I am almost ashamed to send you this summer letter; but nobody is in town; even election news are all over. Adieu!'

(1390) "Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye," Gray.-E.

(1391) Scagliola is a composition, which was made only at Florence by Father Hugford, an Irish friar.



536 Letter 241 To sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Sept. 1, 1747.

Your two last are of August 1st and 22d. I fear my last to you was of July 28th. I have no excuse, but having nothing to tell you, and having been in the country. Bergen-op-zoom still holds out; the French having lost great numbers before it, though at first, at least, it was not at all well-defended. Nothing else is talked of, and opinions differ so much about the event, that I don't pretend to guess what it will be. It appears now that if the Dutch had made but decent defences of all the other towns, France would have made but slow progress in the conquest of Flanders, and Wanted many thousand men that now threaten Europe.

There are not ten people in London besides the Chuteheds and me; the White one is going into Hampshire; I hope to have the other a little with me at Twickenham, whither I go to-morrow for the rest of the season.

I don't know what to say to you about Mr. Mill; I can learn nothing about him: my connexions with any thing ministerial are little as possible; and were they bigger, the very commission, that you apprehend, would be a reason to' make them keep it secret from you, on whose account alone, they would know I inquired. I cannot bring myself to believe that he is employed from hence; and I am always so cautious of meddling about you, for fear of risking you in any light, that I am the unfittest person in the world to give you any satisfaction on this head: however, I shall continue to try.

I never heard any thing so unreasonable as the Pope's request to that Cardinal Guadagni;(1392) but I suppose they will make him comply.

You will, I think, like Sir James Grey; he is very civil and good-humoured, and sensible. Lord _(1393) is the two former; but, alas he is returned little wiser than he went.

Is there a bill of exchange sent to your brother? or may not I pay him without? it is fifty pounds and three zechins, is it not? Thank you.

Pandolfini is gone with Count Harrache; Panciatici goes next week: I believe he intended staying longer; but either the finances fail, or he does not know how to dispose of these two empty months alone; for Niccolini is gone with the Prince to Cliefden. I have a notion the latter would never leave England, if he could but bring himself to change his religion; or, which he would like as well, if he could persuade the Prince to change his. Good night!

(1392) This relates to a request made by the Pope to Cardinal Guadagni, to resign a piece of preferment which he was in possession of.-D.

(1393) So in the MS.-D.



537 Letter 242 To George Montagu, Esq. Arlington Street, Oct. 1, 1747.

Dear George, I wish I could have answered your invitation from the Tigress's with my own person, but it was impossible. I wish your farmer would answer invitations with the persons of more hens and fewer cocks; for I am raising a breed, and not recruits. The time before he sent two to one, and he has done so again. I had a letter from Mr. Conway, who is piteously going into prison again, our great secretary has let the time Slip for executing the cartel, and the French have reclaimed their prisoners. The Duke is coming back. I fear his candles are gone to bed to Admiral Vernon's! He has been ill; they say his head has been more affected than his body. Marshal Saxe sent him Cardinal Polignac's Anti-Lucretius(1393) to send to Lord Chesterfield. If he won't let him be a general, at least 'tis hard to reduce him to a courier.

When I saw you at Kyk in de Pot, I forgot to tell you that seven more volumes of the Journals are delivering: there's employment for Moreland. I go back to Kyk in de Pot tomorrow. Did you dislike it so much that you could not bring yourself to persuade your brother to try it with you for a day or two! I shall be there till the birthday, if you will come.

George Selwyn says, people send to Lord Pembroke to know how the bridge rested. You know George never thinks but 'a la t'ete tranch'ee: he came to town t'other day to have a tooth drawn, and told the man that he would drop his handkerchief for the signal. My compliments to your family.

(1393) In 1757, Anti-Lucretius was rendered into English by Dobson; for whose translation of Paradise Lost into Latin verse, Auditor Benson, who erected a monument to Milton in Westminster Abbey, gave him one thousand pounds. In 1767, a translation of the first book of the Cardinal's poem was published by the father of the Right Honourable George Canning.-E.



537 Letter 243 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Oct. 2, 1747.

I am glad the Chuteheds are as idle as I am for then you will believe it is nothing but idleness. I don't know that it is absolutely so; I rather flatter myself that it is want of materials that has made me silent, I fear, above these five weeks. Literally nothing has happened but the treachery at Bergen-Op-zoom,(1394) and of that all the world knows at least as much as I do. The Duke is coming home, and both armies are going into quarters, at least for the present: the French, I suppose, will be in motion again with the first frosts. Holland seems gone!-How long England will remain after it, Providence and the French must determine! This is too ample a subject to write but little upon, and too obvious to require much.

The Chuteheds have been extremely good, and visited and stayed with me at Twickenham-I am sorry I must, at your expense, be happy. If I were to say all I think of Mr. Chute's immense honesty, his sense, his wit, his knowledge, and his humanity, you would think I was writing a dedication. I am happy in him: I don't make up to him for you, for he loves nothing a quarter so well; but I try to make him regret you less-do you forgive me? Now I am commending your friends, I reproach myself with never having told you how much I love your brother Gal.(1395) you yourself have not more constant good-humour-indeed he has not such trials with illness as you have, you patient soul! but he is like you, and much to my fancy. Now I live a good deal at Twickenham, I see more of him, and like to see more of him: you know I don't throw my liking about the street.

Your Opera must be fine, and that at Naples glorious: they say we are to have one, but I doubt it. Lady Middlesex is breeding-the child will be well-born; the Sackville is the worst blood it is supposed to swell with. Lord Holderness has lost his son. Lady Charlotte Finch, when she saw company on her lying-in, had two toilets spread in her bedchamber with her own and Mr. Finch's dressing plate. This was certainly a stroke of vulgarity, that my Lady Pomfret copied from some festino in Italy.

Lord Bath and his Countess and his son(1396) have been making a tour: at Lord Leicester's(1397) they forgot to give any thing to the servants that showed the house; upon recollection-and deliberation, they sent back a man and horse six miles with-half a crown! What loads of money they are saving for the French!

Adieu! my dear child-perhaps you don't know that I , "cast many a Southern look"(1398) towards Florence-I think within this half-year I have thought more of making you a visit, than in any half-year since I left you. I don't know whether the difficulties will ever be surmounted, but you cannot imagine how few they are: I scarce think they are in the plural number.

(1394) In the letter to Sir Thomas Robinson of the 7th of November, Sir Everard Fawkener says, "The capture of Bergen-op-zoom is a subject to make one mad, if any thing had been done; but the ordinary forms of duty, which never fail in times of the greatest security, were now, in this critical time, neglected in the most scandalous manner." Hence it was surmised that the place was surrendered through treachery. See Coxe's Pelham, vol. i. p. 361.-E.

(1395) Galfridus Mann, twin-brother of Horace Mann.

(1396) William, Viscount Pulteney, only son of Lord Bath. He died in his father's lifetime.-D.

(1397) Holkham.

(1398) Shakspeare, Henry IV.-,, "Cast many a northern look to see his father bring up his powers."



539 Letter 244 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Nov. 10, 1747.

I came to town but last week; but on looking over the dates of my letters, I find I am six weeks in arrear to you. This is a period that ought to make me blush, and beyond what I think I was ever guilty - but I have not a tittle to tell you; that is, nothing little enough has happened, nor big enough, except Admiral Hawke's(1399) great victory and for that I must have transcribed the gazettes.

The Parliament met this morning, the House extremely full, and many new faces. We have done nothing, but choose a Speaker, and, in choosing him, flattered Mr. Onslow, who is rechosen. In about ten days one shall be able to judge of the complexion of the winter; but there is not likely to be much opposition. The Duke was Coming, but is gone back to Breda for a few days. When he does return, it will be only for three weeks. He is to watch the French and the negotiations for peace, which are to be opened-I believe not in earnest.

Whithed has made his entrance into Parliament; I don't expect he will like it. The first session is very tiresome with elections, and without opposition there will be little spirit.

Lady Middlesex has popped out her child before its time; it is put into spirits, and my Lord very loyally, cries over it. Lady Gower carried a niece to Leicester-fields(1400) the other day, to present her; the girl trembled-she pushed her: "What are you so afraid of? Don't you see that musical clock? Can you be afraid of a man that has a musical clock?"

Don't call this a letter; I don't call it one; it only comes to make my letter's excuses. Adieu!

(1399) Admiral Edward Hawke, afterwards created Lord Hawke, for his eminent naval services. On the ]5th July 1747, he met a large fleet of French merchant-vessels going from the ports of France to the West Indies. and guarded by a strong force of ships of war. He completely routed them, and took six ships of war. -It was in his despatch to the Admiralty on this occasion, that he made use of the Following remarkable expression: "As the enemy's ships were large, they took a great deal of drubbing."-D.

(1400) Where the Prince of Wales held his court. Lady Gower was Mary Tufton, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Thanet, and widow of Anthony Gray, Earl of Harold, who became, in 1736, third wife of John, second Lord Gower.-D.



539 Letter 245 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Nov. 24, 1747.

You say so many kind things to me in your letter of Nov. 7th, on my talking of a journey to Florence, that I am sorry I mentioned it to you. I did it to show you that my silence is far from proceeding from any forgetfulness of you; and as I really think continually of such a journey, I name it now and then; though I don't find how to accomplish it. In short, my affairs are not so independent of every body, but that they require my attending to them to make them go smoothly; and unless I could get them into another situation, it is not possible for me to leave them. Some part of my fortune is in my Lord O.'s(1401) hands; and if I were out of the way of giving him trouble, he has not generosity enough to do any thing that would be convenient for me. I will say no more on this subject, because it is not a pleasant one; nor would I have said this, but to convince you that I did not mention returning to Florence out of gaiet'e de coeur. I never was happy but there; have a million of times repented returning to England, where I never was happy, nor expect to be.

For Mr. Chute's silence, next to myself, I can answer for him: He always loves you, and I am persuaded wishes nothing more than himself at Florence. I did hint to him your kind thought about Venice, because, as I saw no daylight to it, it could not disappoint him; and because I knew how sensible he would be to this mark of your friendship. There is not a glimmering prospect of our sending a minister to Berlin; if we did, it would be a person of far greater consideration than Sir James Grey; and even if he went thither, there are no means of procuring his succession for Mr. Chute. My dear child, you know little of England, if you think such and so quiet merit as his likely to meet friends here. Great assurance, or great quality, are the only recommendations. My father was abused for employing low people with parts-that complaint is totally removed.

You reproach me with telling you nothing of Bergen-op-zoom; seriously, I know nothing but what was in the papers; and in general, on those great public events, I must transcribe the gazette, if you will have me talk to you. You will have seen by the King's speech that a congress is appointed at Aix-la-Chapelle, but nobody expects any effect from it. Except Mr. Pelham, the ministry in general are for the war; and, what is comical, the Prince and the Opposition are so too. We have had but one division yet in the House, which was on the Duke of Newcastle's interfering in the Seaford election. The numbers were, 247 for the court, against 96. But I think it very probable that, in a little time, a stronger opposition will be formed, for the Prince has got some new and very able speakers; particularly a young Mr. Potter,(1402) son of the last Archbishop, who promises very greatly; the world is already matching him against Mr. Pitt.

I sent Niccolini the letter; and here is another from him. I have not seen him this winter, nor heard of him: he is of very little consequence, when there is any thing else that is.

I have lately had Lady Mary Wortley's Eclogues(1403) published; but they don't please, though so excessively good. I say so confidently, for Mr. Chute agrees with me: he says, for the epistle to Arthur Gray,(1404) scarce any woman could have written it, and no man; for a man who had had experience enough to paint such sentiments so well, would not have had warmth enough left. Do you know any thing of Lady Mary? her adventurer son(1405) is come into Parliament, but has not opened. Adieu! my dear child: nous nous reverrons un jour!

(1401) Lord Orford, the eldest brother of Horace Walpole.-D.

(1402) Thomas, second son of Dr. Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury, was appointed secretary to the Princess of Wales, in which post he remained till the death of the Prince: he made two celebrated speeches on the Seaford election, and on the contest between Aylesbury and Buckingham for the summer assizes; but did not long support the character here given of him. [In 1757, he was made joint vice-treasurer of Ireland, and died in June 1759. Several letters, addressed by him to Mr. Pitt, will be found in the first volume of the Chatham Correspondence.)

(1403) Some of those Eclogues had been printed long before: they were now published, with other of her poems, by Dodsley, in quarto, and soon after, with others, reprinted in his Miscellany. [They will be found in Lord Wharncliffe's edition of Lady Mary's Works, vol. iii. p. 350.]

(1404) The epistle was from Arthur Grey, the footman, and addressed to Mrs. Murray, after his condemnation for attempting to commit violence. The man was tried for the offence in 1721, and transported. See Works, vol. i. p. 71, and vol. iii. p. 402, where the epistle is printed.-E.

(1405) Edward Wortley Montagu, after a variety of adventures in various characters, was taken up -,it Paris with Mr. Teaffe, another member of Parliament, and imprisoned in Fort L'eveque, for cheating and robbing a Jew. (Mr. Montagu was confined in the Grand Chatelet from the 31st of October till the 2nd of November. For his own account of the affair, see Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. iv. p. 629.]



541 Letter 246 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Jan. 12, 1748.

I have just received a letter from you of the 19th of last month, in which you tell me you was just going to complain of me, when you received one from me: I fear I am again as much to blame, as far as not having written; but if I had, it would only be to repeat what you say would be sufficient, but what I flatter myself I need not repeat. The town has been quite empty; and the Parliament which met but yesterday, has been adjourned these three weeks. Except elections, and such tiresome squabbles, I don't believe it will produce any thing: it is all harmony. From Holland we every day hear bad news, which, though we don't believe-at the present, we agree it is always likely to be true by tomorrow. Yet, with no prospect of success, and scarce with a possibility of beginning another campaign, we are as martial as ever: I don't know whether it is, because we think a bad peace worse than a bad war, or that we don't look upon misfortunes and defeats abroad as enough our own, and are willing to taste of both at home. We are in no present apprehension from domestic disturbances, nor, in my private opinion, do I believe the French will attempt us, till it is for themselves. They need not be at the trouble of sending us Stuarts; that ingenious house could not have done the work of France more effectually than the Pelhams and the patriots have.

I will tell you a secret: there is a transaction going on to send Sir Charles Williams to Turin; he has asked it. and it is pushed. In my private opinion, I don't believe Villettes(1406) will be easily overpowered; though I wish it, from loving Sir Charles and from thinking meanly of the other; but talents are no passports. Sir Everard Falkener(1407) is going to Berlin. General Sinclair is presently to succeed Wentworth: he is Scotchissime, in all the latitude of the word, and not very able; he made a poor business of it at Port l'Orient.

Lord Coke(1408) has demolished himself very fast: I mean his character: you know he was married but last spring; he is always drunk, has lost immense sums at play, and seldom goes home to his wife till early in the morning. The world is vehement on her side; and not only her family, but his own, give him up. At present, matters are patching up by the mediation of my brother, but I think can never go on: she married him extremely against her will, and he is at least an out-pensioner of Bedlam: his mother's family have many of them been mad.

I thank you, I have received the eagle's head: the bill is broken off individually in the same spot with the original; but, as the piece is not lost, I believe it will serve.

I should never have expected you to turn Lorrain:(1409) is your Madame de Givrecourt a successor(1410) of my sister? I think you hint so. Where is the Princess, that you are so reduced? Adieu! my dear child. I don't say a kind word to you, because you seem to think it necessary, for assuring you of the impossibility of my ever forgetting, or loving you less.

(1406) Minister at Turin, and afterwards in Switzerland.

(1407) He had been ambassador at Constantinople: he was not sent to Berlin, but was secretary to the Duke, and one of the general postmasters.

(1408) Edward, only son of Thomas, Earl of Leicester, married Mary, youngest daughter of John, Duke of Argyll, from whom he was parted. He died in 1752.

(1409) The Emperor kept a Lorrain regiment at Florence; but there was little intercourse between the two nations.

(1410) With Count Richcourt.



542 Letter 247 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Jan. 26, 1748.

I have again talked over with our Chute the affair of Venice; besides seeing no practicability in it, we think you will not believe that Sir James Grey will be so simple as to leave Venice, whither with difficulty he obtained to be sent, when you hear that Mr. Legge(1411) has actually kissed hands, and sets out on Friday for 'Berlin, as envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary. We thought Sir Everard Falkener Sure; but this has come forth very unexpectedly. Legge is certainly a wiser choice'-, nobody has better parts; and if art and industry can obtain success, I know no one would use more: but I don't think that the King of Prussia,' with half parts and much cunning, is so likely to be the dupe of more parts and as much cunning-, as the people with whom Legge has so prosperously pushed his fortune. My father was fond of him to the greatest degree of partiality, till he endeavoured to have a nearer tie than flattery gave him, by trying to marry Lady Mary: after that my lord could never bear his name. Since that. he has wiggled himself in with the Pelhams, by being the warmest friend and servant of their new allies, and is the first favourite of the little Duke of Bedford. Mr. Villiers(1412) was desired to go to Berlin, but refused and proposed himself for the treasury, till they could find something else for him. They laughed at this; but he is as fit for one employment as the other. We have a stronger reason than any I have mentioned against going to Venice; which is, the excuse it might give to the Vine,(1413) to forget we were in being; an excuse which his hatred of our preferment would easily make him embrace, as more becoming a good Christian brother!

The ministry are triumphant in their Parliament: there have been great debates on the new taxes, but no division: the House is now sitting on the Wareham election, espousing George Pitt's uncle,(1414 one of the most active Jacobites, but of the coalition and in place, against Drax,(1415) a great favourite of the Prince, but who has already lost one question on this election by a hundred.

Admiral Vernon has just published a series of letters to himself(1416) among which are several of Lord Bath, written in the height of his opposition: there is one in particular, to congratulate Vernon on taking Portobello, wherein this great Virtuous patriot advises him to do nothing more,(1417) assuring him that his inactivity would all be imputed to my father. One does not hear that Lord Bath has called him to any account for this publication, though as villainous to these correspondents as one of them was in writing such a letter; or as the Admiral himself was, who used to betray all his instructions to this enemy of the government. Nobody can tell why he has published these letters now, unless to get money. What ample revenge every year gives my father against his patriot enemies! Had he never deserved well himself',posterity must still have the greatest opinion of him, when they see on what rascal foundations were built all the pretences to virtue which were set up in opposition to him! Pultney counselling the Admiral who was entrusted with the war not to pursue it, that its mismanagement might be imputed to the minister; the Admiral communicating his orders to such an enemy of his country! This enemy triumphant, seizing honours and employments for himself and friends, which he had @ avowedly disclaimed; other friends, whom he had neglected, pursuing him for gratifying his ambition-accomplishing his ruin, and prostituting themselves even more than he had done! all of them blowing up a rebellion, by every art that could blacken the King in the eyes of the nation, and some of them promoting the trials and sitting in judgment on the wretches whom they had misled and deserted! How black a picture! what odious portraits, when time shall write the proper names under them!

As famous as you think your Mr. Mill, I can find nobody who ever heard his name. Projectors make little noise here; and even any one who only has made a noise, is forgotten as soon as out of sight. The knaves and fools of the day are too numerous to leave room to talk of yesterday. The pains that people, who have a mind to be named, are forced to take to be very particular, would convince you how difficult it is to make a lasting impression on such a town as this. Ministers, authors, wits, fools, patriots, prostitutes, scarce bear a second edition. Lord Bolingbroke, Sarah Malcolm,(1418) and old Marlborough. are never mentioned but by elderly folks to their grandchildren, who had never heard of them. What would last Pannoni's(1419) a twelvemonth is forgotten here ]it twelve hours. Good night!

(1411) Henry fourth son of the Earl of Dartmouth, was made secretary of the treasury by Sir Robert Walpole; and was afterwards surveyor of the roads, a lord of the admiralty, a lord of the treasury, treasurer of the navy, and chancellor of the exchequer. He had been bred to the sea, and was for a little time minister at Berlin. The Duke of Newcastle, in a letter to Mr. Pitt, of the 18th of January, says, " I have thought of a person, to whom the King has this day readily agreed. It is Mr. Harry Legge. There, is capacity, integrity, quality, rank and address." See Chatham Correspondence, vol. i. p. 27.-E.

(1412) Coxe, in his Memoirs of lord Walpole, says, that Mr. Legge, though a man of great talents for business, "was unfit for a foreign mission, and of a character ill suited to the temper of that powerful casuist, whose extraordinary dogmas were supported by 140,000 of the most effectual but convincing arguments in the world." Vol. ii. II. 304.-E.

(1413) Thomas Villiers, brother of the Earl of Jersey, had been minister It Dresden, and was afterwards a lord of the admiralty.

(1414) Anthony Chute, of the Vine, in Hampshire, elder brother of J. Chute; died in 1754.

(1415) John Pitt, one of the lords of trade.

1416) Henry Drax, the Prince's secretary. He died in 1755.

(1417) The publication was entitled " Letters to an Honest Sailor." Walpole's inference is not borne out by the letter itself. Pulteney's words; are, "Pursue your stroke, but venture not losing the honour of it by too much intrepidity. Should you make no more progress than you have done, no one could blame you but those persons only who ought to have sent some land- forces with you, and did not. To their slackness it will be very justly imputed by all mankind, should you make no further progress till Lord Cathcart joins you."-E.

(1418) A washerwoman at the Temple, executed for three murders. (She was executed in March 1733, opposite Mitre Court, in Fleet Street. A portrait of her is given in the Gentleman's Magazine for that year. So great was the public expectation for her confession, that the manuscript of it was sold for twenty pounds.-E.)

(1419) The coffee-house at Florence.



544 Letter 248 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Feb. 16, 1748.

I am going to tell you nothing but what Mr. Chute has told you already,-that my Lord Chesterfield has resigned the seals, that the Duke of Newcastle has change] his province, and that the Duke of Bedford is the new secretary of state. I think you need be under no apprehension from this change; I should be frightened enough if you had the least reason, but I am quite at ease. Lord Chesterfield, who I believe had no quarrel but with his partner, is gone to Bath; and his youngest brother, John Stanhope,(1420) comes into the admiralty, where Sandwich is now first lord. There seems to be some hitch in Legge's embassy; I believe we were overhasty. Proposals of peace were expected to be laid before Parliament, but that talk is vanished. The Duke of Newcastle, who is going greater lengths in every thing for which he overturned Lord Granville, is all military; and makes more courts than one by this disposition. The Duke goes to Holland this week, and I hear we are going to raise another million. There are prodigious discontents in the army: the town got a list of a hundred and fifty officers who desired at once to resign, but I believe this was exaggerated. We are great and very exact disciplinarians; our partialities are very strong, especially on the side of aversions, and none of these articles tally exactly with English tempers. Lord Robert Bertie(1421) received a reprimand the other day by an aide-de-camp for blowing his nose as he relieved the guard under a window;(1422) where very exact notice is constantly taken of very small circumstances.

We divert ourselves extremely this winter; plays, balls, masquerades, and pharaoh are all in fashion. The Duchess of Bedford has given a great ball, to which the King came with thirty masks. The Duchess of Queensberry is to give him a masquerade. Operas are the only consumptive entertainment. There was a new comedy last Saturday, which succeeds, called The Foundling. I like the old Conscious lovers better, and that not much. The story is the same, only that the Bevil of the new piece is in more hurry, and consequently more natural. It Is extremely well acted by Garrick and Barry, Mrs. Cibber and Mrs. Woffington. My sister was brought to bed last night of another boy. Sir C. Williams, I hear, grows more likely to go to Turin: you will have a more agreeable correspondent than your present voluminous brother.(1423) Adieu!

(1420) John Stanhope, third son of Philip, third Earl of Chesterfield, successively M. P. for Nottingham and Dorhy. He died in 1748.-D.

(1421) Lord Robert Bertie was third son of Robert, first Duke of Ancaster, by his second wife. He became a general in the army and colonel of the second regiment of Guards, and was also a lord of the bedchamber and a member of parliament. He died in 1732.-D.

(1422) The Duke's.

(1423) Mr. Villettes.



545 Letter 249 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, March 11, 1748.

I have had nothing lately to tell you but illnesses and distempers: there is what they call a miliary fever raging, which has taken off a great many people, It was scarce known till within these seven or eight years, but apparently increases every spring and autumn. They don't know how to treat it, but think that they have discovered that bleeding is bad for it. The young Duke of Bridgewater(1424) is dead of it. The Marquis of Powis(1425) is dead too, I don't know of what: but though a Roman Catholic, he has left his whole fortune to Lord herbert, the next male of his family, but a very distant relation. It is twelve thousand pounds a-year, with a very rich mine upon it; there is a debt, but the money and personal estate will pay it. After Lord Herbert(1426) and his brother, who are both unmarried, the estate is to go to the daughter of Lord Waldegrave's sister, by her first husband, who was the Marquis's brother.

In defiance of all these deaths, we are all diversions; Lady Keith(1427) and a company of Scotch nobility have formed a theatre, and have acted The Revenge several times; I can't say excellently: the Prince and Princess were at it last night. The Duchess of Queensberry gives a masquerade tonight, in hopes of drawing the King to it; but he will not go. I do; but must own it is wondrous foolish to dress one's self out in a becoming dress in cold blood. There has been a new comedy called The Foundling;(1428) far from good, but it took. Lord Hobart and some more young men made a party to damn it, merely for the love of damnation. The Templars espoused the play, and went around with syringes charged with stinking oil, and with sticking plaisters; but it did not come to action. Garrick was impertinent, and the pretty men gave over their plot the moment they grew to be in the right.

I must now notify to you the approaching espousals of the most illustrious Prince Pigwiggin with Lady Rachel Cavendish, third daughter of the Duke of Devonshire: the victim does not dislike it! my uncle makes great settlements; and the Duke is to get a peerage for Pigwiggin upon the foot that the father cannot be spared out of the House of Commons! Can you bear this old buffoon making himself of consequence, and imitating my father!

The Princess of Orange has got a son, and we have taken a convoy that was going to Bergen-op-zoom; two trifling occurrences that are most pompously exaggerated, when The whole of both is, that the Dutch, who before sold themselves to France, will now grow excellent patriots when they have a master entailed upon them; and we shall run ourselves more into danger, on having got all advantage which the French don't feel.

Violent animosities are sprung up in the House of Commons upon a sort of private affair between the Chief Justice Willes and the Grenvilles, who have engaged the ministry in an extraordinary step, of fixing the assizes at Buckingham by act of parliament in their favour. We have had three long days upon it in our House, and it is not yet over; but though they will carry it both there and in the lords, it is by a far smaller majority than any they have had in this Parliament.(1429) The other day, Dr. Lee and Mr. Potter had made two very strong speeches @-against Mr. Pelham on this subject; he rose with the greatest emotion, fell into the most ridiculous passion, was near crying, and not knowing how to return it on the two fell upon the Chief Justice (who was not present), and accused him of ingratitude. The eldest Willes got up extremely moved, but with great propriety and cleverness told Mr. Pelham that his father had no obligation to any man now in the ministry; that he had been obliged to one of' the greatest Ministers that ever was, who is now no more; that the person who accused his father of ingratitude was now leagued with the very men who had ruined that minister, to whom he (Mr. Pelham) owed his advancement, and without whom he would have been nothing!" This was dangers!-not a word of reply.

I had begun my letter before the masquerade, but had not time to finish it: there Were not above one hundred persons; the dresses pretty; the Duchess as mad as you remember her. She had stuck up orders about dancing, as you see in public bowling-greens; turned half the company out at twelve; kept those she liked to supper; and, in short, contrived to do an agreeable thing in the rudest manner imaginable; besides having dressed her husband in a Scotch plaid, which just now is One of the things in the world that is reckoned most offensive; but you know we are all mad, so good night!

(1424) John Egerton, second Duke of Bridgewater, eldest surviving son of Scroop, the first Duke, by his second wife, Lady Rachel Russell. He was succeeded by his younger brother Francis; upon whose death, in 1803, the dukedom of Bridgewater became extinct.-D.

(1425) William Herbert, second Marquis of Powis, upon whose death the title became extinct. His father, William, the First Marquis, was created Duke of Powis and Marquis of Montgomery, by James the Second, after his abdication, which titles were in consequence never allowed.-]).

(1426) Henry Arthur Herbert, Lord Herbert, afterwards created Earl of Powis, married the young lady on whom the estate was entailed: his brother died unmarried.

(1427) Caroline, eldest daughter of John, Duke of Argyll, married the eldest son of the Duke of Buccleuch, who dying before his father, she afterwards married Charles Townshend, second son of the Lord Viscount Townshend. (She was created Baroness Greenwich in 1767.-D.

(1428) By Edward Moore. It met with tolerable success during its run, but on the first night of its appearance the character of Faddle gave considerable disgust, and was much curtailed in the ensuing representation.-E.

(1429) The bill passed the Commons on the 15th of March, by 155 to 108. For the debate thereon, see Parliamentary History, vol. xiv. p. 206.-E.



547 Letter 250 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, April 29, 1748.

I know I have not writ to you the Lord knows when, but I waited for something to tell you, and I have now what there was not much reason to expect. The preliminaries to the peace are actually signed"(1430) by the English, Dutch, and French: the Queen,(1431) who would remain the only sufferer, though vastly less than she could expect, protests against this treaty, and the Sardinian minister has refused to sign too, till further orders. Spain is not mentioned, but France answers for them, and that they shall give us a new assiento. The armistice is for six weeks, with an exception to Maestricht; upon which the Duke sent Lord George Sackville to Marshal Saxe to tell him that, as they are so near being friends, he shall not endeavour to raise the siege and spill more blood, but hopes the marshal will give the garrison good terms, as they have behaved so bravely. The conditions settled are a general restitution on all sides, as Modena to its Duke, Flanders to the Queen, the Dutch towns to the Dutch, Cape Breton to France, and Final to the Genoese; but the Sardinian to have the cessions made to him by the Queen, who, you see, is to be made observe the treaty of Worms, though we do not. Parma and Placentia are to be given to Don Philip; Dunkirk to remain as it is, on the land-side; but to be Utrecht'd(1432) again to the sea. The Pretender to be renounced, with all his descendants, male and female, even in stronger terms than by the quadruple alliance; and the cessation of arms to take place in all other parts of the world, as in the year 1712. The contracting powers agree to think of means of making the other powers come into this treaty, in case they refuse.

This is the substance; and wonderful it is what can make the French give us such terms, or why they have lost so much blood and treasure to so little purpose! for they have destroyed very little of the fortifications in Flanders. Monsieur de St. Severin told Lord Sandwich, that he had full powers to sign now, but that the same courier that should carry our refusal, was to call at Namur and Bergen-op-zoom, where are mines under all the works, which were immediately to be blown up. There is no accounting for this, but from the King'S aversion to go to the army, and to Marshal Saxe's fear of losing his power with the loss of a battle. He told Count Flemming, the Saxon minister, who asked him if the French were in earnest in their offer of peace, "Il est vrai, nous demandons la paix comme des l'aches, et ne pouvons pas l'obtenir."

Stocks rise; the ministry are in spirits, and ;e s'en faut but we shall admire this peace as our own doing! I believe two reasons that greatly advanced it are, the King's wanting to go to Hanover, and the Duke's wanting to go into a salivation.

We had last night the most magnificent masquerade that ever was seen: it was by Subscription at the Haymarket: every body who subscribed five guineas had four tickets. There were about seven hundred people, all in chosen and very fine dresses. The supper was in two rooms, besides those for the King and Prince, who, with the foreign ministers, had tickets given them.

You don't tell me whether the seal of which you sent me the impression, is to be sold: I think it fine, but not equal to the price which you say was paid for it. What is it? Homer or Pindar?

I am very miserable at the little prospect you have of success in your own affair: I think the person(1433) you employed has used you scandalously. I would have you write to my uncle; but my applying to him would be far from doing you service. Poor Mr. Chute has got so bad a cold that he could not go last night to the masquerade. Adieu! my dear child! there is nothing -well that I don't wish you, but my wishes are very ineffectual!

(1430) The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.-D.

(1431) Of Hungary.-D.

(1432) That is, the works destroyed, as they were after the treaty of Utrecht.-D.

(1433) Mr. Stone, the Duke of Newcastle's private secretary.-E.



549 Letter 251 To George Montagu, Esq. May 18, 1748.

Here I am with the poor Chutehed,(1434) who has put on a shoe but to-day for the first time. He sits at the receipt of custom, and one passes most part, of the day here; the other part I have the misfortune to pass en Pigwiggin. The ceremony of dining is not over yet: I cannot say that either the Prince or the Princess look the comelier for what has happened. The town says, my Lady Anson(1435) has no chance for looking different from what she did before she was married: and they have a story of a gentleman going to the Chancellor to assure him, that if he gave his daughter to the Admiral, he would be obliged hereafter to pronounce a sentence of dissolution of the marriage. The Chancellor replied, that his daughter had been taught to think of the union of the soul, not of the body: the gentleman then made the same confidence to the Chancelloress, and received much such an answer: that her daughter had been bred to submit herself to the will of God. I don't at all give you all this for true; but there is an ugly circumstance in his voyages of his not having the curiosity to see a beautiful captive, that he took on board a Spanish ship. There is no record of Scipio's having been in Doctors' Commons. I have been reading these voyages, and find them very silly and contradictory. He sets out with telling you, that he had no soldiers sent with him but old invalids without legs or arms; and then in the middle of' the book there is a whole chapter to tell you what they would have done if they had set out two months sooner, and that was no less than conquering Peru and Mexico -with this disabled army. At the end there is an account of the neglect he received from the Viceroy of Canton, till he and forty of his sailors put out a great fire in that city, which the Chinese and five hundred firemen could not do, which he says proceeded from their awkwardness; a new character of the Chinese! He was then admitted to an audience, and found two hundred men at the gate of the city, and ten thousand in the square before the palace, all new dressed for the purpose. This is about as true as his predecessor Gulliver * -* * out the fire at Lilliput. The King is still wind-bound; the fashionable bon mot is, that the Duke of Newcastle has tied a stone about his neck and sent him to sea. The city grows furious about the peace; there is one or two very uncouth Hanover articles, besides a persuasion of a pension to the Pretender, which is so very ignominious, that I don't know how to persuade myself it is true. The Duke of Argyle has made them give him three places for life of a thousand and twelve hundred a-year for three of his court, to compensate for their making a man president of the session against his inclination. the Princess of Wales has got a confirmed jaundice, but they reckon her much better. Sir Harry Calthrop is gone mad: he walked down Pall Mall t'other day with his red riband tied about his hair said he was going to the King, and would not submit to be blooded till they told him the King commanded it.

I went yesterday to see Marshal Wade's house, which is selling by auction: it is worse contrived on the inside than is conceivable, all to humour the beauty of the front. My Lord Chesterfield said, that to be sure he could not live in it, but intended to take the house over against it to look at it. It is literally true, that all the direction he gave my Lord Burlington was to have a place for a cartoon of Rubens that he bought in Flanders; but my lord found it necessary to have so many correspondent doors, that there was no room at last for the picture; and the Marshal was forced to sell the picture to my father: it is now at Houghton.(1436)

As Windsor is so charming, and particularly as you have got so agreeable a new neighbour at Frogmore, to be sure you cannot wish to have the prohibition taken off on your coming to Strawberry Hill. However, as I am an admirable Christian, and as you seem to repent of your errors, I will give you leave to be so happy as to come to me when you like, though I would advise it to be after you have been at Roel,(1437) winch you would not be able to bear after my paradise. I have told you a vast deal of something or other, which you will scarce be able to read; for now Mr. Chute has the gout, he keeps himself very low and lives upon very thin ink. My compliments to all your people. Yours ever.

(1434) John Chute, Esq. of the Vine of Hampshire.

(1435) Lord Anson married, on the 25th of April, Lady Elizabeth Yorke, Lord Chancellor Hardwicke's eldest daughter, an ingenious woman and a poetess. She died without issue in 1760.-E.

(1436) Walpole gives the following account of this picture, in his description of Houghton:- "Meleager and Atalanta, a cartoon, by Rubens, larger than life; brought out of Flanders by Wade: it being designed for tapestry, all the weapons are in the left hand of the figure. For the story, see Ovid's Metamorphoses, lib. 3. When General Wade built his house in Burlington Garden, Lord Burlington gave the design for it."-E

(1437) A house of Mr. Montagu's in Gloucestershire.



550 Letter 252 To George Montagu, Esq. Arlington Street, May 26, 1748.

Good-by to YOU! I am going to my Roel too. I was there yesterday to dine, and it looked so delightful, think what you will, that I shall go there to-morrow to settle, and shall leave this odious town to the * * *, to the regency, and the dowagers; to my lady Townshend, who is not going to Windsor, to old Cobham, who is not going out of the world yet, and to the Duchess of Richmond, who does not -,go out with her twenty-fifth pregnancy: I shall leave too more disagreeable Ranelagh, which is so crowded, that going there t'other night in a string of coaches we had a stop of six-and-thirty Minutes. Princess Emily, finding no marriage articles for her settled at the congress, has at last determined to be old and out of danger; and has accordingly ventured to Ranelagh to the great improvement of the pleasures of the place. The Prince has given a silver cup to be rowed for, which carried every body up the Thames. and afterwards there was a great ball at Carlton house. There have two good events happened at that court: the town was alarmed t'other morning by the firing of guns, which proved to be only from a large merchantman come into the river. The city construed it into the King's return, and the peace broke; but Chancellor Bootle and the Bishop of Oxford, who loves a tabour next to promoting the cause of it, concluded the Princess was brought to bed, and went to court upon it. Bootle, finding the Princess dressed, said, "I have always heard, Madam, that women in your country have very easy labours; but I could not have believed it was so well as I see." The other story is of Prince Edward. The King, before he went away, sent Stainberg to examine the Prince's children in their learning. The Baron told Prince Edward, that he should tell the King, what great proficiency his Highness had made in his Latin, but that he wished he would be a little more perfect in his German grammar, and that would be of signal use to him. The child squinted at him, and said, "German grammar! why any dull child can learn that." There, I have told you royalties enough!

My Pigwiggin dinners are all over, for which I truly say grace. I have had difficulties to keep my countenance at the wonderful clumsiness and uncouth nicknames that the Duke has for all his offspring: Mrs. Hopefull, Mrs. Tiddle, Puss, Cat, and Toe, sound so strange in the middle of a most formal banquet! The day the peace was signed, his grace could find nobody to communicate joy with him: he drove home, and bawled out of the chariot to Lady Rachael, "Cat! Cat!" She ran down, staring over the balustrade; he cried, "Cat! Cat! the peace is made, and you must be very glad, for I am very glad."

I send you the only new pamphlet worth reading, and this is more the matter than the manner. My compliments to all your tribe. Adieu!

P. S. The divine Asheton has got an ague, which he says prevents his coming amongst us.



551 Letter 253 To sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, June 7, 1748.

Don't reproach me in your own Mind for not writing, but reproach the world for doing nothing; for making peace as slowly as they made war. When any body commits an event, I am ready enough to tell it you; but I have always declared against inventing news; when I do, I will set up a newspaper.

The Duke of Newcastle is not gone; he has kissed hands, and talks of going this week: the time presses, and he has not above three days left to fall dangerously ill. There are a thousand wagers laid against his going: he has hired a transport, for the yacht s not big enough to convey all the tables and chairs and conveniences that he trails along with him, and which he seems to think don't grow out of England. I don't know how he proposes to lug them through Holland and Germany, though any objections that the map can make to his progress don't count, for he is literally so ignorant, that when one goes to take leave of him, he asks your commands into the north, concluding that Hanover is north of Great Britain, because it is in the northern province, which he has just taken: you will scarce believe this, but upon my honour it is true.

The preliminaries wait the accession of Spain, before they can ripen into peace. Niccolini goes to Aix-la-Chapelle, and will be much disappointed if his advice is not asked there: he talks of being at Florence in October.

Sir William Stanhope has just given a great ball to Lady Petersham, to whom he takes extremely, since his daughter married herself to Mr. Ellis,(1438) and as the Petershams are relations, they propose to be his heirs. The Chuteheds agreed with me, that the house, which is most magnificently furnished, all the ornaments designed by Kent, and the whole festino, puts us more in mind of Florence, than any thing we had seen here. There were silver-pharaoh and whist for the ladies that did not dance, deep basset and quinze for the men; the supper very fine.

I am now returning to my villa, where I have been making some alterations: you shall hear from me from Strawberry Hill, which I have found out in my lease is the old name of my house; so pray, never call it Twickenham again. I like to be there better than I have liked being any where since I came to England. I sigh after Florence, and wind up all my prospects with the thought of returning there. I have days when I even set about contriving a scheme for going to you, and though I don't love to put you upon expecting me, I cannot help telling you, that I wish more than ever to be with you again. I can truly say, that I never was happy but at Florence, and you must allow that it is very natural to wish to be happy once more. Adieu!

(1438) The Right Hon. Welbore Ellis, afterwards created Lord Mendip. His first wife was Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir William Stanhope, K. B. She died in 1761.-D.



553 Letter 254 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(1439) Strawberry Hill, June 27th, 1748.

Dear Harry, I have full as little matter for writing as you can find in a camp. I do not call myself farmer or country gentleman; for though I have all the ingredients to compose those characters, yet, like the ten pieces of card in the trick you found out, I don't know how to put them together. But, in short, planting and fowls and cows and sheep are my whole business, and as little amusing to relate to anybody else as the events of a stillborn campaign. If I write to any body, I am forced to live upon what news I hoarded before I came out of town; and the first article of that, as I believe it is in every body's gazette, must be about my Lord Coke. They say, that since he has been at Sunning Hill with Lady Mary,(1440 she has made him a declaration in form, that she hates him, that she always did, and that she always will. This seems to have been a very unnecessary notification. However, as you know his part is to be extremely in love, he is very miserable upon it; and relating his woes at White's, probably at seven in the morning, he was advised to put an end to all this history and shoot himself-an advice they would not have given him if he were not insolvent. He has promised to consider of it.

The night before I left London, I called at the Duchess of Richmond's, who has stayed at home with the apprehension of a miscarriage. The porter told me there was no drawing-room till Thursday. In short, he did tell me what amounted to as much, that her grace did not see company till Thursday, then she should see every body: no excuse, that she was gone out or not well. I did not stay till Thursday to kiss hands, but went away to Vauxhall: as I was coming out, I was overtaken by a great light, and retired under the trees of Marble Hall to see what it should be. There came a long procession of Prince Lobkowitz's footmen in very rich new liveries, the two last bearing torches; and after them the Prince himself', in a new sky-blue watered tabby Coat, with gold buttonholes and a magnificent gold waistcoat fringed, leading Madame ambassadrice de Venise in a green sack with a straw hat, attended by my Lady Tyrawley, Wall, the private Spanish agent, the two Miss Molyneux's, and some other men. They went into one of the Prince of Wales's barges, had another barge filled with violins and hautboys, and an open boat with drums and trumpets. This was one of the f'etes des adieux. The nymph weeps all the morning and says she is sure she shall be poisoned by her husband's relations when she returns for her behaviour with this Prince.

I have no other news, but that Mr. Fitzpatrick has married his Sukey Young, and is very impatient to have the Duchess of Bedford come to town to visit her new relation.

Is not my Lady Ailesbury(1442) weary of her travels? Pray make her my compliments,-unless she has made you any such declaration as Lady Mary Coke's. I am delighted with your description of the bedchamber of the House of Orange, as I did not see it; but the sight itself must have been very odious, as the hero and heroine are so extremely ugly. I shall give it my Lady Townshend as a new topic of matrimonial satire.

Mr. Churchill and Lady Mary have been with me two or three days, and are now gone to Sunning. I only tell you this, to hint that my house will hold a married pair; indeed, it is not quite large enough for people who lie, like the patriarchs, with their whole genealogy, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and oxes, and asses, in the same chamber with them. Adieu! do let this be the last letter, and come home.

(1440) Now first printed.

(1441) See ant'e, p. 498 (Letter 215).-E.

(1442) On the 19th of the preceding December, Mr. Conway had married Caroline, widow of Charles Bruce, Earl of Ailesbury, and only daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel John Campbell, afterwards fourth Duke of Argyle.-E.



554 Letter 255 To Sir Horace Mann. Mistley, July 14, 1748.

I would by no means resent your silence while you was at Pisa, if it were not very convenient; but I cannot resist 'the opportunity of taking it ill, when it serves to excuse my being much more to blame; and therefore, pray mind, I am very angry, and have not written, because you had quite left me off-and if I say nothing from hence,(1443) do not imagine it is because I am at a gentleman's house whom you don't know, and threescore miles from London, and because I have been but three days in London for above this month: I could say a great deal if I pleased, but I am very angry, and will not. I know several pieces of politics from Ipswich that would let you into the whole secret of the peace; and a quarrel at Denham assembly, that is capable of involving all Europe in a new war-nay, I know that Admiral Vernon(1444) knows of what you say has happened in the West Indies, and of which nobody else in England knows a word-but please to remember that you have been at the baths, and don't deserve that I should tell you a tittle-nor will I. In revenge, I will tell you some- thing that happened to me four months ago, and which I would not tell you now. if I had not forgot to tell it you when it happened-nay, I don't tell it you now for yourself, only that you may tell it the Princess: I truly and seriously this winter won and was paid a milleleva at pharaoh; literally received a thousand and twenty-three sixpences for one: an event that never happened in the annals of pharaoh, but to Charles II.'s Queen Dowager, as the Princess herself informed me: ever since I have treated myself as Queen Dowager, and have some thoughts of being drawn so.

There are no good anecdotes yet arrived of the Duke of Newcastle's travels, except that at a review which the Duke made for him, as he passed through the army, he hurried about with his glass up to his eye, crying, "Finest troops! finest troops! greatest General!" then broke through the ranks when he spied any Sussex man, kissed him in all his accoutrements,-my dear Tom such an one! chattered of Lewes races; then back to the Duke with "Finest troops! greatest General!"-and in short was a much better show than any review.

The Duke is expected over immediately; I don't know if to stay, or why he comes-I mean, I do know, but am angry, and will not tell.

I have seen Sir James Grey, who speaks of you with great affection, and recommends himself extremely to me by it, when I am not angry with you; but I cannot possibly be reconciled till I have finished this letter, for I have nothing but this quarrel to talk of, and I think I have worn that out-so adieu! you odious, shocking, abominable monster!

(1443) Mistley near Manningtree, in Essex, the seat of Richard Rigby, Esq.

(1444) He lived near Ipswich.



555 Letter 256 To Sir Horace Mann. Strawberry Hill, —-

I beg you will let me know whether the peace has arrived in Italy, or if you have heard any thing of it; for in this part of the world nobody can tell what has become of it. They say the Empress Queen has stopped it; that she will not take back the towns in Flanders, which she says she knows are very convenient for us, but of no kind of use to her, and that she chooses to keep what she has got in Italy. However, we are determined to have peace at any rate, and the conditions must jumble themselves together as they can. These are the politics of Twickenham, my metropolis; and, to tell you the truth, I believe pretty near as good as you can have any where.

As to my own history, the scene is at present a little gloomy: my Lord Orford is in an extreme bad state of health, not to say a dangerous state: my uncle(1445) ' is going off in the same way my father did. I don't pretend to any great feelings of affection for two men, because they are dying, for whom it is known I had little before, my brother especially having been as much my enemy as it was in his power to be; but I cannot with indifference see the family torn to pieces, and falling into such ruin as I foresee; for should my brother die soon, leaving so great a debt, so small an estate to pay it off, two great places(1446) sinking, and a wild boy of nineteen to succeed, there would be an end to the glory of Houghton, which had my father proportioned more to his fortune, would probably have a longer duration. This is an unpleasant topic to you who feel for us-however, I should not talk of it to one who would not feel. Your brother Gal. and I had a very grave conversation yesterday morning on this head; he thinks so like you, so reasonably and with so much good nature, that I seem to be only finishing a discourse that I have already had with you. As my fears about Houghton are great, I am a little pleased to have finished a slight memorial(1447) of It, a description of the pictures, of which I have just printed an hundred, to give to particular people: I will send you one, and shall beg Dr. Cocchi to accept another.

If I could let myself wish to see you in England, it would be to see you here: the little improvements I am making have really turned Strawberry Hill into a charming villa: Mr. Chute, I hope, will tell you how pleasant it is; I mean literally tell you, for we have a glimmering of' a Venetian prospect; he is just going from hence to town by water, down our Brenta.

You never say a word to me from the Princess, nor any of my old friends: I keep up our intimacy in my own mind; for I will not part with the idea of seeing Florence again. Whenever I am displeased here, the thoughts of that journey are my resource; just as cross would-be devout people, when they have quarrelled with this world, begin packing up for the other. Adieu!

(1445) Lord Orford did not die till 1751, and old Horace Walpole not till 1757.-D.

(1446) Auditor of the exchequer and Master of the buck-hounds.



(1447) "Aedes Walpolianae, or a Description of the Pictures at Houghton Hall, in Norfolk," first printed in 1747, and again in 1752.



556 Letter 257 To George Montagu, Esq. Mistley, July 25, 1748.

Dear George, I have wished you with me extremely: you would have liked what I have seen. I have been to make a visit of two or three days to Nugent, and was carried to see the last remains of the glory of the old Aubrey de Veres, Earls of Oxford. They were once masters of' almost this entire county, but quite reduced even before the extinction of their house: the last Earl's son died at a miserable cottage, that I was shown at a distance; and I think another of the sisters, besides Lady Mary Vere, was forced to live upon her beauty.

Henningham Castle, where Harry the Seventh(1448) was so sumptuously banqueted, and imposed that villainous fine for his entertainment, is now shrunk to one vast curious tower, that stands on a spacious mount raised on a high hill with a large fosse. It commands a fine prospect, and belongs to Mr. Ashurst, a rich citizen, who has built a trumpery new house close to it. In the parish church is a fine square monument of black marble of one of the Earls; and there are three more tombs of the family at Earl's Colne, some miles from the castle. I could see but little of them, as it was very late, except that one of the Countesses has a headdress exactly like the description of Mount Parnassus, with two tops. I suppose you have heard much of Gosfield, Nugent's seat. It is extremely in fashion, but did not answer to me, though there are fine things about it; but being situated in a country that is quite blocked up with hills upon hills, and even too much wood, it has not an inch of prospect. The park is to be sixteen hundred acres, and is bounded with a wood of five miles round; and the lake, which is very beautiful, is of seventy acres, directly in a line with the house, at the bottom of a fine lawn, and broke with very pretty groves, that fall down a Slope into it. The house is vast, built round a very old court that has never been fine; the old windows and gateway left, and the old gallery, which is a bad narrow room, and hung with all the late patriots, but so ill done, that they look like caricatures done to expose them, since they have so much disgraced the virtues they pretended to. The rest of the house is all modernized, but in patches, and in the bad taste that came between the charming venerable Gothic and pure architecture. There is a great deal of good furniture, but no one room very fine - no tolerable pictures. Her dressing-room is very pretty, and furnished with white damask, china, japan, loads of easy chairs, bad pictures, and some pretty enamels. But what charmed me more than all I had seen, is the library chimney, which has existed from the foundation of the house; over it is an alto-relievo in wood, far from being ill done, of the battle of Bosworth Field. It is all white, except the helmets and trappings, which are gilt, and the shields, which are properly blazoned with the arms of all the chiefs engaged. You would adore it.

We passed our time very agreeably; both Nugent and his wife are very good-humoured, and easy in their house to a degree. There was nobody else but the Marquis of Tweedale; his new Marchioness,(1451) who is infinitely good-humoured and good company, and sang a thousand French songs mighty prettily; a sister of Nugent's, who does not figure; and a Mrs. Elliot,(1452) sister to Mrs. Nugent, who crossed over and figured in with Nugent: I mean she has turned Catholic, as he has Protestant. She has built herself a very pretty small house in the path-, and is only a daily visiter. Nugent was extremely communicative of his own labours; repeated us an ode of ten thousand stanzas to abuse Messieurs de la Gallerie, and reid me a whole tragedy, which has really a great many @ pretty things in it; not indeed equal to his glorious ode on religion and liberty, but with many of those absurdities which are so blended with his parts. We were overturned coming back, but, thank YOU, we were not it all hurt, and have been to-day to see a large house and a pretty park, belonging to a Mr. Williams; it is to be sold. You have seen in the papers that Dr. Bloxholme is dead. He cut his throat. He always was nervous and vapoured; and so good-natured, that he left off his practice from not being able to bear seeing so many melancholy objects. I remember him with as much wit as ever I knew; there was a pretty correspondence of Latin odes that passed between him and Hodges.

You will be diverted to hear that the Duchess of Newcastle was received at Calais by Locheil's regiment under arms, who did duty himself while she stayed. The Duke of Grafton is going to Scarborough; don't you love that endless back-stairs policy? and at his time of life! This fit of ill health is arrived on the Prince's going to shoot for a fortnight at Thetford, and his grace is afraid of not being civil enough or too civil.

Since I wrote my letter I have been fishing in Rapin for any Particulars relating to the Veres, and have already found that Robert de Vere,(1453) the great Duke of Ireland, and favourite of Richard the Second, is buried at Earl's COlnE, and probably under one of the tombs I saw there; I long to be certain that the lady with the strange coiffure is Lancerona, the joiner's daughter, that he married after divorcing a princess of the blood for her. I have found, too, that King Stephen's Queen died at Henningham, a castle belonging to Alberic de Vere:,(1454) in short, I am just now Vere mad, and extremely mortified to have Lancerona and lady Vere Beauclerk's, Portuguese grandmother blended with this brave old blood. Adieu! I go to town the day after to-morrow, and immediately from thence to Strawberry Hill. Yours ever.

(1448) See Hume's History of England, vol. iii. p. 399. ["The Earl of Oxford, his favourite general, having splendidly entertained him at his castle of Henningham, was desirous of making a parade of his magnificence at the departure of his royal guest; and ordered all his retainers, with their liveries and badges, to be drawn up in two lines, that their appearance might be the more gallant and splendid. 'My lord,' said the King, 'I have heard much of your hospitality; but the truth far exceeds the report: these handsome gentlemen and yeomen whom I see on both sides of me are no doubt your menial servants.' The Earl smiled, and confessed that his fortune was too narrow for such magnificence. 'They are most of them,' subjoined he, 'my retainers, who are come to do service at this time, when they know I am honoured with your Majesty's presence.' The King started a little, and said, 'By my faith! my lord, I thank you for your good cheer, but I must not allow my laws to be broken in my sight: my attorney must speak with you.' Oxford is said to have paid no less than fifteen thousand marks, as a compensation for his offence.")

(1449) Daughter of the Earl of Granville.

(1450) Harriot, wife of Richard Elliot, Esq., father of the first Lord St. Germains, and a daughter of Mr. Secretary Craggs. For a copy of verses addressed by Mr. Pitt to this lady, see the Chatham Correspondence, Vol. iv. j. 373.-E.

(1451)) Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was the favourite of Richard the Second; who created him Marquis of Dublin and Duke of Ireland, and transferred to him by patent the entire sovereignty of that island for life.

(1452) Alberic de Vere was an Earl in the reign of Edward the Confessor.

(1453) Daughter of Thomas Chambers, Esq., and married to Lord Vere Beauclerc, third son of the first Duke of St. Albans by his wife Diana, daughter of Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford.



558 Letter 258 To George Montagu, Esq. Strawberry Hill, Aug. 11, 1748.

I am arrived at great knowledge in the annals of the house of Vere but though I have twisted and twined their genealogy and my own a thousand ways, I cannot discover, as I wished to do, that I am descended from them any how but from one of their Christian names the name of Horace having travelled from them into Norfolk by the marriage of a daughter of Horace Lord Vere of Tilbury with a Sir Roger Townshend, whose family baptised some of us with it. But I have made a really curious discovery! the lady with the strange dress at Earl's Colne, which I mentioned to you, is certainly Lancerona, the Portuguese-for I have found in Rapin, from one of the old chronicles, that Anne of Bohemia, to whom she had been Maid of Honour, introduced the fashion of piked horns, or high heads, which is the very attire on this tomb, and ascertains it to belong to Robert de Vere, the great Earl of Oxford, made Duke of Ireland by Richard II., who, after the banishment of this Minister, and his death at Louvain, occasioned by a boar at a hunting match, caused the body to be brought over, would have the coffin opened once more to see his favourite, and attended it himself in high procession to its interment at Earl's Colne. I don't know whether the "Craftsman" some years ago would not have found out that we were descended from this Vere, at least from his name and ministry: my comfort is, that Lancerona was Earl Robert's second wife. But in this search I have crossed upon another descent, which I am taking great pains to verify (I don't mean a pun)., and that is a probability of my being descended from Chaucer, whose daughter, the Lady Alice, before her espousals with Thomas Montagute,'Earl of Salisbury, and afterwards with William de la Pole, the great Duke of Suffolk, (another famous favourite), was married to a Sir John Philips, who I hope to find was of Picton Castle, and had children by her; but I have not yet brought these matters to a consistency. mr. Chute is persuaded I shall, for he says any body with two or three hundred years of pedigree may find themselves descended from whom they please; and thank my stars and my good cousin, the present Sir John] Philips,(1454) I have a sufficient pedigree to work upon; for he drew us up one by which Ego et rex mems are derived hand in hand from Cadwallader, and the English baronetage says from the Emperor Maximus (by the Philips's, who are Welsh, s'entend). These Veres have thrown me into a deal of this old study: t'other night I was reading to Mrs. Leneve and Mrs. Pigot,(1455) who has been here a few days, the description in Hall's Chronicle of the meeting of Harry VIII. and Francis I. which is so delightfully painted in your Windsor. We came to a paragraph, which I must transcribe; for though it means nothing in the world, it is so ridiculously worded in the old English that it made us laugh for three days.!

and the wer twoo kinges served with a banket and after mirthe, had communication in the banket time, and there sheweth the one the other their pleasure.

Would not one swear that old Hal showed all that is showed in the Tower? I am now in the act of expecting the house of Pritchard,(1456) Dame Clive,(1457) and Mrs. Metheglin to dinner. I promise you the Clive, and I will not show one another our pleasure during the banket time nor afterwards. In the evening, we go to a play at Kingston, where the places are two pence a head. Our great company at Richmond and Twickenham has been torn to pieces by civil dissensions, but they continue acting. Mr. Lee, the ape of Garrick, not liking his part, refused to play it, and had the confidence to go into the pit as spectator. The actress, whose benefit was in agitation, made her complaints to the audience, who obliged him to mount the stage; but since that he has retired from the company. I am sorry he was such a coxcomb, for he was the best. . . .

You say, why won't I go to Lady Mary's?(1458) I say, why won't you go to the Talbots? Mary is busied about many things, is dancing the hays between three houses; but I will go with you for a day or two to the Talbots if you like it. and you shall come hither to fetch me. I have been to see Mr. Hamilton's, near Cobham, where he has really made a fine place out of a most cursed hill. Esher(1459) I have seen again twice, and prefer it to all villas, even to Southcote's—Kent is Kentissing there. I have been laughing too at Claremont house; the gardens are improved since I saw them: do you know that the pineapples are literally sent to Hanover by couriers! I am serious. Since the Duke of Newcastle went, and upon the news of the Duke of Somerset's illness, he has transmitted his commands through the King, and by him through the Bedford to the University of Cambridge to forbid their electing any body, but the most ridiculous person they could elect, his grace of Newcastle. The Prince hearing this, has written to them, that having heard his Majesty's commands, he should by no means oppose them. This is sensible: but how do the two secretaries answer such a violent act of authority? Nolkojumskoi(1460) has let down his dignity and his discipline, and invites continually all officers that are members of parliament. Doddington's sentence of expulsion is sealed: Lyttelton is to have his place (the second time he has tripped up his heels); Lord Barrington is to go to the treasury, and Dick Edgecumbe into the admiralty.

Rigby is gone from hence to Sir William Stanhope's to the Aylesbury races, where the Grenvilles and Peggy Banks design to appear and avow their triumph. Gray has been here a few days, and is transported with your story of Madame Bentley's diving, and her white man, and in short with all your stories. Room for cuckolds—here comes my company—

Aug. 15?.

I had not time to finish my letter last night, for we did not return from the dismal play, which was in a barn at Kingston, till twelve o'clock at night. Our dinner passed off very well; the Clive was very good company; you know how much she admires Asheton's preaching. She says, she is always vastly good for two or three days after his sermons;' but by the time that Thursday comes, all their effect is worn out. I never saw more proper decent behaviour than Mrs. Pritchard's, and I assure you even Mr. Treasurer Pritchard was far better than I expected. Yours ever, Chaucerides.

(1454) The grandmother of the Hon. Horace Walpole was daughter of sir Erasmus Philips, of Picton Castle in Pembrokeshire.

(1455) Niece of Mrs. Leneve, and first wife of Admiral Hugh Pigot.-E.

(1456/1457) Two celebrated actresses.

(1458) lady Mary Churchill.

(1459) The favourite seat of the Right Honourable Henry Pelham, which he embellished under the direction of Kent. It is pleasingly mentioned by Pope, in his Epilogue to the Imitations of the Satires of Horace:-

"Pleas'd let me own, in Esher's peaceful grove, Where Kent and Nature vie for Pelham's love, The scene, the master, opening to my view, I sit and dream I see my Craggs anew."-E .

(1460) A cant name for the Duke of Cumberland.



561 Letter 259 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. Strawberry Hill, Aug. 29, 1748.

Dear Harry, Whatever you may think, a campaign at Twickenham furnishes as little matter for a letter as an abortive one in Flanders. I can't say indeed that my generals wear black wigs, but they have long full- bottomed hoods which cover as little entertainment to the full.

There's General my Lady Castlecomer, and General my Lady Dowager Ferrers! Why, do you think I can extract more out of them than you can out of Hawley or Honeywood?(1461) Your old women dress, go to the Duke's levee, see that the soldiers cock their hats right, sleep after dinner, and soak with their led-captains till bed-time, and tell a thousand lies of what they never did in their youth. Change hats for head-clothes, the rounds for visits, and led-captains for toad-eaters, and the life is the very same. In short, these are the people I live in the midst of, though not with; and it is for want of more important histories that I have wrote to you seldom; not, I give you my word, from the least negligence. My present and sole occupation is planting, in which I have made great progress, and talk very learnedly with the nurserymen, except that now and then a lettuce run to seed overturns all my botany, as I have more than once taken it for a curious West-Indian flowering shrub. Then the deliberation with which trees grow, is extremely inconvenient to my natural impatience. I lament living in so barbarous an age, when we are come to so little perfection in gardening. I am persuaded that a hundred and fifty years hence it will be as common to remove oaks a hundred and fifty years old, as it is now to transplant tulip-roots. I have even begun a treatise or panegyric on the great discoveries made by posterity in all arts and sciences, wherein I shall particularly descant on the great and cheap convenience of making trout-rivers-One Of the improvements which Mrs. Kerwood wondered Mr. Hedges would not make at his country-house, but which was not then quite so common as it will be. I shall talk of a secret for roasting a wild-boar and a whole pack of hounds alive, without hurting them, so that the whole chase may be brought up to table; and for this secret, the Duke of Newcastle's grandson, if he can ever get a son, is to give a hundred thousand pounds. Then the delightfulness of having whole groves of hummingbirds, tame tigers taught to fetch and carry, pocket spying-glasses to see all that is doing in China, with a thousand other toys, which we now look upon as impracticable, and which pert posterity would laugh in one's face for staring at, while they are offering rewards for perfecting discoveries, of the principles of which we have not the least conception! If ever this book should come forth, I must expect to have all the learned in arms against me, who measure all knowledge backward: some of them have discovered symptoms of all arts in Homer; and Pineda(1462) had so much faith in the accomplishments of his ancestors, that he believed Adam understood all sciences but politics. But as these great champions for our forefathers are dead, and Boileau not alive to hitch me into a verse with Perrault, I am determined to admire the learning of posterity, especially being convinced that half our present knowledge sprung from discovering the errors of what had formerly been called so. I don't think I shall ever make any great discoveries myself, and therefore shall be content to propose them to my descendants, like my Lord Bacon, who, as Dr. Shaw says very prettily in his preface to Boyle, , had the art of inventing arts:" or rather like a Marquis of Worcester, of whom I have seen a little book which he calls A Century of Inventions where he has set down a hundred machines to do impossibilities with, and not a single direction how to make the machines themselves.(1463)

If I happen to be less punctual in my correspondence than I intend to be, you must conclude I am writing my book, which being designed for a panegyric, will cost me a great deal of trouble. The dedication, with your leave, shall be addressed to your son that is coming, or, with my Lady Ailesbury's leave, to your ninth son, who Will be unborn nearer to the time I 'am writing of; always provided that she does not bring three at once, like my Lady Berkeley.

Well! I have here set you the example of' writing nonsense when one has nothing to say, and shall take it ill if you don't keep up the correspondence on the same foot. Adieu!

(1461) General Honeywood, governor of Portsmouth.

(1462) Pineda was a Spanish Jesuit, and a professor of theology. He died in 1637, after writing voluminous commentaries upon several books of the Holy Scriptures, besides an universal history of the church.

(1463) Walpole, in his "Royal and Noble Authors," designates the Marquis as a "fantastic protector and fanatic," and describes the " Century of Inventions" as "an amazing piece of folly;" and Hume, who does not even know the title of the book, boldly pronounces it "a ridiculous compound of lies, chimeras, and impossibilities." In 18@5, however, an edition of this curious and very amusing little work was published], with historical and explanatory notes, by Mr. C. F. Partington; who clearly proves, that the Marquis was the person, either in this or any Other country, who gave the first idea of the steam engine.-E.



563 Letter 260 To George Montagu, Esq. Strawberry Hill, Saturday night, Sept, 3, 1748.

All my sins to Mrs. Talbot you are to expiate; I am here quite alone, and want nothing but your fetching to go to her. I have been in town for a day, just to see Lord Bury who is come over with the Duke; they return next Thursday. The Duke is fatter, and it is now not denied that he has entirely lost the sight of one eye. This did not surprise me so much as a bon mot of his. Gumley, who you know is grown Methodist, came to tell him, that as he was on duty, a tree in Hyde Park, near the powder magazine, had been set on fire; the Duke replied, he hoped it was not by the new light. This nonsensical new light is extremely in fashion, and I shall not be surprised if we see a revival of all the folly and cant of the last age. Whitfield preaches continually at my Lady Huntingdon's,(1464) at Chelsea; my Lord Chesterfield, my Lord Bath, my Lady Townshend, my Lady Thanet, and others, have been to hear him.(1465) What will you lay that, next winter, he is not run after, instead of Garrick?

I am just come from the play at Richmond, where I found the Duchess of Argyle and Lady Betty Campbell, and their court. We had a new actress, a Miss Clough; an extremely fine tall figure, and very handsome: she spoke very justly, and with spirit. Garrick is to produce her next winter; and a Miss Charlotte Ramsey, a poetess and deplorable actress. Garrick, Barry, and some more of the players, were there to see these new comedians; it is to be their seminary.

Since I came home I have been disturbed with a strange, foolish woman, that lives at the great corner house yonder; she is an attorney's wife, and much given to the bottle. By the time she- has finished that and daylight, she grows afraid of thieves, and makes the servants fire minute guns out of the garret windows. I remember persuading Mrs. Kerwood that there was a great smell of thieves, and this drunken dame seems literally to smell it. The divine Asheton, whom I suppose you will have seen when you receive this, will give you an account of the astonishment we were in last night at hearing guns; I began to think that the Duke had brought some of his defeats from Flanders.

I am going to tell you a long story, but you will please to remember that I don't intend to tell it well; therefore, if you discover any beauties in the relation where I never intended them, don't conclude, as you did in your last, that I know they are there. If I had not a great command of my pen, and could not force it to write whatever nonsense I had heard last, you would be enough to pervert all one's letters, and put one upon keeping up one's character; but as I write merely to satisfy you, I shall take no care but not to write well: I hate letters that are called good letters.

You must know then,-but did you not know a young fellow that was called Handsome Tracy? he was walking in the Park with some of his acquaintance, and overtook three girls; one was very pretty: they followed them; but the girls ran away, and the company grew tired of pursuing them, all but Tracy. (There are now three more guns gone off; she must be very drunk.) He followed to Whitehall gate, where he gave a porter a crown to dog them: the porter hunted them-he the porter. The girls ran all round Westminster, and back to the Haymarket, where the porter came up with them. He told the pretty one she must go with him, and kept her talking till Tracy arrived, quite out of breath, and exceedingly in love. He insisted on knowing where she lived, which she refused to tell him; and after much disputing , went to the house of one of her companions, and Tracy with them. He there made her discover her family, a butterwoman in Craven Street, and engaged her to meet him the next morning in the Park; but before night he wrote her four love-letters, and in the last offered two hundred pounds a-year to her, and a hundred a-year to Signora la Madre. Griselda made a confidence to a staymaker's wife, who told her that the swain was certainly in love enough to marry her, if she could determine to be virtuous and refuse his offers. "Ay," says she, "but if I should, and should lose him by it." However, the measures of the cabinet council were decided for virtue: and when she met Tracy the next morning in the park, she was convoyed by her sister and brother-in-law, and stuck close to the letter of her reputation. She would do nothing she would go nowhere. At last, as an instance of prodigious compliance, she told him, that if he would accept such a dinner as a butterwoman's daughter could give him, he should be welcome. Away they walked to Craven Street: the mother borrowed some silver to buy a leg of mutton, and they kept the eager lover drinking till twelve at night, when a chosen committee waited on the faithful pair to the minister of May-fair. The doctor was in bed, and swore he would not get up to marry the King, but that he had a brother over the way who perhaps would, and who did. The mother borrowed a pair of sheets, and they consummated at her house; and the next day they went to their own palace. In two or three days the scene grew gloomy; and the husband coming home one night, swore he could bear it no longer. "Bear! bear what?"—"Why, to be teased by all my acquaintance for marrying a butterwoman's daughter. I am determined to go to France, and will leave you a handsome allowance."—"Leave me! why you don't fancy you shall leave me? I will go with you."—"What, you love me then?"—"No matter whether I love you or not, but you shan't go without me." And they are gone! If you know any body that proposes marrying and travelling, I think they cannot do it in a more commodious method.

I agree with you most absolutely in your opinion about Gray; he is the worst company in the world. From a melancholy turn. living reclusely, and from a little too much dignity, he never converses easily all his words are measured and chosen, and formed into sentences his writings are admirable; he himself is not agreeable.'(1466)

There are still two months to London; if you could discover your own mind for any three or four days of that space, I will either go with you to the Tigers or be glad to see you here; but I positively will ask you neither one nor t'other any more. I have raised seven-and-twenty bantams from the patriarchs you sent me. Adieu!

(1464) Daughter of Washington, Earl Ferrers.

(1465) Lord Bolingbroke, in a letter to the Earl of Marchmont of the 1st of November, says, "I hope you heard from me by myself, as well of me by Mr. Whitfield. This apostolical person preached some time ago at Lady Huntingdon's, and I should have been curious to hear him. Nothing kept me from going, but an imagination that there was to be a select auditory. That saint, our friend Chesterfield, was there; and I hear from him an extreme good account of the sermon." Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 377.-E.

(1466) Dr. Beattie says, in a letter to Sir W. Forbes, "Gray's letters very much resemble what his conversation was: he had none of the airs of either a scholar or a poet; and though on those and all other subjects he spoke to me with the utmost freedom, and without any reserve, he was in general company much more silent than one could have wished."-E.



565 Letter 261 To Sir Horace Mann. Strawberry Hill, Sept. 18, 1748.

I have two letters of yours to account for, and nothing to plead but my old insolvency. Oh! yes, I have to scold you, which you find is an inexhaustible fund with me. You sent me your d'em'el'e(1467) with the whole city of Florence, and charged me to keep it secret-and the first person I saw was my Lord Hobart, who was full of the account he had received from you. You might as well have told a woman an improper secret, and expected to have it kept! but you may be very easy, for unless it reaches my Lady Pomfret or my Lady Orford, I dare say it will never get back to Florence; and for those two ladies, I don't think it likely that they should hear it, for the first is in a manner retired from the world, and the world is retired from the second. Now I have vented my anger, I am seriously sorry for you, to be exposed to the impertinence of those silly Florentine women: they deserve a worse term than silly, since they pretend to any characters. How could you act with so much temper? If they had treated me in this manner, I should have avowed ten times more than they pretended you had done; but you are an absolute minister!

I am much obliged to Prince Beauvau for remembering me, and should be extremely pleased to show him all manner of attentions here: you know I profess great attachment to that family for their civilities to me. But how gracious the Princess has been to you! I am quite jealous of her dining with you: I remember what a rout there was to get her for half of half a quarter of an hour to your assembly.

The Bishop of London is dead; having luckily for his family, as it proves, refused the archbishopric.*1468) We owe him the justice to say, that though he had broke with my father, he always expressed himself most handsomely about him, and without any resentment or ingratitude.

Your brothers are coming to dine with me; your brother Gal. is extremely a favourite with me: I took to him for his resemblance to you, but am grown to love him upon his own fund.