(695) This wish was gratified, though not in this year. Marshal Belleisle was taken prisoner in 1745, by the Hanoverian dragoons, was confined for some months in Windsor Castle, and exchanged after the battle of Fontenoy.-D.

(696) A profligate ecclesiastic, who was deeply engaged in the corrupt political intrigues of the day. In these he was assisted by his sister Madame Tencin, an unprincipled woman of much ability, who had been the mistress of the still more infamous Cardinal Dubois. Voltaire boasts in his Memoirs, of having killed the Cardinal Tencin from vexation, at a sort of political hoax, which he played off upon him.-D. [The cardinal was afterwards, made Archbishop of Lyons. In 1752, he entirely quitted the court, and retired to his diocese, where he died in 1758, ,greatly esteemed," says the Biog. Univ. for his extensive charities." His sister died in 1749. She was mother of the celebrated D'Alembert by Destouches Canon, and authoress of "Le Comte de Comminges," "Les Malheurs de l'Amour," and other romances.]

(697) 'The Champion was an opposition Journal, written by Fielding. [Assisted by Ralph, the historian.)

(698) Entitled " The Lessons for the Day, 1742." Published in Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's works, but written by Walpole.-D.

(699) Charles Fane, afterwards Lord Fane, had been minister at Florence before Mr. Mann.

(700) A notorious gambler. He is mentioned by Pope, in the character of the young man of fashion, in the fourth canto of the Dunciad,

"As much estate, and principle, and wit, As Jansen, Fleetwood, Cibber, shall think fit."-D.



284 Letter 83 To Sir Horace Mann. Houghton, Sept. 11, 1742.

I could not write to you last week, for I was at Woolterton,(701) and in a course of visits, that took up my every moment. I received one from you there, of August 26th, but have had none at all this week.

You know I am not prejudiced in favour of the country, nor like a place because it bears turnips well, or because you may gallop over it without meeting a tree: but I really was charmed with Woolterton; it is all wood and water! My uncle and aunt may, without any expense, do what they have all their lives avoided, wash themselves and make fires.(702) Their house is more than a good one; if they had not saved eighteen pence in every room, it would have been a fine one. I saw several of my acquaintance,(703) Volterra vases, Grisoni landscapes, the four little bronzes, the raffle-picture, etc.

We have printed about the expedition to Naples: the affair at Elba, too, is in the papers, but we affect not to believe it. We are in great apprehensions of not taking Prague—the only thing that has been taken on our side lately, I think, is my Lord Stair's journey hither and back again-we don't know for what-he is such an Orlando! The papers are full of the most defending King'S Journey to Flanders;our private letters say not a word of it-I say our, for at present I think the earl's intelligences and mine are pretty equal as to authority.

Here is a little thing which I think has humour in it.

A CATALOGUE OF NEW FRENCH BOOKS.

1. Jean-sans-terre, on l'Empereur en pet-en-l'air; imprim'e 'a Frankfort.

2. La France mourante d'une suppression d'hommes et d'argent: dedi'e au public.

3. L'art de faire les Neutralit'es, invent'e en Allemagne, et 'ecrit en cette langue, par Un des Electeurs, et nouvellement traduit en Napolitain; par le Chef d'Escadre Martin.

4. Voyage d'Allemaune, par Monsieur de Maupertuis; avec un t'elescope, invent'e pendant son voyage; 'a l'usage des H'eros, pour regarder leur victoires de loin.

5. M'ethode court et facile pour faire entrer les troupes Fran'coies en Allemagne:-mais comment faire, pour les en faire sortir?

6. Trait'e tr'es salutaire et tr'es utile sur la reconnoissance envers les bienfaicteurs, par le Roy de Pologne. Folio, imprim'e 'a Dresde.

7. Obligation sacr'ee des Trait'es, Promesses, et Renonciations, par le Grand Turc; avec des Remarques retractoires, par un Jesuite.

8. Probleme; combien il faut d'argent FranSois pour payer le sang Su'edois circul'e par le Comte de Gyllembourg

9. Nouvelle m'ethode de friser les cheveux 'a la Francoise; par le Colonel Mentz et sa Confrairie.

10. Recueil de Dissertations sur la meilleure mani'ere de faire la partition des successions, par le Cardinal de Fleury; avec des notes, historiques et politiques, par la Reine d'Espagne.

11. Nouveau Voyage de Madrid 'a Antibes, par l'Infant Dom Philippe.

12. Lart de chercher les ennemis sans lea trouver; par le Marechal de Maillebois.

13. La fid'elit'e couronn'ee, par le G'en'eral Munich et le Comte d'Osterman.

14. Le bal de Lintz et les amusements de DOnawert; pi'ece pastorale et galante, en un acte, par le Grand Duc.

15. l'Art de maitriser les Femmes, par sa Majest'e Catliolique.

16. Avantures Boh'emiennes, tragi-comiques, tr'es curieuses, tr'es int'erressantes, et charg'ees d'incidents. Tom. i. ii. iii. N.B. Le dernier tome, qui fera le denouement, est sous presse.

Adieu! my dear child; if it was not for this secret of transcribing, what should one do in the country to make out a letter?



285 Letter 84 To Sir Horace Mann. Houghton, Sept. 25th, 1742.

At last, my dear child, I have got two letters from you! I have been in strange pain, between fear of your being ill, and apprehensions of your letters being stopped; but I have received that by Crew, and another since. But you have been ill! I am angry with Mr. Chute for not writing to let me know it. I fancied you worse than you say, or at least than you own. But I don't wonder you have fevers! such a busy politician as Villettes,(704) and such a blustering negotiator as il Furibondo (705) are enough to put all your little economy of health and spirits in confusion. I agree with you, that " they don't pique themselves upon understanding sense, any more than Deutralities!" The grand journey to Flanders(706) is a little -it a stand: the expense has been computed at two thousand pounds a day! Many dozen of embroidered portmanteaus full of laurels and bays have been prepared this fortnight. The Regency has been settled and unsettled twenty times: it is now said, that the weight of it is not to be laid on the Prince. The King is to return by his birthday; but whether he is to bring back part of French Flanders with him, or will only have time to fetch Dunkirk, is uncertain. In the mean time, Lord Carteret is gone to the Hague; by which jaunt it seems that Lord Stair's journey was not conclusive. The converting of the siege of Prague into a blockade makes no great figure in the journals on this side the water and question-but it is the fashion not to take towns that one was sure of taking. I cannot pardon the Princess for having thought of putting off her 'epuisements and lassitudes to take a trip to Leghorn, "pendant qu'on ne donnoit 'a manger 'a Monsieur le Prince son fils, que de la chair de chevaux!" Poor Prince Beauvau!(707) I shall be glad to hear he is safe from this siege. Some of the French princes of the blood have been stealing away a volunteering, but took care to be missed in time. Our Duke goes with his lord and father-they say, to marry a princess of Prussia, whereof great preparations have been making in his equipage and in his breeches.

Poor Prince Craon! where did De Sade get fifty sequins. When I was at Florence, you know all his clothes were in pawn to his landlord; but he redeemed them by pawning his Modenese bill of credit to his landlady! I delight in the style of the neutrality maker(708)-his neutralities and his English arc perfectly of a piece.

You have diverted me excessively with the history of the Princess Eleonora's(709) posthumous issue-but how could the woman have spirit enough to have five children by her footman, and yet not have enough to own them. Really, a woman so much in the great world should have known better! Why, no yeoman's dowager could have acted more prudishly! It always amazes me, when I reflect on the women, who are the first to propagate scandal of one another. If they would but agree not to censure what they all agree to do, there would be no more loss of characters among them than amongst men. A woman cannot have an affair, but instantly all her sex travel about to publish it, and leave her off: now, if a man cheats another of his estate at play, forges a will, or marries a ward to his own son, nobody thinks of leaving him off for such trifles.

The English parson at Stosch's, the archbishop on the chapter of music, the Fanciulla's persisting in her mistake, and old Count Galli's distress, are all admirable stories.(710) But what is the meaning of Montemar's writing to the Antinora?—I thought he had left the Galia for my illustrissima,(711) her sister. lord! I am horridly tired of that romantic love and correspondence! Must I answer her last letter? there were but six lines—what can I say? I perceive, by what you mention of the cause of his disorder, that Rucellai does not turn out that simple, honest man you thought him-come, own it

I just recollect a story, which perhaps will serve your archbishop on his Don Pilogio(712)-the Tartuffe was meant for the then archbishop of Paris, who, after the first night, forbad its being acted. Moliere came forth, and told the audience, "Messieurs, on devoit vous donner le Tartuffe, mais MOnSeigneur l'Archev'eque ne veut pas qu'on le joue."

My lord is very impatient for his Dominichin; so you will send it by the first safe conveyance. He is making a gallery, for the ceiling of which I have given the design of that in the little library of St. Mark at Venice: Mr. Chute will remember how charming it was; and for the frieze, I have prevailed to have that of the temple at Tivoli. Naylor(713) came here the other day with two coaches full of relations: as his mother-in-law, who was one of the company is widow of Dr. Hare, Sir Robert's old tutor at Cambridge, he made them stay to dine: when they were gone, he said, "Ha, child! what is that Mr. Naylor, Horace ? he is the absurdest man I ever saw!" I subscribed to his opinion; won't you? I must tell you a story of him. When his father married this second wife, Naylor said,"Father, they say you are to be married to-day, are you?" "Well," replied the bishop, "and what is that to you?" "Nay, nothing; only if you had told me, I would have powdered my hair."

(704) Mr. Villettes was minister at Turin.

(705) Admiral Matthews; his ships having committed some outrages on the coast of Italy, the Italians called him it Furibondo.

(706) Of George the Second.-D.

(707) Afterwards a marshal of France. He was a man of some ability, and the friend and patron of St. Lambert, and of other men of letters of the time of Lewis XV.-D. [He was made a marshal in 1783 by the unfortunate Louis XVI. and in 1789 a minister of state. He died in 1793, a few weeks after the murder of his royal master.]

(708) Admiral Matthews.

(709) Eleonora of Guastalla, widow of the last cardinal of Medici, died at Venice. (The father of the children was a French running footman.-D.) [Cosmo the Third was sixty-seven years old at the period of the marriage: "une fois le marriage conclu," says the Biog. Univ. "El'eonore refusa de la consommer, rebut'ee par la figure, par l'age et surtout par les d'esordres de son 'epouse." Cosmo died at the age of eighty-one. A translation of his Travels through England, in 1669, was published in 1820.

(710) These are stories in a letter of Sir H. Mann's, which are neither very decent nor very amusing.-D.

(711) Madame Grifoni.

(712) The Archbishop of Florence had forbid the acting of a burlettae called Don Pilogio, a sort of imitation of Tartuffe. When the Impresario of the Theatre remonstrated upon the expense he had been put to in preparing the music for it, the archbishop told him he might use it for some other opera.-D.

(713) He was the son of Dr. Here, Bishop of Chichester, and changed his name for an estate.



287 Letter 85 To Sir Horace Mann. Houghton, Oct. 8th, 1742.

I have not heard from you this fortnight; if I don't receive a letter to-morrow, I shall be quite out of humour. It is true, of late I have written to you but every other post; but then I have been in the country, in Norfolk, in Siberia! You were still at Florence, in the midst of Kings of Sardinia, Montemars, and Neapolitan neutralities; your letters are my only diversion. As to German news, it is all so simple that I am peevish: the raising of the siege of Prague,((714) and Prince Charles and Marechal Maillebois playing at hunt the squirrel, have disgusted me from inquiring about the war. The earl laughs in his great chair, and sings a bit of an old ballad,

"They both did fight, they both did beat, they both did run away, They both strive again to meet, the quite contrary way."

Apropos! I see in the papers that a Marquis de Beauvau escaped out of Prague with the Prince de Deuxpons and the Duc de Brissac; was it our Prince Beauvau?

At last the mighty monarch does not go to Flanders, after making the greatest preparations that ever were made but by Harry the Eighth, and the authors of the grand Cyrus and the illustrious Hassa: you may judge by the quantity of napkins, which were to the amount of nine hundred dozen-indeed, I don't recollect that ancient heroes were ever so provident of necessaries, or thought how they were to wash their hands and face after a victory. Six hundred horses, under the care of the Duke of Richmond, were even shipped; and the clothes and furniture of his court magnificent enough for a bull-fight at the conquest of Granada. Felton Hervey's(715) war-horse, besides having richer caparisons than any of the expedition, had a gold net to keep off the flies-in winter! Judge of the clamours this expense to no purpose will produce! My Lord Carteret is set out from the Hague, but was not landed when the last letters came from London: there are no great expectations from this trip; no more than followed from my Lord Stair's.

I send you two more odes on Pultney,(716) I believe by the same hand as the former, though none are equal to the Nova Progenies, which has been more liked than almost ever any thing was. It is not at all known whose they are; I believe Hanbury Williams's. The note to the first was printed with it: the advice to him to be privy seal has its foundation; for when the consultation was held who were to have places, and my Lord Gower was named to succeed Lord Hervey, Pultney said with some warmth, "I designed to be privy seal myself!"

We expect some company next week from Newmarket: here is at present only Mr. Keene and Pigwiggin,(717)-you never saw so agreeable a creature!-oh yes! you have seen his parents! I must tell you a new story of them Sir Robert had given them a little horse for Pigwiggin, and somebody had given them another: both which, to save the charge of keeping, they sent to grass in Newpark. After three years that they had not used them, my Lord Walpole let his own son ride them, while he was at the park, in the holidays. Do you know, that the woman Horace sent to Sir Robert, and made him give her five guineas for the two horses, because George had ridden them? I give you my word this is fact.

There has been a great fracas at Kensington: one of the Mesdames(718) pulled the chair from under Countess Deloraine(719) at cards, who, being provoked that her monarch was diverted with her disgrace, with the malice of a hobby-horse, gave him just such another fall. But alas! the Monarch, like Louis XIV. is mortal in the part that touched the ground, and was so hurt and so angry, that the countess is disgraced, and her German rival (720) remains in the sole and quiet possession of her royal master's favour.

October 9th.

Well! I have waited till this morning, but have no letter from you; what can be the meaning of it? Sure, if you was ill, Mr. Chute would write to me! Your brother protests he never lets your letters lie at the office.

Sa Majest'e Patapanique(721) has had a dreadful misfortune!-not lost his first minister, nor his purse—nor had part of his camp equipage burned in the river, nor waited for his secretary of state, who is perhaps blown to Flanders—nay, nor had his chair pulled from under him-worse! worse! quarrelling with a great pointer last night about their countesses, he received a terrible shake by the back and a bruise on the left eye—poor dear Pat! you never saw such universal consternation! it was at supper. Sir Robert, who makes as much rout with him as I do, says, he never saw ten people show so much real concern! Adieu! Yours, ever and ever-but write to me.

(714) The Marshal de Maillebois and the Count de Saxe had been sent with reinforcements from France, to deliver the Marshal de Broglio and the Marshal de Belleisle, who, with their army, were shut up in Prague, and surrounded by the superior forces of the Queen of Hungary, commanded by Prince Charles of Lorraine. They succeeded in facilitating the escape of the Marshal de Broglio, and of a portion of the French troops; but the Marshal de Belleisle continued to be blockaded in Prague with twenty-two thousand men, till December 1742, when he made his escape to Egra.-D.

(715) Felton Hervey, tenth son of John, first Earl of Bristol; in 1737, appointed groom of the bedchamber to the Duke of Cumberland. He died in 1775.-E.

(716) These are "The Capuchin," and the ode beginning, "'Great Earl of Bath, your reign is o'er;" As they have been frequently published, they are omitted. The "Nova Progenies" is the well-known ode beginning, "See, a new progeny descends."-D.

(717) Eldest son of old Horace Walpole. [Afterwards the second Lord Walpole of Wolterton, and in 1806, at the age of eighty-three created Earl of Orford. He died in 1809.-E.]

(718) The Princesses, daughters of George II.-D.

(719) Elizabeth Fenwick, widow of Henry Scott, third Earl of Deloraine. She was a favourite of George II. and lived much in his intimate society. From the ironical epithets applied to her in Lord Hervey's ballad in the subsequent letter, it would appear, that her general conduct was not considered to be very exemplary. She died in 1794.-D.

(720) Lady Yarmouth.



289 Letter 86 To Sir Horace Mann. Houghton, Oct. 18, 1742.

I have received two letters from you since last post; I suppose the wind stopped the packet-boat.

Well! was not I in the right to persist in buying the Dominichin? don't you laugh at those wise connoisseurs, who pronounced it a copy? If it is one, where is the original? or who was that so great master that could equal Dominichin? Your brother has received the money for it, and Lord Orford is in great impatience for it; yet he begs, if you can find any opportunity, that it may be sent in a man-of-war. I must desire that the statue may be sent to Leghorn, to be shipped with it, and that you will get Campagni and Libri to transact the payment as they did for the picture, and I will pay your brother.

Villettes' important despatches to you are as ridiculous as good Mr. Matthews's devotion. - I fancy Mr. Matthews's own god (722) would make as foolish a figure about a monkey's neck, as a Roman Catholic one. You know, Sir Francis Dashwood used to say that Lord Shrewsbury's providence was an old angry man in a blue cloak: another person-that I knew, believed providence was like a mouse, because he is invisible. I dare to say Matthews believes, that providence lives upon beef and pudding, loves prize-fighting and bull-baiting, and drinks fog to the health of Old England.

I go to London in a week, and then will send you cart-loads of news: I know none now, but that we hear to-day of the arrival of Duc d'Aremberg-I suppose to return my Lord Carteret's visit. The latter was near being lost; he told the King that being in a storm, he had thought it safest to put into Yarmouth roads, at which he laughed, hoh! hoh! hoh!

For want of news, I live upon ballads to you; here is one that has made a vast noise, and by Lord Hervey's taking great pains to disperse it, has been thought his own-if it is,(723) he has taken true care to disguise the niceness of his style.

1. O England, attend. while thy fate I deplore, Rehearsing the schemes and the conduct of power. And since only of those who have power I sing, I am sure none can think that I hint at the King.

2. From the time his son made him old Robin depose, All the power of a King he was well-known to lose; But of all but the name and the badges bereft, Like old women, his paraphernalia are left.

3. To tell how he shook in St. James's for fear, When first these new Ministers bullied him there, Makes my blood boil with rage, to think what a thing They have made of a man We 'obey as a King.

4. Whom they pleas'd they put in, whom they pleas'd they put out, And just like a top they all lash'd him about, Whilst he like a top with a murmuring noise, Seem'd to grumble, but turn'd to these rude lashing boys.

5. At last Carteret arriving, spoke thus to his grief, If you'll make me your Doctor, I'll bring you relief; You see to your closet familiar I come, And seem like my wife in the circle-at home."

6. Quoth the King, "My good Lord, perhaps you've been told, That I used to abuse you a little of old; 'But now bring whom you will, and eke turn away, But let me and my money, and Walmoden(724) stay."

7." For you and Walmoden, I freely consent, But as for your money, I must have it spent; I have promised your son (nay, no frowns,) shall have some, Nor think 'tis for nothing we patriots are come.

8. "But, however, little King, since I find you so good, Thus stooping below your high courage and blood, Put yourself in my hands, and I'll do what I can, To make you look yet like a King and a man.

9. "At your Admiralty and your Treasury-board, To save one single man y; u shan't say a word, For, by God! all your rubbish front both you shall shoot, Walpole's ciphers and Gasherry'S(725) vassals to boot.

10. "And to guard Prince's ears, as all Statesmen take care, So, long as yours are-not one man shall come near; For of all your Court-crew we'll leave only those Who we know never dare to say boh! to a goose.

11. "So your friend booby Grafton I'll e'en let you keep, Awake he can't hurt, and is still half asleep; Nor ever was dangerous, but to womankind, And his body's as impotent now as his mind.

12. "There's another Court-booby, at once hot and dull, Your pious pimp, Schutz, a mean, Hanover tool; For your card-play at night he too shall remain, With virtuous and sober, and wise Deloraine.(726)

13. "And for all your Court-nobles who can't write or read, As of such titled ciphers all courts stand in need, Who, like parliament-Swiss, vote and fight for their pay, They're as good as a new set to cry yea and nay.

14. "Though Newcastle's as false, as he's silly, I know, By betraying old Robin to me long ago, As well as all those who employed him before, Yet I leave him in place, but I leave him no power.

15. "For granting his heart is as black as his hat, With no more truth in this, than there's sense beneath that; Yet as he's a coward, he'll shake when I frown; You call'd him a rascal, I'll use him like one,

16. "And since his estate at elections he'll spend, And beggar himself, without making a friend; So whilst the extravagant fool has a sous, As his brains I can't fear, so his fortune I'll use,

17. "And as miser Hardwicke, with all courts will draw, He too may remain, but shall stick to his law; For of foreign affairs, when he talks like a fool, I'll laugh in his face,, and will cry 'Go to school!'

18. "The Countess of Wilmington, excellent nurse, I'll trust with the Treasury, not with its purse, For nothing by her I've resolved shall be done, She shall sit at that board, as you sit on the throne.

19. "Perhaps now, you expect that I should begin To tell you the men I design to bring in; But we're not yet determined on all their demands -And you'll know soon enough, when they come to kiss hands.

20. "All that weathercock Pultney shall ask, we must grant, For to make him a great noble nothing, I want; And to cheat such a man, demands all my arts, For though he's a fool, he's a fool with great parts,

21. "And as popular Clodius, the Pultney of Rome, >From a noble, for power did plebeian become, So this Clodius to be a Patrician shall choose, Till what one got by changing, the other shall lose.

22. "Thus flatter'd and courted, and gaz'd at by all, Like Phaeton, rais'd for a day, he shall fall, Put the world in a flame, and show he did strive To get reins in his hand, though 'tis plain he can't drive.

23. "For your foreign affairs, howe'er they turn out, At least I'll take care you shall make a great rout: Then cock your great hat, strut, bounce, and look bluff, For though kick'd and cuffd here, you shall there kick and cuff.

24. "That Walpole did nothing they all used to say, So I'll do enough, but I'll make the dogs pay; Great fleets I'll provide, and great armies engage, Whate'er debts we make, or whate'er wars we wage."

25. With cordials like these the Monarch's new guest Revived his sunk spirits and gladden'd his heart; Till in raptures he cried, " y dear Lord, you shall do Whatever you will, give me troops to review.

26. "But oh! my dear England, since this is thy state, Who is there that loves thee but weeps at thy fate? Since in changing thy masters, thou art just like old Rome, Whilst Faction, Oppression, and Slavery's thy doom.

27. "For though you have made that rogue Walpole retire, You're out of the frying-pan into the fire! But since to the Protestant line I'm a friend, I tremble to think where these changes may end!"

This has not been printed. You see the burthen of all the songs Is the rogue Walpole, which he has observed himself, but I believe is content, as long as they pay off his arrears to those that began the tune. Adieu!

(722) Admiral Matthews's crew having disturbed some Roman Catholic ceremonies in a little island on the coast of Italy, hung a crucifix about a monkey's neck.

(723) It was certainly written by Lord Hervey.

(724) Lady Yarmouth.

(725) Sir Charles Wager's nephew, and Secretary to the Admiralty.

(726) Countess Dowager of Deloraine, governess to the young Princesses.



293 Letter 87 To Sir Horace Mann. Houghton, Oct. 23, 1742.

At last I see an end of my pilgrimage; the day after tomorrow I am affirming it to you as earnestly as if' you had been doubting of it like myself: but both my brothers are here, and Sir Robert will let me go. He must follow himself soon: the Parliament meets the 16th of November, that the King may go abroad the first of March: but if all threats prove true prophecies, he will scarce enter upon heroism so soon, for we are promised a winter just like the last-new Secret Committees to be tried for, and impeachments actually put into execution. It is horrid to have a prospect of a session like the last.

In the meantime, my Lord of Bath and Lord Hervey, who seem deserted by every body else, are grown the greatest friends in the world at Bath; and to make a complete triumvirate, my Lord Gower is always of their party: how they must love one another, the late, the present, and the would-be Privy Seal!

Lord Hyndford has had great honours in Prussia: that King bespoke for him a service of plate to the value of three thousand pounds. He asked leave for his Majesty's arms to be put upon it: the King replied, "they should, with the arms of Silesia added to his paternal coat for ever." I will tell you Sir ]Robert's remark on this: "He is rewarded thus for having obtained Silesia for the King of Prussia, which he was sent to preserve to the Queen of Hungary!" Her affairs begin to take a little better turn again; Broglio is prevented from joining Maillebois, who, they affirm, can never bring his army off, as the King of Poland is guarding all the avenues of Saxony, to prevent his passing through that country.

I wrote to you in my last to desire that the Dominichin and my statue might come by a man-of-war. Now. Sir Robert, who is impatient for his picture, would have it sent in a Dutch ship, as he says he can easily get it from Holland. If you think this conveyance quite safe, I beg my statue may bear it company.

Tell me if you are tired of ballads on my Lord Bath; if you are not, here is another admirable one,(727) I believe by the same hand as the others; but by the conclusion certainly ought not to be Williams's. I only send you the good ones, for the newspapers are every day full of bad ones on this famous earl.

My compliments to the Princess; I dreamed last night that she was come to Houghton, and not at all 'epuis'ee with her journey. Adieu!

P.S. I must add a postscript, to mention a thing I have often designed to ask you to do for me. Since I came to England I have been buying drawings, (the time is well chosen, when I had neglected it in Italy!) I saw at Florence two books that I should now be very glad to have, if you could get them tolerably reasonable; one was at an English painter's; I think his name was Huckford, over against your house in via Bardi; they were of Holbein: the other was of Guercino, and brought to me to see by the Abb'e Bonducci; my dear child, you will oblige me much if you can get them.

(727) Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's ode, beginning "What Statesman, what Hero, what King-." It is to be found in all editions of his poems.-D.



294 Letter 88 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Nov. 1, 1742.

I have not felt so pleasantly these three months as I do at present, though I have a great cold with coming into an unaired house, and have been forced to carry that cold to the King's levee and the drawing-room. There were so many new faces that I scarce knew where I was; I should have taken 'it for Carlton House, or my Lady Mayoress's visiting-day, only the people did not seem enough at home, but rather as admitted to see the King dine in public. 'Tis quite ridiculous to see the numbers of old ladies, who, from having been wives of patriots, have not been dressed these twenty years; out they come, in all the accoutrements that were in use in Queen Anne's days. Then the joy and awkward jollity of them is inexpressible! They titter, and, wherever you meet them, are always going to court, and looking at their watches an hour before the time. I met several on the birthday, (for I did not arrive time enough to make clothes,) and they were dressed in all the colours of the rainbow: they seem to have said to themselves twenty years ago, ,Well, if ever I do go to court again, I will have a pink and silver, or a blue and silver," and they keep their resolutions.- But here's a letter from you, sent to me back from Houghton; I must stop to read it.-Well, I have read it, and am diverted with Madame Grifoni's being with child; I hope she was too. I don't wonder that she hates the country; I dare to say her child does not owe its existence to the Villeggiatura. When you wrote, it seems you had not heard what a speedy determination was put to Don Philip's reign in Savoy. I suppose he will retain the title: you know great princes are fond of titles, which proves they are not so great as they once were.

I find a very different face of things from what we had conceived in the country. There are, indeed, thoughts of renewing attacks on Lord Orford, and Of stepping the supplies; but the new ministry laugh at these threats, having secured a vast majority in the House: the Opposition themselves own that the Court will have upwards of a hundred majority: I don't, indeed, conceive how; but they are confident of carrying every thing. They talk of Lord Gower's not keeping the privy seal; that he will either resign it, or have it taken away: Lord Bath, who is entering into all the court measures, is most likely to succeed him. The late Lord Privy Seal(728) has had a most ridiculous accident at Bath: he used to play in a little inner room; but one night some ladies had got it, and he was reduced to the public room; but being extremely absent and deep in politics, he walked through the little room to a convenience behind the curtain, from whence (still absent) he produced himself in a situation extremely diverting to the women: imagine his delicacy, and the passion he was in at their laughing!

I laughed at myself prodigiously the other day for a piece of absence; I was writing on the King's birthday, and being disturbed with the mob in the street, I rang for the porter, and, with an air of grandeur, as if I was still at Downing Street, cried, "Pray send away those marrowbones and cleavers!" The poor fellow with the most mortified air in the world, replied, "Sir, they are not at our door, but over the way at my Lord Carteret's." "Oh," said I, "then let them alone; may be he does not dislike the noise!" I pity the poor porter, who sees all his old customers going over the way too.

Our operas begin to-morrow with a pasticcio, full of most of my favourite songs: the Fumagalli has disappointed us; she had received an hundred ducats, and then wrote word that she had spent them, and was afraid of coming through the Spanish quarters; but if they would send her an hundred more, she would come next year. Villettes has what been written to in the strongest manner to have her forced hither (for she is at Turin.) I tell you this by way of key, in case you should receive a mysterious letter in cipher from him about this important business.

I have not seen Due d'Aremberg; but I hear that all the entertainments for him are suppers, for he -will dine at his own hour, eleven in the morning. He proposed it to the Duchess of Richmond when she invited him; but she said she did not know where to find company to dine with him at that hour.

I must advise YOU to be cautious how you refuse humouring our captains (729) in any of their foolish schemes; for they are popular, and I should be very sorry to have them out of humour with you when they come home, lest it should give any handle to your enemies. Think of it, my dear child! The officers in Flanders, that are members of parliament, have had intimations, that if they asked leave to come on their private affairs, and drop in, not all together, they will be very well received; this is decorum. Little Brook's little wife is a little with child. Adieu!

(728) Lord Hervey.

(729) The captains of ships in the English fleet at Leghorn.



296 Letter 89 To Sir Horace Mann. London, Nov. 15, 1742.

I have not written to you lately, expecting letters from you; last I have received two. I still send mine through France, as I am afraid they would get to you with still more difficulty through Holland.

Our army is just now ordered to march to Mayence, at the repeated instances of the Queen of Hungary; Lord Stair goes with them, but almost all the officers that arc in parliament arc come over, for the troops are only to be in garrison till March, when, it is said, the King will take the field with them. This step makes a great noise, for the old remains of the Opposition are determined to persist, and have termed this a H(inoverian measure. They begin to-morrow, with opposing the address on the King's speech: Pitt is to be the leading mail; there are none but he and Lyttelton of the Prince's court, who do not join with the ministry: the Prince has told them, that he will follow the advice they long ago gave him, "turning out all his people who do not vote as he would have them."

Lord Orford is come to town, and was at the King's levee to-day; the joy the latter showed to see him was very visible: all the new ministry came and spoke to him; and he had a long, laughing conversation with my Lord Chesterfield, who is still in Opposition.

You have heard, I suppose, of the revolution in the French Court; Madame de Mailly is disgraced, and her handsome sister De la Tournelle(730) succeeds: the latter insisted on three conditions; first, that the Mailly should quit the palace before she entered it; next, that she should be declared mistress, to which post, they pretend, there is a large salary annexed, (but that is not probable,) and lastly, that she may always have her own parties at supper: the last article would very well explain what she proposes to do with her salary.

There are admirable instructions come up from Worcester to Sandys and Winnington; they tell the latter how little hopes they always had of him. "But for you, Mr. Sandys, who have always, etc., you to snatch at the first place you could get," etc. In short, they charge him, who is in the Treasury and Exchequer not to vote for any supplies.(731)

I write to you in a vast hurry, for I am going to the meeting at the Cockpit, to hear the King's speech read to the members: Mr. Pelham presides there. They talk of a majority of fourscore: we shall see to-morrow.

The Pomfrets stay in the country most part of the winter-. Lord Lincoln and Mr. (George) Pitt have declared off in form.(732) So much for the schemes of my lady! The Duke of Grafton used to say that they put him in mind of a troop of Italian comedians; Lord Lincoln was Valere, Lady Sophia, Columbine, and my lady the old mother behind the scenes.

Our operas go on au plus miserable: all our hopes lie in a new dancer, Sodi, who has performed but once, but seems to please as much as the Fausan. Did I tell you how well they had chosen the plot of the first opera? There was a prince who rebels against his father, who had before rebelled against his.(733) The Duke of Montagu says, there is to be an opera of dancing, with singing between the acts.

My Lord Tyrawley(734) is come from Portugal, and has brought three wives and fourteen children; one of the former is a Portuguese, with long black hair plaited down to the bottom of her back. He was asked the other night at supper, what he thought of England; whether he found much alteration from fifteen years ago? "No," he said, "not at all: why, there is my Lord Bath, I don't see the least alteration in him; he is just what he was: and then I found Lord Grantham (735) walking on tiptoe, as if he was still afraid of waking the Queen."

Hanbury Williams is very ill at Bath, and his wife in the same way in private lodgings in the city. Mr. Doddington has at last owned his match with his old mistress.(736) I suppose he wants a new one.

I commend your prudence about Leghorn; but, my dear child, what pain I am in about you! Is it possible to be easy while the Spaniards are at your gates! write me word every minute as your apprehensions vanish or increase. I ask every moment what people think; but how can they tell here? You say nothing of Mr. Chute, sure he is with You Still! When I am in such uneasiness about you, I want you every post to mention your friends being with you: I am sure you have none so good or sensible as he is. I am vastly obliged to you for the thought of the book of shells, and shall like -it much; and thank you too about my Scagliola table; but I am distressed about your expenses. Is there any way one could get your allowance increased? You know how low my interest is now; but you know too what a push I would make to be of any service to you-tell me,, and adieu!

(730) Afterwards created Duchess of Chateauroux. (Mary Anne (le Mailly, widow of the Marquis de la Tournelle. She succeeded her sister Madame de Mailly, as mistress of Louis XV., as the latter had succeeded the other sister, Madame de Vintimille, in the same situation. Madame de Chateauroux was sent away from the court during the illness of Louis at Metz; but on his recovery he recalled her. Shortly after which she died, December 10, 1744, and on her deathbed accused M. de Maurepas, the minister, of having poisoned her. The intrigue, by means of which she supplanted her sister, was conducted principally by the Marshal de Richelieu.-D.

(731) "We earnestly entreat, insist, and require, that you will postpone the supplies until you have renewed the secret committee of inquiry."-E.

(732) An admirer of Lady Sophia Fermor.-D.

(733) This was a pasticcio, called "Mandane," another name for Metastasio's drama of "Artaserse."-E.

(734) Lord Tyrawley was many years ambassador at Lisbon. Pope has mentioned his and another ambassador's seraglios in one of his imitations of Horace, "Kinnoul's lewd cargo, or Tyrawley's crew." [James O'Hara, second and last Lord Tyrawley of that family, He died in 1773, at the age of eighty-five.]

(735) Henry Nassau d'Auverquerque, second Earl of Grantham. He had been chamberlain to Queen Caroline. He died in 1754, when his titles became extinct.-E.

(736) Mrs. Beghan.



298 Letter 90 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Dec. 2, 1742.,

You will wonder that it is above a fortnight Since I wrote to you; but I have had an inflammation in one of my eyes, and durst not meddle with a pen. I have had two letters from you of Nov. 6th and 13th, but I am in the utmost impatience for another, to hear you are quite recovered of your Trinculos and FuribOndos. You tell me you was in a fever; I cannot be easy till I hear from you again. I hope this will come much too late for a medicine, but it will always serve for sal volatile to give you spirits. Yesterday was appointed for considering the army; but Mr. Lyttelton stood up and moved for another Secret Committee, in the very words of last year; but the whole debate ran, not upon Robert Earl of Orford, but Robert Earl of Sandys:(737) he is the constant butt of the party; indeed he bears it notably. After five hours' haranguing, we came to a division, and threw out the motion by a majority of sixty-seven, 253 against 186. The Prince had declared so openly for union and agreement in all measures, that, except the Nepotism,(738) all his servants but one were with us. I don't know whether they will attempt any thing else, but with these majorities we must have an easy winter. The union of the Whigs has saved this parliament. It is expected that Pitt and Lyttelton will be dismissed by the Prince. That faction and Waller are the only Whigs of any note that do not join with the Court. I do not count Doddington, who must now always be with the minority, for no majority will accept him. It is believed that Lord Gower will retire, or be desired to do so. I suppose you have heard from Rome,(739) that Murray is made Solicitor-general, in the room of Sir John Strange, who has resigned for his health. This is the sum of politics; we can't expect any winter, (I hope no winter will be) like the last. By the crowds that come hither, one should not know that Sir Robert is out of place, only that now he is scarce abused.

De reste, the town is wondrous dull; operas unfrequented, plays not in fashion, amours as old as marriages-in short, nothing but whist! I have not yet learned to play, but I find that I wait in vain for its being left off.

I agree with you about not sending home the Dominichin in an English vessel; but what I mentioned to you of its coming in a Dutch vessel, if you find an opportunity, I think will be very safe, if you approve it; but manage that as you like. I shall hope for my statue at the same time; but till the conveyance is absolutely safe, I know you will not venture them. Now I mention my statue, I must beg you will send me a full bill of all my debts to you, which I am sure by this time must be infinite; I beg to know the particulars, that I may pay your brother. Adieu, my dear Sir; take care of yourself, and submit to popery and slavery rather than get colds with sea-heroes.(740)

(737) Samuel Sandys, chancellor of the Exchequer, in the room of Sir R. Walpole.

(738) Lord Cobham's nephews and cousins.-D.

(739) This alludes to the supposed Jacobite principles of Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield.-D.

(740) Sir H. Mann had complained, in one of his letters, of the labours he had gone through in doing the honours of Florence to some of Admiral Matthews's (il Furibondo) officers. The English fleet was now at Leghorn, upon the plea of defending the Tuscan territories, in case of their being attacked by the Spaniards.-D.



299 Letter 91 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Dec. 9, 1742.

I shall have quite a partiality for the post of Holland; it brought me two letters last week, and two more yesterday, of November 20th and 27th; but I find you have your perpetual headaches-how can you say that you shall tire me with talking Of them? you may make me suffer by your pains, but I will hear and insist upon your always telling me of your health. Do you think I only correspond with you to know the posture of the Spaniards or the 'epuisements of the Princess! I am anxious, too, to know how poor Mr. Whithed does, and Mr. Chute's gout. I shall look upon our sea captains with as much horror as the King of Naples can, if they bring gouts, fits, and headaches. You will have had a letter from me by this time, to give up sending the Dominichin by a man-of-war, and to propose its coming in a Dutch ship. I believe that will be safe.

We have had another great day in the House on the army in Flanders, which the Opposition were for disbanding; but we carried 'it by a hundred and twenty.(741) Murray spoke for the first time, with the greatest applause; Pitt answered him with all his force and art of language, but on an ill-founded argument. In all appearances, they will be great rivals. Shippen was in great rage at Murray's apostacy;(742) if any thing can really change his principles, possibly this competition may. To-morrow we shall have a tougher battle on the sixteen thousand Hanoverians. Hanover is the word given out for this winter: there is a most bold pamphlet come out, said to be Lord Marchmont's,(743) which affirms that in every treaty made since the accession of this family, England has been sacrificed to the interest of Hanover, and consequently insinuates the incompatibility of the two. Lord Chesterfield says, "that if we have a mind effectually to prevent the Pretender from ever obtaining this crown, we should make him Elector of Hanover, for the people of England will never fetch another king from thence." Adieu! my dear child. I am sensible that I write you short letters, but I write you all I know. I don't know how it is, but the wonderful seems worn out. In this our day, we have no rabbit women-no elopements-no epic poems,(744) finer than Milton's-no contest about harlequins and Polly Peachems. Jansen (745) has won no more estates, and the Duchess of Queensberry is grown as tame as her neighbours. Whist has spread an universal opium over the whole nation; it makes courtiers and patriots sit down to the same pack of cards. The only thing extraordinary, and which yet did not seem to surprise any body, was the Barberina's(746) being attacked by four men masqued, the other night, as she came out of the opera house, who would have forced her away, but she screamed, and the guard came. Nobody knows who set them on, and I believe nobody inquired.

The Austrians in Flanders have separated from our troops a little out of humour, because it was impracticable for them to march without any preparatory provisions for their reception. They will probably march in two months, if no peace prevents it. Adieu!

(741) Upon a motion, made by Sir William Yonge, that 534,763 pounds be granted for defraying the charge of 16,259 men, to be employed in Flanders. The numbers on the division were 280 against 160.-E.

(742) From Toryism.-D.

(743) Hugh Hume, third Earl of Marchmont.

(744) This alludes to the extravagant encomiums bestowed on Glover's Leonidas by the young patriots.

(745) H. Jansen, a celebrated gamester, who cheated the late Duke of Bedford of an immense sum: Pope hints at that affair in this line, "Or when a duke to Jansen punts at White's."

(746) A famous dancer.



301 Letter 92 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Dec. 23, 1742.

I have had no letter from you this fortnight, and I have heard nothing this month: judge now how fit I am to write. I hope it is not another mark of growing old; but, I do assure you, my writing begins to leave me. Don't be frightened! I don't mean this as an introduction towards having done with you-I will write to you to the very stump of my pen, and as Pope says,

"Squeeze out the last dull droppings of my sense."

But I declare, it is hard to sit spinning out one's brains by the fireside, without having heard the least thing to set one's hand a-going. I am so put to it for something to say, that I would make a memorandum of the most improbable lie that could be invented by a viscountess-dowager; as the old Duchess of Rutland (747) does when she is told of some strange casualty, "Lucy, child, step into the next room and set that down."-"Lord, Madam!" says Lady Lucy,(748) "it can't be true!"-"Oh, no matter, child; it will do for news into the country next post." But do you conceive that the kingdom of the Dull is come upon earth-not with the forerunners and prognostics of other to-come kingdoms? No, no; the sun and the moon go on just as they used to do, without giving us any hints: we see no knights come prancing upon pale horses, or red horses; no stars, called wormwood, fall into the Thames, and turn a third part into wormwood; no locusts, like horses, with their hair as the hair of women-in short, no thousand things, each of which destroys a third part of mankind: the only token of this new kingdom is a woman riding on a beast, which is the mother of abominations, and the name in the forehead is whist: and the four-and-twenty elders, and the woman, and the whole town, do nothing but play with this beast. Scandal itself is dead, or confined to a pack of cards; for the only malicious whisper I have heard this fortnight, is of an intrigue between the Queen of hearts and the Knave of clubs. Y our friend Lady Sandwich (749) has got a son; if one may believe the belly she wore, it is a brave one. Lord Holderness(750) has lately given a magnificent repast to fifteen persons; there were three courses of ten, fifteen, and fifteen, and a sumptuous dessert: a great saloon illuminated, odours, and violins-and, who do you think were the invited?-the Visconti, Giuletta, the Galli, Amorevoli, Monticelli, Vanneschi and his wife, Weedemans the hautboy, the prompter, etc. The bouquet was given to the Guiletta, who is barely handsome. How can one love magnificence and low company at the same instant! We are making great parties for the Barberina and the Auretti, a charming French girl; and our schemes succeed so well, that the opera begins to fill surprisingly; for all those who don't love music, love noise and party, and will any night give half-a-guinea for the liberty of hissing-such is English harmony.

I have been in a round of dinners with Lord Stafford, and Bussy the French minister, who tells one stories of Capuchins, confessions, Henri Quatre, Louis XIV., Gascons, and the string which all Frenchmen go through, without any connexion or relation to the discourse. These very stories, which I have already heard four times, are only interrupted by English puns, which old Churchill translates out of jest-books into the mouth of my Lord Chesterfield, and into most execrable French.

Adieu! I have scribbled, and blotted, and made nothing out, and, in short, have nothing to say, so good night!

(747) Lady Lucinda Sherard, widow of John Manners, second Duke of Rutland. She died in 1751.-E.

(748) Lady Lucy Manners, married, in 1742, to William, second Duke of Montrose. She died in 1788.-E.

(749) Judith, sister of Lord Viscount Fane, wife of John Montagu, fifth Earl of Sandwich.-E.

(750) Robert d'Arcy, fourth Earl of Holderness; subsequently made secretary of State. Upon his death his earldom extinguished, and what remained of his estate, as well as the Barony of Conyers, descended to his only daughter, who was married to Francis Osborne, fifth Duke of Leeds, in 1773.-D. [From whom she was divorced in 1779. She afterwards married Captain John Byron, son of Admiral Byron, and father of the great poet.]



302 Letter 93 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Jan. 6, 1743.

You will wonder that you have not heard from me, but I have been too ill to write. I have been confined these ten days with a most violent cough, and they suspected an inflammation on my lungs; but I am come off with the loss of my eyes and my voice, both of which I am recovering, and would write to you to-day. I have received your long letter of December 11th, and return you a thousand thanks for giving up so much of your time; I wish I could make as long a letter for you, but we arc in a neutrality of news. The Elector Palatine (751) is dead; but I have not heard what alterations that will make. Lord Wilmington's death, which is reckoned hard upon, is likely to make more conversation here. He is going to Bath, but that is only to pass away the time until be dies.

The great Vernon is landed, but we have not been alarmed with any bonfires or illuminations; he has outlived all his popularity. There is nothing new but the separation of a Mr. and Mrs. French, whom it is impossible you should know. She has been fashionable these two winters; her husband has commenced a suit in Doctors' Commons against her cat, and will, they say, recover considerable damages: but the lawyers are of opinion, that the kittens must inherit Mr. French's estate, as they were born in lawful wedlock.

The parliament meets again on Monday, but I don't hear of any fatigue that we are likely to have; in a little time, I suppose, we shall hear what campaigning we are to make.

I must tell you of an admirable reply of your acquaintance the Duchess of Queensberry:(752) old Lady Granville, Lord Carteret's mother, whom they call the Queen-Mother, from taking upon her to do the honours of her son's power, was pressing the duchess to ask her for some place for herself or friends, and assured her that she would procure it, be it what it would. Could she have picked out a fitter person to be gracious to? The duchess made her a most grave curtsey, and said, "Indeed, there was one thing she had set her heart on."-"Dear child, how you oblige me by asking, any thing! What is it? tell me." "Only that you would speak to my Lord Carteret to get me made lady of the bedchamber to the Queen of Hungary."

I come now to your letter, and am not at all pleased to find that the Princess absolutely intends to murder you with her cold rooms. I wish you could come on those cold nights and sit by my fireside; I have the prettiest warm little apartment, with all my baubles, and Patapans, and cats! Patapan and I go to-morrow to New Park, to my lord, for the air, and come back with him on Monday.

What an infamous story that affair of Nomis is! and how different the ideas of honour among officers in your world and ours! Your history of cicisbeosm is more entertaining: I figure the distress of a parcel of lovers who have so many things to dread-the government in this world! purgatory in the next! inquisitions, villeggiaturas, convents, etc.

Lord Essex is extremely bad, and has not strength enough to go through the remedies that are necessary to his recovery. He now fancies that he does not exist, will not be persuaded to walk or talk, because, as he sometimes says, "How should he do any thing? he is not." You say, "How came I not to see Duc d'Aremberg?" I did once at the opera; but he went away soon after: and here it is not the way to visit foreigners, unless you are of the Court, or are particularly in a way of having them at your house: consequently Sir R. never saw him either-we are not of the Court! Next, as to Arlington Street: Sir R. is in a middling kind of house, which has long been his, and was let; he has taken a small one next to it for me, and they are laid together.

I come now to speak to you of the affair of the Duke of Newcastle; but absolutely, on considering it much myself, and on talking of it with your brother, we both are against your attempting any such thing. In the first place, I never heard a suspicion of the duke's taking presents, and should think he would rather be affronted: in the next place, my dear child, though you are fond of that coffee-pot, it would be thought nothing among such wardrobes as he has, of the finest wrought plate: why, he has- a set of gold plates that would make a figure on any sideboard in the Arabian Tales;(753) and as to Benvenuto cellini, if the duke could take it for his, people in England understand all work too well to be deceived. Lastly, as there has been no talk of alterations in the foreign ministers, and as all changes seem at an end, why should you be apprehensive? As to Stone,(754) if any thing was done, to be sure it should be to him though I really can't advise even that. These are my sentiments sincerely: by no means think of the duke. Adieu!

(751) Charles Philip of Neubourg, , Elector Palatine. He died December 31, 1742. He was succeeded by Charles Theodore, Prince of Sulzbach, descended from a younger branch of the house of Neubourg, and who, in his old age, became Elector of Bavaria.-D.

(752) Catherine Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, and wife of Charles Douglas, Duke of Queensberry; a famous beauty, celebrated by Prior in that pretty poem which begins, "Kitty, beautiful and young," and often mentioned in Swift and Pope's letters, She was forbid the Court for promoting subscriptions to the second part of the Beggar's Opera, when it had been prohibited from being acted. She and the duke erected the monument to Gay in Westminster Abbey. [And to which Pope supplied the epitaph, "the first eight lines of which," says Dr. Johnson, "have no grammar; the adjectives without substantives, and the epithets without a subject." The duchess died in 1777, and her husband in the year following.]

(753) Walpole, in his Memoires, says that the duke's houses, gardens, table, and equipages swallowed immense treasures, and that the sums he owed were only exceeded by those he wasted. He employed several physicians, without having had apparently much need of them. His gold plate appears to have been almost as dear to him as his health; for he usually kept it in pawn, except when he wished to display it on great occasions.

(754) Andrew Stone, at this time private secretary to the Duke of Newcastle. he subsequently filled the offices of under- secretary of state, sub-governor to Prince George, keeper of the state-paper office, and, on the marriage of George the third, treasurer to the Queen. he died in 1773.-E.



304 Letter 94 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Jan. 13, 1743,

Your brother brought me two letters together this morning, and at the same time showed me yours to your father. How should I be ashamed, were I he, to receive such a letter! so dutiful, so humble, and yet so expressive of the straits to which he has let you be reduced! My dear child, it looks too much like the son of a minister, when I am no longer so; but I can't help repeating to you offers of any kind of service that you think I can do for you any way.

I am quite happy at your thinking Tuscany so secure from Spain, unless the wise head of Richcourt works against the season; but how can I ever be easy while a provincial Frenchman, Something half French, half German, instigated by a mad Englishwoman is to govern an Italian dominion?

I laughed much at the magnificent presents made by one of the first families in Florence to their young accouch'ee. Do but think if a Duke or Duchess of Somerset were to give a Lady Hertford fifty pounds and twenty yards of velvet for bringing an heir to the blood of Seymour!

It grieves me that my letters drop in so slowly to you: I have never missed writing, but when I have been absolutely too much out of order, or once or twice when I had no earthly thing to tell you. This winter is so quiet, that one must inquire much to know any thing. The parliament is met again, but we do not hear of any intended opposition to any thing. the tories have dropped the affair of the Hanoverians in the House of Lords, in compliment to Lord Gower. there is a second pamphlet on that subject which makes a great noise.(755) The ministry are much distressed on the ways and means for raising the money for this year: there is to be a lottery, but that will not supply a quarter of what they want. They have talked of a new duty on tea, to be paid by every housekeeper for all the persons in their families; but it will scarce be proposed. Tea is so universal, that it would make a greater clamour than a duty on wine. Nothing is determined; the new folks do not shine at expedients. Sir Robert's health is now drunk at all the clubs in the city; there they are for having him made a duke, and placed again at the head of the Treasury; but I believe nothing could prevail on him to return thither. He says he will keep the 12th of February,.-the day he resigned, with his family as long as he lives. They talk of Sandys being raised to the peerage, by way of getting rid of him; he is so dull they can scarce draw him on.(756)

The English troops in Flanders march to-day, whither we don't know, but "probably to Liege: from whence they imagine the Hanoverians are going into Juliers and Bergue.(757) The ministry have been greatly alarmed with the King of Sardinia's retreat, and suspected that it was a total one from the Queen's interest; but it seems he sent for Villettes and the Hungarian minister, and had their previous approbations of his deserting Chamberry, etc.

Vernon is not yet got to town, we are impatient for what will follow the arrival of this mad hero. Wentworth will certainly challenge him, but Vernon does not profess personal valour: he was once knocked down by a merchant, who then offered him satisfaction-but he was satisfied.

Lord Essex' is dead:(758) Lord Lincoln will have the bedchamber; Lord Berkeley of Stratton(759) (a disciple of Carteret's) the Pensioners; and Lord Carteret himself probably the riband.

As to my Lady Walpole's dormant title,(760) it was in her family; but being in the King's power to give to which sister in equal claim he pleased, it was bestowed on Lord Clinton, who descended from the younger sister of Lady W.'s grandmother, or great grand-something. My Lady Clifford,(761) Coke's mother, got her barony so, in preference to Lady Salisbury and Lady Sondes, her elder sisters, who had already titles for their children. It is called a title in abeyance.

Sir Robert has just bid me tell you to send the Dominichin by the first safe conveyance to Matthews, who has had orders from Lord Winchilsea (762) to send it by the first man-of-war to England; or if you meet with a ship going to Port Mahon, then you must send it thither to Anstruther, and write to him that Lord Orford desires that he will take care of it, and send it by the first ship that comes directly home. He is so impatient for it, that he will have it thus; but I own I should not like to have my things tumbled out of one ship into another, and beg mine may stay till they can come at once. Adieu!

(755) Entitled "The Case of the Hanover Forces in the Pay of Great Britain examined." It was written by Lord Chesterfield, and excited much attention.-E.

(756) In December he was created a peer, by the title of Lord Sandys, Baron of Ombersley, and made cofferer of the household.-E.

(757) The British troops began their march from Flanders at the end of February, under the command of the Earl of Stair; but were so tardy in their movements, that it was the middle of May before they crossed the Rhine and fixed their station at Hochst, between Mayence and Frankfort.-E.

(758) William Capel, third Earl of Essex. [A lord of the bedchamber, knight of the garter, and captain of the yeomen of the guard.)

(759) John, fifth and last Lord Berkeley of Stratton. He died in 1773.-D.

(760) The barony of Clinton in fee descended to the daughters of Theophilus, Earl of Huntingdon, who died without male issue. One of those ladies died without children, by which means the title lay between the families of Rolle and Fortescue. King George I. gave it to Hugh Fortescue, afterwards Created an earl; on whose death it descended to his only sister, a maiden lady, after whom, without issue, it devolved on Lady Orford.

(761) Lady Margaret Tufton, third daughter of Thomas, sixth Earl of Thanet. the barony of De Clifford had descended to Lord Thanet, from his mother, Lady Margaret Sackville, daughter of Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery. Upon Lord Thanet's death, the barony of De Clifford fell into abeyance between his five daughters. These were Lady Catherine, married to Edward Watson, Viscount Sondus; Lady Anne, married to James Cecil, Earl of Salisbury; Lady Margaret, before mentioned; Lady Mary, married first to Anthony Grey, Earl of Harold, and secondly to John Earl Gower; and Lady Isabella, married to Lord Nassau Powlett.-D.

(762) First lord of the admiralty.-]).



306 Letter 95 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Jan. 27, 1743.

I could not write you last Thursday, I was so much out of order with a cold; your brother came and found me in bed. TO-night, that I can write, I have nothing to tell you; except that yesterday the welcome news (to the ministry) came of the accession of the Dutch to the King's measures. They are in great triumph; but till it Is clear what part his Prussian Uprightness is acting, other people take the liberty to be still in suspense. So they are about all our domestic matters too. It is a general stare! the alteration that must soon happen in the Treasury will put some end to the uncertainties of this winter. Mr. Pelham is universally named to the head of it; but Messrs. Prince,(263) Carteret, Pultney, and Companies must be a little considered. how they will like it: the latter the least.

You will wonder, perhaps be peevish, when I protest I have not another paragraph by me in the world. I want even common conversation; for I cannot persist, like the royal family, in asking people the same questions, "Do you love walking?" "Do you love music'!" "Was you at the opera?" "When do you go into the country!" I have nothing else to say: nothing happens; scarce the common episodes of a newspaper, of a man falling off a ladder and breaking his leg; or of a countryman cheated out of his leather pouch, with fifty shillings in it. We are in such a state of sameness, that I shall begin to wonder at the change of seasons, and talk of the spring as a strange accident. Lord Tyrawley, who has been fifteen years in Portugal, is of my opinion; he says he finds nothing but a fog, whist, and the House of Commons.

In this lamentable state, when I know not what to write even to you, what can I do about my serene Princess Grifoni? Alas! I owe her two letters, and where to find a beau sentiment, I cannot tell! I believe I may have some by me in an old chest of draws, with some exploded red-heel shoes and full-bottom wigs; but they would come out so yellow and moth-eaten! Do bow to her, in every superlative degree in the language, that my eyes have been so bad, that as I wrote you word, over and over, I have not been able to write a line. That will move her, when she hears what melancholy descriptions I write, of my not being able to write-nay, indeed it will not be so ridiculous as you think; for it is ten times worse for the eyes to write in a language one don't much practise! I remember a tutor at Cambridge, who had been examining some lads in Latin, but in a little while excused himself, and said he must speak English, for his mouth was very sore.

I had a letter from you yesterday of January 7th, N. S. which has wonderfully excited my compassion for the necessities of the princely family,(764) and the shifts the old Lady' is put to for quadrille.(765)

I triumph much on my penetration about the honest Rucellai(766)-we little people, who have no honesty, virtue, nor shame, do so exult when a good neighbour, who was a pattern, turns out as bad as oneself! We are like the good woman in the Gospel, who chuckled so much on finding her lost bit; we have more joy on a saint's fall, than in ninety-nine devils, who were always de nous autres! I am a little pleased too, that Marquis BagneSi'(767) whom you know I always liked much, has behaved so well; and am more pleased to hear what a Beffana(768) the Electress(769) is-Pho! here am I sending you back your own paragraphs, cut and turned! it is so silly to think that you won't know them again! I will not spin myself any longer; it is better to make a short letter. I am going to the masquerade, and will fancy myself in via della Pergola.(770) Adieu! "Do you know me?"-"That man there with you, in the black domino, is Mr. Chute.,, Good night!

(763) Frederick, Prince of Wales.-D.

(764) Prince and Princess Craon.

(765) Madame Sarasin.

(766) Sir H. Mann says, in his letter of January 7, 1743, 11 I must be so just as to tell you, @my friend, the Senator Rucellai, is, as you always thought, a sad fellow. He has quite abandoned me for fear of offending."-D.

(767) "Apropos of duels, two of our young nobles, Marquis BagneSi and Strozzi, have fought about a debt of' fifteen shillings; the latter, the creditor and the occasion of the fight, behaved ill."-Letter from Sir H. Mann, dated Jan. 7, 1743.-D.

(768) A Beffana was a puppet, which was carried about the town on the evening of the Epiphany. The word is derived from Epifania. It also means an ugly woman. The Electress happened to go out for the first time after an illness on the Epiphany, and said in joke to Prince Craon, that the "Beffane all went abroad on that day."-D.

(769) The Electress Palatine Dowager, the last of the House of Medici.

(770) A street at Florence, in which the Opera house stands.



308 Letter 96 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Feb. 2, 1743.

Last night at the Duchess of Richmond's I saw Madame Goldsworthy: what a pert, little, unbred thing it is! The duchess presented us to one another; but I cannot say that either of us stepped a foot beyond the first civilities. The good duchess was for harbouring her and all her brood: how it happened to her I don't conceive, but the thing had decency enough to refuse it. She is going to live with her father at Plymouth-tant mieux!

The day before yesterday the lords had a great day: Earl Stanhope(771) moved for an address to his Britannic Majesty, in consideration of the heavy wars, taxes, etc. far exceeding all that ever were known, to exonerate his people of foreign troops, Hanoverians,) which are so expensive, and can In no light answer the ends for which they were hired. Lord Sandwich seconded: extremely well, I hear, for I was not there. Lord Carteret answered, but was under great concern. Lord Bath spoke too, and would fain have persuaded that this measure was not Solely Of one minister, but that himself and all the council were equally concerned in it. The late Privy Seal(772) Spoke for an hour and a half, with the greatest applause, against the Hanoverians: and my Lord Chancellor extremely well for them. The division was, 90 for the Court, 35 against it The present Privy Seal(773) voted with the Opposition: so there will soon be another. Lord Halifax, the Prince's new Lord, was with the minority too; the other, Lord Darnley,(774) with the Court. After the division, Lord Scarborough, his Royal Highness's Treasurer, moved an address of approbation of the measure, which was carried by 78 to the former 35. Lord Orford was ill, and could not be there, but sent his proxy: he has got a great cold and slow fever, but does not keep his room. If Lord Gower loses the Privy Seal, (as it is taken for granted he does not design to keep it,) and Lord Bath refuses it, Lord Cholmondeley stands the fairest for it.

I will conclude abruptly, for you will be tired of my telling you that I have nothing to tell you-but so it is literally- oh! yes, you will want to know what the Duke of Argyle did-he was not there; he is every thing but superannuated. Adieu!

(771) Philip, second Earl Stanhope, born in 1714. He succeeded his father when he was only seven years old, and died in 1786. His character is thus sketched by his great- grandson, Viscount Mahon, in his History of England, vol. iii. p. 242.-"He had great talents, but fitter for speculation than for practical objects of action. He made himself one of the best-Lalande used to say the best-mathematicians in England of his day, and was likewise deeply skilled in other branches of science and philosophy. The Greek language was as familiar to him as the English; he was said to know every line of Homer by heart. In public life, on the contrary, he was shy, ungainly, and embarrassed. From his first onset in Parliament, he took part with vehemence against the administration of Sir Robert Walpole." Bishop Secker says, that Lord Stanhope "spoke a precomposed speech, which he held in his hand, with great tremblings and agitations, and hesitated frequently in the midst of great vehemence."-E.

(772) Lord Hervey.

(773) Lord Gower.

(774) Edward Bligh, second Earl of Darnley, in Ireland, and Lord of the Bedchamber to Frederic Prince of Wales.-D.



309 Letter 97 To Sir Horace Mann. Feb. 13, 1743.

Ceretesi tells me that Madame Galli is dead: I have had two letters from you this week; but the last mentions only the death of old Strozzi. I am quite sorry for Madame Galli, because I proposed seeing her again, on my return to Florence, which I have firmly in my intention: I hope it will be a little before Ceretesi's, for he seems to be planted here. I don't conceive who -waters him! Here are two noble Venetians that have carried him about lately to Oxford and Blenheim: I am literally waiting for him now, to introduce him to Lady Brown's sunday night; it is the great mart for all travelling and travelled calves-pho! here he is.

Monday morning.-Here is your brother: he tells me you never hear from me; how can that be? I receive yours, and you generally mention having got one of mine, though long after the time you should. I never miss above one post, and that but very seldom. I am longer receiving yours, though you have never missed; but then-I frequently receive two at once. I am delighted with Goldsworthy's mystery about King Theodore! If you will promise me not to tell him, I will tell you@a secret, which is, that if that person is not King Theodore, I assure you it is not Sir Robert Walpole.

I have nothing to tell you but that Lord Effingham Howard(775) is dead, and Lord Litchfield(776) at the point of death; he was struck with a palsy last Thursday. Adieu!

(775) Francis, first Earl of Effingham, and seventh Lord Howard of Effingham. He died February 12, 1743.-D.

(776) George Henry Lee, second Earl of Lichfield. He died February 15, 1743.-D.



309 Letter 98 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Feb. 24, 1743.

I write to you in the greatest hurry in the world, but write I will. Besides, I must wish you joy; you are warriors; nay, conquerors;(777) two things quite novel in this war, for hitherto it has been armies without fighting, and deaths without killing. We talk of this battle as of a comet; "Have you heard of the battle?" it Is so strange a thing, that numbers imagine you may go (ind see it at Charing Cross. Indeed, our officers, who are going to Flanders, don't quite like it; they are afraid it should grow the fashion to fight, and that a pair of colours should be no longer a sinecure. I am quite unhappy about poor Mr. Chute: besides, it is cruel to find that abstinence is not a drug. If mortification ever ceases to be a medicine, or virtue to be a passport to carnivals in the other world, who will be a self-tormentor any longer-not, my child, that I am one; but, tell me, is he quite recovered?

I thank you for King Theodore's declaration,(778) and wish Him success with all my soul. I hate the Genoese; they make a commonwealth the most devilish of all tyrannies!

We have every now and then motions for disbanding Hessians and Hanoverians, alias mercenaries; but they come to nothing. To-day the party have declared that they have done for this session; so you will hear little more but of fine equipages for Flanders: our troops are actually marched, and the officers begin to follow them-1 hopes they know whither! You know in the last war in Spain, Lord Peterborough rode galloping about to inquire for his army.

But to come to more real contests; Handel has set up an oratorio against the opera @ind succeeds. He has hired all the goddesses from farces and the singers of Roast Beef(779) from between the acts at both theatres, with a man with one note in his voice, and a girl without ever an one; and so they sing, and make brave hallelujahs; and the good company encore the recitative, if it happens to have any cadence like what they call a tune. I was much diverted the other night at the opera; two gentlewoman sat before my sister, and not knowing her, discoursed at their ease. Says one, "Lord! how fine Mr. W. is!" "Yes," replied the other, with a tone of saying sentences, "some men love to be particularly so, your petit-maitres-but they are not always the brightest of their sex.'@-Do thank me for this period! I am sure you will enjoy it as much as we did.

I shall be very glad of my things, and approve entirely of your precautions; Sir R. will be quite happy, for there is no telling YOU how impatient he is for his Dominichin. Adieu!

(777) This alludes to an engagement, which took place on the 8th of February, near Bologna, between the Spaniards under M. de Gages, and the Austrians under General Traun, in which the latter were successful.-D.

(778) With regard to Corsica, of which he had declared himself King. By this declaration, which was dated January 30, Theodore recalled, under pain of confiscation of their estates, all the Corsicans in foreign service, except that of the Queen of Hungary, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany.-E.

(779) It was customary at this time for the galleries to call for a ballad called "The Roast Beef of Old England," between the acts, or before or after the play.



310 Letter 99 To Sir Horace Mann. March 3d, 1743.

So, she is dead at last, the old Electress!(780)-well, I have nothing more to say about her and the Medici; they had outlived all their acquaintance: indeed, her death makes the battle very considerable -makes us call a victory what before we did not look upon as very decided laurels.

Lord Hervey has entertained the town with another piece of wisdom: on Sunday it was declared that he had married his eldest daughter the night before to a Mr. Phipps,(781) grandson of the Duchess of Buckingham. They sent for the boy but the day before from Oxford, and bedded them at a day's notice. But after all this mystery, it does not turn out that there is any thing great in this match, but the greatness of the secret. Poor Hervey,(782) the brother, is in fear and trembling, for he apprehends being ravished to bed to some fortune or other with as little ceremony. The Oratorios thrive abundantly-for my part, they give me an idea of heaven, where every body is to sing whether they have voices or not.

The Board (the Jacobite Club) have chosen his Majesty's Lord Privy Seal(783) for their President, in the room of Lord Litchfield. Don't you like the harmony of parties? We expect the parliament will rise this month: I shall be sorry, for if I am not hurried out of town, at least every body else will-and who can look forward from April to November? Adieu! though I write in defiance of having nothing to say, yet you see I can't go a great way in this obstinacy; but you will bear a short letter rather than none.

(780) Anna Maria of Medicis, daughter of Cosmo III. widow of John William, Elector Palatine. After her husband's death she returned to Florence, where she died, Feb @ 7 1743, aged seventy-five, being the last of that family.

(781) Constantine Phipps, in 1767, created Lord Mulgrave in Ireland. He married, on the 26th of February, Lepel, eldest daughter of Lord Hervey, and died in 1775. Her ladyship was found dead in her bed, 9th March, 1780, at her son's house in the Admiralty.-E.

(782) George William Hervey, afterwards second Earl of Bristol. He died unmarried, in 1775.-E.

(783) Lord Gower.



311 Letter 100 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, March 14, 1743.

I don't at all know how to advise you about mourning; I always think that the custom of a country, and what other foreign ministers do, should be your rule. But I had a private scruple rose with me: that was, whether you should show so much respect to the late woman (784) as other ministers do, since she left that legacy to Quella a Roma.(785) I mentioned this to my lord, but he thinks that the tender manner of her wording it, takes off that exception; however, he thinks it better that you should write for advice to your commanding officer. That will be very late, and you will probably have determined before. You see what a casuist I am in ceremony; I leave the question more perplexed than I found it.

Pray, Sir, congratulate me upon the new acquisition of glory to my family! We have long been eminent statesmen; now that we are out of employment we have betaken ourselves to war-and we have made great proficiency in a short season. We don't run, like my Lord Stair, into Berg and Juliers, to seek battles where we are sure of not finding them-we make shorter marches; a step across the Court of Requests brings us to engagement. But not to detain you any longer with flourishes, which will probably be inserted in my uncle Horace's patent when he is made a field-marshal; you must know that he has fought a duel, and has scratched a scratch three inches long on the side of his enemy-lo Paon! The circumstances of this memorable engagement were, in short, that on some witness being to be examined the other day in the House upon remittances to the army, my uncle said, He hoped they would indemnify him, if he told any thing that affected himself." Soon after he was standing behind the Speaker's chair, and Will. Chetwynd,(786) an intimate of Bolingbroke, came up to him, What, Mr. Walpole, are you for rubbing up old sores?" He replied, "I think I said very little, considering that you and your friends would last year have hanged up me and my brother at the lobby-door without a trial." Chetwynd answered, I would still have you both have your deserts." The other said, If you and I had, probably I should be here and you would be somewhere else." This drew more words, and Chetwynd took him by the arm and led him out. In the lobby, Horace said, "We shall be-observed, we had better put it off till to-morrow." "No, no, now! now!" When they came to the bottom of the stairs, Horace said, "I am out of breath, let us draw here." They drew; Chetwynd hit him on the breast, but was not near enough to pierce his coat. Horace made a pass which the other put by with his hand, but It glanced along his side-a clerk, who had observed them go out together so arm-in-arm-ly, could not believe it amicable, but followed them, and came up just time enough to beat down their swords, as Horace had driven him against a post, and would probably have run him through at the next thrust. Chetwynd went away to a surgeon's, and kept his bed the next day; he has not reappeared yet, but is in no danger. My uncle returned to the House, and was so little moved as to speak immediately upon the Cambrick bill, which made Swinny say, "That it was a sign he was not ruffled."(787) Don't you delight in this duel? I expect to see it daubed up by some circuit-painter on the ceiling of the saloon at Woolterton.