(40) Richard Barry (1745-1773) succeeded as sixth Earl of Barrymore at six years of age. He married Lady Stanhope, daughter of William, Earl of Harrington. He was notorious as a skilful gambler. He is said to have been an excellent officer, holding a captain's commission at the time of his death.

(41) Alice Elizabeth, youngest daughter and co-heir of Herbert, second Viscount Windsor. She married Lord Beauchamp that year.

(42) John Radcliffc married Lady Frances Howard, Lord Carlisle's sister.

(43) Almack's Club was established by Macall in 1764. It was subsequently taken over by a wine merchant named Brooks and was thenceforward known as Brooks's. This club was primarily formed for the purpose of high play; one of the rules reads: "Every person playing at the new quinze table shall keep fifty guineas before him." At play it was the fashion to wear a great coat, sometimes turned inside out for luck; the lace ruffles were covered by a leathern bib. Broadbrimmed high hats, trimmed with ribbon and flowers, completed a proper gaming costume.

(44) Robert Shafto of Whitworth, M.P. for Durham—fond of racing and betting.

(45) Henry St. John, called "the Baptist," was a brother of "Bully," second Viscount Bolingbroke. Horace Walpole writes of them as Lord Corydon and Captain Corydon. He was a Groom of the Bedchamber, a Member of Parliament, and a colonel in the army. He was a man of wit, universally popular.

[1768,] Jan. 15, Friday morning.—We are at this moment in some alarm about you, which I hope to find has been given without any foundation; however, en tous cas, I hope this will find you at Nice, and not at Turin, where Lady Carlisle has been told there is a contagious disorder. You are near enough that place to have better intelligence than we.

I dine(d) with the Duke of Grafton the day before yesterday at Lord Barrington's, who assured me the death of Mr. Shirley would not occasion any delay in regard to you. Sir W[illiam] M[usgrave] and I have been contriving how to save you the price of the courier, which, for going and coming, is above 150 pounds. I shall apply to Lord Clive(46) through his former secretary, my neighbour Mr. Walsh. Lord Clive is going to Nice, although I suppose by a slow progress, and can supply this courier's place, a pas de tortue, that will not be inconvenient if you don't leave Nice immediately; if you do, a more expeditious method may be thought of. But I am very desirous of adding no more expense to that which this Order will cost you.

Almack's was last night very full; Lady Anne and Lady Betty(47) were there with Lady Carlisle. The Duke of Cumb[erlan]d(48) sat between Lady Betty and Lady Sarah, who was his partner. Lady Sarah, your sister, and His R[oyal] H[ighness] did nothing but dance cotillons in the new blue damask room, which by the way was intended for cards. The Duchess of Gordon(49) made her first appearance there, who is very handsome; so the beauty of the former night, Lady Almeria Carpenter,(50) was the less regarded. We will follow, if you please, the veteris vestigia flamme.

There has (sic) been no events this week that I know of, except his Grace of Bedford's(51) appearance at Court. His eyes are a ghastly object. He seems blind himself, and makes every [one] else so that looks at him. They have no speculation in them, as Shakespear says; what should be white is red, and there is no sight or crystal, only a black spot. It alters his countenance, and he looks like a man in a tragedy, as in K[ing] Lear, that has had his eyes put out with a fer rouge.

I dined yesterday at Lady Sarah's with Mr. and Mrs. Garrick.(52) I say as much as I can of Lady Sarah, and her name shall be in every other line, if it will excuse the borishness of my letters in other particulars.

March leaves Lord Spencer's to-day. He and Varcy like [lie] to-night at St. Alban's, and are to be in town to-morrow. The Northampton Election will cost God knows what. I dine to-day at Ossory's.(53) Lady Sarah, Miss Blake, Sir Ch[arles], &c., Sec., dine here on Tuesday. I chose that, being a post day.

I believe that the best thing I can do is to ask Lord Shelbourne(54) for the courier's place. I should be glad of it, if it was tenable with my seat in Parliament. Sir G. Mac sat last night at supper between Lady Bute(55) and his future, who by the way is laide a faire peur. I was asking Lady Carlisle which was the most likely, some years ago, to have a Blue Ribband, du beau-pere et du gendre.

Little Harry is not come to town. Sir Charles goes down into the country next week, but not Lady Sarah that I know of. I expect Hemmins every hour with the St. Andrew. He has so much abuse from me every day, that I believe he wishes that I had been crucified instead of St. Andrew. He swears that one man left the work in the middle of it, and said he would not have his eyes put out in placing those small diamonds that compose the motto.

Mr. Brereton is returned to the Bath, and the street robbers seem dispersed. The hard weather is gone for the present, so that London will be pleasanter than it has been, for the Jockeys and Macaronis.(56) Garrick criticised your picture of mine, which he saw at Humphry's; he has that and Sir Charles's; it is like, but not so good and spirited a likeness as Reynolds's(57) certainly. But I am much obliged to you for it. If you sit to Pompeio I shall hope to have a better, and with your Order.

The Duke of Cumb[erlan]d attacked the Duke of Buccleugh last night for wearing his under his coat; son Altesse R. a une bovardise fort intiressante il faut lui rendre justice.

I should not have troubled you so soon if this alarm from Turin, and the courier, &c., had not filled my head. My best compliments to Lord and Lady Holland and my love to Charles and Harry.(58) Charles is in my debt a letter; I shall be glad to hear from him. Crawfurd desired me to make his (ex)cuses to you, that he has not answered your last; he gains no ground; I think he is immaigri, et d'une inquietude perpetuelle qui porte sur rien.

The Duke of N[ewcast]le(59) seems to have gained strength and life since that manly resolution which he took last week of being no longer a Minister of this country. Let what would happen, he has given a conge to his friends to do what they will, and it shall not be looked upon as desertion. That is undoubtedly the most capital simpleton that ever the caprice of fortune placed in the high offices which he filled, and for so long a time.

The last paragraph of this letter can scarcely belong to this date, for the Duke of Newcastle was not in Chatham's Ministry, which was formed on the fall of the first Rockingham Administration in July, 1766.

(46) Lord Clive had recently returned from India in bad health. He lived, however, till 1774.

(47) Sisters of Lord Carlisle.

(48) Henry Frederick, younger brother of George III.; notorious for his dissipation.

(49) Jane Maxwell, Duchess of Gordon, wife of Alexander, fourth Duke. She was a social leader of the Tory party, and a confidante of Pitt. Horace Walpole called her "one of the empresses of fashion."

(50) Lady Almeria Carpenter was famous for her beauty. She was lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Gloucester and mistress to the Duke. "The Duchess remained indeed its nominal mistress, but Lady Almeria constituted its ornament and its pride." (Wraxall, vol. v. p. 201).

(51) John Russell, fourth Duke of Bedford (1710-71), died 1756. He was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1762; he went as Ambassador to Paris, where he negotiated the unpopular Treaty of Paris. He was at the head of the place-seeking politicians called the Bloomsbury Gang, from his town house in Bloomsbury Square; and when, in 1767, his faction came into power, the Duke of Bedford, who was worthy of better clients, made a feeble effort to arrive at an understanding with Lord Rockingham about a common policy; but he could not keep his followers for five minutes together off the subject that was next their hearts. Rigby bade the two noblemen take the Court Calendar and give their friends one, two, and three thousand a year all round ("The Early History of Charles James Fox," p. 132). An overbearing manner and the character of his followers made him unpopular. In 1731 he married Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of the third Earl of Sunderland, and sister of the third Duke of Marlborough. He married for the second time, in 1737, Gertrude, eldest daughter of the first Earl Gower. At the death of their only son, Lord Tavistock, in 1767, the Duke and Duchess of Bedford were harshly charged with want of respect for his memory.

(52) David Garrick (1717-79). In 1749 he married Eva Marie Violette, of Vienna, a dancer who had been received in the best houses in England. "I think I never saw such perfect affection and harmony as existed between them" (Dr. Beattie). Selwyn criticised disparagingly his Othello.

(53) John, second Earl of Upper Ossory (1745-1818). He was the brother of Richard Fitzpatrick and of Mary Fitzpatrick, wife of the second Lord Holland. He was educated at Eton and Oxford. "The man I have liked the best in Paris is an Englishman, Lord Ossory, who is the most sensible young man I ever saw" ("Walpole's Letters," vol. iv. p. 426). He married Annie, daughter of Lord Ravensworth, shortly after her divorce from the Duke of Grafton.

(54) William Petty, second Earl of Shelburne (1737-1805); created Marquis of Lansdowne, 1784; he became Secretary of State in Chatham's second Administration, 1766, and resigned office on October 20, 1768, almost simultaneously with Lord Chatham on the fall of Lord North. In 1782 he again became Secretary of State in Lord Rockingham's Ministry, and First Lord of the Treasury on the death of Rockingham. His Government came to an end on the coalition of Fox and North in 1783. He was the most liberal statesman of his time, "one of the earliest, ablest, and most earnest of English freetraders," but he was at the same time one of the most unpopular, a supposed insincerity being the cause of it.

(55) Lady Bute was the daughter of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

(56) A society of exquisites drawn from the younger men at Brooks's, noted for their affectation in dress and manner; travel abroad was necessary for admission to their society.

(57) Sir Joshua Reynolds(1723-1782). Selwyn was his patron and friend. When it was reported that Reynolds would stand as a candidate for the Borough of Plympton, and all the town was laughing at him, Selwyn remarked that he might very well succeed, "for Sir Joshua is the ablest man I know on a canvass."

(58) Henry Edward Fox, youngest son of Lord Holland.

(59) Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle (1693-1768). For half a century in the front of English political life. In 1724 he became Secretary of State in Walpole's Administration, and continued in office until 1756, having on the death of his brother, Henry Pelham, in 1754, become First Lord of the Treasury. In 1757 he returned as Prime Minister to office with the elder Pitt, resigning again in 1762. In Lord Rockingham's Ministry, 1765 to 1766, he was Lord Privy Seal. Newcastle is a remarkable instance of a man of apparently ordinary capacity holding high office in the State for many years.



Jan. 17, Sunday morning.—We received your Badge at last yesterday. Sir W. Musgrave and I deliberated a great while about the method of sending it, and at last went together to Lord Clive, who sets out for Paris to-morrow, and will take charge of it, as the surest conveyance. The courier was rejected as too expensive, and Mr. Ward as too uncertain. I have enclosed a schedule of what the packet delivered to Lord Clive contains. It is addressed to Sir J. Lambert and Mr. Ward. If he goes to Paris to-day, as he intended, [he] will carry a letter from me to Sir J. L[ambert] with directions for the safest and speediest conveyance of this to you; I shall write to him again upon the subject on Tuesday.

I wish somebody had received a letter from you by Friday's post, to satisfy us where you was. This idea of an epidemical disorder at Turin has alarmed Lady Carlisle, and I have caught some of the fright of her. March returned yesterday from Lord Spencer's, and the usual company supped at the Duke of Grafton's.

Mrs. Horton(60) sets out for Nice with a toad-eater and an upper servant of the Duke's this next week. The night robbers prove to be soldiers in the Foot Guards, which I suspected; we have not recovered our terrors, and still go home, as they travel in the Eastern countries, waiting for convoys; it ruins me in flambeaux's.

Lord Clive will not I think live to go to Nice, but I hope he will get safe to Paris, and then Sir J. Lambert will take care of all the rest. The Badge is pretty, excepting that the shape of it is too long, and the whole seems too large for a young person. But that was the fault of the sardonyx.

The Duchess of Bucc[leugh](61) is very far gone with child; but I believe I told you so in my last. I will write the rest when Lady Sarah is gone from my house Tuesday after dinner.

Tuesday night.—My dear Lord, I have waited till my foreign letters came in before I would finish this, always in hopes of one from you. I have received one by this post from Charles of the 6th of this month; and he says you was answering one which you had just had from me. This gives me hope that I shall hear from you on Friday.

Lady Sarah dined with me, Miss Blake, Sir Charles, Lord March, Lady Bolingbroke, and Crawfurd. Lady S[arah], &c. went to the Play soon. She received a long letter from Lady Holland while we were at dinner, but only said that Lord H[ollan]d was well, which I was glad to hear. We were 16 yesterday at the Duke of Gr[afton's], a very mixed company. He enquired very kindly after you.

I think I shall have both trouble and expense at Gloucester, as I have had heretofore, but that is all I apprehend, and that I have been prepared for a great while, by expectation. I am in great hopes from Charles's letter that you are still at Nice. Not that I think but, being so near Turin, if there was anything to be feared from the distemper, you would certainly hear it, and not go. Perhaps there are letters from you in Cleveland Court; I shall send to Sir Wm.(62) to enquire.

The great event at Almack's is that Scott has left off play; he is, I suppose, the plena cruons hirundo. I am not quite satisfied that Sir J. Lambert is punctual in forwarding my letters; pray let me know it. Those who have been to see me think your picture very like, but not a good likeness is agreed on all hands; but such as it is, I am very much obliged to you for it.

I am extremely glad to find that you are applying to Italian, but to anything is useful. You will find the benefit of it your whole life. There are lacunes to be filled up in every stage, which nothing can supply so well as reading, I am persuaded.

I find the last of mine that you had received when Charles wrote his was a month ago; that makes me afraid Sir J. L[ambert] keeps them. There [they] are no more worth his keeping than your receiving, but they give me the pleasure of assuring you, which I can, with great truth, that I am ever most truly and most affectionately yours.

(60) The Duke of Grafton made no secret of his relations with Mrs. Horton.

(61) Elizabeth, Duchess of Buccleugh, daughter of George, Duke of Montagu. She was married in 1767.

(62) Sir William Musgrave.

Intermixed with the personal news which fills the next letter there are allusions to some social and political incidents very characteristic of the time. The Indian nabob, or millionaire as we should now call him, had begun to desire a seat in Parliament for his own purposes, just as the sinecurist did for his, and he was able to outbid the home purchaser. The jealousy with which the Court party regarded the encroachments of these returned Anglo-Indians in their preserves is amusing, especially when we recollect that so great was the venality of the age that a respectable corporation such as that of Oxford did not hesitate to offer the representation of their borough for sale for a fixed sum.

1768, January 26, Tuesday night, at Almack's.—I received last night yours of the 9th of this month, for which I thank you most heartily. It is really so much pleasure to me to have a letter from you, that it makes me wish away five days out of seven, and at my age that is too great an abatement. I intended to have called to-day upon Sir W[illiam] Musgrave in consequence of it, but neither he [n]or Lady Carlisle having received any letters (if they are come, he might not have received them), that (sic) he prevented me, and called upon me at three o'clock to know if I had had any account of you.

Mr. Ward did not set out the Sunday he intended, that is the 17th inst., but he gave the letter which he was to carry to Sir J. L[ambert] to Mr. Hobart,(63) who was to set out for Paris the day after, that is, the 18th.

Lord Clive did not sail, as Sir W[illiam] M[usgrave] tells me, till last Sunday, so the Ribband and Badge, &c., will not arrive at Paris till next Saturday, or Sunday probably; but Sir J. L[ambert] will be prepared to have sent these things, by a safe hand to you either at Turin, or Nice. I shall write to him to-night again with a full explanation of all, that no time may be lost.

I conclude you came to Turin last Saturday, according to the letter which I received yesterday, unless Lady Carlisle's letter about the epidemical disorder prevented you, which was wrote the 5th inst., upon seeing Monsieur Viri(64) at the Princess Dow[age]r's Drawing Room. According to the usual course of the post you must then have received that the 19th, the evening of your intended departure, and whether it prevented you or not, is still for me a scavoir. I hope it did, all things considered. But if you really went to Turin last Wednesday, then you will have been there perhaps near three weeks before your Investiture. I hope no part of this delay will be imputed to me. You will not have passed your time, I should think, ill at a Court, where you was so announced, and to receive that distinction. I am sure, if any time had been lost by my means, I should be very sorry, when you tell me that the going so soon to Turin will accelerate your return hither. For to tell you the truth, I begin to think the time long already, and it is too soon to begin counting the months.

I am extremely glad to find that you had the Marquis(65) with you. I did not like the idea of your travelling alone. Your application to Italian, or to anything, is what will certainly turn to account, because, if I am not much mistaken, yours is the very age of improvement; but your growing fat must be owing to more indolence than can be salutary to you, and I hope you will take care that that is not too habitual. The inconveniences of it you may not find immediately, but they are certain, and very great, of which I could enumerate very remarkable instances; but they do not interest me as that does which concerns yourself. I find by Sir W[illiam] that you have already heard all that your family knows of Lady Fr.; your great good nature makes me not surprised at your anxiety, but there is no occasion for it, if I am rightly informed. Your monk's disinterest[ed]ness is a mare's nest; you will find he expects some gratuity that will amount to more than a certain stipend; there is no such thing in nature as an Eccle[si]astic doing anything for nothing.

As to Morpeth, the best that can be done at present is done. I'm persuaded what can be done in future times will depend upon yourself, as I hope and suppose. I do not wonder that Lady Carl, prefers Reynolds' picture, but I am not sorry to have that which I have neither. It is a great likeness, though not a good one.

Your seal you will receive with the other things. You ask me about Lord Tho[mon]d(66) and Will: all [the] party is so broke up at present that they are au desespoir. The Bedfords are in extraordinary good humour; that elevation of spirit does them no more credit than their precedent abasement; the equus animus seems a stranger to them. G. Greenv.(67) is certainly [befouled] as a Minister, but he is so well manured in other respects that he cannot be an object of great compassion certainly.

I hear you was alarmed in the night by a violent squabble in your retinue. I hope Robert behaves well; as a native of Castle Howard I have the most partiality to him, although I really believe Louis to be a very good servant. I shall be glad to know if Rover is still in being; he shall have his picture at the dilitanti (sic'), if he returns.

I hope you will not travel Eastward but upon the map. L'appetit vient en mangeant, but pray let me not find that in respect to your travelling; I cannot be so selfish as not to be glad that you make the tour of Italy, but I can carry my disinterestedness no further I confess; more than 18 months' quarantine will be too much for me.

Lord March is much obliged to you for your kind and constant mention of him; he is extremely well, and' not plagued with Zamparini's(68) or anything that I know of. The Duchess of North[umberlan]d(69) according to her present arrangement sets out for Paris, or some place or places abroad, next week. If she is not constantly wagging, as I'm told, she is in danger of a lethargy. Mrs. Horton sets out for Nice on Friday.

There has been a very long debate in the House of Commons to-day upon a motion of Ald. Beckford's(70) concerning a Bill he intends to bring in for the more effectual prevention of bribery and keeping out nabobs, commissaries, and agents of the House of Commons, or at least from their encroachments upon the claims of persons established in towns and boroughs, by descent, family interest, and long enjoyed property; the principle of his scheme is certainly good.

The Mayor and Corporation of Oxford are to appear at the Bar in defence of themselves, for having offered themselves to sale for 7,500 pounds. They had the honnetete to offer the refusal to their old members, who told them in answer to their modest proposal that as they had no intention to sell them, so they could not afford to buy them. I was not at the House, but this is likely to make a great noise. Bully's petition has been presented by Lord Sandw.,(71) and will probably be carried through this Session. Some of the Bishops intend to make speeches against it, as I hear.

Charles Boon has married a squint-eyed, chitten-face citizen with about 5,000 pounds fortune. Sir G. Mac(72) wedding will be about Monday or Tuesday next. They consummate at Comb, Vernon's house. Sir Ch[arles] is returned from Barton, and Lady Sarah gone to the Opera. You may be sure that we do not pass an hour without mention of you, but, shall I tell you mind (sic), when Lady Carlisle tells you that she has seen her at Chapel, and when I tell you that I have dined with her, we certainly mean to please you; but do we not help to keep up a flame that, in as much as that is the proper description of it, had better be extinguished? Crescit indulgent isti. I am sure I shall never say anything to lessen the just and natural esteem which you have for her, but when there is grafted on that what may make you uneasy, I must be an enemy to that or to yourself, and you know, I am sure, how incapable I am of that. I have a long letter almost every week from my flame also, Me du Deffand,(73) but these are passions which non in seria ducunt. She is very importunate with me to return to Paris, by which (?), if there is any sentiment, it must be all of her side. I should not be sorry to make another sejour there; but if I did, and it was with you, I should not throw away with old women and old Presidents,(74) which is the same thing, some of those hours which I regret very much at this instant. You may assure Lord Kildare that I will do my best about his election at the young club.(75)

(63) George Hobart, third Earl of Buckinghamshire (1732-1804). He was returned to Parliament in 1761, 1768, and 1774, and he was manager of the Opera for a time. In 1762 he was made Secretary to the Embassy at St. Petersburg, where his half-brother John, second Earl of Buckinghamshire, was Ambassador; in 1793 he succeeded him. He married, in 1757, Albinia, eldest daughter of Lord Vere Bertie.

(64) The Count de Viry, Sardinian Minister to England.

(65) William Robert, Marquis of Kildare (1748-1805). He succeeded as third Duke of Leinster in 1773.

(66) Percy Windham O'Brien, Baron of Stricheh and Earl of Thomond, brother of Lord Egremont and of Mrs. George Grenville. He was a Member of Parliament for Mmehead, Lord-Lieutenant of the county of Somerset, and a member of the Privy Council.

(67) George Grenville (1712-1770). Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1763. The author of the Stamp Act. See his Character, Lecky, "History of England," vol. III. p. 64.

(68) A dancing girl of fifteen and her family, at the moment the object of Lord March's attention.

(69) Lady Elizabeth Seymour, Duchess of Northumberland, generally called Lady Betty. In 1740 she married Sir Hugh Smithson, against the will of her grandfather, the Duke of Somerset, who disliked this marriage for the heiress of the Percys, but there was no power of depriving her of the property, and Smithson succeeded to the title in 1750; from this time they both figured prominently in society and politics, and the Duchess's entertainments, where the best musicians performed, were famous.

(70) William Beckford (1709-1770). Alderman and Lord Mayor of London, and Member of Parliament for the City of London. The friend and supporter of Wilkes, he was an upholder of popular rights at a time when men of wealth were usually supporters of the King.

(71) John George Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792); was a party politician whose term of office as First Lord of the Admiralty brought him into general opprobrium; in private life he was even more severely condemned. With the Earl of March, Sir Francis Dashwood, and others, he was associated with Wilkes in the infamous brotherhood of Medmenham, and later, when they made public the secrets of the club against Wilkes, popular feeling rose high against Sandwich, and he was characterised as Jemmy Twitcher, from a play then running; the theatre rose to the words "That Jemmy Twitcher should peach me I own surprised me."

(72) Sir George, afterward Lord Macartney (1737-1800). An ambitious young Irishman; a tutor and friend of Charles James Fox, he had been assisted in his career by Lord Holland. In 1764 he had been appointed Envoy Extraordinary to Russia, and later held appointments as Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, President of Madras, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, and Ambassador to China. He married Lord Bute's second and favourite daughter, Lady Jane.

(73) Marie de Vichy Chamroud, Marquise du Deffand (1697-1780). She married, in 1718, the Marquis du Deffand, from whom she soon separated, and lived the life of pleasure so common in the period. At the age of sixty-two she became totally blind. This misfortune but made her the more celebrated and sought after. In 1764 occurred the quarrel with Mlle. Lespinasse, which divided her salon and left her quite alone with her faithful secretary, Wiart. With the exception of her correspondence with the Duchesse de Choiseul, she bequeathed all her letters to Horace Walpole. She was seventy and Walpole fifty when they met and their famous attachment and correspondence began.

(74) President Henault (1685-1770). He was President of the Parliament, a member of the Academy, and author of "L'abrege Chronologique de l'Histoire de France." His devotion to Mme. du Deffand lasted until his death, which preceded hers by ten years.

(75) At White's.

(1768) Feb. 2, Tuesday Morning.—Yesterday Sir T. Stapleton and Mr. Lee, the members for the town of Oxford, read in their places, by order of the House, the letter which they had received a year and a half ago from the Mayor, Bailiffs, and Council of Oxford to offer them a quiet election, and absolute sale of themselves, for 5,670 pounds sterling; the sum which the Corporation is indebted, and otherwise as they declare unable to pay. Eleven sign, of which [whom] one is since dead; all the rest are ordered to attend at our Bar on Friday with the Mace Bearer, &c. Their Regalia has been pawned for their high living. The House was excessively crow[d]ed; Thurloe and Rigby,(76) for the Duke of Marl(borough's) sake, made weak efforts to bring them off. Some of these people are fled to Calais, as it is said, to avoid Newgate; it may be that none of them will appear who signed.

Mr. Walpole's(77) book(78) came out yesterday, but I got it from him on Saturday, and my (?) Lord Molyneux carried it for me that morning to Sir John Lamb[er]t to be forwarded to your Lordship immediately. I'm confident that it will entertain you much, and, what is more extraordinary, convince you; because I have that good opinion of your understanding as not to think that ages and numbers can sanctify falsehood, and that such is your love of truth as to be glad to find it, although at the expense of quitting the prejudice of your whole precedent life. I will not forestall your judgment by saying anything more of this book, but only wish it may afford as much entertainment as it has me. This historic doubter dined with me yesterday, Williams, Lord March, Cadogan, and Fanshaw, qui m'a demande a diner, at the House.

Horry seemed mightily pleased with the success which his new book has met with; nobody cavils at anything, but here and there an expression; his hypothesis is approved of from the most reasonable conjectures, and the most indisputable authorities. I would have had Bully [to] have dined with us, but he was engaged to his brother, qui donne a diner fort souvent. I told him, that if he would pay his court to Horry he might give him a lick of his vernis, that would do his repu[ta]tion no harm. He is in high spirits; his divorce is making a rapid progress through your House.

Beauclerck looks wretchedly, and has been very ill. Our Minister,(79) as you call him, goes on very well, but he is now a widower a second time; his Lady set out for Paris last Saturday. I hope he will not be undermined. The King will never have a servant that will please the public more. I dine with him often a petit convert at March's. I am not desirous that my friends should become ministers; but if they are ministers, it is fair to wish they may become one's friends. He is yours very cordially, I'm persuaded. He always asks very kindly after you, and seems uneasy that the Order has not yet reached you. He said the other day at dinner, aun ton tres patetique, "I shall be much disappointed if in four or five years Lord Carlisle does not give a very good account of himself." Ministre, ou non ministre, qui tient des propos pareils, n'aura pas grande difficulte a me contenter sur le reste. I have abandoned him to-day for Lady Sarah, at which you will be neither surprised, [n]or offended. He dines at March's, and I in the Privy Garden.

The D[uke] and D[uches]s of Rich[mon]d are in town. A young man whose name I cannot recollect asked me very kindly after you yesterday, at the H[ouse] of C[ommons]; he used to sit by your bedside of a morning in King Street; he is tall and thin.

Dr. Musgrave, the Provost of Oriel College in Oxf[or]d, cut his throat in bed the other day; he was ill, but he had taken to heart a mistake which he had madeabout a letter of Sir J. Dolben's, who is to be member for the University the remainder of this Parliament. A dispute with the Fellows, as they tell me, arose in consequence of it, and this seized the poor man's brains. He was reckoned very passionate, but d'ailleurs a good kind of man. I knew his person and his elder brother, Sir Philip, formerly very well. There is a stagnation of news just at this moment, but as soon as any preferments, peerages, or changes of any kind are known for certain, I will send you word of them.

I dined at the D[uchess]'s or Duke's, which you please, of Northumberland's(80) on Saturday; you are a great favourite of her Grace's. She told me of I don't know how many sheets which you had wrote to Lady Carlisle, giving an account of your travels. All the company almost were of Yorkshire, or of the North; Lord and Lady Ravensw[orth], Sir M. Ridley and his father, the Punch Delaval, Lord Tankerville, &c. Her Grace goes soon to Paris, but has as yet fixed no day.

A disagreeable report has prevailed lately, but I believe without the least foundation, that Crew has lost a monstrous sum to Menil. Almack's thrives, but no great events there. I have ordered the M[arquis] of Kildare to be put up at the young club, at White's. If little Harry is come to town, he shall write to you; others should write to you if I could make them, but I am afraid those wishes are more of a courtier than a friend. I should be sorry and ashamed, by endeavouring to flatter your inclination, if I lost your good opinion, which without flattery I value much.

I sat the other morning with Miss Blake; Lady S[arah], and Sir Ch[arle]s were rode out, and I did not see them. She told me a letter was come from Charles, and there is a rendezvous she said, somewhere, but she could not recollect where. She thought you intended to meet Charles and their family at Spa the end of the summer; if so, I shall not despair of seeing you many months sooner than I can otherwise expect it. I shall know to-day at dinner more particularly about it. Lord March thanks you for your frequent and kind mention of him.

My new chaise comes home the week after next. I shall defer making a chariot for some time. I may, perhaps, ask your opinion about a friensh [French?] equipage. March's great room is gilding, and when finished he is to give a dinner to Lady Sarah, and a concert to a great many more. I will finish this au sortir de table.

Tuesday night.—I dined at Sir Charles's. Harry came to town this morning with his French friend and Academist. He has promised me to write to you next post. Lady Sarah says that if you are not satisfied about the St. Andrew, Hemmins is to blame, not her. She could not get him to come near her; and the day it was finished, which was the day before it went away, she never saw it.

Charles, I find, is to meet you in April at Rome; and Lady Sarah the latter end of the summer to meet him at Spa. You do not return to Nice. I do not count much upon hearing from you, but by accident, when you proceed further into Italy.

Sir R. Rich died last night only, so I can know nothing of his preferments yet. Dr. Smith, the Master of Trinity, is also dead, and Dr. Hinchliff asks for his Headship. Lady Sarah was melancholy about Stee (81); she hears that his lethargy increases, and thinks it probable her sister may lose both her husband and son in a very short time; that is a disagreeable perspective. They all desired to be remembered to you. Adieu, my dear Lord, pour aujourd'hui. I have no chance of hearing from you by this post, the letters having come yesterday; so God bless you. I am ever most sincerely and affectionately yours.

(76) Richard Rigby (1722-1788). A prominent politician, he was for many years Paymaster of the Forces; but was a coarse, hard-drinking place-man.

(77) Horace Walpole (1717-1797) was the fourth and youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole. He was Selwyn's lifelong friend. His biographers place him at Eton with Selwyn, the two Conways, George and Charles Montagu, the poet Gray, Richard West, and Thomas Ashton. On leaving Cambridge he made the continental tour with Gray, but after two years of travel together they disagreed and separated for the homeward journey. In 1747 he bought Strawberry Hill, which he transformed into his Gothic Castle, ornamenting the interior with objects of beauty or curiosity. In 1757 he set up his private printing press, where he brought out Gray's poems and other interesting English and French publications, beside his own productions, which culminated in "The Castle of Otranto," a departure in fiction beginning the modern romantic revival. In 1765 he visited Paris, where he went much into society, and when his celebrated friendship with Mme. du Deffand began. He helped to embitter Rousseau against Hume by the mock letter from Frederick the Great offering him an asylum in Germany. In 1789, nine years after Mme. du Deffand's death, he met the two sisters, Agnes and Mary Berry, who came to live near him at little Strawberry, which he left them at his death. He succeeded his nephew as fourth Lord Orford in 1791, but he preferred the name which he had made more widely known, and signed himself "Horace Walpole, uncle of the late Earl of Orford." The celebrated letters begin as early as 1735 and extend to 1797. Walpole never married.

(78) "Historic Doubts on Richard the Third."

(79) The Duke of Grafton.

(80) Hugh, second Duke of Northumberland (1742-1817).

(81) Stephen Fox.



[1768,] Feb. 16, Tuesday morning, Newmarket.—I have just finished a long letter, which, when I came to sand, I have, par distraction, covered all over with ink. I came down here on Saturday with March to meet the Duke of Grafton, who by the by only stayed here that night, and then went to Bury, so that I have scarce seen him.

We are at Vernon's house, that is, dinner and supper; which he has bought of Lord Godolphin(82) [for] 4000. Here has been Sir J. More, Bully, and Polly Jones, Vernon's Polly, Mr. Stoneheir,(83) who came with the D[uke] of G[rafton], Sir Charles Bunbury and little Harry, and Mr. Richmond has been here also to lay out Vernon's gardens. Sir Charles has held us a Pharo bank of a night which has cost him 200 pound, a sum, I imagine, not so easily spared at this juncture by him.

March promised that I should be in London again today, but you know his irresolution, and the little opposition which I can give to what he desires; but it is a great sacrifice for me, for you have been so good in writing to me since I left you, that there is not a week that I am absolutely without my hopes of hearing from you, although, when I left you, I should have been glad to have compounded for once a month; and I'm the more impatient to know what accounts are come by Monday night's post, from what you told me of the gripe, and that you could not go to the French Amb[assado]r's Ball. Harry tells me that he wrote to you, as you ordered him.

Lady S[arah] is in town, and I suppose very happy with the thoughts of a Mascarade which we are to have at Almack's next Monday sevennight, unless in the interim some violent opposition comes from the Bishops. Harry has had here with him a son of Lord Carysfort's(84) from Cambridge. Bully's affair ends with the Session; as soon as that is concluded, he will be in respect of matrimony absolutely evinculated.

There has been an Almack since I wrote, but no events.

At the other shop, a great deal of deep play, where I believe Ossory has been a great sufferer; the D[uke] of Roxb[urgh](85) is become a very deep player also, and at Hazard. I have been, as you justly call it, foolish, but very moderately so, and rather a winner, for which I'm not certainly less foolish. But my caution at present arises from being at the eve of an expense probably for which an opposition at the Hazard table is but a bad preparatif. However, all things are quiet as yet, and my own private affairs en bon train, according to the present appearances.

The D[uke] of G[rafton] tells me that he wishes to recommend for Luggershall, Lord Garlics,(86) and a son of Sir M. Lamb's. I wish Morpeth(87) could have waited till you come of age. But I hope that in future times everything will be done there and elsewhere which your family consequence entitles you to wish may be done.

The Corporation of Oxford was dismissed on Wednesday last with a reprimand that is to be printed; un discours assez plat, as I have heard. That affair has raised up many others, and a multitude of attorneys, who have been hawking about people's boroughs, have been sent for. It is high time to put a stop to such practices, and to check the proceedings of nabobs, commissaries, and agents.

Very luckily for you I cannot find many materials here for detaining you long, so God bless you, my dear Lord. I wish I may be able to contrive some means of abridging the time and distance which seems determined to separate me from you. I am constantly regretting that which I gave up to old women and presidents. But il est de nos attachemens comme de la sante; nous n'en sentons pas tout le prix que quand nous l'avons perdue. I beg my compliments to the Marquis of Kildare; I am happy to know that you have a companion, and that it is him.

(82) Francis Godolphin Osborne, Marquis of Carmarthen, fifth Duke of Leeds. In 1773 he married Amelia, daughter of Robert d'Arcy, Earl of Holdernesse. He was Secretary for Foreign Affairs 1783-91.

(83) Richard Stonehewer, the Duke of Grafton's private secretary. He was a friend of Gray, the poet, and of Horace Walpole.

(84) Sir John Proby (1720-1772). He was created Baron Carysfort in 1752, and appointed one of the Lords of the Admiralty in 1757.

(85) John, third Duke of Roxburghe (1740-1804). In society he was regarded as one of the most agreeable and handsome men of his day, but he is now chiefly recollected as a book collector. The sale of his library in 1812 occupied forty-five days. The Roxburghe Club was inaugurated at the time of the sale.

(86) John Lord Garlics (1735-1806), seventh Earl of Galloway.

(87) The parliamentary representation of.

[1768, Feb. 26]. . . .The Bishops have, as I apprehended that they would, put a stop to our Masquerade, for which I am sorry, principally upon Lady Sarah's account. I shall go this morning and condole with her upon it. . . . March is very pressing to know if I do him justice in my letters to you; he is not very fond of writing, and therefore deposits with me all his best and kindest compliments to you.

I thank you for saying that you would have me a few hours gazing at amphitheatres, and you for the same time gazing here at something more modern. That would not answer my purpose. I never carried my love of antiquity and literary researches to that point. I should be glad to have a view of Italy, but with you; and if you should take a trip here for a few days, pray don't insist on my being at that time in contemplation of the mazures de nos ancetres. The last letter which you mention to have received from me was of the 15th of last month, and you did not receive it till the 3rd of this. I hope my letters come to you, since you permit the writing of them. I shall always hereafter put them myself into the post. . . .

A match is much talked of between Lord Spencer Hamilton and Miss Beauclerk, the Maid of Honour. I hope it will not take place. There is not as much as I have sometimes lost of a night at Hazard between them both, either at present or in expectation, and the number of beggars is increased to an enormous degree. . . .

1768, February 28, Sunday morning, Chest(erfield) Str(eet).—I wrote to you on Friday morning, and at night, just before the post was going, received the pleasure of yours of the 10th; so that what I wrote afterwards was much in haste, and from the impetuosity of my temper to make my acknowledgments to you. I was yesterday at Lady Carlisle's door, to enquire for Sir W(illiam), but he was not at home. I asked if they had had any letters from you, and being told they had not, I took the liberty to leave word that I had received one of the 10th, and that you was then very well.

I believe all the apprehensions which Me Viri had filled us with, are now dispersed, and not fearing anything from cold, I hope that I shall not be so foolish as to be thinking of the consequences of heat; cela ne finit point. I saw Viri at Lady Hertford's at night; he was unacquainted with the particulars of the courier, &c., but only said that the King, his master, had assured him that he should invest you with that order, as his Brother(88) had desired he would, and that it should be done avec toute la pompe et eclat dont la chose fut susceptible. He is a stupid animal in appearance, this Viri.

I had yesterday morning my conference with the D(uke) of G(rafton); he has assured me that I should have the place of Treasurer to the Queen, added to that which I already have (without any kind of pension), as soon as ever one could be found out for Mr. Stone, but he having been the King's Preceptor there will be some management with him, but the Duke said, if he would not acquiesce, he insinuated force. The two places together, if I am not mistaken in the estimate, will be near 2,300 pounds per annum. I'm much obliged to the D(uke) for his liberal and kind manner of treating with me. I have succeeded better, I find, in negotiating for myself, than when I employed another; but I have this time had to deal with a person who seemed willing to comply with anything which I could propose in reason, and has even gone beyond my proposals; and I have reason to flatter myself that his Majesty has not that reluctance to oblige me, which his grandfather had, and has certainly a much better opinion of me. Then, if this Election goes off without an enormous expense, I shall be enabled to pay off much the greatest part of my debt; but my imprudences have been beyond conception. I hope that that Providence which has preserved me from the usual effects of them will be kind enough to let me enjoy some few years of ease, and to pass them with your Lordship. I will not then complain of my lot here, which, were the cards to be shuffled again, I might mend in some particulars, without perhaps adding anything to the general felicity of my life.

I went from the D(uke) of G(rafton's) to a little concert at March's, where was Sir C(harles) and Lady S(arah). She and I went up into the rooms above, which are now gilding and repairing, and I communicated to her such parts of your letter as I thought would please her, and which I thought you would be pleased that I should repeat to her. . . .

Monday morning.—Miss Blake(89) did not leave them till yesterday. She went with Lady S(arah) to Court, and then Sir Ch(arles) and Lady S(rah)dined at Mr. Blake's and left her there. I saw Lady S(rah)afterwards at the D(che)s of Hamilton's.(90) Assembly is there at present; Lady Harrington has not been able to see company for some time.

There is now no talk but of Elections. Lord Thom(n) is thrown out at Taunton, and opposed at Winchelsea, and so it goes on. This is the week I am in most apprehension of, because I think next, as the Judges will be then in the town (loucester) there can be no treating nor bustle; but as yet I know of no opponent. Sackville sticks close to . . . (sic). I was with her Grace most part of yesterday morning, with Lord W. Gordon. Harry St. John asks me if you have mentioned a Me Chateau Dauphin; all Italian news interests him much. . . .

(88) George III.

(89) Carlisle in a letter refers to her as Selwyn's ward.

(90) Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton and Argyll (1734-1790); a sister of the equally beautiful and famous Maria Gunning, Lady Coventry, who died in 1760. The Duchess of Argyll, who married the second time the year following the death of the Duke of Hamilton, was generally known as the Duchess of Hamilton, and in 1776 was created Baroness Hamilton in her own right. This untitled daughter of a poor Irish gentleman was the wife of two dukes and the mother of four.

(1769,) July 4, Tuesday night.—I have sent to-day for you 45 bottles of the vin de Grave and six bottles of Neuilly, and the same quantity is ready to be packed up and sent when I have your further commands. The reason why I did not send the whole at once, was the consideration of the weather, etc.; when this comes safe, the rest shall follow directly, and then according to my cellar-book you will have had in all ten dozen, that is seven dozen and a half now and two dozen and a half before, of that particular wine, and about a dozen of Burgundy. It goes by sea to Hull. The Knight cutter, Thomas Savil, master, Hull, at the custom-house quay. That custom-house quay may mean at London. However, this is the method prescribed by your porter, for I have been at your house to enquire, as well as my servant.

I have wrote to Frances about the tricote, and will send you an account of it by next post. I have regulated the papers to-day, for upon enquiry at the house, I found two were sent you from thence, and the three besides from Jolliffe, which you ordered; so I bid Jolliffe look to that.

I was at Vauxhall last night with Lady Harrington, Lady Barrimore, Mrs. Damer,(91) Lady Harriot, March, Frances, and Barker. Very fine music, and a reckoning of thirty-six shillings; fine doings. I had rather have heard Walters play upon his hump for nothing. I dined to-day at James's with Boothby, Harry St. John, March, and Panton. To-morrow Lord Digby and I dine at Holland H(ouse), and on Thursday Harry and I dine at Beckford's with Sir W(illiam) M(usgrave). Rigby gave a dinner to-day to the Duke and Duchess of Grafton.

(91) Anne, only daughter of General Conway. She ultimately became possessed of Strawberry Hill. She devoted herself to sculpture; the heads that ornament the bridge at Henley-on-Thames are her work.

The Newmarket people go the beginning of next week. I shall then go into Kent, and the beginning of the week after I shall set out for Castle Howard. I long to see you dans votre beau Chateau. But where is it that I do not wish to see you? If anything is published that is not a mere catch-penny, as it is called, I shall send it directly. I believe the account of the D(uke) of G(rafton) and Nancy is of that sort, but I know no more than the advertisement.

Almack's is extinct. I am writing from White's, which I have long wished was so too.

Bad news from the Colonies. The P(rince) of Brunswick has another son. The people are come from the Installation at Cambridge, but I know no more of what has passed there than you see in the papers. Harry pursues the Bladen, and March will be talked of for Lady Harriot till he does or does not marry her. I wish it decided one way or other. I own I have his happiness too much at heart not to be anxious about it, and hate to have it in suspense.

Lord Farnham has distributed four hogshead of some vin de Grave, which he had, among his friends, and they prefer it to that which Wion (?) furnishes us with. I cannot help that, all things are good and great and small, &c., by comparison. God bless you, my dear Lord; I will come, as you have given me leave, as soon as my affairs here will possibly permit it.

I write to-night for ten dozen more of vin de Grave.



CHAPTER 3. 1773-1777, 1779 AND 1780 POLITICS AND SOCIETY

Fox's Debts—Lord Holland—News from London—Interview with Fox—The Fire at Holland House—A Visit to Tunbridge—Provision for Mie Mie —County business and electioneering at Gloucester—Lotteries—Fox and Carlisle—Highway adventures—London Society—Newmarket intelligence—An evening in town—Charles Fox and America—Carlisle declines a Court post—Money from Fox—Selwyn and gambling—A Private Bill Committee—Selwyn in bad spirits—The Royal Society —Book-buying—Political affairs—London parks—Gainsborough—The Duchess of Kingston—Selwyn's private affairs—"The Diaboliad"—A dinner at the French Ambassador's—Politics and the Clubs—In Paris —Electioneering again.

A distinguished man of letters of the present day has called Selwyn the father confessor of the society of his time: it is a tribute to his friendliness and good sense, as well as to his good nature and patience. Without them he could never have been the trusted adviser of Carlisle in those financial difficulties in which the young peer's friendship for Charles Fox involved him. It was in 1773 that the crash came in Fox's affairs. His gambling debts had been accumulating. The birth of a son to his elder brother—closing, at any rate for the time, Charles Fox's reversionary interests—caused his creditors to press their claims. Lord Holland was obliged to come to the assistance of his son. It is at this moment that the correspondence which is gathered in the present chapter begins. Lord Holland had raised a large sum with which to pay off his son's debts. Selwyn was indignant because it seemed as if creditors less indulgent than Carlisle would be the first to be paid. So in many letters he presses upon Carlisle that he must not allow his friendship for Charles Fox to outweigh the monetary claims which he had upon him, and in no measured terms he condemns the carelessness with which Fox regarded his financial obligations to his friend.

The correspondence contained in this chapter commences at the end of the year 1773, after an apparent break of four years; there is no doubt, however, that it continued and the letters from Selwyn have not been preserved. The letters in 1773 begin by referring to the financial matters to which brief allusion has just been made, and which formed a subject so full of interest and anxiety for Selwyn. He has time, however, to give his friend news of the political and social events of London. The American question was becoming more and more important, the Declaration of Independence had startled England in 1776, and in 1774 Charles Fox had finally left the Administration of Lord North, soon to become the leader of the Whig party and the champion of the American Colonists.

(1773, Dec. 1)—This is the severest criticism which I have heard passed upon you. In all other particulars be assured that you have as much of the general esteem of the world as any man that ever came into it, and will preserve the highest respect from it if you will only from this time have such a consideration, and such a management of your fortune, as common prudence requires. Charles has destroyed his, and his reputation also, and I am very much afraid that, let what will be done now, they will in a very few years be past all kind of redemption. You will have been the innocent cause of much censure upon him, because all the friendship in the world which you can show him will never wipe off what he and his family at this instant stands (sic) accused of, which is, setting at nought the solemnest ties in the world and after the maddest dissipation of money possible, the amassing for his sake 50,000 pounds to pay everybody but those who deserved the first consideration, and without which he could never [be] said to be free, and it would [be] a constant reproach to be easy. When there was no idea but of his having 20,000 advanced, which sum was otherwise to have been left him, and I said that such and such persons would be paid first, you did not seem to credit it. Was I right? or not? in my conjectures? If I tell you now, that 16,000 pounds more than the present sum of 50,000 will come, I cannot pretend to say from what quarter, but I mean from the Holland family; and, if I tell you also, that as much more will be borrowed for purposes which do not now exist; I must tell you that I think that these sums will be sent after the others, if you do not strenuously oppose it, and if somebody does not watch over the springs from whence these supplies are to flow.

As to Hare,(92) you will do me the justice to own that I have not said a word to impeach his friendship to you. But I must set him aside as a man capable of transacting this business. It is not de son ressort, and I know that he has difficulties to combat with, if he undertakes it, which are insuperable. Now, when I talk of men of business, I will explain myself. I mean three for example: Mr. Wallis, if ever you consult him, Mr. Gregg, and Lavie. I would also seriously apply to my Lord Gower for his advice, and make him a confidant in what relates to this business. He has very powerful motives for interesting himself in it. All others I would silence at once by saying that you had fixed upon particular persons to talk with upon this subject, and that you would not listen an instant to any other. After one or two attempts to discuss the point they would give it up, and, knowing in what channel it was, would be more afraid to trifle with you about it. Charles never opens his lips to me upon the subject, and when Hare was last at my house he did not say a single word relative to it. The bond was not so much as mentioned. To speak the truth, I had rather that they would not, for I should not be able to keep my temper if they did.

I have talked this matter over with persons of established reputations in the world for good sense, knowledge, and experience, and with as nice feelings in points of honour and friendship as anybody ever had. It is their opinion which makes me so confident of my own, exclusive of the arguments themselves, qui sautent aux yeux.

Now, as to the expedients. The capital sum,(93) let us call it, 15,000. Let Charles pay immediately 5,000 pounds from the 50,000 pounds. I will endeavour a year hence to raise you five more. Let Charles and Lord Stavordale,(94) by their joint securities (and let Lady Holland contribute hers), try to raise the other 5,000, and then this debt is paid; and when the worst comes to the worst, you will lose yourself only the 5,000, which we shall endeavour to get from your own securities and resources. All this is very practicable with people who are disposed to think of their honour more than of the gratification of their own pleasure.

The Holland family went to Bath yesterday. I took my leave, and it may be a final one, of them on Monday. Charles, it is said, will follow them. What is become of Hare I know not. If you desire a letter to be shown to Lord Holland,(95) Lady H. must shew it. I will speak to you, as I promised, without reserve. I am apt to think that he will comprehend what you say very well. It is not my judgment only, but I have heard it said, that a great deal of his inattention upon these occasions has been affected, and that if the same money was to be received and not to be paid, our faculties would then improve. I wish that if he has any left, he would exert them now for the sake of the reputation of his family as well as of his own; or he will add a load of obloquy to that which has been already derived (?) upon him, on account of the means by which this dissipated wealth has been acquired; and by this last act of indifference to the honour of his son he will seem to justify all that abuse with which he has been loaded, and they will be apt to apply, what he does not certainly merit, but will nevertheless carry an air of truth with it, and they will say that—

"Plundering both his country and his friends, It's thus the Lord of useless thousands ends."

You see, my dear Lord, with how much confidence I treat you. I have thought aloud, when I have been speaking to you, which perhaps I ought not to have done, but I cannot help it. I hope that you will burn my letters, for if they served as testimonies of the warmth of my friendship to you, they might be ill interpreted by others. . . .

Charles you say has not wrote to you. There is no accounting for that or for him but by one circumstance, and that is, that the gratification of the present moment is the God of his Idolatry. You mention his credit with Lord North.(96) I know for a certainty that Lord North disavows that which I know he once gave him. "He will," they say, "manage this, and will settle that, with the Minister." Stuff! The Minister, whoever he happens to be, will settle this matter with Charles, and say, "Sir, I know you want me, and that I do not want you, but in a certain degree. Speak, and be paid, as Sir W. Young was." Alas, poor Charles! Aha promissa dederat. You say that you have not had a line from Lady H(olland); have you then wrote to her? I will add more to this if I see occasion, after I have been to talk with Lavie, who really means, I believe, to serve you with great fidelity, and reasons about this matter with great nettete and percision.

(92) James Hare (1749-1804); son of Richard Hare, apothecary, of Limestone; grandson of Bishop Francis Hare; at Eton with Fox and Carlisle, and afterwards entered Balliol College, Oxford. As a young man he was considered more brilliant than Fox, and more was expected of his future. He sat for Stockbridge from 1772-1774, and for Knaresborough from 1781 to his death. Like all of the fashionable men of his day, he played heavily. In 1779 he had become deeply involved in debt, but obtained the post of Minister Plenipotentiary to Poland, which he held until 1782; in 1802 he was very ill at Paris, where Fox made him frequent visits. He died at Bath. Lady Ossory described his wit as "perhaps of a more lively kind than Selwyn's." Storer left him a legacy of 1,000 pounds.

(93) Fox's debt to Carlisle.

(94) Henry Thomas, afterwards second Earl of Ilchester (1747-1802); the cousin and companion of Fox, and as great a gambler. "Lord Stavordale, not one-and-twenty, lost eleven thousand last Tuesday, but recovered by one great hand at hazard."

(95) Lord Holland had amassed a large fortune when Paymaster-General, and on this account his unpopularity was so great as to amount to public detestation.

(96) Frederick North, second Earl of Guildford, known in history as Lord North (1732-1792); Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1767; First Lord of the Treasury, 1770 to 1782; Secretary of State, 1783 (March to December); succeeded to Earldom of Guildford, 1790.

(1774,) January 18, Tuesday, Chesterfield Street.—I received yesterday your extreme kind letter, while I was at Lord Gower's at dinner; which dinner, by the way, or the supplement to it, lasted so long, that I have increased my cough by it greatly, and am so unable to go this morning to Court, that I think now of putting on my clothes in the evening only, and so going, as I did last year, to the King's side, to make her Majesty my bow as she passes from that apartment to the ball-room. We had yesterday at dinner Dick Vernon and Keith Stewart only, besides Lord Gower's family.

I was going home to dine by myself tres sagement et tres tranquillement, dans le dessein de me menager, when Lord G. was so good as to propose my going home with him; and thinking that to be an opportunity of talking more with him upon you and your affairs, as we did, I could not resist it. I do assure you, my dear Lord, it is a great pleasure to me to see the zeal with which he speaks of you, and your interests, which is not, to be sure, surprising, considering your connection, but it makes me happy that my former intimacy with him begins to revive, which it has gradually done, from the time that you have belonged to him.

Miss Pelham(97) came to Lady Gower after dinner, and I think intends to go to-day to the Birthday, but such a hag you have no conception of; and a patch which she is obliged to wear upon the lower eyelid, improves the horror of her appearance. She will kill herself, I make no doubt.

The letter which you have been so good to enclose for my satisfaction, from Lady Holl(an)d to you, does not much elate me, I own; it is just that of one who is obliged to say a great deal, and finds an inconvenience in doing anything; and as to Charles's writing to you, you know best how these promises have been fulfilled. If I could direct her Ladyship's good disposition, I should make her show your letter to her to Lord Holl(an)d; I am persuaded that his faculties are not so entirely lost as not to discern with how much force of reason, propriety, and good nature it is wrote. What he would do in consequence of it, I cannot be quite so sure. Then he might, perhaps, relapse into a state of imbecility, or affected anility, which might deprive you of the advantage which you should expect from it.

Among other things which passed between Lord Gower and me upon the subject of Charles, to which our conversation, by the way, was not confined, I told him that your people of business had proposed that you should sue Charles for the Annuities, and how that advice seemed to shock you. He was not surprised at that, knowing your delicacy and friendship. But sueing Charles, you will find in a short time, has no horror but in the expression. If you are shocked, you will be singly so; Charles will not be so, it is my firm belief. As soon as Lavie comes to you, he will tell you how far Mr. Crewe has embraced that idea, and what has been the consequence of it. If you will sue Lord H(ollan)d and Mr. Powell, or (for?) them, in Charles's name, you will do your business. But I do not say that it is time for that.

What I proposed to Lord Gower was only this, and that cannot have nothing (sic) rebutant in it, to either Charles or you. It is this. To hear Charles's story patiently, but to answer or reason with him as little as possible. To desire that he would be so good as to meet you at your own house, with Mr. Wallis and Mr. Gregg; we will have nothing to do with Lavie, pour le moment. Il ne respectera pas celui-ci comme les deux autres. Discuss with them before Charles the means of extricating yourself from these engagements. Let him hear what they say, and what they would advise you to do, as guardian to your children; for there is the point de vue, in which I am touched the most sensibly; and whatever Charles has to offer by way of expedient, by way of correcting their ideas, whatever hopes he can give, which are rationally founded, let him lay them before these people in your presence.

Why I wish this is, the [that] he must then have something to combat with, and that is, truth and reason. Without that, and you two together only, or Hare, what will follow? There will be flux de bouche, which to me is totally incomprehensible, as Sir G. M('Cartney) told me that it was to him. Il fondera en larmes, and then you will be told afterwards, whenever a measure of any vigour is proposed, that you had acquiesced, because you had been disarmed, confounded. This happened no longer ago than last Saturday, with Foley,(98) who related the whole conference to me, and the manner in which it was carried on. "However," says Foley, "I carried two points out of four, but I was obliged to leave him, not being able [to] resist the force of sensibility."

I confess that, had it been my case, I should have been tempted to have made use of Me de Maintenon's words to the Princesse de Conti— "Pleurez, pleurez, Madame, car c'est un grand malheur que de n'avoir pas le coeur bon." I do not think that of Charles so much as the rest of the world does, and to which he has undoubtedly given some reason by his behaviour to his father, and to his friends. I attribute it all to a vanity that has, by the foolish admiration of his acquaintance, been worked up into a kind of phrensy, I shall be very unwilling to believe that he ever intended to distress a friend whom he loved as much as I believe that he has done you.

But really this is being very candid to him, and yet I cannot help it. For I have passed two evenings with him at supper at Almack's, ou nous avons ete lie en conversation, and never was anybody more agreeable and the more so for his having no pretensions to it, which is what has offended more people than even what Lady H(ollan)d is so good as to call his misconduct. I do assure you, my dear Lord, that notwithstanding all that I have been obliged by my friendship and confidence in you to say, I very sincerely love him, although I blame him so much, that I dare not own it; and it will give me the greatest pleasure in the world to see him take that turn which he professes to take. But what hopes can we have of it?

Vernon said yesterday after dinner, that he and some others—Bully, I think, among the rest—had been driven by the rain up into Charles's room; and when they had lugged him out of his bed, they attacked him so violently upon what he did at the Bath, that he was obliged to have recourse, as he did last year, to an absolute denial of the fact. The imagination of the blacklegs at the Billiard Table that he was gone over to Long Leate to borrow the money of Lord W(eymouth?) had in it something truly ridiculous, and serves only to shew that his Lordship had been never trusted by them.

Gregg dines to-day at Lavie's; I shall go down to meet him there, and perhaps order my chicken over from Almack's, that I may converse more en detail with Gregg upon this business of the Annuities. I like his conversation the best, I own, because I see less resentment in it. He speaks to the matters of fact, and not to the characters of the actors, which now is losing of time. God knows how well, and how universally, all that is established.

The women in town have found this a good morsel for their invective disposition, and the terms in which they express themselves tiennent de la frenesie, et de l'entousiasme. Lady Albemarle, who is not a wise woman, certainly, was at Lady Gower's the other evening, and was regretting only that Charles had not been consumed in the Fire, instead of the linnets. I am glad it was no worse. I think your fears about the rebuilding of the House are not so well founded as your satisfaction might be, that you had not been drawn in to insure it. I think that you are more obliged to what he thinks upon that subject (for he said that he did not believe in fire) than to your own prudence. I am in daily expectation of the arrival of these late sufferers at Holl[an]d H(ouse). I wish them all arrived there, I own, and that they may stay there, and that there may be no real sufferers by the fire, which there would be if any workmen had begun to rebuild the House. That would be a case of true compassion.

You desire me to tell you something of Hare and Storer,(99) &c. Storer, the Bon ton, is still at Lord Craven's. I supped with the Mauvais ton at Harry St. John's last night. I do not dislike him: he does not seem to be at all deficient in understanding, and has besides de la bonne plaisanterie. Hare is in town, and, if I was to credit his own insinuations, upon the point of bringing his affair to a conclusion. But I think that he prepares the world too much for some change in his condition, for he drives about in an old chariot of Foley's,(100) as I am told, with a servant of his own in livery; and this occasions so much speculation, that his great secret diu celari non potest. I would advise him to conclude as soon as he can this business; sans cela la machine sera d'erangee; elle ne peut aller jusques au printemps, cela est sur.

The Duke of Buccleugh has said nothing to us as yet about our anniversary dinner, but I hope that so good a custom will not be laid aside. If it is, Richard must take it up, as it is his birthday, and so I shall tell him. I have myself, by all which I have said upon the history and fate of that unfortunate Prince, excused myself from giving any sort of fete at my own house; but I do not carry my rigour so far, as not to accept one on that day at the house of another person. Voila le point ou ma devotion se prete un feu. Your letter to Lord Grantham shall be sent to the Secretary's Office this evening, and some compliments from me at the same time. I wish that he was here, that I might talk with [him] for half an hour upon your subject.

(97) Sister of Henry Pelham, niece of Duke of Newcastle (1728-1804). died at her estate at Esher, in Surrey, leaving a large fortune.

(98) Thomas Foley, second baron (1742-1793). He was noted for his sporting proclivities; Fox was his racing partner, and the money they lost, which included a hundred thousand pounds for Lord Foley, and its replenishing, was a never-ending source of gossip.

(99) Anthony Morris Storer (1746-1799), called the Bon ton, and Lord Carlisle, were termed the Pylades and Orestes of Eton, and the intimacy was continued in later life; M.P. for Carlisle 1774-80, and for Morpeth, together with Peter Delime, 1780-4. In 1781 he succeeded in obtaining the appointment as one of the Commissioners for Trade, in which Selwyn and Carlisle had so deeply interested themselves. He was with Carlisle on his mission to America in 1778 and 1779. During their political connection he acted as a medium between Fox and North, in whose family he was intimate. Fox made him Secretary of Legation at Paris in 1783—Gibbon competing for the office, and when the Duke of Manchester was called home he was nominated as Minister Plenipotentiary; six days later, however, his friends were no longer in power. It was in this year that his long friendship with Carlisle was broken; he did not stand for re-election for Morpeth and revoked the bequest of all his property which he had made to him. Storer never married. He was universally admired for his versatility and his proficiency in all he undertook; he excelled in conversation, music, and literary attainments; he was the best skater, the best dancer of his time. He began his valuable and curious collection of books and prints in 1781. On these and card-playing he spent more money than he could afford, but in 1793, at his father's death, he received an ample fortune. He then occupied himself building and adorning a property, Purley, near Reading. He left his library and prints to Eton College, which also possesses his portrait.

(100) See note (98).

1774, July 23, Chesterfield Street.—I received yesterday a reprieve from Gloucester, and Harris's sanction for my staying here a week longer; so that the meeting, and the report of Mr. Guise and Mr. Burrow's declaring themselves both as candidates upon separate interests, but secretly assisting one another, were, as Richard the 3rd calls it, a weak device of the enemy. I found myself greatly relieved, and sat down and wrote a letter to the Mayor and Corporation, which I may cite as a modele de vrai persiflage. I went and dined with Lord Ferrars and Lady Townshend;(101) she has received all her arrears, so we have now the pleasure of continuing our hostilities les pieds chauds.

Poor Lord Thomond died the evening before last of an apoplexy, with which he was seized the night before. I thought, as well as himself, that he was very near his end, and imagined that it would be this. But the news struck me, for not an hour before he was taken ill he passed by March's door as he was going to take an airing in Hyde Park, with Clever in the chariot. I was sitting upon the steps, with the little girl(103) on my lap, which diverted him, and he made me a very pleasant bow, and that was my last view of him. I had had an acquaintance with him of above thirty years, but for some time past I had seen him only occasionally. He was a sensible honest man, and when he was in spirits, and with his intimate friends, I think a very agreeable companion, but had too much reserve to make a friendship with, and not altogether the character that suits me.

White's begins to crumble away very fast, and would be a melancholy scene to those who remained if they cared for any one person but themselves. Williams gave a dinner to talk him over, which I suppose was done with the voix larmoyante, et voila tout. Lord Monson a creve aussi, and Tommy Alston, who has left a will in favour of his bastards, which will occasion lawsuits.

I have made an agreement to meet Varcy to-morrow at Knowles; from thence we go to Tunbridge; so I shall live on Monday on the Pantiles, and on Tuesday return here. I dine to-day with the Essex's at March's; we supped last night at Lady Harrington's, the consequence of which is to eat a turtle on Tuesday at an alehouse on the Ranelaugh Road, which she has seized from Lord Barrington. I called at Lady Mary's first, and found her tres triste.

Lady Holland was thought to be dying yesterday, for Lord Beauchamp was to have dined there, and at three o'clock a note came from Ste(104) to desire him not to come. The late Lord Holland's servants, preserving their friendship for my thief whom I dismissed, were so good, when their Lord died, to send for him to sit up with the corpse, as the only piece of preferment which was then vacant in the family. But they afterwards promoted him to be outrider to the hearse. Alice told me of it, and said that it was a comfort and little relief to the poor man for the present; and Mr. More, the attorney, to whom I mentioned it, said that they intended to throw him into the same thing—that was the phrase—when Lady Holland died. I beg you to reflect on these circumstances; they are dignes de Moliere et Le Sage. How my poor old friend would have laughed, if he could have known to what hands he was committed before his interment!

The night before last Meynell lost between 2 and 3,000; what the rest did I don't know. They abuse both you and me about the tie,(105) and Hare says, it was the damned[e]st thing to do at this time in the world. I told them, as Lord Cowper said in his speech to the Condemned Lords in the year 16—, "Happy had it been for all your Lordships had you lain under so indulgent a restraint." It is difficult for me to say which was the kindest thing you ever did by me, but I am sure that this was one of the wisest which I ever did by myself; and so remember that I do by this renew the lease for one month more, and it shall be as if it had been originally for two months instead of one. To this I subscribe, and to the same forfeit on my side. I received a consideration ample enough if the lease had been for a year.

(102) Anne, daughter of Sir William Montgomery, and second wife of George, first Viscount Townshend.

(103) Maria Fagniani, Selwyn's adopted daughter. This is the first mention of her in this correspondence.

(104) Stephen Fox, second Baron Holland.

(105) A self-mposed restriction on gambling. The ingenious and rather childish character of this pledge is described in a letter of December 1775.

1774, July 26, Tuesday night? Almack's.—Lady Holland, as you will see by the papers, died on Sunday morning between 7 and 8. I saw Lady Louisa and Mrs. Meillor coming in Lady Louisa's chariot between 10 and 11, which announced to me the close of that melancholy history; I mean, as far as regards my two very old friends. The loss of the latter, I must own, I feel much the more sensibly of the two; serrer les files, comme Von dit a Varnee, n'est pas assez; la perte ne laissera pas de reparoitre, in that I had counted upon a resource in the one more than in the other.

I went for a minute to see Ste(106) and Lady Mary, and then I set out for the Duke of Dorset's at Knowles (Knowle Park), where I met Varcy, and where I dined; and after dinner Varcy and I went to Tunbridge. We saw Penthurst (sic) yesterday morning, and dined with his Honour Brudenell, who gave us, that is, Varcy, Mr. and Mrs. Meynell, and Sir J. Seabright, an excellent dinner. We were at a private ball at night, and this morning early I set out for London.

Tunbridge is, in my opinion, for a little time in the summer, with a family, and for people who do not find a great deal of occupation at their country houses, one of the prettiest places in the world. The houses are so many bijouzs made up for the occasion, so near the place, so agreste, and the whole an air of such simplicity, that I am delighted with it, as much as when my amusements were, as they were formerly, at the Rooms and upon the Pantiles, which are now to me detestable.

I was pressed much to stay there to-day to dine with Meynell upon a haunch of venison, but I had solemnly engaged myself to Lady Harrington, and to her party at Spring Garden, on the road to Ranelagh. We had a very good turtle. Our company were, Lord and Lady Harrington, Lady Harriot,(107) Lady A., Maria Ord, Mrs. Boothby, Richard(108) from his quarters at Hampton Court, Crags, Lord Barrington, Barker, Langlois, and myself.

March went yesterday to Newmarket, and left a letter behind for me, to excuse him to the party; he returns on Thursday. Here is not one single soul in this house, but I came here to write to you plus a mon aise. Lady Mary Howard was at Tunbridge, and asked much after you; Lady Powis, the Duke of Leeds, hardly anybody besides that I knew. Gen. Smith came there yesterday, and I believe was in hopes of making up a hazard table; at last Lord Killy (Kelly?) said that I might have one if I pleased.

Charles and Ste, &c., are gone for the present to Red Rice. I was in hopes of seeing Storer to-day, but this damned turtle party has kept me so late that I doubt if I shall see him to-night. I met him on the road, as I was going to Knowles, on his return from Tunbridge, and he then told me that he should set out for Castle Howard to-morrow, and would have set out to-day, but that I begged that I might see him first.

They can find no will of Lord Thomond's as yet; so his poor nephew will by his procrastination be the loser of a considerable estate; for he certainly intended to have made him his heir, and the attorney had left with him a will to be filled up. But we are never sure of doing anything but what we have but one minute for doing; what we think we may do any day, we put off so many days that we do not do it all.

This reflection, and the experience which I have had in other families of the consequences of these delays, determined me to lose no time in settling, for my dear Mie Mie, that which may be the only thing done for her, and only because we-may do it any day in the week. But I thank God I've secured, as much as anything of that nature can be secured, what will be, I hope, a very comfortable resource for her. I am egregiously deceived if it will not. As for other things,' I must hope for the best. It makes me very serious when I think of it, because my affection and anxiety about her are beyond conception.

I shall not think of setting out for Gloucester, unless there is some new occurrence, till next week. I have had no fresh alarm. The lawyers are going on furiously and sanguinely against the Duchess of Kingston,(109) who is, they say, at Calais. Feilding also complains of her; so elle s'est bromllee avec la justice au pied de la lettre. Nobody doubts of her felony; the only debate in conversation is, whether she can have the benefit of her clergy. Some think she will turn Papist. All expect some untimely death. C'est un execrable personage que celui que (sic) fait mon voisin.

James has cut out work enough for himself in Hertfordshire; il s'en repentira, ou je me trompe fort. Adieu; my best compliments to Lady Carlisle and Lady Julia, and my love to the little ones. I long to see the boy excessively. I hear of your returning to London in September; pray let me hear your motions very particularly, and if you bring up the children. I am ever most truly and affectionately yours.

(106) Second Lord Holland.

(107) Lady Henrietta Stanhope, daughter of second Earl of Harrington. She married Lord Foley in 1776, and died 1781.

(108) Fitzpatrick in this correspondence is usually spoken of as Richard.

(109) Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston (1720-1788). The celebrated public trial of the Duchess of Kingston for bigamy took place in Westminster Hall, April, 1776. It was proved that she had privately married Augustus, second son of Lord Hervey, but the marriage was not owned. She lived publicly with the Duke of Kingston and finally married him during Mr. Hervey's life, but at the death of the Duke, who left her all his disposable property, proceedings were instituted against her and she was found guilty. She afterwards went to St. Petersburg, where she gave an entertainment for the Empress Catherine said to be more splendid than had ever been seen in Russia. She bought an estate near St. Petersburg, calling it by her maiden name of Chudleigh, where she intended to manufacture brandy, but found herself so coldly treated by the English ambassador and Russian nobility that she removed to France, where she became involved in a lawsuit regarding the purchase of Another estate. The chagrin at loss of the case caused her death.

[1774,] July 30, Saturday night, Almack's.—I write my letter from hence, from the habitude of making this place my bureau, not that there is anybody here, or that there was the least probability of my finding anybody here. The last post night I was obliged to have an amanuensis, as you will know to-morrow morning when the post comes in. I had got a small particle of shining sand in my eye that during the whole day, but particularly at night, gave me most exquisite pain, and prevented me from writing to you, which, next to receiving your letters, is one of my great pleasures. So this was un grand evenement pour moi, par une petite cause. While the writer was writing, Hare came in, and he said that he would finish the letter for me, but what they both wrote God knows.

Storer I suppose set out yesterday for Castle H(oward), and I take for granted will be with you before this letter. March has been out of town ever since Monday till to-day. He has been at a Mr. Darell's in Cambridgeshire, who has a wife I believe with a black eye and low forward [forehead]. I guessed as much by his stay, and young Thomas who came up with him to town told me it was so.

I supped last night at Lady Hertford's with the two Fitzroys, Miss Floyd, and Lord F. Cavendish;(110) and to-day, Lady Hertford, Miss Floyd, and Lord Frederick and I dined at Colonel Kane's, who is settled in the Stable Yard, and in a damned good house, plate, windows cut down to the floor, elbowing his Majesty with an enormous bow window. The dog is monstrously well nipped; he obtrudes his civilities upon me, malgre que j'en ai, and will in time force me not to abuse him. He would help me to-day to some venison, and how he contrived it, I don't know, but for want of the Graces he cut one of my fingers to the bone, that I might as well have dined at a cut-fingered ordinary.

I am diverted with your threats that I shall have short letters, because you are plagued with Northumberland disputes. You say that you have every post letters to write, and so you will have them to write for some time, for the Devil take me if I believe that you have wrote or will write one of them. A good ronfle for that, an't please your Honour, with about twenty sheets of paper spread about upon the table, and on each of them the beginning of a letter.

You know me very well also in thinking that my heart fails me as the time of my going to Gloucester approaches. I made a very stout resistance a fortnight ago, notwithstanding Harris's importunate summons, and now he plainly confesses in a letter which I received from him to-day, that my coming down upon that pretended meeting would have been nugatory, as he calls it. The Devil take them; I have wished him and his Corporation in Newgate a thousand times. But there will be no trifling after the end of this next week. The Assizes begin on Monday sevennight. Then the Judges will be met, a terrible show, for I shall be obliged to dine with them, and be in more danger from their infernal cooks than any of the criminals who are to be tried, excepting those who will be so unfortunate as to have our jurisconsult for their advocate.

I would not advise you to be unhappy about Caroline's(111) want of erudition; a very little science will do at present, and much cannot be poured into the neck of so small a vessel at once. I agree with you that it is not to be wished that she should be a savante, and she will know what others know. I have no doubt there is time enough for her to read, and little Morpeth(112) to walk.

There is, I grant you, more reason to fear for Hare. Boothby(113) assures me that as yet no prejudice has been done to his fortune. I have my doubts of that, but am clear that he runs constant risk of being very uneasy. But there is no talking to him; he has imbibed so much of Charles's ton of qu'importe, que cela peut mener a l'hopital.

Lady Holland(114) will be removed on Monday, and my thief one of her outriders. All Lord Holland's servants, since he had that house at Kingsgate, have been professed smugglers, and John, as I am informed, was employed in vending for them some of their contraband goods, for which he was to be allowed a profit. He sold the goods, and never accounted with his principals for a farthing; and so now they place him to sit up with the corps[e] of the family, and to act as one of their undertakers, that they may be in part reimbursed. This is the dessous des cartes, qui est veritablement comique, et singulier. Ste, &c., will be here about the end of the week.

I hear that the night that Charles sat up at White's, which was that preceding the night of Lady Holland's death, he planned out a kind of itinerant trade, which was going from horse race to horse race, and so, by knowing the value and speed of all the horses in England, to acquire a certain fortune.