, my dear lord. There +is not only a great sameness in his own proceedings, but he makes +every body else dull-I mean in the country, where one frets at +its raining every day and all day. In town he is no more minded +than the proclamation against vice and immorality. Still, though +he has all the honours of the quarantine, I believe it often +rained for forty days long before St. Swithun was born, if ever +born he was; and the proverb was coined and put under his +patronage, because people observed that it frequently does rain +for forty days together at this season. I remember Lady Suffolk +telling me, that Lord Dysart's great meadow had never been mowed +but once in forty years without rain. I said, "All that that +proved was, that rain was good for hay," as I am persuaded the +climate of a country and its productions are suited to each +other. Nay, rain is good for haymakers too, who get more +employment the oftener the hay is made over again. I do not know +who is the saint that presides over thunder; but he has made an +unusual quantity in this chill summer, and done a great deal of +serious mischief, though not a fiftieth part of what Lord George +Gordon did seven years ago, and happily he is fled. + +Our little part of the world has been quiet as usual. The Duke +of Queensberry has given a sumptuous dinner to the Princess de +Lamballe(599)--et voil`a tout. I never saw her, not even in +France. I have no particular penchant for sterling princes and +princesses, much less for those of French plate. + +The only entertaining thing I can tell your lordship from our +district is, that old Madam French, who lives close by the bridge +at Hampton-court, where, between her and the Thames, she had +nothing but one grass-plot of the width of her house, has paved +that whole plot with black and white marble in diamonds, exactly +like the floor of a church; and this curious metamorphosis of a +garden into a pavement has cost her three hundred and forty +pounds:-a tarpaulin she might have had for some shillings, which +would have looked as well, and might easily have been removed. +To be sure, this exploit, and Lord Dudley's obelisk below a +hedge, with his canal at right angles with the Thames, and a sham +bridge no broader than that of a violin, and parallel to the +river, are not preferable to the monsters in clipt yews of our +ancestors; + +Bad taste expellas fursa tamen usque recurret. + +On the contrary, Mrs. Walsingham is making her house at Ditton +(now baptized Boyle-farm) very orthodox. Her daughter Miss +Boyle(600) who has real genius, has carved three tablets in +marble with buoys, designed by herself. Those sculptures are for +a chimney-piece; and she is painting panels in grotesque for the +library, with pilasters of glass in black and gold. Miss Crewe, +who has taste too, has decorated a room for her mother's house at +Richmond, which was Lady Margaret Compton's in a very pretty +manner. How much more amiable the old women of the next age will +be, than most of those we remember, who used to tumble at once +from gallantry to devout scandal and cards! and revenge on the +young of their own sex the desertion of ours. Now they are +ingenious, they will not want amusement. Adieu, my dear lord! + +(599) Sister to the Prince de Carignan, of the royal house of +Sardinia, and wife of the Prince de Lamballe, only son to the Duc +de Penthi`evre. She was sur-intendante de la maison de la Reine, +and, from her attachment to Marie Antoinette, was one of the +first females who fell a victim to the fury of the French +revolution. The peculiar circumstances of horror which attended +her death, and the indignities offered to her remains, are in the +memory of every one who has read the accounts of that +heart.rending event.-E. + +(600) Afterwards married to Lord Henry Fitzgerald. + + + +Letter 313 To Miss Hannah More. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 14, 1787. (page 395) + +My dear Madam, +I am shocked for human nature at the repeated malevolence of this +woman!(601) The rank soil of riches we are accustomed to see +overrun with weeds and thistles; but who could expect that the +kindest seeds sown on poverty and dire misfortunes should meet +with nothing but a rock at bottom? Catherine de' Medici, suckled +by popes. and transplanted to a throne, seems more excusable. +Thank heaven, Madam, for giving you so excellent a heart; ay, and +so good a head. You are not only benevolence itself: but, with +fifty times the genius of a Yearsley, you are void of vanity. +How strange that vanity should expel gratitude! Does not the +wretched woman owe her fame to you, as well as her affluence? I +can testify your labours for both. Dame Yearsley reminds me of +the Troubadours, those vagrants whom I used to admire till I knew +their history; and who used to pour out trumpery verses, and +flatter or abuse accordingly as they were housed and clothed, or +dismissed to the next parish. Yet you did not set this person in +the stocks, after procuring an annuity for her! I beg your pardon +for renewing so disgusting a subject, and will never mention it +again. You have better amusement; you love good works, a temper +superior to revenge.(602) + +I have again seen our poor friend in Clarges-street: her +faculties decay rapidly, and of course she suffers less. She has +not an acquaintance in town; and yet told me the town was very +full, and that she had had a good deal of company. Her health is +re-established, and we must now be content that her mind is not +restless. My pity now feels most for Mrs. Hancock,(603) whose +patience is inexhaustible, though not insensible. + +Mrs. Piozzi, I hear, has two volumes of Dr. Johnson's Letters +ready for publication.(604) Bruce is printing his Travels; which +I suppose will prove that his narratives were fabulous, as he +will scarce repeat them by the press. These and two more volumes +of Mr. Gibbon's History, are all the literary news I know. +France seems sunk indeed in all respects. What stuff are their +theatrical goods, their Richards, Ninas, and Tarares! But when +their Figaro could run threescore nights, how despicable must +their taste be grown!(605) I rejoice that the political +intrigues are not more creditable. I do not dislike the French +from the vulgar antipathy between neighbouring nations, but for +their insolent and unfounded airs of superiority. In arms we +have almost always outshone them: and till they have excelled +Newton, and come near to Shakspeare, pre-eminence in genius must +remain with us. I think they are most entitled to triumph over +the Italians; as, with the most meagre and inharmonious of all +languages, the French have made more of that poverty in tragedy +and eloquence, than the Italians have done with the language the +most capable of both. But I did not mean to send you a +dissertation. I hope it will not be long before you remove to +Hampton.--Yet why should I wish that'! You will only be +geographically nearer to London till February. Cannot you now +and then sleep at the Adelphi on a visit to poor Vesey and your +friends, and let one know if you do? + +(601) Walpole had recently received a letter from Miss More, in +which she had said--"MY old friend the milk-woman has just +brought out another book, to which she has prefixed my original +preface to her first book, and twenty pages of the scurrility +published against me in her second. To all this she has added +the deed which I got drawn up by an eminent lawyer to secure her +money in the funds, and which she asserts I made Mrs. Montagu +sign without reading." Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 80. + +(602) Mrs. Yearsley was a woman of strong masculine +understanding, and of a powerful independent mind, which could +not brook any thing in the nature of dictation or interference. +Whether she then was a widow, or separated from her husband, I +know not; but, in 1793, she kept a bookseller and stationer's +shop, under the name of Ann Yearsley, at Bristol Hot-wells, +assisted by her son, and there all sorts of literary discussion +used to take place daily amongst those who frequented it; and +Mrs. Yearsley being somewhat free, both in her political and +religious opinions, as well as not a little indignant at Mrs. +More's attempt at holding a control over her proceedings, it is +not matter of wonder, that a very unreasonable asperity should +have been exhibited on both sides.-G. + +(603) "What a blessing for Mrs. Vesey, that Mrs. Hancock is alive +and well! I do venerate that woman beyond words; her faithful, +quiet, patient attachment makes all showy qualities and shining +talents appear little in my eyes. Such characters are what Mr. +Burke calls I the soft quiet green, on which the soul loves to +rest!"' Hannah More's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 80.-E. + +(604) In speaking of these Letters, which appeared shortly after, +Hannah More says--:They are such as ought to have been written, +but ought not to have been printed: a few of them are very good: +sometimes he is moral, and sometimes he is kind. The imprudence +of editors and executors is an additional reason why men of parts +should be afraid to die. Burke said to me the other day, in +allusion to the innumerable lives, anecdotes, remains, etc. of +this great man, 'How many maggots have crawled out of that great +body!'" Memoirs, vol. ii-P. 101-E. + +(605) Mr. Walpole had never seen Figaro acted, nor had he been at +Paris for many years before it appeared: he was not, therefore, +aware of the bold, witty, and continued allusions of almost every +scene and of almost every incident of that comedy, to the most +popular topics and the most distinguished characters of the day. +The freedom with which it treated arbitrary government and all +its establishments, while they all yet continued in unwelcome +force- in France, and the moral conduct of each individual of the +piece exactly suiting the no-morality of the audience, joined to +the admirable manner in which it was acted, certainly must be +allowed to have given it its greatest vogue. But even now, when +most of these temporary advantages no longer exist, whoever was +well acquainted with the manners, habits, and anecdotes of Paris +at the time of the first appearance of Figaro, will always admire +in it a combination of keen and pointed satire, easy wit, and +laughable incident.-B. + + + +Letter 314 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Berkeley Square, Nov. 11, 1787. (page 397) + +>From violent contrary winds,(606) and by your letter going to +Strawberry Hill, whence I was 'come, I have but just received it, +and perhaps shall Only be able to answer it by snatches, being up +to the chin in nephews and nieces. + +I find you knew nothing of the pacification when you wrote, When +I saw your letter, I hoped it would tell me you was coming back, +as your island is as safe as if it was situated in the Pacific +Ocean, or at least as islands there used to be, till Sir Joseph +Banks chose to put them up. I sent you the good news on the very +day before you wrote, though I imagined you would learn it by +earlier intelligence. Well, I enjoy both your safety and your +great success, which is enhanced by its being owing to your +character and abilities. I hope the latter will be allowed to +operate by those who have not quite so much of either. I shall +be wonderful glad to see little Master Stonehenge(607) at Park- +place; it will look in character there: but your own bridge is so +stupendous in comparison, that hereafter the latter will be +thought to have been a work of the Romans. Dr. Stukeley will +burst his cerements to offer mistletoe in your temple; and Mason, +on the contrary, will die of vexation and spite that he cannot +have Caractacus acted on the spot. Peace to all such! + +--But were there one whose fires +True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires, + +he would immortalize you, for all you have been carrying on in +Jersey, and for all you shall carry off. Inigo Jones, or +Charlton,- or somebody, I forget who, called Stonehenge "Chorea +Gigantum:" this will be the chorea of the pigmies; and, as I +forget too what is Latin for Lilliputians, I will make a bad pun, +and say, + +----Portantur avari +Pygmalionis opes.-- + +Pygmalion is as well-sounding a name for such a monarch as +Oberon. Pray do not disappoint me, but transport the +cathedral(608) of your island to your domain on our continent. I +figure unborn antiquaries making pilgrimages to visit your +bridge, your daughter's bridge,(609) and the Druidic temple; and +if I were not too old to have any imagination left, I would add a +sequel to Mi Li.(610) Adieu! + +(606) Mr. Conway was at this time at his government in Jersey. + +(607) Mr. Walpole thus calls the small Druidic temple discovered +in Jersey, which the States of that island had presented to +General Conway, to be transported to and erected at Park-place. +Dr. Walter Charlton published a dissertation on Stonehenge in +1663, entitled "Chorea Gigantum." it was reprinted in 1715.-E. + + +(608) The Druidic temple. + +(609) The keystones of the centre arch of the bridge at Henley +are ornamented with heads of the Thames and Isis, designed by the +Hon. Mrs. Damer, and executed by her in Portland stone. + +(610) One of the Hieroglyphic tales, containing a description of +Park-place. it will be found in Walpole's works. + + + +Letter 315 To Thomas Barrett, Esq.(611) +Berkeley Square, June 5, 1788. (page 398) + +I wish I could charge myself with any merit, which I always wish +to have towards you, dear Sir, in letting Mr. Matthew see +Strawberry; but in truth he has so much merit and modesty and +taste himself, that I gave him the ticket with pleasure, which it +seldom happens to me to do; for most of those who go thither, go +because it is the fashion, and because a party is a prevailing +custom too; and my tranquillity is disturbed, because nobody +likes to stay at home. If Mr. Matthew was really entertained I +am glad; but Mr. Wyatt has made him too correct a Goth not to +have seen all the imperfections and bad execution of my attempts; +for neither Mr. Bentley nor my workmen had studied the science, +and I was always too desultory and impatient to consider that I +should please myself more by allowing time, than by hurrying my +plans into execution before they were ripe. My house therefore +is but a sketch by beginners, yours is finished by a great +master; and if Mr. Matthew liked mine, it was en virtuose, who +loves the dawnings of an art, or the glimmerings of its +restoration. + +I finished Mr. Gibbon a full fortnight ago, and was extremely +pleased. It is a most wonderful mass of information, not only of +history, but almost on all the ingredients of history, as war, +government, commerce, coin, and what not. If it has a fault, it +is in embracing too much, and consequently in not detailing +enough, and it, striding backwards and forwards from one set of +princes to another, and from one subject to another; so that, +without much historic knowledge, and without much memory, and +much method in one's memory, it is almost impossible not to be +sometimes bewildered: nay, his own impatience to tell what he +knows, makes the author, though commonly so explicit, not +perfectly clear in his expressions. The last chapter of the +fourth Volume, I own, made me recoil, and I could scarcely push +through it. So far from being Catholic or heretic, I wished Mr. +Gibbon had never heard of Monophysites, Nestorians, or any such +fools! But the sixth volume made ample amends; Mahomet and the +Popes were gentlemen and good company. I abominate fractions of +theology and reformation. + +Mr. Sheridan, I hear, did not quite satisfy the passionate +expectation that had been raised;(612) but it was impossible he +could, when people had worked themselves into an enthusiasm of +offering fifty, ay, fifty guineas for a ticket to hear him. +Well! we are sunk and deplorable in many points, yet not +absolutely gone, when history and eloquence throw out such +shoots! I thought I had outlived my country; I am glad not to +leave it desperate. Adieu, dear Sir! + +(611) OF Lee, in East Kent; Whose seat was built by Mr. Wyatt, +and greatly admired by Walpole.-E. + +(612) Of his speech in Westminster-hall, on bringing forward the +Begum charge against Mr. Hastings; upon which Mr. Burke +pronounced the high ealogium, that "all the various species of +oratory that had been heard, either in ancient or modern +times-whatever the acuteness of the bar, the dignity of the +senate, or the morality of the pulpit; could furnish--had not +been equal to what the House had that day heard." Gibbon, who +was present, thus describes it, in a letter to Lord Sheffield:-- +"Yesterday the august scene was closed for this year. Sheridan +surpassed himself; and, though I am far from considering him a +perfect orator, there were many beautiful passages in his speech- +-on justice, filial love, etc.; one of the closest chains of +argument I ever heard, to prove that Hastings was responsible for +the acts of Middleton; and a compliment, much admired to a +certain historian of your acquaintance. Sheridan, on the close +of his speech, sunk into Burke's arms--a good actor: but I called +this morning; he is perfectly well."-E. + + + +Letter 316 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, Tuesday night, June 17, 1788. (page 399) + +I guess, my dear lord, and only guess, that you are arrived at +Wentworth Castle. If you are not, my letter will lose none of +its bloom by waiting for you; for I have nothing fresh to tell +you, and only write because you enjoined it. I settled in my +Lilliputian towers but this morning. I wish people would come +into the country on May-day, and fix in town on the first of +November. But as they will not, I have made up my mind; and +having so little time left, I prefer London, when my friends and +society are in it, to living here alone, or with the weird +sisters of Richmond and Hampton. I had additional reason now, +for the streets are as green as the fields: we are burnt to the +bone, and have not a lock of bay to cover our nakedness: oats are +so dear, that I suppose they will soon be eaten at Brooks's and +fashionable tables as a rarity. The drought has lasted so long, +that for this fortnight I have been foretelling haymaking and +winter, which June generally produces; but to-day is sultry, and +I am not a prophet worth a straw. Though not resident till now, +I have flitted backwards and forwards, and last Friday came +hither to look for a minute at a ball at Mrs. Walsingham's at +Ditton which would have been pretty, for she had stuck coloured +lamps in the hair of all her trees and bushes, if the east wind +had not danced a reel all the time by the side of the river. Mr. +Conway's play,(613) of which your lordship has seen some account +in the papers, has succeeded delightfully, both in representation +and applause. The language is most genteel, though translated +from verse; and both prologue and epilogue are charming. The +former was delivered most Justly and admirably by Lord Derby, and +the latter with inimitable spirit and grace by Mrs. Damer. Mr. +Merry and Mrs. Bruce played excellently too. But General Conway, +Mrs. Damer, and every body else are drowned by Mr. Sheridan, +whose renown has engrossed all Fame's tongues and trumpets. Lord +Townshend said he should be sorry were he forced to give a vote +directly on Hastings, before he had time to cool; and one of the +peers saying the speech had not made the same impression on him, +the Marquis replied, a seal might be finely cut, and yet not be +in fault for making a bad impression. + +I have, you see, been forced to send your lordship what scraps I +brought from town: the next four months, I doubt will reduce me +to my old sterility; for I cannot retail French gazettes, though +as a good Englishman bound to hope they will contain a civil war. +I care still less about the double imperial campaign, only hoping +that the poor dear Turks will heartily beat both Emperor and +Empress. If the first Ottomans could be punished, they deserved +it, but present possessors have as good a prescription 'on their +side as any People in Europe. We ourselves are Saxons, Danes, +Normans; our neighbours are Franks, not Gauls; who the rest are, +Goths, Gepidae, Heruli, Mr. Gibbon knows; and the Dutch usurped +the estates of herrings, turbots, and other marine indigenae. +Still, though I do not wish the hair of a Turk's beard to be +hurt, I do not say that it would not be amusing to have +Constantinople taken, merely as a lusty event; for neither could +I live to see Athens revive, nor have I much faith in two such +bloody-minded vultures, cock and hen, as Catherine and Joseph, +conquering for the benefit of humanity; nor does my Christianity +admire the propagation of the Gospel by the mouth of cannon. +What desolation of peasants and their families by the episodes of +forage and quarters! Oh! I wish Catherine and Joseph were +brought to Westminster-hall and worried by Sheridan! I hope, +too, that the poor Begums are alive to hear of his speech; it +will be some comfort, though I doubt nobody thinks of restoring +them a quarter of a lac! + +(613) A comedy, called "False Appearances" translated from +L'Homme du Jour of Boissy. It was first acted at the private +theatre at Richmond.house, and afterwards at Drury-lane.-E. + + + +Letter 317 To Miss Hannah More. +Strawberry Hill, July 4, 1788. (page 401) + +I am soundly rejoiced, my dear Madam, that the present summer is +more favourable to me than the last: , and that, instead of not +answering my letters in three months, you open the campaign. May +not I flatter myself' that it is a symptom of your being in +better health? I wish, however, you had told me so in positive +words, and that all your complaints have left you. Welcome as is +your letter, it would have been ten times more welcome bringing +me that assurance; for don't think I forget how ill you was last +winter. As letters, you say, now keep their coaches, I hope +those from Bristol will call often at my door.(614) I promise +you I will never be denied to them. + +No botanist am I; nor wished to learn from you, of all the Muses, +that piping has a new signification. I had rather that you +handled an oaten pipe than a carnation one; yet setting layers, I +own, is preferable to reading newspapers, one of the chronical +maladies of this age. Every body reads them, nay quotes them, +though every body knows they are stuffed with lies or blunders. +How should it be otherwise? If any extraordinary event happens, +who but must hear it before it descends through a coffee-house to +the runner of a daily paper? They who are always wanting news, +are wanting to hear they don't know what. A lower species, +indeed, is that of the scribes you mention, who every night +compose a journal for the satisfaction of such illiterati, and +feed them with all the vices and misfortunes of every private +family; nay, they now call it a duty to publish all those +calamities which decency to wretched relations used in compassion +to suppress, I mean self-murder in particular. Mr. -Is was +detailed at length; and to-day that of Lord - and -. The +pretence is, in terrorem, like the absurd stake and highway of +our ancestors; as if there were a precautionary potion for +madness, or the stigma of a newspaper were more dreadful than +death. Daily journalists, to be sure, are most respectable +magistrates! Yes, much like the cobblers that Cromwell made +peers. + +I do lament your not going to Mr. Conway's play: both the author +and actors deserved such an auditor as you, and you deserved to +hear them. However, I do not pity good people who out of virtue +lose or miss any pleasures. Those pastimes fleet as fast as +those of the wicked; but when gone, you saints can sit down and +feast on your self-denial, and drink bumpers of satisfaction to +the health of your own merit. So truly I don't pity you. + +You say you hear no news, yet you quote Mr. Topham;(615) +therefore why should I tell you that the King is going to +Cheltenham? Or that the Baccelli lately danced at the opera at +Paris with a blue bandeau on her forehead, inscribed, "Honi soit +qui mal y pense." Now who can doubt but she is as pure as the +Countess of Salisbury! Was not it ingenious? and was not the +ambassador so to allow it? No doubt he took it for a compliment +to his own knee. + +Well! would we committed nothing but follies! What do we not +commit when the abolition of slavery hitches! Adieu! + +Though Cato died, though Tully spoke, +Though Brutus dealt the godlike stroke, +Yet perish'd fated Rome. + +You have written; and I fear that even if Mr. Sheridan speaks, +trade, the modern religion, will predominate. Adieu! + +(614) Miss More, in her last letter, had said--"Mail-coaches, +which come to others, come not to me: letters and newspapers, now +that they travel In coaches, like gentlemen and ladies, come not +within ten miles of my hermitage: and while other fortunate +provincials are studying the world and its ways, and are feasting +upon elopement, divorces, and suicides, tricked out in all the +elegancies of Mr. Topham's phraseology, I am obliged to be +contented with village vices, petty iniquities, and vulgar sins," +Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 77.-E. + +(615) Major Topham was the proprietor of the fashionable morning +paper entitled The World. "In this paper," says Mr. Gifford, in +his preface to the Baviad, "were given the earliest specimens of +those unqualified and audacious attacks on all private character, +and which the town first smiled at for their quaintness then +tolerated for their absurdity; now--that other papers equally +wicked and more intelligible, have ventured to imitate it--will +have to lament to the last hour of British liberty." In 1791, +Major Topham published the Life of John Elwes the miser; which +Walpole considered one of the most amusing anecdotical books in +the English language.-E. + +(616) While the Duke of Dorset, who kept her was ambassador at +Paris. The Countess of Salisbury, to the fall OF whose garter +has been attributed the foundation of the order of the Garter. + + + +Letter 318 To Miss Hannah More. +Strawberry Hill, July 12, 1788. (page 402) + +Won't you repent of having opened the correspondence, my dear +Madam, when you find my letters come so thick upon you? In this +instance, however, I am only to blame in part, for being too +ready to take advice, for the sole reason for which advice ever +is taken, 'because it fell in with my inclination. You said in +your last that you feared you took up time of mine to the +prejudice of the public; implying, I imagine, that I might employ +it in composing. Waving both your compliment, and my own vanity, +I will speak very seriously to you on that subject, and with +exact truth. My simple writings have had better fortune than +they had any reason to expect; and I fairly believe, in a great +degree, because gentlemen-writers, who do not write for interest, +are treated with some civility if they do not write absolute +nonsense. I think so, because I have not unfrequently known much +better works than mine much more neglected, if the name, fortune, +and situation of the authors were below mine. I wrote early, +from youth, spirits, and vanity; and from both the last when the +first no longer existed. I now shudder when I reflect on my own +boldness; and with mortification, when I compare my own writings +with those of any great authors. This is So true, that I +question"Whether it would be possible for me to summon up courage +to publish any thing I have written, if I could recall the past, +and should yet think as I think at present. So much for what is +over and out of my power. As to writing now, I have totally +forsworn the profession, for two solid reasons. One I have +already told you; and it is, that I know my own writings are +trifling and of no depth. The other is, that, light and futile +as they were, I am sensible they are better than I could compose +now. I am aware of the decay of the middling parts I had, and +others may be still more sensible of it. How do I know but I am +superannuated? nobody will be so coarse as to tell me so; but if +I published dotage all the world would tell me so. And who but +runs that risk who is an author after severity? What happened to +the greatest author of this age, and who certainly retained a +very considerable portion of his abilities for ten years after my +age Voltaire, at eighty-four, I think, Went to Paris to receive +the incense, in person, of his countrymen, and to be witness of +their admiration of a tragedy he had written at that Methusalem +age. Incense he did receive till it choked him; and at the +exhibition of his play he was actually crowned with laurel in the +box where he sat. But what became of his poor play? It died as +soon as he did--was buried with him; and no mortal, I dare to +say, has ever read a line of it since, it was so bad.(617) + +As I am neither by a thousandth part so great, nor a quarter so +little, I will herewith send you a fragment that an accidental +rencontre set me upon writing,, and which I found so flat, that I +would not finish it. Don't believe that I am either begging +praise by the stale artifice of' hoping to be contradicted; or +that I think there is any occasion to make you discover my +caducity. No; but the fragment contains a curiosity--English +verses written by a French prince of the blood, and which at +first I had a mind to add to my Royal and Noble Authors, but as +he was not a royal author of ours, and as I could not please +myself with an account of him, I shall revert to my old +resolution of not exposing my pen's gray hairs.(618) + +Of one passage I must take notice; it is a little indirect sneer +at our crowd of authoresses. My choosing to send this to you is +a proof that I think you an author, that is, a classic. But in +truth I am nauseated by the Madams Piozzi, etc. and the host of +novel-writers in petticoats, who think they imitate what is +inimitable, Evelina and Cecilia. Your candour I know will not +agree with me, when I tell you I am not at all charmed with Miss +Seward and Mr. Hayley piping to one another: but you I exhort, +and would encourage to write; and flatter myself you will never +be royally gagged and promoted to fold Muslins, as has been +lately wittily said on Miss Burney, in the list of five hundred +living authors. Your writings promote virtues; and their +increasing editions prove their worth and utility. If you +question my sincerity, can you doubt my admiring you, when you +have gratified my self-love so amply in your Bas Bleu? Still, as +much as I love your writings, I respect yet more your heart and +your goodness. You are so good, that I believe you would go to +heaven, even though there were no Sunday, and only six working +days in the week. Adieu, my best Madam! + +(617) Madame du Deffand, in a letter to Walpole of the 8th of +March 1778, says--"Voltaire se Porte bien: il est uniquement +occup`e de sa tragedie d'Ir`ene; on assure qu'on la jouera de +demain en huit: si elle n'a pas de succ`es, il en mourra." On the +18th, she again writes--"Le succ`es de la pi`ece a `et`e tr`es +mediocre; il y eut cependant beaucouP de claquemens de mains, +mais C'`etait Plus Voltaire qui en `etait l'objet que la Pi`ece." +He died in the May following.-E. + +(618) The French prince of the blood here spoken of, was Charles +Duke of Orleans, who being a prisoner at the battle of Agincourt, +was brought to England and detained here for twenty.five years. +For a copy of the verses, see Walpole's works, vol. i. p. 564.-E. + + + +Letter 319 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, August 2, 1788. (page 404) + +Matter for a letter, alas! my dear lord, I have none; but about +letters I have great news to tell your lordship, only may the +goddess of post-offices grant it be true! A Miss Sayer, of +Richmond, who is at Paris, writes to Mrs. Boscawen, that a Baron +de ]a Garde (I am sorry there are so many as in the genealogy of +my story.) has found in a vieille armoire five hundred more +letters of Madame de S`evign`e, and that they will be printed if +the expense is not too great. I am in a taking, lest they should +not appear before I set out for the Elysian fields for, though +the writer is one of the first personages I should inquire after +on my arrival, I question whether St. Peter has taste enough to +know where she lodges, she is more likely to be acquainted with +St. Catherine of Sienna and St. Undecimillia; and therefore I had +rather see the letters themselves. It is true I have no small +doubt of the authenticity of the legend; and nothing will +persuade me of its truth so much as the non-appearance of the +letters-a melancholy kind of conviction. But I vehemently +suspect some new coinage, like the letters of Ninon de l'Enclos, +Pope Ganganelli, and the Princess Palatine. I have lately been +reading some fragments of letters of the Duchess of Orleans, +which are certainly genuine, and contain some curious +circumstances; for though she was a simple gossiping old +gentlewoman, yet many little facts she could not help learning: +and, to give her her due, she was ready to tell all she knew. To +our late Queen she certainly did write often; and her Majesty, +then only Princess, was full as ready to pay her in her own coin, +and a pretty considerable treaty of commerce for the exchange of +scandal was faithfully executed between them; insomuch that I +remember to have heard forty years ago, that our gracious +sovereign entrusted her Royal Highness of Orleans with an +intrigue of one of her women of the bedchamber. Mrs. Selwyn to +wit; and the good Duchess entrusted it to so many other dear +friends that at last it got into the Utrecht Gazette, and came +over hither, to the signal edification of the court of Leicester- +fields. This is an additional reason, besides the internal +evidence, for my believing the letters genuine. This old dame +was mother of the Regent; and when she died, somebody wrote on +her tomb, Cy gist l'Oisivet`e. This came over too; and nobody +could expound It, till our then third Princess, Caroline, +unravelled it,--Idleness is the mother of all vice. + +I wish well enough to posterity to hope that dowager highnesses +will Imitate the practice, and write all the trifles that occupy +their royal brains; for the world so at least learns some true +history, which their husbands never divulge, especially if they +are privy to their own history, which their ministers keep from +them as much as possible. I do not believe the present King of +France knows much more of what he, or rather his Queen, is +actually doing, than I do. I rather pity him; for I believe he +means well, which is not a common article of my faith. + +I shall go about the end of this week to Park-place, where I +expect to find the Druidic temple from Jersey erected. How dull +will the world be, if constant pilgrimages are not made thither! +where, besides the delight of the scenes, that temple, the rude +great arch, Lady Ailesbury's needle-works, and Mrs. Damer's +Thames and Isis on Henley-bridge, with other of her sculptures, +make it one of the most curious spots in the island, and unique. +I want to have Mr. Conway's comedy acted there; and then the +father, mother, and daughter would exhibit a theatre of arts as +uncommon. How I regret your lordship did not hear Mrs. Damer +speak the epilogue! + + + +Letter 320To John Pinkerton, Esq.(619) +Arlington Street, Aug. 14, 1788. (page 405) + +Your intelligence of the jubilees to be celebrated in Scotland in +honour of the Revolution was welcomed indeed. It is a favourable +symptom of an age when its festivals are founded on good sense +and liberality of sentiment, and not to perpetuate superstition +and slavery. Your countrymen, Sir, have proved their good sense +too in their choice of a poet. Your writings breathe the noble +generous spirit congenial to the institution. Give me leave to +say that it is very flattering to me to have the ode communicated +to me; I will not say, to be consulted, for of that distinction I +am not worthy: I am not a poet, and am Sure I cannot improve your +ideas, which you have expressed with propriety and clearness, the +necessary ingredients of an address to a populous meeting; for I +doubt our numerous audiences are not arrived at Olympic taste +enough to seize with enthusiasm the eccentric flights of Pindar. +You have taken a more rational road to inspiration,'-by adhering +to the genuine topics of the occasion; and you speak in so manly +a Style, that I do not believe a more competent judge could amend +your poetry. + +I will tell you how more than occasionally the mention of Pindar +slipped into my pen. I have frequently, and even yesterday, +wished that some attempt were made to ennoble our horse-races, +particularly at Newmarket, by associating better arts with the +courses; as, by contributing for odes, the best of which should +be rewarded by medals. Our nobility would find their vanity +gratified; for, as the pedigrees of their steeds would soon grow +tiresome, their own genealogies would replace them; and, in the +mean time, poetry and medals would be improved. Their lordships +would have judgment enough to know if their horse (which should +be the impression on one side) were not well executed; and, as I +hold that there is no being more difficult to draw well than a +horse, no bad artist could be employed. Such a beginning would +lead farther; and the cup or plate for the prize might rise into +beautiful vases. But this is a vision; and I may as well go to +bed and dream of any thing else. + +(619) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 321 To Miss Hannah More.(620) +Strawberry Hill, August 17, 1788. (page 406) + +Dear Madam, +In this great discovery of a new mine of Madame de S`evign`e's +letters, my faith, I confess, is not quite firm. Do people sell +houses wholesale, without opening their cupboards? This age, +too, deals so much in false coinage, that booksellers and +Birmingham give equal vent to what is not sterling; with the only +difference, that the shillings of the latter pretend that the +names are effaced, while the wares Of the former pass under +borrowed names. Have we not seen, besides all the Testamens +Politiques, the spurious letters of Ninon de l'Enclos, of Pope +Ganganelli, and the Memoirs of the Princess Palatine? This is a +little mortifying, while we know that there actually exists at +Naples a whole library of genuine Greek and Latin authors; most +of whom probably, have never been in print: and where it is not +unnatural to suppose the work of some classics, yet lost, may be +in being, and the remainder of some of the best. Yet, at the +'rate in which they proceed to unroll, it would take as many +centuries to bring them to light, as have elapsed since they were +overwhelmed. Nay, another eruption of Vesuvius may return all +the volumes to chaos! Omar is stigmatized for burning the library +of Alexandria. Is the King of Naples less a Turk? IS not it +almost as unconscientious to keep a seraglio of virgin authors +under the custody of nurses, as of blooming Circassians? +Consider, my dear Madam, I am past seventy; or I should not be SO +Ungallant as to make the smallest comparison between the contents +of the two harems. Your picture, which hangs near my elbow, +would frown, I am sure, if I had any light meaning. + +(620) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 322 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 12, 1788. (page 407) + +My late fit of gout, though very short, was a very authentic one, +my dear lord, and the third I have had since Christmas. Still, +of late years, I have suffered so little pain, that I can justly +complain of nothing but the confinement, and the debility of my +hands and feet, which, however, I can still use to a certain +degree; and as I enjoy such good spirits and health in the +intervals, I look upon the gout as no enemy; yet I know it is +like the compacts said to be made with the devil, (no kind +comparison to a friend!) who showers his favours on the +Contractors, but is sure to seize and carry them off at last. + +I would not say so much of myself, but in return to your +lordship's obliging concern for me: Yet, insignificant as the +subject, I have no better in bank; and if I plume myself on the +tolerable state of my out-ward man, I doubt your lordship finds +that age does not treat my interior so mildly as the gout does +the other. If my letters, as you are pleased to say, used to +amuse you, you must perceive how insipid they are grown, both +from my decays and the little intercourse I have with the world. +Nay, I take care not to aim at false vivacity: what do the +attempts of age at liveliness prove but its weakness? What the +Spectator said wittily, ought to be practised in sober sadness by +old folks: when he was dull, he declared it was by design. So +far, to be sure, we ought to observe it, as not to affect more +spirits than we possess. To be purposely stupid, would be +forbidding our correspondents to continue the intercourse; and I +am so happy in enjoying the honour of your lordship's friendship, +that I will be content (if you can be so) with my natural +inanity, without studying to increment it. + +I have been at Park-place, and assure your lordship that the +Druidic temple vastly more than answers my expectation. Small it +is, no doubt, when you are within the enclosure, and but a chapel +of ease to Stonehenge; but Mr. Conway has placed it with so much +judgment, that it has a lofty effect, and infinitely more than it +could have had if he had yielded to Mrs. Damer's and my opinion, +who earnestly begged to have it placed within the enclosure of +the home grounds. It now stands on the ridge of the high hill +without, backed by the horizon, and with a grove on each side at +a little distance; and, being exalted beyond and above the range +of firs that climb up the sides of the hill from the valley, +wears all the appearance of an ancient castle, whose towers are +only shattered, not destroyed; and devout as I am to old castles, +and small taste as I have for the ruins of ages absolutely +barbarous, it is impossible not to be pleased with so very rare +an antiquity so absolutely perfect, and it is difficult to +prevent visionary ideas from improving a prospect. + +If, as Lady Anne Conolly told your lordship, I have had a great +deal of company, you must understand it of my house, not of me; +for I have very little. Indeed, last Monday both my house and I +were included. The Duke of York sent me word the night before, +that he would come and see it, and of course I had the honour of +showing it myself. He said, and indeed it seemed so, that he was +much pleased; at least, I had every reason to be satisfied; for I +never saw any prince more gracious and obliging, nor heard one +utter more personally kind speeches. + +I do not find that her grace the Countess of Bristol's(621) will +is really known yet. They talk of two wills--to be sure, in her +double capacity; and they say she has made three coheiresses to +her jewels, the Empress of Russia, Lady Salisbury, and the whore +of Babylon.(622) The first of those legatees, I am not sorry, is +in a piteous scrape: I like the King of Sweden no better than I +do her and the Emperor; but it is good that two destroyers should +be punished by a third, and that two crocodiles should be gnawed +by an insect. Thank God! we are not only at peace, but in full +plenty--nay, and in full beauty too. Still better; though we +have had rivers of rain, it has not, contrary to all precedent, +washed away our warm weather. September, a month I generally +dislike for its irresolute mixture of warm and cold, has hitherto +been peremptorily fine. The apple and walnut-trees bend down +with fruit, as in a poetic description of Paradise. + +(621) The Duchess of Kingston, who died at Paris in August.-E. + +(622) The newspapers had circulated a report that the Duchess had +bequeathed her diamonds to the Empress of Russia and his Holiness +the Pope.-E. + + + +Letter 323 To Miss Hannah More. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 22, 1788. (page 408) + +I don't like to defraud you of your compassion, my good friend, +profuse as you are of it. I really suffered scarce any pain at +all from my last fit of gout. I have known several persons who +think there is a dignity in complaining; and, if you ask how they +do, reply, "Why, I am pretty well to-day; but if you knew what I +suffered yesterday!" Now methinks nobody has a right to tax +another for pity on what is past; and besides, complaint of what +is over can only make the hearer glad you are in pain no longer. +Yes, yes, my dear Madam, you generally place your pity so +profitably, that YOU shall not waste a drop upon me, who ought +rather to be congratulated on being so well at my age. + +Much less shall I allow you to make apologies for your admirable +and proper conduct towards your Poor prot`eg`ee(623) And now you +have told me the behaviour of a certain great dame, I will +confess to you that I have known it some months by accident-nay, +and tried to repair it. I prevailed on Lady * * * * *, who as +readily undertook the commission, and told the Countess of her +treatment of you. Alas! the answer was, "It is too late; I have +no money." No! but she has, if she has a diamond left. I am +indignant; yet, do you know, not at this duchess, or that +countess, but at the invention of ranks, and titles, and +pre-eminence. I used to hate that king and t'other prince; but, +alas! on reflection I find the censure ought to fall on human +nature in general. They are made of the same stuff as we, and +dare we say what we should be in their situation? Poor creatures! +think how they are educated, or rather corrupted, early, how +flattered! To be educated properly, they should be led through +hovels, and hospitals, and prisons. Instead of being reprimanded +(and perhaps immediately after sugar-plum'd) for not learning +their Latin or French grammar, they now and then should be kept +fasting; and, if they cut their finger, should have no plaister +till it festered. No part of a royal brat's memory, which is +good enough, should be burthened but with the remembrance of +human sufferings. In short, I fear our nature is so liable to be +corrupted and perverted by greatness, rank, power, and wealth, +that I am inclined to think that virtue is the compensation to +the poor for the want of riches: nay, I am disposed to believe +that the first footpad or highwayman has been a man of quality, +or a prince, who could not bear having wasted his fortune, and +was too lazy to work; for a beggar-born would think labour a more +natural way of getting a livelihood than venturing his life. I +have something a similar opinion about common women. No modest +girl thinks of many men, till she has been in love with one, been +ruined by him, and abandoned. But to return to my theme, and it +will fall heavy on yourself. Could the milkwoman have been so +bad, if you had merely kept her from starving, instead of giving +her opulence? The soil, I doubt, was bad; but it could not have +produced the rank weed of ingratitude, if you had not dunged it +with gold, which rises from rock, and seems to meet with a +congenial bed when it falls on the human heart. + +And so Dr. Warton imagines I m writing "Walpoliana!" No, in +truth, nor any thing else; nor shall-nor will I go out in a +jest-book. Age has not only made me prudent, but, luckily, lazy; +and, without the latter extinguisher, I do not know but that +farthing candle my discretion would let my snuff of life flit to +the last sparkle of folly, like what children call. the parson +and clerk in a bit of burnt paper. You see by my writability in +pressing my letters on you, that my pen has still a colt's tooth +left, but I never indulge the poor old child with more paper than +this small-sized sheet, I do not give it enough to make a paper +kite and fly abroad on wings of booksellers. You ought to +continue writing, for you do good your writings, or at least mean +it; and if a virtuous intention fails, it is a sort of coin, +which, though thrown away, still makes the donor worth more than +he was before he gave it away. I delight too in the temperature +of your piety, and that you would not see the enthusiastic +exorcist. How shocking to suppose that the Omnipotent Creator of +worlds delegates his power to a momentary insect to eject +supernatural spirits that he had permitted to infest another +insect, and had permitted to vomit blasphemies against himself! +Pray do not call that enthusiasm, but delirium. I pity real +enthusiasts, but I would shave their heads and take away some +blood. The exorcist's associates are in a worse predicament, I +doubt, and hope to make enthusiasts. If such abominable +impostors were not rather a subject of indignation, I could smile +at the rivalship between them and the animal magnetists, who are +inveigling fools into their different pales. And alas! while +folly has a shilling left, there will be enthusiasts and quack +doctors; and there will be slaves while there are kings or +sugar-planters.(624) I have remarked, that though Jesuits, etc. +travel to distant East and West to propagate their religion and +traffic, I never heard of one that made a journey into Asia or +Africa to preach the doctrines of liberty, though those regions +are so deplorably oppressed. Nay, I much doubt whether ever any +chaplain of the regiments we have sent to India has once +whispered to a native of Bengal, that there are milder forms of +government than those of his country. No; security of property +is not a wholesome doctrine to be inculcated in a land where the +soil produces diamonds and gold! In short, if your Bristol +exorcist believes he can cast out devils, why does he not go to +Leadenhallstreet? There is a company whose name is legion. + +By your gambols, as you call them, after the most ungambolling +peeress in Christendom, and by your jaunts, I conclude, to my +great satisfaction, that you are quite well. Change of scene and +air are good for your spirits; and September, like all our old +ladies, has given itself May airs, and must have made your +journey very pleasant. Yet you will be glad to get back to your +Cowslip-green, though it may offer you nothing but Michaelmas +daisies. When you do leave it, I wish you could persuade Mrs. +Garrick to settle sooner in London. There is full as good hay to +be made in town at Christmas at Hampton, and some hay-makers that +will wish for you particularly. Your most sincere friend. + +(623) Ann Yearsley. See ant`e, p. 395, letter 313.-E. + +(624) In the letter to which this is a reply, Miss More had +said-- "in vain do we boast of the enlightened eighteenth +century, and conceitedly talk as if human reason had not a +manacle left about her, but that philosophy had broken down all +the strongholds of prejudice, ignorance, and superstition: and +yet at this very time Mesmer has got an hundred thousand pounds +by animal magnetism in Paris, and Mainanduc is getting as much in +London. There is a fortune-teller in Westminster who is making +little less. Lavater's Physiognomy-books sell at fifteen guineas +a set. The divining-rod is still considered as oracular in many +places. Devils are cast out by seven ministers; and, to complete +the disgraceful catalogue, slavery is vindicated in print, and +defended in the House of Peers." Memoirs, vol. ii. P. 120.-E. + + + +Letter 324 To The Right Hon. Lady Craven. +Berkeley Square, Dec. 11, 1788. (page 411) + +It is agreeable to your ladyship's usual goodness to honour me +with another letter; and I may say, to your equity too, after I +had proved to Monsieur Mercier, by the list of dates of my +letters, that it was not mine, but the post's fault, that you did +not receive one that I had the honour of writing to you above a +year ago. Not, Madam, that I could wonder if you had the +prudence to drop a correspondence with an old superannuated man; +who, conscious of his decay, has had the decency of not +troubling, with his dotages persons of not near your ladyship's +youth and vivacity. I have been of opinion that few persons know +when to die; I am not so English as to mean when to despatch +themselves--no, but when to go out of the world. I have usually +applied this opinion to those who have made a considerable +figure; and, consequently, it was not adapted to myself. Yet +even we ciphers ought not to fatigue the public scene when we are +become lumber. Thus, being quite out of the question, I will +explain my maxim, which is the more wholesome, the higher it is +addressed. My opinion, +then, is, that when any personage has shone as much as is +possible in his or her best walk, (and, not to repeat both +genders every minute, I will use the male as the common of the +two,) he should take up his Strulbrugism, and be heard of no +more. Instances will be still more explanatory. Voltaire ought +to have pretended to die after Alzire, Mahomet, and Semiramis, +and not have produced his wretched last pieces: Lord Chatham +should have closed his political career with his immortal war: +and how weak was Garrick, when he had quitted the stage, to limp +after the tatters of fame by writing and reading pitiful poems; +and even by sitting to read plays which he had acted with such +fire and energy! We have another example in Mr. Anstey; who, if +he had a friend upon earth, would have been obliged to him for +being knocked on the head, the moment he had published the first +edition of the Bath Guide; for, even in the second, he had +exhausted his whole stock of inspiration, and has never written +any thing tolerable since. When Such unequal authors print their +works together, one man may apply in a new light the old hacked +simile of Mezentius, who tied together the living and the dead. + +We have just received the works of an author, from whom I find I +am to receive much less entertainment than I expected, because I +shall have much less to read than I intended. His Memoirs, I am +told, are almost wholly military; which, therefore, I shall not +read: and his poetry, I am sure, I shall not look at, because I +should not understand it. What I saw of it formerly, convinced +me that he would not have been a poet, even if he had written in +his own language: and, though I do not understand German, I am +told it is a fine language - and I can easily believe that any +tongue (not excepting our old barbarous Saxon, which, a bit of an +antiquary +as I am, I abhor,) is more harmonious than French. It was +curious absurdity, therefore, to pitch on the most unpoetic +language in Europe, the most barren, and the most clogged with +difficulties. I have heard Russian and Polish sung, and both +sounded musical; but, to abandon one's own tongue, and not adopt +Italian, that is even sweeter, and softer, and more copious, than +the Latin, was a want of taste that I should think could not be +applauded even by a Frenchman born in Provence. But what a +language is the French, which measures verses by feet that never +are to be pronounced; which is the case wherever the mute e is +found! What poverty of various sounds for rhyme, when, lest +similar cadences should too often occur, their mechanic bards are +obliged to marry masculine and feminine terminations as +alternately as the black and white squares of a chessboard? Nay, +will you believe me, Madam,--yes, you will, for you may convince +your own eyes,-that a scene of Zaire begins with three of the +most nasal adverbs that ever snorted together in a breath? +Enfin, donc, desormais, are the culprits in question. Enfin +donc, need I tell your ladyship, that the author I alluded to at +the beginning of' this long tirade is the late King of Prussia? + +I am conscious that I have taken a little liberty when I +excommunicate a tongue in which your ladyship has condescended to +write;(625) but I only condemn it for verse and pieces of +eloquence, of which I thought it alike incapable, till I read +Rousseau of Geneva. It is a most sociable language, and charming +for narrative and epistles. Yet, write as well as you will in +it, you must be liable to express yourself better in the speech +natural to you and your own country has a right to understand all +your works, and is jealous of their not being as perfect as you +could make them. Is it not more creditable to be translated into +a foreign language than into your own? and will it not vex you to +hear the translation taken for the original, and to find +vulgarisms that you could not have committed yourself? But I have +done, and will release you, Madam; only observing, that you +flatter me with a vain hope, when you tell me you shall return to +England, some time or other. Where will that time be for me! and +when it arrives, shall I not be somewhere else? + +I do not pretend to send your ladyship English news, nor to tell +you of English literature. You must before this time have heard +of the dismal state into which our chief personage is fallen! +That consideration absorbs all others. The two houses are going +to settle some intermediate succedaneum; and the obvious one, no +doubt, will be fixed on. + +(625) Besides writing a comedy in French, called "Nourjahad," +Lady Craven had translated into that language Cibber's play of +"She would and She would not."-E. + + + +Letter 325 \To The Miss Berrys.(626) +February 2, 17-71(627) [1789.) (page 413) + +I am sorry, in the sense of that word before it meant, like a +Hebrew word, glad or sorry, that I am engaged this evening; and I +am at your command on Tuesday, as it is always my inclination to +be. It is a misfortune that words are become so much the current +coin of society, that, like King William's shillings, they have +no impression left; they are so smooth, that they mark no more to +whom they first belonged than to whom they do belong, and are not +worth even the twelvepence into which they may be changed: but if +they mean too little, they may seem to mean too much too, +especially when an old man (who is often synonymous for a miser) +parts with them. I am afraid of protesting how much I delight in +your society, lest I should seem to affect being gallant; but if +two negatives make an affirmative, why may not two ridicules +compose one piece of sense? and therefore, as I am in love with +you both, I trust it is a proof of the good sense of your devoted +H. WALPOLE. + +(626) This is the first of a series of letters addressed by Mr +Walpole to Miss Mary and Miss Agnes Berry, and now first +published from the original in their possession.-E. + +(627) The date is thus put, alluding to his age, which, in'1789 +was seventy-one.-M. B. + + + +letter 326 To The Miss Berrys. +Berkeley Square, March 20, 1789. (page 413) + +Mrs. Damer had lent her Madame de la Motte,(628) and I have but +this moment recovered it; so, you see, I had not forgotten it any +more than my engagements to you: nay, were it not ridiculous at +my age to use a term so almost run out as never, I would add, +that you may find I never can forget you. I hope you are not +engaged this day sevennight, but will allow me to wait on you to +Lady Ailesbury, which I will settle with her when I have your +answer. I did mention it to her in general, but have no day free +before Friday next, except Thursday; when, if there is another +illumination, as is threatened, we should neither get thither nor +thence; especially not the latter, if the former is +impracticable. + +"Quicquid delirant Reges, plectuntur Achivi."(629) + +P. S. I have got a few hairs of Edward the Fourth's head, not +beard; they are of a darkish brown, not auburn. + +(628) The M`emoire Justificatif of Madame de la Motte, relative +to her conduct in the far-famed affair of the necklace.-E. + +(629) Alluding to the public rejoicings on the recovery of George +the Third from his first illness in 1788. In a letter to her +sister of the 9th of March, Miss More relates the following +particulars:--"A day or two ago I dined at the Bishop of +London's, with Dr. Willis. As we had nobody else at dinner but +the Master of the Rolls, I was indulged in asking the doctor all +manner of impertinent questions. He never saw, he said, so much +natural sweetness and goodness of mind, united to so much piety, +as in the King. During his illness, he many time shed tears for +Lord North's blindness. The Bishop had been to him that morning: +he told him that he wished to return his thanks to Almighty God +in the most public manner, and hoped the Bishop would not refuse +him a sermon. He proposed going to St. Paul's to do it. He +himself has named one of the Psalms for the thanksgiving-day, and +the twelfth of Isaiah for the lesson." + + +On the 17th, she again writes--"The Queen and Princesses came to +see the illuminations, and did not get back to Kew till after one +O'clock. When the coach stopped, the Queen took notice of a fine +gentleman who came to the coach-door without his hat. This was +the King, who came to hand her out. She scolded him for being up +and out so late; but he gallantly replied, 'he could not Possibly +go to bed and sleep till he knew she was safe.' There never was +so joyous, so innocent, and so orderly a mob." Memoirs, vol. ii. +Pp. 144- 155-E. + + + +Letter 327 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, April 22, 1789. (page 414) + +Dear Madam, +As perhaps you have not yet seen the "Botanic Garden" (which I +believe I mentioned to you), I lend it you to read. The poetry, +I think, you will allow most admirable; and difficult it was, no +doubt. If you are not a naturalist, as well as a poetess, +perhaps you will lament that so powerful a talent has been wasted +to so little purpose; for where is the use of describing in verse +what nobody can understand without a long prosaic explanation of +every article? It is still more unfortunate that there is not a +symptom of plan in the whole poem. The lady-flowers and their +lovers enter in pairs or trios, or etc. as often as the couples +in Cassandra. and you are not a whit more interested about one +heroine and her swain than about another. The similes are +beautiful, fine, and sometimes sublime: and thus the episodes +will be better remembered than the mass of the poem itself, which +one cannot call the subject; for could one call it a subject, if +any body had composed a poem on the matches formerly made in the +Fleet, where, as Waitwell says, in "The Way of the World," they +stood like couples in rows ready to begin a country-dance? +Still, I flatter myself you will agree with me that the author is +a great poet, and could raise the passions, and possesses all the +requisites of the art. I found but a single bad verse; in the +last canto one line ends e'er long. You will perhaps be +surprised at meeting a truffle converted into a nymph, and +inhabiting a palace studded with emeralds and rubies like a +saloon in the Arabian Nights! I had a more particular motive for +sending this poem to you: you will find the bard espousing your +poor Africans. There is besides, which will please you too, a +handsome panegyric on the apostle of humanity, Mr. Howard.(630) + +Mrs. Garrick, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in her own box +at Mr. Conway's play, gave me a much better account of your +health which delighted me. I am sure, my good friend, you +partake of my joy at the great success of his comedy. The +additional character of the Abb`e pleased much: it was added by +the advice of the players to enliven it; that is, to stretch the +jaws of the pit and galleries. I sighed silently; for it was +originally so genteel and of a piece, that I was sorry to have it +tumbled by coarse applauses. But this is a secret. I am going +to Twickenham for two days on an assignation with the spring, and +to avoid the riotous devotion of to-morrow. + +A gentleman essayist has printed what he calls some strictures on +my Royal and Noble Authors, in revenge for my having spoken +irreverently (on Bishop Burnet's authority) of the Earl of +Anglesey, who had the honour, it seems, of being the gentleman's +grandfather. He asks me, by the way, why it was more ridiculous +in the Duke of Newcastle to write his two comedies, than in the +Duke of Buckingham to write "The Rehearsal?" Alas! I know but +one reason; which is, that it is less ridiculous to write one +excellent comedy, than two very bad ones. Peace be with such +answerers! Adieu, my dear Madam! Yours most cordially. + +(630) "I did not feel," says Miss More, in her reply, "so much +gratified in reading the poem, marvellous as I think it, as I did +at the kindness which led you to think of me when you met with +any thing that you imagined would give me pleasure. Your +strictures, which are as true as if they had no wit in them, +served to embellish every page as I went on, and were more +intelligible and delightful to me than the scientific annotations +in the margin. The author is, indeed, a poet; and I wish, with +you, that he had devoted his exuberant fancy, his opulence of +imagery, and his correct and melodious versification. to +subjects more congenial to human feelings than the intrigues of a +flower-garden. I feel, like the most passionate ]over, the +beauty of the cyclamen, or honeysuckle; but am as indifferent as +the most fashionable husband to their amours, their pleasures, or +their unhappiness." Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 149.-E. + + + +Letter 328 To The Miss Berrys. +April 28, at night, 1789. (page 415) + +By my not saying no to Thursday, you, I trust, understood that I +meant yes; and so I do. In the mean time, I send you the most +delicious poem upon earth. If you don't know what it is all +about, or why; at least you will find glorious similes about +every thing in the world, and I defy you to discover three bad +verses in the whole stack. Dryden was but the prototype of the +Botanic Garden in his charming Flower and Leaf; and if he had +less meaning, it is true he had more plan: and I must own, that +his white velvets and green velvets, and rubies and emeralds, +were much more virtuous gentlefolks than most of the flowers of +the creation, who seem to have no fear of Doctors' Commons before +their eyes. This is only the Second Part; for, like my 'king's +eldest daughter' in the Hieroglyphic Tales, the First Part is not +born yet:--no matter. I can read this over and over again for +ever; for though it is so excellent, it is impossible to remember +any thing so disjointed, except you consider it as a collection +of short enchanting poems,--as the Circe at her tremendous +devilries in a church; the intrigue of the dear nightingale and +rose; and the description of Medea; the episode of Mr. Howard, +which ends with the most sublime of lines--in short, all, all; +all is the most lovely poetry. And then one sighs, that such +profusion of poetry, magnificent and tender, should be thrown +away on what neither interests nor instructs, and, with all the +pains the notes take to explain, is scarce intelligible.' + +How strange it is, that a man should have been inspired with such +enthusiasm of poetry by poring through a microscope, and peeping +through the keyholes of all the seraglios of all the flowers in +the universe I hope his discoveries may leave any impression but +of the universal polygamy going on in the vegetable world, where, +however, it is more gallant than amongst the human race; for you +will find that they are the botanic ladies who keep harams, and +not the gentlemen. Still, I will maintain that it is much better +that we should have two wives than your sex two husbands. So +pray don't mind Linnaeus and Dr. Darwin: Dr. Madan had ten times +more sense. Adieu! Your doubly constant Telypthorus. + +(631) "Modern ears," says Mr. Matthias, in the Pursuits of +Literature, "are absolutely debauched by such poetry as Dr. +Darwin's, which marks the decline of simplicity and true taste in +this country. It is to England what Seneca's prose was to Rome: +abundat dulcibus vitiis. Dryden and Pope are the standards of +excellence in this species of writing in our language; and when +young minds are rightly instituted in their works, they may, +without much danger, read such glittering verses as Dr. Darwin's. +They will then perceive the distortion of the sentiment, and the +harlotry of the ornaments." To the short-lived popularity of Dr. +Darwin, the admirable poem of "The Loves of the Triangles'" the +joint production of Mr. Canning and Mr. Frere, in no small degree +contributed.-E. + + + +Letter 329 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Tuesday, June 23, 1789. (PAGE 416) + +I am not a little disappointed and mortified at the post bringing +me no letter from you to-day; you promised to write on the road. +I reckon you arrived at your station on Sunday evening: if you do +not write till next day, I shall have no letter till Thursday! + +I am not at all consoled for my double loss: my only comfort is, +that I flatter myself the journey and air will be of service to +you both. The latter has been of use to me, though the part of +the element of air has been chiefly acted by the element of +water, as my poor haycocks feel! Tonton (632) does not miss you +so much as I do, not having so good a taste; for he is grown very +fond of me, and I return it for your sakes, though he deserves it +too, for he is perfectly good-natured and tractable; but he is +not beautiful, like his " god-dog,(633) as Mr. Selwyn, who dined +here on Saturday, called my poor late favourite; especially as I +have had him clipped. The shearing has brought to light a nose +an ell long; an as he has now nasum rhinocerotis, I do not doubt +but he will be a better critic in poetry than Dr. Johnson, who +judged of harmony by the principles of an author, and fancied, or +wished to make others believe, that no Jacobite could write bad +verses, nor a Whig good. + +Have you shed a tear over the Opera-house?(634) or do you agree +with me, that there is no occasion to rebuild it? The nation has +long been tired of operas, and has now a good opportunity of +dropping them. Dancing protracted their existence for some time; +but the room after. was the real support of both, and was like +what has been said of your sex, that they never speak their true +meaning but in the postscript of their letters. Would not it be +sufficient to build an after-room on the whole emplacement, to +which people might resort from all assemblies? It should be a +codicil to all the diversions of London; and the greater the +concourse, the more excuse there would be for staying all night, +from the impossibility of ladies getting their coaches to drive +up. To be crowded to death in a waiting-room, at the end of an +entertainment, is the whole joy; for who goes to any diversion +till the last minute of it? I am persuaded that, instead if +retrenching St. Athanasius's Creed, as the Duke of Grafton +proposed, in order to draw good company to church, it would be +more efficacious if the Congregation were to be indulged with an +After-room in the vestry; and, instead of two or three being +gathered together, there would be all the world, before the +prayers would be quite over. + +Thursday night + +"Despairing, beside a clear stream +A shepherd forsaken was laid;"-- + +not very close to the stream, but within doors in sight of it; +for in this damp weather a lame old Colin cannot lie and despair +with any comfort on a wet bank: but I smile against the grain, +and am seriously alarmed at Thursday being come, and no letter! +I dread one of you being ill. Mr. Batt(635) and the Abb`e +Nicholls(636) dined with me to-day, and I could talk of you en +pais de connoissance. They tried to persuade me that I have no +cause to be in a fright about you; but I have such perfect faith +in the kindness of both of you, as I have in your possessing +every other virtue, that I cannot believe but some sinister +accident must have prevented my hearing from you. I wish Friday +was come! I cannot write about any thing else till I have a +letter. + +(632) A dog of Miss Berry's left in Walpole's care during their +absence in Yorkshire.-M.B. + +(633) The dog which had been bequeathed to Mr. Walpole by Madame +du Deffand at her death, and which was likewise called Tonton. +See ant`e, p. 275, letter 217.-M.B. + +(634) on the night of the 17th, the Opera-house was entirely +consumed by fire.-E. + +(635) Thomas Batt, Esq. then one of the commissioners for public +accounts.-E. + +(636) The Rev. Norton Nicholls, rector of Lound and Bradwell in +the county of Suffolk; one of the most elegant scholars and +accomplished gentlemen of the day. He died in November 1809, in +his sixty-eighth year. " It was his singular good fortune," says +Mr. Dawson Turner, , to have been distinguished in his early life +by the friendship of Gray the poet; while the close of his days +was cheered and enlivened and dignified by the friendship, and +almost constant society, of a Man scarcely inferior to Gray in +talent and acquirements Mr. Mathias; who has embalmed his memory +in an Italian Ode and a biographical Memoir; which latter is a +beautiful specimen of that kind of composition.,, They will both +be found in the fifth volume of Nicholls's Illustrations of +Literature.-E. + + + +Letter 330 To Miss Hannah More. +Strawberry Hill, June 23, 1789. (PAGE 418) + +Madam Hannah, +You are an errant reprobate, and grow wickeder and wickeder every +day. You deserve to be treated like a negre; and your favourite +Sunday, to which you are so partial that you treat the other poor +six days of the week as if they had no souls to be saved, should, +if I could have my will, "shine no Sabbath-day for you." Now, +don't simper, and look as innocent as if virtue would not melt in +your mouth. Can you deny the following charges?--I lent you "The +Botanic Garden," and you returned it without writing a syllable, +or saying, -where you were or whither you was going; I suppose +for fear I should know how to direct to you. Why, if I did send +a letter after you, could not you keep it three months without an +answer, as you did last year? + +In the next place, you and your nine accomplices, who, by the +way, are too good in keeping you company, have clubbed the +prettiest poem imaginable,(637) and communicated it to Mrs. +Boscawen, with injunctions not to give a copy of it; I suppose, +because you are ashamed of having written a panegyric. Whenever +you do compose a satire, you are ready enough to publish it; at +least, whenever you do, you will din one to death with it. But +now, mind your perverseness: that very pretty novel poem, and I +must own it is charming, have you gone and spoiled, flying in the +faces of your best friends the Muses, and keeping no measures +with them. I'll be shot if they dictated two of the best lines +with two syllables too much in each--nay, you have weakened one +of them, + +"Ev'n Gardiner's mind" + +is far more expressive than steadfast Gardiner's; and, as Mrs. +Boscawen says, whoever knows any thing of Gardiner, could not +want that superfluous epithet; and whoever does not, would not be +the wiser for your foolish insertion--Mrs. Boscawen did not call +it foolish, but I do. The second line, as Mesdemoiselles the +Muses handed it to you, Miss, was, + +"Have all be free and saved--" + +not, "All be free and all be saved:" the second all be is a most +unnecessary tautology. The poem was perfect and faultless, if +you could have let it alone. I wonder how your mischievous +flippancy could help maiming that most new and beautiful +expression, "sponge Of sins;" I should not have been surprised, +as you love verses too full of feet, if you have changed it to +"that scrubbing-brush of sins." + +Well! I will say no more now: but if you do not order me a copy +of "Bonner's Ghost" incontinently, never dare to look my printing +house in the face again. Or come, I'll tell you what; I will +forgive all your enormities, if you will let me print your poem. +I like to filch a little immortality out of others, and the +Strawberry press could never have a better opportunity. I will +not haggle for the public will be content with printing only two +hundred copies, of which you shall have half, and I half. It +shall cost you nothing but a yes, I only propose this, in case +you do not mean to print it yourself. Tell me sincerely which +you like. But as to not printing it at all, charming and +unexceptionable as it is, you cannot be so preposterous.(638) I +by no means have a thought of detracting from your own share in +your own poem; but, as I do suspect that it caught some +inspiration from your perusal of "The Botanic Garden," so I hope +you will discover that my style is much improved by having lately +studied Bruce's travels. There I dipped, and not in St. Giles's +pound, where one would think this author had been educated. +Adieu! Your friend, or mortal foe, as you behave on the present +occasion. + +(637) "Bishop Bonner's Ghost;" to which was prefixed the +following argument:--"In the garden of the palace at Fulham is a +dark recess; at the end of this stands a chair which once +belonged to Bishop Bonner. A certain Bishop of London more than +two hundred years after the death of the aforesaid -Bonner just +as the clock of the Gothic chapel had struck six undertook to cut +with his own hand a narrow walk through this thicket, which is +since called 'The Monk's Walk.' He had no sooner begun to clear +the way, than lo! suddenly up started from the chair the Ghost of +Bonner; who, in a tone of just and bitter indignation, uttered +the following verses."-E. + +(638) Miss More, in her reply, says--"I send this under cover to +the Bishop of London, to whom I write your emendations, and +desire they may be considered as the true reading. What is odd +enough, I did write both the lines so at first but must go +a-tinkering them afterwards. I do not pretend that I am 'lot +flattered by your obliging proposal of printing these slight +verses at the Strawberry press. YOU must do as you please, I +believe. What business have I to think meanly of verses You have +commended?" Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 159.-E. + + + +Letter 331 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, June 30, 1789. (PAGE 419) + +Were there any such thing as sympathy at the distance of two +hundred miles, you would have been in a mightier panic than I +was; for, on Saturday se'nnight, going to open the glass case in +the Tribune, my foot caught in the carpet, and I fell with my +whole (si weight y a) weight against the corner of the marble +altar, on my side, and bruised the muscles so badly, that for two +days I could not move without screaming.(639) I am convinced I +should have broken a rib, but that I fell on the cavity whence +two of my ribs were removed, that are gone to Yorkshire. I am +much better both of my bruise and of my lameness, and shall be +ready to dance at my own wedding when my wives return. And now +to answer your letter. If you grow tired of the Arabian Nights, +you have no more taste than Bishop Atterbury,(640) who huffed +Pope for sending him them or the Persian Tales, and fancied he +liked Virgil better, who had no more imagination than Dr. +Akenside. Read Sinbad the Sailor's Voyages, and you will be sick +of AEneas's. What woful invention were the nasty poultry that +dunged on his dinner, and ships on fire turned into Nereids! a +barn metamorphosed into a cascade in a pantomime is full as +sublime an effort of genius. I do not know whether the Arabian +Nights are of Oriental origin or not:(641) I should think not, +because I never saw any other Oriental composition that was not +bombast without genius, and figurative without nature; like an +Indian screen, where you see little men on the foreground, and +larger men hunting tigers above in the air, which they take for +perspective. I do not think the Sultaness's narratives very +natural or very probable, but there is a wildness in them that +captivates. However, if you could wade through two octavos(642) +of Dame Piozzi's thoughts and so's and I trow's, and cannot +listen to seven volumes of Scheherezade's narrations, I will sue +for a divorce infibro Parnassi, and Boccalini shall be my +proctor. The cause will be a counterpart to the sentence of the +Lacedoemonian, who was condemned for breach of the peace, by +saying in three words what he might have said in two. + +You are not the first Eurydice that has sent her husband to the +devil, as you have kindly proposed to me; but I will not +undertake the jaunt, for if old Nicholas Pluto should enjoin me +not to look back to you, I should certainly forget the +prohibition like my predecessor. Besides, I am a little too +close to take a voyage twice which I am so soon to repeat; and +should be laughed at by the good folks on the other side of the +water, if I proposed coming back for a twinkling Only. No; I +choose as long as I can + +"Still with my fav'rite Berrys to remain."(643) + +So you was not quite satisfied, though you ought to have been +transported, with King's College Chapel, because it has no +aisles, like every common cathedral. I suppose you would object +to a bird of paradise, because it has no legs, but shoots to +heaven in a trait, and does not rest on earth. Criticism and +comparison spoil many tastes. You should admire all bold and +unique essays that resemble nothing else; the Botanic Garden, the +Arabian Nights, and King's Chapel are above all rules: and how +preferable is what no one can imitate, to all that is imitated +even from the best models! Your partiality to the pageantry of +popery I do not approve, and I doubt whether the world will not +be a loser (in its visionary enjoyments) by the extinction of +that religion, as it was by the decay of chivalry and the +proscription of the heathen deities. Reason has no invention; +and as plain sense will never be the legislator of human affairs, +it is fortunate when taste happens to be regent. + +(639) Miss More, in a letter written at this time to Walpole, +says, "How you do scold me! but I don't care for your scolding; +and I don't care for your wit neither, that I don't. half as +much as I care for a blow which I hear you have given yourself +against a table. I have known such very serious consequences +arise from such accidents, that I beg of you to drown yourself in +the "Veritable Arquebusade." Memoirs, vol. ii. P. 158.-E. + +(640) The following are the Bishop's expressions:--"And now, Sir, +for your Arabian Tales. Ill as I have been, almost ever since +they came to hand, I have read as much of them as I shall read +while I live. indeed, they do not please my taste; they are writ +with so romantic an air, and are of so wild and absurd a +contrivance, that I have not only no pleasure, but no patience in +reading them. I cannot help thinking them the production of some +woman's imagination." The Honourable Charles Yorke, in a letter +to his brother, the second Earl of Hardwicke written in June +1740, states that Pope and Warburton both agreed in condemning +the bishop's judgment on the Arabian Tales and that Warburton +added, that from those tales the completest notion might be +gather,d of the Eastern ceremonies and manners.-E. + +(641) The work entitled "Mille et Une Nuits," was translated from +an original Arabic manuscript, in the King of France's library by +M. Galland, professor of Arabic in the University of Paris. It +appeared in 1704-8: in twelve volumes.-E. + +(642) Her "Observations and Reflections in the course of a +Journey through France, Italy, and Germany," honoured with a +couplet in the Baviad-- + +See Thrale's gray widow with a satchel roam, +And bring in Pomp laborious nothings home."-E. + +(643) A line from some verses that he had received.-M.B. + + + +Letter 332 To Miss Hannah More. +Strawberry Hill, July 2, 1789. (PAGE 421) + +I almost think I shall never abuse you again; nay, I would not, +did not it prove so extremely good for you. No walnut tree is +better for being threshed than you are; and, though you have won +my heart by your compliance, I don't know whether my conscience +will not insist on my using YOU ill now and then; for is there +any precedent for gratitude not giving way to every other duty? +Gratitude like an earl's eldest son, is but titular, and has no +place upon trials. But I fear I punning sillily, instead of +thanking you seriously, as I do, for allowing me to print your +lovely verses. My press can confer no honour; but, when I offer +it, it is a certain mark Of My sincerity and esteem. It has been +dedicated to friendship, to charity-too often to worthless +self-love; sometimes to the rarity of the pieces, and sometimes +to the merit of them; now it will unite the first motive and the +last. + +My fall, for which you so kindly concern yourself, was not worth +mentioning; for as I only bruised the muscles of my side, instead +of breaking a rib, camphire infused in arquebusade took off the +pain and all consequences in five or six days: and one has no +right to draw on the compassion of others for what one has +suffered and is past. Some love to be pitied on that score; but +forget that they only excite, in the best-natured, joy on their +deliverance. You commend me too for not complaining of my +chronical evil; but, my dear Madam, I should be blamable for the +reverse. If I would live to seventy-two, ought I not to compound +for the encumbrances of old age? And who has fewer? And who has +more cause to be thankful to Providence for his lot? The gout, +it is true, comes frequently, but the fits are short, and very +tolerable; the intervals are full health. My eyes are perfect, +my hearing but little impaired, chiefly to whispers, for which I +certainly have little occasion: my spirits never fail; and though +my hands and feet are crippled, I can use both, and do not wish +to box, wrestle, or dance a hornpipe. In short, I am just infirm +enough to enjoy all the prerogatives of old age, and to plead +them against any thing I have not a mind to do. Young men must +conform to every folly in fashion - drink when they had rather be +sober; fight a duel if somebody else is wrong-headed; marry to +please their fathers, not themselves; and shiver in a white +waistcoat, because ancient almanacks, copying the Arabian, placed +the month of June after May; though, when the style was reformed, +it ought to have been intercalated between December and January. +Indeed, I have been so childish as to cut my hay for the same +reason, and am now weeping over it by the fireside. But to come +to business. + +You must suffer me to print two hundred copies; and if you +approve it, I will send thirty to the Bishop of London out of +your quota. You may afterwards give him more, if you please. I +do not propose putting your name, unless you desire it; as I +think it would swear with the air of ancientry you have adopted +in the signature and notes. The authoress will be no secret; and +as It will certainly get into magazines, why should not you deal +privately beforehand with some bookseller, and have a second +edition ready to appear soon after mine is finished? The +difficulty of getting my edition at first, from the paucity of +the number and from being only given as presents, will make the +second edition eagerly sought for; and I do not see why my +anticipating the publication should deprive you of the profit. +Rather than do that, I would print a smaller number. I wish to +raise an additional appetite to that which every body has for +your writings; I am sure I did not mean to injure you. Pray +think of this; there 'Is time enough; I cannot begin to print +under a week: my press has lain fallow for some time, and my +printer must prepare ink, balls, etc.; and as I have but one man, +he cannot be expeditious. I seriously do advise you to have a +second edition ready; why should covetous booksellers run away +with all the advantages of your genius? They get enough by their +ample share of the sale. + +I will say no more, but to repeat my thanks for your consent, +which truly obliges me; and I am happy to have been the +instrument of' preserving what your modesty would have sunk. My +esteem could not increase: but one likes to be connected by +favours to those one highly values. + + + +Letter 333 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, July 9, 1789. (PAGE 422) + +You are so good and punctual, that I will complain no more of +your silence, unless you are silent. You must not relax, +especially until you can give me better accounts of your health +and spirits. I was peevish before with the weather; but, now it +prevents your riding, I forget hay and roses, and all the +comforts that are washed away, and shall only watch the +weathercock for an east wind in Yorkshire. What a shame that I +should recover from the gout and from bruises, as I assure you I +am entirely, and that you should have a complaint left! One would +think that it was I was grown young again; for while just now, as +I was reading your letter in my bedchamber, while some of my +customers(644) are seeing the house, I heard a gentleman in the +armoury ask the housekeeper as he looked at the bows and arrows, +"Pray, does Mr. Walpole shoot?" No, nor with pistols neither. I +leave all weapons to Lady Salisbury(645) and Mr. Lenox;(646) and, +since my double marriage, have suspended my quiver in the Temple +of Hymen. Hygeia shall be my goddess, if she will send you back +blooming to this region. + +I wish I had preserved any correspondence in France, as you are +curious about their present history; which I believe very +momentous indeed. What little I have accidentally heard, I will +relate, and will learn what more I can. On the King,'s being +advised to put out his talons, Necker desired leave to resign, as +not having been consulted, and as the measure violated his plan. +The people, hearing his intention, thronged to Versailles; and he +was forced to assure them from a balcony, that he was not to +retire. I am not accurate in dates, nor warrant my intelligence, +and therefore pretend only to send you detached scraps. Force +being still in request, the Duc du Chatelet acquainted the King +that he could not answer for the French guards. Chatelet, who, +from his hot arrogant temper, I should have thought would have +been One of the proudest opposers of the people, is suspected to +lean to them. In short, Marshal Broglio is appointed +commander-in-chief, and is said to have sworn on his sword, that +he will not sheathe it till he has plunged it into the heart of +ce gros banquier Genevois. I cannot reconcile this with Necker's +stay at Versailles. That he is playing a deep game is certain. +It is reported that Madame Necker tastes previously every thing +he swallows.(647) A vast camp is forming round Paris; but the +army is mutinous--the tragedy may begin on the other side. They +do talk of an engagement at Metz, where the French troops, +espousing the popular cause, were attacked by two German +regiments, whom the former cut to pieces. The Duke and Duchess +of Devonshire, who were at Paris, have thought it prudent to +leave it; and My Cousin, Mr. Thomas Walpole, who is near it, has +just written to his daughters, that he is glad to be Out of the +town, that he may Make his retreat easily. + +Thus, you see the crisis is advanced far beyond orations, and +wears all the aspect of civil war. For can one imagine that the +whole nation is converted at once, and in some measure without +provocation from the King, who, far from enforcing the +prerogative like Charles the First, Cancelled the despotism +obtained for his grandfather by the Chancellor Maupeou, has +exercised no tyranny, and has shown a disposition to let the +constitution be amended. It did want it indeed; but I fear the +present want of temper grasps at so much, that they defeat their +own purposes; and where loyalty has for ages been the predominant +characteristic of a nation, it cannot be eradicated at once. +Pity will soften the tone of the moment; and the nobility and +clergy have more interest in wearing a royal than a popular yoke; +for great lords and high-priests think the rights of mankind a +defalcation of-their privileges. No man living is more devoted +to liberty than I am; yet blood is a terrible price to pay for +it! A martyr to liberty is the noblest of characters; but to +sacrifice the lives of others, though for the benefit of all, is +a strain of heroism that I could never ambition. + +I have just been reading Voltaire's Correspondence,--one of those +heroes who liked better to excite martyrs, than to be one. How +vain would he be, if alive now! I was struck with one of his +letters to La Chalotais, who was a true upright patriot and +martyr too. In the 221 st Letter of the sixth volume, Voltaire +says to him, "Vous avez jett`e des germes qui produiront un jour +plus qu'on ne pense." It was lucky for me that you inquired about +France; I had not a halfpennyworth more of news in my wallet. + +A person who was very apt to call on you every morning for a +Minute, and stay three hours, was with me the other day, and his +grievance from the rain was the swarms of gnats. I said, I +supposed I have very bad blood, for gnats never bite me. He +replied, "I believe I have bad blood, too, for dull people, who +would tire me to death, never Come Dear me." Shall I beg a +pallet-full of that repellent for you, to set in your window as +barbers do? + +I believe you will make me grow a little of a newsmonger, though +you are none; but I know that at a distance, in the country, +letters of news are a regale. I am not wont to listen to the +batteries on each side of me at Hampton-court and Richmond; but +in your absence I shall turn a less deaf ear to them, in hopes of +gleaning something that may amuse you: though I shall leave their +manufactures of scandal for their own home consumption; you +happily do not deal in such wares. Adieu! I used to think the +month of September the dullest of the whole set; now I shall be +impatient for it. + +(644) The name given by Mr. Walpole to parties coming to view his +house.-M.B. + +(645) Lady Mary-Amelia, daughter of Wills, first Marquis of +Downshire; married, in 1773, to James seventh Earl of Salisbury, +advanced, in August 1789, to the title of Marquis. Her ladyship +was a warm patroness of the art of archery, and a first-rate +equestrian. In November 1835, at the age of eighty-four, she was +burnt to death at Hatfield-house.-E. + +(646) In consequence of a dispute, concerning words said to have +been spoken at Daubiny's club, a duel took place at Wimbledon, on +the 26th of May, between the Duke of York and Colonel Lenox, +afterwards Duke of Richmond. Neither of the parties was wounded; +and the seconds, Lords Rawdon and Winchilsea, certified, that +both behaved with the utmost coolness and intrepidity.-E. + +(647) On the 11th of July, two days after the date of this +letter, Necker received his dismission and a formal demand to +quit the kingdom. It was accompanied by a note from the King, +praying him to depart in a private manner, for fear of exciting +disturbances. Necker received this intimation just as he was +dressing for dinner-, after which, without divulging his +intention to any one, he set out in the evening, with Madame +Necker, for Basle. See Mignet, tom. i. p. 47.-E. + + + +Letter 334 To Miss Hannah More. + +Strawberry Hill, July 10, 1789. (PAGE 425) + + +Though I am touchy enough with those I love, I did not think +you +dilatory, nor expect that answers to letters should be as quick +as repartees. I do pity you for the accident that made you +think +yourself remiss.(648) I enjoy your patient's recovery; but +almost smiled unawares at the idea of her being sopped, and +coming out of the water brustling up her feathers and ermines, +and assuming the dignity of a Jupiter Pluvius. + + +I beseech you not to fancy yourself vain on my being your +printer +would Sappho be proud, though Aldus or Elzevir were her +typographer? My press has no rank but from its narrowness, +that +is, from the paucity of its editions, and from being a +volunteer. +But a truce to compliments, and to reciprocal humility. Pray +tell me how I shall convey your parcel to you: the impression +is +begun. I shall not dare, vu le sujet, to send a copy to Mrs. +Garrick;(649) I do not know whether you will venture. Mrs. +Boscawen shall have one, but it shall be in your name: so +authorize me to present It, that neither of us may tell the +whitest of fibs. Shall I deliver any others for you within my +reach, to save you trouble? + + +I have no more corrections to make. I told you brutally at +first +of the only two faults I found, and you sacrificed them with +the +patience of a martyr; for I conclude that when a good poet +knowingly sins against measure twice, he is persuaded that he +makes amends by greater beauties: in such case docility +deserves +the palmbranch. I do not applaud your declining a London +edition; but you have been so tractable, that I will let you +have +your way in this, though you only make over profit to +magazines. +Being an honest printer myself, I have little charity for those +banditti of my profession who pilfer from every body they find +on +the road. + + +(648) "You will think me a great brute and savage, dear Sir, +for +not having directly thanked you for your letter, till you have +read my piece justificative, and then you will think I should +have been a greater brute and savage if I had; for the very day +I +received it, a very amiable neighbour, coming to call on us, +was +overturned from her phaeton into some water, her husband +driving +her. The poor lady was brought into our house, to all +appearance +dying. I thank God, however, she is now out of danger; but our +attendance, day and night, on the maimed lady and the +distressed +husband banished poetry from my thoughts, and suspended all +power +of writing nonsense." Miss More to Walpole. Memoirs, vol. ii. +p. +160.-E. + + +(649) Mrs. Garrick was a Roman Catholic.-E. + + + + +Letter 335 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. + +Strawberry Hill, Wednesday night, [July 15, 1789.] (PAGE 425) + + +I write a few lines only to confirm the truth of much of what +you +will read in the papers from Paris. Worse may already be come, +or is expected every hour. Mr. Mackenzie and Lady Betty called +on me before dinner, after the post was gone out; and he showed +me a letter from Dutens, who said two couriers arrived +yesterday +from the Duke of Dorset and the Duchess of Devonshire, the +latter +of whom was leaving Paris directly. Necker had been dismissed, +and was thought to be set out for Geneva. Breteull, who was at +his country-house, had been sent for to succeed him. Paris was +in an uproar; and, after the couriers had left it, firing of +cannon was heard for four hours together. That must have been +from the Bastille,(650) as probably the tiers `etat were not so +provided. It is shocking to imagine what may have happened in +such a thronged city! One of the couriers was stopped twice or +thrice, as supposed to pass from the King; but redeemed himself +by pretending to be despatched by the tiers `etat. Madame de +Calonne told Dutens, that the newly encamped troops desert by +hundreds. + + +Here seems the egg to be hatched, and imagination runs away +with +the idea. I may fancy I shall hear of the King and Queen +leaving +Versailles, like Charles the First, and then skips imagination +six-and-forty years lower, and figures their fugitive majesties +taking refuge in this country. I have besides another idea. +If +the Bastille conquers, still it is impossible, considering the +general spirit in the country, and the numerous fortified +places +in France, but some may be seized by the dissidents, and whole +provinces be torn from the crown! On the other hand, if the +King +prevails, what heavy despotism will the `etats, by their want +of +temper and moderation, have drawn on their country! They might +have obtained many capital points, and removed great +oppression. +No French monarch will ever summon `etats again, if this moment +has been thrown away. + + +Though I have stocked myself with such a set of visions for the +event either way, I do not pretend to foresee what will happen. +Penetration argues from reasonable probabilities; but chance +and +folly are apt to contradict calculation, and hitherto they +seen) +to have full scope for action. One hears of no genius on +either +side, nor do symptoms of any appear. There will perhaps: such +times and tempests bring forth, at least bring out, great men. +I +do not take the Duke of Orleans or Mirabeau to be built du bois +dont on les fait; no, nor Monsieur Necker.(651) He may be a +great traitor, if he made the confusion designedly: but it is a +woful evasion, if the promised financier slips into a black +politician! I adore liberty, but I would bestow it as honestly +as +I could; and a civil war, besides being a game of chance, is +paying a very dear price for it. + + +For us, we are in most danger of a deluge; though I wonder we +so +frequently complain of long rains. The saying about St. +Swithin +is a proof of how often they recur; for proverbial sentences +are +the children of experience, not of prophecy. Good night! In a +few days I shall send you a beautiful little poem from the +Strawberry press. + + +(650) For an interesting account of the storming and +destruction +of the Bastille, on the 14th of July, see Mr. Shobert's +valuable +translation of M. Thiers's "History of the French Revolution," +vol. i. p. 59.-E. + + +(651) "It was in vain," says Sir Walter Scott, "that the +Marquis +de Bouill`e pointed out the dangers arising from the +constitution +assigned to the States General, and insisted that the minister +was arming the Popular part of the nation against the two +privileged orders, and that the latter would soon experience +the +effects of their hatred, Necker calmly replied, that there was +a +necessary reliance to be placed on the virtues of the human +heart--the maxim of a worthy man, but not of an enlightened +statesman, who has but too much reason to know how often both +the +virtues and the prudence of human nature are surmounted by its +prejudices and Passions." Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, vol. i, +p, +107, ed. 1834.-E. + + + +Letter 336 To Miss Hannah More. +Strawberry Hill, Monday night, July 20, 1789. (PAGE 427) + +My excellent friend, +I never shall be angry with your conscientiousness, though I ) do +not promise never to scold it, as you know I think you sometimes +carry it too far; and how pleasant to have a friend to scold on +such grounds! I see all your delicacy in what you call your +double treachery, and your kind desire of connecting two of your +friends.(652) The seeds are sprung up already; and the Bishop +has already condescended to make me the first, and indeed so +unexpected a visit, that, had I in the least surmised it, I +should certainly, as became me, have prevented him. One effect, +however, I can tell you your pimping between us will have: his +lordship has, to please your partiality, flattered me so +agreeably in the letter you betrayed, that I shall never write to +you again without the dread of attempting the wit he is so +liberal as to bestow on me; and then either way I must be dull or +affected, though I hope to have the grace to prefer the former, +and then you only will be the sufferer, as we both should by the +latter. But I will come to facts -. they are plain bodies, can +have nothing to do with wit, and yet are not dull to those who +have any thing to do with them. + +According to your order, I have delivered Ghosts(653) to Mrs. +Boscawen, Mrs. Garrick, Lady Juliana Penn, Mrs. Walsingham, and +Mr. Pepys. Mr. Batt, I am told, leaves London to-day; so I shall +reserve his to his return. This morning I carried his thirty to +the Bishop of London, who said modestly, he should not have +expected above ten. I was delighted with the palace, with the +Venerable chapel, and its painted episcopalities in glass, and +the brave hall, etc. etc. Though it rained, I would crawl to +Bonner's chair. In short, my satisfaction would have been +complete, but for wanting the presence of that jesuitess, "the +good old papist." + +To-morrow departs for London, to be delivered to the Bristol +coach at the White-horse-cellar in Piccadilly, a parcel +containing sixty-four Ghosts, one of which is printed on brown +for your own eating. There is but one more such, so you may +preserve it like a relic. I know these two are not so good as +the white: but, as rarities, a collector would give ten times +more for them; and uniquity will make them valued more than the +charming poetry. I believe, if there was but one ugly woman in +the world, she would occasion a longer war than Helen did. You +will find the Bishop's letter in the parcel. I did not breathe a +hint of my having seen it, as I could not conjure up Into my pale +cheeks the blush I ought to exhibit on such flattery. + +I pity you most sincerely for your almost drowned guest. Fortune +seems to delight in throwing poor Louisas in Your Way, that you +may exercise your unbounded charity and benevolence. Adieu! +pray write. I need not write to you to pray; but I wish, when +your knees have what the common people call a worky-day, you +would employ your hands the whole time. Yours most cordially. + +P. S. I believe I have blundered, and that your knees would call +a week-day a holiday. + +(652) With the view of making Bishop Porteus and Walpole better +known to each other, Miss More had committed what she called a +double treachery, in showing to the Bishop a letter she had +received from Walpole, and to Walpole one sent her by the +Bishop.-E. + +(653) Though the author of this poem must have been known to so +many individuals in the year 1789, the secret was so well kept, +that it was actually printed in the, Gentleman's Magazine for +February, 1804, as the production of Walpole.-E. + + + +Letter 337 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, July 29, 1789. (PAGE 428) + +I have received two dear letters from you of the 18th and 25th +and though you do not accuse me, but say a thousand kind things +to me in the most agreeable manner, I allow my ancientry, and +that I am an old, jealous, and peevish husband, and quarrel with +you if I do not receive a letter exactly at the moment I please +to expect one. You talk of mine; but, if you knew how I like +Yours, you would not wonder that I am impatient, and even +unreasonable in my demands. However, though I own my faults, I +do not mean to correct them. I have such pleasure in your +letters (I am sorry I am here forced to speak in the singular +number,'which by the way is an Irishism,) that I will be cross if +you do not write to me perpetually. The quintessence of your +last but one was, in telling me you are better - how fervently do +I wish to receive such accounts every post. But who can mend but +old I, in such detestable weather?--not one hot day; and, if a +morning shines, the evening closes with a heavy shower. + +Of French news I can give you no fresher or more authentic +account, than you can collect in general from the newspapers; but +my present visitants and every body else confirm the veracity of +Paris being in that anarchy that speaks the populace domineering +in the most cruel and savage manner, and which a servile +multitude broken loose calls liberty; and which in all +probability will end, when their Massaniello-like reign is over, +in their being more abject slaves than ever, and chiefly by the +crime of their `Etats, who, had they acted with temper and +prudence, might have obtained from their poor and undesigning +King a good and permanent constitution. Who may prove their +tyrant, if reviving loyalty does not in a new frenzy force him to +be so, it is impossible to foresee; but much may happen first. +The rage seems to gain the provinces, and threatens to exhibit +the horrors of those times when the peasants massacred the +gentlemen. Thus you see I can only conjecture, which is not +sending you news; and my intelligence reaches me by so many +rebounds, that you must not depend on any thing I can tell you. +I repeat, because I hear; but draw on you for no credit. Having +experienced last winter, in suporaddition to a long life of +experience, that in Berkeley Square I could not trust to a single +report from Kew, can I swallow implicitly at Twickenham the +distorted information that comes from Paris through the medium of +London? + +You asked me in one of your letters who La Chalotais was. I +answer, premier pr`esident or avocat-g`en`eral, I forget which, +of the Parliament of Bretagne; a great, able, honest, and most +virtuous man, who opposed the Jesuits and the tyranny of the Duc +d'Aiguillon; but he was as indiscreet as he was good. Calonne +was his friend and confident; to whom the imprudent patriot +trusted, by letter, his farther plan of opposition and designs. +The wretch pretended to have business with, or to be sent for by, +the Duc de la Vrilli`ere, secretary of state; a courtier-wretch, +whose mistress used to sell lettres do cachet for a louis.(654) +Calonne was left to wait in the antechamber; but being, as he +said, suddenly called in to the minister, as he was reading (a +most natural soil for such a lecture) the letter of his friend, +he by a second natural inadvertence left the fatal letter on the +chimney-piece. The consequence, much more natural, was, that La +Chalotais was committed to the Ch`ateau du Taureau, a horrible +dungeon on a rock in the sea, with his son, whose legs mortified +there, and the father was doomed to the scaffold; but the Duc de +Choiseul sent a counter reprieve by an express and a cross-road, +and saved him.(655) At the beginning of this reign he was +restored. Paris, however, was so +indignant at the treachery, that this Calonne was hissed out of +the theatre, when I was in that capital.(656) When I heard, some +years after, that a Calonne was made controlleur-g`en`eral, I +concluded that it must be a son, not conceiving that so +reprobated a character could emerge to such a height; but asking +my sister, 'who has been in France since I was, she assured me it +was not only the identical being, but that when she was at Metz, +where I think he was intendant, the officers in garrison would +not dine with him. When he fled hither for an asylum, I did not +talk of his story till I saw it in one of the pamphlets that were +written against him in France, and that came over hither. + +Friday night, 31st. + +My company prevented my finishing this: part left me at noon, the +residue are to come to-morrow. To-day I have dined at +Fulham(657) along with Mrs. Boscawen but St. Swithin played the +devil so, that we could not stir out of doors, and had fires to +chase the watery Spirits. Quin, being once asked if ever he had +seen so bad a winter, replied, "Yes, just such an one last +summer!"--and here is its youngest brother! + +Mrs. Boscawen saw a letter from Paris to Miss Sayer this morning, +Which says Necker's son-in-law was arrived, and had announced his +father-in- law's promise of return from Basle. I do not know +whether his honour or ambition prompt this compliance; Surely not +his discretion. I am much acquainted with him, and do not hold +him great and profound enough to quell the present anarchy. if +he attempts to moderate for the King, I Shall not be surprised if +he falls another victim to tumultuary jealousy and outrage.(658) +All accounts agree in the violence of the mob against the +inoffensive as well as against the objects of their resentment; +and in the provinces, where even women are not safe in their +houses. The hotel of the Duc de Chatelet, lately built and +superb, has been assaulted, and the furniture sold by +auction;(659) but a most shocking act of a royalist in Burgundy +who is said to have blown up a committee of forty persons, will +probably spread the flames of civil rage much wider. When I read +the account I did not believe it; but the Bishop of London says, +he hears the `Etats have required the King to write to every +foreign power not to harbour the execrable author, who is +fled.(660) i fear this conflagration will not end as rapidly as +that in Holland! + +(654) The Duc de la Vrillibre was dismissed in 1775, and +succeeded by M. de Malesherbes, Madame du Deffand's letter to +Walpole of June 26, 1774, contains the following epigram on +him:-- + +"Ministre sans talent ainsi que sans vertu, +Couvert d'ignominie autant qu'on le peut `etre, +Retire-toi donc! Qu'attends-tu? +Qu'on te jette par la fen`etre?"-E. + +(655) La Chalotais died in July 1785. Among other works he wrote +an "Essay On National Education," which was reprinted in 1825. +His son perished by the guillotine in January 1794.-E. + +(656) "An intrigue brought M. de Calonne forward, who was not in +good odour with the public, because he had contributed to the +persecution Of La chatolais." Thiers, vol. i. p. 5.-E. + +(657) With Bishop Porteus. "I fear," writes Hannah More, on +hearing of this dinner, "I shall secretly triumph in the success +of my fraud, if it has contributed to bring about any intercourse +between the Abbey of Fulham and the Castle of Otranto, it sounds +so ancient and so feudal! But among the things which pleased you +in the episcopal domain, I hope the lady of it has that good +fortune; she is quite a model of a pleasant wife. Now, I am +acquainted with a great many very good wives, who are so notable +and so manageable, that they make a man every thing but happy; +and I know a great many other;, who sing, play and paint, and cut +paper, and are so accomplished, that they have no time to be +agreeable, and no desire to be useful," Memoirs, vol.'Ii. p. +165.-E. + +(658) On the 16th of July, five days after the dismissal of M. +Necker, the National Assembly obtained his recall. His return +from Basle to Paris was one continued triumph. During the next +twelve months, he was constantly presenting new financial +statements; but he soon perceived that his influence was daily +diminishing: at length the famous Red Book appeared, and +completely put an end to his popularity. In September 1790, his +resignation was accepted: as he was quitting the kingdom, his +carriage was stopped by the same populace which had so recently +drawn him into Paris in triumph; and it was necessary to apply to +the Assembly for an order, directing that he should be allowed to +proceed to Switzerland. He obtained this permission, and retired +to Coppet, "there," says M. Thiers, "to contemplate at a +distance, a revolution which he was no longer qualified to +observe Closely Or to guide."-E. + +(659) The Duke, who was colonel of the King's guard, narrowly +escaped assassination.-E. + +(660) After an inquiry, instituted by the National Assembly, the +whole was found to be a villanous fabrication.-E. + + + +Letter 338 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(661) +Strawberry Hill, July 31, 1789. (PAGE 431) + +Having had my house full of relations till this evening, I could +not answer the favour of your letter Sooner; and now I am ashamed +of not being able to tell you that I have finished reading your +"Essay on the Ancient History of Scotland." I am so totally +unversed in the story of original nations, and I own always find +myself so little interested in savage manners unassisted by +individual characters, that, though you lead me with a firmer +hand than any historian through the dark tracts, the clouds rose +round me the moment I have passed them, and I retain no memory of +the ground I have trod. I greatly admire your penetration, and +read with wonder your clear discovery of the kingdom of +Strathclyde; but, though I bow to you, as I would to the founder +of an empire, I confess I do not care a straw about your +subjects, with whom I am no more acquainted than with the ancient +inhabitants of Otaheite. Your origin of the Piks is most able; +but then I cannot remember them with any precise discrimination +from any other hyperborean nation; and all the barbarous names at +the end of the first volume, and the gibberish in the Appendix, +was to me as unintelligible as if Repeated Abracadabra; and made +no impression on me but to raise respect of your patience, and +admire a sagacity that could extract meaning and suite from what +seemed to me the most indigestible of all materials. You rise in +my estimation in Proportion to the disagreeable mass of your +ingredients. What gave me pleasure that I felt, was the +exquisite sense and wit of your Introduction; and your masterly +handling and confutation of the Macphersons, Whitaker, etc. +there and through your work. Objection I have but one, I think +you make yourself too much a party against the Colts. I do not +think they were or are worthy of hatred. + +Upon the whole, dear Sir, you see that your work is too learned +and too deep for my capacity and shallow knowledge. I have told +you that my reading and knowledge is and always was trifling and +superficial, and never taken up or pursued but for present +amusement. I always was incapable of dry and unentertaining +studies; and of all studies the origin of nations never was to my +taste. Old age and frequent disorders have dulled both my +curiosity and attention, as well as weakened my memory; and I +cannot fix my attention to long deductions. I say to myself, +"What is knowledge to me who stand on the verge, and must leave +any old stores as well as what I may add to them; and how little +could that be?" + +Having thus confessed the truth, I am sure you are too candid and +liberal to be offended - you cannot doubt of my high respect for +your extraordinary abilities I am even proud of having discovered +them of myself without any clue. I should be very insincere, if +I pretended to have gone through with eagerness your last work, +which demands more intense attention than my age, eyes, and +avocations will allow. I cannot read long together; and you are +sensible that your work is not a book to be`rea'd' by snatches +and intervals; especially as the novelty, to me at least, +requires some helps to connect it with the memory. + +(661) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 339 To Miss Hannah More.(662) +Strawberry Hill, August 9, 1789. (PAGE 432) + +You are not very corresponding, (though better of late,) and +therefore I will not load the conscience of your fingers much, +lest you should not answer me in three months. I am happy that +you are content with my edition of your Ghost, and with the brown +copy. Every body is charmed with your poem: I have not heard one +breath but of applause. In confirmation, I enclose a note to me +from the Duchess of Gloucester, who certainly never before wished +to be an authoress. You may lay it up in the archives of +Cowslip-green, and carry it along with your other testimonials to +Parnassus.(663) Mr. Carter, to whom I sent a copy, is delighted +with it. The Bishop, with whom I dined last week, is extremely +for your printing an edition for yourself, and desired I would +press you to it. Mind, I do press you: and could Bonner's Ghost +be laid again,-which is ,impossible, for it will walk for ever, +and by day too,--we would have it laid in the Red Sea by some +West India merchant, who must be afraid of spirits, and cannot be +in charity with you. Mrs. Boscawen dined at Fulham with me. It +rained all day; and, though the last of July, we had fires in +every room, as if Bonner had been still in possession of the see. + +I have not dared to recollect you too often by overt acts, dear +Madam; as, by the slowness of your answer, you seem to be sorry +my memory was so very alert. Besides, it looks as if you had a +mind to keep me at due distance, by the great civility and cold +complimentality of your letter; a style I flattered myself you +had too much good will towards me to use. Pretensions to +humility I know are generally traps to flattery; but, could you +know how very low my opinion is of myself, I am sure you would +not have used the terms to me you did, and which I will not +repeat, as they are by no means applicable to me. If I ever had +tinsel parts, age has not only tarnished them, but convinced me +how frippery they were. + +Sweet are your Cowslips, sour my Strawberry Hill; +My fruits are fallen, your blossoms flourish still. + +Mrs. Boscawen told me last night, that she had received a long +letter from you, which makes me flatter myself you have no return +of your nervous complaints. Mrs. Walsingham I have seen four or +five times - Miss Boyle has decorated their house most +charmingly; she has not only designed, but carved in marble, +three beautiful base reliefs, with boys, for a chimney-piece; +besides painting elegant panels for the library, and forming, I +do not know how, pilasters of black and gold beneath glass; in +short, we are so improved in taste, that, if it would be decent, +I could like to live fifty or sixty years more, just to see how +matters go on. In the mean time, I wish my Macbethian wizardess +would tell me "that Cowslip Dale should come to Strawberry Hill;" +which by the etiquette of oracles, you know, would certainly +happen, because so improbable. I will be content if the nymph of +the dale will visit the old man of the mountain, and her most +sincere friend. + +(662) Now first collected. + +(663) In reply to this, Miss More says, "You not only do all you +can to turn my head by printing my trumpery verses yourself. but +you call in royal aid to complete my delirium. I comfort myself +you will counteract some part of the injury you have done, my +principles this summer, by a regular course of abuse when we meet +in the winter: remember that you owe this to my moral health; +next to being flattered I like to be scolded; but to be let +quietly alone would be intolerable. Dr. Johnson once said to me, +'I Never mind whether they praise or abuse your writings; any +thing is tolerable except oblivion.'" Memoirs, vol. ii. P. +169.-E. + + + +Letter 340 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(664) +Strawberry Hill, Aug. 14, 1789. (PAGE 433) + +I must certainly have expressed myself very awkwardly, dear Sir, +if you conceive I meant the slightest censure on your book, much +less on your manner of treating it; which is as able, and clear, +and demonstrative as possible. No; it was myself, my age, my +want of apprehension and memory, and my total ignorance of the +subject, which I intended to blame. I never did taste or study +the very ancient histories of nations. I never had a good memory +for names of persons, regions, places, which no specific +circumstances concurred to make me remember; and now, at +seventy-two, when, as is common, I forget numbers of names most +familiar to me, is it possible I should read with pleasure any +work that consists of a vocabulary so totally new to me? Many +years ago, when my faculties were much less impaired, I was +forced to quit Dow's History of Indostan, because the Indian +names made so little impression on me, that I went backward +instead of forward, and was every minute reverting to the former +page to find about whom I was reading. Your book was a still +more laborious work to me; for it contains such a series of +argumentation that it demanded a double effort from a weak old +head; and, when I had made myself master of a deduction, I forgot +it the next day, and had my pains to renew. These defects have +for some time been so obvious to me, that I never read now but +the most trifling books; having often said that, at the very end +of life, it is useless to be improving one's stock of knowledge, +great or small, for the next world. Thus, Sir, all I have said +in my last letter or in this, is an encomium on your work, not a +censure or criticism. It -would be hard on you, indeed, if my +incapacity detracted from your merit. + +Your arguments in defence of works of science and deep +disquisition are most just; and I am sure I have neither power +nor disposition to answer them. You have treated your matter as +it ought to be treated. Profound men or conversant on the +subject, like Mr. Dempster, will be pleased with it, for the very +reasons that made it difficult to me. If Sir Isaac Newton had +written a fairy tale, I should have swallowed it eagerly; but do +you imagine, Sir, that, idle as I am, I am, idiot enough to think +that Sir Isaac had better have amused me for half an hour, than +enlightened mankind and all ages? I was so fair as to confess to +you that your work was above me, and did not divert me: you was +too candid to take that ill, and must have been content with +silently thinking me very silly; and I am too candid to condemn +any man for thinking of me as I deserve. I am only sorry when I +do deserve a disadvantageous character. + +Nay, Sir, you condescend, after all, to ask My opinion of the +best way of treating antiquities; and, by the context, I suppose +you mean, how to make them entertaining. I cannot answer you in +one word -, because there are two ways, as there are two sorts of +readers. I should therefore say, to please antiquaries of +judgment, as you have treated them, with arguments and proofs; +but, if you would adapt antiquities to the taste of those who +read only to be diverted, not to be instructed, the nostrum is +very easy and short. You must divert them in the true sense of +the word diverto; you must turn them out of the way, you must +treat them with digressions nothing or very little to the +purpose. But, easy as I call this recipe, you, I believe, would +find it more difficult to execute, than the indefatigable +industry you have employed to penetrate chaos and extract the +truth. There have been professors who have engaged to adapt all +kinds of knowledge to the meanest capacities. I doubt their +success, at least on me: however, you need not despair; all +readers are not as dull and superannuated as, dear Sir, yours, +etc. + +(664) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 341 To John Pinkerton, Esq,(665) +Strawberry Hill, August 19, 1789. (PAGE 434) + +I will not use many words, but enough, I hope, to convince you +that I meant no irony in my last. All I said of you and myself +was very sincere- It is my true opinion that your understanding +is one of the strongest, most manly, and clearest I ever knew; +and, as I hold my own to be of a very inferior kind and know it +to be incapable of sound, deep application, I should have been +very foolish if I had attempted to sneer at you or your pursuits. +Mine have always been light and trifling, and tended to nothing +but my casual amusement; I will not say, without a little vain +ambition of showing some parts but never with industry sufficient +to make me apply to any thing solid. My studies, if they could +be called so, and my productions, were alike desultory. In my +latter days I discovered the utility both of my objects and +writings: I felt how insignificant is the reputation of an author +of mediocrity; and that, being no genius, I only added one name +more to a list of writers that had told the world nothing but +what it could as well be without. + +These reflections were the best proofs of my sense: and, when I +could see through my own vanity, there is less wonder at my +discovering that such talents as I might have had, are impaired +at Seventy-two. Being just to myself, I am not such a coxcomb as +to be unjust to you. No, nor did I cover any irony towards you, +in the opinion I gave you of making deep writings palatable to +the mass of readers. Examine my words; and I am sure you will +find that, if there was any thing ironic in my meaning, it was +levelled at your readers, not at you. it is my opinion, that +whoever wishes to be read by many, if his subject is weighty and +solid, must treat the majority with more than is to his purpose. +Do not you believe that twenty name Lucretius because of the +poetic commencement of his books, for five that wade through his +philosophy? + +I promised to say but little; and, if I have explained myself +clearly, I have said enough. It is not, I hope, my character to +be a flatterer: I do most sincerely think you capable of great +things; and I should be a pitiful knave if I told you SO, unless +it was my opinion; and what end could it serve to me? Your course +is but beginning; mine is almost terminated. I do not want you +to throw a few daisies on my grave; and if you make the figure I +augur you will, I shall not be a witness to it. Adieu, dear Sir! + +(665) NOW first collected. + + + +Letter 342 To Richard Gough, Esq. + Strawberry Hill, August 24, 1789. (PAGE 435) + +I shall heartily lament with you, Sir, the demolition of those +beautiful chapels at Salisbury. I was scandalized long ago at +the ruinous state in which they were indecently suffered to +remain. It appears as strange, that, when a spirit of +restoration and decoration has taken place, it should be mixed +with barbarous innovation. As much as taste has improved, I do +not believe that modern execution will equal our models. I am +sorry that I can only regret, not prevent. I do not know the +Bishop of Salisbury(666) even by Sight, and certainly have no +credit to obstruct any of his plans. should I get sight of Mr. +Wyatt, which is not easy to do, I will remonstrate against the +intended alteration; but probably without success, as I do not +suppose he has authority enough to interpose effectually: still I +will try. It is an old complaint with me, Sir, that when +families are extinct, chapters take the freedom of removing +ancient monuments, and even of selling, over again the sites of +such tombs. A scandalous, nay, dishonest abuse, and very +unbecoming clergy! Is it creditable for divines to traffic for +consecrated ground, and which the church had already sold? I do +not wonder that magnificent monuments are out of fashion, when +they are treated so disrespectfully. You, Sir, alone have placed +several out of the reach of such a kind of simoniacal abuse; for +to buy into the church, or to sell the church's land twice over, +breathes a similar kind of spirit. Perhaps, as the subscription +indicates taste, if some of the subscribers could be persuaded to +object to the removal of the two beautiful chapels, as contrary +to their view of beautifying, it might have good effect; or, if +some letter were published in the papers against the destruction, +as barbarous and the result of bad taste, it might divert the +design. I zealously wish it were stopped, but I know none of the +chapter or subscribers.(667) + +(666) Dr. Shute Barrington; in 1791, translated to the see of +Durham.-E. + +(667) Much discussion on the subject of the injury done to +Salisbury cathedral, here complained of by Walpole, took place in +the Gentleman's Magazine for this and the following year. "This +good," says the writer of a learned article on Cathedral +Antiquities, in the Quarterly Review for 1825, "has arisen from +the injury which was done at Salisbury, that in subsequent +undertakings of the same kind, the architect has come to his work +with Greater respect for the structures upon which he was +employed, and a mind more embued with the principles of Gothic +architecture."-E. + + + +Letter 343 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Thursday evening, Aug. 27, 1789. (PAGE 436) + +I jumped for joy,-that is, my heart did, which is all the remain +of me that is in statu iumpante,-at the receipt of your letter +this morning, which tells me you approve of the house at +Teddington. How kind you was to answer so incontinently! I +believe you borrowed the best steed from the races. I have sent +to the landlord to come tomorrow: but I could not resist +beginning my letter to-night, as I am at home alone, with a +little pain in my left wrist; but the right one has no brotherly +feeling for it, and would not be put off so. You ask how you +have deserved such attentions? Why, by deserving them; by every +kind of merit, -and by that superlative one to me, your +submitting to throw away so much time on a forlorn antique--you +two, who, without specifying particulars, (and you must at least +be conscious that you are not two frights,) might expect any +fortune and distinctions, and do delight all companies. On which +side lies the Wonder? Ask me no more such questions, or I will +cram you with reasons. + +My poor dear niece(668) grows worse and worse: the medical people +do not pretend to give us any hopes; they only say she may last +some weeks, which I do not expect, nor do absent myself. I had +promised Mr. Barrett to make a visit to my Gothic child, his +house, on Sunday; but I have written to-day to excuse myself: so +I have to the Duchess of Richmond,(669) who wanted me to meet her +mother, sister,(670) and General Conway, at Goodwood next week. + +I wish Lady Fitzwilliam may not hear the same bad news as I +expect, in the midst of her royal visitors: her sister, the +Duchess of St. Albans, is dying, in the same way as Lady, Dysart; +and for some days has not been in her senses. How charming you +are to leave those festivities for your good parents; who I do +not wonder are impatient for you. I, who am old enough to be +your great-grandmother, know one needs not be your near relation +to long for your return. Of all your tour, next to your duteous +visits, I most approve the jaunt to the sea - I believe in its +salutary air more than in the whole college and all its works. + +You must not expect any news from me, French or homebred. I am +not in the way of hearing any: your morning gazetteer rarely +calls on me, as I am not likely to pay him in kind. About royal +progresses, paternal or filial, I never inquire; nor do you, I +believe, care more than I do. The small wares in which the +societies at Richmond and Hampton-court deal, are still less to +our taste. My poor niece and her sisters take up most of my time +and thoughts: but I will not attrist you to indulge myself, but +will break off here, and finish my letter when I have seen your +new landlord. Good night! + +Friday. + +Well! I have seen him, and nobody was ever so accommodating! He +is as courteous as a candidate for a county. You may stay in his +house till Christmas if you please, and shall pay but twenty +pounds; and if more furniture is wanting, it shall be supplied. + +(668) The Countess of Dysart.-M.B. + +(669) Lady Mary Bruce, daughter of the Earl of Ailesbury by +Caroline Campbell, daughter of General John Campbell, afterwards +Duke of Argyle.-M.B. + +(670) Mrs. Damer, only child of the Dowager Countess of +Ailesbury, by Marshal Henry Seymour Conway, her second husband. +She was thus half-sister to the Duchess of Richmond.-M.B. + + + +Letter 344 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 4, 1789. (PAGE 437) + +You ask whether I will call you wise or stupid for leaving, York +races in the middle-neither; had you chosen to stay, you would +have done rightly. The more young persons see, where there is +nothing blamable, the better; as increasing the stock of ideas +early will be a resource for age. To resign pleasure to please +tender relations is amiable, and superior to wisdom; for wisdom, +however laudable, is but a selfish virtue. But I do decide +peremptorily, that it was very prudent to decline the invitation +to Wentworth House,(671) which was obligingly given; but, as I am +very proud for you, I should have disliked your being included in +a mobbish kind of colhue. You two are not to go where any other +two misses would have been equally pri`ees, and where people +would have been thinking of the princes more than of the Berrys. +Besides, princes are so rife now, that, besides my sweet +nephew(672) in the Park, we have another at Richmond: the Duke +of Clarence has taken Mr. Henry Hobart's house, pointblank over +against Mr. Cambridge's, which will make the good woman of that +mansion cross herself piteously, and stretch the throat of the +blatant beast at Sudbrook(673) and of all the other pious matrons +`a la ronde; for his Royal Highness, to divert lonesomeness, has +brought with him - -, who, being still more averse to solitude, +declares that any tempter would make even Paradise more agreeable +than a constant t`ete-`a-t`ete. + +I agree with you in not thinking Beatrice one of Miss Farren's +capital parts. Mrs. Pritchard played it with more spirit, and +was superior to Garrick's Benedict; so is Kemble, too, as he Is +to Quin in Maskwell. Kemble and Lysons the clergyman(674) passed +all Wednesday here with me. The former is melting the three +parts of Henry the Sixth into one piece: I doubt it will be +difficult to make a tolerable play out of them. + +I have talked scandal from Richmond, like its gossips; and now, +by your queries after Lady Luxborough, you are drawing me into +more, which I do not love: but she is dead and forgotten, except +on the shelves of an old library, or on those of my old memory; +which you will be routing into. The lady you wot of, then, was +the first wife of Lord Catherlogh, before he was an earl; and who +was son of Knight, the South Sea cashier, and whose second wife +lives here at Twickenham. Lady Luxborough, a high-coloured lusty +black woman, was parted from her husband, upon a gallantry she +had with Dalton, the reviver of Comus and a divine. She retired +into the country; corresponded, as you see by her letters, with +the small poets of that time; but, having no Theseus amongst +them, consoled herself, as it is said, like Ariadne, with +Bacchus.(675) This might be a fable, like that of her Cretan +Highness--no matter; the fry of little anecdotes are so numerous +now, that throwing one more into the shoal is of no consequence, +if it entertains you for a Moment; nor need you believe what I +don't warrant. + +Gramercy for your intention of seeing Wentworth Castle. it is my +favourite of all great seats;-such a variety of ground, of wood, +and water; and almost all executed and disposed with so much +taste by the present Earl. Mr. Gilpin sillily could See nothing +but faults there. The new front is, in my opinion, one of the +lightest and most beautiful buildings on earth - and, pray like +the little Gothic edifice, and its position in the menagerie! I +recommended it, and had it drawn by Mr. Bentley, from Chichester +Cross. Don't bring me a pair of scissors from Sheffield - I am +determined nothing shall cut our loves, though I should live out +the rest of Methusalem's term, as you kindly wish, and as I can +believe, though you are my wives; for I am persuaded my Agnes +wishes so too. Don't you? + +At night. + +I am just come from Cambridge's, where I have not been in an +evening, time out of mind. Major Dixon, alias "the Charming +man,"(676) is there; but I heard nothing of the Emperor's +rickets:(677) a great deal, and many horrid stories, of the +violences in France; for his brother, the Chevalier Jerningham, +is Just arrived from Paris. You have heard of the destruction of +thirty-two chateaus in Burgundy, at the instigation of a demon, +who has since been broken on the racks. There is now assembled +near Paris a body of sixteen thousand deserters, daily +increasing; who, they fear, will encamp and dictate to the +capital, in spite of their militia of twenty thousand bourgeois. +It will soon, I suppose, ripen to several armies, and a civil +war; a fine acheminement to liberty! + +My poor niece is still alive, though weaker every day, and +pronounced irrecoverable: yet it is possible she may live some +weeks; which, however, is neither to be expected nor wished, for +she eats little and sleeps less. Still she is calm, and behaves +with the patience of a martyr. + +You may perceive, by the former part of my letter, that I have +been dipping into Spenser again, though he is no passion of mine +- there I lighted upon two lines that, at first sight, reminded +me of Mademoiselle d'Eon, + +"Now, when Marfisa had put off her beaver, +To be a woman every one perceive her!" + +but I do not think that is so perceptible in the Chevali`ere. +She looked more feminine, as I remember her, in regimentals, than +she does now. She is at best a heri-dragoon, or an Herculean +hostess. I wonder she does not make a campaign in her own +country, and offer her sword to the almost dethroned monarch, as +a second Joan of Arc.(678) Adieu! for three weeks I shall say, +Sancte Michael, ora pro nobis! You seem to have relinquished your +plan of sea-coasting. I shall be sorry for that; it would do you +good. + +(671) The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York were going to +receive a great entertainment at Wentworth House.-M.B. + +(672) The Duke of Gloucester. + +(673) Lady Greenwich. + +(674) The " little Daniel" of the Pursuits of Literature, brother +of Samuel Lysons, the learned antiquary, and author of "The +Environs, twelve miles round London," in four volumes quarto-- + +"Nay once, for Purer air o'er rural ground, +With little Daniel went his twelve miles round."-E. + +(675) Lady Luxborough died in 1756. Her letters to Shenstone +were published in 1775. In the first leaf of the original +manuscript there is an autograph of the poet, describing them as +being "written with abundant ease politeness, and vivacity; in +which she was scarce equalled by any woman of her time." Some of +her verses are printed in Dodsley's Miscellany, and Walpole has +introduced her ladyship into his Noble Authors.-E. + +(676) Edward Jerningham, Esq. Of Cossey, in Norfolk, uncle to +the present Lord Stafford. He was distinguished in his day by +the name of Jerningham the poet; but it was an unpoetical day. +The stars of Byron, of Baillie, and of Scott, had not risen On +the horizon. The well merited distinction of Jerningham was the +friendship, affection, and intimacy which his amiable character +had impressed on the author, and on all of his society mentioned +in these letters.-M.B. + +(677) This alludes to something said in a character which +Jerningham had assumed, for the amusement of a society some time +before at Marshal Conway's.-M.B. + +(678) Miss More gives the following account of this extraordinary +character:--"On Friday I gratified the curiosity of many years, +by meeting at dinner Madame la Chevali`ere D'Eon - she is +extremely entertaining, has universal information, wit, vivacity, +and gaiety. Something too much of the latter (I have heard) when +she has taken a bottle or two of Burgundy; but this being a very +sober party, she was kept entirely within the limits of decorum. +General Johnson was of the party, and it was ridiculous to hear +her military conversation. Sometimes it Was, 'Quand j'`etais +colonel d'un tel regiment;' then again, 'Non, c'Rait quand +j'`etais secr`etaire d'ambassade du Duc de Nivernois,' or, 'Quand +je n`egociais la paix de Paris.' She is, to be sure, a phenomenon +in history; and, as such, a great curiosity. But one D'Eon is +enough, and one slice of her quite sufficient." Memoirs, vol. ii. +p. 156.-E. + + + +Letter 345 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 5, 1789. (PAGE 440) + +You speak so unperemptorily of your motions, that I must direct +to you at random: the most probable place where to hit you, I +think, will be Goodwood; and I do address this thither, because I +am impatient to thank you for your tale, which is very pretty and +easy and genteel. It has made me make a reflection, and that +reflection made six lines; which I send you, not as good, but as +expressing my thoughts on your writing so well in various ways +which you never practised when you was much younger. Here they +are: + +The Muse most wont to fire a youthful heart, +To gild your setting sun reserved her art; +To crown a life in virtuous labours pass'd, +Bestow'd her numbers and her wit at last; +And, when your strength and eloquence retire, +Your voice in notes harmonious shall expire. + +The swan was too common a thought to be directly specified, and, +perhaps, even to be alluded to: no matter, such a trifle is below +criticism. + +I am still here, in no uncertainty, God knows, about poor Lady +Dysart (679) of whom there are not the smallest hopes. She grows +weaker every day, and does actually still go out for the air, and +may languish many days, though most probably will go off in a +moment, As the water rises. She retains her senses perfectly, +and as perfectly her unalterable calmness and patience, though +fully sensible of her situation. At your return from Goodwood, I +shall like to come to you, if you are unengaged, and ready to +receive me. For the beauties of Park-place, I am too well +acquainted with them, not, like all old persons about their +contemporaries, to think it preserves them long after they are +faded; and am so unwalking, that prospects are more agreeable to +me when framed and glazed, and I look at them through a window. +It is yourselves I want to visit, not your verdure. Indeed, +except a parenthesis of scarce all August, there has been no +temptation to walk abroad; and the tempter himself would not have +persuaded me, if I could, to have climbed that long-lost mountain +whence he could show one even the Antipodes. It rained +incessantly all June and all July; and now again we have torrents +every day. + +Jerningham's brother, the Chevalier, is arrived from Paris, and +does not diminish the horrors one hears every day. They are now +in the capital dreading the sixteen thousand deserters who hover +about them. I conclude that when in the character of banditti +the whole disbanded army have plundered and destroyed what they +can, they will congregate into separate armies under different +leaders, who will hang Out different principles, and the kingdom +will be a theatre of civil wars; and, instead of liberty, the +nation will get petty tyrants, perhaps petty kingdoms: and when +millions have suffered, or been sacrificed, the government will +be no better than it was, all owing to the intemperance of the +`etats, who might have obtained a good constitution, or at least +one much meliorated, if they had set out with discretion and +moderation. They have left too a sad lesson to despotic princes, +who will quote this precedent of frantic `etats, against +assembling any more, and against all the examples of senates and +parliaments that have preserved rational freedom. Let me know +when it will be convenient to you to receive me. Adieu! + +(679) Her ladyship, who was the daughter of Sir Edward Walpole +and the first wife of Lionel, fourth Earl of Dysart, died on the +day this letter was written.-E. + + + +Letter 346 To Miss Hannah More. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. -, 1789. (PAGE 441) + +I know whence you wrote last, but not where you are now; you gave +me no hint. I believe you fly lest I should pursue, and as if +you were angry that I have forced you to sprout into laurels. +Yet you say you are vain of it, and that you are no philosopher. +Now, if you are vain I am sure you are a philosopher; for it is a +maxim of mine, and one of my own making, that there never was a +philosopher that did not love sweetmeats. ou tell me too, that +you like I should scold you but since you have appeared as +Bonner's ghost, I think I shall feel too much awe; for though +(which I never expected would be in my power) I have made you +stand in a white sheet, I doubt my respect is increased. I never +did rate you for being too bad, but too good: and if, when you +make up your week's account, YOU find but a fraction of vanity in +the sum total, you will fall to repenting, and Come forth On +Monday as humble as * * *. Then, if I huff my heart Out, you +will only simper, and still wrap yourself up in your obstinate +goodness. Well! take your own way; I give you Up to your +abominable virtues, and will go answer the rest of your letter. + +I congratulate you on the demolition of the Bastille; I mean as +you do, of its' functions.(680) For the poor soul itself, I had +no ill will to it: on the contrary, it was a curious sample of +ancient castellar dungeons, which the good folks the founders +took for palaces: yet I always hated to drive by it, knowing the +miseries it contained. Of itself it did not gobble up prisoners +to glut its maw, but received them by command. The destruction +of it was silly, and agreeable to the ideas of a mob, who do not +know stones and bars and bolts from a lettre de cachet. If the +country remains free, the Bastille would be as tame as a +ducking-Stool, now that there is no such thing as a scold. If +despotism recovers, the Bastille will rise from its ashes!-- +recover, I fear, it will. The `Etats cannot remain a mob of +kings, and will prefer a single one to a larger mob of kings and +greater tyrants. The nobility, the clergy, and people of +property will wait, till by address and Money they can divide the +people; or, whoever gets the larger or more victorious army into +his hands, will be a Cromwell or a Monk. In short, a revolution +procured by a national vertigo does not promise a crop of +legislators. It is time that composes a good constitution: it +formed ours. We were near losing it by the lax and unconditional +restoration of Charles the Second. The revolution was temperate, +and has lasted; and, though it might have been improved, we know +that with all its moderation it disgusted half the nation, who +would have brought back the old sores. I abominate the +Inquisition as much as you do: yet if the King of Spain receives +no check like his cousin Louis, I fear he will not be disposed to +relax any terrors. Every crowned head in Europe must ache at +present; and the frantic and barbarous proceedings in France will +not meliorate the stock of liberty, though for some time their +majesties will be mighty tender of the rights of their subjects. + +According to this hypothesis, I can administer some comfort to +you about your poor negroes. I do not imagine that they will be +emancipated at once; but their fate will be much alleviated, as +the attempt will have alarmed their butchers enough to make them +gentler, like the European monarchs, for fear of"provoking the +disinterested, who have no sugar plantations, to abolish the +horrid traffic. + +I do not understand the manoeuvre of sugar, and, perhaps, am +going to talk nonsense, as my idea maybe impracticable; but I +Wish human wit, which is really very considerable in mechanics +and merchantry, could devise some method of cultivating canes and +making sugar without the manual labour of the human" species. +How many mills and inventions have there not been discovered to +supply succedaneums to the works of the hands, which before the +discoveries would have been treated as visions! It is true, +manual labour has sometimes taken it very ill to be excused, and +has destroyed such mills; but the poor negroes would not rise and +insist upon being worked to death. Pray talk to some ardent +genius, but do not name me; not merely because I may have talked +like an idiot, but because my ignorance might, ipso C fiacto, +stamp the idea with ridicule. People, I know, do not love to be +put out of their old ways: no farmer listens at first to new +inventions in agriculture; and I don't doubt but bread was +originally deemed a new-fangled vagary, by those who had seen +their fathers live very comfortably upon acorns. Nor is there +any harm in starting new game to invention: many excellent +discoveries have been made by men who were a la chasse of +something very different. I am not quite sure that the art of +making gold and of* living for ever have been yet found out: yet +to how many noble discoveries has the pursuit of those nostrums +given birth! Poor chymistry, had she not had such glorious +objects in view! If you are sitting under a cowslip at your +cottage, these reveries may amuse you for half an hour, at least +make you smile; and for the ease of your conscience, which is +always in a panic, they require no answer.(681) + +I will not ask you about the new history of Bristol,(682) because +you are too good a citizen to say a word against your native +place; but do pray cast your eye on the prints of The cathedral +and castle, the chef-d',oeuvres of Chatterton's ignorance, and of +Mr. Barrett's too; and on two letters pretended to have been sent +to me, and which never were sent. If my incredulity had wavered, +they would have fixed it. I wish the milkwoman would assert that +Boadicea's dairymaid had invented Dutch tiles; it would be like +Chatterton's origin of heraldry and painted glass, in those two +letters. I must, however, mention one word about myself. In the +new fourth volume of the Biographia Britannica I am more candidly +treated about that poor lad than usual: yet the writer still +affirms, that, according to my own account, my reply was too much +in the-commonplace style of court replies. Now my own words, and +the truth, as they stand in print in the very letter of mine +which this author quotes, were, "I wrote him a letter with as +much kindness and tenderness as if I had been his guardian." Is +this by my own account a court-reply? Nor did I conceive, for I +never was a courtier, that courtiers are wont to make tender +replies to the poor; I am glad to hear they do. + +I have kept this letter some days in my writing-box, till I could +meet with a stray member of parliament, for it is not worth +making you pay for: but when you talk to me I cannot help +answering incontinently; besides, can one take up a letter at a +long distance, and heat one's reply over again with the same +interest that it occasioned at first? Adieu! I wish you may come +to Hampton before I leave these purlieus! Yours More and More. + +(680) Miss More had written to Walpole,--"Poor France! though I +am sorry that the lawless rabble are so triumphant, I cannot help +hoping that some good will arise from the sum of human misery +having been so considerably lessened at one blow by the +destruction of the Bastille. The utter extinction of the +Inquisition, and the redemption of Africa, I hope yet to see +accomplished." Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 170.-E. + +(681) To this passage Miss More thus replies:--"Your project for +relieving our poor slaves by machine work is so far from being +wild or chimerical, that of three persons deep and able in the +concern (Mr. Wilberforce among others), not one but has thought +it rational and practicable, and that a plough may be so +constructed as to save much misery." Memoirs, vol. ii. p. +187.-,E. + +(682) "The History and Antiquities of Bristol, by William +Barrett:" Bristol, 1789, quarto; a Work which Mr. Park described +as " a motley compound of real and superstitious history."-E. + + + +Letter 347 To Miss Hannah More. +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 4, 1789. (PAGE 444) + +I am not surprised, my dear Madam, that the notice of my illness +should have stimulated your predominant quality, your +sensibility. 1 cannot do less in return than relieve it +immediately, by assuring you that I am in a manner recovered; and +should have gone out before this time, if my mind were as much at +ease as my poor limbs. I have passed, five months most +uncomfortably; the two last most unhappily. In June and +September I had two bad falls by my own lameness and weakness, +and was much bruised; while I was witness to the danger, and then +to the death, of my invaluable niece, Lady Dysart. She was +angelic, and has left no children. The unexpected death of Lord +Waldegrave(683) one of the most amiable of men, has not only +deprived me of him, but has opened a dreadful scene of +calamities! he and my niece were the happiest and most domestic +of couples. + +Your kind inquiries after me have drawn these details from me, +for which I make no excuse; good-nature never grudges its pity. +I, who love to force your gravity to smile, am seriously better +pleased to indulge your benevolence with a subject of esteem, +which, though moving your compassion, will be accompanied by no +compunction. I will now answer your letter. Your plea, that not +composition, but business, has occasioned your silence, is no +satisfaction to me. In my present anxious solitude I have again +read Bonner and Florio, and the Bas Bleu; and do you think I am +much pleased to learn that you have not been writing? Who is it +says something like this line?-- + +Hannah will not write, and Lactilla will. + +They who think her Earl Goodwin will outgo Shakspeare, might be +in the right, if they specified in what way. I believe she may +write worse than he sometimes did, though that is not easy; but +to excel him--oh! I have not words adequate to my contempt for +those who can suppose such a possibility! + +I am sorry, very sorry, for what you tell me of poor Barrett's +fate. Though he did write worse than Shakspeare, it is great +pity he was told so, as it killed him; and I rejoice that I did +not publish a word in contradiction of the letters which he said +Chatterton sent to me, as I was advised to do. I might have +laughed at the poor man's folly, and then I should have been +miserable to have added a grain to the poor man's +mortification.(684) + +you rejoice me, not my vanity, by telling me my idea of a +mechanic succedaneum to the labour of negroes is not visionary, +but thought practicable. Oh! how I wish I understood sugar +ploughs, and could marry them! Alas! I understand nothing +useful. My head is as un-mechanic as it is un-arithmetic, +un-geometric, un-metaphysic, uncommercial; but will not some one +of those superior heads to whom you have talked on my indigested +hint reduce it to practicability'! How a feasible scheme would +stun those who call humanity romantic, and show, from the books +of the Custom-house, that murder is a great improvement of the +revenue! Even the present situation of France is favourable. +Could not Mr. Wilberforce obtain to have the enfranchisement of +the negroes started there? The Jews are claiming their natural +rights there; and blacks are certainly not so great defaulters as +the Hebrews, though they too have undergone ample persecutions. +Methinks, as Lord George Gordon is in correspondence with the +`Etats, he has been a little remiss in not signing the petition +of those of his new communion. + +The `Etats are detestable and despicable; and, in fact, guilty of +the outrages of the Parisian and provincial mobs. The mob of +twelve hundred, not legislators, but dissolvers of all law, +unchained the mastiffs that had been tied up, and were sure to +worry all who fell in their way. To annihilate all laws, however +bad, and to have none ready to replace them, was proclaiming +anarchy. What should one think of a mad-doctor, who should let +loose a lunatic, suffer him to burn Bedlam, chop off the heads of +the keepers, and then consult with some students in physic on the +gentlest mode of treating delirium? By a late vote I see that +the twelve hundred praters are reduced to five hundred: Vive la +reine Billingsgate! the Thalestris who has succeeded Louis +Quatorze! A committee of those Amazons stopped the Duke of +Orleans, who, to use their style, I believe is not a barrel the +better herring. + +Your reflections on Vertot's passion for revolutions are +admirable,(685) and yet it is natural for an historian to like to +describe times of action. Halcyon days do not furnish matter for +talents; they are like the virtuous couple in a comedy, a little +insipid. Mr. Manly and Lady Grace, Mellefont and Cynthia, do not +interest one much. Indeed, in a tragedy where they are unhappy, +they give the audience full satisfaction, and no envy. The +newspapers, no doubt, thought Dr. Priestley could not do better +than to espouse you.(686) He certainly would be very judicious, +could he obtain your consent; but, alas! you would squabble about +Socinianism, or some of those isms. To tell you the truth, I +hate all those Constantinopolitan jargons, that set people +together by the ears about pedantic terms. When you apply +scholastic phrases as happily and genteelly as you do in your Bas +Bleu, they are delightful; but don't muddify your charming +simplicity with controversial distinctions, that will sour your +sweet piety. Sects are the bane of charity, and have deluged the +world with blood. + +I do not mean, by what I am going to say, to extort another +letter from you before I have the pleasure of seeing you at +Hampton; but I really shall be much obliged to you for a single +line soon, only to tell me if Miss Williams is at Stoke with the +Duchess of Beaufort. To a short note, cannot you add a short P. +S. on the fate of Earl Goodwin?(687) Lac mihi novum non frigore +desit. +Adieu! my amiable friend! Yours most sincerely. + +(683) George fourth Earl of Waldegrave born in 1751; married, in +1782, his cousin Lady Elizabeth Laura Waldegrave, daughter of +James, the second Earl. He died on the 22d of October.-E. + +(684) Mr. Barrett was the person who first encouraged Chatterton +to publish the poems which he attributed to Rowley. He was a +respectable surgeon at Bristol.-E. + +(685) Miss More, in her last letter, had said--"What a pity it is +that Vertot is not alive that man's element was a state +convulsion; he hopped over peaceful intervals, as periods of no +value, and only seemed to enjoy himself when all the rest of the +world was sad. Storm and tempest were his halcyon days."-E. + +(686) In her letter to Walpole Miss More had said,--"I comforted +myself., that your two fair wives were within reach of your +elbow-chair, and that their pleasant society would somewhat +mitigate the sufferings of your confinement. Apropos of two +wives--when the newspapers the other day were pleased to marry me +to Dr. Priestley, I am surprised they did not rather choose to +bestow me on Mr. Madan, as his wife is probably better broken in +to these eastern usages, than Mrs. Priestley may be. I never saw +the Doctor but once in my life, and he had then +been married above twenty years." Memoirs, vol. ii. P. 188.-E. + +(687) Ann Yearsley's tragedy, which had just been represented, +with little success, at the Bath and Bristol theatres. In reply +to Walpole's query, Miss More says, "There are, I dare say, some +Pretty Passages in it, but all seem to bring it in guilty of the +crime of dullness; which I take to be the greatest fault in +dramatic composition."-E. + + + +Letter 348 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 20, 1790. (PAGE 446) + +It is very provoking that people must always be hanging or +drowning themselves, or going mad, that you forsooth, Mistress, +may have the diversion of exercising your pity and good-nature, +and charity, and intercession, and all that bead-roll of virtues +that make you so troublesome and amiable, when you might be ten +times more agreeable by things that would not cost one above +half-a-crown at a time.(688) YOU are an absolutely walking +hospital, and travel about into lone and bye places, with your +doors open to house stray casualties! I wish at least that you +would have some children yourself, that you might not be plaguing +one for all the Pretty brats that are starving and friendless. I +suppose it was some such goody two or three thousand years ago +that suggested the idea of an alna-mater, suckling the three +hundred and sixty-five bantlings of the Countess of Hainault. +Well, as your newly-adopted pensioners have two babes, I insist +on your accepting two guineas for them instead of one at present +(that is, when you shall be present). i If you cannot +circumscribe your own charities, you shall not stint mine, Madam, +who can afford it much better, and who must be dunned for alms, +and do not scramble over hedges and ditches in searching for +opportunities of flinging away my money on good works. I employ +mine better at auctions, and in buying pictures and baubles, and +hoarding curiosities, that in truth I cannot keep long but that +will last for ever in my catalogue, and make me immortal! Alas! +will they cover a multitude of sins? Adieu! I cannot jest after +that sentence. Yours sincerely. + +(688) Miss More was at this + time raising a subscription for the benefit of the family of a +poor man who had been cut down after he had nearly hung +himself.-E. + + + +Letter 349 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(689) +Strawberry Hill, June 25, 1790. (PAGE 447) + +I am glad at least that you was not fetched to town on last +Tuesday, which was as hot as if Phaeton had once more gotten into +his papa's curricle and driven it along the lower road; but the +old king has resumed the reins again, and does not allow us a +handful more of beams than come to our northern share. I am +glad, too, that I was not summoned also to the Fitzroyal +arrangement: it was better to be singed here, than exposed +between two such fiery furnaces as Lady Southampton and my niece +Keppel. I pity Charles Fox to be kept on the Westminster +gridiron.(690) Before I came out of town, I was diverted by a +story from the hustings: one of the mob called out to Fox, "Well, +Charley, are not you sick of your coalition?" "Poor gentleman!" +cried an old woman in the crowd, "why should not he like a +collation?" + +I am very sorry Mrs. Damer is so tormented, but I hope the new +inflammation will relieve her. As I was writing that sentence +this morning, Mesdames de Boufflers came to see me from Richmond, +and brought a Comte de Moranville to see my house. The puerile +pedants of their `Etats are going to pull down the statues of +Louis Quatorze, like their silly ancestors, who proposed to +demolish the tomb of John Duke of Bedford. The Vicomte de +Mirabeau is arrested somewhere for something, perhaps for one of +his least crimes; in short, I M angry that the cause of liberty +is profaned by such rascals. If the two German Kings make peace, +as you hear and as I expected, the Brabanters, who seem not to +have known much better what to do with their revolution, will be +the first sacrifice on the altar of peace. + +I stick fast at the beginning of the first volume of Bruce,(691) +though I am told it is the most entertaining; but I am sick of +his vanity, and (I believe) of his want of veracity; but I am +sure of his want of method and of his obscurity. I hope my wives +were not at Park-place in your absence: the loss of them is +irreparable to me, and I tremble to think how much more I shall +feel it in three months, when I am to part with them for--who can +tell how long? Adieu! + +(689) Now first printed. + +(690) At the close of the election, on the 2d of July, the +numbers were, for Mr. Fox 3516, Lord Hood 3217, and Mr. Horne +Took 1697.-E. + +(691) Bruce's "Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile" had +just appeared, in five large quarto volumes. It was dedicated to +George the Third, who, while society in general raised a cry of +incredulity against it, stood up warmly in its' favour, and +contended that it was a great work.-E. + + + +Letter 350 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, June 26, 1790. (page 448) + +I do not forget your lordship's commands, though I do recollect +my own inability to divert you. Every year at my advanced time +of life would make more reasonable my plea of knowing nothing +worth repeating, especially at this season. The general topic of +elections is the last subject to which I could listen: there is +not one about which I care a straw; and I believe your lordship +quite as indifferent. I am not much more au fait of war. or +peace; I hope for the latter, nay and expect it, because it is +not yet war. Pride and anger do not deliberate to the middle of +the campaign; and I believe even the great incendiaries are more +intent on making a good bargain than on saving their honour. If +they save lives, I care not who is the better politician; and, as +I am not to be their judge, I do not inquire what false weights +they fling into the scales. Two-thirds of France, who are not so +humble as I, seem to think they can entirely new-model the world +with metaphysical compasses; and hold that no injustice, no +barbarity, need to be counted in making the experiment. Such +legislators are sublime empirics, and in their universal +benevolence have very little individual sensibility. In short, +the result of my reflections on what has passed in Europe for +these latter centuries is, that tyrants have no consciences, and +reformers no feeling; and the world suffers both by the plague +and by the cure. What oceans of blood were Luther and Calvin the +authors of being spilt! The late French government was +detestable; yet I still doubt whether a civil war will not be the +consequence of the revolution, and then what may be the upshot? +Brabant was grievously provoked; is it sure that it will be +emancipated? For how short a time do people who set out on the +most just principles, advert to their first springs of motion, +and retain consistency? Nay, how long can promoters of +revolutions be sure of maintaining their own ascendant? They are +like projectors, who are commonly ruined; while others make +fortunes on the foundation laid by the inventors. + + + +Letter 351 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Wednesday night, July 1, 1790. (page 448) + +It is certainly not from having any thing to tell you, that I +reply so soon, but as the most agreeable thing I can do in my +confinement. The gout came into my heel the night before last, +perhaps from the deluge and damp. I increased it yesterday by +limping about the house with a party I had to breakfast. To-day +I am lying on the settee, unable to walk alone, or even to put on +a slipper. However, as I am much easier this evening, I trust it +will go off. + +I do not love disputes, and shall not argue with you about Bruce; +but, if you like him, you shall not choose an author for me. It +is the most absurd, obscure, and tiresome book I know. I shall +admire if you have a clear conception about most of the persons +and matters in his work; but, in fact, I do not believe you have. +Pray, can you distinguish between his cock and hen Heghes, and +between A Yasouses and Ozoros? and do you firmly believe that an +old man and his son were sent for and put to death, because the +King had run into a thornbush, and was forced to leave his +clothes behind him? Is it your faith, that one of their +Abyssinian Majesties pleaded not being able to contribute towards +sending for a new Abuna, because he had spent all his money at +Venice in looking-glasses? And do you really think that Peter +Paez was a Jack-of-all-trades, and built palaces and convents +without assistance, and furnished them with his own hands? You, +who are a little apt to contest most assertions, must have +strangely let out your credulity!(692) I could put forty +questions to you as wonderful; and, for my part, could as soon +credit * * * *. + +I am tired of railing at French barbarity and folly. They are +more puerile now serious, than -when in the long paroxysm of gay +levity. Legislators, a senate, to neglect laws, in order to +annihilate coats of arms and liveries! to pull down a King, and +set up an Emperor! They are hastening to establish the tribunal +of the praetorian guards; for the sovereignty, it seems, is not +to be hereditary. One view of their F`ete of the 14th,(693) I +suppose, is to draw money to Paris; and the consequence will be, +that the deputies will return to the provinces drunk with +independence and self-importance, and will commit fifty times +more excesses, massacres, and devastations, than last year. +George Selwyn says, that Monsieur, the King's brother, is the +only man of rank from whom they cannot take a title.(694) + +How franticly have the French acted, and how rationally the +Americans! But Franklin and Washington were great men. None have +appeared yet in France; and Necker has only returned to make a +wretched figure! He is become as insignificant as his King; his +name is never mentioned, but now and then as disapproving +something that is done. Why then does he stay? Does he wait to +strike some great stroke, when every thing is demolished? His +glory, which consisted in being minister though a Protestant, is +vanished by the destruction of popery; the honour of which, I +suppose, he will scarce assume to himself. I have vented my +budget, and now good night! I feel almost as if I could walk up +to bed. + +(692 Though Bruce's work was attacked at the time by the critics +with much virulence, his statements have been more or less +confirmed by Salt, Burckhardt, Wit-an, Clarke, Belzoni, and other +distinguished travellers. Bruce never replied to any of his +opponents; but sometimes said to his daughter, that he hoped she +would live to see the time when the truth of what he had written +would be established. He lost his life in April 1794, in +consequence of an accidental slip of his foot, while handing a +lady down stairs to her carriage. A second edition of his +Travels was published in 1805, by Dr. Alexander Murray, from a +copy which the traveller had himself prepared for the press.-E. + +(693) The grand federation in the Champ de Mar, on the +anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, thus described by M. +Thiers:--"A magnificent amphitheatre, formed at the further +extremity, was destined for the national authorities. The King +and the president sat beside one another on similar seats. +Behind the King was an elevated balcony for the Queen and the +court. The ministers were at some distance before from the King, +and the deputies ranged on either side. Four hundred thousand +spectators occupied the lateral amphitheatres. Sixty thousand +armed federalists performed their evolutions in the intermediate +space; and in the centre, upon a base twenty-five feet high, +stood the altar of the country. Three hundred priests, in white +surplices and tricoloured scarfs, covered the steps, and were to +officiate. The Bishop of Anton" [afterwards Prince Talleyrand] +began the mass. Divine service over, La Fayette received the +orders of the King, who handed to him the form of the oath. La +Fayette carried it to the altar. At this moment all the banners +waved, every sabre glistened. The general the army, the +president, the deputies cried 'I swear it.' The King, standing, +with his hand outstretched towards the altar, said 'I King of the +French, swear,' etc. At this moment., the Queen, moved by the +general emotion, clasped in her arms the august child, the heir +to the throne, and, from the balcony, showed him to the assembled +nation. At this moment shouts of joy, attachment 'enthusiasm, +were addressed to the mother and the child, and all hearts were +hers." History of the Revolution, vol. i. p. 155.-E. + +(694) On the 20th of Julio, a decree, that the titles of duke, +count, marquis, viscount, baron, and chevalier should be +suppressed, had been carried in the National Assembly by a large +majority.-E. + + + +Letter 352 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, Saturday night, July 3, 1790. (page 450) + +How kind to write the very moment you arrived! but pray do not +think that, welcome as your letters are, I would purchase them at +the price of any fatigue to you-a proviso I put in already +against moments when you may be more weary than by a journey to +Lymington. You make me happy by the good accounts of Miss Agnes; +and I should be completely so, if the air of the sea could be so +beneficial to you both, as to make your farther journey +unnecessary to your healths, at least for some time; for--and I +protest solemnly that not a personal thought enters into the +consideration--I shall be excessively alarmed at your going to +the Continent. when such a frenzy has seized it. You see by the +papers, that the flame has burst out at Florence: can Pisa then +be secure? Flanders can be no safe road; and is any part of +France so? I told you in my last of the horrors at Avignon. At +Madrid the people are riotous against the war with us, and +prosecuted I am persuaded it will not be; but the demon of Gaul +is busy every where. The Etats, who are as foolish as atrocious, +have printed lists of the surnames which the late noblesse are to +assume or resume; as if people did not know their own names. I +like a speech I have heard of the Queen. She went with the King +to see the manufacture of glass, and, as they passed the Halles, +the poissardes huzzaed them; "Upon my word," said the Queen, +"these folks are civiler when you visit them, than when they +visit you." This marked both spirit and good -humour. For my +part, I am so shocked at French barbarity, that I begin to think +that our hatred of them is not national prejudice, but natural +instinct; as tame animals are born with an antipathy to beasts of +prey. + +Mrs. Damer tells me in a letter to-day, that Lady Ailesbury was +charmed with you both (which did not surprise either of us); and +she never saw two persons have so much taste for the country, who +have no place of their Own. It may be so; but begging her +ladyship's pardon and yours, I think that people who have a place +of their own, are mighty apt not to like any other. + +I feel all the kindness at your determination of coming to +Twickenham in August, and shall certainly say no more against it, +though I am certain that I shall count every day that passes; and +when they are passed, they will leave a melancholy impression on +Strawberry, that I had rather have affixed to London. The two +last summers were infinitely the pleasantest I ever passed here, +for I never before had an agreeable neighbourhood. Still I loved +the place, and had no comparisons to draw. Now, the +neighbourhood will remain, and will appear ten times worse; with +the aggravation of remembering two months that may have some +transient roses, but I am sure, lasting thorns. You tell me I do +not write with my usual spirits: at least I will suppress, as +much as I can, the want of them, though I am a bad +dissembler.(695) + +You do not mention the cathedral at Winchester, which I have +twice seen and admired; nor do you say any thing of Bevismount +and Netley--charming Netley! At Lyndhurst you passed the palatial +hovel of my royal nephew; who I have reason to wish had never +been so, and did all I could to prevent his being. + +The week before last I met the Marlboroughs at Lady Di's. The +Duchess(696) desired to come and see Strawberry again, as it had +rained the whole time she was here last. I proposed the next +morning: no, she could not: she expected company to dinner; she +believed their brother, Lord Robert(697) would dine with them: I +thought that a little odd, as they had Just turned him out for +Oxfordshire; and I thought a dinner no cause at the distance of +four miles. In her grace's dawdling way, she could fix no time: +and so on Friday, at half an hour after seven, as I was going to +Lady North's, they arrived; and the sun being setting, and the +moon not risen, You may judge how much they could see through all +the painted glass by twilight. + +(695) In a letter written in this month to Walpole, Miss More +asks, "Where and how are the Berrys? I hope they are within +reach of your great chair, if you are confined, and of your +airings, if you go abroad. I hate their going to Yorkshire: as +Hotspur Says, 'What do they do in the north, when they ought to +be in the south?", Memoirs, vol.ii. p. 235.-E. + +(696) Lady Caroline Russell; married, in 1762, to the Duke of +Marlborough. + +(697) Lord Robert Spencer, brother of the Duke of Marlborough. + + + +Letter 353 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, August 9, at night, 1790. (page 452) + +MR. NICHOLLS has offered to be postman to you; whereof, though I +have nothing, or as little as nothing, to say, I thought as how, +it would look kinder to send nothing in writing than by word of +mouth. + +Nothing the first. So the peace is made, and the stocks drank +its health in a bumper; but when they waked the next morning, +they found they had reckoned without their host, and that their +majesties the King of big Britain and the King of little Spain +have agreed to make peace some time or other, if they can agree +upon it; and so the stocks drew in their horns: but, having great +trust in some time or other, they only fell two pegs lower. I, +who never believed there would be war, keep my prophetic stocks +up to par, and my consolation still higher; for when Spanish +pride truckles, and English pride has had the honour of bullying, +I dare to say we shall be content with the ostensible triumph, as +Spain will be with some secret article that will leave her much +where she was before. Vide Falkland's Island. + +Nothing the second. Miss Gunning's match with Lord Blandford. +You asserted it so peremptorily, that, though I doubted it, I +quoted you. Lo! it took its rise solely in poor old Bedford's +dotage, that still harps on conjunctions copulative, but now +disavows it, as they say, on a remonstrance from her daughter. + +Nothing the third. Nothing will come of nothing, says King Lear, +and your humble servant. + + + +Letter 354 To The Earl Of Strafford. +Strawberry Hill, August 12, 1790. (page 452) + +I must not pretend any longer, my dear lord, that this region is +void of news and diversions. Oh! we can innovate as well as +neighbouring nations. If an Earl Stanhope, though he cannot be a +tribune, is ambitious of being a plebeian, he may without law be +as vulgar as heart can wish; and, though we have not a national +assembly to lay the axe to the root of nobility, the peerage have +got a precedent for laying themselves in the kennel. Last night +the Earl of Barrymore was so humble as to perform a buffoon-dance +and act Scaramouch in a pantomime at Richmond for the benefit of +Edwin, Jun. the comedian:(698) and I, like an old fool, but +calling myself a philosopher that loves to study human nature in +all its disguises, went to see the performance. + +Mr. Gray thinks that some Milton or some Cromwell may be lost to +the world under the garb of a ploughman. Others may suppose that +some excellent jack-pudding may lie hidden under red velvet and +ermine. I cannot say that by the experiment of last night the +latter hypothesis has been demonstrated, any more than the +inverse proposition in France, where, though there seem to be +many as bloody-minded rascals as Cromwell, I can discover none of +his abilities.(699) They have settled nothing like a +constitution; on the contrary, they seem to protract every thing +but violence, as much as they can, in order to keep their Louie a +day, which is more than two-thirds of the Asset they perhaps ever +saw in a month. I do not love legislators that pay themselves so +amply! They might have had as good a constitution as twenty-four +millions of people could comport. As they have voted an army of +an hundred and fifty thousand men, I know what their constitution +will be, after passing through a civil war. In short, I detest +them: they have done irreparable injury to liberty, for no +monarch will ever summon `etats again; and all the real service +that will result from their fury will be, that every King in +Europe, for these twenty, or perhaps thirty years to come, will +be content with the prerogative he has. without venturing to +augment it. + +The Empress of Russia has thrashed the King of Sweden; and the +King of Sweden has thrashed the Empress of Russia. I am more +glad that both are beaten than that either is victorious ; for I +do not, like our newspapers, and such admirers, fall in love with +heroes and heroines who make war without a glimpse of +provocation. I do like our makincy peace, whether we had +provocation or not. I am forced to deal in European news, my +dear lord, for I have no homespun. I don't think my whole +inkhorn could invent another paragraph; and therefore I will take +my leave, with (your lordship knows) every kind wish for your +health and happiness.(700) + +(698) In the following month "The Follies of a Day" was performed +at Lord Barrymore's private theatre, at Wergrave. "His lordship, +in the character of the gardener," according to the newspapers, +"was highly comic, and his humour was not overstrained: the whole +concluded with a dance, in which was introduced a favourite pas +Russe, by Lord Barrymore and Mr. Delpini, which kept the theatre +in a roar."-E. + +(699) Gibbon, in a letter written a few months before from +Lausanne to Lord Sheffield, makes the following reflections:-- +"The French nation had a glorious opportunity, but they have +abused and may lose their advantages. If they had been content +with a liberal translation of our system, if they had respected +the prerogatives of the crown and the privileges of the nobles, +they might have raised a solid fabric on the only true +foundation, the natural aristocracy of a great country. How +different is the prospect! Their King brought a captive to +Paris, after his palace had been stained with the blood of his +guards; the nobles in exile; the clergy plundered in a way which +strikes at the root of all property; the capital an independent +republic; the union of the provinces dissolved; the flames of +discord kindled by the worst of men, and the honestest of the +Assembly a set of wild visionaries. As yet there is no symptom +of a great man, a Richelieu or a Cromwell, arising either to +restore the monarchy, or to lead the commonwealth."-E. + +(700) This appears to have been the last letter addressed by +Walpole to the Earl of Strafford. His lordship died at Wentworth +Castle, on the 10th of March following, in his seventy-ninth +year.-E. + + + +Letter 355 To Sir David Dalrymple.(701) +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 21, 1790. (page 454) + +So many years, Sir, have elapsed since I saw Burleigh, that I +cannot in general pretend to recollect the pictures Well. I do +remember that there was a surfeit of pieces by Luca Jordano, and +Carlo Dolce, no capital masters, and posterior to the excellent. +The Earl of Exeter, who resided long at Rome in the time of those +two painters, seemed to have employed them entirely during his +sojourn there. I was not struck more than you, Sir, with the +celebrated Death of Seneca, though one of the best works of +Jordano. Perhaps Prior's verses lifted it to part of its fame, +though even those verses are inferior to many of that charming +poet's compositions. Upon the whole, Burleigh is a noble palace, +contains many fine things, and the inside court struck me with +admiration and reverence. The Shakspeare Gallery is truly most +inadequate to its prototypes but how should it be worthy of them! +If we could recall the brightest luminaries of painting, could +they do justice to Shakspeare? Was Raphael himself as great a +genius in his art as the author of Macbeth? and who could draw +Falstaffe, but the writer of Falstaffe? I am entirely of your +opinion, Sir, that two of Northcote's pictures, from King John +and Richard the Third, are at the head of the collection. In +Macklin's Gallery of Poets and Scripture, there are much better +pictures than at Boydell's. Opie's Jephthah's Vow is a truly +fine performance, and would be so in any assemblage of paintings; +as Sir Joshua's Death of Beaufort is worthy of none: the Imp is +burlesque, and the Cardinal seems terrified at him as before him, +when the Imp is behind him. In Sir Thomas Hanmer's edition there +is a print that gives the fact simply, pathetically, and with +dignity, and just as you wish it told. + +My sentiments on French politics concur as much with yours as +they do on subjects above. The National Assembly set out too +absurdly and extravagantly, not to throw their country into the +last confusion; which is not the way of correcting a government, +but more probably of producing a worse, bad as the old was, and +thence they will have given a lasting wound to liberty: for what +king will ever call `Etats again, if he can possibly help it! The +new legislators were pedants, not politicians, when they +announced the equality of all men. We are all born so, no doubt, +abstractedly; and physically capable of being kept so, were it +possible to establish a perfect government, and give the same +education to all men. But are they so in the present +constitution of society, under a bad government, where most have +had no education at all, but have been debased, brutified, by a +long train and mixture of superstition and oppression, and +witnesses to the luxury and vices of their superiors, which they +could only envy and not enjoy? It was turning tigers loose; and +the degradation of the nobility pointed out the prey. Could it +be expected that savages so hallooed on to outrage and void of +any notions of reciprocal"duties and obligations, would fall into +a regular system of' acting as citizens under the government of +reason and justice? It was tearing all the bonds of society, +which the experience of mankind had taught them were necessary to +the mutual convenience of all; and no provision, no security, was +made for those who were levelled, and who, though they enjoyed +what they had by the old constitution, were treated, or were +exposed to be treated, as criminals. They have been treated so: +several have been butchered; and the National Assembly dare not +avenge them, as they should lose the favour of the intoxicated +populace. That conduct was senseless, or worse. With no less +folly did they seek to expect that a vast body of men, more +enlightened, at least, than the gross multitude, would sit down +in patience under persecution and deprivation of all they valued; +I mean the nobility and clergy, who might be stunned, but Were +sure of reviving and of burning with vengeance. The insult was +the greater, as the subsequent conduct of the National Assembly +has proved more shamefully dishonest, in their paying themselves +daily more than two-thirds of them ever saw perhaps in a month; +and that flagitious self-bestowed stipend, as it is void of all +patriotic integrity, will destroy their power too; for, if +constitution-making is so lucrative a trade, others will wish to +share in the plunder of their country too; and, even without a +civil war, I am persuaded the present Assembly will neither be +septennial, nor even triennial. + +(701) Now first collected. + + + +Letter 356 To The Miss Berrys. +Sunday, Oct. 10, 1790, The day of your departure. (page 455) + +Is it possible to write to my beloved friends, and refrain from +speaking of my grief for losing you; though it is but the +continuation of what I have felt ever since I was stunned by your +intention Of going abroad this autumn? Still I will not tire YOU +With it Often. In happy days I smiled, and called you my dear +wives--now I can only think on you as darling children of whom I +am bereaved! As such I have loved and do love You; and, charming +as you both are, I have had no Occasion to remind myself that I +am Past seventy-three. Your hearts, your understandings, your +virtues, and the cruel injustice of your fate,(702) have +interested me in every thing that concerns you; and so far from +having occasion to blush for any unbecoming weakness, I am proud +of my affection for you, and very proud of your condescending to +pass so many hours with a very old man, when every body admires +you, and the most insensible allow that your good sense and +information (I speak of both) have formed you to Converse with +the most intelligent of our sex as well as your own; and neither +can tax you with airs of pretension or affectation. Your +simplicity and natural ease set off all your other merits-all +these graces are lost to me, alas! when I have no time to lose. + +Sensible as I am to my loss, it will occupy but part of my +thoughts, till I know you are safely landed, and arrived safely +at Turin. Not till you are there, and I learn so, will my +anxiety subside, and settle into steady, selfish sorrow. I +looked at every weathercock as I came along the road to-day, and +was happy to see every one point northeast. May they do so +to-morrow! + +I found here the frame for Wolsey, and to-morrow morning Kirgate +will place him in it; and then I shall begin pulling the little +parlour to pieces, that it may be hung anew to receive him. I +have also obeyed Miss Agnes, though with regret; for, on trying +it, I found her Arcadia(703) would fit the place of the picture +she condemns, which shall therefore be hung in its room; though +the latter should give Way to nothing else, nor shall be laid +aside, but shall hang where I shall see it almost as often. I +long to hear that its dear paintress is well; I thought her not +at all so last night. You will tell me the truth, though she in +her own case, and in that alone, allows herself mental +reservation. + +Forgive me for writing nothing to-night but about you two and +myself. Of what can I have thought else? I have not spoken to a +single person but my own servants since we parted last night. + +I found a message here from Miss Howe(704) to invite me for this +evening--do you think I have not preferred staying at home to +write to you, as this Must go to London to-morrow morning by the +coach to be ready for Tuesday's post! My future letters shall +talk of other things, whenever I know any thing worth repeating; +or perhaps any trifle, for I am determined to forbid myself +lamentations that would weary you; and the frequency of my +letters will prove there is no forgetfulness. If I live to see +you again, you will then judge whether I am changed; but a +friendship so rational and so pure as mine is, and so equal for +both, is not likely to have any of the fickleness of youth, when +it has none of its other ingredients. It was a sweet consolation +to the short time that I may have left, to fall into such a +society; no wonder then that I am unhappy at that consolation +being abridged. I pique myself on no philosophy but what a long +use and knowledge of the world had given me-the philosophy of +indifference to most persons and events. I do pique myself on +not being ridiculous at this very late period of my life; but +when there is not a grain of passion in my affection for you two, +and when you both have the good sense not to be displeased at my +telling you so, (though I hope you would have despised me for the +contrary,) I am not ashamed to say that your loss is heavy to me; +and that I am only reconciled to it by hoping that a winter in +Italy, and the journeys and sea air, will be very beneficial to +two constitutions so delicate as yours. Adieu! my dearest +friends it would be tautology to subscribe a name to a letter, +every line of which would suit no other man in the world but the +writer. + +(702) This alludes to Miss Berry's father having been +disinherited by an uncle, to whom he was heir at law, and a large +property left to his younger brother.-M.B. + +(703) A drawing by Miss Agnes Berry. + +(704) Julia Howe, an unmarried sister of Admiral Earl Howe, who +lived at Richmond. + + + +Letter 357 To The Miss Berrys. +Sunday, Oct. 31, 1790. (page 457) + +Perhaps I am unreasonably impatient, and expect letters before +they can come. I expected a letter from Lyons three days ago, +though Mrs. Damer told me I should not have one till to-morrow. +I have got one to-day; but alas! from Pougues only, eleven and a +half posts short of Lyons! Oh! may Mrs. Damer prove in the right +to-morrow! Well! I must be happy for the past; and that you had +such delightful weather, and but one little accident to your +carriage. We have had equal summer till Wednesday last, when it +blew a hurricane. I said to it, "Blow, blow, thou winter wind, I +don't mind you now!" but I have not forgotten Tuesday the 12th; +and now I hope it will be as calm as it is to-day on Wednesday +next, when Mrs. Damer is to sail.(705) I was in town on Thursday +and Friday, and so were her parents, to take our leaves; as we +did on Friday night, supping all at Richmond-house. She set out +yesterday morning, and I returned hither. I am glad you had the +amusement of seeing the National Assembly. Did Mr. Berry find it +quite so august as he intended it should be? Burke's pamphlet is +to appear to-morrow, and Calonne has published a thumping one of +four hundred and forty pages.(706) I have but begun it, for +there is such a quantity of calculations, and one is forced to +bait so often to boil milliards of livres down to a rob of pounds +sterling, that my head is only filled with figures instead of +arguments, and I understand arithmetic less than logic. + +Our war still hangs by a hair, they say; and that this +approaching week must terminate its fluctuations. Brabant, I am +told, is to be pacified by negotiations at the Hague. Though I +talk like a newspaper, I do not assume their airs, nor give my +intelligence of any sort for authentic, unless when the Gazette +endorses the articles. Thus, Lord Louvain is made Earl of +Beverley, and Lord Earl of Digby; but in no Gazette, though still +in the Songs of Sion, do I find that Miss Gunning is a +marchioness. It is not that I suppose you care who gains a step +in the aristocracy; but I tell you these trifles to keep you au +courant, and that at your return you may not make only a baronial +curtsey, when it should be lower by two rows of ermine to some +new-hatched countess. This is all the, news-market furnishes. +Your description of the National Assembly and of the Champ de +Mars were both admirable; but the altar of boards and canvass +seems a type of their perishable constitution, as their +air-balloons were before. French visions are generally full of +vapour, and terminate accordingly. I have been at Mrs. +Grenville's(707) this evening, who had a small party for the +Duchess of Gloucester: there were many inquiries after my wives. + +(705) Mrs. Damer was going to pass the winter at Lisbon, on +account of her health. + +(706) This was his "Lettre sur l'`Etat de la France, pr`esent et +`a venir;" of which a translation appeared in the following +year.-E. + + +(707) Margaret Banks, widow Of the Hon. Henry Grenville, who died +in 1784. Their only daughter was married, in 1781, to Viscount +Mahon, afterwards Earl Stanhope. + + + +Letter 358 To The Miss Berrys +Park-place, Nov. 8, 1790. (page 458) + +No letter since Pougues! I think you can guess how uneasy I am! +It is not the fault of the wind; which has blown from every +quarter. To-day I cannot hear, for no post comes in on Mondays. +What can have occasioned my receiving no letters from Lyons, +when, on the 18th of last month, you were within twelve posts of +it? I am now sorry I came hither, lest by change of place a +letter may have shuttlecocked about, and not have known where to +find me; and yet I left orders with Kirgate to send it after me, +if one came to Strawberry on Saturday. I return thither +to-morrow, but not till after the post is come in here. I am +writing to you now, while the company are walked out, to divert +my impatience; which, however, is but a bad recipe, and not +exactly the way to put YOU Out Of my head. + +The first and great piece of news is the pacification with Spain. +The courier arrived on Thursday morning with a most acquiescent +answer to our ultimatum: what that was I do not know, nor much +care. Peace contents me, and for my part I shall not haggle +about the terms. I have a good general digestion, and it is not +a small matter that will lie at my stomach when I have no hand in +dressing the ingredients. + +The pacification of Brabant is likely to be volume the second. +The Emperor, and their majesties of Great Britain and Prussia, +and his Serene Highness the Republic of Holland have sent a card +to his turbulent Lowness of Brabant, and* they allow him but +three weeks to submit to his old sovereign: on promise of a +general pardon -or the choice of threescore thousand men ready to +march without a pardon. + +The third volume, expected, but not yet in the press, is a +counterrevolution in France. Of that I know nothing but rumour; +yet it certainly is not the most incredible event that rumour +ever foretold. In this country the stock of the National +Assembly IS fallen down to bankruptcy. Their only renegade, +aristocrat Earl Stanhope, has, with D. W. Russel, scratched his +name out of the Revolution Club; but the fatal blow has been at +last given by Mr. Burke. His pamphlet(708) came out this day +se'nnight, and is far superior to what was expected, even by his +warmest admirers. I have read it twice; and though of three +hundred and fifty pages, I wish I could repeat every page by +heart. It is sublime, profound, and gay. The wit and satire are +equally brilliant; and the whole is wise, though in some points +he goes too far: yet in general there is far less want of +judgment than could be expected from him. If it could be +translated,--which, from the wit and metaphors and allusions, is +almost impossible,--I should think it would be a classic book in +all countries, except in present France.(709) To their tribunes +it speaks daggers though, unlike them, it uses none. Seven +thousand copies have been taken off by the booksellers already, +and a new edition is preparing. I hope you will see it soon. +There ends my gazette. + +There is nobody here at present but Mrs. Hervey, Mrs. E. Hervey, +and Mrs. Cotton: but what did I find on Saturday? Why, the +Prince of Furstemberg,(710) his son, and son's governor! I was +ready to turn about and go back: but they really proved not at +all unpleasant. The ambassador has not the least German +stiffness or hauteur; is extremely civil, and so domestic a man, +that he talked comfortably of his wife and eight children, and of +his fondness for them. He understands English, though he does +not speak it. The son, a good-humoured lad of fifteen, seems +well-informed: the governor, a middle-aged officer, speaks +English so perfectly, that even by his accent I should not have +discovered him for a foreigner. They stayed all night, and went +to Oxford next morning before I rose. + +November 9th, at night. + +This morning, before I left Park-place, I had the relief and joy +of receiving your letter of October 24, from Lyons. It would +have been still more welcome, if dated from Turin; but, as you +have met with no impediments so far, I trust you got out of +France as well as through it. I do hope, too, that Miss Agnes is +better, as you say; but when one is very anxious about a person, +credulity does not take long strides in proportion. I am not +surprised at your finding voiturins, or any body, or any thing, +dearer: where all credit and all control are swept away, every +man will be a tyrant in proportion to his necessities and his +strength. Societies were invented to temperate force: but it +seems force was liberty, and much good may it do the French with +being delivered from every thing but violence!--which I believe +they will soon taste pro and con.! You may make me smile by +desiring me to continue my affection. Have I so much time left +for inconstancy? For threescore years and ten I have not been +very fickle in my friendship: in all these years I never found +such a pair as you and your sister. Should I meet with a +superior pair,-but they must not be deficient in any one of the +qualities which I find in you two,-why, Perhaps, I may change; +but, with that double mortgage on my affections, I do not think +you are in much danger of losing them. You shall have timely +notice if a second couple drops out of the clouds and falls in my +way. + +(708) The far-famed "Reflections on the Revolution in France;" of +which about thirty thousand copies were sold in a comparatively +short space of time.-E. + +(709) A French translation, by M. Dupont, shortly after made its +appearance, and spread the reputation of the work over all +Europe. The Emperor of Germany, Catherine of Russia, and the +French Princes transmitted to Mr. Burke their warm approbation of +it, and the unfortunate Stanislaus of Poland sent him his +likeness on a gold medal.-E. + +(710) The Landgrave of Furstemberg had been sent from the Emperor +Leopold to notify his being elected King of the Romans, and his +subsequent coronation as Emperor of Germany.-E. + + + +Letter 359 To Miss Berry. +November 11, 1790. (page 460) + +I had a letter from Mrs. Damer at Falmouth. She suffered much by +cold and fatigue, and probably sailed on Saturday evening last, +and may be at Lisbon by this time, as you, I trust, are in Italy. +Mr. Burke's pamphlet has quite turned Dr. Price's head. He got +upon a table at their club, toasted to our Parliament becoming a +National Assembly, and to admitting no more peers of their +assembly, having lost the only one they had. They themselves are +very like the French `Etats: two more members got on the table +(their pulpit), and broke it down: so be it! + +The Marquisate(711) is just where it was--to be and not to be. +The Duchess of Argyll is said to be worse. Della Crusca(712) has +published a poem, called "The Laurel of Liberty," which, like the +Enrag`es, has confounded and overturned all ideas. There are +gossamery tears and silky oceans--the first time, to be sure, +that any body ever cried cobwebs, or that the sea was made of +paduasoy.(713) There is, besides, a violent tirade against a +considerable personage, who, it is supposed, the author was +jealous of, as too much favoured a few years ago by a certain +Countess. You may guess why I am not more explicit: for the same +reason I beg YOU not to mention it at all; it would be +exceedingly improper. As the Parliament will meet in a +fortnight, and the town be plumper, my letters may grow more +amusing; though, unless the weather grows worse, I shall not +contribute my leanness to its embonpoint. Adieu! + +(711) Meaning the reported marriage of Miss Gunning to the +Marquis of Blandford.-B. + +(712) Robert Merry, Esq. who, at this time, wrote in the +newspapers under this signature, and thereby became the object of +the caustic satire of the author of the Baviad and Maviad-- + +"Lo, Della Crusca in his closet pent, +He toils to give the crude conception vent +Abortive thoughts, that right and wrong confound, +Truth sacrific'd to letters, sense to sound; +False glare, incongruous images combine, +And noise and nonsense chatter through the line."-E. + +(713) Besides the above, Mr. Gifford instances, from the same +poem, "moody monarchs, radiant rivers, cooling cataracts, lazy +Loires, gay Garonnes, glossy glass, mingling murder, dauntless +day, lettered lightnings, delicious dilatings, sinking sorrows, +real reasoning, meliorating mercies, dewy vapours damp that sweep +the silent swamps, etc. etc."-E. + + + +Letter 360 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Thursday, Nov. 18, 1790. (page 461) + +On Tuesday morning, after my letter was gone to the post, I +received yours of the 2d (as I have all the rest) from Turin, and +it gave me very little of the joy I had so much meditated to +receive from a letter thence. And why did not it?-because I had +got one on Saturday, which anticipated and augmented all the +satisfaction I had allotted for Turin. You will find my +Tuesday's letter, if ever you receive it, intoxicated with +Chamberry; for which, and all your kind punctuality, I give you a +million of thanks. But how cruel to find that you found none of +my letters at Turin! There ought to have been two at least, of +October the 16th and 19th. I have since directed one thither of +the 25th; but alas! from ignorance, there was par Paris on none +of them; and the Lord knows at how many little German courts they +may have been baiting! I shall put par Paris on this; but beg you +will tell me, as soon as you can, which route is the shortest and +the safest; that is, by which you are most likely to receive +them. You do me justice in concluding there has been no +negligence of mine in the case; indeed, I have been ashamed of +the multiplicity of my letters, when I had scarce any thing to +tell you but +my own anxiety to hear of your being quietly settled at Florence, +out of the reach of all commotions. And how could I but dread +your being molested by some accident, in the present state of +France! and how could your healths mend in bad inns, and till you +can repose somewhere? Repose you will have at Florence, but I +shall fear the winter for you there: I suffered more by cold +there, than by any place in my life; and never came home at night +without a pain in my breast, which I never felt elsewhere, yet +then I was very young and in perfect health. If either of you +suffer there in any shape, I hope you will retire to Pisa. + +My inquietude, that presented so many alarms to me before you set +out, has, I find, and am grieved for it, not been quite in the +Wrong. Some inconveniences I am persuaded you have sunk: yet the +difficulty of landing at Dieppe, and the ransack of your poor +harmless trunks at Bourgoin, and the wretched lodgings with which +you were forced to take up at Turin, count deeply with me: and I +had much rather have lost all credit as a prophet, since I could +not prevent your journey. May it answer for your healths! I +doubt it will not in any other respect, as you have already found +by the voiturins. In point of pleasure, is it possible to divest +myself so radically of all self-love as to wish you may find +Italy as agreeable as you di formerly? In all other lights, I do +most fervently hope there will he no drawbacks on your plan. +Should you be disappointed in any way, you know what a warm heart +is open to receive you back; and so will your own Cliveden(714) +be too. + +I am glad you met the Bishop of Arras,(715) and am much pleased +that he remembers me. I saw him very frequently at my dear old +friend's,.(716) and liked him the best of all Frenchmen I ever +knew. He is extremely sensible, easy, lively, and void of +prejudices. Should he fall in your way again, I beg you will +tell him how sincere a regard I have for him. He lived in the +strictest union with his brother, the Archbishop of Tours, whom I +was much less acquainted with, nor know if he be living. + +I have heard nothing since my Tuesday's letter. As I still hope +its predecessors will reach you, I will not repeat the trifling +scraps of news I have sent you in them. In fact, this is only a +trial whether par Paris is a better passport than a direction +without it; but I am grievously sorry to find difficulty of +correspondence superadded to the vexation of losing you. Writing +to you was grown my chief occupation. I wish. Europe and its +broils were in the East Indies, if they embarrass us quiet folks, +who have nothing to do with their squabbles. The Duchess of +Gloucester, who called on me yesterday, charged me to give her +compliments to you both. Miss Foldson(717) has not yet sent me +your pictures: I was in town on Monday, and sent to reproach her +with having twice broken her promise; her mother told my servant +that Miss was at Windsor, drawing the Queen and Princesses. That +is not the work of a Moment. I am glad all the Princes are not +on the spot. + +I think of continuing here till the weather grows very bad; which +it has not been at all yet, though not equal to what I am +rejoiced you have found. I have no Somerset or Audley-street to +receive me: Mrs. Damer is gone too. The Conways remain at +Park-place till after Christmas; It is entirely out of fashion +for women to grow old and stay at home in an evening. They +invite you, indeed, now and then, but do not expect to see you +till near midnight; which is rather too late to begin the day, +unless one was born but twenty years ago. I do not condemn any +fashions, which the young ought to set, for the old certainly +ought not; but an oak that has been going on in its old way for +an hundred years, cannot shoot into a May-pole in three years, +because it is the mode to plant Lombardy poplars. + +What I should have suffered, if your letters, like mine, had +wandered through Germany! I, you was sure, had written, and was +in no danger. Dr. Price, who had whetted his ancient talons last +year to no purpose, has had them all drawn by Burke, and the +Revolution Club is as much exploded as the Cock-lane Ghost; but +you, in order to pass a quiet winter in Italy, would pass through +a fiery furnace. Fortunately, you have not been singed, and the +letter from Chamberry has composed all my panics, but has by no +means convinced me that I was not perfectly in the right to +endeavour to keep you at home. One does not put one's hand in +the fire to burn off a hangnail; and, though health is +delightful, neither of you were out of order enough to make a +rash experiment. I Would not be so absurd as to revert to old +arguments, that happily proved no prophecies, if my great anxiety +about you did not wish, in time, to persuade you to return +through Switzerland and Flanders, if the latter is pacified and +France is not; of which I see no likelihood. + +Pray forgive me, if parts of my letters are sometimes tiresome; +but can I appear only always cheerful when you two are absent, +and have another long journey to make, ay, and the sea to cross +again? My fears cannot go to sleep like a paroli at faro till +there is a new deal, in which even then I should not be sure of +winning. If I see you again, I will think I have gained another +milleleva, as I literally once did; with this exception, that I +was vehemently against risking a doit at the game of travelling. +Adieu! + +(714) Little Strawberry Hill, which he had then thus named. + +(715) M. de Conzies. This amiable prelate declined, in 1801, the +Parisian archiepiscopacy, proffered him by Buonaparte, and died +in London, in December 1804, in the arms of Monsieur, afterwards +Charles the Tenth.-E. + +(716) Madame du Deffand. + +)717 Afterwards Mrs. Mee. + + + +Letter 361 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Friday night, Nov. 27, 1790. (page 463) + +I am waiting for a letter from Florence, not with perfect +patience, though I could barely have one, even if you did arrive, +as you intended, on the 12th; but twenty temptations might have +occurred to detain you in that land of eye and ear sight; my +chief eagerness is to learn that you have received at least some +of my letters. I wish too to know, though I cannot yet, whether +you would have me direct Par Paris, or as I did before. In this +state of uncertainty I did not prepare this to depart this +morning; nor, though the Parliament met yesterday, have I a +syllable of news for you, as there will be no debate till all the +members have been sworn, which takes two or three days. +Moreover, I am still here: the weather, though very rainy, is +quite warm; and I have much more agreeable society at Richmond, +with small companies and better hours, than in town, and shall +have till after Christmas, unless great cold drives me thither. +Lady Di, Selwyn, the Penns, the Onslows, Douglases, Mackinsys, +Keenes, Lady Mount-Edgcumbe, all stay, and Some of them meet +every evening. The Boufflers too are constantly invited, and the +Comtesse Emilie sometimes carries her harp, on which they say she +plays better than Orpheus; but as I never heard him on earth, nor +chez Proserpine, I do not pretend to decide. Lord +Fitzwilliam(718) has been here too; but was in the utmost danger +of being lost on Saturday night, in a violent storm between +Calais and Dover, as the captain confessed to him when they were +landed. Do you think I did not ache at the recollection of a +certain Tuesday when you were sailing to Dieppe? + +(718) Richard, seventh and last Viscount Fitzwilliam, the +munificent benefactor to the University of Cambridge. He died in +1816.-E. + + + +Letter 362 To Miss Agnes Berry. +Strawberry Hill, Sunday, Nov. 29, 1790. (page 464) + +Though I write to both at once, and reckon your letters to come +equally from both, yet I delight in seeing your hand with a pen +as well as with a pencil, and you express yourself as well with +the one as with the other. Your part in that which I have been +so happy as to receive this moment, has singularly obliged me, by +your having saved me the terror of knowing you had a torrent to +cross after heavy rain. No cat is so afraid of water for +herself, as I am grown to be for you. That panic, which will +last for many months, adds to my fervent desire of your returning +early in the autumn, that you may have neither fresh water nor +the "silky" ocean to cross in winter. Precious as our insular +situation is, I am ready to wish with the Frenchman, that you +could somehow or other get to it by land,-- Oui, c'est une isle +toujours, je le sais bien; mais, par exemple, en allant +d'alentour, n'y auroit-il pas moyen d'y arriver par terre?" + +Correggio never pleased me in proportion to his fame; his grace +touches upon grimace; the mouth of the beautiful Angel at Parma +curls up almost into a half-moon. Still I prefer Corregio to the +lourd want of grace in Guereino, who is to me a German edition of +Guido. I am sorry the bookseller would not let you have an +Otranto. Edwards told me, above two months ago, that he every +day expected the whole impression; and he has never mentioned it +waiting for my corrections. I will make Kirgate write to him, +for I have told you that I am still here. We have had much rain, +but no flood; and yesterday and to-day have exhibited Florentine +skies. + +>From town I know nothing; but that on Friday, after the King's +speech, Earl Stanhope made a most frantic speech on the National +Assembly and against Calonne's book, which he wanted to have +taken up for high treason.(719) He was every minute interrupted +by loud bursts of laughter; which was all the answer he received +or deserved. His suffragan Price has published a short, sneaking +equivocal answer to Burke, in which he pretends his triumph over +the King of France alluded to July, not to October, though his +sermon was preached in November. Gredat--but not Judaeus Apella, +as Mr. Burke so wittily says of the assignats.(720) Mr. +Grenville, the secretary of state, is made a peer, they say to +assist the Chancellor in the House of Lords: yet the papers +pretend the Chancellor is out of humour, and will resign the +first may be true, the latter probably not.(721) + +Richmond, my metropolis, flourishes exceedingly. The Duke of +Clarence arrived at his palace there last night, between eleven +and twelve, as I came from Lady Douglas. His eldest brother and +Mrs. Fitzherbert dine there to-day with the Duke Of Queensbury, +as his grace, who called here this morning, told me, on the very +spot where lived Charles the First, and where are the portraits +of his principal courtiers from Cornbury. Queensbury has taken +to that palace at last, and has frequently company and music +there in an evening. I intend to go. + +I suppose none of my Florentine acquaintance are still upon +earth. The handsomest woman there, of my days, was a Madame +Grifoni, my fair Geraldine: she would now be a Methusalemess, and +much more like a frightful picture I have of her by a one-eyed +German painter. I lived then with Sir Horace Mann, in Casa +Mannetti in Via de' Santi Apostoli, by the Ponte di Trinit`a. +Pray, worship the works of Masaccio, if any remain; though I +think the best have been burnt in a church. Raphael himself +borrowed from him. Fra Bartolomeo, too, is one of my standards +for great ideas; and Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus a rival of the +antique, though Mrs. Damer will not allow it. Over against the +Perseus is a beautiful small front of a house, with only three +windows, designed by Raphael; and another, I think, near the +Porta San Gallo, and I believe called Casa Panciatici or +Pandolfini. + +(719) in the report of Lord Stanbope's speech, as it is given in +the Parliamentary History, there is no expression of a wish that +M. Calonne should be ,taken up for high treason." What the noble +Earl said was, that the assertion that a civil war would meet +with the support of all the crowned heads in Europe was a +scandalous libel on the King of England, and might endanger the +lives of many natives of Scotland and Ireland then residing in +France.-E. + +(720) "The Assembly made in their speeches a sort of swaggering +declaration, something, I rather think, above legislative +competence; that is, that there is no difference in value between +metallic money and their assignats. This was a good, stout proof +article of faith, pronounced under an anathema, by the venerable +fathers of this philosophic synod. Gredat who will certainly not + +Judaeus Apella."-E. + +(721) In Mr. Wilberforce's Diary for this year there appears the +following entry:-"Nov- 22. Dined with Mr. Pitt. He told me of +Grenville's peerage and the true reasons--distrust of Lord +Thurlow. Saw Thurlow's answer to the news. Gave Pitt a serious +word or two." See Life, vol. i. p. 284.-E. + + + +Letter 363 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Dec. 20, 1790; very late at night. (page 465) + +The French packet that was said to be lost on Tuesday last, and +which did hang out signals of distress, was saved, but did not +bring any letters; but three Flemish mails that were due are +arrived, and did bring letters, and, to my inexpressible joy, two +from you of the 22d and 29th of the last month, telling Me that +you have received as far as No. 4 and 5 of mine. Thank all the +stars in Herschell's telescope, or beyond its reach, that our +correspondence is out of the reach of France and all its ravages! +Thank you a million of times for all your details about +yourselves When even the apprehension of any danger disquiets me +so much, judge whether I do not interest myself in every +particular of your pleasures and amusements! Florence was my +delight, as it is yours but, I don't know how, I wish you did not +like it quite so much and, after the gallery. how will any +silver-penny of a gallery look? Indeed, for your Boboli, which I +thought horrible even fifty years ago, before shepherds had seen +the star of taste in the west, and glad tidings were proclaimed +to their flocks, I do think there is not an acre on the banks of +the Thames that should vail the bonnet to it. + +Of Mr. Burke's book, if I have not yet told you my opinion, I do +now: that it is one of the finest compositions in print. There +is reason, logic, wit, truth. eloquence, and enthusiasm in the +brightest colours. That it has given a mortal stab to sedition, +I believe and hope; because the fury of the Brabanters,-whom, +however, as having been aggrieved, I pitied and distinguish +totally from the savage Gauls, -and the unmitigated and execrable +injustices of the latter, have made almost any state preferable +to such anarchy and desolation, that increases every day. +Admiring thus, as I do, I am very far from subscribing to the +extent of almost all Mr. Burke's principles. The work, I have no +doubt, will hereafter be applied to support very high doctrines; +and to you I will say, that I think it an Apocrypha, that, in +many a council of Bishops, will be added to the Old Testament. +Still, such an Almanzor was wanting at this crisis; and his foes +show how deeply they are wounded, by their abusive pamphlets. +Their Amazonian allies, headed by Kate Macaulay(722) and the +virago Barbauld, whom Mr. Burke calls our poissardes, spit their +rage at eighteenpence a head, and will return to Fleet-ditch, +more fortunate in being forgotten than their predecessors, +immortalized in the Dunciad. I must now bid you good-night; and +night it is, to the tune of morning. Adieu, all three! + +(722) A pamphlet, entitled "Observations on the Reflections of +the Right Hon. Edmund Burke on the Revolution in France; in a +Letter to Earl Stanhope," was attributed to Mrs. Macaulay.-E. + + + +Letter 364 To Miss Berry. +Berkeley Square, Saturday, Jan. 22, 1791. (page 466) + +I have been most unwillingly forced to send you such bad accounts +of myself by my two last letters; but, as I could not conceal +all, it was best to tell you the whole truth. Though I do not +know that there was any real danger, I could not be so blind to +my own age and weakness as not to think that, with so much gout +an fever, the conclusion might very probably be fatal: and +therefore it was better +you should be prepared for what might happen. The danger appears +to be entirely over: there seems to be no more gout to come. I +have no fever, have a very good appetite, and sleep well. Mr. +Watson,(723) who is all tenderness and attention, is persuaded +to-day that I shall recover the use of my left hand ; of which I +despaired much more than of the right, as having been seized +three weeks earlier. Emaciated and altered I am incredibly, as +you would find were you ever to see me again. But this illness +has dispelled all visions ; and, as I have little prospect of +passing another happy autumn, I Must wean myself from whatever +would embitter my remaining time by disappointments. + +Your No. 15 came two days ago, and gives me the pleasure of +knowing that you both are the better for riding, which I hope you +will continue. I am glad, too, that you are pleased with your +Duchess of Fleury and your Latin professor: but I own, except +your climate and the six hundred camels, you seem to me to have +met with no treasure which you might not have found here without +going twenty miles: and even the camels, according to Soame +Jenyns' spelling, were to be had from Carrick and other places. + +I doubt you apply Tully de Amicitia too favourably: at least, I +fear there is no paragraph that countenances 73 and 27. + +Monday, the 24th. + +I think I shall give you pleasure by telling you that I am very +sure now of recovering from the present fit. It has almost +always happened to me, in my considerable fits of the gout, to +have one critical night that celebrates its departure: at the end +of two different fits I each time slept eleven hours. Morpheus +is not quite so young nor so generous now ; but, with the +interruption of a few minutes, he presented me with eight hours +last night: and thence I shall date my recovery. I shall now +begin to let in a little company; and, as the Parliament will +meet in a week, my letters will probably not be so dull as they +have been; nor shall I have occasion, nor be obliged, to talk so +much of myself, of which I am sure others must be tired, when I +am so much tired myself. + +Tuesday, the 25th. + +Old Mrs. French(724) is dead at last, and I am on the point of +losing, or have lost, my oldest acquaintance and friend, George +Selwyn, who was yesterday at the extremity. These misfortunes, +though they can be so but for a short time, are very sensible to +the old; but him I really loved, not only for his infinite wit, +but for a thousand good qualities. Lady Cecilia Johnstone was +here yesterday. I said much for you, and she as much to you. +The Gunnings are still playing the fool, and perhaps somebody +with them; but I cannot tell you the particulars now. Adieu! + +(723) His surgeon. + +(724) An Irish lady, who, during the latter part of her life, had +a country house at Hampton Court. + + + +Letter 365 To The Miss Berrys. +Saturday, Jan. 29, 1791. (page 468) + +Voici de ma propre `ecriture! the best proof that I am +recovering, though not rapidly, which is not the march of my time +of life. For n these last six days I have mended more than I +expected. My left hand, the first seized, is the most dilatory, +and of which I have least hopes. The rheumatism, that I thought +so clear and predominant, is so entirely gone, that I now rather +think it was hussar-gout attacking in flying squadrons the +outposts. No matter which, very ill I was ; and you might see +what I thought of myself: nor can I stand many such victories. +My countenance was so totally altered, that I could not trace it +myself. Its outlines have returned to their posts, though with +deep gaps. This is a true picture, and too long an one of self; +and too hideous for a bracelet. Apropos, your sweet Miss +Foldson, I believe, is painting portraits of all our Princesses, +to be sent to all the Princes upon earth ; for, though I have +sent her several written duns, she has not deigned even to answer +one in writing. I don't know whether Mrs. Buller is not +appointed Royal Academician too; for, though I desired the +"Charming-man," who was to dine with her that day, to tell her, +above a week ago, that I should be glad to see her, she has not +taken the least notice of it. Mr. Batt, ditto; who was at +Cambridge's when I was at the worst, and knew so, has not once +inquired after me, in town or country. So you see you have +carried off your friends from me as well as yourselves: and it is +not them I regret; or rather, in fact, I outlive all my friends! +Poor Selwyn is gone, to my sorrow; and no wonder Ucalegon feels +it!(725) He has left about thirty thousand pounds to +Mademoiselle Fagniani;(726) twenty of which, if she has no +children, to go to those of Lord Carlisle ; the Duke of +Queensberry residuary legatee. Old French has died as foolishly +as she lived, and left six thousand pounds to you don't know whom +; but to be raised out of her judicious collection of trumpery +pictures, etc. + +Pray, delight in the following story: Caroline Vernon, fille +d'honneur, lost t'other night two hundred pounds at faro, and +babe Martindale mark it up. He said he had rather have a draft +on her banker. "oh! willingly;" and she gave him one. Next +morning he hurried to Drummond's, lest all her money should be +drawn out. said the clerk, "would you receive the contents +immediately?" "Assuredly." "why, Sir, have you read the note?" +Martindale took it; it was, "Pay to the bearer two hundred blows, +well applied." The nymph tells the story herself; and yet I think +the clerk had the more humour of the two. + +The Gunninghiad(727) draws to a conclusion. The General, a few +weeks ago, to prove the equality of his daughter to any match, +literally put into the newspapers, that he himself is the +thirty-second descendant in a line from Charlemagne;--oui, +vraiment! Yet he had better have, like Prior's Madam, + +"To cut things short, gone up to Adam," + +However, this Carlovingian hero does not allow that the letters +are forgeries, and rather suspects the novelist, his lady(728) +for the authoress; and if she is, probably Miss Charlemagne is +not quite innocent of the plot: though she still maintains that +her mother-in-law elect did give her much encouragement; which, +considering her grace's conduct about her children, is not the +most incredible part of this strange story. I have written this +at twice, and will now rest. + +Sunday evening. + +I wish that complaining of people for abandoning me were an +infallible receipt for bringing them back! but I doubt it will +not do in acute cases. To-day, a few hours after %writing the +latter part of this, appeared Mr. Batt. He asked many pardons, +and I easily forgave him; for the mortification was not begun. +He asked much after you both. I had a crowd of visits besides; +but they all come past two o'clock, and sweep one another away +before any can take root. My evenings are solitary enough, for I +ask nobody to come; nor, indeed, does any body's evening begin +till I am going to bed. I have Outlived daylight, as well as my +contemporaries. What have I not survived? The Jesuits and the +monarchy of France! and both without a struggle! Semiramis seems +to intend to add Constantinople to the mass of revolutions ; but +is not her permanence almost as wonderful as the contrary +explosions! I wish--I wish we may not be actually flippancying +ourselves into an embroil with that Ursa-major of the North Pole. +What a vixen little island are we, if we fight wit the Aurora +Borealis and Tippo Saib at the end of Asia at the same time! +You, damsels, will be like the end of the conundrum, "You've seen +the man who saw the wondrous sights." + +Monday evening. + +I cannot finish this with my own hand, for the gout has returned +a little into my right arm and wrist, and I am not quite so well +as I was yesterday; but I had said my say, and had little to add. +The Duchess of Gordon, t'other night, coming out of an assembly, +said to Dundas, "Mr. Dundas, you are used to speak in public; +will you call my servant?" + +Here I receive your long letter of the 7th, 9th, and 10th, which +it is impossible for me to answer now; there is one part to which +I wish to reply, but must defer till next post, by which time I +hope to have recovered my own pen. You ask about the house of +Argyll. You know I have no connexion with them, nor any +curiosity about them. Their relations and mine have been in town +but four days, so I know little from them: Mrs. Grenville, +to-day, told me the Duke proposes to continue the same life he +used to lead, with a cribbage-table and his family. Every body +admires the youngest daughter's(729) person and understanding. +Adieu! I will begin to write again myself as soon as I can. + + +(725) This celebrated wit and amiable man died on the 25th of +January, in his seventy-second year. He was member for +Luggershall, surveyor-general of the crown lands, surveyor of the +meltings and clerk of the irons in the Mint; "and," add the +newspapers of the day, "receiver-general of wit and stray jokes." +The following tribute to his memory appeared at the time:-- + +"If this gay Fav'rite lost, they yet can live, +A tear to Selwyn let the Graces give! +With rapid kindness teach Oblivion's pall +O'er the sunk foibles of the man to fall +And fondly dictate to a faithful Muse +The prime distinction of the Friend they lose:-- +'Twas Social Wit; which, never kindling strife, +Blazed in the small, sweet courtesies of life; +Those little sapphires round the diamond shone, +Lending soft radiance to the richer stone."-E. + +(726) Married in 1798, to the Earl of Yarmouth; who, in 1822, +succeeded his father as third Marquis of Hertford.-E. + +(727) Meaning the strange, imagined history Of a marriage +supposed to have been likely to take place between Miss Gunning +and the Marquis of Blandford. + +(728) Mrs. Gunning was a Miss Minifie, of Fairwater, +Somersetshire, and, before her marriage, had published several +popular novels.-E. + +(729) Lady Charlotte-Susan-Maria; married, first to Colonel John +Campbell of Islay and, secondly to the Rev. Mr. Bury.-E. + + + +Letter 366 To Miss Berry. +Berkeley Square, Friday, Feb. 4, 1791. (page 470) + +Last post I sent you as cheerful a letter, as I could, to +convince you that I was recovering. This will be less gay; not +because I have had a little return in both arms, but because I +have much more pain in my mind than in my limbs. I see and thank +you all for the kindness of your intention; but, as it has the +contrary effect from what you expect, I am forced, for my own +peace, to beseech you not to continue a manoeuvre that only +tantalizes and wounds me. In your last you put together many +friendly words to give me hopes of your return; but can I be' so +blind as not to see that they are vague words? Did you mean to +return in autumn, Would you not say so? would the most artful +arrangement of words be so kind as those few simple ones? In +fact, I have for some time seen how little you mean it; and, for +your sakes, I cease to desire it. The pleasure you expressed at +seeing Florence again, forgive me for saying, is the joy of sight +merely; for can a little Italian town, and wretched Italian +company, and travelling English lads and governors, be comparable +to the choice of the best company of so vast a capital as London, +unless you have taken an aversion to England? And your renewed +transports at a less and still more insipid town, Pisa! These +plainly told me your thoughts, which vague words cannot efface. +You then dropped that you could let your London house till next +Christmas, and then talked of a visit to Switzerland, and since +all this, Mrs. Damer has warned me not to expect YOU till next +Spring. I shall not; nor do I expect that next spring. I have +little expected this next! My dearest Madam, I allow all my folly +and Unreasonableness, and give them up and abandon them totally. +I have most impertinently and absurdly tried, for my own sake +merely, to exact from two young ladies, above forty years younger +than myself, a promise of sacrificing their rooted inclinations +to my whims and satisfaction. But my eyes are opened, my reason +is returned, I condemn myself; and I now make you but one +request, which is, that, though I am convinced it would be with +the most friendly and good-natured meaning possible, I do implore +you not to try to help me to delude myself any more. You never +know half the shock it gave me when I learned from Mr. Batt, what +you had concealed from me, your fixed resolution of going abroad +last October; and though I did in vain deprecate it,--your coming +to Twickenham in September, which I know, and from my inmost soul +believe, was from mere compassion and kindness to me,-yet it did +aggravate my parting with you. + +I would not repeat all this, but to prevail with you, While I do +live, and while you do condescend to have any friendship for me, +never to let me deceive myself. I have no right to inquire into +your plans, views or designs; and never will question you more +about them. I shall deserve to be deluded if I do; but what you +do please to say to me, I beg may be frank. I am, in every +light, too weak to stand disappointment ow: I cannot be +disappointed. You have a firmness that nothing shakes; and, +therefore, it would be unjust to betray your good-nature into any +degree of insincerity. You do nothing that is not reasonable and +right; and I am conscious that you bore a thousand times more +from my self-love and vanity, than any other two persons but +yourselves would have supported with patience so long. Be +assured that what I say I think, feel, and mean; derange none of +your plans for me. I now wish you take no one step but What is +conformable to your views, interest and satisfaction. It would +hurt me to interfere with them -. I reproach myself with having +so ungenerously tried to lay you under any difficulties, and I +approve your resolution in adhering steadily to your point. Two +posts ago I hinted that I was weaning myself from the anxiety of +an attachment to two persons that must have been so uneasy to +them, and has ended so sorrowfully to myself but that anxiety I +restrict solely to the desire of your return: my friendship, had +I years to live, could not alter or be shaken; and there is no +kind of proof or instance of it that I will not give you both +while I have breath. + +I have vented what I had at my heart, and feel relieved. Do not +take ill a word I have said. Be assured I can love you as much +as ever I did, and do; and though I am no longer so Unjust as to +prefer my own satisfaction to yours. Here I drop the subject; +before Tuesday, perhaps, I shall be able to talk on some other. + +Monday, 7th. + +Though the Parliament is met, and the town they say, full, I have +not heard a tittle of news of any sort; and yet my prison is a +coffeehouse in a morning, though I have been far from well this +whole week. Yesterday and Saturday the gout was so painful in my +right shoulder, that I could not stoop or turn round. To-day it +is in my left elbow, and, I doubt, coming into my right foot: in +short, it seems to be going its circle over again. I am not very +sorry; sufferings reconcile one to parting with one's self. + +One of our numerous tempests threw down Mrs. Damer's chimney last +week, and it fell through her workshop; but fortunately touched +none of her own works, and only broke two or three insignificant +casts. I suppose you know she returns through Spain. This +minute I have heard that Lord Lothian's daughter, Lady Mary St. +John, and daughter-in-law of Lady Di Beauclerc, died yesterday, +having been delivered of a fine boy but the day before. As you +are curious to know the chief topic of conversation, it is the +rival Opera-houses, neither of which are opened yet; both saying +the other is fallen down. Taylor has published a pamphlet that +does not prove that the Marquis(730) is the most upright +Chamberlain that ever dropped from the skies, nor that the skies +are quite true blue. Adieu! if no postscript tomorrow. None. + +(730) of Salisbury. + + + +Letter 367 To Miss Berry. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 12, 1791. (page 472) + +I have received your two letters of January 17th and 24th with an +account of your objects and plans; and the latter are very much +what I expected, as before you receive this you will have seen by +my last, No. 18. Indeed, you most kindly offer to break SO far +into your plan, as to return at the beginning of next winter; but +as that would, as you say, not only be a sacrifice, but risk your +healths, can any thing upon earth be more impossible than for me +to accept or consent to such a sacrifice? Were I even in love +with one of you, could I agree to it? and, being only a most +zealous friend, do you think I will hear of it? Should I be a +friend at all, if I wished you, for my sake, to travel in winter +over mountains, or risk the storms at sea, that I have not +forgotten when you went away? Can I desire you to derange a +reasonable plan of economy, that would put you quite at your ease +at your return? Have I any pretensions for expecting, still less +for asking, such or any sacrifices? Have I interested myself in +your affairs only to embarrass them? + +I do, in the most. Positive and solemn manner, refuse to accept +the smallest Sacrifice of any part of your plan, but the single +point that would be so hard on me. I will not say a word more on +your return, and beg your pardon for having been so selfish as to +desire it: my only request now is, that we may say no more about +it. I am grieved that the great distance we are at must make me +still receive letters about it for some weeks. I shall not +forget how very unreasonable I have been myself; nor shall I try +to forget it, lest I should be silly again: but I earnestly +desire to be totally silent on a subject that I have totally +abandoned, and which it is not at all improbable I may never have +occasion to renew. + +I knew the Comte de Coigny(731) in the year 1766: he was then +lively and jovial. I did not think he would turn out a writer, +or even reader; but he was agreeable. I say nothing on France- +you must know as much as I do, and probably sooner. I will only +tell you, that my opinion is not altered in a tittle. What will +happen I do not pretend to guess; but am thoroughly persuaded +that the present system, if it can be called so, cannot take +root. The flirts towards anarchy here have no effect at all. +Horne Tooke before Christmas presented a saucy libel to the House +of Commons, as a petition on his election. The House +contemptuously voted it only frivolous and vexatious, and +disappointed him of a ray of martyrdom; but his fees, etc. will +cost him three or four hundred pounds, which never go into a +mob's calculation of the ingredients of martyrdom.(732) + +Monday morning, 14th. + +I have a story to tell you, much too long to add to this; which I +will send next post, unless I have leisure enough to-day, from +people that call on me to finish it to-day, having begun it last +night; and in that case I will direct it to Miss Agnes. Mr. +Lysons the clergyman has just been here, and told me of a Welsh +sportsman, a Jacobite, I suppose, who has very recently had his +daughter christened Louisa Victoria Maria Sobieski Foxhunter Moll +Boycot. The curate of the minister who baptized her confirmed +the truth of it to Mr. Lysons. When Belgiojoso, the Austrian +minister, was here, and thought he could write English, he sent a +letter to Miss Kennedy, a woman of the town, that began, "My +Kennedy Polly dear girl." Apropos--and not much--pray tell me +whether the Cardinal of York calls himself King; and whether +James the Eighth, Charles the Fourth, or what? + +(731) a Great-uncle of the present Duc de Coigny. + +(732) On the 5th of February, the committee appointed to try the +merits of the petition, reported it to be frivolous and +vexatious. Mr. Burke urged the necessity of taking some step +against the author of it: but the subject was got rid of by a +motion for the order of the day.-E. + + + +Letter 368 To Miss Agnes Berry. +Feb. 13, 1791. (page 474) + +The following narrative, though only the termination of a legend +of 'which you know the foregoing chapters, is too singular and +too long to be added to my letter; and therefore, though you will +receive two by the same post, you will not repine. In short, the +Gunninghiad is completed--not by a marriage, like other novels of +the Minifies.(733) + +Voici how the d`enouement happened. Another supposed love-letter +had come from the Marquis(734) within these few weeks; which was +so improbable, that it raised more suspicions, and was more +closely examined; and thence was discovered to have been both +altered and interlined. On this the General sent all the letters +down to the Marquis;(735) desiring to be certified of their +authenticity, or the contrary. I should tell you, that all this +has happened since the death of is sister; who kept up the high +tone, and said, her brother was not a man to be trifled with. +The Marquis immediately distinguished the two kinds; owned the +few letters that disclaimed all inclination for Miss Charlemagne, +disavowed the rest. Thence fell the General's wrath on his +consort; of which I have told you. + +However, the General and his ducal brother-in-law thought it +expedient that Miss Charly's character should be cleared as far +as possible; she still maintaining the prodigious encouragement +she had received from the parents of her intended sposo. She was +ordered to draw up a narrative, which should be laid before the +Duke of Marlborough; and, if allowed by him, to be shown for her +vindication. She obeyed; and her former assertions did not +suffer by the new statement. But one singular circumstance was +added: she confessed--ingenuous maid!--that, though she had not +been able to resist so dazzling an offer, her heart was still her +cousin's, the other Marquis.(736) + +Well! this narrative, after being laid before a confidential +junto at Argyll-house, was sent to Blenheim by the General, by +his own groom. Judge of the astonishment of the junto, when +Carloman, almost as soon as was possible, laid before them a +short letter from the Prince of Mindleheim(737) declaring how +delighted he and his Princess had been at their son's having made +choice of so beautiful and amiable a virgin for his bride; how +greatly they had encouraged the match; and how chagrined they +were, that, from the lightness and inconstancy of his temper, the +proposed alliance was quite at an end. This wonderful acquittal +of the damsel the groom deposed he had received in half-an-hour +after his arrival at Blenheim; and he gave the most natural and +unembarrassed account of all the stages he had made, going and +coming. + +You may still suspect, and so did some of the council, that every +tittle of this report and of the letter were not gospel: though I +own, I thought the epistle not irreconcilable to other parts of +the conduct of their graces about their children. Still, I defy +you to guess a thousandth part of the marvellous explanation of +the mystery. + +The first circumstance that struck was, that the Duke, in his own +son's name, had forgotten the d in the middle. That was possible +in the hurry of doing justice. Next, the wax was black; and +nobody could discover for whom such illustrious personages were +in mourning. Well; that was no proof one way or other. +Unluckily, somebody suggested that Lord Henry Spencer was in +town, though to return the next day to Holland. A messenger was +sent to him, though very late at night, to beg he would repair to +Argyll-house. He did; the letter was shown to him; he laughed, +and said it had not the least resemblance to his father's hand. +This was negative detection enough; but now comes the most +positive and wonderful unravelling! + +The next day the General received a letter from a gentleman, +confessing that his wife, a friend of Miss Charly, had lately +received from her a copy of a most satisfactory testimonial from +the Duke of Marlborough In her favour (though, note, the +narrative was not then gone to Blenheim); and begging the +gentlewoman's husband would transcribe it, and send it to her, as +she wished to send it to a friend in the country. The husband +had done so, but had had the precaution to write at top Copy; and +before the signature had written, signed, M.--both which words +Miss had erased, and then delivered the gentleman's identic +transcript to the groom, to be brought back as from Blenheim: +which the steady groom, on being examined anew, confessed; and +that, being bribed, he had gone but one post, and invented the +rest. + +You will now pity the poor General, who has been a dupe from the +beginning, and sheds floods of tears; nay, has actually turned +his daughter out of doors, as she banished from Argyll-house too: +and Lady Charlotte,(738) to her honour, speaks of her with the +utmost Indignation. In fact, there never was a more +extraordinary tissue of effrontery, folly, and imposture. + +it is a strange but not a miraculous part of this strange story, +that Gunnilda is actually harboured by, and lodges with, the old +Duchess(739) in Pall-Mall, the grandmother of whom she has +miscarried, and who was the first that was big with her. You may +depend on the authenticity of this narrative, and may guess from +whom I received all the circumstances, day by day; but pray, do +not quote me for that reason, nor let it out of your hands, nor +transcribe any part of it. The town knows the story confusedly, +and a million of false readings there will be; but, though you +know it exactly, do not send it back hither. You will, perhaps, +be diverted by the various ways in which it will be related. +Yours, etc. Eginhart, secretary to Charlemagne +and the Princess Gunnilda, his daughter. + +P. S. Bowen is the name of the gentleman who gave information of +the letter sent to him to be copied, on hearing of the suspected +forgeries. The whole Minifry are involved in the suspicions, as +they defend the damsel, who still confesses nothing; and it is +her mother, not she, who is supposed to have tampered with the +groom; and is discarded, too, by her husband. + +(733) The name of the family of Mrs. Gunning. See p. 469, letter +365. + +(734) George Spencer Churchill, Marquis of Blandford; he +succeeded his father as fourth Duke of Marlborough in 1817.-E. + +(735) General Gunning was son of John Gunning, Esq. of +Castle-Coole, in the county of Roscommon and brother of the +beautiful Miss Gunning, married first, in 1752, to the Duke of +Hamilton; and second, in 1759, to the Duke of Argyle.-E. + +(736) George William Campbell, Marquis of Lorn. He succeeded his +father as sixth Duke of Argyle in 1806-E. + +(737) The Emperor Joseph, in 1705, bestowed on the great Duke of +Marlborough the principality of Mindleheim, in Swabia.-E. + +(738) Lady Charlotte Campbell. See p. 470, letter 365, note +729.-E. + +(739) Gertrude, eldest daughter of John Earl Gower, Widow of John +fourth Duke of Bedford.-E. + + + +Letter 369 To The Earl Of Charlemont.(740) +Berkeley Square, Feb. 17, 1791. (page 476) + +It is difficult, my lord, with common language that has been so +prostituted in compliments, to express the real sense of +gratitude, which I do feel at my heart, for the obligation I have +to your lordship for an act of friendship as unexpected as it was +unsolicited; which last circumstance doubles the favour, as it +evinces your lordship's generosity and nobleness of temper, +without surprising me. How can I thank your lordship, as I +ought, for interesting yourself, and of yourself, to save me a +little mortification, which I deserve, and should deserve more, +had I the vanity to imagine that my printing a few copies of my +disgusting tragedy would occasion different and surreptitious +editions of it? + +Mr. Walker has acquainted me, my lord, that your lordship has +most kindly interposed to prevent a bookseller of Dublin from +printing an edition of "The Mysterious Mother" without my +consent; and, with the conscious dignity of a great mind, your +lordship has not even hinted to me the graciousness of that +favour. How have I merited such condescending goodness, my lord? +Had I a prospect of longer life, I never could pay the debt of +gratitude; the weightier, as your lordship did not intend I +should know that I owe it. My gratitude can never be effaced; +and I am charmed that it is due, and due with so much honour to +me, that nothing could bribe me to have less obligation to your +lordship, of which I am so proud. But as to the play itself, I +doubt it must take its fate. Mr. Walker tells me the booksellers +have desired him to remonstrate to me, urging that they have +already expended fifty pounds; and Mr. Walker adds, as no doubt +would be the case, that should this edition be stifled, when now +expected, some other printer would publish it. I certainly might +indemnify the present operator, but I know too much of the craft, +not to be sure, that I should be persecuted by similar exactions; +and, alas! I have exposed myself but too much to the tyranny of +the press, not to know that it taxes delinquents as well as +multiplies their faults. + +In truth, my lord, it is too late now to hinder copies of my play +from being spread. It has appeared here, both whole and in +fragments: and, to prevent a spurious one, I was forced to have +some printed myself: therefore, if I consent to an Irish edition, +it is from no vain desire of diffusing the performance. Indeed, +my good lord, I have lived too long not to have divested myself +both of vanity and affected modesty. I have not existed to past +seventy-three without having discovered the futility and +triflingness of my own talents: and, at the same time, it would +be impertinent to pretend to think that there is no merit in the +execution of a tragedy, on which I have been so much flattered; +though I am sincere in condemning the egregious absurdity of +selecting a subject so improper for the stage, and even offensive +to private readers. + +But I have said too much on a personal theme; and therefore, +after repeating a million of thanks to your lordship for the +honour of your interposition, I will beg your lordship, if you +please, to signify to the bookseller that you withdraw your +prohibition: but I shall not answer Mr. Walker's letter, till I +have your lordship's approbation, for You are both my lord +chamberlain 'and licenser; and though I have a tolerably +independent spirit, I may safely trust myself under the absolute +power of one, who has voluntarily protected me against the +licentiousness of those who have invaded my property, and who +distinguishes so accurately and justly between license and +liberty. + +(740) Now first collected. This letter was written in +consequence of one Walpole had received, informing him that a +Dublin bookseller was about to print his tragedy of The +Mysterious Mother. At this time, and indeed until the Union took +place, there was no act of parliament which regulated literary +property in Ireland.-E. + + + +Letter 370 To Miss Agnes Berry. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 18, 1791. (page 477) + +Here is a shocking, not a fatal, codicil to Gunnilda's story. +But first I should tell you, that two days after the explosion, +the ignora Madre took a postchaise and four, and drove to +Blenheim; but, not finding the Duke and Duchess there, she +inquired where the Marquis was, and pursued him to Sir Henry +Dashwood's: finding him there, she began about her poor daughter; +but he interrupted her, said there was an end put to all that, +and desired to lead her to her chaise, which he insisted on +doing, and did. I think this another symptom Of the Minifry +being accomplices to the daughter's enterprises. Well! after the +groom's confession, and after Mr. Bowen had been confronted with +her, and produced to her face her note to his wife, which she +resolutely disowned, she desired the Duke of Argyll to let her +take an oath on the Bible of her perfect innocence of every +Circumstance of the whole transaction; which you may be sure he +did not permit. N'importe: the next day, taking two of the +Duchess of Bedford's servants for witnesses, she went before a +justice of peace, swore to her innocence and ignorance +throughout, even of the note to Mrs. Bowen; and then said to the +magistrate, "Sir, from my youth you may imagine I do not know the +solemnity of an oath but, to convince you I do, I know my +salvation depends on what I have now sworn." Solve all this, if +you can! Is it madness? Does even romance extend its inventions +so far? or its dispensations? It is but a burlesque part of this +wonderful tale, that old crazy Bedford exhibits Miss every +morning on the causeway in Hyde Park; and declares her proteg`ee +some time ago refused the hand of your acquaintance, Mr. +Trevelyan.(741) Except of the contending Opera-houses, one can +hear of nothing but Miss Gunning,,; but it is now grown so +disgusting a story, that I shall be glad to hear and repeat to +you no more about it. + +The Pantheon has opened, and is small, they say, but pretty and +simple; all the rest ill-conducted, and from the singers to the +sceneshifters imperfect; the dances long and bad, and the whole +performance so dilatory and tedious, that it lasted from eight to +half an hour past twelve. The rival theatre is said to be +magnificent and lofty, but it is doubtful whether it will be +suffered to come to light: in short, the contest will grow +politics; Dieu et Mon Droit supporting the Pantheon, and Ich Dien +countenancing the Haymarket. It is unlucky that the amplest +receptacle is to hold the minority! + +20th. + +O'Hara(742) is come to town. You will love him better than ever. +He persuaded the captain of the ship, whom you will love for +being persuaded, to stop at Lisbon, that he might see Mrs. Damer. +O'Hara has been shockingly treated! The House of Richmond is on +the point of receiving a very great blow. Colonel Lenox, who had +been dangerously ill but was better, has relapsed with all the +worst symptoms;(743) and is too weak to be sent to the south, as +the physicians recommended, Lady Charlotte is breeding, but that +is very precarious; and should it be a son, how many years ere +that can be a comfortable resource! + +Is not it strange that London, in February and Parliament +sitting, should furnish no more paragraphs? Yet, confined at home +and in every body's way, and consequently my room being a +coffee-house from two to four, I probably hear all events worth +relating as soon as they are born, and send you them before they +are a week old. Indeed, I think the Gunninhiana may last you a +month at Pisa, where, I suppose, the grass grows in the streets +as fast as news. When I go out again I am likely to know less: I +go but to few, and those the privatest places I can find, which +are not the common growth of London; nor, but to amuse you, +should I inquire after news. What is a juvenile world to me; or +its pleasures, interests, or squabbles? I scarce know the +performers by sight. + +21st. + +It is very hard! The Gunnings will not let me or the town have +done with them. La Madre has advertised a Letter to the Duke of +Argyll: so he is forced to collect counter affidavits. The groom +has 'deposed that she promised him twenty pounds a year for his +life, and he has given up a letter that she wrote to him. The +mother, when she went after the Marquis, would have persuaded him +to get into her chaise; but he would not venture being carried to +Gretna-green, and married by force. She then wanted him to sign +a paper, that all was over between him and her daughter. He +said, "Madam, nothing was ever begun;" and refused. I told you +wrong: mother and daughter were not actually in the Duchess of +Bedford's house, but in Lord John Russel's, which she lent to +them: nor were her servants witnesses to the oath before Justice +Hide, but Dr. Halifax and the apothecary. The Signora and her +Infanta now, for privacy, are retired into St. James's-street, +next door to Brooks's; whence it is supposed Miss will angle for +unmarried Marquises-perhaps for Lord Titchfield.(744) It is lost +time for people to write novels, who can compose such a romance +as these good folks have invented. Adieu! + +(741) Mr. Trevelyan married in the following August, Maria, +daughter of Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, Bart. On the death of his +father, in 1828, he succeeded to the title, as fifth baronet.-E. + +(742) Afterwards lieutenant- governor of Gibraltar. He died in +1802. + +(743) Colonel Lenox recovered from his illness, and, in 1806, +succeeded his uncle as fourth Duke of Richmond. His grace was +governor of Canada at the period of his decease, at Montreal, in +1819; and was succeeded by the son here anticipated; who was born +on the 3d of August 1791.-E. + +(744) In 1795, the, Marquis of Titchfield married Miss Scott, +eldest daughter and heir of General John Scott, of Balcomie, in +the county of Fife, and in 1809, succeeded his father as fourth +Duke of Portland.-E. + + + +Letter 371. \To The Miss Berrys. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 26, 1791. (page 479) + +I have no letter from you to answer, nor any thing new that is +the least interesting to tell you. The Duke of Argyll has sent a +gentleman with a cart-load of affidavits, which the latter read +to mother and daughter, in order to prevent the publication of +their libel; but it only enraged the former, -who vows she will +print all she knows, that is, any thing she has heard by their +entire intimacy in the family, or, no doubt, what she can invent +or misrepresent. What a Medusa! There has been a fragment of a +rehearsal in the Haymarket, but still the Pantheon remains master +of the field of battle: the vanquished are preparing manifestoes, +but they seldom recover the day. + +Madame du Barry(745) is come over to recover her jewels, of which +she has been robbed--not by the National Assembly, but by four +Jews who have been seized here and committed to Newgate. Though +the late Lord Barrymore acknowledged her husband to be of his +noble blood, will she own the present Earl for a relation, when +she finds him turned strolling player!(746) If she regains her +diamonds, perhaps Mrs. Hastings may carry her to court.(747) + +If you want bigger events, you may send to the Russian army, who +will cut you fifteen thousand throats in a paragraph; or, en +attendant, you may piddle with the havoc made at Chantilly, which +has been half demolished by the rights of men, as the poor old +Mesdames have been stopped by the rights of the poissardes; for, +as it is true that extremes meet, the moment despotism was hurled +from the throne, it devolved to the mob, whose majesties, not +being able to write their names, do not issue lettres de cachet, +but execute their wills with their own hands; for hanging, which +degrades an executioner, ne deroge pas in sovereigns--witness the +Czar Peter the Great, Muley Ishmael, and many religious and +gracious African monarchs. + +After eleven weeks of close confinement, I went out yesterday to +take the air; but was soon driven back by rain and sleet, which +soon ripened to a tempest of wind and snow, and continued all +night - it does not freeze, but blows so hard, that I shall sally +out no more tilt the weather has recovered its temper-I do not +mean that I expect Pisan skies. + +28th. + +It was on Saturday that I began this; it is now Monday, and I +have no letter from you, though we have had dozens of east winds. +I am sorry to find that it costs above six weeks to say a word at +Pisa and have an answer in London. This makes correspondence +very uncomfortable; you will be talking to me of Miss Gunning, +when, perhaps, she may be sent to Botany Bay, and be as much +forgotten here as the Monster.(748) Still she has been a great +resource this winter; for, though London is apt to produce +Wilkeses, and George Gordons, and Mrs. Rudds, and Horne Tookes, +and other phenomena, wet and dry, the, present season has been +very unprolific; and we are forced to import French news, as we +used to do fashions and Operas comiques. The Mesdames are +actually set out: I shall be glad to hear they are safe at Turin, +for are there no poissardes but at Paris?(749) Natio poissarda +est. + +Mr. Gibbon writes that he has seen Necker, and found him still +devoured by ambition.(750) and I should think by mortification at +the foolish figure he has made. Gibbon admires Burke to the +skies, and even the religious parts, he says.(751) + +Monday evening. + +The east winds are making me amends -, one of them has brought me +twins. I am sorry to find that even Pisa's sky is not quite +sovereign, but that you have both been out of order, though, +thank God! quite recovered both, If a Florentine March is at all +like an English one, I hope you will not remove thither till +April. Some of its months, I am sure, were sharper than those of +our common wear are. Pray be quite easy about me: I am entirely +recovered, though, if change were bad, we have scarce had one day +without every variety of bad weather, with a momentary leaf-gold +of sun. I have been out three times, and to-day have made five +and-twenty visits, and was let in at six; and, though a little +fatigued, am still able, you see, to finish my letter. You seem +to think I palliated my illness - I certainly did not tell you +that I thought it doubtful how it would end; yet I told you all & +circumstances, and surely did not speak sanguinely. + +I wish, in No. 20, you had not again named October or November. +I have quite given up those months, and am vexed I ever pressed +for them, as they would break into Your reasonable plans, for +which I abandon any foolish ones of my own. But I am a poor +philosopher, or rather am like all philosophers, have no presence +of mind, and must study my part before I can act it. I have now +settled myself not to expect you this year-do not unsettle me: I +dread a disappointment, as I do a relapse of the gout; and +therefore cut this article short, that I may not indulge vain +hopes, My affection for you both is unalterable; can I give so +strong a proof as by supplicating you, as I do earnestly, to act +as is most prudent for your healths and interest? A long journey +in November would be the very worst part you could take. and I +beseech you not to think of it: for me, you see I take a great +deal of killing, nor is it so easy to die as is imagined. + +Thank you, my dearest Miss Agnes, for your postscript. I love to +see your handwriting; and yet do not press for it, as you are +shy: though I address myself equally to both, and consult the +healths of both In what I have recommended above. Here is a +postscript for yours: Madame du Barry was to go and swear to her +jewels before the Lord Mayor. Boydell, who is a little better +bred than Monsieur Bailly,(752) made excuses for being obliged to +administer the oath chez lui, but begged she would name her hour; +and, when she did, he fetched her himself in the state-coach, and +had a mayor-royal banquet ready for her.(753) She has got most +of her jewels again. I want the King to send her four Jews to +the National Assembly, and tell them it is the change or la +monnoie of Lord George Gordon, the Israelite. + +Colonel Lenox is much better: the Duchess of Leinster had a +letter from Goodwood to-day which says he rides out. I am glad +you do. I said nothing on "the Charming-man's" poem. I fear I +said too much to him myself. He said, others liked it: and +showed me a note from Mr. Burke, that was hyperbole itself. I +wish him so well, that I am sorry he should be so flattered, +when, in truth, he has no genius.(754) There is no novelty, no +plan, and no suite in his poetry: though many of the lines are +pretty. Dr. Darwin alone can exceed his predecessors. + +Let me repeat to both, that distance of place and time can make +no alteration in my friendship. It grew from esteem for your +characters, and understandings, and tempers; and became affection +from your good-natured attentions 'to me, where there is so vast +a disproportion in our ages. Indeed, that complaisance spoiled +me; but I have weaned myself of my own self-love, and you shall +hear no more of its dictates. + +(745) The last mistress of Louis; the Fifteenth. The Count du +Barry who had disgraced his name by marrying her, claimed to be +of the same family with the Earls of Barrymore in Ireland.-E. + +(746) See ante, p. 452, letter 354. + +(747) Mrs. Hastings was supposed, by the party violence of the +day, to have received immense bribes in diamonds. + +(748) A vagabond so called, from his going about attempting to +stab at women with a knife. His first aim had probably been at +their Pockets, which having in several instances missed and +wounded his intended victims, fear and a love of the marvellous +dubbed him with the name of the Monster. The wretch, whose name +was Renwick Williams, was tried for the offence at the Old +Bailey, in July 1790, and found guilty of a misdemeanour.-E. + +(749) After numerous interruptions, the King's aunts were +permitted by the National Assembly to proceed to Italy.-E. + +(750) "I have passed," says Gibbon, in a letter to Lord +Sheffield, "four days at the castle of Copet with Necker; and +could have wished to have shown him as a warning to any aspiring +youth possessed with the demon of ambition. With all the means +of private happiness in his power, he is the most miserable of +human beings; the past, the present, and the future, are equally +odious to him. When I suggested some domestic amusement of +books, building, etc. he answered, with a deep tone Of despair, +'Dans l'`etat o`u je suis, je ne puis sentir que le coup de vent +qui m'a abbatu.' How different from the conscious cheerfulness +with which our friend Lord North supported his fall! Madame +Necker maintains more external composure, mais le diable n'y perd +rien. It is true that Necker wished to be carried into the +closet, like old Pitt, on the shoulders of the people, and that +he has been ruined by the democracy which he had raised. I +believe him to be an able financier and know him to be an honest +man."-E. + +(751) The following are Gibbon's expressions:--"Burke's book is a +most admirable medicine against the French disease; which has +made too much progress even in this happy country. I admire his +eloquence, I approve his politics, I adore his Chivalry, and I +can forgive even his superstition."-E. + +(752) M. Bailly, the learned astronomer. He was president of the +first National Assembly, and in July 1789, appointed mayor of +Paris; in which situation he gave great offence to the people, in +July 1791, by ordering martial law to be proclaimed against a mob +which had assembled in the Champ de Mars to frame an address, +recommending the deposition of Louis. For this step, which was +approved of by the Assembly, he was arrested, tried, condemned, +and put to death on the 11th of November 1793. The details of +this event are horrible. "The weather," says M. Thiers, "was +cold and rainy, Conducted on foot, he manifested the utmost +composure amidst the insults of a barbarous populace, whom he had +fed while he +was mayor. On reaching the foot of the scaffold, +one of the wretches cried out, that the field of' the federation +ought not to be polluted by his blood. The people instantly +rushed upon the guillotine, bore it off, and erected it again +upon a dunghill on the bank of the Seine, and opposite to the +spot where Bailly had passed his life and composed his invaluable +works. This operation lasted some hours: meanwhile, he was +compelled to walk several times round the Champ de Mars, +bareheaded, and with his hands pinioned behind him. Some pelted +him with mud, others kicked and struck him with sticks. He fell +exhausted. They lifted him up again. 'Thou tremblest!' said a +soldier to him. 'My friend,' replied the old man, 'it is cold.' +At length he was delivered over to the executioner; and another +illustrious scholar, and one of the most virtuous of men, was +then taken from it." Vol. iii. p. 207-E. + +(753) See post, p. 484.-E. + +(754) Mr. Gifford was of Walpole's opinion, and has, in +consequence, accorded to " The Charming-man" a prominent +situation in the Baviad:-- + +"See snivilling Jerningham at fifty weep +O'er love-lorn oxen and deserted sheep." + +To the poem here alluded to, and which was entitled "Peace, +Ignominy, and Destruction," the satirist thus alludes:-"I thought +I understood something of faces; but I must read my Lavater over +again I find. That a gentleman, with the physionomie \2d'un +mouton qui r`eve,' should suddenly start up a new Tyrtaeus, and +pour a dreadful note, through a cracked war-trump, amazes me: +well, fronti nulla fides shall henceforth be my motto' In a note +to the Pursuits of Literature, Mr. Mathias directs the attention +of Jerningham to the following beautiful lines in Dryden's +Epistle to Mr. Julien, Secretary of the Muses:-- + +"All his care +Is to be thought a Poet fine and fair; +Small beer and gruel are his meat and drink, +The diet he prescribes himself to think; +Rhyme next his heart he takes at morning peep, +Some love-epistles at the hour of sleep; +And when his passion has been bubbling long, +The scum at last boils Up into a song." --E. + + + +Letter 372 To The Miss Berrys. +Berkeley Square, March 5, 1791. (page 483) + +One may live in a vast capital, and know no more of three parts +of it than of Carthage. When I was at Florence, I have surprised +some Florentines by telling them, that London was built, like +their city, (where you often cross the bridges several times in a +day,) on each side of the river: and yet that I had never been +but on one side; for then I had never been in Southwark. When I +was very young, and in the height of the opposition to my father, +my mother wanted a large parcel of bugles; for what use I forget. +As they were then out of fashion, she could get none. At last, +she was told of a quantity in a little shop in an obscure alley +in the City. We drove thither; found a great stock; she bought +it, and bade the proprietor send it home. He said, "Whither?" +"To Sir Robert Walpole's." He asked coolly, "Who is Sir Robert +Walpole?" + +This is very like Cambridge, who tells you three stories to make +you understand a fourth. In short, t'other morning a gentleman +made me a visit, and asked if I had heard of the great misfortune +that had happened? The Albion Mills are burnt down. I asked +where they were; supposing they were powder-mills in the country, +that had blown up. I had literally never seen or heard of the +spacious lofty building at the end of Blackfriars Bridge. At +first it was supposed maliciously burnt, and it is certain the +mob stood and enjoyed the conflagration, as of a monopoly; but it +had been on fire, and it was thought extinguished. The building +had cost a hundred thousand Pounds; and the loss in corn and +flour is calculated at a hundred and forty thousand. I do not +answer for the truth of the sums; but it is certain that the +Palace-yard and part of St. James's Park were covered with +half-burnt grain.(755) + +This accident, and my introduction, have helped me to a good part +Of my letter; for you must have observed, that even in this +overgrown town the winter has not been productive of events. +Good night! I have two days to wait for a letter that I may +answer. Stay -, I should tell you, that I have been at Sir +Joseph Banks's literary saturnalia,(756) where was a Parisian +watchmaker, who produced the smallest autoMaton that I suppose +was ever created. It was a rich snuffbox, not too large for a +woman. On opening the lid, an enamelled bird started up, sat on +the rim, turned round, fluttered its wings, and piped in a +delightful tone the notes of different birds; particularly the +jug-jug of the nightingale. It is the prettiest plaything you +ever saw; the price tempting--only five hundred pounds. That +economist, the Prince of Wales, could not resist it, and has +bought one of those dickybirds. If the maker finds such +customers, he will not end like one of his profession here, who +made the serpent in Orpheus and Eurydice;(757) and who fell so +deeply in love with his own works, that he did nothing afterwards +but make serpents, of all sorts and sizes, till he was ruined and +broke. I have not a tittle to add-but that the Lord Mayor did +not fetch Madame du Barry in the City-royal coach; but kept her +to dinner. She is gone; but returns in April. + +(755) The fire took place on the morning of the 2d of March. +There was no reason for any particular suspicion, except the +general dislike in the lower classes of the people, arising from +a notion, that the undertaking enhanced the price of corn and +decreased the value of labour.-E. + +(756) Sir Joseph Banks, while President of the Royal Society, had +a weekly evening reception of all persons distinguished in +science or the arts. + +(757) A celebrated opera. + + + +Letter 373 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, Saturday, March 19, 1791. (page 484) + +I did not begin my letter on customary Friday , because I had +nothing new to tell or to say. The town lies fallow--not an +incident worth repeating as far as I know. Parliament +manufactures only bills, not politics. I never understood any +thing useful; and, now that my time and connexions are shrunk to +so narrow a compass, what business have I with business? As I +have mended considerably for the last four days, and as we have +had a fortnight of soft warm weather, and a southwest wind +to-day, I have ventured hither for change Of air, and to give +orders about some repairs at Cliveden; which, by the way, Mr. +Henry Bunbury, two days ago, proposed to take off my hands for +his life. I really do not think I accepted his offer. I shall +return to town on Monday, and hope to find a letter to answer--or +what will this do? + +Berkeley Square, Monday evening. + +I am returned and find the only letter I dreaded, and the only +one, I trust, that I shall ever not be impatient to receive from +you. Though ten thousand times kinder than I deserve, it wounds +my heart: as I find I have hurt two of the persons I love the +best upon earth', and whom I am most constantly studying to +please and serve. That I soon repented of my murmurs, you have +seen by my subsequent letters. The truth, as you may have +perceived, though no excuse, was, that I had thought myself +dying, and should never see you more; that I was extremely weak +and low, when Mrs. Damer's letter arrived, and mentioned her +supposing that I should not see you till spring twelvemonth. +That terrible sentence recalled Mr. Batt's being the first to +assure me of your going abroad, when I had concluded you had laid +aside the design. I did sincerely allow that in both instances +you had acted from tenderness in concealing your intentions; but, +as I knew I could better bear the information from yourselves +than from others, I thought it unfriendly to let me learn from +others what interested me so deeply: yet I do not in the least +excuse my conduct; no, I condemn it in every light, and shall +never forgive myself if you do not promise me to be guided +entirely by your own convenience and inclinations about your +return. I am perfectly well again, and just as likely to live +one year as half an one. Indulge your pleasure +in being abroad while you are there. I am now reasonable enough +to enjoy your happiness as my own; and, since you are most kind +when I least deserve it, how can I express my gratitude for +giving up the scruple that was so distressing to me! Convince me +you are in earnest by giving me notice that you will write to +Charingcross while the Neapolitans are at Florence.(758) I will +look on that as a clearer proof of your forgiving my criminal +letter, than your return before you like it. It is most sure +that nothing is more solid or less personal than my friendship +for you two; and even my complaining letter, though unjust and +unreasonable, proved that the nearer I thought myself to quitting +the world, the more my heart was set on my two friends; nay, they +had occupied the busiest moments of my illness as well as the +most fretful ones. Forgive then, my dearest friends, what could +proceed from nothing but too impatient affection. You say most +truly you did not deserve my complaints: your patience and temper +under them make me but more in the wrong; and to have hurt you, +who have known but too much grief, is such a contradiction to the +whole turn of my mind ever since I knew you, that I believe my +weakness from illness was beyond even what I suspected. It is +sure that, when I am in my perfect senses, the whole bent of my +thoughts is to promote your and your sister's felicity; and you +know nothing can give me satisfaction like your allowing me to be +of use to you. I speak honestly, notwithstanding my unjust +letter; I had rather serve you than see you. Here let me finish +this subject: I do not think I shall be faulty to you again. + +The Mother Gunning has published her letter to the Duke of +Argyll, and it disappoints every body. It is neither romantic, +nor entertaining, nor abusive, but on the General and Mr. and +Mrs. Bowen, and the General's groom. On the Bowens it is so +immeasurably scurrilous, that I think they must prosecute her. +She accuses them and her husband of a conspiracy to betray and +ruin his own daughter, without, even attempting to assign a +motive to them. Of the House of Argyll she says not a word. In +short, it is a most dull incoherent rhapsody, that gives no +account at all of the story that gave origin to her book, and at +which no mortal could guess from it; and the 246 pages contain +nothing but invectives on her four supposed enemies, and endless +tiresome encomiums on the virtues of her glorious darling, and +the unspottable innocence of that harmless lambkin. I would not +even send it to you if I had an opportunity-you would not have +patience to go through it; and there, I suppose, the absurd +legend will end. I am heartily tired of it. Adieu! + +P. S. That ever I should give you two an uneasy moment! Oh! +forgive me: yet I do not deserve pardon in my own eyes: and less +in my own heart. + +(758) His correspondents, to settle his mind as to the certainty +of their return at the time they had promised, had assured him, +that no financial difficulties should stand in the way; which is +what he means by sending to Charing-cross (to Drummond his +banker), No such difficulties occurred. The correspondence, +therefore, with Charing-cross never took place-M.B. + + + +Letter 374 To The Miss Berrys. +Berkeley Square, Sunday, March 27, 1791. (page 486) + +Though I begin my despatch to-day, I think I shall change my +post-days, as I hinted from Tuesdays to Fridays; not only as more +commodious for learning news for you, but as I do not receive +your letters generally but on Mondays, I have less time to +answer. I have an additional reason for delay this week. Mr. +Pitt has notified that he is to deliver a message from the King +to-morrow, to the House of Commons on the situation of Europe; +and should there be a long debate, I may not gather the +particulars till Tuesday morning, and if my levee lasts late, +shall not have time to write to you. Oh! now are you all +impatience to hear that message: I am sorry to say that I fear it +will be a warlike one. The Autocratrix swears, d-n her eyes! she +will hack her way to Constantinople through the blood of one +hundred thousand more Turks, and that we are very impertinent for +sending her a card with a sprig of olive. On the other hand, +Prussia bounces and buffs and claims our promise of helping him +to make peace by helping him to make war; and so, in the most +charitable and pacific way in the world, we are, they say, to +send twenty ships to the Baltic, and half as many to the Black +Sea,-this little Britain, commonly called Great Britain, is to +dictate to Petersburg and Bengal and cover Constantinople under +those wings that reach from the North Pole to the farthest East! +I am mighty sorry for it, and hope we shall not prove a jackdaw +that pretends to dress himself in the plumes of imperial eagles! + +If we bounce abroad, we are more forgiving at home: a gentleman +who lives at the east end of St. James's Park has been sent for +by a lady who has a large house at the west end,(759) and they +have kissed and are friends; which he notified by toasting her +health in a bumper at a club the other day. I know no +circumstances, but am glad of it; I love peace, public or +private: not so the chieftains of the contending theatres of +harmony. Taylor, in wondrous respectful terms and full of +affliction, has printed in the newspapers an advertisement, +declaring that the Marquis's honour the Lord Chamberlain(760) did +in one season, and that an unprofitable one, send orders (you +know, that is tickets of admission without paying) into the +Opera-house, to the loss of the managers of four hundred pounds- +-servants, it is supposed, and Hertfordshire voters eke: and +moreover, that it has been sworn in Chancery that his lordship, +not as lord chamberlain, has stipulated with Gallini and O'Reilly +that he, his heirs and assigns, should preserve the power of +giving those detrimental orders in perpetuity. The immunity is a +little new: former chamberlains, it seems even durante officio, +have not exercised the privilege--if they had it. + +One word more of the Gunnings. Captain Bowen informed the +authoress, by the channel of the papers, that he shall prosecute +her for the libel. She answered, by the same conveyance, that +she is extremely glad of it. But there is a difficulty-unless +the prosecution is criminal, it is thought that Madam being femme +couverte, the charge must be brought against her husband; and, to +be sure, it would be droll that the General should be attached +for not hindering his wife from writing a libel, that is more +virulent against him himself than any body! Another little +circumstance has come out: till the other day he did not know +that he had claimed descent from Charlemagne in the newspapers; +which, therefore, is referred to the same manufacture as the +other forgeries. The General said, "It is true I am well born; +but I know no such family in Ireland as the Charlemagnes." + +Lord Ossory has just been here, and told me that Gunnilda has +written to Lord Blandford, in her own name and hand, begging his +pardon (for promising herself marriage in his name), but imputing +the first thought to his grandmother, whom she probably inspired +to think of it. This letter the Duchess of Marlborough carried +to the Duchess of Bedford, to open her eyes on her proteg`ee, but +with not much success; for what signify eyes, when the rest of +the head is gone? She only said, "You may be easy, for both +mother and daughter, are gone to France"--no doubt, on finding +her grace's money not so forthcoming as her countenance, and +terrified by Captain Bowen's prosecution and there, I hope, will +terminate that strange story; for in France there is not a +marquis left to marry her. One has heard Of nothing else these +seven months; and it requires some ingenuity to keep up the +attention of such a capital as London for above half a year +together. I supped on Thursday at Mrs. Buller's with the conways +and Mount-Edgcumbes; and the next night at Lady Ailesbury's with +the same company, and Lady Augusta Clavering.(761) You know, on +the famous night at your house when Gunnilda pretended that her +father had received Lord Blandford's appointment of the +wedding-day, we suspected, when they were gone, that we had seen +doubts in Lady Augusta's face, and I desired her uncle, Lord +Frederick, to ask her if we had guessed right; but she protests +she had then no suspicion. + +I have determined to send this away on Tuesday, whether I know +the details of the temple of Janus to-morrow in time or not, that +you may give yourself airs of importance, if the Turin ministers +pretend to tell you news of your own country that you do not +know. You may say, your charg`e des affaires sent you word of +the King's message; and you may be mysterious about the rest; for +mystery in the diplomatic dictionary is construed as knowledge, +though, like a Hebrew word, it means the reverse too. + +Sunday night. + +I have been at White Pussy's(762) this evening. She asked much +after you. I did not think her lord looked as if he would drive +Prince Potemkin out of Bulgaria; but we trust that a new +Frederick of Prussia and a new William Pitt will. Could they lay +Catherine in the Black Sea, as ghosts used to be laid in the Red, +the world would be obliged to them. + +(759) The Queen and the Prince of Wales. + +(760) The Marquis of Salisbury. + +\(761) Eldest daughter of John Duke of Argyle. + +(762) Elizabeth Cary, wife of Lord Amherst, at this time +commander-in-chief. + + + +Letter 375 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, Sunday night, April 3, 1791. (page 488) + +Oh! what a shocking accident! Oh! how I detest your going abroad +more than I have done yet in my crossest mood! You escaped the +storm on the 10th of October, that gave me such an alarm; you +passed unhurt through the cannibals of France and their republic +of larrons and poissardes, who terrified me sufficiently; but I +never expected that you would dash yourself to pieces at +Pisa!(763) You say I love truth, and that you have told me the +exact truth: but how can fear believe! + +How I hate a party of pleasure! It never turns out well: fools +fall out, and sensible People fall down! Still I thank you a +million of' times for writing yourself. If Miss Agnes had +written for you, I confess I should have been ten times more +alarmed than I am; and yet I am alarmed enough. + +Not to torment you more with my fears, when I hope you are almost +recovered, I will answer the rest of your letter. General O'Hara +I have unluckily not met yet. He is so dispersed, and I am so +confined in my resorts and so seldom dine from home, that I have +not seen him, even at General Conway's. When I do, can you +imagine that we shall not talk of you two--yes; and your +accident, I am. sure, will be the chief topic. As our fleets +are to dethrone Catherine Petruchia, O'Hara will probably not be +sent to Siberia. Apropos to Catherine and Petruchio. I supped +with their representatives, Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, t'other +night at Miss Farren's: the Hothams(764) were there too, and Mrs. +Anderson,(765) who treated the players with acting as many +characters as ever they did, particularly Gunnilda and Lady +Clackmannan.(766) Mrs. Siddons is leaner, but looks well: she has +played Jane Shore and Desdemona, and is to play in the Gamester; +all the parts she will act this year. Kemble, they say, shone in +Othello. + +Mrs. Damer has been received at Elvas with all military honours, +and a banquet, by order of Mello, formerly ambassador here. It +was handsome in him, but must have distressed her, who is so void +of ostentation and love of show. Miss Boyle,(767) who no more +than Miss Pulteney,(768) has let herself be snapped up by lovers +of her fortune, is going to Italy for a year with Lord and Lady +Malden.(769) + +Berkeley Square, Monday after dinner. + +Mirabeau is dead;(770) ay, miraculously; for it was of a putrid +fever (that began in his heart). Dr. Price is dying also.(771) +That Mr. Berry, with so much good nature and good sense should be +staggered, I do not wonder. Nobody is more devoted to liberty +than I am. It is therefore that I abhor the National Assembly, +whose outrageous violence has given, I fear, a lasting wound to +the cause; for anarchy is despotism in the hands of thousands. A +lion attacks but when hungry or provoked; but who can live in a +desert full of hyennas?--nobody but Mr. Bruce; and we have only +his word for it. Here is started up another corsair; one Paine, +from America, who has published an answer to Mr. Burke.(7722) +His doctrines go to the extremity of levelling and his style is +so coarse, that you would think he meant to degrade the language +as much as the government: here is one of his delicate +paragraphs:--"We do not want a king, or lords of the bedchamber, +or lords of the kitchen," etc. This rhetoric, I suppose, was +calculated for our poissardes. + +(763) Miss Berry had fallen down a bank in the neighbourhood of +Pisa, and received a severe cut on the nose. + +(764) Sir Charles Hotham Thompson, married to Lady Dorothy +Hobart, sister of John second Earl of Buckinghamshire. + +(765) A daughter of Lady Cecilia Johnstone's, married to a +brother of Charles Anderson Pelham, Lord Garborough. + +(766) A nickname, which had been given by the writer to a lady of +the society. + +(767)Afterwards married to Lord Henry Fitzgerald. + +(768) Afterwards married to Sir James Murray. + +(769) Lord Malden, afterwards Earl of Essex, was a first cousin +of Miss Boyle. This journey did not take place. + +(770) Mirabeau died on the 2d of April, at the age of forty-two, +a victim to his own debaucheries. His friend, M. Dupont, says of +him, that, "trusting to the strength of his constitution he gave +himself up, without restraint, to every kind of pleasure." Madame +de Stael states, that he suffered cruelly in the last days of his +life, and when no longer able to speak, wrote to his physician +for a dose OF opium, in the words of Hamlet, "to die--to sleep!" +His obsequies were celebrated with great pomp, and his body +placed in the Pantheon, by the side of that of Descartes. In two +short years his ashes were removed, by order of the Convention, +and scattered abroad by the populace; who, at the same time, +burned his bust in the Place de Gr`eve.-E. + +(771) Dr. Price died on the 19th of April.-E. + +(772) This was the first part of the " Rights of Man," in answer +to the celebrated "Reflections." At the commencement of the year +Paine had published in Paris, under the borrowed name of Achille +Duchatellet, a tract recommending the abolition of royalty.-E. + + + +Letter 376 To Miss Berry. +Berkeley Square, Friday night, April 15, 1791. (page 490) + +My preface will be short; for I have nothing to tell, and a great +deal that I am waiting patiently to hear; all which, however, may +be couched in these two phrases,-,, I am quite recovered of my +fall, and my nose will not be the worse for it"--for with all my +pretences, I cannot help having that nose a little upon my +spirits; though if it were flat, I should love it as much as +ever, for the sake of the head and heart that belong to it. I +have seen O'Hara, with his face as ruddy and black, and his teeth +as white as ever; and as fond of you two, and as grieved for your +fall, as any body--but I. He has got a better regiment. + +Strawberry Hill, Sunday night, past eleven. + +You chose your time ill for going abroad this year: England never +saw such a spring since it was fifteen years old. The warmth, +blossoms, and verdure are unparalleled. I am just come from +Richmond, having first called on Lady Di. who is designing and +painting pictures for prints to Dryden's Fables.(773) Oh! she has +done two most beautiful; one of Emily walking in the garden, and +Palamon seeing her from the tower: the other, a noble, free +composition of Theseus parting the rivals, when fighting in the +wood. They are not, as you will imagine, at all like the +pictures in the Shakspeare Gallery: no; they are -worthy of +Dryden. + +I can tell you nothing at all certain with our war with Russia. +If one believes the weather-glass of the stocks, it will be +peace; they had fallen to 71, and are risen again, and soberly, +to 79. Fawkener" clerk of the council, sets out to-day or +to-morrow for Berlin; probably, I hope, with an excuse. In the +present case, I had much rather our ministers were bullies than +heroes: no mortal likes the war. The court-majority lost +thirteen of its former number at the beginning of the week, which +put the Opposition into spirits; but, +put pursuing their motions on Friday, twelve of the thirteen were +recovered.(774) Lord Onslow told me just now, at Madame de +BOufflers's, that Lady Salisbury was brought to bed of a son and +heir(775) last night, two hours after she came from the Opera; +and that Madame du Barry dined yesterday with the Prince of +Wales, at the Duke of Queensberry's, at Richmond. Thus you have +all my news, such as it is ; and I flatter myself no English at +Pisa or Florence can boast of better intelligence than you--but +for you, should I care about Madame du Barry or my Lady +Salisbury, or which of them lies in or lies out? + +Berkeley Square, Monday, April 18. + +Oh! what a dear letter have I found, and from both at once; and +with such a delightful bulletin! I should not be pleased with +the idleness of the pencil, were it not owing to the chapter of +health, which I prefer to every thing. You order me to be +particular about my own health: I have nothing to say about it, +but that it is as good as before my last fit. Can I expect or +desire more at my age? My ambition is to pass a summer, with you +two established at Cliveden. I shall not reject more if they +come; but one must not be presumptuous at seventy-three; and +though my eyes, ears, teeth, motion, have still lasted to make +life comfortable, I do not know that I should be enchanted if +surviving any of them ; and, having no desire to become a +philosopher, I had rather be naturally cheerful than affectedly +so: for patience I take to be only a resolution of holding one's +tongue, and not complaining of what one feels-for does one feel +or think the less for not owning it? + +Though London increases every day, and Mr. Herschell has just +discovered a new square or circus somewhere by the New Road in +.the Via Lactea, where the cows used to be fed, I believe you +will think the town cannot hold all its inhabitants; so +prodigiously the population is augmented. I have twice been +going to stop my coach in Piccadilly, (and the same has happened +to Lady Ailesbury,) thinking there was a mob; and it was only +nymphs and swains sauntering or trudging. T'other morning, i. e. +at two o'clock, I went to see Mrs. Garrick and Miss Hannah More +at the Adelphi, and was stopped five times before I reached +Northumberland-house; for the tides of coaches, chariots, +curricles, phaetons, etc. are endless. Indeed, the town is so +extended, that the breed of chairs is almost lost ; for Hercules +and Atlas could not carry any body from one end of this enormous +capital to the other. How magnified would be the error of the +young woman at St. Helena, who, some said years ago, +to a captain of an Indiaman, "I suppose London is very empty, +when the India ships come out." Don't make Me excuses, then, for +short letters; nor trouble yourself a moment to lengthen them. +YOU Compare little towns to quiet times, which do not feed +history ; and most justly. If the vagaries of' London can be +comprised once a week in three or four pages of small quarto +paper, and not always that, how should little Pisa furnish an +equal export? When Pisa *was at war with the rival republic of +Milan, Machiavel was put to it to describe a battle, the +slaughter in which amounted to one man slain; and he was trampled +to death, by being thrown down and battered in his husk of +complete armour; as I remember reading above fifty years ago at +Florence. + +Eleven at night. + +Oh! mercy! I am just come from Mrs. Buller's, having left a very +pleasant set at Lady Herries'(776)--and for such a collection +Eight or ten women and girls, not one of whom I knew by sight: a +German Count., as stiff and upright as the inflexible Dowager of +Beaufort: a fat Dean and his wife, he speaking Cornish, and of +having dined to-day at Lambeth; four young officers, friends of +the boy Buller,(777) who played with one of them at tric-trac, +while the others made with the Misses a still more noisy +commerce; and not a creature but Mrs. Cholmondeley, who went away +immediately, and her son, who was speechless with the headache, +that I was the least acquainted with: and, to add to my +sufferings, the Count would talk to me of les beaux arts, of +which he knows no more than an oyster. At last, came in Mrs. +Blair, whom I knew as little; but she asked so kindly after you +two, and was so anxious about your fall and return, that I grew +quite fond of her, and beg you would love her for my sake, as I +do for yours. Good night! + +I have this moment received a card from the Duchess-Dowager of +Ancaster, to summon me for to-morrow at three o'clock--I suppose +to sign Lord Cholmondeley's marriage-articles with her +daughter.(778) The wedding is to be this day sevennight. Save +me, my old stars, from wedding-dinners! But I trust they are not +of this age. I should sooner expect Hymen to jump out of a +curricle, and walk into the Duchess's dressing-room in boots and +a dirty shirt. + +(773) A splendid edition of the Fables of Dryden, ornamented with +engravings, from the elegant and fascinating pencil of Lady Diana +Beauclerc, was published in folio in 1797.-E. + +(774) On the 12th of April, a series of resolutions, moved by Mr. +Grey, the object of which was to pronounce the armament against +Russia inexpedient and unnecessary, were, after a warm debate, +negatived by 252 against 17?- A similar motion, made on the +fifteenth, by Mr. Baker was rejected by a majority of 254 to +162.-E. + +(775) James-Brownlow-William Gascoyne Cecil. in 1823, he +succeeded his father as second Marquis of Salisbury.-E. + +(776) The wife of the banker in St. James's Street. + +(777) Mrs. Buller's only child. + +(778) Lady Charlotte Bertie. + + + +Letter 377 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, April 23, 1791. (page 492) + +To-day, when the town is staring at the sudden resignation of the +Duke of Leeds,(779) asking the reason, and gaping to know who +will succeed him, I am come hither -with an indifference that +might pass for philosophy; as the true cause is not known, which +it seldom is. Don't tell Europe; but I really am come to look at +the repairs of Cliveden, and how they go on; not without an eye +to the lilacs and the apple-blossoms: for even self can find a +corner to wriggle into, though friendship may fit out the vessel. +Mr. Berry may, perhaps, wish I had more political curiosity; but +as I must return to town on Monday for Lord Cholmondeley's +wedding, I may hear before the departure of the post, if the +seals are given: for the Duke's reasons, should they be assigned, +shall one be certain? His intention was not even whispered till +Wednesday evening. The news from India, so long expected, are +not couleur de rose, but de sang: a detachment has been defeated +by Tippoo Saib, and Lord Cornwallis is gone to take the command +of the army himself. Will the East be more propitious to him +than the West? + +The abolition of the slave-trade has been rejected by the House +of Commons,(780) though Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox united earnestly to +carry it: but commerce chinked its purse, and that sound is +generally prevalent with the majority; and humanity's tears, and +eloquence, figures and arguments, had no more effect than on +those patrons of liberty, the National Assembly of France; who, +while they proclaim the rights of men, did not choose to admit +the sable moiety of mankind to a participation of those benefits. + +Captain Bowen has published a little pamphlet of affidavits, +which prove that Gunnilda attempted to bribe her father's groom +to perjure himself; but he begged to be excused. Nothing more +appears against the mother, but that Miss pretended her mamma had +an aversion to Lord Lorn, (an aversion to a Marquis!) and that +she did not dare to acquaint so tender a parent with her lasting +passion for him. Still I am persuaded that both the mother and +the aunt were in the plot, whatever it was. I saw Lady Cecilia +last night, and made all your speeches, and received their value +in return for you. + +Good Hannah More is killing herself by a new fit of benevolence, +about a young girl with a great fortune, who has been taken from +school at Bristol to Gretna Green, and cannot be discovered; nor +the apothecary who stole her. Mrs. Garrick, who suspects, as I +do, that Miss Europa is not very angry with Mr. Jupiter, had Very +warm words, a few nights ago, at the Bishop of London's, with +Lady Beaumont; but I diverted the quarrel by starting the stale +story of the Gunning. You know Lady Beaumont's eagerness: she is +ready to hang the apothecary with her own hands; and he certainly +is criminal enough. Poor Hannah lives with attorneys and Sir +Sampson Wright;(781) and I have seen her but once since she came +to town. Her ungrateful proteg`ee, the milkwoman, has published +her tragedy, and dedicated it to a patron as worthy as herself, +the Earl-bishop of Derry.(782) + +At night. + +Well! our wedding is over very properly, though with little +ceremony; for the men were in frocks and white waistcoats; most +of the women in white, and no diamonds but on the Duke's wife; +and nothing of ancient fashion but two bride-maids. The endowing +purse I believe, has been left off, ever since broad-pieces were +called in and melted down. We were but eighteen persons in all, +chiefly near relations of each side; and of each side a friend or +two: of the first sort, the Greatheds. Sir Peter Burrell gave +away the bride. The poor Duchess-mother wept excessively: She is +now left quite alone; her two daughters married, and her other +children dead; she herself, I fear, in a very dangerous way. She +goes directly to Spa, where the new-married are to meet her. We +all separated in an hour and a half. The Elliot-girl(783) was +there, and is pretty: she rolls in the numerous list of my +nephews and nieces. + +I am now told that our Indian skirmish was a victory, and that +Tippoo Saib and all his cavalry and elephants, ran away; but sure +I am, that the first impression made on me by those who spread +the news, was not triumphant; nor can I enjoy success in that +country, which we have so abominably usurped and plundered. You +must wait for a new secretary of state till next post. The Duke +of Leeds is said to have resigned from bad health. The Ducs de +Richelieu(784) and De Pienne, and Madame de St. Priest, are +arrived here. Mr. Fawkener does not go to Berlin till Wednesday +* still the stocks do not believe in the war. + +I have exhausted my gazette; and this being both Easter and +Newmarket week, I may possibly have nothing to tell you by +to-morrow se'nnight's post, and may wait till Friday se'nnight: +of which I give you notice, lest you should think I have had a +fall, and hurt my nose which I know gives one's friend a dreadful +alarm. Good night! + +P. S. I never saw such a blotted letter: I don't know how you +will read it. I am so earnest when writing to YOU two, that I +omit half the words, and write too small; but I will try to mend. + +(779) Francis Godolphin Osborne, fifth Duke of Leeds. In 1776, +he was appointed a lord of the bedchamber, and in 1783, secretary +of state for foreign affairs. He was succeeded in the office by +Lord Grenville.-E. + +(780) The numbers on the division were, for the abolition 88, +against it 163.-E. + +(781) In a letter written on this day, Miss More says,--"My time +has been literally passed with thief takers, officers of justice, +and such pretty kind of people." The young lady, who was an +heiress and only fourteen years of age, had been trepanned away +from school. All the efforts to discover the victim proved +fruitless; the poor girl having been betrayed into a marriage and +carried to the Continent.-E. + +(782) The Earl of Bristol; for an account of whom, see ante, p. +236, letter 182.-E. + +(783) A natural daughter of Lord Cholmondeley. + +(784) Armand-Emanuel du Plessis, Duc do Richelieu. He had just +succeeded to the title, by the death of his father. In the +preceding year, he had entered a volunteer into the service of +Catherine the Second, and distinguished himself at the siege of +Ismael, not more by his bravery than his humanity; as appears by +the following anecdote recorded in the "Histoire de la Nouvelle +Russie," tom. iii. p. 217:--"Je sauvai la vie `a une fille de dix +ans, dont l'innocence et la candeur formaient un contraste bien +frappant avec la rage de tout ce qui mlenvironnait. En arrivant +sur le bastion o`u commen`ca le carnage, j'apperus un groupe de +quatre femmes `egorg`ees, entre lesquelles cet enfant, d'une +figure charmante, cherchait un asile contre la fureur de deux +Kosaks qui `etaient sur le point de la massacrer: ce spectacle +m'attira bient`ot, et je n'h`esitai pas, comme on peut le croire, +prendre entre mes bras cette infortun`ee, que les barbares +voulaient y poursuivre encore." Lord Byron has paraphrased the +affecting incident in the eighth canto of Don Juan:-- + +"Upon a taken bastion, where there lay +Thousands of slaughter'd men, a yet warm group +Of murder'd women, who had found their way +To this vain refuge, made the good heart droop +And shudder;--while, as beautiful as May, +A female child of ten years tried to stoop +And hide her little palpitating breast +Amidst the bodies lull'd in bloody rest. +Two villainous Cossacques pursued the child +With flashing eyes, and weapons. * * * +Don Juan raised his little captive from +The heap, a moment more had made her tomb." + +In 1803, the Duke returned to Russia, and was nominated civil and +military governor of Odessa; -and to his administration," says +Bishop Heber, 44 and not to any natural advantages, the town owes +its prosperity." On the restoration of Louis the Eighteenth, he +was appointed first gentleman of the bedchamber; and in 1815, +president of the council and minister for foreign affairs. He +finally retired from office in 1820, and died in 1822.-E. + + + +Letter 378 To Miss Berry. +Berkeley Square, May 12, 1791. (page 495) + +A letter from Florence (that of April 20th) does satisfy me about +your nose-till I can see it with my own eyes; but I will own to +you now, that my alarm at first went much farther. I dreaded +lest so violent a fall upon rubbish might not have hurt your +head; though all your letters since have proved how totally that +escaped any danger. Yet your great kindness in writing to me +yourself so immediately did not tranquillize me, and only proved +your good-nature-but I will not detail my departed fears, nor +need I prove my attachment to you two. If you were really my +wives, I could not be more generally applied to for accounts of +you; of which I am proud. I should be ashamed, if, at my age, it +were a ridiculous attachment; but don't be sorry for having been +circumstantial. My fears did not spring thence; nor did I +suspect your not having told the whole-no; but I apprehended the +accident might be worse than you knew yourself. + +Poor Hugh Conway,(785) though his life has long been safe, still +suffers at times from his dreadful blow, and has not yet been +able to come to town: nor would Lord Chatham's humanity put his +ship into commission; which made him so unhappy, that poor +Horatia,(786) doating on him as she does, wrote to beg he might +be employed; preferring her own misery in parting with him to +what she saw him suffer. Amiable conduct! but, happily, her suit +did not prevail. + +I am not at all surprised at the private interviews between +Leopold(787) and C. I am persuaded that the first must and will +take more part than he has yet seemed to do, and so will others +too; but as speculations are but guesses, I will say no more on +the subject now; nor of your English and Irish travellers, none +of whom I know. I have one general wish, that you may be amused +while you stay, by the natives of any nation: and I thank you a +thousand times for confirming Your intention of returning by the +beginning of November; which I should not desire coolly, but from +the earnest wish of putting you in possession of Cliveden while I +live; which every body would approve, at least, not wonder at +(Mr. Batt, to whom I have communicated my intention, does +extremely); and the rest would follow of course, as I had done +the same for Mrs. Clive. I smiled at your making excuses for +your double letter. Do you think I would not give twelvepence to +hear more of you and your proceedings, than a single sheet would +contain? + +The Prince is recovered; that is all the domestic news, except a +most memorable debate last Friday, in the House of Commons. Mr. +Fox had most imprudently thrown out a panegyric on the French +revolution.(788) His most considerable friends were much hurt, +and protested to him against such sentiments. Burke went much +farther, and vowed to attack these opinions. Great pains were +taken to prevent such altercation, and the Prince of Wales is +said to have written a dissuasive letter to Burke: but he was +immovable; and on Friday, on the Quebec Bill, he broke out and +sounded a trumpet against the plot, which he denounced as +carrying on here. Prodigious clamours and interruption arose +from Mr. Fox's friends: but he, though still applauding the +French, burst into tears and lamentations on the loss of Burke's +friendship, and endeavoured to make atonement; but in vain, +though Burke wept too. In short, it was the most affecting scene +possible; and undoubtedly an unique one, for both the commanders +were earnest and sincere.(789) Yesterday, a second act was +expected; but mutual friends prevailed, that the contest should +not be renewed: nay, on the same bill, Mr. Fox made a profession +of his faith, and declared he would venture his life in support +of the present constitution by King, Lords, and Commons. In +short, I never knew a wiser dissertation, if the newspapers +deliver it justly; and I think all the writers in England cannot +give more profound sense to Mr. Fox than he possesses. I know no +more particulars, having seen nobody this morning yet. What +shall I tell you else? We have expected Mrs. Damer from last +night; and perhaps she may arrive before this sets out to-morrow. + +Friday morning, May 13th. + +Last night we were at Lady Frederick Campbell's,--the usual +cribbage party, Conways, Mount-Edgcumbes, Johnstones. At past +ten Mrs. Damer was announced! Her parents ran down into the +hall, and I scrambled down some of the stairs. She looks vastly +well, was in great spirits, and not at all fatigued; though she +came from Dover, had been twelve hours at sea from Calais, and +had rested but four days at Paris from Madrid. We supped, and +stayed till one o'clock; and I shall go to see her as soon as I +am dressed. Madrid and the Escurial she owns have gained her a +proselyte to painting, which her statuarism had totally engrossed +in her, no wonder. Of Titian she had no idea, nor have I a just +one, though great faith, as at Venice all his works are now +coal-black: but Rubens, she says, amazed her, and that in Spain +he has even grace. Her father, yesterday morning, from pain +remaining still in his shoulder from his fall, had it examined by +Dr. Hunter, and a little bone of the collar was found to be +broken, and he must wear his arm for some time in a sling. Miss +Boyle, I heard last night, had consented to marry Lord Henry +Fitzgerald. I think they have both chosen well--but I have +chosen better. Adieu! Care spose! + +(785) Lord Hugh Seymour Conway, brother of the then Marquis of +Hertford. + +(786) Lady Horatia Waldegrave, his wife. + +(787) The Emperor Leopold, then at Florence; whither he had +returned from Vienna, to inaugurate his son in the Grand Duchy of +Tuscany.-E. + +(788) In the course of his speech on the 15th of April, during +the debate on the armament against Russia, Mr. Fox had said, that +"he for one admired the new constitution of France, considered +altogether, as the most stupendous and glorious edifice of +liberty which had been erected on the foundation of human +integrity in any time or country." As soon as he had sat down +Mr. Burke rose, in much visible emotion; but was prevented from +proceeding by the general cry of question. Mr. Fox regretted the +injudicious zeal of those who would not suffer him to reply on +the spot: "the contention," be said, "might have been fiercer and +hotter, but the remembrance of it would not have settled so deep, +nor rankled so long, in the heart."-E. + +(789) With the debate of this day terminated a friendship which +had lasted more than the fourth part of a century. Mr. +Wilberforce, in his Diary of the 6th of May, states, that he had +endeavoured to prevent the quarrel; and in a letter to a friend, +on the following day, he speaks of "the shameful spectacle of +last night; more disgraceful almost, and more affecting, than the +rejection of my motion for the abolition of the slave trade-a +long tried and close worldly connexion of five-and-twenty years +trampled to pieces in the conflict of a single night!" The +following anecdote, connected with this memorable evening, is +related by Mr. Curwen, at that time member for Carlisle, in his +Travels in Ireland:--"the powerful feelings were manifested on +the adjournment of the House. While I was waiting for my +carriage, Mr. Burke came to me and requested, as the night was +wet, I would set him down. As soon as the carriage-door was +shut, he complimented me on My being no friend to the +revolutionary doctrines of the French; on which he spoke with +great warmth for a few minutes, when he paused to afford me an +opportunity of approving the view he had taken of those measures +in the House. At the moment I could not help feeling disinclined +to disguise my sentiments: Mr. Burke, catching hold of the +check-string, furiously exclaimed, 'you are one of these people! +set me down!' With some difficulty I restrained him;-we had then +reached Charingcross: a silence ensued which was preserved till +we reached his house in Gerard-street, when he hurried out of the +carriage without speaking."-E. + + + +Letter 379 To Miss Berry. +Berkeley Square, Thursday, May 19, 1791. (page 497) + +Your letter of the 29th, for which you are so good as to make +excuses on not sending it to the post in time, did arrive but two +days later than usual; and as it is now two months from the 16th +of March, and I have so many certificates of the prosperous state +of your pretty nose, I attributed the delay to the elements, and +took no panic. But how kindly punctual you are, When you charge +yourself' with an irregularity of two days! and when your letters +are so charmingly long, and interest me so much in all you do! +But make no more excuses. I reproach myself with occasioning so +much waste of your time, that you might employ every hour; for it +is impossible to see all that the Medicis had collected or +encouraged in the loveliest little city, and in such beautiful +environs-nor had I forgotten the Cascines, the only spot +containing English verdure. Mrs. Damer is as well, if not +better, than she has been a great while: her looks surprise every +body; to which, as she is tanned, her Spanish complexion +contributes. She and I called, the night before last, on your +friend Mrs. Cholmeley; and they are to make me a visit to-morrow +morning, by their own appointment. At Dover Mrs. Damer heard the +Gunnings are there: here, they are forgotten. + +You are learning perspective, to take views: I am glad. Can one +have too many resources in one's self? Internal armour is more +necessary to your sex, than weapons to ours. You have neither +professions, nor politics, nor ways of getting money, like men; +in any of which, whether successful or not, they are employed. +Scandal and cards you will both always hate and despise, as much +as you do now; and though I shall not flatter Mary so much as to +suppose she will ever equal the extraordinary talent of Agnes in +painting, yet, as Mary, like the scriptural Martha, is occupied +in many things, she is quite in the right to add the pencil to +her other amusements. + +I knew the Duchesse de Brissac(790) a little, and but a little, +in 1766. She was lively and seemed sensible, and had an +excellent character. Poor M. de Thygnols!(791) to be deprived of +that only remaining child too!--but, how many French one pities, +and how many more one abhors! How dearly will even liberty be +bought, (if it shall prove to be obtained, which I neither think +it is or will be,) by every kind of injustice and violation of +consciences! How little conscience can they have, who leave to +others no option but between perjury and starving! The Prince de +Chimay I do not know. + +After answering the articles of yours, I shall add what I can of +new. After several weeks spent in search of precedents, for +trials ceasing or not on a dissolution of parliament, the Peers +on Monday sat till three in the morning on the report; when the +Chancellor and Lord Hawkesbury fought for the cessation, but were +beaten by a large majority; which showed that Mr. Pitt(792) has +more weight (at present) in that House too, than--the diamonds of +Bengal. Lord Hawkesbury protested. The trial recommences on +Monday next, and has already caused the public fourteen thousand +pounds; the accused, I suppose, much more. + +The Countess of Albany(793) is not only in England, in London, +but at this very moment, I believe, in the palace of St. +James's--not restored by as rapid a revolution as the French, +but, as was observed last night at supper at Lady +Mount-Edgcumbe's, by that topsy-turvyhood that characterizes the +present age. Within these two months the Pope has been burnt at +Paris; Madame du Barry, mistress of Louis Quinze, has dined with +the Lord Mayor of London, and the Pretender's widow is presented +to the Queen of Great Britain! She is to be introduced by her +great-grandfather's niece, the young Countess of Ailesbury.(794) +That curiosity should bring her hither, I do not quite +wonder-still less that she abhorred her husband; but methinks it +is not very well bred to his family, nor very sensible; but a new +way of passing eldest. + +Apropos: I hear there is a medal struck at Rome of her brother- +in-law, as Henry the Ninth; which, as one of their Papal +majesties was so abominably mean as to deny the royal title to +his brother, though for Rome he had lost a crown, I did not know +they allow his brother to assume. I should be much obliged to +you if you could get one of those medals in copper; ay, and of +his brother, if there was one with the royal title. I have the +father's and mother's, and all the Popes', in copper; but my +Pope, Benedict the Fourteenth, is the last, and therefore I +should be glad of one of each of his successors, if you can +procure and bring them with little trouble. I should not be +sorry to have one of the Grand Duke and his father; but they +should be in copper, not only for my suite, but they are sharper +than in silver. + +Thursday night. + +Well! I have had an exact account of the interview of the two +Queens, from one who stood close to them. The dowager was +announced as Princess of Stolberg. She was well-dressed, and not +at all embarrassed. The King talked to her a good deal; but +about her passage' the sea, and general topics: the Queen in the +same way, but less. Then she stood between the Dukes of +Gloucester and Clarence, and had a good deal of conversation with +the former; who, perhaps, may have met her in Italy. Not a word +between her and the Princesses: nor did I hear of the Prince, but +he was there, and probably spoke to her. The Queen looked at her +earnestly. To add to the singularity of the day, it is the +Queen's birthday. Another odd accident: at the Opera at the +Pantheon, Madame d'Albany was carried into the King's box, and +sat there. It is not of a piece with her going to court, that +she seals with the royal arms. I have been told to-night, that +you will not be able to get me a medal of the royal Cardinal, as +very few were struck, and only for presents; so pray give +yourself but little trouble about it. + +Boswell has at last published his long-promised Life of Dr. +Johnson, in two volumes in quarto. I will give you an account of +it when I have gone through it. I have already perceived, that +in writing the history of Hudibras, Ralpho has not forgot himself +nor will others, I believe, forget him! + +(790) The Duc do Brissac was at this time commandant-general of +Louis the Sixteenth's constitutional guard. In the following +year he was denounced; and in the early days of September put to +death at Versailles, for his attachment to his unfortunate +sovereign.-E. + +(791) The Duc de Nivernois, who, at this time, was employed about +the person of Louis the Sixteenth, was denounced by the infamous +Chaumette, and Cast into prison in September 1793; where he +remained till 1796. He died in 1798.-E. + +(792) In Mr. Wilberforce's Diary of the 22d of December, there is +the following entry:--"Hastings's impeachment question. Pitt's +astonishing speech. This was almost the finest speech he ever +delivered: it was one which you would say at once he never could +have made if he had not been a mathematician. He put things by +as he proceeded and then returned to the very point from which he +had started, with the most astonishing clearness. He had all the +lawyers against him, but carried a majority of the House, mainly +by the force of this speech. It pleased Burke exceedingly. +'Sir,' he said, 'the right honourable gentleman and I have often +been opposed to one another, but his speech tonight has +neutralized my opposition; nay, Sir, he has dulcified me.' " +Life, vol. i. p. 286.-E. + +(793) Louisa Maximiliana de Stolberg Goedern, wife of the +Pretender. After the death of Charles Edward in 1788, she +travelled in Italy and France, and lived with her favourite, the +celebrated Alfieri, to whom she is stated to have been privately +married. She continued to reside at Paris, until the progress of +the revolution compelled her to take refuge in England.-E. + +(794) Lady Anne Rawdon, sister to the first Marquis of Hastings. + + + +Letter 380 To Miss Berry. +Berkeley Square, May 26, 1791. (page 500) + +I am rich in letters from you: I received that by Lord Elgin's +courier first, as you expected, and its elder the next day. You +tell me mine entertain you; tant mieux. It is my wish, but my +wonder; for I live so little in the world, that I do not know the +present generation by sight: for, though I pass by them in the +streets, the hats with valences, the folds above the chin of the +ladies, and the dirty shirts and shaggy hair of the young men, +who have levelled nobility almost as much as the mobility in +France have, have confounded all individuality. Besides, if I +did go to public places and assemblies, which my going to roost +earlier prevents, the bats and owls do not begin to fly abroad +till far in the night, when they begin to see and be seen. +However, one of the empresses of fashion, the Duchess of Gordon, +uses fifteen or sixteen hours of her four-and-twenty. I heard +her journal of last Monday. She first went to Handel's music in +the Abbey; she then clambered over the benches, and went to +Hastings's trial in the Hall; after dinner to the play; then to +Lady Lucan's assembly; after that to Ranelagh, and returned to +Mrs. Hobart's faro table; gave a ball herself in the evening of +that morning, into which she must have got a good way: and set +out for Scotland the next day. Hercules could not have achieved +a quarter of her labours in the same space of time, What will the +Great Duke think of our Amazons, if he has letters opened, as the +Emperor was wont! One of our Camillas,(795) but in a freer +style, I hear, he saw (I fancy just before your arrival); and he +must have wondered at the familiarity of the dame, and the +nincompoophood of her Prince. Sir William Hamilton is arrived-- +his Nymph of the Attitudes!(796) was too prudish to visit the +rambling peeress. + +The rest of my letter must be literary; for we have no news. +Boswell's book is gossiping;(797) but, having numbers of proper +names, would be more readable, at least by me, were it reduced +from two volumes to one; but there are woful longueurs, both +about his hero and himself; thefidus Achates; about whom one has +not the smallest curiosity. But I wrong the original Achates: +one is satisfied with his fidelity in keeping his master's +secrets and weaknesses, which modern led-captains betray for +their patron's glory, and to hurt their own enemies; which +Boswell has done shamefully, particularly against Mrs. Piozzi, +and Mrs. Montagu, and Bishop Percy. Dr. Blagden says justly, +that it is a new kind of libel, by which you may abuse any body, +by saying some dead body said so and so of somebody +alive. Often, indeed, Johnson made the most brutal speeches to +living persons; for though he was good-natured at bottom, he was +very ill-natured at top. He loved to dispute, to show his +superiority. If his opponents were weak, he told them they were +fools; if they vanquished him, be was scurrilous--to nobody more +than to Boswell himself, who was contemptible for flattering him +so grossly, and for enduring the coarse things he was continually +vomiting on Boswell's own country, Scotland. I expected, amongst +the excommunicated, to find myself, but am very gently treated. +I never would be in the least acquainted with Johnson; or, as +Boswell calls it, I had not a just value for him; which the +biographer imputes to my resentment for the Doctor's putting bad +arguments (purposely, out of Jacobitism,) into the speeches which +he wrote fifty years ago for my father, in the Gentleman's +Magazine; which I did not read then, or ever knew +Johnson wrote till Johnson died, nor have looked at since. +Johnson's blind Toryism and known brutality kept me aloof; nor +did I ever exchange a syllable with him: nay, I do not think I +ever was in a room with him six times in my days. Boswell came +to me, said Dr. Johnson was writing the Lives of the Poets, and +wished I would give him anecdotes of Mr. Gray. I said, very +coldly, I had given what I knew to Mr. Mason. Boswell hummed and +hawed, and then dropped, "I suppose you know Dr. Johnson does not +admire Mr. Gray." Putting as much contempt as I could Into my +look and tone, I said, "Dr. Johnson don't--humph!"--and with that +monosyllable ended our interview. After the Doctor's death, +Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Boswell sent an ambling +circular-letter to me, begging subscriptions for a monument for +him--the two last, I think, impertinently; as they could not but +know my opinion, and could not suppose I would contribute to a +monument for one who had endeavoured, poor soul! to degrade my +friend's superlative poetry. I would not deign to write an +answer; but sent down word by my footman, as I would have done to +parish officers with a brief, that I Would not subscribe. In the +two new volumes Johnson says, and very probably did, or is made +to say, that 'Gray's poetry is dull, and that he was a dull +man!(798) The same oracle dislikes Prior, Swift, and Fielding. +If an elephant could write a book, perhaps one that had read a +great deal would say, that an Arabian horse is a very clumsy +ungraceful animal. Pass to a better chapter! + +Burke has published another pamphlet(799) against the French +Revolution, in which he attacks it still more grievously. The +beginning is very good; but it is not equal, nor quite so +injudicious as parts of its predecessor; is far less brilliant, +as well as much shorter: but, were it ever so long, his mind +overflows with such a torrent of images, that he cannot be +tedious. His invective against Rousseau is admirable, just, and +new.(799) Voltaire he passes almost contemptuously. I wish he +had dissected Mirabeau too; and I grieve that he has omitted the +violation of the consciences of the clergy, nor stigmatized those +universal plunderers, the National Assembly, who gorge themselves +with eighteen livres a-day; which to many of them would, three +years ago, have been astonishing opulence. + +When you return, I shall lend you three volumes in quarto of +another Work,(800) With which you will be delighted. They are +state-letters in the reigns of Henry the Eighth, Mary, Elizabeth, +and James; being the correspondence of the Talbot and Howard +families, given by a Duke of Norfolk to the Herald's-office; +where they have lain for a century neglected, buried under dust, +and unknown, till discovered by a Mr. Lodge, a genealogist, who, +to gratify his passion, procured to be made a poursuivant. Oh! +how curious they are! Henry seizes an alderman who refused to +contribute to a benevolence: sends him to the army on the +borders; orders him to be exposed in the front line; and if that +does not do, to be treated with the utmost rigour of military +discipline. His daughter Bess is not less a Tudor. The mean, +unworthy treatment of the queen of Scots is striking; and you +will find Elizabeth's jealousy of her crown and her avarice were +at war, and how the more ignoble passion predominated. But the +most amusing passage is one in a private letter, as it paints the +awe of children for their parents a little differently from +modern habitudes. Mr. Talbot, second son of the Earl of +Shrewsbury, was a member of the House of Commons, and was +married. He writes to the Earl his father, and tells him, that a +young woman of a very good character, has been recommended to him +for chambermaid to his wife, and if his lordship does not +disapprove of it, he will hire her. There are many letters of +news, that are very entertaining too--but it is nine o'clock, and +I must go to Lady Cecilia's. + +Friday. + +The Conways, Mrs. Damer, the Farrens, and Lord Mount-Edgcumbe +supped at the Johnstones'. Lord Mount-Edgcumbe said excellently, +that "Mademoiselle D'Eon is her own widow." I wish I had seen +you both in your court-plis, at your presentation; but that is +only one wish amongst a thousand. + +(795) Lady Craven; who was at this time in Italy with the +Margravine of Anspach. Lord Craven died at Lausanne in +September, and the lady was married to the Margrave in October +following.-E. + +(796) Miss Martel married, in the following September, to Sir +William Hamilton-the lady, the infatuated attachment to whom has +been said to have been "the only cloud that obscured the bright +fame Of the immortal Nelson." By the following passage in a +letter, written by Romney the painter to Hagley the poet on the +19th of June, it will be seen that she had not been many days in +England, before a warm passion for her was engendered in the +breast of the artist:--"At present, and for the greatest part of +the summer, I shall be engaged in painting pictures from the +divine lady: I cannot give her any other epithet; for I think her +superior to all womankind. She asked me if you would not write +my life: I told her you had begun it-then, she said, she hoped +you would have much to say of her in the life; as she prides +herself in being my model."-E. + +(797) On the first appearance of his most interesting and +instructive Life of Dr. Johnson, a considerable outcry was raised +against poor Boswell. On the subject of this outcry, Mr. Croker +in the introduction to his valuable edition of the work, +published in 1831, makes the following excellent observations:-- +"Whatever doubts may have existed as to the prudence or the +propriety of the original publication--however naturally private +confidence was alarmed, or individual vanity offended--the voices +of criticism and complaint were soon drowned in the general +applause. And, no wonder; the work combines within itself the +four most entertaining classes of writing--biography, memoirs, +familiar letters, and that assemblage of literary anecdotes, +which the French have taught us to distinguish by the termination +Ana. It was a strange and fortuitous concurrence, that one so +prone to talk, and who talked so well, should be brought into +such close contact and confidence with one so zealous and so able +to record. Dr. Johnson was a man of extraordinary powers; but +Mr. Boswell had qualities, in their own way, almost as rare. He +United lively manners with indefatigable diligence, and the +volatile curiosity of a man about town with the drudging patience +of a chronicler. With a very good opinion of himself, he was +quick in discerning, and frank in applauding the excellencies of +others. His contemporaries, indeed, not without some colour of +reason, occasionally complained of him as vain, troublesome, and +giddy; but his vanity was inoffensive--his curiosity was commonly +directed towards laudable objects--when he meddled, be did so, +generally, from good-natured motives--and his giddiness was only +an exuberant gaiety, which never failed in the respect and +reverence due to literature, morals, and religion' ' and +posterity grate taste, temper, and talents with which he +selected, enjoyed, and described that polished intellectual +society which still lives in his work, and without his work had +perished!" Mr. Croker's edition of the work is the eleventh; and +since its appearance, a twelfth, in ten pocket volumes, with +embellishments has been given to the world, by Mr. Murray, of +which thousands are understood to have been called for. Whenever +Walpole, in the course of his correspondence, has had occasion to +introduce the name of Boswell, he has uniformly spoken so +disparagingly of him, that it is but justice to his memory to +append to the above extract, a passage or two, in which other +writers have recorded their estimation of him. Mr. Burke told +Sir James Mackintosh, that "he thought Johnson appeared greater +in Boswell's volumes than even in his own." Sir Walter Scott, +speaking of the Doctor, says, "he yet is, in our mind's eye, a +personification as lively as that of Siddons in Lady Macbeth, or +Kemble in Cardinal Wolsey; and all this arises from his having +found in Boswell such a biographer as no man but himself ever +had." In the opinion of the Edinburgh Reviewers, Boswell was "the +very prince of retail wits and philosophers," and his Life of +Johnson is pronounced to be "one of the best books in the world-- +a great, a very great work;" while the quarterly Review considers +it "the richest dictionary of wit and wisdom, any language can +boast, and that to the influence of Boswell we owe, probably, +three-fourths of what is most entertaining, as well as no +inconsiderable portion of whatever is most instructive, in all +the books of memoirs that have subsequently appeared."-E. + +(797) Dr. Johnson's attack upon Gray was undoubtedly calculated +to give great offence to Walpole: "Sir, he was dull in company, +dull in his closet, dull every where: he was dull in a new way, +and that made many people think him great: he was a mechanical +poet."-E. + +(798) This was the "Letter from Mr. Burke to a member of the +National Assembly."-E. + +(799) "We have had," says Mr. Burke, "the great professor and +founder of the philosophy of vanity in England. As I had good +opportunities of knowing his proceedings, almost from day to day, +he left no doubt on my mind that he entertained no principle, +either to influence his heart or to guide his understanding, but +vanity; with this vice he was possessed to a degree little short +of madness. Benevolence to the whole species, and want of +feeling for every individual with whom the professors come in +contact, form the character of the new philosophy. Setting up +for an unsocial independence, this their hero of vanity refuses +the just price of common labour, as well as the tribute which +opulence owes to genius, and which when paid, honours the giver +and the receiver: and then he pleads his beggary as an excuse for +his crimes. He melts with tenderness for those only who touch +him by the remotest relation; and then, without one natural pang, +casts away as a sort of offal and excrement, the spawn of his +disgustful amours, and sends his children to the hospital of +foundlings. The bear loves, licks, and forms her young; but +bears are not philosophers."-E. + +(800) This was Lodge's "Illustrations of British History, +Biography, and Manners, in the Reigns of Henry the Eighth, Edward +the Sixth, Mary, Elizabeth and James the First;" a work which has +also been highly praised by Mr. Gifford, Sir Walter Scott, Sir +Egerton Brydges, Mr. Park, and others.-E. + + + +Letter 381 To The Miss Berrys. +Berkeley Square, June 2, 1791. (page 504) + +To the tune of the Cow with the crumpled Horn, etc. +"This is the note that nobody wrote." +" +This is the groom that carried the note that nobody wrote. + +"This is Ma'am Gunning, Who was so very cunning, to examine the +groom that carried the note that nobody wrote. + +"This is Ma'am Bowen, to whom it was owing, +that Miss Minify Gunning was so very cunning, to examine the +groom that carried the note that nobody wrote. + +"These are the Marquisses shy of the horn, who caused the maiden +all for-Lorn, to become on a sudden so tattered and torn, that +Miss Minify Gunning was so very cunning, to examine the groom, +etc. + +"These are the two Dukes, whose sharp rebukes made the two +Marquesses shy of the horn, and caused the maiden all for-Lorn, +etc. + +"This is the General somewhat too bold, whose head was so hot, +though his heart was so cold; who proclaimed himself single +before it was meet, and his wife and his daughter turned into the +street, to please the Dukes, whose sharp rebukes," etc. + +This is not at all new; I have heard it once or twice +imperfectly, but could not get a copy till now; and I think it +will divert you for a moment, though the heroines are as much +forgotten as Boadicea; nor have I heard of them since their +arrival at Dover. + +Well! I have seen Madame d'Albany who has not a ray of royalty +about her. She has good eyes and teeth; but I think can have had +no more beauty than remains, except youth. She is civil and +easy, but German and ordinary. Lady Ailesbury made a small +assemblage for her on Monday, and my curiosity is satisfied. Mr. +Conway and Lady A., Lord and Lady Frederic Campbell, and Mrs. E. +Hervey and Mrs. Hervey, breakfasted with me that morning at +Strawberry, at the desire of the latter, who had never been +there; and whose commendations were so promiscuous, that I saw +she did not at all understand the style of the place. The day +was northeasterly and cold, and wanting rain; and I was not sorry +to return into town. I hope in five months to like staying there +much better. Mrs. Damer, who returned in such Spanish health, +has already caught an English northeastern cold; with pain in all +her limbs, and a little fever, and yesterday was not above two +hours out of her bed. Her father came to me from her before +dinner, and left her better; and I shall go to her presently; +and, this not departing till to-morrow, I hope to give you a +still more favourable account. These two days may boldly assume +the name of June, without the courtesy of England. Such weather +makes me wish myself at Strawberry, whither I shall betake myself +on Saturday. + + + +505 Letter 382 +To The Miss Berrys. +Berkeley Square, June 8, 1791. + +Your No. 34, that was interrupted, and of which the last date +was of May 24th, I received on the 6th, and if I could find +fault, it would be in the length; for I do not approve of your +writing so much in hot weather, for, be it known to you ladies, +that from the first of the month, June is not more June at +Florence, My hay is crumbling away; and I have ordered it to be +cut, as a sure way of bringing rain. I have a selfish reason, +too, for remonstrating against long letters. I feel the season +advancing, when mine will be piteous short for what can I tell +you from Twickenham in the next three or four months'! Scandal +from Richmond and Hampton Court, or robberies at my own door? +The latter, indeed, are blown already. I went to Strawberry on +Saturday, to avoid the birthday crowd and squibs and crackers. +At six I drove to Lord Strafford's, where his goods are to be +sold by auction; his sister, Lady Anne,(801) intending to pull +down the house and rebuild it. I returned a quarter before +seven; and in the interim between my Gothic gate and Ashe's +nursery, a gentleman and gentlewoman, in a one-horse chair and +in the broad face of the sun, had been robbed by a single +highwayman, sans mask. Ashe's mother and sister stood and saw +it; but having no notion of a robbery at such an hour in the +high-road and before their men had left work, concluded it was +an acquaintance of the robber's. I suppose Lady Cecilia +Johnstone will not descend from her bedchamber to the +drawing-room without life-guard men. The Duke of Bedford(802) +eclipsed the whole birthday by his clothes, equipage, and +servants - six of the latter walked on' the side of the coach +to keep off the crowd-or to tempt it; for their liveries were +worth an argosie. The Prince *as gorgeous too - the latter is +to give Madame d'Albany a dinner. She has been introduced to +Mrs. Fitzherbert. You know I used to call Mrs. Cosway's(803) +concerts Charon's boat; now, methinks, London is so. I am glad +Mrs. C. is with you; she is pleasing-but surely it is odd to +drop a child and her husband and country, all in a breath! I am +glad you are disfranchised of the exiles. We have several, I +am told, hire; but I strictly confine myself to those I knew +formerly at Paris, and who all are quartered on Richmond Green. +I went to them on Sunday evening, but found them gone to Lord +Fitzwilliam's, the next house to Madame de Boufflers', to hear +his organ; whither I followed them, and returned with them. +The Comtesse Emilie played on her harp; then we all united at +loto. I went home at twelve, unrobbed; and Lord Fitzwilliam, +who asked much after you both, was to set out the next morning +for Dublin, though intending to stay there but four days, and +be back in three weeks. + +I am sorry you did not hear all Monsieur do Lally +Tollendal's(804) tragedy, of which I have had a good account. +I like his tribute to his father's memory.(805) Of French +politics you must be tired; and so am I. Nothing appears to me +to promise their chaos duration; consequently, I expect more +chaos, the sediment of which is commonly despotism. Poland +ought to make the French blush-but that, they are not apt to do +on any occasion. Let us return to Strawberry. The house of +Sebright breakfasted there with me on Monday; the daughter had +given me a drawing, and I owed her a civility. Thank you for +reminding me of falls: in one sense I am more liable to them +than when you left me, for I am sensibly much weaker since my +last fit; but that weakness makes me move much slower, and +depend more on assistance. In a word, there is no care I do +not take of myself: my heart is set on installing you at +Cliveden; and it will not be my fault if I do not preserve +myself till then. If another summer is added, it will be +happiness indeed--but I am not presumptuous, and count the days +only till November. I am glad you, on your parts, repose till +your journey commences, and go not into sultry crowded lodgings +at the Ascension. I was at Venice in summer, and thought +airing on stinking ditches pestilential, after enjoying the +delicious nights on the Ponte di Trinit`a at Florence, in a +linen night-gown and a straw hat, with improvisatori. and +music, and the coffee-houses open with ices--at least, such +were the customs fifty years ago,. + +The Duke of St. Albans has cut down all the brave old trees at +Hanworth, and consequently reduced his park to what it issued +from Hounslow-heath: nay, he has hired a meadow next to mine, +for the benefit of embarkation; and there lie all the good old +corpses of oaks, ashes, and chestnuts, directly before your +windows, and blocking up one of my views of the river! but so +impetuous is the rage for building, that his grace's timber +will, I trust, not annoy us long. There will soon be one +street from London to Brentford; ay, and from London to every +village ten miles round! Lord Camden has just let ground at +Kentish Town for building fourteen hundred houses--nor do I +wonder; London is, I am certain, much fuller than ever I saw +it. I have twice this spring been going to stop my coach in +Piccadilly, to inquire what was the matter, thinking there was +a mob--not at all; it was only passengers. Nor is there any +complaint of depopulation from the country: Bath shoots out +into new crescents, circuses, and squares every year: +Birmingham, Manchester, Hull, and Liverpool would serve ay King +in Europe for a capital, and would make the Empress of Russia's +mouth water. Of the war with Catherine Slay-Czar I hear not a +breath, and thence conjecture it is dozing into peace. + +Mr. Dundas has kissed hands for secretary of state; and Bishop +Barrington, of Salisbury, is transferred to Durham, which he +affected not to desire, having large estates by his wife in the +south-but from +the triple-mitre downwards, it is almost always true, what I +said some years ago, that "nolo episcopari is Latin for I +lie.-- Tell it not in Gath that I say so; for I am to dine +to-morrow at the Bishop of London's, at Fulham, with Hannah +Bonner, my imprime. This morning I went with Lysons the +Reverend to see Dulwich college, founded in 1619 by Alleyn, a +player, which I had never seen in my many days. e were +received by a smart divine, tr`es bien poudr`e, and with black +satin breeches--but they are giving new wings and red satin +breeches to the good old hostel too, and destroying a gallery +with a very rich ceiling; and nothing will remain of ancient +but the front, and an hundred mouldy portraits, among apostles, +sibyls, and Kings of England. On Sunday I shall settle at +Strawberry; and then wo betide you on post-days! I cannot make +news without straw. The Johnstones are going to Bath, for the +healths of both; so Richmond will be my only staple. Adieu, +all three! + +(801) Lady Anne Wentworth, married to the Right Honourable +Thomas Conolly. + +(802) Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford. He died at Woburn, in +March 1802, at the early age of thirty-one; upon which event, +Mr. Fox, in moving for a new writ for Tavistock, in the room of +his brother John, who succeeded to the dukedom, pronounced an +eloquent eulogium on the deceased-the only speech he could ever +be prevailed upon to revise for publication-E. + +(803) Maria Cosway, the wife of the eminent painter, and +herself distinguished for her proficience both in painting and +music. She was a native of Italy but of English parentage; and +being passionately fond of music, her soir`ees in Pall-Mall and +afterwards in Stratford-place, were attended by all the fashion +of the town. In consequence of ill-health, accompanied by her +brother, who had gained, as a student in painting, the +Academy's gold metal, she had left England for Italy; where she +remained about three years.-E + +(804) The celebrated Count Lally do Tollendal. In 1789, he was +one of the most eloquent members of the Constituent Assembly; +but disapproving of the principles that prevailed, he retired +into Switzerland, Gibbon, in a letter of the 15th of December +of that year, says of him, "Lally is an amiable man of the +world, and a poet: he passes the winter here; you know how much +I prefer a quiet select society to a crowd of names and titles: +what happy countries are England and Switzerland, if they know +and preserve their happiness!" Having returned to France in +1792, he was sent to the Abbaye; whence he escaped during the +massacres which took place in the prisons in September, and +effected his retreat to England, where he found an asylum in +the house of Lord Sheffield. On the restoration of the +Bourbons, he was created a peer of France, and died in 1830. +The subject of the tragedy above alluded to was the fall of the +Earl of Strafford.-E. + +(805) The unfortunate Count do Lally, governor of Pondicherry; +who, on the surrender of the place to the English in 1761, was +made prisoner of war, and sent to England. In the Chatham +Correspondence, there is a letter from him to Mr. Pitt, written +in English; in which he says, "When I shall have seen and heard +here of Mr. Pitt all I have already read of him, I shall always +remember I am his prisoner, and liberty to me, though a +Frenchman, is of an inestimable value; therefore, I earnestly +beg your interest with his Majesty to grant me leave to repair +to my native soil." The desired permission was granted; but no +sooner had he reached Paris, than he was thrown into the +Bastille, and after being confined several years, brought to +trial for treachery and found guilty. When his sentence was +pronounced, "the excess of his indignation," says Voltaire, " +was equal to his astonishment: he inveighed against his judges, +and, holding in his hand a pair of compasses, which he used for +tracing maps in his prison, he struck it against his heart; but +the blow was not sufficient to take away life; he was dragged +into a dung-cart, with a gag in his mouth, lest, being +conscious of his innocence, he should convince the Spectators +of the injustice of his fate." Madame du Deffand, in giving to +Walpole, on the 10th of January 1766, an account of this +horrible scene, having stated, that the populace "battait des +mains pendant l'ex`ecution," he returned her an answer, in a +high degree honourable to his moral feeling:--"Ah! Madame, +Madame, quelles horreurs me racontez-vous la! Qu'on ne dise +jamais que les Anglais sent durs et f`eroces. Veritablement ce +sent les Fran`cais qui le sent, Oui, oui, vous `etes des +sauvages, des Iroquois, vous autres. On a bien massacr`e des +gens chez nous, mais a-t-on jamais vu battre des Mains pendant +qu'on mettait `a mort un pauvre malheureux, un officier +general, qui avait langui pendant deux ans en prison? un homme +enfin si sensible `a l'honneur, qu'il n'avait pas voulu se +sauver! si touch`e de la disgrace qu'il chercha `a avaler les +grilles de sa prison plut`ot que de se voir expos`e `a +l'ignominie publique; et c'est exactement cette honn`ete pudeur +qui fait qu'on le traine dans un tombereau, et qu'on lui met un +baillon `a la bouche comme au dernier des sc`elerats. Mon +Dieu! que je suis aise d'avoir quitt`e Paris avant cette +horrible sc`ene! je me serais fait d`echirer, ou mettre `a la +Bastille."-E. + + + +Letter 383 To The Miss Berrys. + +Strawberry Hill, June 14, 1791.(page 508) + + +I pity you! what a dozen or fifteen uninteresting letters are +you +going to receive! for here I am, unlikely to have any thing to +tell you worth sending. You had better come back +incontinently-but pray do not prophesy any more; you have been +the death of our summer, and we are in close mourning for it in +coals and ashes. It froze hard last night: I went out for a +moment to look at my haymakers, and was starved. The contents +of +an English June are, hay and ice, orange-flowers and +rheumatisms! +I am now cowering over the fire. Mrs. Hobart had announced a +rural breakfast at Sans-Souci last Saturday; nothing being so +pastoral as a fat grandmother in a row of houses on Ham Common. +It rained early in the morning: she despatched postboys, for +want +of Cupids and zephyrs, to stop the nymphs and shepherds who +tend +their flocks in Pall-Mall and St. James's- street; but half of +them missed the couriers and arrived. Mrs. Montagu was more +splendid yesterday morning, and breakfasted seven hundred +persons +on opening her great room, and the room with the hangings of +feathers. The King and Queen had been with her last week. I +should like to have heard the orations she had prepared on the +occasion. I was neither City-mouse nor country-mouse. I did +dine at Fulham on Saturday with the Bishop of London: Mrs. +Boscawen, Mrs. Garrick, and Hannah More were there; and Dr. +Beattie, whom I had never seen. He is quiet, simple, and +cheerful, and pleased me. There ends my tale, this instant, +Tuesday! How shall I fill a couple of pages more by Friday +morning! Oh! ye ladies on the Common, and ye uncommon ladies in +London, have pity on a poor gazetteer, and supply me with +eclogues or royal panegyrics Moreover--or rather more under--I +have had no letter from you these ten days, though the east +wind +has been as constant as Lord Derby. I say not this in +reproach, +as you are so kindly punctual; but as it stints me from having +a +single paragraph to answer. I do not admire specific responses +to every article; but they are great resources on a dearth. + + +Madame de Boufflers is ill of a fever, and the Duchess de +Biron(806) goes next week to Switzerland:--mais qu'est que cela +vous fait? I must eke out this with a few passages that I think +will divert you, from the heaviest of all books, Mr. Malone's +Shakspeare, in ten thick octavos, with notes, that are an +extract +of all the opium that is spread through the works of all the +bad +playwrights of that age. Mercy on the poor gentleman's +patience! +Amongst his other indefatigable researches he has discovered +some +lists of effects in the custody of the property-man to the Lord +Admiral's company of players, in 1598. Of those effects he has +given eight pages-you shall be off for a few items; viz. "My +Lord Caffe's [Caiaphas's] gercheri [jerkin] and his hoose +[hose]; +one rocke, one tombe, one Hellemought [Hell-mouth], two +stepelles +and one chyme of belles, one chaine of Dragons, two coffines, +one +bulle's head, one vylter, one goste's crown, and one frame for +the heading of black Jone; one payer of stayers for Fayeton, +and +bowght a robe for to goo invisabell." The pair of stairs for +Phaeton reminds one of Hogarth's Strollers dressing in a barn, +where Cupid on a ladder is reaching Apollo's stockings, that +are +hanging to dry on the clouds; as the steeples do of a story in +L'Histoire du Th`eatre Fran`cois: Jodelet, who not only wrote +plays, but invented the decorations, was to exhibit of both +before Henry the Third. One scene was to represent a view of +the +sea, and Jodelet had bespoken two rochers; but not having time +to +rehearse, what did he behold enter on either side of the stage, +instead of two rochers, but two clochers! Who knows but my Lord +Admiral bought them? + + +Berkeley Square, Thursday, 16th. + + +I am come to town for one night, having promised to be at Mrs. +Buller's this evening with Mrs. Damer, and I believe your +friend, +Mrs. Cholmeley, whom I have seen two or three times lately and +like much. Three persons have called on me since I came, but +have not contributed a tittle of news to my journal. If I hear +nothing to-night, this must depart, empty as it is, to-morrow +morning, as I shall for Strawberry; I hope without finding a +new +mortification, as I did last time. Two companies had been to +see +my house last week; and one of the parties, as vulgar people +always see with the ends of their fingers, had broken off the +end +of my invaluable Eagle's bill, and to conceal their mischief, +had +pocketed the piece. It is true it had been restored at Rome, +and +my comfort is, that Mrs. Damer can repair the damage--but did +the +fools know that? It almost provokes one to shut up one's +house, +when obliging begets injury! + + +Friday noon. + + +This moment I receive your 35th, to which I have nothing to +answer, but that I believe Fox and Burke are not very cordial; +though I do not know whether there has been any formal +reconciliation or not. The Parliament is prorogued; and we +shall +hear no more of them, I suppose, for some months; nor have I +learnt any thing new, and am returning to Strawberry, and must +finish. + + +(806) Am`elie de Boufflers, wife of Armand-Louis de Gontaut, +Duc +do Biron, better known in England by the title of Duc de +Lauzan. +By a letter from Madame Necker to Gibbon, the Duchesse appears +to +have been at Lausanne in October; but in the following +September +, tempted," says Gibbon, " by some faint, and I fear, +fallacious +hope Of clemency to the women", she was induced to revisit +France, and perished by the guillotine, in one of Robespierre's +bloody proscriptions. See vol. v. pp. 133, 400. The Duc was +entrusted with the command of the army of the republic in La +Vend`ee; but, being reproached with having suffered Niort to be +besieged and with not having seconded westermann, he was +denounced at the bar of the Convention, delivered over to the +revolutionary tribunal, and condemned to death. He suffered on +the 31st of December 1793, and is words upon the scaffold are +said to have been, "I have been false to my God, my order, and +my +king: I die full of faith and repentance." See his "M`emoires, +" +in two volumes 8vo. published in 1802.-E. + + + +Letter 384To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, June 23, 1791. (page 510) + +Wo is me! I have not an atom of news to send you, but that the +second edition of Mother Hubbard's Tale was again spoiled on +Saturday last by the rain; yet she had an ample assemblage of +company from London and the neighbourhood. The late Queen of +France, Madame du Barry, was there; and the late Queen of +England, Madame d'Albany, was not. The former, they say, is as +much altered as her kingdom, and does not retain a trace of her +former powers. I saw her on her throne in the chapel of +Versailles;(807) and, though then pleasing in face and person, I +thought her un peu pass`e. What shall I tell you more? that Lord +Hawkesbury is added to the cabinet-council--que vous importe? and +that Dr. Robertson has published a Disquisition into the Trade of +the Anchellts with India;(808) a sensible work--but that will be +no news to you till you return. It was a peddling trade in those +days. They now and then picked up an elephant's tooth, or a +nutmeg, or one pearl, that served Venus for a pair of pendants, +when Antony had toasted Cleopatra in a bumper of its fellow; +which shows that a couple was imported:-but. alack! the Romans +were so ignorant, that waiters from the Tres Tabernoe, in St. +Apollo's-street, did not carry home sacks of diamonds enough to +pave the Capitol--I hate exaggerations, and therefore I do not +say, to pave the Appian Way. One author, I think, does say, that +the wife of Fabius Pictor, whom he sold to a proconsul, did +present Livia(809) with an ivory bed, inlaid with Indian gold; +but, as Dr. Robertson does not mention it, to be sure he does not +believe the fact well authenticated. + +It is an anxious moment with the poor French here: a strong +notion is spread, that the Prince of Cond`e will soon make some +attempt; and the National Assembly, by their pompous blustering +seem to dread it. Perhaps the moment is yet too early, till +anarchy is got to a greater head; but as to the duration of the +present revolution, I no more expect it, than I do the millennium +before Christmas. Had the revolutionists had the sense and +moderation of our ancestors, or of the present Poles, they might +have delivered and blessed their country: but violence, +injustice, and savage cruelty, tutored by inexperienced pedantry, +produce offspring exactly resembling their parents, or turn their +enemies into similar demons. Barbarity will be copied by +revenge. + +Lord Fitzwilliam has flown to Dublin and back. He returned to +Richmond on the fourteenth day from his departure, and the next +morning set out for France: no courier can do more. In my last, +the description of June for orange-flowers, pray read roses: the +east winds have starved all the former; but the latter, having +been settled here before the wars of York and Lancaster, are +naturalized to the climate, and reek not whether June arrives in +summer or winter. They blow by their own old-style almanacks. +Madame d'Albany might have found plenty of white ones on her own +tenth of June; but, on that very day, she chose to go to see the +King in the House of Lords, with the crown on his head, +proroguing the Parliament.(810) What an odd rencontre! Was it +philosophy or insensibility? I believe it is certain that her +husband was in Westminster-hall at the coronation. + +The patriarchess of the Methodists, Lady Huntingdon, is dead. +Now she and Whitfield are gone, the sect will probably decline: a +second crop of apostles seldom acquire the influence of the +founders. To-day's paper declares upon its say-so, that Mr. +Fawkener is at hand, with Catherine Slay-Czar's(811) acquiescence +to our terms; but I have not entire faith in a precursor on such +an occasion, and from Holland too. It looks more like a courier +to the stocks; and yet I am in little expectation of a war, as I +believe we are boldly determined to remain at peace. And now my +pen is quite dry-you are quite sure not from laziness, but from +the season of the year, which is very anti-correspondent. Adieu! + +(807) See letter to George Montagu, Esq., Sept. 17, 1769, vol.3, +letter 371. + +(808) This work, which was the last labour of the historian, was +suggested by the perusal of Major Rennell's "Memoir of a Map of +Hindostan." In sending a copy of it to Gibbon, he says "No man +had formed a more decided resolution of retreating early from +public view' and of spending the eve of life in the tranquillity +of professional and domestic occupations; but, directly in the +face of that purpose, I step forth with a new work, when just on +the brink of threescore and ten. My book has met with a +reception beyond what the spe lentus, pavidusque futuri, dared to +expect. I find, however, like other parents, that I have a +partial fondness for this child of my old age, and cannot set my +heart quite at rest, until I know your opinion of it."-E. + +(809) This alludes to the stories told at the time, of an ivory +bed, inlaid with gold, having been presented to Queen Charlotte +by Mrs. Hastings, the wife of the governor-general of India. + +(810) " The Bishop of London' " writes Hannah More, " carried me +to hear the King make his speech in the House of Lords. As it +was quite new to me, I was very well entertained; but the thing +that was most amusing was to see, among the ladies, the Princess +of Stolberg, Countess of Albany, wife to the Pretender, sitting +just at the foot of that throne, which she might once have +expected to have mounted; and what diverted the party, when I put +them in mind of it, was, that it happened to be the 10th of June, +the Pretender's birthday. I have the honour to be very much like +her; and this opinion was confirmed yesterday, when we met +again."-Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 343.-E. + +(811) Walpole rarely makes mention of Catherine without an +allusion to the murder of the Czar Peter. in a letter written to +Madame du Deffand, in 1769 he thus indignantly denounce +Voltaire's applauses of the Empress:--"Voltaire me fait horreur +Avec sa Caterine: le beau sujet de badinage que l'assassinat d'un +mari, et l'usurpateur de son tr`one! Il n'est pas mal, dit-il, +qu'on ait une faute r`eparer: eh! comment reparer un meurtre? +Est-ce en retenant des po`etes `a ses gages? en payant des +historiens mercenaires, et en soudoyant des philosophes ridicules +`a mille lieues dc son pays? Ce sent ces `ames viles qui chantent +un Auguste, et se taisent sur ses proscriptions."-E. + + + +Letter 385 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, Tuesday night, July 12, 1791. (page 512) + +I had had no letter from you for ten days, I suppose from west +winds; but did receive one this morning, which had been three +weeks on the road: and a charming one it was. Mr. Batt,--who +dined with me Yesterday, and stayed till after breakfast +to-day,--being here, I read part of It to him; and he was as much +delighted as I was with your happy quotation of incedit Regina. +If I could spare so much room, I might fill this paper with all +he said of you both, and with all the friendly kind things he +begged me to say to both from him. Last night I read to him' +certain Reminiscences; and this morning he slipped from me, and +walked to Cliveden, and hopes to see it again much more +agreeably. I hope so too, and that I shall be with him. + +I wish there were not so many f`etes at Florence; they are worse +for you both than an Italian sultriness: but, if you do go to +them, I am glad you have More northern weather. News I have +none, but that Calonne arrived in London on Sunday: you may be +sure I do not know for what. In a word, I have no more opinion +of his judgment than of his integrity. Now I must say a syllable +about myself; but don't be alarmed! It is not the gout; it is +worse: it is the rheumatism, which I have had in my shoulder ever +since it attended the gout last December. It was almost gone +till last Sunday, when, the Bishop of London preaching a charity +sermon in our church, -whither I very. very seldom venture to +hobble, I would go to hear him; both out of civility, and as I am +very intimate with him. The church was crammed; and, though it +rained, every window was open. However, at night I went to bed; +but at two I waked with such exquisite pain in my, rheumatic +right shoulder, that I think I scarce ever felt greater torture +from the gout. + + + +Letter 386 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, July 26, 1791. (page 512) + +Ten months are gone of the longest year that ever was born--a +baker's year, for it has thirteen months to the dozen! As our +letters are so long interchanging, it is not beginning too early +to desire You will think of settling the stages to which I must +direct to you in your route. Nay, I don't know whether it is not +already too late: I am sure it will be, if I am to stay for an +answer to this; but I hope you will have thought on it before you +receive this. I am so much recovered as to have been abroad. I +cannot say my arm is glib yet; but, if I waited for the total +departure of' the rheumatism, I might stay at home till the +national debt is paid. My fair writing is a proof of my +lameness: I labour as if I were engraving; and drop no words, as +I do in my ordinary hasty scribbling. + +Lady Cecilia tells me that her nephew, Mr. West,(812) who was +with you at Pisa, declares he is in love with you both; so I am +not singular. You two may like to hear this, though no novelty +to you; but it will not satisfy Mr. Berry, who will be impatient +for news from Birmingham: but there are no more, nor any-whence +else. There has not been another riot in any of the three +kingdoms. The villain Paine came over for the Crown and +Anchor;(813) but, finding that his pamphlet had not set a straw +on fire, and that the 14th of July was as little in fashion as +the ancient gunpowder-plot, he dined at another tavern with a few +quaking conspirators; and probably is returning to Paris, where +he is engaged in a controversy with the Abb`e Sieyes, about the +plus or minus of rebellion. The rioters in Worcestershire, whom +I mentioned in my last, were not a detachment from Birmingham, +but volunteer incendiaries from the capital; who went, according +to the rights of men, with the mere view of plunder, and +threatened gentlemen to burn their houses, if not ransomed. +Eleven of these disciples of Paine are in custody; and Mr. Merry, +Mrs. Barbauld, and Miss Helen Williams will probably have +subjects for elegies. Deborah and Jael, I believe, were invited +to the Crown and Anchor, and had let their nails grow +accordingly: but, somehow or other, no poissonni`eres were there, +and the two prophetesses had no opportunity that day of +exercising their talents or talons. Their French allies, cock +and hen, have a fairer field open; and the Jacobins, I think, +will soon drive the National Assembly to be better royalists than +ever they were, in selfdefence. + +You have indeed surprised me by your account of the strange +credulity of poor King Louis's escape in safety! In these +villages we heard of his flight late in the evening, and, the +very next morning, of his being retaken.(814) Much as he, at +least the Queen, has suffered, I am persuaded the adventure has +hastened general confusion, and will increase the royal party; +though perhaps their Majesties, for their personal safeties, had +better have awaited the natural progress of anarchy. The +enormous deficiencies of money, and the total insubordination of +the army, both apparent and uncontradicted, from the reports made +to the National Assembly, show what is Coming. Into what such a +chaos will Subside, it would be silly to attempt to guess. +Perhaps it is not wiser in the exiles to expect to live to see a +resettlement in their favour. One thing I have for these two +years thought probable to arrive--a division, at least, a +dismemberment of France. Despotism could no longer govern so +unwieldy a machine; a republic would be still less likely to hold +it together. If foreign powers should interfere, they will take +care to pay themselves with what is `a leur biensance; and that, +in reality, would be serving France too. So much for my +speculations! and they have never varied. We are so far from +intending to new-model our government and dismiss the Royal +Family, annihilate the peerage, cashier the hierarchy, and lay +open the land to the first occupier, as Dr. Priestley, and Tom +Paine, and the Revolution Club humbly proposed, that we are even +encouraging the breed of princes. It is generally believed that +the Duke of York is going to marry the Princess of Prussia, the +King's daughter by his first wife, and his favourite child. I do +not affirm it; but many others do.(815) + +Thursday night, late. + +Lady Di. has told me an extraordinary fact. Catherine Slay-Czar +sent for Mr. Fawkener(816) and desired he will order for her a +bust of Charles Fox; and she will place it between Demosthenes +and Cicero (pedantry she learnt from her French authors, and +which our schoolboys would be above using); for his eloquence has +saved two great nations from a war--by his opposition to it, +s'entend: so the peace is no doubt made. She could not have +addressed her compliment worse than to Mr. Fawkener, sent by Mr. +Pitt, and therefore so addressed; and who of all men does not +love Mr. Fox, and Mr. Fox who has no vainglory, will not care a +straw for the flattery, and will understand it too. Good night! + +(812) The Honourable Septimus West, uncle of the present Earl of +Delawarr. He died of consumption in October 1793. + +(813) The great dinner at the Crown and Anchor tavern, in +celebration of the anniversary of the French revolution.-E. + +(814) The flight of the Royal Family of France to, and return +from, Varennes. + +(815) The marriage of the Duke of York with Frederica Charlotte +Ulrica Catherine, eldest daughter of the King of Prussia, was +solemnized, first in Prussia, on the 29th of September, and again +in England, on the 23d of November, 1791. For Walpole's account +of her Royal Highness's visit to Strawberry Hill, see his letter +to the Miss Berrys of the 25th of September, 1793.-E. + +(816. Mr. Fawkener was the son of Sir Everard Fawkener, He was +one of the principal clerks of the privy council, and had been +sent on a secret mission to Russia.-E. + + + +Letter 387 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, August 17, 1791. (page 514) + +No letter from Florence this post, though I am wishing for one +every day! The illness of a friend is bad, but is augmented by +distance. Your letters say you are quite recovered; but the +farther you are from me, the oftener I want to hear that recovery +repeated: and any delay in hearing revives my apprehensions of a +return of your fever. I am embarrassed, too, about your plan. +It grows near to the time you Proposed beginning your journey. I +do not write with any view to hastening that, which I trust will +entirely depend on the state of your health and strength; but I +am impatient to know your intentions: in short, I feel that, from +this time to your arrival, my letters will grow very tiresome. I +have heard to-day, that Lord and Lady Sheffield, who went to +visit Mr. Gibbon at Lausanne, met with great trouble and +impertinence at almost every post in France. in Switzerland +there is a furious spirit of democracy, or demonocracy. They +made great rejoicings on the recapture of the King of France. +Oh! why did you leave England in such a turbulent era! When will +you sit down on the quiet banks of the Thames? + +Wednesday night. + +Since I began my letter, I have received yours of the 2d, two +days later than Usual; and a most comfortable one it is. My +belief and my faith are now of the same religion. I do believe +you quite recovered. You, in the mean time, are talking of my +rheumatism-quite an old story. Not that it is gone, though the +pain is. The lameness in my shoulder remains, and I am writing +on my lap: but the complaint is put upon the establishment; like +old servants, that are of no use, fill up the place of those that +could do something, and yet still remain in the house. + +I know nothing new, public or private. that is worth telling. +The stocks are transported with the pacification with Russia, and +do not care for what it has cost to bully the Empress to no +purpose; and say, we can afford it. Nor can Paine and Priestley +persuade them that France is much happier than we are, by having +ruined itself. The poor French here are in hourly expectation of +as rapid a counterrevolution as what happened two years ago. +Have you seen the King of Sweden's letter to his minister, +enjoining him to look dismal, and to take care not to be knocked +on the head for so doing? It deserves to be framed with M. de +Bouill`e's bravado.(817) You say you will write me longer letters +when you know I am well. Your recovery has quite the contrary +effect on me: I could scarce restrain my pen while I had +apprehensions about you; now you are well, the goosequill has not +a word to say. One would think it had belonged to a physician. +I shall fill my vacuum with some lines that General Conway has +sent me, written by I know not whom, on Mrs. Harte, Sir William +Hamilton's pantomime mistress, or wife, who acts all the antique +statues in an Indian shawl. I have not seen her yet, so am no +judge; but people are mad about her wonderful expression, which I +do not conceive; so few antique statues having any expression at +all, nor being designed to have it. The Apollo has the symptoms +of dignified anger:(818) the Laocoon and his sons, and Niobe and +her family,(819) are all expression;' and a few more: but what do +the Venuses, Floras, Hercules, and a thousand others tell, but +the magic art of the sculptor, and their own graces and +proportions? + +I have been making up some pills of patience, to be taken +occasionally, when you have begun your journey, and I do not +receive your letters regularly; which may happen when you are .on +the road. I recommend you to St. James of Compost-antimony, to +whom St. Luke was an ignorant quack. Adieu! + +(817) "The Marquis de Bouill`e, in order to draw upon himself the +indignation of the Assembly, addressed to it a letter, which +might be called mad, but for the generous motive which dictated +it. He avowed himself the sole author of the King's journey, +though, on the contrary, he had opposed it. He declared, in the +name of the Sovereign, that Paris should be responsible for the +safety of the Royal Family, and that the slightest injury offered +to them should be signally avenged. The Assembly winked at this +generous bravado, and threw the whole blame on Bouill`e; who had +nothing to fear, for he was already abroad." Thiers, vol. i. p. +197.-E. + +(818) "In his eye +And nostril beautiful disdain, and might +And majesty, flash their full lightnings by, +Developing in that one glance the Deity." Byron.-E. + +(819) "Go see +Laocoon's torture dignifying pain-- +A father's love and mortal's agony +With an immortal's patience blending:--Vain +The struggle: vain against the coiling strain +And gripe, and deepening of the dragon's grasp, +The old man's clench, the long envenom'd chain +Rivets the living links,--the enormous asp +Enforces pang on pang, and stifles gasp on gasp." Ibid.-E. + + + +Letter 388 To The Miss Berrys. +Berkeley Square, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 1791. (page 516) + +I am come to town to meet Mr. Conway and Lady Ailesbury; and, as +I have no letter from you yet to answer, I will tell you how +agreeably I have passed the last three days; though they might +have been improved had you shared them, as I wished, and as I +sometimes do wish. On Saturday evening I was at the Duke of +Queensberry's (at Richmond, s'entend) with a small company: and +there were Sir William Hamilton and Mrs. Harte; who, on the 3d of +next month, previous to their departure, is to be made Madame +l'Envoy`ee `a Naples, the Neapolitan Queen having promised to +receive her in that quality. Here she cannot be presented, where +only such over-virtuous wives as the Duchess of Kingston and Mrs. +Hastings--who could go with a husband in each hand--are admitted. +Why the Margravine of Anspach, with the same pretensions, was +not, I do not understand; perhaps she did not attempt it. But I +forgot to retract, and make amende honourable to Mrs. Harte. I +had only heard of her attitudes; and those, in dumb show, I have +not yet seen. Oh! but she sings admirably; has a very fine, +strong voice: is an excellent buffa, and an astonishing +tragedian. She sung Nina in the highest perfection; and there +her attitudes were a whole theatre of grace and various +expressions. + +The next evening I was again at Queensberry-house, where the +Comtesse Emilie de Boufflers played on her harp, and the +Princesse di Castelcigala, the Neapolitan minister's wife, danced +one of her country dances, with castanets, very prettily, with +her husband. Madame du Barry was there too, and I had a good +deal of frank conversation with her about Monsieur de Choiseul; +having been at Paris at the end of his reign and the beginning of +hers, and of which I knew so much by my intimacy with the +Duchesse de Choiseul. + +On Monday was the boat-race. I was in the great room at the +Castle, with the Duke of Clarence, Lady Di., Lord Robert +Spencer,(820) and the House of Bouverie(821) to see the boats +start from the bridge to Thistleworth, and back to a tent erected +on Lord Dysart's meadow, just before Lady Di.'s windows; whither +we went to see them arrive, and where we had breakfast. For the +second heat, I sat in my coach on the bridge; and did not stay +for the third. The day had been coined on purpose, with my +favourite southeast wind. The scene, both up the river and down, +was what only Richmond upon earth can exhibit. The crowds on +those green velvet meadows and on the shores, the yachts, barges, +pleasure and small boats, and the windows and gardens lined with +spectators, were so delightful, that when I came home from that +vivid show, I thought Strawberry looked as dull and solitary as a +hermitage. At night there was a ball at the Castle, and +illuminations, with the Duke's cipher, etc. in coloured lamps, +as were the houses of his Royal Highness's tradesmen. I went +again in the evening to the French ladies on the Green, where +there was a bonfire; but, you may believe, not to the ball. + +Well! but you, who have had a fever with f`etes, had rather hear +the history of the new soi-disante Margravine. She has been in +England with her foolish Prince, and not only notified their +marriage to the Earl,(822) her brother, who did not receive it +propitiously, but his Highness informed his lordship by a letter, +that they have an usage , in his country of taking a wife with +the left hand; that he had' espoused his lordship's sister in +that manner; and intends, as soon as she shall be a widow,(823) +to marry her with his right hand also. The Earl replied, that he +knew she was married to an English peer, a most respectable man, +and can know nothing of her marrying any other man; and so they +are gone to Lisbon. Adieu! + +(820) Brother to Lady Diana Beauclerc. + +(821) The family of the Hon. Edward Bouverie, brother to the Earl +of Radnor. + +(822) Of Berkeley. + +(823) Lady Craven became a widow in the following month, and was +married to the Margrave of Anspach in October. See ante, p. 387, +letter 305. + + + +Letter 389 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 11, 1791. (page 517) + +Though I am delighted to know, that of thirteen doleful months +but two remain, yet how full of anxiety will they be! You set out +in still hot weather, and will taste very cold before you arrive! +Accidents, inns, roads, mountains, and the sea, are all in my +map!- but I hope no slopes to be run down, no f`etes for a new +Grand Duke. I should dread your meeting armies, if I had much +faith in the counter-revolution said to be on the anvil. The +French ladies in my vicinage (a, word of the late Lord Chatham's +coin) are all hen-a-hoop on the expectation of a grand alliance +formed for that purpose, and I believe think they shall be at +Paris before you are in England; but I trust one is more certain +than the other. That folly and confusion increase in France +every hour, I have no doubt, and absurdity and contradictions as +rapidly. Their constitution, which they had voted should be +immortal and unchangeable,-though they deny that any thing +antecedent to themselves ought to have been so,-they are now of +opinion must be revised at the commencement of next century; and +they are agitating a third constitution, before they have thought +of a second, or finished the first! Bravo! In short, Louis Onze +could not have laid deeper foundations for despotism than these +levellers, who have rendered the name of liberty odious--the +surest way of destroying the dear essence! + +I have no news for you, but a sudden match patched up for Lord +Blandford, with a little more art than was employed by the fair +Gunnilda. It is with Lady Susan Stewart, Lord Galloway's +daughter, contrived by and at the house of her relation and Lord +Blandford's friend, Sir Henry Dashwood ; and it is to be so +instantly, that her grace, his mother, will scarce have time to +forbid the bans.(824) + +We have got a codicil to summer, that is as delightful as, I +believe, the seasons in the Fortunate Islands. It is pity it +lasts but till seven in the evening, and then one remains with a +black chimney for five hours. I wish the sun was not so +fashionable as never to come into the country till autumn and the +shooting season; as if Niobe's children were not hatched and +fledged before the first of September. Apropos, Sir William +Hamilton has actually married his Gallery of Statues, and they +are set out on their return to Naples. I am sorry I did not see +her attitudes, which Lady Di. (a tolerable judge!) prefers to any +thing she ever saw: still I do not much care. I have at this +moment a commercial treaty with Italy, and hope in two months to +be a greater gainer by the exchange; and I shall not be SO +generous as Sir William, and exhibit my wives in pantomime to the +public. 'Tis well I am to have the originals again; for that +wicked swindler, Miss Foldson, has not yet given up their +portraits. + +The newspapers are obliged to live Upon the diary of the King's +motions at Weymouth. Oh! I had forgot. Lord Cornwallis has +taken Bangalore by storm, promises Seringapatam, and Tippoo Saib +has sued for peace. Diamonds will be as plenty as potatoes, and +gold is as common as copper-money in Sweden. I was told last +night, that a director of the Bank affirms, that two millions +five hundred thousand pounds, in specie, have already been +remitted or brought over hither from France since their +revolution. + +(824) The marriage took place four days after the date of this +letter.-E. + + + +Letter 390 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Friday night late, Sept. 16, 1791. (page 519) + +As I am constantly thinking of you two, I am as constantly +writing to you, when I have a vacant quarter of an hour. +Yesterday was red-lettered in the almanacks of Strawberry and +Cliveden, Supposing you to set out towards them, as you intended; +the sun shone all day, and the moon at night, and all nature, for +three miles round, looked gay. Indeed, we have had nine or ten +days of such warmth and serenity, (here called heat,) as I scarce +remember when the year begins to have gray, or rather yellow +hairs. All windows have been flung up again and fans ventilated; +and it is true that hay-carts have been transporting haycocks, +from a second crop, all the morning from Sir Francis Basset's +island opposite to my windows. The setting sun and the long +autumnal shades enriched the landscape to a Claude Lorrain. +Guess whether I hoped to see such a scene next year: if I do not, +may you! at least, it will make you talk of me! The gorgeous +season' and poor partridges. I hear, have emptied London +entirely, and yet Drury-lane is removed to the Opera-house. Do +you know that Mrs. Jordan is acknowledged to be Mrs. Ford, and +Miss Brunton(825) Mrs. Merry, but neither quits the stage? The +latter's captain, I think, might quit his poetic profession, +without any loss to the public. My gazettes will have kept you +so much au courant, that you will be as ready for any +conversation at your return, as if you had only been at a +watering-place. In short, -a votre intention, and to make my +letters as welcome as I can, I listen to and bring home a +thousand things, which otherwise I should not know I heard. + +Lord Buchan is screwing out a little ephemeral fame from +instituting a jubilee for Thomson.(826) I fear I shall not make +my court to Mr. Berry, by owning I would not give this last +week's fine weather for all the four Seasons in blank verse. +There is more nature in L'Allegro and Penseroso, than in all the +laboured imitations Of Milton. What is there in Thomson of +original? + +Berkeley Square, Monday night, 19th. + +You have alarmed me exceedingly, by talking of returning through +France, against which I thought myself quite secure, or I should +not have pressed you to stir, yet. I have been making all the +inquiries I could amongst the foreign ministers at Richmond, and +I cannot find any belief of' the march of armies towards France. +Nay, the Comte d'Artois is said to be gone to PetersbUrgh; and he +must bring back forces in a balloon, if he can be time enough to +interrupt your passage through Flanders. One thing I must +premise, if, which I deprecate, You should set foot in France; I +beg you to burn, and not to bring a scrap of paper with you. +Mere travelling ladies as young as you, I know have been stopped +and rifled, and detained in France to have their papers examined; +and one was rudely treated, because the name of a French lady of +her acquaintance was mentioned in a private letter to her, though +in no political light. Calais is one of the worst places you can +pass; for, as they suspect money being remitted through that town +to England, the search and delays there are extremely strict and +rigorous. The pleasure of seeing you would be bought infinitely +too dear by your meeting with any disturbance; as my impatience +for your setting out is already severely punished by the fright +you have given me. One charge I can wipe off; but it were the +least of my faults. I never thought of your settling at Cliveden +in November, if your house in town is free. All my wish was, +that you would come for a night to Strawberry, and that the next +day I might put you in possession of Cliveden. I did not think +of engrossing you from all your friends, who must wish to embrace +you at your return. + +Tuesday. + +I am told that on the King's acceptance of the constitution, +there is a general amnesty published, and passports taken off. +If this is true, the passage through France, for mere foreigners +and strangers, may be easier and safer; but be assured, of all, I +would not embarrass your journey unnecessarily; but, for Heaven's +sake! be well informed. I advise nothing: I dread every thing +where your safeties are in question, and I hope Mr. Berry is as +timorous as I am. My very contradictions prove the anxiety of my +mind, or I should not torment those I love so much; but how not +love those who sacrifice so much for me, and who, I hope, forgive +all my unreasonable inconsistencies. Adieu! adieu! + +(825) An actress of considerable talent and personal attractions. +Her sister, also a popular actress, was married, in 1807, to the +Earl of Craven.-E. + +(826) The jubilee took place on the 22d of September, at +Ednam-hill. On crowning the first edition of "The Seasons" with +a wreath of bays, Lord Buchan delivered an eulogy on the poet, +containing the following singular passage:--"I think myself happy +to have this day the honour of endeavouring to do honour to the +memory of Thomson, which has been profanely touched by the rude +hand of Samuel Johnson: whose fame and reputation indicate the +decline of taste in a country that, after having produced an +Alfred, a Wallace, a Bacon, a Napier, a Newton, a Buchanan, a +Milton, a Hampden, a Fletcher, and a Thomson, can submit to be +bullied by an overbearing pedant."-E. + + + +Letter 391 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 25, 1791. (page 520) + +How I love to see My numeros increase.(827) I trust they will +not reach sixty! in short, I try every nostrum to make absence +seem shorter; and yet, with all my conjuration, I doubt the next +five or six weeks will, like the harvest-moon, appear of a +greater magnitude than all the moons of the year, its +predecessors. I wish its successor, the hunter's moon, could +seem less in proportion; but, on the contrary! I hate travelling, +and roads. and inns myself: while you are on your way, I shall +fancy, like Don Quixote, that every inn is the castle of some +necromancer, and every windmill a giant; and these will be my +smallest terrors. + +Whether this will meet or follow you, I know not. Yours of the +5th of this month arrived yesterday, but could not direct me +beyond Basle. I must, then, remain still 11 in ignorance whether +you will take the German or French route. It is now, I think, +certain that there will no attempt against France be made this +year. Still I trust that you will not decide till you are +assured that you may come through France without trouble or +molestation; and I still prefer Germany, though it will protract +your absence. + +I am sorry you were disappointed of going to Valombroso. Milton +has made every body wish to have seen it; which is my wish, for +though I was thirteen months at Florence (at twice ), I never did +see it. In fact, I was so tired of seeing when I was abroad, +that I have several of these pieces of repentance on my +conscience, when they come into my head; and yet I saw too much +for the quantity left such a confusion in my head, that I do not +remember a quarter clearly. Pictures, statues, and buildings +were always so much my passion, that, for the time, I surfeited +myself; especially as one is carried to see a vast deal that is +not worth seeing. They who are industrious and correct, and wish +to forget nothing, should go to Greece, where there is nothing +left to be seen, but that ugly pigeon-house, the Temple of the +Winds, that fly-cage, Demosthenes's lanthorn, and one or two +fragments of a portico, or a piece of a column crushed into a mud +wall; and with such a morsel, and many quotations, a true classic +antiquary can compose a whole folio, and call it Ionian +Antiquities!(828) Such gentry do better still when they journey +to Egypt to visit the pyramids, which are of a form which one +think nobody could conceive without seeing, though their form is +all that is to be seen; for it seems that even prints and +measures do not help one to an idea of magnitude: indeed, the +measures do not; for no two travellers have agreed on the +measures. In that scientific country, too, you may guess that +such or such a vanished city stood within five or ten miles of +such a parcel of land; and when you have conjectured in vain, at +what some rude birds, or rounds or squares, on a piece of an old +stone may have signified, you may amuse your readers with an +account of the rise of the Nile, some feats of the-Mamelukes, and +finish your work with doleful tales of the robberies of the wild +Arabs. One benefit does arise from travelling: it cures one of +liking what is worth seeing especially if what you have seen is +bigger than what you do see. Thus, Mr. Gilpin, having visited +all the lakes, could find no beauty in Richmond-hill. If he +would look through Mr. Herschell's telescope at the profusion of +worlds, perhaps he would find out that Mount Atlas is an +ant-hill; and that the sublime and beautiful may exist +separately. + +(827) Mr. Walpole numbered all the letters written by him to the +Miss Berrys during their residence abroad.-E. + +(828) The first volume of "Ionian Antiquities," in imperial folio +edited by R. Chandler, N. Revett, and W. Pais, was published in +1769; a second, edited by the Society of Dilettanti, appeared in +1797.-E. + + + +Letter 392 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Sept. 27, 1791. (page 522) + +Your letter was most welcome, as yours always are; and I answer +it immediately, though our post comes in so late that this will +not go away till to-morrow. Nay, I write, though I shall see you +on Sunday, and have not a tittle to tell you. I lead so insipid +a life, that, though I am content with it, it can furnish me with +nothing but repetitions. I scarce ever stir from home in a +morning; and most evenings go and play at loto with the French at +Richmond, where I am heartily tired of hearing of nothing but +their absurd countrymen, -absurd, both democrates and +aristocrates. Calonne sends them gross lies, that raise their +hopes to the skies - and in two days they hear of nothing but +horrors and disappointments; and the poor souls! they are in +despair. I can say nothing to comfort them, but what I firmly +believe, which is, total anarchy must come on rapidly. Nobody +pays the taxes that are laid; and which, intended to produce +eighty millions a month, do not bring in six. The new Assembly +will fall on the old,(829) probably plunder the richest, and +certainly disapprove of much they have done; for can eight +hundred new ignorants approve of what has been done by twelve +hundred almost as Ignorant, and who were far from half agreeing? +And then their immortal constitution (which, besides, is to be +mightily mended nine years hence) will die before it has cut any +of its teeth but its grinders. The exiles are enraged at their +poor King for saving his own life by a forced acceptance:(830) +and yet I know no obligation he has to his noblesse, who all ran +away to save their own lives; not a gentleman, but the two poor +gendarmes at Versailles, having lost their lives in his defence. +I suppose La Fayette, Barnave,(831) the Lameths, etc. will run +away too,(832) when the new tinkers and cobblers, of whom the +present elect are and will be composed, proceed on the levelling +system taught them by their predecessors, who., like other +levellers, have taken good care of themselves, Good Dr. +Priestley's friend, good Monsieur Condorcet, has got a place in +the treasury of one thousand pounds a year:-ex uno disce omnes! +And thus a set of rascals, who might, with temper and discretion, +have obtained a very wholesome Constitution, Witness Poland! have +committed infinite mischief, infinite cruelty, infinite +injustice, and left a shocking precedent against liberty, unless +the Poles are as much admired and imitated as the French ought to +be detested. I do not believe the Emperor will stir yet; he, or +his ministers, must see that it is the interest of Germany to let +France destroy itself. His interference yet might unite and +consolidate, at least check further confusion and though I rather +think that twenty thousand men might march from one end of France +to the other, as, though the officers often rallied, French +soldiers never were stout; yet, having no officers, no +discipline, no subordination, little resistance might be +expected. Yet the enthusiasm that has been spread might turn +into courage. Still it were better for Caesar to wait. Quarrels +amongst themselves will dissipate enthusiasm; and, if they have +no foreign enemy, they will soon have spirit enough to turn their +swords against one another, and what enthusiasm remains will soon +be converted into the inveteracy of faction. This is +speculation, not prophecy; I do not pretend to guess what will +happen: I do think I know what will not; I mean, the system of +experiments that they call a constitution cannot last. +Marvellous indeed would it be, if a set of military noble lads, +pedantic academicians, curates of villages, and country +advocates, could in two years, amidst the utmost confusion and +altercation amongst themselves, dictated to or thwarted by +obstinate clubs of various factions, have achieved what the +wisdom of all ages and all nations has never been able to +compose--a system of government that would set four-and-twenty +millions of people free, and contain them within any bounds! +This, too, without one great man amongst them. If they had had, +as Mirabeau seemed to promise to be, but as we know that he was, +too, a consummate villain, there would soon have been an end of +their vision of liberty. And so there will be still, unless, +after a civil war, they split into small kingdoms or +commonwealths. A little nation may be free; for it can be upon +its guard. Millions cannot be so; because, the greater number of +men that are one people, the more vices, the more abuses there +are, that will either require or furnish pretexts for restraints; +and if vices are the mother of laws, the execution of laws is the +father of power:-and of such parents one knows the progeny. + +(829) The Constitutional Assembly closed its sittings on the 30th +of September; having, during the three years of its existence, +enacted thirteen hundred laws and decrees, relative to +legislation, or to the general administration of the state. The +first sitting of the, Legislative Assembly took place on the +following day.-E. + +(830) The King, on the 14th Of September, had accepted the new +constitution, and sworn to maintain it.-E. + +(831) For expressing his opinion, that the new constitution +inclined too much to a democracy, Barnave, after fifteen months, +imprisonment at Grenoble was tried before the revolutionary +tribunal, condemned to death, and guillotined on the 29th of +November 1793.-E. + +(832) The two Lameths, Charles and Alexander, fled the country, +The latter, having fallen into the hands of the Austrians with La +Fayette, shared his captivity, till December 1795.-E. + + + +Letter 393 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, Sept, 29, 1791. (page 523) + +My dear madam, +I have been very sorry, but not at all angry, at not hearing from +you so long. With all your friendly and benevolent heart, I know +by experience how little you love writing to your friends; and I +know why: you think you lose moments which you could employ in +doing more substantial good; and that your letters only pamper +our minds, but do not feed or clothe our bodies; if they did, you +would coin as much paper as the French do in assignats. Do not +imagine now that you have committed a wicked thing by writing to +me at last: comfort yourself, that your conscience, not +temptation, forced you to write; and be assured, I am as grateful +as if you had written from choice, not from duty, as your +constant spiritual director. + +I have been out of order the whole summer, but not very ill for +above a fortnight. I caught a painful rheumatism by, going into +a very crowded church on a rainy day, where all the windows were +open, to hear our friend the Bishop of London preach a charity +sermon here at Twickenham. My gout would not resign to a new +incumbent, but came too; and both together have so lamed my right +arm, though I am now using it, that I cannot yet extend it +entirely, nor lift it to the top of my head. However, I am free +from pain; and as Providence, though it supplied us originally +with so many bounties, took care we might shift with succedaneums +on the loss of several of them, I am content with what remains of +my stock; and since all my fingers are not useless, and that I +have not six hairs left, I am not much grieved at not being able +to comb my head. Nay, should not such a shadow as I have ever +been, be thankful, that at the eve of seventy-five I am not yet +passed away? + +I am so little out of charity with the Bishop for having been the +innocent cause of the death of my shoulder, that I am heartily +concerned for him and her on Mrs. Porteus's accident.(833) It +may have marbled her complexion, but I am persuaded has not +altered her lively, amiable, good-humoured countenance. As I +know not where to direct to them, and as you cannot suppose it a +sin for a sheep to write to its pastor on a week-day, I wish you +would mark the interest I take in their accident and escape from +worse mischief. + +I thank you most cordially for your inquiry after my wives. I am +in the utmost perplexity Of mind about them; torn between hopes +and fears. I believe them set out from Florence on their return +since yesterday se'nnight, and consequently feel all the joy and +impatience of expecting them in five or six weeks: but then, +besides fears of roads, bad inns, accidents, heats and colds, and +the sea to cross in November at last, all my satisfaction is +dashed by the uncertainty whether they Come through Germany or +France. I have advised, begged, implored, that it may not be +through those Iroquois, Lestryons, Anthropophagi, the Franks; and +then, hearing passports were abolished, and the roads more +secure, I half Consented, as they wished it, and the road is much +shorter; and then I repented, and have contradicted myself again. +And now I know not which route they wilt take: nor shall enjoy +any comfort from the thoughts of their return, till they are +returned safe. + +'Tis well I am doubly guaranteed, or who knows, as I am as old +almost as both her husbands together, but Mrs. B-- might have +cast a longing eye towards me? How I laughed at hearing of her +throwing a second muckender to a Methusalem! a red-faced veteran, +with a portly hillock of flesh. I conclude all her grandfathers +are dead; or, as there is no prohibition in the table of +consanguinity against male ancestors, she would certainly have +stepped back towards the Deluge, and ransacked her pedigrees on +both sides for some kinsman of the patriarchs. I could titter a +plusieurs reprises; but I am too old to be improper, and you are +too modest to be impropered to: and so I will drop the subject at +the herald's office. + +I am happy at and honour Miss Burney's resolution in casting away +golden, or rather gilt chains: others, out of vanity, would have +worn them till they had eaten into the bone. On that charming +young woman's chapter I agree with you perfectly; not a jot on +Deborah * * * * whom you admire: i have neither read her verses, +nor will. As I have not your aspen conscience, I cannot forgive +the heart of a woman that is party per pale blood and tenderness, +that curses our clergy and feels for negroes. Can I forget the +14th of July, when they all contributed their fagot to the fires +that her presbytyrants (as Lord Melcombe called them) tried to +light in every Smithfield in the island; and which, as Price and +Priestley applauded in France, it would be folly to suppose they +did not only wish, but meant to kindle here ? Were they ignorant +of the atrocious barbarities, injustice, and violation of oaths +committed in France? Did Priestley not know that the clergy there +had no option but between starving and perjury? And what does he +think of the poor man executed at Birmingham, who declared at his +death, he had been provoked by the infamous handbill? I know not +who wrote it. No, my good friend: Deborah may cant rhymes of +compassion, but she is a hypocrite; and you shall not make me +read her, nor, with all your sympathy and candour, can you esteem +her. Your compassion for the poor blacks is genuine, sincere +from your soul, most amiable; hers, a measure of faction. Her +party supported the abolition, and regretted the disappointment +as a blow to the good cause. I know this. Do not let your piety +lead you into the weakness of respecting the bad, only because +they hoist the flag of religion, while they carry a stiletto in +the flagstaff. Did not they, previous to the 14th of July, +endeavour to corrupt the guards? What would have ensued, had they +succeeded, you must tremble to think! + +You tell me nothing of your own health. May I flatter myself it +is good? I wish 1 knew so authentically! and I wish I could guess +when I should see you, without your being staked to the fogs of +the Thames at Christmas; I cannot desire that. Adieu, my very +valuable friend! I am, though unworthy, yours most cordially. + +(833) An overturn in a carriage. + + + +Letter 394 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 9, 1791. (page 526) + +It will be a year to-morrow since you set out: next morning came +the storm that gave me such a panic for you! In March happened +your fall, and the wound on your nose; and in July your fever. +For sweet Agnes I have happily had no separate alarm: yet I have +still a month of apprehension to come for both! All this mass of +vexation and fears is to be compensated by the transport at your +return, and by the complete satisfaction on your installation at +Cliveden. But could I believe, that when my clock had struck +seventy-four, I could pass a year in such agitation! It may he +taken for dotage; and I have for some time expected to be +superannuated: but, though I task myself severely, I do not find +my intellects impaired; though I may be a bad judge myself, You +may, perhaps, perceive it by my letters; and don't imagine I am +laying a snare for flattery. No! I am only jealous about myself, +that you two may have created such an attachment, without owing +it to my weakness. Nay, I have some colt's limbs left, which I +as little suspected as my anxieties. + +I went with General Conway, on Wednesday morning, from Park-place +to visit one of my antediluvian passions,--not a Statira or +Roxana, but one pre-existent to myself,--one Windsor Castle; and +I was so delightful and so juvenile, that, without attending to +any thing but my eyes, I stood full two hours and a half, and +found that half my lameness consists in my indolence. Two +Berrys, a Gothic chapel, and an historic castle, are anodynes to +a torpid mind. I now fancy that old age was invented by the +lazy. St. George's Chapel, that I always worshipped, though so +dark and black that I could see nothing distinctly, is now being +cleaned and decorated, a scene of' lightness and graces. Mr. +Conway was so struck with its Gothic beauties and taste, that he +owned the Grecian style would not admit half the variety of its +imagination. There is a new screen prefixed to the choir, so +airy and harmonious, that I concluded it Wyat's; but it is by a +Windsor architect, whose name I forget. Jarvis's window, over +the altar, after West, is rather too sombre for the Resurrection, +though it accords with the tone of the choirs; but the Christ is +a poor figure, scrambling to heaven in a fright, as if in dread +of being again buried alive. and not ascending calmly in secure +dignity: and there is a Judass below, T so gigantic, that he +seems more likely to burst by his bulk, than through guilt. In +the midst of all this solemnity, in a small angle over the lower +stalls, is crammed a small bas-relief, in oak, with the story of +Margaret Nicholson, the King, and the Coachman, as ridiculously +added and as clumsily executed as if it were a monkish miracle. +Some loyal zealot has broken away the blade of the knife, as if +the sacred wooden personage would have been in danger still. The +Castle itself is smugged up, is better glazed, has got some new +Stools, clocks, and looking-glasses, much embroidery in silk, and +a gaudy, clumsy throne, with a medallion at top of the King's and +Queen's heads, over their own--an odd kind of tautology, whenever +they sit there! There are several tawdry pictures, by West, of +the history of the Garter; but the figures are too small for that +majestic place. However, upon the whole, I was glad to see +Windsor a little revived. + +I had written thus far, waiting for a letter, and happily receive +Your two from Bologna together; for which I give you a million of +thanks, and for the repairs of your coach, which I trust will +contribute to your safety: but I will swallow my apprehensions, +for I doubt I have tormented you with them. Yet do not wonder, +that after a year's absence, my affection, instead of waning, is +increased. Can I help feeling the infinite obligation I have to +you both, for quitting Italy that you love, to humour +Methusalem?--a Methusalem that is neither king nor priest, to +reward and bless you; and whom you condescend to please, because +he wishes to see you once more; though he ought to have +sacrificed a momentary glimpse to your far more durable +satisfaction. Instead of generosity, I have teased, and I fear, +wearied you, with lamentations and disquiets; and how can I make +you amends? What pleasure, what benefit, can I procure for you +in return? The most disinterested generosity, such as yours is, +gratifies noble minds; but how paltry am I to hope that the +reflections of your own minds will compensate for all the +amusements you give up to + +"Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death!" + +I may boast of having no foolish weakness for your persons, as I +certainly have not; but + +"The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, +Lets in new selfishness through chinks that time has made." + +And I have been as avaricious of hoarding a few moments of +agreeable society, as if I had coveted a few more trumpery +guineas in my strong-box! and then I have the assurance to tell +you I am not superannuated! Oh! but I am! + +The Bolognese school is my favourite, though I do not like +Guercino, whom I call the German Guido, he is so heavy and dark. +I do not, like your friend, venerate Constantinopolitan +paintings, which are scarce preferable to Indian. The characters +of the Italian comedy were certainly adopted even from the +persons of its several districts and dialects. Pantaloon is a +Venetian, even in his countenance; and I once saw a gentleman of +Bergamo, whose face was an exact Harlequin's mask. + +I have scarce a penfull of news for you; the world is at Weymouth +or Newmarket. En attendent, voici, the Gunnings again! The old +gouty General has carried off his tailor's wife; or rather, she +him, whither, I know not. Probably, not far; for the next day +the General was arrested for three thousand pounds, and carried +to a spunginghouse, whence he sent cupid with a link to a friend, +to beg help and a crutch. This amazing folly is generally +believed; perhaps because the folly of that race is amazing--so +is their whole story. The two beautiful sisters Were going on +the stage, when they are at once exalted almost as high as they +could be, were countessed and double-duchessed; and now the rest +of the family have dragged themselves through all the kennels of +the newspapers! Adieu! forgive all my pouts. I will be perfectly +good-humoured when I have nothing to vex me! + + + +Letter 395 To John Pinkerton, Esq.(834) +Berkeley Square, Dec. 26, 1791. (page 528) + +As I am sure of the sincerity of your congratulations,(835 I feel +much obliged by them, though what has happened destroys my +tranquillity; and, if what the world reckons advantages could +compensate the loss of peace and ease, would ill indemnify me, +even by them. A small estate, loaded with debt, and of which I +do not understand the management, and am too old to learn; a +source of lawsuits among my near relations, though not affecting +me; endless conversations with lawyers, and packets of letters to +read every day and answer,--all this weight of new business is +too much for the rag of life that yet hangs about me, and was +preceded by three weeks of anxiety about my unfortunate nephew, +and daily correspondence with physicians and mad-doctors, falling +upon me when I had been out of order ever since July. Such a +mass of troubles made me very seriously ill for some days, and +has left me and still keeps me so weak and dispirited, that, if I +shall not soon be able to get some repose, my poor head or body +will not be able to resist. For the empty title, I trust you do +not suppose it is any thing but an incumbrance, by larding my +busy mornings with idle visits of interruption, and which, when I +am able to go out, I shall be forced to return. Surely no man of +seventy-four, unless superannuated, can have the smallest +pleasure in sitting at home in his own room, as I almost always +do, and being called by a new name! It will seem personal, and +ungrateful too, to have said so much about my own triste +situation, and not to have yet thanked you, Sir. for your kind +and flattering offer of letting me read what you have finished of +your history; but it was necessary to expose my position to you, +before I could venture to accept your proposal, when I am so +utterly incapable of giving a quarter of an hour at a time to +what I know, by my acquaintance with your works, will demand all +my attention, if I wish to reap the pleasure they are formed to +give me. It is most true that for these seven weeks I have not +read seven pages, but letters, states of account, cases to be +laid before lawyers, accounts of farms, etc. etc., and those +subject to mortgages. Thus are my mornings occupied: in an +evening my relations and a very few friends come to me; and, when +they are gone, I have about an hour to midnight to write answers +to letters for the next day's post, which I had not time to do in +the morning. This is actually my case now. I happened to be +quitted at ten o'clock, and would not lose the opportunity of +thanking you, not knowing when I could command another hour. + +I by no means would be understood to decline your obliging offer, +Sir: on the contrary, I accept it joyfully, if you can trust me +with your manuscript for a little time, should I have leisure to +read it but by small snatches, which would be wronging you, and +would break all connexion in my head. Criticism you are too +great a writer to want; and to read critically is far beyond my +present power. Can a scrivener, or a scrivener's hearer, be a +judge of composition, style, profound reasoning, and new lights +and discoveries, etc.? But my weary hand and breast must finish. +May I ask the favour of you calling on me any morning, when you +shall happen to come to town? You will find the new-old lord +exactly the same admirer of yours. + +(834) Now first collected. + +(835) Mr. Walpole had succeeded to the title of Earl of Orford on +the 5th of December, upon the death of his nephew George, the +third Earl.-E. + + + +Letter 396 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, Jan. 1, 1792. (PAGE 529) + +My much-esteemed friend, +I have not so long delayed answering your letter from the pitiful +revenge of recollecting how long your pen is fetching breath +before it replies to mine. Oh! no; you know I love to heap coals +of kindness on your head, and to draw you into little sins, that +you may forgive yourself, by knowing your time was employed on +big virtues. On the contrary, you would be revenged; for here +have you, according to your notions, inveigled me into the +fracture of a commandment; for I am writing to you on a Sunday, +being the first moment of leisure that I have had since I +received your letter. It does not indeed clash with my religious +ideas, as I hold paying one's debts as good a deed, as praying +and reading sermons for a whole day in every week, when it is +impossible to fix the attention to one course of thinking for so +many hours for fifty-two days in every year. Thus you see I can +preach too. But seriously, and indeed I am little disposed to +cheerfulness now, I am overwhelmed with troubles, and with +business--and business that I do not understand; law, and the +management of a ruined estate, are subjects ill-suited to a head +that never studied any thing that in worldly language is called +useful. The tranquillity of my remnant of life will be lost, or +so perpetually interrupted, that I expect little comfort; not +that I am already intending to grow rich, but, the moment one is +supposed so, there are so many alert to turn one to their own +account, that I have more letters to Write, to satisfy, or rather +to dissatisfy them, than about my own affairs, though the latter +are all confusion. I have such missives on agriculture, +pretensions to livings, offers of taking care of my game as I am +incapable of it, self-recommendations of making my robes, and +round hints of taking out my writ, that at least I may name a +proxy, and give my dormant conscience to somebody or other! I +trust you think better of my heart and understanding than to +suppose that I have listened to any one of these new friends. +Yet, though I have negatived all, I have been forced to answer +some of them before you; and that will convince you how cruelly +ill I have passed my time lately, besides having been made ill +with vexation and fatigue. But I am tolerably well again. + +For the other empty metamorphosis that has happened to the +outward man, you do me justice in concluding that it can do +nothing but tease me; it is being called names in one's old age. +I had rather be my lord mayor, for then I should keep the +nickname but a year; and mine I may retain a little longer, not +that at seventy-five I reckon on becoming my Lord Methusalem. +Vainer, however, I believe I am already become; for I have wasted +almost two pages about myself, and said not a tittle about your +health, which I most cordially rejoice to hear you are +recovering, and as fervently hope you will entirely recover. I +have the highest opinion of the element of water as a constant +beverage; having so deep a conviction of the goodness and wisdom +of Providence, that I am persuaded that when it indulged us in +such a luxurious variety of eatables, and gave us but one +drinkable, it intended that our sole liquid should be both +wholesome and corrective. Your system I know is different; you +hold that mutton and water were the Only cock and hen that were +designed for our nourishment; but I am apt to doubt whether +draughts of water for six weeks are capable of restoring health, +though some are strongly impregnated with mineral and other +particles. Yet you have staggered me: the Bath water by your +account is, like electricity, compounded of contradictory +qualities; the one attracts and repels; the other turns a +shilling yellow, and whitens your jaundice. I shall hope to see +you (when is that to be?) without alloy. + +I must finish, wishing you three hundred and thirteen days of +happiness for the new year that is arrived this morning: the +fifty-two that you hold in commendam, I have no doubt will be +rewarded as such good intentions deserve. Adieu, my too good +friend! My direction shall talk superciliously to the +postman;(836) but do let me continue unchangeably your faithful +and sincere HORACE WALPOLE.(837) + +(836) He means franking his letter by his newly-acquired title of +Earl of Orford. + +(837) This is the last letter signed Horace Walpole.-E. + + + +Letter 397 To Thomas Barrett, Esq. +Berkeley Square, May 14, 1792. (PAGE 530) + +Dear Sir, +Though my poor fingers do not yet write easily, I cannot help +inquiring if Mabeuse(838) is arrived safely at Lee, and fits his +destined stall in the library. My amendment is far slower, comme +de raison, than ever; and my weakness much greater. Another fit, +I doubt, will confine me to my chair, if it does not do more; it +is not worth haggling about that. + +Dr. Darwin has appeared, superior in some respects to the former +part. The Triumph of Flora, beginning at the fifty-ninth line, +is most beautifully and enchantingly imagined; and the twelve +verses that by miracle describe and comprehend the creation of +the universe out of chaos, are in my opinion the most sublime +passage in any author, or in any of the few languages with which +I am acquainted. There are a thousand other verses most +charming, or indeed are all so, crowded with most poetic imagery, +gorgeous epithets and style: and yet these four cantos do not +please me equally with the Loves of the Plants. This seems to me +almost as much a rhapsody of unconnected parts; and is so deep, +that I cannot read six lines together, and know what they are +about, till I have studied them in the long notes, and then +perhaps do not comprehend them; but all this is my fault, not Dr. +Darwin's. Is he to blame, that I am no natural philosopher, no +chemist, no metaphysician? One misfortune will attend this +glorious work; it will be little read but by those who have no +taste for poetry and who will be weighing, and criticising his +positions, without feeling the imagination, harmony, and +expression of the versification. Is not it extraordinary, dear +Sir, that two of our very best poets, Garth and Darwin, should +have been physicians? I believe they have left all the lawyers +wrangling at the turnpike of Parnassus. Adieu, dear Sir! Yours +most cordially. + +(838) A capital picture by that master, then lately purchased by +Mr. Barrett.-E. + + + +Letter 398 To Miss Hannah More.(839) +Strawberry Hill, Aug. 21, 1792. (PAGE 531) + +My dear Saint Hannah, +I have frequently been going to write to you, but checked myself. +You are so good and so bad, that I feared I should interrupt some +act of benevolence on one side; and on the other that you would +not answer my letter in three months. I am glad to find, as an +Irishman would say, that the way to make you answer is not to +speak first. But, ah! i am a brute to upbraid any moment of your +silence, though I regretted it when I hear that your kind +intentions have been prevented by frequent cruel pain! and that +even your rigid abstemiousness does not remove your complaints. +Your heart is always aching for others, and your head for +yourself. Yet the latter never hinders the activity of the +former. What must your tenderness not feel now, when a whole +nation of monsters is burst forth? The second massacre of Paris +has exhibited horrors that even surpass the former.(840) Even +the Queen's women were butchered in the Thuilleries, and the +tigers chopped of the heads from the dead bodies, and tossed them +into the flames of the palace. The tortures of the poor King and +Queen, from the length of"their duration, surpass all example; +and the brutal insolence with which they were treated on the +10th, all invention. They were dragged through the Place Vendome +to see the statue of Louis the Fourteenth in fragments, and told +it was to be the King's fate; and he, the most harmless of men, +was told he is a monster; and this, after three years of +sufferings. King and Queen, and children were shut up in a room, +without nourishment, for twelve hours. One who was a witness has +come over, and says he found the Queen sitting on the floor, +trembling like an aspen in every limb, and her sweet boy the +Dauphin asleep against her knee! She has not one woman to attend +her that ever she saw, but a companion of her misery, the King's +sister, an heroic virgin saint, who, on the former irruption into +the palace, flew to and clung to her brother, and being mistaken +for the Queen, and the hellish fiends wishing to murder her, and +somebody aiming to undeceive them, she said, "Ah! ne les +d`etrompez pas!"(841) Was not that sentence the sublime of +innocence? But why do I wound your thrilling nerves with the +relation of such horrible scenes? Your blackmanity(842) must +allow some of its tears to these poor victims. For my part, I +have an abhorrence of politics, if one can so term these +tragedies, which make one harbour sentiments one naturally +abhors; but can one refrain without difficulty from exclaiming +such wretches should be exterminated? They have butchered +hecatombs of Swiss, even to porters in private houses, because +they often are, and always are called, Le Suisse. Think on +fifteen hundred persons, probably more, butchered on the +10th,(843) in the space of eight hours. Think on premiums voted +for the assassination of several princes, and do not think that +such execrable proceedings have been confined to Paris; no, +Avignon, Marseilles, etc. are still smoking with blood! Scarce +the Alecto of the North, the legislatress and the usurper of +Poland, has occasioned the spilling of larger torrents! + +I am almost sorry that your letter arrived at this crisis; I +cannot help venting a little of what haunts me. But it is better +to thank Providence for the tranquillity and happiness we enjoy +in this country, in spite of the philosophizing serpents we have +in our bosom, the Paines, the Tookes, and the Woolstoncrofts. I +am glad you have not read the tract of the last-mentioned writer. +I would not look at it, though assured it contains neither +metaphysics nor politics; but as she entered the lists on the +latter, and borrowed her title from the demon's book, which aimed +at spreading the wrongs of men, she is excommunicated from the +pale of my library. We have had enough of new systems, and the +world a great deal too much, already. + +Let us descend to private life. Your friend Mrs. Boscawen, I +fear, is unhappy: she has lost most suddenly her son-in-law, +Admiral Leveson. Mrs. Garrick I have scarcely seen this whole +summer. She is a liberal Pomona to me--I will not say an Eve; +for though she reaches fruit to me, she will never let Me in, as +if I were a boy, and would rob her orchard. + +As you interest yourself about a certain trumpery old person, I +with infinite gratitude will add a line on him. He is very +tolerably well, weak enough certainly, yet willing to be +contented; he is satisfied with knowing that he is at his best. +Nobody grows stronger at seventy-five, nor recovers the use of +limbs half lost; nor-though neither deaf nor blind, nor in the +latter most material point at all impaired; nor, as far as he can +find on strictly watching himself, much damaged as to common uses +in his intellects--does the gentleman expect to avoid additional +decays, if his life shall be further protracted. He has been too +fortunate not to be most thankful for the past, and most +submissive for what is to come, be it more or less. He forgot to +say, that the warmth of his heart towards those he loves and +esteems has not suffered the least diminution, and consequently +he is as fervently as ever Saint Hannah's most sincere friend and +humble servant, ORFORD. + +(839) Now first collected. + +(840) From the 2d to the 6th of September, these internal +atrocities proceeded uninterrupted, protracted by the actors for +the sake of the daily pay of a Louis to each. M. Thiers states, +that Billaud Varennes appeared publicly among the assassins, and +encouraged what were called the labourers. "My friends," said +he, "by taking the lives of villains you have saved the country. +France owes you eternal gratitude, and the municipality offers +you twenty livres apiece, and you shall be paid immediately." All +the reports of the time differ in their estimate of the number of +the victims. "That estimate," says M. Thiers, varies from six to +twelve thousand in the prisons of France." Vol. ii. p. 45.-E. + +(841) This fact is confirmed by M. Thiers. "During the irruption +of the populace into the Thuilleries, on the 20th of June, Madame +Elizabeth," he says, "followed the King from window to window, to +share his danger. The people, when they saw her, took her for +the Queen. Shouts of 'There's the Austrian!' were raised in an +alarming manner. The national grenadiers, who had surrounded the +Princess, endeavoured to set the people right. 'Leave them,' +said that generous sister, 'leave them in their error, and save +the Queen!' Vol. i. p. 306.-E. + +(842) An allusion to the lively interest Miss More was taking in +the abolition of the slave trade.-E. + +(843) At the storming of the Thuilleries. "The Marseillais," +says M. Thiers, "made themselves masters of the palace: the +rabble, with pikes, poured in after them, and the rest of the +scene was soon but one general massacre; the unfortunate Swiss in +vain begged for quarter, at the Same time throwing down their +arms; they were butchered without mercy." Vol. i. P. 380.-E. + + + +Letter 399 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, August 31, 1792. (PAGE 533) + +Your long letter and my short one crossed one another upon the +road. I knew I was in your debt; but I had nothing to say but +what you know better than I; for you read all the French papers, +and I read none, as they have long put me out of all patience: +and besides, I hear so much of their horrific proceedings, that +they quite disturb me, and have given me what I call the French +disease; that is, a barbarity that I abhor, for I cannot help +wishing destruction to thousands of human creatures whom I never +saw. But when men have worked themselves up into tigers and +hyenas, and labour to communicate their appetite for blood, what +signifies whether they walk on two legs or four, or whether they +dwell in cities, or in forests and dens? Nay, the latter are the +more harmless wild beasts; for they only cranch a poor traveller +now and then, and when they are famished with hunger: the others, +though they have dined, cut the throats of some hundreds of poor +Swiss for an afternoon's luncheon. Oh! the execrable nation! I +cannot tell you any new particulars, for Mesdames de Cambis and +d'Hennin, my chief informers, are gone to Goodwood to the poor +Duchesse de Biron, of whose recovery I am impatient to hear; and +so I am of the cause of her very precipitate flight and panic. +She must, I think, have had strong motives; for two years ago I +feared she was much too courageous, and displayed her intrepidity +too publicly. If I did not always condemn the calling bad people +mad people, I should say all Paris had gone distracted: they +furnish provocation to every species of retaliation, by +publishing rewards for assassination of Kings and generals, and +cannot rest without incensing all Europe against them. + +The Duchess of York gave a great entertainment at Oatlands on her +Duke's birthday; sent to his tradesmen in town to come to it, and +allowed two guineas apiece to each for their carriage; gave them +a dance, and opened the ball herself with the Prince of Wales. A +company of strollers came to Weybridge to act in a barn: she was +solicited to go to it, and did out of charity, and carried all +her servants. Next day a Methodist teacher came to preach a +charity sermon in the same theatre, and she Consented to hear it +on the same motive; but her servants desired to be excused, on +not understanding English. "Oh!" said the Duchess, "but you went +to the comedy, which you understood less, and you shall go to the +sermon;" to which she gave handsomely, and for them. I like +this. + +Tack this to my other fragment, and then, I trust, I shall not be +a defaulter in correspondence. I own I am become an indolent +poor creature: but is that strange? With seventy-five years over +my head, or on the point of being so; with a chalk-stone in every +finger; with feet so limping, that I have been but twice this +whole summer round my own small garden, and so much weaker than I +was, can I be very comfortable, but when sitting quiet and doing +nothing? All my strength consists in my sleep, which is as +vigorous as at twenty: but with regard to letter-writing, I have +so many to write on business which I do not understand, since the +unfortunate death of my nephew, that, though I make them as brief +as possible, half-a-dozen short ones tire me as much as a long +One to an old friend; and as the busy ones must be executed, I +trespass on the others, and remit them to another day. Norfolk +has come very mal-apropos into the end of my life, and certainly +never entered into my views and plans; and I, who could never +learn the multiplication table, was not intended to transact +leases.. direct repairs of farm-houses, settle fines for church +lands, negotiate for lowering interest on mortgages, etc. In +short, as I was told formerly, though I know several things, I +never understood any thing useful. Apropos, the letter of which +Lady Cecilia Johnstone told you is not at all worth your seeing. +It was an angry one to a parson who oppresses my tenants, and +will go to law with them about tythes. She came in as I was +writing it; and as I took up the character of parson myself, and +preached to him as pastor of a flock which it did not become him +to lead into the paths of law, instead of those of peace, I +thought it would divert and showed it to her. Adieu! I have been +writing to you till midnight, and my poor fingers ache. Yours +ever. + + + +Letter 400 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 9, 1793. (PAGE 535) + +My holy Hannah, WITH your innate and usual goodness and sense, +you have done me justice by guessing exactly at the cause of my +long silence. You have been apt to tell me that my letters +diverted you. How then could I write, when it was impossible but +to attrist you! when I could speak of nothing but unparalleled +horrors! and but awaken your sensibility, if it slumbered for a +moment! What mind could forget the 10th of August and the 2d of +September; and that the black and bloody year 1792 has plunged +its murderous dagger still deeper, and already made 1793 still +more detestably memorable! though its victim(844) has at last +been rewarded for four years of torture by forcing from him every +kind of proof of the most perfect character that ever sat on a +throne. Were these, alas! themes for letters? Nay, am I not +sure that you have been still more shocked by a crime that passes +even the guilt of shedding the blood of poor Louis, to hear of +atheism avowed, and the avowal tolerated by monsters calling +themselves a National Assembly! But I have no words that can +reach the criminality of such inferno-human beings, but must +compose a term that aims at conveying my idea of them. +For the future it will be sufficient to call them the French; I +hope no other nation will ever deserve to be confounded with +them! + +Indeed, my dear friend, I have another reason for wishing to burn +my pen entirely: all my ideas are confounded and overturned; I do +not know whether all I ever learned in the seventy first years of +my seventy-five was not wrong and false: common sense, reasoning, +calculation, conjecture from analogy and from history of past +events, all, all have been baffled; nor am I sure that what used +to be thought the result of experience and wisdom was not a mass +of mistakes. Have I not found, do I not find, that the invention +of establishing metals as the signs of property was an useless +discovery, or at least only useful till the art of making paper +was found out? Nay, the latter is preferable to gold and silver. + If the ores were adulterated and cried down, nobody +would take them in exchange. Depreciate paper as much as you +will, and it will still serve all the purposes of barter. +Tradesmen still keep shops, stock them with goods, and deliver +their commodities for those coined rags. Poor Reason, where art +thou? + +To show you that memory and argument are Of no value, at least +with me, I thought a year or two that this papermint would soon +blow UP, because I remembered that when Mr. Charles Fox and one +or two more youths of brilliant genius first came to light, and +into vast debts at play, they imparted to the world an important +secret which they had discovered. It was, that nobody needed to +want money, if they would pay enough for it. Accordingly, they +borrowed of Jews at vast usury: but as they had made but an +incomplete calculation, the interest so soon exceeded the +principal, that the system did not maintain its ground for above +two or three years. Faro has proved a more substantial +speculation. But I miscarried in applying my remembrance to +the assignats, which still maintain their ground against that +long-decried but as long-adored corrupter of virtue, gold.(845) +Alack! I do not hear that virtue has flourished more for the +destruction of its old enemy! + +Shall I add another truth? I have been so disgusted +and fatigued by hearing of nothing but French massacres, etc. +and found it so impossible to shift conversation to any other +topic, that before I had been a month in town, I wished Miss +Gunning would revive, that people might have at least one other +subject to interest the ears and tongues of the public. But no +wonder universal attention is engrossed by the present portentous +scene! It seems to draw to a question, whether +Europe or France is to be depopulated; whether civilization can +be recovered, or the republic of Chaos can be supported by +assassination. We have heard of the golden, silver, and iron +ages; the brazen one existed while the French were only +predominantly insolent. What the present age will be +denominated, I cannot guess'. Though the paper age would be +characteristic, it is not emphatic enough, nor specifies the +enormous sins of the fiends that are the agents. I think it may +be styled the diabolical age -. the Duke of Orleans has +dethroned Satan, who since his fall has never instigated such +crimes as Orleans has perpetrated.(846) + +Let me soften my tone a little, and harmonize your poor mind by +sweeter accents. In this deluge of triumphant enormities, what +trails of the sublime and beautiful may be gleaned! Did +you hear of Madame Elizabeth, the King's sister? a saint like +yourself. She doted on her brother, for she certainly knew his +soul. In the tumult in July, hearing the populace and the +poissardes had broken into the palace, she flew to the King, and +by embracing him tried to shield his person. The populace took +her for the Queen, cried out "Voil`a cette chienne, cette +Autrichienne!" and were proceeding to violence. Somebody to +save her, screamed "Ce n'est pas la Reine, c'est--" + The Princess said, "Ah! mon Dieu! ne les d`etrompez +pas." If that was not the most sublime instance of perfect +innocence ready prepared for death, I know not where to find one. +Sublime indeed, too, was the sentence of good Father Edgeworth, +the King's confessor, who, thinking his royal penitent a little +dismayed just before the fatal stroke, cried out "Montez, digne +fils de St. Louis! Le ciel vous est ouvert." The holy martyr's +countenance brightened up, and he submitted at once. Such +victims, such confessors as those, and Monsieur do Malesherbes, +repair some of the breaches in human nature made by Orleans, +Condorcet, Santerre, and a legion of evil spirits. + +The tide of horrors has hurried me much too far, before I have +vented a note of my most sincere concern for your bad account of +your health. I feel for it heartily, and wish your frame were as +sound as your soul and understanding. What can I recommend? I am +no physician but for my own flimsy texture; which by studying, +and by contradicting all advice, I have drawn to this great age. +Patience, temperance, nay, abstinence, are already yours; in +short, you want to be corrected of nothing but too much piety, +too much rigour towards yourself, and too much sensibility for +others. Is not it possible to serve mankind without feeling too +great pity? Perhaps I am a little too much +hardened, I am grown too little alarmed for the health of my +friends, from being become far more indifferent to life; I look +to the nearness of' my end, as a delivery from spectacles of wo. +We have even amongst us monsters, more criminal, in speculation +at least, than the French. They had cause to wish for correction +of a bad government; though, till taught to dislike it, +three-fourths of the country, I maintain, adored theirs. We have +the perfectest ever yet devised; but if to your numerous readings +of little pamphlets. you would add one more, called "Village +Politics,"(847) infinitely superior to any thing on the subject, +clearer, better stated, and comprehending the whole mass of +matter in the shortest compass, you will be more mistress of the +subject than any man in England. I know Who wrote it, but will +not tell you, because you did not tell me. + +(844) On the 21st of January, Louis the Sixteenth had been +beheaded in the Place Louis Quinze, erected to the memory of his +grandfather. M. Thiers thus concludes his account of this +horrible event:--"At ten minutes past ten, the carriage stopped. +Louis rising briskly, stepped out into the Place. Three +executioners came up; he refused their assistance, and stripped +off his clothes himself; but, perceiving that they were going to +bind his hands, he betrayed a movement of indignation, and seemed +ready to resist. M. Edgeworth, whose every expression was then +sublime, gave him, a last look, and said, 'I Suffer this outrage, +as a last resemblance to that God who is about to be your +reward.' At these words the victim, resigned and submissive, +suffered himself to be bound and conducted to the scaffold. All +at once, Louis took a hasty step, separated himself from the +executioners, and advanced to address the people. 'Frenchmen,' +said he, in a firm voice, 'I die innocent of the crimes which +are imputed to me; I forgive the authors of my death, and I pray +that my blood may not fall upon France.' He would have continued +but the drums were instantly ordered to beat: their rolling +drowned the voice of the Prince, the executioners laid hold of +him, and M. Edgeworth took his leave in these memorable words, +''Son of St. Louis, ascend to heaven!' As soon as the blood +flowed, furious wretches dipped their pikes and their +handkerchiefs in it spread themselves throughout Paris, shouted +Vive la Republique! vive la nation! and even went to the gates of +the Temple to display their brutal and factious joy." Vol. ii. p. +228.-E. + +(845) "The causes which at this time put assignats apparently on +a par with specie were the following. A law forbade, under heavy +penalties, the traffic in specie, that is, the exchange at a loss +of the assignat against money: another law decreed very severe +penalties against those who, in purchases, should bargain for +different prices according as payment was to be made in paper or +in cash: by a last law, it was enacted, that hidden gold, silver, +or jewels, should belong partly to the state, partly to the +informer. Thenceforth people could neither employ specie in +trade nor conceal it; it became troublesome; it exposed the +holders to the risk of being considered suspected persons; they +began to be afraid of it, an(l to find the assignat preferable +for daily use." Thiers, vol. iii. p. 213.-E. + +(846) Louis-Philippe-Joseph, Duke of Orleans, who had +relinquished his titles and called himself Philippe Egalit`e, and +become a member of the National Convention, in giving his vote +for the death of his kinsman, had read these words:--"Exclusively +governed by my duty, and convinced that all those who have +resisted the sovereignty of the people deserve death, my vote is +for death!" The atrocity of this vote occasioned great agitation +in the -assembly; it seemed as if, by this single vote, the fate +of the Monarch was irrevocably sealed. On the 6th of November, +in the same year, the Duke was himself brought before the +revolutionary tribunal, and condemned on account of the +suspicions which he had excited in all parties. "Odious," says +M. Thiers "to the emigrants, Suspected by the Girondins and the +Jacobins, he inspired none of those regrets which afford some +consolation for an unjust death. A universal disgust, an +absolute scepticism were his last sentiments; and he went to the +scaffold with extraordinary composure and indifference, As he was +drawn along the Rue St. Honor`e, he beheld his palace with a dry +eye, and never belied for a moment his disgust of men and of +life," Vol. iii, P. 205--E. + +(847) A little work which Miss More had Just published +anonymously. The sale of it was enormous. Many thousands were +sent by government to Scotland and Ireland. Several persons +printed large editions Of it at their own expense; and in London +Only many hundred thousands were circulated.-E. + + + +Letter 401 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, March 23, 1793.(page 538) + +I shall certainly not leave off taunting your virtues, my +excellent friend, for I find it sometimes makes you correct them. +I scolded you for your modesty in not acquainting me with your +"Village Politics" even after they were published; and you have +already conquered that unfriendly delicacy, and announced another +piece of which you are in labour. Still I se there wanted your +ghostly father, the )Bishop of London, to join you to be quite +shameless and avow your natural child.(848) I do approve his +doctrine: calling it by your own name will make its fortune. If, +like Rousseau, you had left your babe among the enfans trouv`es, +it might never be heard of more than his poor issue have been; +for I can but observe that the French patriots, who have made +such a fuss with his ashes, have not taken the smallest pains to +attempt to discover his real progeny, which might not have been +impossible by collating dates and circumstances. I am proud of +having imitated you at a great distance, and been persuaded, much +against my will and practice, to let my name be put to the second +subscription for the poor French clergy, as it was thought it +might tend to animate that consumptive contribution. + +I am impatient for your pamphlet, not only as being yours, but +hoping it will invigorate horror against French atheism, which, I +am grieved to say did not by any means make due impression. very +early apply to your confessor, to beg he would enjoin his clergy +to denounce that shocking impiety; I could almost recommend to +you to add a slight postscript on the massacre of that wretch +Manuel. I do not love such insects as we are dispensing +judgments yet, if the punishment of that just victim might +startle such profane criminals, it might be charity to suggest +the hint to them. + +24th. + +I must modify the massacre of Manuel; he has been a good deal +stabbed, but will, they say, recover.(849) Perhaps it is better +that some of those assassins should live to acknowledge, that "Do +not to others what you would not have done to you" is not so +silly a maxim as most of the precepts of morality and Justice +have lately been deemed by philosophers and legislators--titles +self-assumed by men who have abolished all other titles; and who +have disgraced and debased the former denomination, and under the +latter have enjoined triple perjuries, and at last cannot fix on +any code which should exact more forswearing. I own I am pleased +that that ruffian pedant Condorcet's new constitution was too +clumsy and unwieldy to go down the throats of those who have +swallowed every thing else. I did but just cast my eyes on the +beginning and end, and was so lucky as to observe the hypocrite's +contradiction: he sets out with declaration of equality, and +winds up with security of property; that is, we will plunder +every body, and then entail the spoils on ourselves and our +(wrong) heirs.(850) + +Well! that bloody chaos seems recoiling on themselves! It looks +as if civil war was bursting out in many provinces, and will +precipitate approaching famine. When, till now, could one make +such a reflection without horror to one's self? But, alas! have +not the French brought it to the question, whether Europe or +France should be laid desolate'! Religion, morality, justice, +have been stabbed, torn up by the roots: every right has been +trampled under foot. Marriage has been profaned and undermined +by law; and no wonder, that, amidst such excesses, the poor arts +have shared in the common ruin! And who have been the +perpetrators of, or advocates for, such universal devastation? +Philosophers, geometricians, astronomers--a Condorcet, a Bailly, +a Bishop of Autun, and a Doctor Priestley, and the last the +worst. The French had seen grievances, crying grievances! yet +not under the good late King. But what calamities or dangers +threatened or had fallen on Priestley, but want of papal power, +like his predecessor Calvin? If you say his house was burnt -but +did he intend the fire should blaze on that side of the street? +Your charity may believe him innocent, but your understanding +does not. Well! I am glad to hear he is going to America; I +hope he will not bring back scalping, even to that National +Assembly of which he was proud of being elected a member! I doubt +if Cartouche would have thought it an honour. It was stuck up in +Lloyd's coffeehouse lately, that the Duke of Orleans was named +"Chef de la R`epublique." I thought it should be "Chef de la Lie +publique." + +(848) Miss More had informed Walpole, that she was occupied in +writing her "Remarks" on the atheistical speech of M. Dupont, +made in the National Convention; and to which the Bishop of +London had recommended her to put her name.-E. + +(849) Manuel was deeply implicated in the massacres of 1792; in +consequence of which he was nominated a deputy to the National +Convention. He resigned his seat in January 1793, and retired to +Montargis, where he narrowly escaped assassination. He was +afterwards seized as a suspected person. On being brought before +the revolutionary tribunal, he reminded his judges of his +services, and desired it might be engraved on his tombstone, that +he had occasioned the events of the 10th of August. He was +guillotined in November 1793.-E. + +(850) In the following July, Condorcet was accused of being an +accomplice with Brissot, and, to save his life, concealed himself +in the house of Madame Verney, where he remained eight months. +Having at length learned that death was denounced against all who +harboured a proscribed individual, he fled in disguise from +Paris. He wandered about for some time, until, driven by hunger, +he entered a small public-house at Clamar, where he was arrested +as a suspicious person, and thrown into prison. On the following +morning, March 28, 1794, he was found dead on the floor of his +room, having apparently swallowed poison, which he always carried +about with him.-E. + + + +Letter 402 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, June 13, 1793. (page 540) + +I thank you much for all your information--some parts made me +smile: yet, if what you heard of your brother proves true, I +rather think it deplorable! How can love of money, or the still +vainer of all vanities, ambition of wearing a high but most +insignificant office, which even poor Lord Salisbury could +execute, tempt a very old man, who loves his ease and his own +way, to stoop to wait like a footman behind a chair, for hours, +and in a court whence he had been cast Ignominiously? I believe +I have more pride than most men alive: I could be flattered by +honours acquired by merit, or by some singular action of `eclat; +but for titles, ribands, offices of no business, which any body +can fill, and must be given to many, I should just as soon be +proud of being the top squire in a country village.(851) It is +only worse to have waded to distinction through dirt, like Lord +Auckland.(852) All this shifting of scenes may, as you say, be +food to the Fronde --Sed defendit numerus. It is perfectly +ridiculous to use any distinction of parties but the ins and the +outs. Many years ago I thought that the wisest appellations for +contending factions ever assumed, were those in the Roman empire, +who called themselves the greens and the blues: it was so easy, +when they changed sides, to slide from one colour to the other; +and then a blue might plead that he had never been true blue, but +always a greenish blue; and vice versa. I allow that the +steadiest party-man may be staggered by novel and unforeseen +circumstances. The outrageous proceedings of the French +republicans have wounded the cause of liberty, and will, I fear, +have shaken it for centuries; for Condorcet and such fiends are +worse than the imperial and royal dividers of Poland. But I do +not see why detestation of anarchy and assassination must +immediately make one fall in love with garters and seals. + +I am sitting by the fire, as I have done ever since I came +hither; and since I do not expect warm weather in June, I am +wishing for rain, or I shall not have a mouthful of hay, nor a +noseful of roses. Indeed, as I have seen several fields of hay +cut, I wonder it has not brought rain, as usual. My creed is, +that rain is good for hay, as I conclude every climate and its +productions are suited to each other. Providence did not trouble +itself about its being more expensive to us to make our hay over +and over; it only took care it should not want water enough. +Adieu! + +(851) On the 29th of this month, the Earl of Hertford was created +a Marquis. He died on the 14th of June, in the following year, +at the age of seventy-five.-E. + +(852) On the 23d of May, William Eden, Lord Auckland, had been +created an English peer.-E. + + + +Letter 403 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, Wednesday night, late, July 17, 1793. (page 541) + +I am just come from dining with the Bishop of London at Fulham, +where I found Lord and Lady Frederick Campbell, who told me of +the alarm you had from hearing some screams that you thought Lady +Ailesbury's, and the disorder brought upon you by flying to +assist her. I do not at all wonder at your panic, and rejoice it +was not founded, and that you recovered so soon. I am not going +to preach against your acting so naturally: but as you have some +complaint on your breast, I must hope you will remember this +accident, and be upon Your guard against both sudden and rapid +exertions, when you have not a tantamount call. I conclude the +excessive heat we have had for twelve complete days contributed +to overpower you. + +It is much cooler to-day, yet still delicious; for be it known to +you that I have enjoyed weather worthy of Africa,(853) and yet +without swallowing mouthfuls of musquitos, nor expecting to hear +hyenas howl in the village, nor to find scorpions in my bed. +Indeed, all the way I came home, I could but gaze at the felicity +of my countrymen. The road was one string of stage-coaches +loaded within and without with noisy jolly folks, and chaises and +gigs that had been pleasuring in clouds of dust; every door and +every window of every house was open, lights in every shop, every +door with women sitting in the street, every inn crowded with +jaded horses, and every alehouse full of drunken topers; for you +know the English always announce their sense of heat or cold by +drinking. Well! it was' impossible not to enjoy such a scene of +happiness and affluence in every village, and amongst the lowest +of the people; and who are told by villanous scribblers, that +they are oppressed and miserable. New streets, new towns, are +rising every day and every where; the earth is covered with +gardens and crops of grain. + +How bitter to turn from this Elysiurn to the temple at Paris! The +fiends there have now torn her son from the Queen!(854) Can one +believe that they are human beings, who 'midst all their +confusions sit coolly meditating new tortures, new anguish for +that poor, helpless, miserable woman, after four years of +unexampled sufferings? Oh! if such crimes are not made a +dreadful lesson, this world might become a theatre of cannibals! + +I hope the checks in Bretagne are legends coined by miscreants at +Paris. What can one believe? Well, I will go to bed, and try to +dream of peace and plenty; and though my lawn is burnt, and my +peas and beans, and roses and strawberries parched, I will bear 4 +with patience till the harvest is got in. Saint Swithin can +never hold his water for forty days, though he can do the +contrary. Good night! + +(853) Bishop Porteus, writing to Miss More on the 12th of August +says, "Your friend Lord Orford and myself are, I believe, the +only persons in the kingdom who are worthy of the hot weather-- +the only true genuine summer we have had for the last thirty +years: we both agreed that it was perfectly celestial, and that +it was quite scandalous to huff it away as some people did. A +few days before it arrived, all the world was complaining of the +dreadfully cold northeast wind; and in three days after the +warmer weather came in every body was quarrelling with the heat, +and sinking under the rays of the sun. Such is that consistent +and contented thing called human nature!"-E. + +(854) Marie Antoinette was separated from her sister, her +daughter, and her son, by virtue of a decree which ordered the +trial. Weber, in his memoirs of her, states, that the separation +from her son was so touching, so heartrending that the very +gaolers who witnessed the scene confessed, when they were giving +an account of' it to the authorities, that they could not refrain +from tears.-E. + + + +Letter 404 To The Miss Berrys.(855) +Tuesday night, 8 o'clock, Sept. 17, 1793. (page 542) + +My beloved spouses, +whom I love better than Solomon loved his one spouse--or his one +thousand. I lament that the summer is over; not because of its +uniquity, but because you two made it so delightful to me, that +six weeks of gout could not sour it. Pray take care of +yourselves-not for your own sakes, but for mine: for, as I have +just had my quota of gout, I may, possibly, expect to see another +summer: and, as you allow that I do know my own, and when I wish +for any thing and have it, am entirely satisfied, you may depend +upon it that I shall be as happy with a third summer, if I reach +it, as I have been with the two last. + +Consider, that I have been threescore years and ten looking for a +society that I perfectly like; and at last there dropped out of +the clouds into Lady Herries's room two young gentlewomen, who I +so little thought were sent thither on purpose for me, that When +I was told they were the charming Miss Berrys, I would not even +go to the side of the chamber where they sat. But, as Fortune +never throws any thing at one's head without hitting one, I soon +found that the charming Berrys were precisely ce qu'il me +fallait; and that though young enough to be my +great-grand-daughters, lovely enough to turn the heads of all our +youths, and sensible enough, if said youths have any brains, to +set all their heads to rights again. Yes, sweet damsels, I have +found that you can bear to pass half your time with an +antediluvian, without discovering any ennui or disgust; though +his greatest merit towards you is, that he is not one of those +old fools who fancy they are in love in their dotage. I have no +such vagary; though I am not sorry that some folks think I am so +absurd, since it frets their selfishness. The Mackinsys, +Onslows, Miss Pelham, and Madame de Cambis have dined here; and +to-morrow I shall have the flamptonians and other Richmondists. +I must repeat it; keep in mind that both of you are delicate, and +not strong. If you return in better health, I shall not repine +at your journey. Good night! + +(855) The Miss Berrys were at this time in Yorkshire. + + + +Letter 405 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Wednesday, 3 o'clock, Sept. 25, 1793. (page 543) + +Every thing has gone au mieux. The rain vented itself to the +last drop yesterday; and the sun, as bright as the Belvedere, has +not had a wrinkle on his brow since eight o'clock this morning; +nay, he has been warm, and gilded the gallery and tribune with +sterling rays; the Thames quite full with the last deluges, and +the verdure never fresher it was born. The Duchess of York +arrived punctually at twelve, in a high phaeton, with Mrs. Ewert, +and Bude on horseback. On the step of the gate was a carpet, +and the court matted. I received the Princess at the side of +her chaise, and when entered, kissed her hand. She had meant to +ride; but had hurt her foot, and was forced to sit most of the +time she was here. We had many civil contests about my sitting +too: but I resisted, and held out till after she had seen the +house and drank chocolate in the round drawing-room; and then she +commanded General Bude to sit, that I might have no excuse: yet I +rose and fetched a salver, to give her the chocolate myself, and +then a glass of water. She seemed much pleased, and commended +much; and I can do no less of her, and with the strictest truth. +She is not near so small as I had expected; her face is very +agreeable and lively; and she is so good-humoured, and so +gracious, and so natural, that I do not believe Lady Mary +Coke(856) would have made a quarter so pleasing a Duchess of +York; nor have been in half so sweet a temper, unless by my +attentions de vieille cour. I was sorry my Eagle(857) had been +forced to hold its tongue To-morrow I shall go to Oatlands, with +my thanks for the honour; and there, probably, will end my +connexions with courts, begun with George the First, +great-great-great-grandfather to the Duchess of' York! It +sounds as if there could not have been above three generations +more before Adam. + +Great news How eager Mr. Berry will look!-but it is not +from armies or navies; not from the murderers at Paris, nor from +the victims at Grodno. No! it is only an event in the little +world of me. This morning, to receive my Princess, I put on a +silver waistcoat that I had made three years ago for Lord +Cholmondeley's marriage, and have not worn since. Considering, +my late illness, and how many hundredweight of chalk I have been +Venting these ten years, I concluded my wedding garment would +wrap round me like my nightgown; but, lo! it was grown too tight +for me. I shall be less surprised, if, in My next century, and +under George the Tenth, I grow as plump as Mrs. Ellis. + +Methinks I pity you, when all the world is in arms, and you +expect to hear that Saul Duke of Brunswick has slain his +thousands, and David Prince of Cobourg his ten thousands, to be +forced to read the platitudes that I send you, because I have +nothing better to amuse me than writing to you. Well! you know +how to get rid of my letters. Good night. I reckon you are at +Brumpton,(858) and have had no accidents, I hope, on the road. + +(856) Lady Mary Coke, youngest daughter of John Duke of Argyle, +married to Lord Coke, eldest son of the Earl of Leicester. +After his death she fancied an attachment existed between herself +and the Duke of York, brother of George the Third; which she +likewise fancied had ended in an undeclared marriage.-M.B. + +(857) The antique marble eagle in the gallery at Strawberry Hill, +round the neck of which was to have been suspended some lines +which Lord Orford had written, extolling the, Duke of York's +military fame and conquests in Holland, which the unfortunate +issue of the campaign obliged him to suppress.-E. + +(858) The seat of Sir George Cayley, Bart. near Scarborough. + + + +Letter 406 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 6, 1793. (page 544) + +You are welcome to Scarborough both, and buon proviccia! As you, +Mrs. Mary, have been so mistaken about your sister, I shall allow +nobody for the future to take a panic about either but myself. I +am rejoiced the journey seems hitherto to answer so well; but, do +you know, "it is very inconvenient to my Lord Castlecomer." I am +forced to eat all the game of your purparties, as well as my own +thirds. + +Pray did not you think that the object of the grand alliance was +to reduce France? No such thing! at least their views have +changed ever since they heard of your setting out. Without +refining too much, it is clear to me that all they think on now, +is to prevent my sending you news. Does any army stir? Is not +the Duke of Brunswick gone to sleep again, like a paroli at faro, +or like a paroil at Torbay, which cocks one corner, but never +wins a septleva? That Lord Admiral reminds me of a trait of poor +Don Carlos, which helped on his death-warrant. He one day made a +little book, which he intituled "The Travels of Philip the +Second, King of Spain." It contained his Majesty's removals from +his capital to his country palaces, and back again. Well! if all +those monarchs are so pitiful as to set their wits against you, I +will balk them. I will do as other folks do; I will make news +myself-not to-night; for I have no invention by me at present: +besides, you are apt to sift news too shrewdly + +.But, before I coin a report for you, I must contradict one. If +you should hear in Yorkshire, that I am appointed aide-de-camp to +the Duke of York, you may safely contradict it. It could only +arise from the Duchess of York's visit to me; just as, the year +before you came to Cliveden, your predecessor, Sir Robert +Goodere, literally told me, that he heard that Princess Elizabeth +had been sent to me for two days for the air. On questioning him +roundly, I discovered that he had heard no such thing; but had +conjectured so. on seeing two of the Duchess of Gloucester's +servants pass before his door from or to the Pavilions; which +ought not to have puzzled the goose's imagination a moment--but +thus reports originate! + +Monday night, 7th. + +I come from Mrs. Jeffries at Richmond, but return not a battle +richer than I went; though I saw the secretary-at-war' there, and +even the panic-master-general, who had not a single alarm to +bestow on a poor soul who is hungering and thirsting for news, +good or bad, to send to you. Sir George Yonge,(859) indeed, did +tell us, that thirty Jacobins, who had disguised themselves as +priests, to bring scandal on their countrymen of that profession, +but who, the Bishop of Leon declares, are none of their clergy, +have been detected and seized, and are to be sent away to-morrow. +Home news from Richmond. Your friend Mr. Dundas was robbed this +morning at eleven o'clock at Cranford-bridge. He happened to +tell them he is a surgeon; on which they insisted on his giving +them his case of instruments. I suspect they are French +surgeons, and will poison the instruments for the first wound +they dress. You see how I labour in your service, though my +crops are small. An old Duchess of Rutland, mother of the late +Duchess of Montrose, whenever a visiter told her some news or +scandal, cried to her daughter, "Lucy, do step into next room, +and make a memorandum of what Lady Greenwich, or Lady M.M. or +N.N. has been telling us." "Lord! Madam, to be sure it cannot +be true." "No matter, child; it will do for news in the +country." It is for want of such prudent provision pour le +couvent, that so many people are forced to invent off-hand. You +cannot say I am so thoughtless: you receive every morsel +piping-hot as it comes from the bakers. One word about our +glorious weather, and I have done. It even improves every day. +I kept the window open till dinner-time to-day, and could do +nothing but gaze at the brilliant beauty of the verdure. It is +so equal to ordinary Julys, that one is surprised to see the sun +set before six o'clock. Good night! + +(859) Sir George Yonge. + + + +Letter 407 To Miss Hannah More.(860) +Strawberry Hill, Oct. 1793. page 546) + +Though it would make me happy, my dear Madam, if you were more +corresponding, yet I must not reproach your silence, nor wish it +were less; for all your moments are so dedicated to goodness, and +to unwearied acts of benevolence, that you must steal from +charity, or purloin from the repose you want, any that you bestow +on me. Do not I know, too, alas! how indifferent your health is! +You sacrifice that to your duties: but can a friend, who esteems +you so highly as I do, be so selfish as to desire to cost you +half an hour's headache! No, never send me a line that you can +employ better; that would trespass on your ease. + +Of the trash written against you I had never even heard.(861) +Nor do I believe that they gave you any other disquiet than what +arose from seeing that the worthiest and most humane intentions +are poison to some human beings. Oh! have not the last five +years brought to light such infernal malevolence, such monstrous +crimes, as mankind had grown civilized enough to disbelieve when +they read any thing similar in former ages; if, indeed, any thing +similar has been recorded. But I must not enter into what I dare +not fathom. Catherine Slay-Czar triumphs over the good honest +Poles; and Louis Seize perishes on a scaffold, the best of men: +while whole assemblies of fiends, calling themselves men, are +from day to day meditating torment and torture for his heroic +widow; On whom, with all their power and malice, and with every +page, footman, and chambermaid of hers In their reach, and with +the rack in their hands, they have not been able to fix a speck. +Nay, do they not talk of the inutility of evidence? What other +virtue ever sustained such an ordeal? But who can wonder, when +the Almighty himself is called by one of those wretches, the +soi-disant God. + +You say their outrageous folly tempts you to smile(862)--yes, +yes: at times I should have laughed too, if I could have dragged +my muscles at once from the zenith of horror to the nadir of +contempt: but their abominations leave one leisure enough to leap +from indignation to mirth. I abhor war and bloodshed as much as +you do; but unless the earth is purged of such monsters, peace +and morality will never return. This is not a war of nation and +nation; it is the cause of every thing dear and sacred to +civilized man, against the unbounded licentiousness of assassins, +who massacre even the generals who fight for them--not that I +pity the latter; but to whom can a country be just that rewards +tools with the axe? What animal is so horrible as one that +devours its own young ones? + +That execrable nation overwhelms ill moralizing. At any other +minute the unexpected death of Lady Falmouth would be striking: +yet I am sorry for Mrs. Boscawen. I have been ill for six weeks +with the gout, and am just recovered: yet I remember it less than +the atrocities of France; and I remember, if possible, with +greater indignation, their traitors here at home; amongst whom +are your antagonists. Do not apologize for talking Of them and +yourself. Punish them not by answering, but by supporting the +good cause, and by stigmatizing the most imprudent impiety that +ever was avowed. + +Mrs. Garrick dined here to-day, with some of the quality of +Hampton and Richmond. She appears quite well, and was very +cheerful: I wish you were as well recovered. Do you remember how +ill I found you both last year in the Adelphi? Adieu! thou +excellent champion, as well as practiser, of all goodness. Let +the vile abuse vented against you be balm to your mind: your +writings must have done great service, when they have so provoked +the enemy. All who have religion or principle must revere your +name. Who would not be hated by Duponts and Dantons!--and if +abhorrence of atheism implies Popery, reckon it a compliment to +be called Papist. The French have gone such extravagant lengths, +that to preach or practise massacres is, with them, the sole test +of merit-of patriotism. Just in one point Only they have merit; +they sacrifice the blackest criminals with as much alacrity as +the most innocent or the most virtuous: but I beg your pardon; I +know not how to stop when I talk of these ruffians. Yours, most +cordially and most sincerely. + +(860) Now first collected. + +(861) Three abusive answers to Miss More's pamphlet against M. +Dupont had just been published.-E. + +(862) Miss More had said,--"These mad monkeys of the Convention +do contrive to enliven my unappeasable indignation against them +with occasional provocatives to mirth. How do you like the +egregious inventions of the anniversary follies of the 10th of +August?"-E. + + + +Letter 408 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Tuesday evening, eight o'clock, Oct. 15, 1793. +(page 547) + +Though I do not know when it will have its whole lading, I must +begin my letter this very moment, to tell you what I have just +heard. I called on the Princesse d'Hennin, who has been in town +a week. I found her quite alone, and I thought she did not +answer quite clearly about her two knights: the Prince de Poix +has taken a lodging in town, and she talks of letting her house +here, if she can. In short, I thought she had a little of an +Ariadne-air--but this was not what I was in such a hurry to tell +you. She showed me several pieces of letters, I think from the +Duchesse de Bouillon: one says, that poor Duchesse de Biron is +again arrested and at the Jacobins, and with her "une jeune +`etourdie, qui ne fait que chanter toute la journ`ee;" and who, +think you, may that be?--only our pretty little wicked Duchesse +de Fleury! by her singing and not sobbing, I suppose she was +weary of her Tircis, and is glad to be rid of him. This new +blow, I fear, will overset Madame de Biron again. The rage at +Paris seems to increase daily or hourly; they either despair, or +are now avowed banditti. I tremble so much for the great- and +most suffering victim of all, the Queen, that one cannot feel so +much for many, as several perhaps deserve: but her tortures have +been of far longer duration than any martyrs, and more various; +and her courage and patience equal to her woes!(864) + +My poor old friend, the Duchesse de la Vali`ere, past ninety and +stone-deaf, has a guard set upon her, but in her own house; her +daughter, the Duchesse de Chatillon, mother of the Duchesse de la +Tremouille, is arrested; and thus the last, with her attachment +to the Queen, must be miserable indeed!--But one would think I +feel for nothing but Duchesses: the crisis has crowded them +together into my letter, and into a prison;-and to be prisoner +amongst cannibals is pitiable indeed! + +Thursday morning, 17th, past ten. + +I this moment receive the very comfortable twin-letter. I am so +conjugal, and so much in earnest upon the article of recovery, +that I cannot think of a pretty thing to say to very pretty Mrs. +Stanhope; nor do I know what would be a pretty thing in these +days. I might come out with some old-fashioned compliment, that +would have been very genteel In + +"good Queen Bess's golden day, when I was a dame of honour." + + Let Mrs. Stanhope(865) imagine that I have said all she +deserves: I certainly think it, and will ratify it, when I have +learnt the language of the nineteenth century; but I really am so +ancient, that as Pythagoras imagined he had been Panthoides +Enphorbus in the Trojan war, I am not sure that I did not ride +upon a pillion behind a gentleman-usher, when her Majesty +Elizabeth went in procession to St. Paul's on the defeat of the +Armada! Adieu! the postman puts an end to idle speculations--but, +Scarborough for ever! with three huzzas! + +(863) The Duchess perished under the guillotine in the following +year.-E. + +(864) On the 16th of October, a few hours after Walpole had +penned the above letter, the unfortunate Marie Antoinette was +conducted, amidst a great concourse of the populace, to the fatal +spot, where, ten months before, Louis the Sixteenth had perished. +"Sorrow had blanched her once beautiful hair: but her features +and air commanded the admiration of all who beheld her. Her +cheeks, pale and emaciated, were occasionally tinged with a vivid +colour at the mention of those she had lost. When led out to +execution, she was dressed in white; she had cut off her hair +with her own hands. Placed in a tumbrel, with her arms tied +behind her, she was taken to the Place de la R`evolution. She +listened with calmness to the exhortations of the ecclesiastic +who accompanied her, and cast an indifferent look at the people +who had so often applauded her beauty and her grace, and who now +as warmly applauded her execution. On reaching the foot of the +scaffold, she perceived the Tuileries, and appeared to be moved; +but she hastened to ascend the fatal ladder, and gave herself up +with courage to the executioner. The infamous wretch exhibited +her head to the people, as he was accustomed to do when he had +sacrificed an illustrious victim. The Jacobins were overjoyed. +'Let these tidings be carried to Austria,' said they; 'the Romans +sold the ground occupied by Hannibal; we strike off the heads +that are dearest to the sovereigns who have invaded our +territory.' " See Thiers, vol. iii. p. 196, and Lacretelle, tom. +xi. p. 261.-E. + +(865) The wife of Colonel Stanhope, brother of the Earl of +Harrington. + + + +Letter 409 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Nov. 7, 1793. (page 549) + +I often lay the egg of my journals two or three days before they +are hatched. This may make some of my articles a little stale +before you get them; but then you know they are the more +authentic, if the Echo has not told me to unsay them-and, if a +Prince of Wales drops a thumping victory at my door as he goes +by, you have it hot out of the oven--though, as happened lately, +not half baked.(866) + +The three last newspapers are much more favourable, than you +seemed to expect. Nieuport has been saved; Ostend is safe. The +Royalists in La Vend`ee are not demolished, as the Convention of +Lars asserted. Strasbourg seems likely to fall. At Toulon even +the Neapolitans, on whom you certainly did not reckon, have +behaved like heroes. As Admiral Gravina is so hearty, though his +master makes no progress in France, I suspect that the sovereign +of so many home kingdoms is a little afraid Of trusting his army +beyond the borders, lest the Catalans should have something of +the old--or new leaven. In the mean time, it Is still more +provoking to hear of Catherine Slay-Czar sitting on her throne +and playing with royal marriages, without sending a single ship +or regiment to support the cause of Europe, and to punish the Men +of the Mountain, who really are the assassins that the Crusaders +supposed or believed existed in Asia. Oh! Marie Antoinette, what +a contrast between you and Petruchia! + +Domestic news are scanty, but dismal, and you have seen them +anticipated; as the loss of the young Lord Montague(867) and Mr. +Burdett,(868) drowned in a cataract in Switzerland by their own +obstinate folly.(869) Mr. Tickell's death was a determined +measure, and more shocking than the usual mode by a pistol. He +threw himself from one of the uppermost windows of the palace at +Hampton Court, into the garden -an immense height! Some attribute +his despair to debts; some to a breach with his political +friends. I am not acquainted with, but am sorry for him, as I +liked his writings.(870) + +Our weather remains unparagoned; Mrs. Hastings is not more +brilliant: the elms are evergreens. I a little regret your not +seeing how beautiful Cliveden can be on the 7th of November; ay, +and how warm. Then the pheasants, partridges, and hares from +Houghton, that you lose: they would have exceeded Camacho's +wedding, and Sancho Panza would have talked chapters about them. +I am forced to send them about the neighbourhood, as if I were +making interest to be chosen for the united royal burghs of +Richmond and Hampton Court. But all this is not worth sending: I +must wait for a better bouche. I want Wurmser to be Caesar, and +send me more Commentaries de Bello Gallico. What do you say to +those wretches who have created Death an endless Sleep,(871) that +nobody may boggle at any crime for fear of hell? Methinks they +have no reason to dread the terrors of conscience in any +Frenchman! + + +November 10th. + +Hiatus non deflendus; for I have neither heard a word, nor had a +word to say these three days. Victories do not come every tide, +like mackerel, or prizes in the Irish lottery. Yesterday's paper +discounted a little of Neapolitan valour; but, as even the Dutch +sometimes fight upon recollection, and as there was no account +yet of O'Hara's arrival at Toulon, I hope he will laugh or +example lor' Signori into spirit. + +YOU Will Wonder at my resuming my letter, when I profess having +nothing to add to it; but yours of the 7th is just arrived, and I +could not make this commenced sheet lie quiet in my writing-box: +it would begin gossiping with your letter, though I vowed it +shall not Set out till to-morrow. "Why, you empty thing," said +I, "how do you know but there may have been a Gazette last night, +crammed With vast news, which, as no paper comes out on Sundays, +we shall not learn here; and would you be such a goose as to +creep through Brentford and Hammersmith and Kensington, where the +bells may be drinking some general's health, and will scoff you +for asking whose? Indeed you Shall not stir before to-morrow. +Lysons is returned from Gloucestershire, and is to dine here +to-day; and he will at least bring us a brick, like Harlequin, as +a pattern of any town that we may have taken. Moreover, no Post +sets out from London on Sunday nights, and you would only sit +guzzling--I don't mean you, Miss Berry, but you, my letter-with +the clerks of the post-office. Patience till tomorrow." + +We have had some rain, even this last night: but the weather is +fine all day, and quite warm. I believe it has made an +assignation with the Glastonbury Thorn, and that they are to +dance together on old Christmas-day. What could I do with myself +in London! All my playthings are here, and I have no playfellows +left there! Lady Herries's and poor Mrs. Hunter's(872) are shut +up. Even the "one game more at cribbage"(873) after supper is on +table, which is not my supreme felicity, though accompanied by +the Tabor and Pipe,(874) is in the country or, to say all in a +word, North Audley-street is in Yorkshire! Reading composes +little of my pastime, either in town or country. A catalogue of +books and prints, or a dull history of a county, amuse me +sufficiently; for now I cannot open a French book, as it would +keep alive ideas that I want to banish from my thoughts. When I +am tired at home, I go and sit an hour or two with the ladies of +Murray,(875) or the Doyleys, and find them conversable and +comfortable; and my pessime aller is Richmond. + +Monday morning, 11th. + +Lysons(876) has been drawing churches in Gloucestershire, and +digging out a Roman villa and mosaic pavement near Cirencester, +which he means to publish: but he knew nothing outlandish; so if +the newspaper does not bring me something fresh for you +presently, this limping letter must set out with its empty +wallet. Mrs. Piozzi is going to publish a book on English +Synonymes. Methinks she had better have studied them, before she +stuffed her Travels with so many vulgarisms!(877) + +(866) This alludes to some false report of the time. + +(867) Lord Viscount Montague was the last male heir of a most +noble and ancient family, in a lineal descent from the Lady Lucy +Nevill.-E. + +(868) Charles Sedley Burdett, second son of Francis Burdett Esq. +and brother of Francis, who on the death of his grandfather, Sir +Robert Burdett, in 1797, succeeded to the baronetcy.-E. + +(869) They insisted on shooting down the, great fall of the Rhine +at Schaflhausen in a boat, against the remonstrances of the +neighbouring inhabitants and their refusal of every bribe, either +to assist or accompany them. They and their boat were shattered +to pieces, and their remains were found some days after, at a +considerable distance from the scene of their mad exploit. + +(870) Richard Tickell, Esq. author of "Anticipation," the " +Wreath of Fashion," and other poems. He was a commissioner of +the stamp-office, and brother-in-law to Richard Brinsley +Sheridan.-E. + +(871) "C'est ici l'asile du sommeil `eternel," was the republican +inscription over all the public cemeteries. Pache, Hebert, and +Chaumette, the leaders of the municipality, publicly expressed +their determination to dethrone the King of Heaven, as well as +the kings of the earth. Gebel, the constitutional Bishop of +Paris, disowned at the bar of the Convention the existence of a +God. On the 10th of November, a female whom they termed the +Goddess of Reason, was admitted within the bar, and placed on the +right hand of the president. After receiving the fraternal hug, +she was mounted on a magnificent car, and conducted to the church +of Notre Dame, to take the place of the Holy of Holies; and +thenceforth that ancient and imposing cathedral was called "the +Temple of Reason," See Thiers, vol. iii, p. 2,25, and +Lacretelle, torn. xi. p, 306.-E. + +(872) Widow of Dr. John Hunter. + +(873) A manner of designating the Countess of Ailesbury. + +(874) Two old ladies of his society, whom he thus called. + +(875) Sisters to the great Earl of Mansfield. + + +(876) Samuel Lysons, Esq. brother to the Rev. Daniel Lysons, of +whom a notice has been given at p. 438, (letter 344, note 674(, +and author of several works relating to the Roman Antiquities of +Great Britain. He also published, in conjunction with his +brother, the earlier volumes of the "Magna Britannica." In 1804, +be succeeded Mr. Astle as keeper of the records in the Tower of +London; which office he held till his death in 1819. Mr. +Mathias, in November 1797, described him as "one of the most +judicious, best-informed, and most learned amateur antiquaries in +the kingdom in his department;" and his work on the remains of +the Roman villa and pavements near Gloucester, as "such a +specimen of ingenuity, unwearied zeal, and critical accuracy in +delineating and illustrating the fragments of antiquity, as +rarely had been equalled, certainly never surpassed." See +Pursuits of Literature.-E. + +(877) The following is Mr. Gifford's opinion of the +qualifications of the lady for such a work--"Though no one better +knows his own house' than I the vanity of this woman; yet the +idea of her undertaking it had never entered my head; and I was +thunderstruck when I first saw it announced. To execute it with +any tolerable degree of success, required a rare combination of +talents, among the least of which may be numbered neatness of +style, acuteness of perception, and a more than common accuracy +of discrimination; and Mrs. Piozzi brought to the task, a jargon +long since become proverbial for its vulgarity, an utter +incapacity of defining a single term in the language, and just as +much Latin from a child's syntax as sufficed to expose the +ignorance she so anxiously labours to conceal." See Baviad and +Maviad.-E. + + + +Letter 410 To Miss Berry. +Berkeley Square, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 1793. (page 552) + +I begin my last letter to Bransby, that I may have it ready to +send away the moment I shall have any thing worth telling; which +I certainly have not yet. What is become of Lord Howe and Co. +you may guess if you please, as every body is doing-- + +"I'm weary of conjectures--" + +but shall not end them like Cato, because I take the fate of a +whole fleet a little more likely to come to a solution than +doubts in metaphysics; and if Lord Howe should at last bring home +two or three French men-of-war, one would not be out of the way +to receive them. In the mean time, let us chat as if the destiny +of half Europe were not at this moment in agitation. + +I went on Monday evening with Miss Damer to the little Haymarket, +to see "The Children in the Wood," having heard so much of my +favourite, young Bannister, in that new piece; which, by the way, +is well arranged, and near being fine.(878) He more than +answered +my expectation, and all I had heard of him. It was one of the +most admirable performances I ever saw: his transports of despair +and joy are incomparable, and his various countenances would be +adequate to the pencil of Salvator Rosa. He made me shed as many +tears as I suppose the original old ballad did when I was six +years old. Bannister's merit was the more striking, as, before +"The Children in the Wood," he had been playing the sailor in "No +Song no Supper," with equal nature. I wish I could hope to be as +much pleased tomorrow night when I am to go to Jerningham's play; +but there is no Bannister at Covent-garden! + +On Sunday night I found the Comte de Coigni(879) at Lady Lucan's. +He was to set out the next morning with Lord Moira's expedition +as a common soldier. This sounded decent and well; but you may +guess that he had squeezed a little Frenchism into his intention, +and had asked for a vessel and some soldiers to attend him. I +don't know whether he has condescended to go without them. I +asked him about his daughter; he said, he did not believe she was +in prison. Others say, it is the Duchesse de Fleury, her +mother-in-law. I have been surprised at not seeing or hearing +any thing of poor Fleury(880) but I am told he has been forced to +abscond, having narrowly escaped being arrested by a coachmaker, +to whom he owed five hundred pounds for carriages: which, to be +sure, he must have had, or +bespoken at Paris before the revolution. + +Thursday noon. + +Yesterday came a letter to the Admiralty, notifying that Lord +Howe has taken five of the Brest squadron: but this intelligence +is derived through so many somebodys, that handed it to +somebodys, that I am not much inclined, except by wishing it +true, to believe it. However, the wind has got much more to the +west, and now we shall probably not remain much longer in total +darkness. + +Three o'clock. + +Another account is come to Mrs. Nugent's(881) from her husband, +with the same story of the five captive French men-of-war; and so +that reading is admitted: but for my part, I will admit nothing +but under Lord Howe's own hand. It is tiresome to be like the +scene in Amphitryon, and cry one minute "Obvious, obvious!" and +the next "Dubious, dubious!" Such fluctuability is fit only for a +stock-jobber. Adieu! I must dress and dine, or I shall not be +ready to wait on your grandfather Seton.(882) + +(878) See the Memoirs of this admirable comedian, by Mr. +Adolphus, recently published in two volumes octavo. The drama +here spoken of was the production of Mr. Morton, and formed from +the ancient ballad of the cruel uncle who murdered his brother's +children in a wood, that he might inherit the family estate.-E. + +(879) Younger brother of the Duc de Coigni, the grand `ecuyer of +Marie Antoinette and great uncle of the present Duc de Coigni. + +(880) The Duc de Fleury, the Count de Coigni's son-in-law. + +(881) The wife of Admiral Nugent. + +(882) he means Mr. Jerningham's play, the Siege of Berwick. + + + +Letter 411 To The Miss Berrys. +Friday, December 13, 1793. (page 553) + +You will not wonder at my dulness about the time of your setting +out, and of the giles you are to make on the road: you are used +to my fits of incomprehension; and, as is natural at my age, I +believe they increase. What augmented them was my eagerness to +be sure of every opportunity of sending you the earliest +intelligence of every event that may happen at this critical +period. That impatience has sometimes made me too precipitate in +my information. I believed Lord Howe's success too rapidly: you +have seen by all the newspapers, that both the ministers and the +public were equally credulous, from the collateral channels that +imported such assertions! Well! if you have been disappointed of +capturing five or six French men-of-war, you must at present stay +your appetite by some handsome slices of St. Domingo, and by +plentiful goblets of French blood shed by the Duke of Brunswick; +which we firmly believe, though the official intelligence was not +arrived last night. His Highness, who has been so serene for +above a year, seems to have waked to some purpose and, which is +not less propitious, his victory indicates that his principal, +the King of Prussia, has added no more French jewels to his +regalia. I shall like to hear the National Convention accuse him +of being bribed by a contrary Pitt's diamond.(883) Here is +another comfortable symptom: it looks as if Robespierre would +give up Barr`ere. How fortunate that Beelzebubs and Molochs +peach one another, like human highwaymen! I will tell you a +reflection I have made, and which shows how the worst monsters +counteract their own councils. Many formerly, who meant to +undermine religion, began by sapping the belief of a devil. +Next, by denying God, they have restored Satan to his throne, or +will; though the present system is a republic of fiends. The +Pandemonium below recalls its agents, as if they were only +tribunes of the people elected by temporary factions. Barnave, +called the Butcher in the first Convention, is ,gone, like +Orleans and Brissot. If we do not presume to interpret +judgments, I wonder the monsters themselves do not: enough has +happened already to warn them of their own fate! + +The Conways are in town for two or three days: they came for Mr. +Jerningham's play. Harris had at last allowed him the fourth +night; and he had a good night. I have a card from Lady Amherst +for Monday; and shall certainly go, as my lord behaved so nobly +about our cousin.(884) I have another from the Margravine of +Anspach, to sup at Hammersmith; whither I shall certainly not go, +but plead the whole list of chronical distempers. Do you think +if the whole circle of Princes of Westphalia were to ask me for +next Thursday evening,(885) that I would accept the invitation? + +Saturday, Dec. 14, 1793. + +I am glad this is to be the last of my gazettes. I am tired of +notifying and recalling the articles of news: not that I am going +to dislaurel the Duke of Brunswick; but not a sprig is yet come +in confirmation. Military critics even conjecture, by the +journals from Manheim and Frankfort, that the German victories +have not been much more than repulses of the French, and have +been bought dearly. I have inclined to believe the best from +Wurmser; but I confess my best hopes are from the factions of +Paris. If the gangrene does not gain the core, how calculate the +duration? It has already baffled all computation, all conjecture. +One wonders now that France, in its totality, was not more fatal +to Europe than even it was. Is not it astonishing, that after +five years of such havoc, such emigrations, expulsions, +massacres, annihilation of commerce, evanition Of specie, and +real or impending famine, they can still furnish and support +armies against us and the Austrians in Flanders, against the Duke +of Brunswick and Wurmser, against us at Toulon, against the King +of Sardinia, against Spain, against the Royalists in La Vend`ee, +and along the coast against our expedition under Lord Moira; and +though we have got fifteen of their men-of-war at Toulon, they +have sixteen, or more, at Brest, and are still impertinent with a +fry of privateers? Consider, too, that all this spirit is kept +up by the most extravagant lies, delusions, rhodomontade; by the +extirpation of the usual root of enthusiasm, religion; and by the +terror of murder, that ought to revolt all mankind. If such a +system of destruction does not destroy itself, there is an end of +that ignis fatuus, human reason; and French policy must govern, +or exterminate mankind. + +I this moment received Your Thursday's note, with that for your +housekeeper, who is in town, and with those sweet words, "You +need not leave a card; we shall be at home." I do not believe I +shall send you an excuse. Marshal Conway has stopped in to tell +me, he has Just met with his nephew, Lord Yarmouth,(886) who has +received a letter from a foreign minister at Manheim, who asserts +all the Duke of Brunswick's victories, and the destruction or +dispersion of the French army in that quarter. The Earl +maintains, that the King of Prussia's politics are totally +changed to the right, and that eighteen thousand more of his +troops have joined the allies. I should like to know, and to +have the Convention know, that the murder of the Queen of France +has operated this revulsion. + +I hope I send you no more falsehoods-at least, you must allow, +that it is not on bad authority. If Lord Howe has disappointed +you, you will accept the prowess of the virago his sister, Mrs. +Howe.(887) As soon as it was known that her brother had failed, +a Jacobin mob broke her windows, mistaking them for his. She +lifted up the sash, and harangued them; told them, that was not +the house of her brother, Who lives in the other part of +Grafton-street, and that she herself is a widow, and that that +house is hers. She stilled the waves, and they dispersed +quietly. + +There! There end my volumes, to my great satisfaction! If we are +to have any bonfires or illuminations, you will be here to light +them Yourselves. Adieu to Yorkshire! + + +(883) He means bribed by the then prime minister. + +(884) Lord Amherst, the then commander-in-chief, had appointed a +cousin of Miss Berry's to an ensigncy, on his recommendation. + +(885) The persons addressed were to arrive in London. + +(886) The present Marquis of Hertford. + +(887) A person of distinguished abilities, She possessed an +extraordinary force of mind, clearness of understanding, and +remarkable powers of thought and combination, She retained them +unimpaired to the great age of eighty-five, by exercising them +daily, both in the practice of mathematics and in reading the two +dead languages; of which, late in life, she had made herself +mistress. To those acquirements must be added warm. and lively +feelings, joined to a perfect knowledge of the world and of the +society of which she had always been a distinguished member. Mr. +Walpole, from misinformation of her conduct towards a friend of +his in earlier life, had never done justice to her character--a +mistake, in which she did not participate, relative to him.-M.B. + + + +Letter 412 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Berkeley Square, Jan. 10, 1794. (page 555) + +I certainly sympathize with you on the reversed and gloomy +prospect of affairs, too extensive to detail in a letter; nor +indeed do I know any thing more than I collect from newspapers +and public reports; and those are so overcharged with falsehoods +on all sides, that, if one waits for truth to emerge, one finds +new subjects to draw one's attention before firm belief can +settle its trust on any. That the mass and result are bad, is +certain; and though I have great alacrity in searching for +comforts and grounds of new hopes, I am puzzled as much in +seeking resources, as in giving present credit. Reasonine is out +of the question: all calculation is baffled: nothing happens that +Sense Or experience said was probable. I wait to see what will +happen, without a guess at what is to be expected. A storm, when +the Parliament meets, will no doubt be attempted. How the +ministers are prepared to combat it, I don't know, but I hope +sufficiently, if it spreads no farther: at least I think they +have no cause to fear the new leader who is to make the attack. + +I have neither seen Mr. Wilson's book(888) nor his answerers. So +far from reading political pamphlets, I hunt for any books, +except modern novels, that will not bring France to my mind, or +that at least will put it out for a time. But every fresh person +one sees, revives the conversation: and excepting a long +succession of fogs, nobody talks of any thing else; nor of +private news do I know a tittle. Adieu! + +(888) It was entitled "A Letter, Commercial and Political, +addressed to the Right Hon. William Pitt-, by Jasper Wilson, jun. +Esq." The real author was Dr. Currie, the friend of Mr. +Wilberforce; who commends it, "as exhibiting originality of +thought and force of expression, and solving, finely the +phenomena of revolutions." See Life, vol. ii. p. 13.-E. + + + +Letter 413 To Miss Berry. +Thursday evening, April 16, 1794. (page 556) + +I am delighted that you have such good weather for your +villeggiatura. The sun has not appeared here to-day; yet it has +been so warm, that he may not be gone out of town, and only keeps +in because it is unfashionable to be seen in London at Easter. +All my evening customers are gone, except Mrs. Damer, and she is +at home to-night with the Greatheds and Mrs. Siddons, and a few +more; and she had a mind I should go to her, I had a mind too; +but think myself still too weak: after confinement for fourteen +weeks, it seems formidable to sally forth. I have heard no +novelty since you 'went, but of more progress in Martinico; on +which it is said there is to be a Gazette, and which, I suppose, +gave a small fillip to the stocks this morning: though my Jew, +whom I saw again this morning, ascribed the rise to expectation +in the City of news of a counter-revolution at Paris;-but a +revolution to be, generally proves an addled egg. + +The Gazette arrives, and little of Martinico remained +unconquered. The account from Sir Charles Gray is one continued +panegyric on the conduct of our officers soldiers, and sailors; +who do not want to be driven on `a la Dumaurier, by cannon behind +them and on both sides. A good quantity of artillery and stores +is taken too, and only two officers and about seventy men killed. +There is a codicil to the Gazette, with another post taken--the +map, I suppose, knows where I do not--but you, who are a +geographess, will, or easily find it out. + +At my levee before dinner, I had Mrs. Buller, Lady Lucan, Sir +Charles Blagden, Mr. Coxe, and Mr. Gough. This was a good day; I +have not always so welcome a circle. I have run through both +volumes of Mrs. Piozzi. Here and there she does not want parts, +has some good translations, and stories that are new; +particularly an admirable bon-mot of Lord Chesterfield, which I +never heard before, but dashed with her cruel vulgarisms: see +vol. ii. p. 291. The story, I dare to say, never happened, but +was invented by the Earl himself; to introduce his reply. The +sun never was the emblem of Louis Quinze, but of Louis Quatorze; +In whose time his lordship was not ambassador, nor the Czarina +Empress: nor, foolish as some ambassadors are, could two of them +propose devices for toasts; as if, like children, they were +playing at pictures and mottoes: and what the Signora styles a +public toust, the Earl, I conclude, called a great dinner then. +I have picked out a motto for her work in her own words, and +written it on the title-page: "Simplicity cannot please without +eloquence!" Now I think on't, let me ask if you have been as much +diverted as you was at first? and have not two such volumes +sometimes set you a'yawning? It is comic, that in a treatise on +synonymous words, she does not know which are and which are not +so. In the chapter on worth, she says, "The worth -even of money +fluctuates in our state;" instead of saying in this country. Her +very title is wrong; as she does not even mention synonymous +Scottish words: it ought to be called not British, but English +Synonymy. + +Mr. Courtenay has published some epistles in rhyme, in which he +has honoured me with a dozen lines, and which are really some of +the best in the whole set-in ridicule of my writings. One +couplet, I suppose, alludes to my Strawberry verses on you and +your sister. Les voici-- + +"Who to love tunes his note, with the fire of old age, +And chirps the trim lay in a trim Gothic cage!" + +If I were not as careless as I am about literary fame, still, +this censure would be harmless indeed; for except the exploded +story of Chatterton, of which I washed myself as white as snow, +Mr. Courtenay falls on my choice of subjects--as, of Richard the +Third and the Mysterious Mother--and not on the execution; though +I fear there is enough to blame in the texture of them. But this +new piece of criticism, or whatever it is, made me laugh, as I am +offered up on the tomb of my poor mad nephew; who is celebrated +for one of his last frantic acts, a publication in some monthly +magazine, with an absurd hypothesis on "the moon bursting from +the earth, and the earth from the sun, somehow or other:" but +how, indeed, especially from Mr. Courtenay's paraphrase, I have +too much sense to comprehend. However, I am much obliged to him +for having taken such pains to distinguish me from my lunatic +precursor, that even the European Magazine, when I shall die, +will not be able to confound us. Richard the Third would be +sorry to have it thought hereafter, that I had ever been under +the care of Dr. Munro. Well! good night! + + + +Letter 414 To Miss Hannah More. +April 27, 1794. (page 558) + +This is no plot to draw you into committing even a good deed on a +Sunday, which I suppose the literality of your conscience would +haggle about, as if the day of the week constitutes the sin, and +not the nature of the crime. But you may defer your answer till +to-night is become to-morrow by the clock having struck one; and +then you may do an innocent thing without any guilt, which a +quarter of an hour sooner you would think abominable. Nay, as an +Irishman would say, you need not even read this note till the +canonical hour is past. + +In short, my dear Madam), I gave your obliging message to Lady +Waldegrave, who will be happy to see you on Tuesday, at one +o'clock But as her staircase is very bad, as she is in a lodging, +I have proposed that this meeting, for which I have been pimping +between two female saints, may be held here in my house, as I had +the utmost difficulty last night in climbing her scala santa, and +I cannot undertake it again. But if you are so good as to send +me a favourable answer to-morrow, I will take care you shall find +her here at the time I mentioned, with your true admirer. + + + +Letter 415 To The Miss Berrys. +Strawberry Hill, Saturday night, Sept. 27, 1794. (page 558) + +I have been in town, as I told you I should, but gleaned nothing +worth repeating, or I Would have wrote before I came away. The +Churchills left me on Thursday, and were succeeded by the Marshal +and Mr. Taylor, who dined and stayed all night. I am now alone, +having reserved this evening to answer your long, and Agnes's +short letter; but in this single one to both, for I have not +matter enough for a separate maintenance. +I went yesterday to Mrs. Damer, and had a glimpse of her new +house; literally a glimpse, for I saw but one room on the first +floor, where she had lighted a fire, that I might not mount two +flights; and as it was eight o'clock, and quite dark, she only +opened a door or two, and gave me a cat's-eye view into them. +One blemish I had descried at first; the house has a corner +arrival like her father's. Ah, me! who do not love to be led +through the public. I did see the new bust of Mrs. Siddons, and +a very mistressly performance it is indeed. Mrs. Damer was +surprised at my saying I should expect you after you had not +talked of returning near so soon. another week; she said. "I do +not mention this, as if to gainsay your intention; on the +contrary, I hope and beg you will stay as long as either of you +thinks she finds the least benefit from it: and after that, too, +as long as you both like to stay. I reproached myself so sadly, +and do still, for having dragged you from Italy sooner than you +intended, and am so grateful for your having had that +complaisance, that unless I grow quite superannuated, I think I +shall not be so selfish as to combat the inclination of either +again. It is natural for me to delight in your company; but I do +not even wish for it, if it lays you under any restraint. I have +lived a thousand years to little purpose, if I have not learned +that half a century more than the age of one's friends is not an +agr`ement de plus. + +I wish you had seen Canterbury some years ago, before they +whitewashed it; for it is so coarsely daubed, and thence the +gloom is so totally destroyed, and so few tombs remain for so +vast a mass, that I was shocked at the nudity of the whole. If +you should go thither again, make the Cicerone show you a pane of +glass in the east window, which does open, and exhibits a most +delicious view of the ruins Of St. Anstin's. + +Mention of Canterbury furnishes me with a very suitable +opportunity for telling you a remarkable story, which I had from +Lady Onslow t'other night, and which was related to her by Lord +Ashburnham, on whose veracity you may depend. In the hot weather +of this last summer, his lordship's very old uncle, the Bishop of +Chichester,(889) was waked in his palace at four o'clock in the +morning by his bedchamber door being opened, when a female +figure, all in white, entered, and sat down near him. The +prelate, who protests he was not frightened, said in a tone of +authority, but not with the usual triple adjuration, "Who are +you?" Not a word of reply; but the personage heaved a profound +sigh. The Bishop rang the bell; but the servants were so sound +asleep, that nobody heard him. He repeated his question: still +no answer; but another deep sigh. Then the apparition took some +papers out of the ghost of its pocket, and began to read them to +itself. At last, when the Bishop had continued to ring, and +nobody to come, the spectre rose and departed as sedately as it +had arrived. When the servants did at length appear, the bishop +cried, "Well! what have you seen?" "Seen, my lord!" "Ay, seen; +or who, what is the woman that has been here?" "Woman my lord!" +(I believe one of the fellows smiled; though, to do her justice, +Lady Onslow did not say so.) In short, when my lord had related +his vision, his domestics did humbly apprehend that his lordship +had been dreaming; and so did his whole family the next morning, +for in this our day even a bishop's household does not believe in +ghosts: and yet it is most certain that the good man had been in +no dream, and told nothing but what he had seen; for, as the +story circulated, and diverted the ungodly at the prelate's +expense, it came at last to the ears of a keeper of a mad-house +in the diocese, who came and deposed, that a female lunatic under +his care had escaped from his custody, and, finding the gate of +the palace open, had marched up to my lord's chamber. The +deponent further said, that his prisoner was always reading a +bundle of papers. I have known stories of ghosts, solemnly +authenticated, less credible; and I hope you will believe this, +attested by a father of our own church. + +Sunday night, 28th, 1794. + +I have received another letter from dear Mary, of the 26th; and +here is one for sweet Agnes enclosed. By her account of +Broadstairs, I thought you at the North Pole; but if you are, the +whales must be metamorphosed into gigs and whiskies, or split +into them, as heathen gods would have done, or Rich the +harlequin. You talk of Margate, but say nothing of Kingsgate, +where Charles Fox's father scattered buildings of all sorts, but +in no style of architecture that ever appeared before or has +since, and in no connexion with or to any other, and in all +directions; and yet the oddity and number made that naked, though +fertile soil, smile and look cheerful. Do you remember Gray's +bitter lines on him and his vagaries and history?(890) + +I wish on your return, if in good weather, you would contrive to +visit Mr. Barrett's at Lee; it is but four miles from Canterbury. +You will see a child of Strawberry prettier than the parent, and +so executed and so finished! There is a delicious closet, too, +so flattering to me: and a prior's library so antique, and that +does such honour to Mr. Wyat's taste! Mr. Barrett, I am Most +sure, would be happy to show his house to you; and I know, if you +tell him that I beg it, he will produce the portrait of Anne of +Cleve by Holbein, in the identic ivory box, turned like a +Provence rose, as it Was brought over for Henry the Eighth. It +will be a great favour, and it must be a fine day; for it lives +in cotton and clover, and he justly dreads exposing it to any +damp. He has some other good pictures; and the whole place is +very pretty, though retired. + +The Sunday's paper announces a dismal defeat of Clairfait; and +now, if true, I doubt the French will drive the Duke of York into +Holland, and then into the sea! Ora pro nobis! + +P. S. If this is not a long letter, I do not know what is. The +story of the ghost should have arrived on this, which is St. +Goose's-day, or the commemoration of the ignoble army of martyrs, +who have suffered in the persecution under that gormandizing +archangel St. Michael. + +(889) The Right Rev. Sir William Ashburnham, Bart, his lordship +died at a very advanced age, in September 1797. He was the +father of the bench, and the only bishop not appointed by George +the Third.-E. + +(890) Entitled "Impromptu, suggested by a view, in 1766, of the +seat and ruins of a deceased Nobleman, at Kingsgate, Kent." See +Gray's Works, vol. i. p. 161, ed. 1836.-E. + + + +Letter 416 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 1794. (page 561) + +Your answer, which I own arrived a day sooner than I flattered +myself it would--I wish it could have told me how you passed the +storm of Sunday night it has not only relieved me from all +anxiety on the subject, but has made me exceedingly happy; for +though I mistook you for a moment, it has proved to me, that I +had judged perfectly right of your excellent and most uncommon +understanding. Astonished I was, no doubt, while I conceived +that you wished to be placed in a situation so unworthy of your +talents and abilities and knowledge, and powers of +conversation.(891) I never was of a court myself; but from my +birth and the position of my father, could but, for my first +twenty years, know much of the nature of the beast; and, from my +various connexions since, I have seldom missed farther +opportunities of keeping up my acquaintance even with the +interior. The world in general is not ignorant of the complexion +of most courts; though ambition, interest, and vanity, are always +willing to leap over their information, or to fancy they can +counteract it: but I have no occasion to probe that delusion, nor +to gainsay your random opinion, that a court life may be eligible +for women. Yes, for the idle ones you specify, perhaps so;-for +respectable women I think much less than even for men. I do not +mean with regard to what is called their character; as if there +were but one virtue with which women have any concern-I speak of +their understanding, and consequential employment of their time. +In a court there must be much idleness, even without dissipation; +and amongst the female constituents, much self-importance +ill-founded; some ambition, Jealousy, envy-and thence hatred, +insincerity, little intrigues for credit, and--but I am talking +as if there were any occasion to dissuade you from what you +despise and I have only stated what occasioned my surprise at +your thinking of what you never did think at all. Still, while I +did suppose that in any pore of your heart there did lurk such a +wish, I did give a great gulp and swallowed down all attempts to +turn your thoughts aside from it--and why? Yes, and you must be +ready to ask me, how such a true friend could give into the hint +without such numerous objections to a plan so unsuitable for you! +Oh! for strong reasons too. In the first place, I was sure, +that, without my almost century of experience, your good sense +must have anticipated all my arguments. You often confute my +desultory logic on points less important, as I frequently find; +but the true cause of my assenting, without suffering a sigh to +escape me was, because I was conscious that I could not dissuade +you fairly, without a grain or more of self mixing in the +argument. I would not trust myself with myself. I would not act +again as I did when you was in Italy; and answered you as fast as +I could, lest self should relapse. Yet, though it did not last +an hour, what a combat it was! What a blow to my dream of +happiness, should you be attached to a court! for though you, +probably, would not desert Cliveden entirely, how distracted +would Your time be!--But I will not enter into the detail of my +thoughts; you know how many posts they travel in a moment, when +my brain is set at work, and how firmly it believes all it +imagines: besides the defalcation of your society, I saw the host +of your porphyrogeniti, from top to bottom, bursting on my +tranquillity. But enough: I conquered all these dangers, and +still another objection rose when I had discovered the only +channel I could open to your satisfaction, I had no little +repugnance to the emissary I was to employ.(892) Though it is my +intention to be equitable to him, I should be extremely sorry to +give him a shadow of claim on me; and you know those who might +hereafter be glad to conclude, that it was no wonder they should +be disappointed, when gratitude on your account had been my +motive. But my cares are at an end; and though I have laboured +through two painful days, the thorns of which were sharpened, not +impeded, by the storm, I am rejoiced at the blunder I made, as it +has procured me the kindest, and most heart-dictated, and most +heartfelt letter, that ever was written; for which I give you +millions of thanks. Forgive my injurious surmise; for you see, +that though you can wound my affection, you cannot allay its +eagerness to please you, at the expense of my own satisfaction +and peace. + +Having stated with most precise truth all I thought related to +yourself I do resume and repeat all I have said both in this and +my former letter, and renew exactly the same offers to my sweet +Agnes, if she has the least wish for what I supposed you wished. +Nay, I owe still more to her; for I think she left Italy more +unwillingly than you did, and gratitude to either is the only +circumstance that can add to my affection for either. I can +swallow my objections to trying my nephew as easily for her as +for you; but, having had two days and a half for thinking the +whole case over, I have no sort of doubt but the whole +establishment must be completely settled by this time; or that, +at most, if any, places are not fixed yet, It must be from the +strength and variety of contending interests: and, besides, the +new Princess will have fewer of each class of attendants than a +queen; and I shall not be surprised if there should already be a +brouillerie between the two courts about some or many of the +nominations: and though the interest I thought of trying was the +only one I could pitch upon, I do not, on reflection, suppose +that a person just favoured has favour enough already to +recommend others. Hereafter that may be better: and (" still +more feasible method, I think, would be to obtain a promise +against a vacancy; which, at this great open moment nobody will +think of asking, when the present is so uppermost in their minds: +and now my head is cool, perhaps I could strike out more +channels, should your sister be so inclined. But of that we will +talk when we meet. + +Thursday. + +I have received the second letter that I expected, and it makes +me quite happy on all the points that disquieted me; on the +court, on the tempest, and I hope on privateers, as you have so +little time to stay on Ararat, and the winds that terrify me for +you, will, I trust, be as formidable to them. Above, all, I +rejoice at your approaching return; on which I would not say a +syllable seriously, not only because I would have you please +yourselves, but that you may profit as much as possible by change +of air. I retract all my mistake; and though, perhaps, I may +have floundered on with regard to A., still I have not time to +correct or write any part of it over again. Besides, every word +was the truth of my heart; and why should not you see what is or +was in it? Adieu! + +(891) This alludes to a wish he supposed Miss Berry to have had +for a nomination in the household of Caroline Princess of Wales, +then forming.-M.B. + +(892) Lord Cholmondeley, then residing in the Isle of Thanet. + + + +Letter 417To The Miss Berrys. +October 17, 1794. (page 563) + +I had not the least doubt of Mr. Barrett's showing you the +greatest attention: he is a most worthy man, and has a most +sincere friendship for me, and I was sure would mark to any +persons that I love. I do not guess what your criticisms on his +library will be: I do not think we shall agree in them; for to me +it is the most perfect thing I ever saw, and has the most the air +it was intended to have--that of an abbot's library, supposing it +could have been so exquisitely finished three hundred years ago. +But I am sorry he will not force Mr. Wyat to place the Mabeuse +over the chimney; which is the sole defect, as not distinguished +enough for the principal feature of the room. My closet is as +perfect in its way as the library; and it would be difficult to +suspect that it had not been a remnant of the ancient convent, +only newly painted and gilt. My cabinet, nay, nor house, convey +any conception; every true Goth must perceive that they are more +the works of fancy than of imitation. + +I believe the less that our opinions will coincide, as you speak +so slightingly of the situation of Lee, which I admire. What a +pretty circumstance is the little river! and so far from the +position being insipid, to me it has a tranquil cheerfulness that +harmonizes with the house, and seems to have been the judicious +selection of a wealthy abbot, who avoided ostentation, but did +not choose austere gloomth. I do not say that Lee is as gay as a +watering-place upon a naked beach. I am very glad, and much +obliged to you for having consented to pass the night at Lee. I +am sure it made Mr. Barrett very happy. I shall let him know how +pleased you was; and I too, for his attentions to you. + +The mass of politics is so inauspicious, that if I tapped it, I +should not finish my letter for the post, and my reflections +would not contribute to your amusement; which I should be sorry +to interrupt, and -which I beg you to pursue as long as it is +agreeable to you. It is satisfaction enough to me to know you +are happy; and it is my study to make you so, as far as my little +power can extend: and, as I promised you on your Condescension in +leaving Italy at my prayer, I will never object to whatever you +like to do, and will accept, and Wait with patience for, any +moments you will bestow on your devoted Orford. + + + +Letter 418 To The Rev. William Beloe.(893) +Strawberry Hill, Dec. 2, 1794. (page 564) + +I do beg and beseech you, good Sir, to forgive me, if I cannot +possibly consent to receive the dedication you are so kind and +partial as to propose to me. I have in the most positive, and +almost uncivil manner, refused a dedication or two lately. +Compliments on virtues which the persons addressed, like me, +seldom possessed, are happily exploded and laughed out of use. +Next to being ashamed of having good qualities bestowed on me to +which I should have no title, it would hurt to be praised on my +erudition, which is most superficial; and on my trifling +writings, all of which turn on most trifling subjects. They +amused me while writing them; may have amused a few persons; but +have nothing solid enough to preserve them from being forgotten +with other things of as light a nature. I Would not have your +judgment called in question hereafter, if somebody reading your +Aulus Gellius should ask, "What were those writings of Lord O. +which Mr. Beloe so much commends? Was Lord O. more than one of +the mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease?" Into that class I +must sink; and I had rather do so imperceptibly, than to be +plunged down to it by the interposition of the hand of a friend, +who could not gainsay the sentence. + +For your own sake, my good Sir, as well as in pity to my +feelings, who am sore at your offering what I cannot accept, +restrain the address to a mere inscription. You are allowed to +be an excellent translator of classic authors; how unclassic +would a dedication in the old-fashioned manner appear! If you had +published a new edition of Herodotus or Aulus Gellius, would you +have ventured to prefix a Greek or Latin dedication to some +modern lord with a Gothic title'! Still less, had those addresses +been in vogue at Rome,. would any Roman author have inscribed +his work to Marcus, the incompetent son of Cicero, and told the +unfortunate offspring of so great a man, Of his high birth and +declension of ambition? which would have excited a laugh on poor +Marcus, who, whatever may have been said of him, had more sense +than to leave proofs to the public of his extreme inferiority to +his father. + +(893) Rector of Allhallows, London Wall, prebendary of Pancras in +St. Paul's cathedral, and prebendary of Lincoln. In 1791, be +published a translation of Herodotus, and in 1795, the +translation of the "Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius," referred to +in the above letter. He was also the author of " Anecdotes of +Literature and Scarce Books," in six volumes octavo; and after +his death, which took place in 1817, appeared "The Sexagenarian, +or Recollections of a Literary Life;" which, though a posthumous +publication, was printed under his inspection.-E. + + + +Letter 419 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, Saturday night, Jan. 24, 1795. (page 565) + +My best Madam, +I will never more complain of your silence; for I am perfectly +convinced that you have no idle, no unemployed moments. Your +indefatigable benevolence is incessantly occupied in good works; +and your head and your heart make the utmost use of the excellent +qualities of both. You have given proofs of the talents of one, +and you certainly do not wrap the still more precious talent of +the other in a napkin. Thank you a thousand times for your most +ingenious plan; may great success reward you! I sent one +instantly to the Duchess of Gloucester, whose piety and zeal +imitate yours at a distance: but she says she cannot afford to +subscribe just at this severe moment, when the poor so much want +her assistance, but she will on the thaw, and should have been +flattered by receiving a plan from yourself. I sent another to +Lord Harcourt, who, I trust, will show it to a much greater lady; +and I repeated some of the facts you told me of the foul fiends, +and their anti-More activity. I sent to Mr. White for half a +dozen more of your plans, and will distribute them wherever I +have hopes of their taking root and blossoming. To-morrow I will +send him my subscription;(894) and I flatter myself you will not +think it a breach of Sunday, nor will I make this long, that I +may not widen that fracture. Good night! How calm and +comfortable must your slumbers be on the pillow of every day's +good deeds! + +Monday. + +Yesterday was as dark as midnight. Oh! that it may be the +darkest day in all respects that we shall see! But these are +themes too voluminous and dismal for a letter, and which your +zeal tells me you feel too intensely for me to increase, when you +are doing all in your power to counteract them. One of my +grievances is, that the sanguinary inhumanity Of the times has +almost poisoned one's compassion, and makes one abhor so many +thousands of our own species, and rejoice when they suffer for +their crimes. I could feel no pity on reading the account of the +death of Condorcet (if true, though I doubt it). He was one of +the greatest monsters exhibited by history; and is said to have +poisoned himself from famine and fear of the guillotine; and +would be a new instance of what I suggested to you for a tract, +to show, that though we must not assume a pretension to judging +of divine judgments, yet we may believe that the economy of +Providence has so disposed causes and consequences, that such +villains as Danton, Robespierre, the Duke of Orleans, etc. etc. +etc. do but dig pits for themselves. I will check myself, or I +shall wander into the sad events of the last five years, down to +the rage of party that has sacrificed Holland! What a fund for +reflection and prophetic apprehension! May we have as much wisdom +and courage to stem our malevolent enemies, as it is plain, to +our lasting honour, we have had charity to the French emigrants, +and have bounty for the poor who are suffering in this dreadful +season! + +Adieu! thou excellent woman! thou reverse of that hyena in +petticoats, Mrs. Wolstoncroft, who to this day discharges her ink +and gall on Marie Antoinette, whose unparalleled sufferings have +not Yet stanched that Alecto's blazing ferocity. Adieu! adieu! +Yours from my heart. + +P. S. I have subscribed five guineas at Mr. White's to your plan. + +(894) To the fund for promoting the printing and dispersion of +the works sold at the Cheap Repository. + + + +Letter 420 To Miss Hannah More. +Berkeley Square, Feb. 13, 1795. (page 566) + +I received your letter and packet of lays and virelays, and +heartily wish they may fall in bad ground, and produce a hundred +thousand fold, as I doubt is necessary. How I admire the +activity of your zeal and perseverance! Should a new church ever +be built, I hope in a side chapel there will be an altar +dedicated to St. Hannah, Virgin and Martyr; and that Your pen, +worn to the bone, will be enclosed in a golden reliquaire, and +preserved on the shrine. + +These few words I have been forced to dictate, having had the +gout ill my right hand above this fortnight; but I trust it is +going off The Duchess was much pleased with your writing to her, +and ordered me to thank you. Your friend Lady Waldegrave is in +town, and looks very well. Adieu, best of women! Yours most +cordially.(895) + +(895) In a letter to her sister, dated from Fulham Palace, Miss +More says,--"Lord Orford has presented me with Bishop Wilson's +edition of the Bible, in three volumes quarto, superbly bound in +morocco (Oh! that he would himself study that blessed book), to +which, in the following most flattering inscription, he +attributes my having done far more good than is true-- + +"To his excellent friend, MISS HANNAH MORE, THE BOOK, +which he knows to be the dearest object of her study, and by +which, to the great comfort and relief +of numberless afflicted and distressed individuals, +she has profited beyond any person with whom he is acquainted, is +offered, as a mark of his esteem and gratitude, by her sincere +and obliged humble servant, Horace, Earl of Orford, 1795." + + + +Letter 421 To William Roscoe, Esq. +Berkeley Square, April 4, 1795. (page 567) + +To judge of my satisfaction and gratitude on receiving the very +acceptable present of your book,(896) Sir, you should have known +my extreme impatience for it from the instant Mr. Edwards had +kindly favoured me with the first chapters. You may consequently +conceive the mortification I felt at not being able to thank you +immediately both for the volume and the obliging letter that +accompanied it, by my right arm and hand being swelled and +rendered quite immovable and useless, of which you will perceive +the remains if you can read these lines which I am forcing myself +to write, not without pain, the first moment I have power to hold +'a pen; and it will cost me some time, I believe, before I can +finish my whole letter, earnest as I am, Sir, to give a loose to +my gratitude. + +If you ever had the pleasure of reading such a delightful book as +your own, imagine, Sir, what a comfort it must be to receive such +an anodyne in the midst of a fit of the gout that has already +lasted above nine weeks, and which at first I thought might carry +me to Lorenzo de' Medici before he should come to me. + +The complete volume has more than answered the expectations which +the sample had raised. The Grecian simplicity of the style is +preserved throughout; the same judicious candour reigns in every +page; and without allowing yourself that liberty of indulging +your own bias towards good or against criminal characters, which +over-rigid critics prohibit, your artful candour compels your +readers to think with you, without seeming to take a part +yourself. You have shown from his own virtues, abilities, and +heroic spirit, why Lorenzo deserved to have Mr. Roscoe for his +biographer. And since you have been so, Sir, (for he was not +completely known before, at least out of Italy,) I shall be +extremely mistaken if he is not henceforth allowed to be, in +various lights, one of the most excellent and greatest men with +whom we are well acquainted, especially if we reflect on the +shortness of his life and the narrow sphere in which he had to +act. Perhaps I ought to blame my own ignorance, that I did not +know Lorenzo as a beautiful poet: I confess I did not. Now I do, +I own I admire some of his sonnets more than several-yes, even of +Petrarch; for Lorenzo's are frequently more clear, less +alembiquis, and not inharmonious as Petrarch's often are from +being too crowded with words, for which room is made by numerous +elisions, which prevent the softening alternacy of vowels and +consonants. That thicket of words was occasioned by the +embarrassing nature of the sonnet: a form of composition I do not +love, and which is almost intolerable in any language but +Italian, which furnishes such a profusion of rhymes. To our +tongue the sonnet is mortal, and the parent of insipidity. The +Mutation in some degree of it was extremely noxious to a true +poet, our Spenser; and he was the more injudicious by lengthening +his stanza in a language so barren of rhymes as ours, and in +which several words, whose terminations are of similar sounds, +are so rugged, uncouth, and unmusical. The consequence was, that +many lines which he forced into the service to complete the quota +of his stanza are unmeaning, or silly, or tending to weaken the +thought he would express. + +Well, Sir: but if you have led me to admire the compositions of +Lorenzo, you have made me intimate with another poet, of whom I +had never heard nor had the least suspicion; and who, though +writing in a less harmonious language than Italian, outshines an +able master of that country, as may be estimated by the fairest +of all comparisons -which is, when one of each nation versifies +the same ideas and thoughts. That novel poet I boldly pronounce +is Mr. Roscoe. Several of his translations of' Lorenzo are +superior to the originals, and the verses more poetic; nor am I +bribed to give this opinion by the present of your book, nor by +any partiality, nor by the surprise of finding so pure a writer +of history as able a poet. Some good judges to whom I have shown +your translations entirely agree with me. I will name one most +competent judge, Mr. Hoole, so admirable a poet himself, and such +a critic in Italian, as he has proved by a translation of +Ariosto. That I am not flattering you, Sir, I will demonstrate; +for I am not satisfied with one essential line in your version of +the most beautiful, I think, of all Lorenzo's stanzas. It is his +description of Jealousy, in page 268, equal, in my humble +opinion, to Dryden's delineations of the Passions, and the last +line of which is-- + +Mai dorme, ed ostinata, a se sol crede. + +The thought to me is quite new, and your translation I own does +not come up to it. Mr. Hoole and I hammered at it, but could not +content ourselves. Perhaps by altering your last couplet you may +enclose the whole sense, and make it equal to the preceding six. + +I will not ask your pardon, Sir, for taking so much liberty with +you. You have displayed so much candour and are so free from +pretensions, that I am confident you will allow that truth is the +sole ingredient that ought to compose deserved incense; and if +ever commendation was sincere, no praise ever flowed with purer +veracity than all I have said in this letter does from the heart +of, Sir, your infinitely obliged humble servant. + +(896) His History of the Life of Lorenzo de' Medici. + + + +Letter 422 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, July 2, 1795. (page 569) + +I will write a word to you, though scarce time to write one, to +thank you for your great kindness about the soldier, who shall +get a substitute if he can. As you are, or have been in town, +your daughter will have told you in what a bustle I am, +preparing--not to resist, but, to receive an invasion of +royalties to-morrow; and cannot even escape them like Admiral +Cornwallis, though seeming to make a semblance; for I am to wear +a sword, and have appointed two aides-de-camp, My nephews, George +and Horace Churchill. If I fall, as ten to one but I do, to be +sure it will be a superb tumble, at the feet of a Queen and eight +daughters of Kings; for, besides the six Princesses, I am to have +the Duchess of York and the Princess of Orange! Wo is me, at +seventy-eight, and with scarce a hand and foot to my back! Adieu! +Yours, etc. A poor old remnant. + + + +Letter 423 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. +Strawberry Hill, July 7, 1795. (page 569) + +I am not dead of fatigue with my royal visitors, as I expected to +be, though I was on my poor lame feet three whole hours. Your +daughter, who kindly assisted me in doing the honours, will tell +you the particulars, and how prosperously I succeeded. The Queen +was uncommonly condescending and gracious, and deigned to drink +my health when I presented her with the last glass, and to thank +me for all my attentions. Indeed my memory de la vieille cour +was but once in default. As I had been assured that her Majesty +would be attended by her chamberlain, yet was not, I had no glove +ready when I received her at the step of her coach: yet she +honoured me with her hand to lead her up stairs; nor did I +recollect my omission when I led her down again. Still, though +gloveless, I (fid not squeeze the royal hand, as Vice-chamberlain +Smith did to Queen Mary.(897) + +You will have stared, as I did, at the Elector of Hanover +deserting his ally the King of Great Britain, and making peace +with the monsters. But Mr. Fawkener, whom I saw at my sister's +on Sunday, laughs at the article in the newspapers, and says it +is not an unknown practice for stock-jobbers to have an emissary +at the rate of five hundred pounds, and despatch to Frankfort, +whence he brings forged attestations of some marvellous political +event, and spreads it on 'Change, which produces such a +fluctuation in the stocks as amply overpays the expense of his +mission. + +This was all I learnt in the single night I was In town. I have +not read the new French constitution, which seems longer than +probably its reign will be. The five sovereigns will, I suppose, +be the first guillotined. Adieu! Yours ever. + +(897) It is said that Queen Mary asked some of her attendant +ladies what a squeeze of the hand was supposed to intimate. They +said "Love." "Then," said the Queen, "my Vice-chamberlain must +be violently in love with me, for he always squeezes my hand." + + + +Letter 424 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 1796. (page 570) + +Though I this morning received your Sunday's full letter, it is +three o'clock before I have a moment to begin answering it; and +must do it myself: for Kirgate is not at home. First came in Mr. +Barrett, and then Cosway, who has been for some days at Mr. +Udney's, with his wife: she is so afflicted for her only little +girl, that she shut herself up in her chamber, and would not be +seen.(898) The man Cosway does not seem to think that much of +the loss belonged to him: he romanced with his usual vivacity. +Next arrived Dr. Burney, on his way to Mrs. Boscawen. He asked +me about deplorable "Camilla." Alas! I had not recovered of it +enough to be loud in its praise. I am glad, however, to hear +that she has realized about two thousand pounds; and the worth, +no doubt, of as much in honours at Windsor; where she was +detained three days, and where even M. D'Arblay was allowed to +dine. + +I rejoice at your bathing promising so well. If the beautiful +fugitive(899) from Brighthelmstone dips too, the waves will be +still more salutary:-- + +Venus, orta mari, mare prestat eunti. + +I like your going to survey castles and houses: it is wholesomer +than drawing and writing tomes of letters;--which, you see, I +cannot do. + +Wednesday, after breakfast. + +When I came home from Lady Mendip's last night, I attempted to +finish this myself; but my poor fingers were so tired by all the +work of the day, that it will require Sir William Jones's gift of +tongues to interpret my pot-hooks. One would think Arabic +characters were catching; for Agnes had shown me a volume of +their poems, finely printed at Cambridge, with a version which +Mrs. Douglas had lent to her, and said they were very simple, and +not in the inflated style of the last. You shall judge: in the +first page I opened, I found a storm of lightning that had burst +into a laugh. I resume the thread of my letter. You had not +examined Arundel Castle enough; for you do not mention the noble +monuments, in alabaster, of the Fitz-Alans, one of whom bragged +of having married Adeliza, widow of Henry the First. In good +sooth, they were somewhat defaced by Cromwell having mounted his +cannon on the roof to batter the Castle; of which, when I saw it, +he had left little but ruins; and they were choked up by a vile +modern brick house, which I know Solomon has pulled down: for he +came hither two years ago to consult me about Gothicizing his +restoration of the castle. I recommended Mr. Wyat, lest he +should copy the temple of Jerusalem. + +So you found a picture of your predecessor!(900) She had had a +good figure: but I had rather it had been a portrait of her aunt, +Mrs. Arabella Fermor, the heroine of the Lock, of whom I never +saw a resemblance. You did not, I suppose, see the giant, who, +the old Duke told me, used to walk among the ruins, but who, to +be sure, Duke Solomon(901) has laid in a Red Sea of claret. +There are other splendid seats to be seen within your reach; as +Petworth, and Standstead, and Up-Park: but I know why I guess +that you may even be of parties, more than once, at the last. + +As Agnes says, she has promised I should give you an account of a +visit I have lately had, I will, if I have time, before any body +comes in. It was from a Mr. Pentycross, a clergyman and +schoolmaster of Wallingford, of whom I had heard nothing for +eight-and-twenty years; and then having only known him as a +Blue-coat boy from Kingston: and how that happened, he gave me +this account last week. He was born with a poetic impetus, and +walked over hither with a copy of verses by no means despicable, +which he begged old Margaret to bring up to me. She refused; he +supplicated. At last she told him that her master was very +learned, and that, if he would write something in the learned +languages, especially in French, she would present his poem to +me. In the mean time, she yielded; I saw him, and let her show +him the house. I think he sent me an ode or two afterwards, and +I never heard his name again till this winter, when I received a +letter from him from his place' of residence, with high +compliments on some of my editions, and beseeching me to give him +a print of myself, which I did send to him. In the Christmas +holidays he came to town for a few days, and called in +Berkeley-square; but it was when I was too ill to see any body. +He then left a modest and humble letter, only begging that, some +time or other, I would give him leave to see Strawberry Hill. I +sent him a note by Kirgate, that should he come to town in +summer, and I should be well enough, he should certainly see my +house. Accordingly, about a fortnight ago, I let him know, that +if he could fix any day in this month, I would give him a dinner +and a bed. He jumped at the offer, named Wednesday last, and +came. However, I considered that to pass a whole day with this +unknown being might be rather too much. I got Lysons, the +parson, from Putney, to meet him: but it would not have been +necessary, for I found my Blue-coat boy grown to be a very +sensible, rational, learned, and remaining a most modest +personage, with an excellent taste for poetry-for he is an +enthusiast for Dr. Darwin: but, alas! infinitely too learned for +me; for in the evening, upon questioning him about his own vein +of poetry, he humbly drew out a paper, with proposition +forty-seven of Euclid turned into Latin verse. I shrunk back and +cried, "Oh! dear Sir, how little you know me! I have forgotten +almost the little Latin I knew, and was always so incapable of +learning mathematics, that I could not even get by heart the +multiplication-table, as blind Professor Sanderson honestly told +me, above threescore years ago, when I went to his lectures at +Cambridge." After the first fortnight, he said to Me, "Young man, +it would be cheating you to take your money; for you can never +learn what I am trying to teach you." I was exceedingly +mortified, and cried; for, being a prime minister's son, I had +firmly believed all the flattery with which I had been assured +that my parts were capable of any thing. I paid a private +instructor for a year; but, at the year's end, was forced to own +Sanderson had been in the right; and here luckily ends, with my +paper, my Penticrusade! + +(898) The loss of her only child threw Mrs. Cosway upon art once +more. To mitigate her grief, she painted several large Pictures +for chapels; and afterwards visited Italy, where she formed a +college at Lodi for the education of young ladies. On the +establishment of peace, she returned to England, where she +remained till the death of her husband in 1821; after which she +returned to Lodi.-E. + +(899) The Countess of Jersey, mother to the present Earl. + +(900) A portrait of Trefusis, Countess of Orford, widow of the +eldest brother of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford. + +(901) Charles Howard, eleventh Duke of Norfolk, so called by Lord +Orford, for having his portrait executed in painted glass for the +window of his great dining-room, at Arundel Castle, as Solomon +entertaining the Queen of Sheba. + + + +Letter 425 To Miss Berry. +Strawberry Hill, August 24, 1796. (page 572) + +Bathe on, bathe on, and wash away all your complaints; the sea +air and such an oriental season must cure every thing but +positive decay and decrepitude. On me they have no more effect +than they would have on an Egyptian queen who has been embowelled +and reserved in her sycamore etui ever since dying was first +invented, and people notwithstanding liked to last for ever, +though even in a pyramid. In short, Mr. -- has teased me so much +about jumbling my relics, that I have aired(902) them every +morning in the coach for this fortnight; and yet, you see, I +cannot write ten lines together! Lady Cecilia lets me call on +her at twelve, and take her with me: and yet I grew tired of it, +and shall not have patience to continue, but shall remain, I +believe, in my mummyhood. I begin by giving myself a holiday +to-day, in order to answer your letter of the 21st; while Lady +Waldegrave, who is with me, and who has brought her eldest son, +whom, poor soul! she cannot yet bear to call Lord Waldegrave, is +gone to the pavilion. Here is a letter for you from Hannah More, +unsealed indeed, for chiefly a mon intention. Be so good as to +tell her how little I am really recovered but that I will hammer +out a few words as fast, that is, as slowly as I can to her, in +return. + +I am scandalized at the slovenly neglect of the brave chapel of +the Fitz-Alans.(903) I thought the longer any peer's genealogy +had been spun out, the prouder he was of the most ancient +coronets in it; but since Solomon despises the Arundels for not +having been dukes, I suppose he does not acknowledge Adam for a +relation; who, though he had a tolerably numerous progeny, his +grace does not allow to have been the patriarch of the Mowbrays +and Howards, as the devil did not make Eve a duchess, though he +has made the wives of some other folks so, and may propose to +make one more so some time or other. + +News I have none; but that Wurmsur seems to have put a little +spoke into the wheel of the French triumphal car in Italy: and as +those banditti have deigned to smile on the Duke of Wirtemberg, I +suppose they mean to postpone imposing a heavy contribution on +him till he shall have received the fortune of the Princess +Royal. Adieu! + +(902) The remainder of this letter is in the handwriting of +Kirgate. + +(903) In Arundel church. It has since been put in a state of +repair by the present Duke of Norfolk. + + + +Letter 426 To Miss Hannah More. +Strawberry Hill, August 29, 1796. (page 573) + +You are not only the most beneficent, but the most benevolent of +human beings. Not content with being a perfect saint yourself, +which (forgive me for saying) does not always imply prodigious +compassion for others; not satisfied with being the most +disinterested, nay, the reverse of all patriots, for you +sacrifice your very slender fortune, not to improve it, but to +keep the poor honest instead of corrupting them; and you write +politics as simply, intelligibly, and unartfolly, not as +cunningly as you can to mislead. Well, with all these giant +virtues, you can find room and time in your heart and occupations +for harbouring and exercising what those monkeys of pretensions, +the French, invented and called les petites morales, which were +to supply society with filigrain duties, in the room of all +virtues, which they abolished on their road to the adoption of +philosophy and atheism. Yes, though for ever busied in +exercising services and charities for individuals, or for whole +bodies of people, you do not leave a cranny empty into which you +can slip a kindness. Your inquiry after me to Miss Berry is so +friendly, that I cannot trust solely to her thanking you for your +letter, as I am sure she will, having sent it to her as she is +bathing in the sea at Bognor Rocks; but I must with infinite +gratitude give you +a brief account of myself-a very poor one indeed must I give. +Condemned as a cripple to my couch for the rest of my days I +doubt I am. Though perfectly healed, and even without a sear, my +leg is so weakened that I have not recovered the least use of it, +nor can move cross my chamber unless lifted up and held by two +servants. This constitutes me totally a prisoner. But why +should not I be so? What business had I to live to the brink of +seventy-nine? And why should One litter the world at that age? +Then, I thank God, I have vast blessings; I have preserved my +eyes, ears, and teeth; I have no pain left; and I would bet with +any dormouse that it cannot outsleep me. And when one can afford +to pay for every relief, comfort, or assistance that can be +procured at fourscore, dares one complain? Must not one reflect +on the thousands of old poor, who are suffering martyrdom, and +have none of these alleviations? my good friend, I must consider +myself as at my best; for if' I drag on a little longer, can I +expect to remain even so tolerably. Nay, does the world present +a pleasing scene? Are not the devils escaped out of the swine, +and overrunning the earth headlong? What a theme for meditation, +that the excellent humane Louis Seize should have been prevented +from saving himself by that monster Drouet, and that that +execrable wretch should be saved even by those, some of whom one +may suppose he meditated to massacre; for at what does a +Frenchman stop? But I will quit this shocking subject, and for +another reason too: I omitted one of my losses, almost the use of +my fingers: they are so lame that I cannot write a dozen lines +legibly, but am forced to have recourse to my secretary. I will +only reply by a word or two to a question you seem to ask; how I +like "Camilla?" I do not care to say how little. Alas! she has +reversed experience, which I have long', thought reverses its own +utility by coming at the wrong end of our life when we do not +want it. This author knew the world and penetrated characters +before she had stepped over the threshold; and, now she has seen +so much of it, she has little or no insight at all perhaps she +apprehended having seen too much, and kept the bags of foul air +that she brought from the Cave of Tempests too closely tied. + +Adieu, thou who mightest be one of the cleverest of women if thou +didst not prefer being one of the best! And when I say one of the +best, I have not engaged my vote for the second. Yours most +gratefully. + + + +Letter 427 To Richard Gough, Esq. +Berkeley Square, Dec. 5, 1796. (page 574) + +Dear Sir, +Being struck with the extreme cold of last week, it has brought a +violent gouty inflammation into one of my legs, and I was forced +to be instantly brought to town very ill. As soon as I was a +little recovered, I found here your most magnificent present of +the second volume of Sepulchral Monuments, the most splendid work +I ever saw, and which I congratulate myself on having lived long +enough to see. Indeed, I congratulate my country on its +appearance exactly at so illustrious a moment, when the +patriotism and zeal of London have exhibited so astonishing marks +of their opulence and attachment to the constitution, by a +voluntary subscription of seventeen millions of money in three +days. Your book, Sir, appearing, at that very instant, will be a +monument of a fact so unexampled in history; the treasure of fine +prints with which it is stowed, well becomes such a production +and such a work, the expense of which becomes it too. I am +impatient to be able to sit up and examine it more, and am sure +my gratitude will increase in proportion. As soon as I shall +receive the complete sheets, I will have the whole work bound in +the most superb manner that can be: and though, being so infirm +now, and just entered into my eightieth year, I am not likely to +wait on you, and thank you, I shall be happy to have an +opportunity, whenever you come this way, of telling you in person +how much I am charmed with so splendid a monument of British +glories, and which will be so proud an ornament to the libraries +of any nation. + + + +Letter 428 To Miss Berry. +Thursday, December 15, past noon, 1796. (page 575) + +I had no account of you at all yesterday, but in Mrs. Damer's +letter, which was rather better than the preceding; nor have I +had any letter before post to-day, as you promised me in hers. I +had, indeed, a humorous letter from a puss that is about your +house,(904) which is more comfortable; as I think she would not +have written cheerfully if you had not been in a good way. I +would answer it, but I am grown a dull old Tabby, and have no +"Quips and cranks and wanton wiles" left; but I shall be glad to +see her when she follows you to town, which I earnestly hope will +not pass Saturday. My horses will be with you on Friday night. + +The House of Commons sat till half an hour after three this +morning, on Mr. Pitt's loan to the Emperor; when it was approved +by a majority of above two hundred. Mr. Fox was more temperate +than was expected; Mr. Grey did not speak; Mr. Sheridan was very +entertaining: several were convinced and voted for Mr. Pitt, who +had gone down determined against it. The Prince came to town +t'other day ill, was blooded twice, but has now a strong eruption +upon his skin, which will probably be of great service to him. +Sir Charles Blagden has been with the Duchess of Devonshire, and +found her much better than he expected. Her look is little +altered: she suffers but little, and finds herself benefited by +being electrified. + +I have received a compliment to-day very little expected by a +superannuated old Etonian. Two tickets from the gentlemen of +Westminster School, for their play on Monday next. I excused +myself as civilly and respectfully as I could, on my utter +impossibility of attending them. Adieu! I hope this will be the +last letter I shall write before I See you.(905) + +(904) This was written by Miss Salon, in the name of a kitten at +Little Strawberry Hill, with whose gambols Lord Orford had been +much amused.-M.B. + +(905) Very soon after the date of the above letter, the gout, the +attacks of which were every day becoming more frequent and +longer, made those with whom Lord Orford was living at strawberry +Hill very anxious that he should remove to Berkeley Square, to be +nearer assistance, in case of any sudden seizure. As his +correspondents, soon after his removal, were likewise established +in London, no more letters passed between them. When not +immediately suffering from pain, his mind was tranquil and +cheerful. He was still capable of being amused. and of taking +some part in conversation: but, during the last weeks of his +life, when fever was superadded to his other ills, his mind +became subject to the cruel hallucination of supposing himself +neglected and abandoned by the only persons to whom his memory +clung, and whom he desired always to see. In vain they recalled +to his recollection how recently they had left him, and how short +had been their absence: it satisfied him for the moment, but the +same idea recurred as soon as he had lost sight of them. At +last, nature sinking under the exhaustion of weakness, +obliterated all ideas but those of mere existence, which ended, +without a struggle, on the 2d of March 1797.-M.B. + + + +Letter 429 To The Countess Of Ossory. +January 13, 1797. (page 576) + +You distress me infinitely by showing my idle notes, which I +cannot conceive can amuse any body. My old-fashioned breeding +impels me every now and then to reply to the letters you honour +me with writing; but in truth very unwillingly, for I seldom +can have any thing particular to say. I scarce go out of my own +house, and then only to two or three very private places, where I +see nobody that really know's any thing; apd. what I learn +comes from newspapers, that collect intelligence from +coffee-houses--consequently, what I neither believe nor +report. At home I see only a few charitable elders, except +about fourscore nephews and nieces of various ages, who are each +brought to me once a year, to stare at me as the Methusalem of +the family; and they can only speak of their own contemporaries, +which interest no more than if they talked of their dolls, or +bats and balls. Must not the result of all this, Madam, make me a +very entertaining correspondent? and can such letters be worth +showing? or can I have any spirit when so old, and reduced to +dictate? Oh! my good Madam, dispense with me from such a task, +and think how it must add to it to apprehend such letters being +shown. Pray send Me no more Such laurels, which I desire no more +than their leaves when decked with a scrap of tinsel, and stuck +on twelfth-cakes that lie on the shop boards of pastrycooks at +Christmas. I shall be quite content with a sprig +of rosemary thrown after me, when the parson of the parish +commits my dust to dust. Till then, pray, Madam, accept the +resignation of your ancient servant, Orford. + + + + THE END. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LETTERS OF HORACE WALPOLE, V4 *** + +This file should be named 4919.txt or 4919.zip + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. 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