Queen of Spain-or as the Duke of A. would be to either of them. Lord Islay asked Sir R. if he was against publishing this story, which he thought was a justification both of his brother and Sir R. The latter replied, he could certainly have no objection to its being public-but pray, will his grace’s sending these letters to the secretaries of state Justify him from the assurances that had been given of’ him?(643) However, the Pretender’s being of opinion that the dismission of Mr. Tench was for his service, will scarce be an argument to the new ministry for making more noise about these papers.
I am sorry the boy is so uneasy at being on the foot of a servant. I will send for his mother, and ask her why she did not tell him the conditions to which we had agreed; at the same time, I will tell her that she may send any letters for him to me. Adieu! my dear child: I am going to write to Mr. Chute, that is, to-morrow. I never was more diverted than with his letter.
(632) The Queen of Hungary, Maria Theresa.-D.
(633) The only daughter and heiress of the Marquis Accianoli at Florence, was married to one of the same name, who was born at Madeira.
‘
(634) Anne Plummer, Countess of Abercorn, wife of James, the seventh earl. She died in 1756.-E.
(635) Catherine, daughter of John Hoskins, Esq. She was married to the third Duke of Devonshire in 171@, and died in 1777.-E.
(636) James Hamilton succeeded as eighth Earl of Abercorn, on the death of his father in 1743. He was created Viscount Hamilton in England in 1786, and died unmarried in 1789.-D.
(637) This is the house, in Downing Street, which is still the residence of the first lord of the treasury. George the First gave it to Baron Bothmar, the Hanoverian minister-, for life. On his death, George the Second offered to give it to Sir Robert Walpole; who, however, refused it, and begged of the King that it might be attached to the office of first lord of the treasury.-D.
(638) Sir Robert Godschall.
(639) The Duke of Argyll.
(640) Earl of Islay.
(641) Besides intercepted letters, Sir R. Walpole had more than once received letters from the Pretender, making him the greatest offers, which Sir R. always carried to the King, and got him to endorse, when he
returned them to Sir R.
(642) James Barry, fourth Earl of Barrymore, succeeded his half-brother Lawrence in the family titles in 1699, and died in 1747, at the age of eighty. James, Lord Barrymore, was an adherent of the Pretender, whereas Lawrence had been so great a supporter of the revolution, that he was attainted, and his estates sequestered by James the Second’s Irish parliament, in 1689.-D.
(643) The Duke of Argyll, in the latter part of his life, was often melancholy and disordered in his understanding. After this transaction, and it is supposed he had gone still farther, he could with difficulty be brought even to write his name. The marriage of his eldest daughter with the Earl of Dalkeith was deferred for some time, because the duke could not be prevailed upon to sign the writings.
269 Letter 75
To Sir Horace Mann.
On the Death of Richard West, Esq.(644)
While surfeited with life, each hoary knave Grows, here, immortal, and eludes the grave, Thy virtues immaturely met their fate,
Cramp’d in the limit of too short a date!
Thy mind, not exercised so oft in vain, In health was gentle, and composed in pain: successive trials still refined thy soul, And plastic Patience perfected the whole.
A friendly aspect, not suborn’d by art; An eye, which look’d the meaning of thy heart; A tongue, With simple truth and freedom fraught, The faithful index of thy honest thought.
Thy pen disdain’d to seek the servile ways Of partial censure, and more partial praise; Through every tongue it flowed in nervous ease, With sense to Polish , and With wit to please.
No lurking venom from thy pencil fell; Thine was the kindest satire, living well: The vain, the loose, the base, might blush to see In what thou wert, what they themselves should be,
Let me not charge on Providence a crime, Who snatch’d thee, blooming, to a better clime, To raise those virtues to a higher sphere: Virtues! which only could have starved thee here;
A Receipt To Make A Lord. Occasioned by a late report of a promotion.(645)
Take a man, who by nature’s a true son of earth,’ By rapine enriched, though a beggar by birth; In genius the lowest, ill-bred and obscene; In morals most Wicked, most nasty in mien; By none ever trusted, yet ever employed; In blunders quite fertile, in merit quite void; A scold in the Senate, abroad a buffoon, The scorn and the jest of all courts but his own: A slave to that wealth that ne’er made him a friend, And proud of that cunning that ne’er gain’d an end; A dupe in each treaty, a Swiss in each vote; In manners and form, a complete Hottentot. Such an one could you find, of all men you’d commend him; But be sure let the curse of each Briton attend him. thus fully prepared, add the grace of the throne, The folly of monarchs, and screen of a crown– Take a prince for his purpose, without ears or eyes, And a long parchment roll stuff’d brimful of lies: These mingled together, a fiat shall pass, and the thing be a Peer, that before was an ass.
The former copy I think you will like: it was written by one Mr. Ashton (646) on Mr. West, two friends of mine, whom you have heard me often mention. The other copy was printed in the Common Sense, I don’t know by whom composed: the end of it is very bad, and there are great falsities in it, but some strokes are terribly like!
I have not a moment to thank the Grifona, nor to answer yours of June 17, N. S. which I have this instant read. Yours, in great haste.
(644) See ante, pp. 121, (Letter 1), 251, (Letter 65).
(645) The report, mentioned in a preceding letter, that Horace Walpole, brother to Sir Robert, was created a peer.
(646)Thomas Ashton, afterwards fellow of Eton College. [See ant`e, p. 128, Letter 6, footnote 153.)
271 Letter 76
To Sir Horace Mann.
London, July 7, 1742.
Well! you may bid the Secret Committee good night. The House adjourns to-day till Tuesday, and on Thursday is to be prorogued. Yesterday we had a bill
of Pultney’s, about returning officers and regulating elections: the House was thin, and he carried it by 93 to 92. Mr. Pelham was not there, and Winnington did not vote, for the gentleman is testy still; when he saw how near he had been to losing it, he said loud enough to be heard, “I will make the gentlemen of that side feel me!” and, rising up, he said, “He was astonished, that a bill so calculated for the freedom of elections was so near being thrown out; that there was a report on the table, which showed how necessary such a bill was, and that though we had not time this year to consider what was proper to be done in consequence of it, he hoped we should next,”-with much to the same purpose; but all the effect this notable speech had, was to
frighten my uncle, and make him give two or three shrugs extraordinary to his breeches. They now say,(647) that Pultney will not take out the patent for his earldom, but remain in the House of Commons in terrorem; however, all his friends are to have places immediately, or, as the fashion of expressing it is, they are to go to Court in the Bath coach!”(648)
Your relation Guise (649) is arrived from Carthagena, madder than ever. As he was marching up to one of the forts, all his men deserted him; his lieutenant advised him to retire; he replied, “He never had turned his back yet, and would not now,” and stood all the fire. When the pelicans were flying over his head, he cried out, “What would Chloe (650) give for some of these to make a
pelican pie!” When he is brave enough to perform such actions as are really almost incredible, what pity it is that he should for ever persist In saving things that are totally so!
Lord Annandale (651) is at last mad in all the forms: he has long been an out-pensioner of Bedlam College. Lord and Lady Talbot,(652) are parted; he gives her three thousand pounds a-year. Is it not amazing, that in England people will not find out that they can live separate without parting? The Duke of Beaufort says, “He pities Lord Talbot to have met with two such tempers as their two wives!”
Sir Robert Rich (653) is going to Flanders, to try to make up an affair for his son; who, having quarrelled with a Captain Vane, as the commanding officer was trying to make it up at the head of the regiment, Rich came behind Vane, “And to show you,” said he, “that I will not make it up, take that,” and gave him a box on the ear. They were immediately put in arrest; but the learned in the laws of honour say, they must fight, for no German officer will serve with Vane, till he has had satisfaction.
Mr. Harris,(654) who married Lady Walpole’s mother, is to be one of the peace-offerings on the new altar. Bootle is to be chief-justice; but the Lord Chancellor would not consent to it, unless Lord Glenorchy,(655) whose daughter is married to Mr. Yorke, had a place in lieu of the Admiralty, which he has lost-he is to have Harris’s. Lord Edgecumbe’s, in Ireland, they say, is destined to Harry Vane,(656) Pultney’s toad-eater.
Monticelli lives in a manner at our house. I tell my sister that she is in love with him, and that I am glad it was not Amorevoli. Monticelli dines frequently with Sir Robert, which diverts me extremely; you know how low his ideas are of music and the virtuosi; he calls them all fiddlers.
I have not time now to write more, for I am going to a masquerade at the Ranelagh amphitheatre: the King is fond of it, and has pressed people to go; but I don’t find that it will be full. Good night! All love to the Pope for his good thing.
(647) Sir R. W. to defeat Pultney’s ambition persuaded the ++King to insist on his going into the House of Lords: the day he carried his patent thither, he flung it upon the floor in a passion, and could scarce be prevailed on to have it passed. [“I remember,” says Horace Walpole, (Reminiscences), “my father’s action and words when he returned from court, and told me what he had done – ‘I have turned the key of the closet on him!’ making that motion with his hand.”]
(648) His title was to be Earl of Bath.
(649) General Guise, a, very brave officer, but apt to romance; and a great connoisseur in pictures. (He bequested his collection of pictures, which is a very indifferent one, to christ church College, Oxford.-D.)
(650) the duke of Newcastle’s French cook.
(651) George Johnstone, third Marquis of Annandale, in Scotland. He was not declared a lunatic till the year 1748. Upon his death, in
1792, his titles became either extinct or dormant.-D.
(652) Mary, daughter of Adam de Cardonel, secretary to John the great Duke of Marlborough, married to William, second Lord Talbot, eldest son of Lord Chancellor Talbot.-D.
(653) Sir Robert Rich, Bart., of Rose Hall, Suffolk. At his death, in 1768, he was colonel of the fourth regiment of dragoons, governor of Chelsea Hospital, and field-marshal of the forces.-E.
(654) This article did not prove true. Mr. Harris was not removed, nor Bootle made chief-justice.
(655) John Campbell, Lord Glenorchy, and, on his father’s death, in 1752, third Earl of Breadalbane. His first wife was Lady Amiable Grey, eldest daughter and coheir of the Duke of Kent. By her he had an only daughter, Jemima, who, upon the death of her grandfather, became Baroness Lucas of Crudwell, and Marchioness de Grey. She married Philip Yorke, eldest son of the Chancellor Hardwicke, and eventually himself the second duke of that title.-D.
(656) Henry Vane, eldest son of Gilbert, second Lord Barnard, and one of the tribe who came into office upon the breaking up of Sir Robert Walpole’s administration. He was created Earl of Darlington in 1753, and died in 1758.-D.
273 Letter 77
To Sir Horace Mann.
Downing Street, July 14, 1742.
Sir Robert Brown(657) is displaced from being paymaster of something, I forget what, for Sir Charles Gilmour, a friend of Lord Tweedale.(658) Nee Finch (659) is made groom of the bedchamber, which was vacant; and Will Finch (660) vice chamberlain, which was not vacant; but they have emptied it of Lord Sidney Beauclerc.(661) Boone is made commissary-general, in Hurley’s room, and JefFries(662) in Will Stuart’s. All these have been kissing hands to-day, headed by the Earl of Bath. He went into the King the other day “,it this’long list, but was told shortly, that unless he would take up his patent and quit the House of Commons,
nothing should be done-he has consented. I made some of them very angry; for when they told me who had kissed hands, I asked, if the Pretender had kissed hands too, for being King? I forgot to tell you, that Murray is to be solicitor-general, in Sir John Strange’s place, who is made chief justice, or some such thing.(663)
I don’t know who it was that said it, but it was a very good answer to one who asked why Lord Gower had not kissed hands sooner–“the Dispensation was not come
from Rome.”(664)
I am writing to you up to the ears in packing: Lord Wilmington has lent this house to Sandys, and he has given us instant warning; we are moving as fast as possible to Siberia,-Sir Robert has a house there, within a few mile,, of the Duke of Courland; in short, child, we are all going to Norfolk, till we can get a house ready in town: all the furniture is taken down, and lying about in confusion. I look like St. John in the Isle of Patmos, writing revelations, and prophesying “Woe! woe! woe! the kingdom of desolation is at hand!” -indeed, I have prettier animals about me, than he ever dreamed of: here is the dear Patapan, and a little Vandyke cat, with black whiskers -ind boots; you would swear it was of a very ancient family, in the West of England, famous for their loyalty.
I told you I was going to the masquerade at Ranelagh gardens, last week: it was miserable; there were but an hundred men, six women, and two shepherdesses. The King liked it,–and that he might not be known, they had dressed him a box with red damask! Lady Pomfret and her three daughters were there, all dressed alike, that they might not be known. My Lady said to Lady Bel Finch,(665) who was dressed like a nun, and for coolness had cut off the nose of her mask, “Madam, you are the first nun that ever I saw without a nose!”
As I came home last night, they told me there was a fire in Downing Street; when I came to Whitehall, I could not get to the end of the street in my chariot, for the crowd; when I got out, the first thing I heard was a man enjoying himself: “Well! if it lasts two hours longer, Sir Robert Walpole’s house will be burnt to the ground!” it was a very comfortable hearing! but I found the fire was on the opposite side of the way, and at a good distance. I stood in the crowd an hour to hear their discourse: one man was relating at how many fires he had happened to be present, and did not think himself at all unlucky in passing by, just at this. What diverted me most, was a servant-maid, who was working, and carrying pails of water, with the strength of half-a-dozen troopers, and swearing the mob out of her way-the soft creature’s name was Phillis! When I arrived at our door, I found the house full of goods, beds, women, and children, and three Scotch members of parliament, who lodge in the row, and who had sent in a saddle, a flitch of bacon, and a bottle of ink. There was no wind, and the house was saved, with the loss of only its garret, and the furniture.
I forgot to mention the Dominichin last post, as I suppose I had before, for I always was for buying it; it is one of the most engaging pictures I ever saw. I have no qualms about its originality; and even if Sir Robert should not like it when it comes, which is impossible, I think I would live upon a flitch of bacon and a bottle of ink, rather than not spare the money to buy it myself: so my dear Sir, buy it.
Your brother has this moment brought me a letter: I find by it, that you are very old style with relation to the Prussian peace. Why, we have sent Robinson (666) and Lord Hyndford (667) a green ribbon, for it, above a fortnight ago. Muley, (as Lord Lovel calls him,) Duke of Bedford, (668) is, they say, to have a blue one, for making his own peace: you know we always mind home-peaces more than foreign ones.
I am quite sorry for all the trouble you have had about the Maltese cats; but you know they were for Lord Islay, not for myself. Adieu! I have no more time.
(657) Sir Robert Brown had been a merchant at Venice, and British resident there, for which he was created a baronet in 1732. He held the place at this time of” “paymaster of his Majesty’s works, concerning the repairs, new buildings, and well-keeping of any of his Majesty’s houses of access, and others, in time of progress.”-D
(658) John Hay, fourth Marquis of Tweedale. In 1748, he married Frances, daughter of John Earl Granville, and died in 1762.-E.
(659) The Hon. Edward Finch, fifth son of Daniel, sixth Earl of Winchilsea and second Earl of Nottingham, and the direct ancestor of the present Lord Winchilsea. He assumed the name of Hatton, in 1764, in consequence of inheriting the fortune of William Viscount Hatton, his mother’s brother. He was employed in diplomacy, and was made master of the robes in 1757. He died in 1771.-D.
(660) The Hon. William Finch, second son of Daniel, sixth Earl of Winchilsea, had been envoy in Sweden and in Holland. He continued to hold the office of vice-chamberlain of the household till his death in 1766. These two brothers, and their elder brother Daniel, seventh Earl of Winchilsea, are the persons whom Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, calls, on account of the blackness of their complexions, “the dark, funereal
Finches.” [His widow, Charlotte, daughter of the Earl of Pomfret,
was appointed governess to the young princes and princesses.]
(661) Lord Sidney Beauclerk, fifth son of the first Duke of St. Albans; a man of bad character. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams calls him “Worthless Sidney.” He was notorious for hunting after the fortunes of the old and childless. Being very handsome, he had almost persuaded Lady Betty Germain, in her old age, to marry him; but she was dissuaded from it by the Duke of Dorset and her relations. He failed also in obtaining
the fortune of Sir’ Thomas Reeve, Chief Justice of the (common Pleas, whom he used to attend on the circuit, with a view of ingratiating himself with him. At length he induced Mr. Topham, of Windsor, to leave his estate to him. He died in 1744, leaving one son, Topham Beauclerk, Esq.-D. [This son, so celebrated for his conversational, talents, and described by Dr. Jonson as uniting the eloquent manners of a gentleman with the mental acccomplishments of a scholar, married, in 1768, Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of the Duke of Marlborough, and died in 1780.]
(662) John JefFries, secretary of the treasury.-D.
(663) Sir John Strange was made master of the rolls, but not till some years afterwards; he died in 1754.
(664) From the Pretender. Lord Gower had been, until he was made privy-seal, one of the leading Jacobites; and was even supposed to lean to that party, after he had accepted the appointment.
(665) Lady Isabella Finch, third daughter of the sixth Earl of Winchilsea, first lady of the bedchamber to the Princess Amelia. It was for her that Kent built the pretty and singular house on the western side of Berkeley Square, with a fine room in it, of which the ceiling is painted in arabesque compartments, by Zucchi;-now the residence of C. B. Wall, Esq.-D. [In this house her ladyship died unmarried, in 1771.)
(666) Sir Thomas Robinson, minister at Vienna; be was made secretary of state in 1754. (And a peer, by the title of Lord Grantham, in 1761.-D.)
(667) John Carmichael, third Earl of Hyndford. He had been sent as envoy to the King of Prussia, during the first war of Silesia. He was afterwards sent ambassador to St. Petersburgh and Vienna, and died in 1767.-D.
(668) The Duke of Bedford had not the Garter till some years after this.
275 Letter 78
To Sir Horace Mann.
You scolded me so much about my little paper, that I dare not venture upon it even now, when I have very little to say to you. The long session is over, and the Secret Committee already forgotten. Nobody remembers it but poor Paxton, who has lost his place(669) by it. saw him the day after he came out of Newgate: he came to Chelsea:(670) Lord Fitzwilliam was there, and in the height of zeal, took him about the neck and kissed him. Lord Orford had been at Court that morning, and with his usual spirits, said to the new ministers, “So! the parliament is up, and Paxton, Bell, and I have got our liberty!” The King spoke in the kindest manner to him at his levee, but did not call him into the closet, as the new ministry feared he would, and as perhaps, the old ministry expected he would. The day before, when the King went to put an end to the session, Lord Quarendon asked Winnington “whether Bell would be let out time enough to hire a mob to huzza him as he went to the House of Lords.”
The few people that are left in town have been much diverted with an adventure that has befallen the new ministers. Last Sunday the Duke of Newcastle gave them a dinner at Claremont, where their servants got so drunk, that when they came to the inn over against the gate of Newpark,(671) the coachman, who was the only remaining fragment of their suite, tumbled off the box, and there they were planted. There were Lord Bath, Lord Carteret, Lord Limerick, and Harry Furnese (672) in the coach: they asked the innkeeper if he could contrive no way to convey them to town. , No,” he said, “not unless it was to get Lord Orford’s coachman to drive them.” They demurred; but Lord Carteret said “Oh, I dare say, Lord Orford will willingly let us have him.” So they sent and he drove them home.(673)
Ceretesi had a mind to see this wonderful Lord Orford, of whom he had heard so much; I carried him to dine at Chelsea. You know the earl don’t speak a word of any language but English and Latin,(674) and Ceretesi not a word of either; yet he assured me that he was very happy to have made cosi bella conascenza! He whips out his pocket-book every moment, and writes descriptions in issimo of every thing he sees: the grotto alone took up three pages. What volumes he will publish at his return, in usum Serenissimi Pannom!(675)
There has lately been the most shocking scene of murder imaginable; a parcel of drunken constables took it into their heads to put the laws in execution against disorderly persons, and so took up every woman they met, till they had collected five and six or twenty, all of whom they thrust into St. Martin’s roundhouse, where they kept them all night, with doors and windows closed. The poor creatures, who could not stir or breathe, screamed as long as they had any breath left, begging at least for water: one poor wretch said she was worth eighteen-pence, and would gladly give it for a draught of water, but in vain! So well did they keep them there, that in the morning four were found stifled to death, two died soon after, and a dozen more are in a shocking way. In short, it is horrid to think what the poor creatures suffered: several of them were beggars, who, from having no lodging, were necessarily found in the street, and others honest labouring women. One of the dead was a poor washerwoman, big with child, who was returning home late from washing. One of the constables is taken, and others absconded; but I question(676) if any of them will suffer death, though the greatest criminals in this town are the officers of justice; there is no tyranny they do not exercise, no villainy of which they do not partake. These same men, the same night, broke into a bagnio in Covent-Garden, and took up Jack Spencer,(677) Mr. Stewart, and Lord George Graham,(678) and would have thrust them into the round-house with the poor women, if they had not been worth more than eighteen-pence!
I have just now received yours of the 15th of July, with a married letter from both Prince and Princess:(679) but sure nothing ever equalled the setting out of it! She says, “The generosity of your friendship for me, Sir, leaves me nothing to desire of all that is precious in England, China, and the Indies!” Do you know, after such a testimony under the hand of a princess, that I am determined, after the laudable example of the house of Medici, to take the title of Horace the Magnificent! I am only afraid it should be a dangerous example for my posterity, who may ruin themselves in emulating the magnificence of their ancestor. It happens comically, for the other day, in removing from Downing-street, Sir Robert found an old account-book of his father, wherein he set down all his, expenses. In three months and ten days that he was in London one winter as member of parliament, he spent-what do you think?-sixty-four pounds seven shillings and five-pence! There are many articles for Nottingham ale, eighteen-pences for dinners, five shillings to Bob (now Earl of Orford), and one memorandum of six shillings given in exchange to Mr. Wilkins for his wig-and yet this old man, my grandfather, had two thousand pounds a-year, Norfolk sterling! He little thought that what maintained him for a whole session, would scarce serve one of his younger grandsons to buy japan and fans for princesses at Florence!
Lord Orford has been at court again to-day: Lord Carteret came up to thank him for his coachman; the Duke of Newcastle standing by. My father said, “My lord, whenever the duke is near overturning you, you have nothing to do but to send to me, and I will save you.” The duke said to Lord Carteret, “Do you know, my lord, that the Venison you eat that day came out of Newpark?” Lord Orford laughed, and said, “So, you see I am made to kill the fatted calf for the return of the prodigals!” The King passed by all the new ministry to speak to him, and afterwards only spoke to my Lord Carteret.
Should I answer the letters from the court of Petraria again? there will be no end of our magnificent correspondence!-but would it not be too haughty to let a princess write last?
Oh, the cats! I can never keep them, and yet It is barbarous to send them all to Lord Islay: he will shut them up and starve them, and then bury them under the stairs with his wife. Adieu!
(669) Solicitor to the treasury. See ante, p. 246.
(670) Sir R. Walpole’s house at Chelsea.-D.
(671) Lord Walpole was ranger of Newpark. (Now called Richmond Park.-D.)
(672) One of the band of incapables who obtained power and place on the fall of Walpole. Horace Walpole, in his Memoires, calls him “that old rag of Lord Bath’s quota to an administration, the mute Harry Furnese.”-D.
(673) This occurrence was celebrated in a ballad which is inserted in C. Hanbury Williams’s works, and begins thus.
“As Caleb and Carteret, two birds of a feather, Went down to a feast at Newcastle’s together.”
Lord Bath is called “Caleb,” in consequence of the name of Caleb DAnvers having been used in The Craftsman, of which he was the principal author.-D.
(674) It was very remarkable that Lord Orford could get and keep such an ascendant with King George 1. when they had no way of conversing but very imperfectly in Latin.
(675) The coffee-house at Florence where the nobility meet.
(676) The keeper of the round-house was tried but acquitted of wilful murder. [The keeper, whose name was William Bird, was tried at the Old Bailey in October, and received sentence of death; which was afterwards transmuted to transportation.]
(677) The Honourable John Spencer, second son of Charles, third Earl of Sunderland, by Anne his wife, second daughter of the great Duke of Marlborough. He was the favourite grandson of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough who left him a vast fortune, having disinherited, to the utmost of her power, his eldest brother, Charles, Duke of Marlborough. The condition upon which she made this bequest was that neither he nor his heirs should take any place or pension from any government, except the rangership of Windsor Park. He was the ancestor of the present Earl Spencer, and died in 1746.- D.
(678) Lord George Graham, youngest son of the Duke of Montrose, and a captain in the navy. He died in 1747.-D.
(679) Prince and Princess Craon.
278 Letter 79
To Sir Horace Mann.
Chelsea, July 29, 1742.
I am quite out of humour; the whole town is melted away; you never saw such a desert. You know what Florence is in the vintage-season, at least I remember what it was: London is just as empty, nothing but half-a-dozen private gentlewomen left, who live upon the scandal that they laid up in the winter. I am going too! this day se’nnight we set out for Houghton, for three months; but I scarce think that I shall allow thirty days apiece to them. Next post I shall not be able to write to you; and when I am there shall scarce find any materials to furnish a letter above every other post. I beg, however, that you will write constantly to me: it will be my only entertainment, for I neither hunt, brew, drink, nor reap. When I return in the winter, I will make amends for this barren season of our correspondence.
I carried Sir Robert the other night to Ranelagh for the first time: my uncle’s prudence, or fear, would never let him go before. It was pretty full, and all its fulness flocked round us: we walked with a train at our heels, like two chairmen going to fight; but they were extremely civil, and did not crowd him, or say the least impertinence–I think he grows popular already! The other day he got it asked, whether he should be received if he went to Carleton House?-no, truly!-but yesterday morning Lord Baltimore’ came (680) to soften it a little; that his royal highness -did not refuse to see him, but that now the Court was out of town, and he had no drawing-room, he did not see any body.
They have given Mrs. Pultney an admirable name, and one that is likely to stick by her-instead of Lady Bath, they call her the wife of Bath.(681) Don’t you figure her squabbling at the gate with St. Peter for a halfpenny.
Cibber has published a little pamphlet against Pope, which has a great deal of spirit, and, from some circumstances, will notably vex him.(682) I will send it to you by the first opportunity, with a new pamphlet, said to be Doddington’s, called “A Comparison of the Old and New Ministry:” it is much liked. I have not forgot your magazines, but will send them and these pamphlets together. Adieu! I am at the end of my tell.
P. S. Lord Edgecumbe is just made lord-lieutenant of Cornwall, at which the Lord of Bath looks sour. He said, yesterday, that the King would give orders for several other considerable alterations; but gave no orders, except for this, which was not asked by that earl.
(680) Lord of the bedchamber to the Prince.
(681) In allusion to the old ballad.
(682) This pamphlet, which was entitled “A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope; inquiring into the motives that might induce him, in his satirical works to be so frequently fond of Mr. Cibber’s name,” so “notably vexed” the great poet, that, in a new edition of the Dunciad, he dethroned Theobald from his eminence as King of the dunces, and enthroned Cibber in his stead.-E.
279 Letter 80
To Sir Horace Mann.
(From Houghton.)
Here are three new ballads,(683) and you must take them as a plump part of a long letter. Consider, I am in the barren land of Norfolk, where news grows as slow as any thing green; and besides, I am in the house of a fallen minister! The first song I fancy is Lord Edgcumbe’s; at least he had reason to write it. The second I do not think so good as the real Story that occasioned it. The last is reckoned vastly the best, and is much admired: I cannot say I see all those beauties in it, nor am charmed with the poetry, which is cried up. I don’t find that any body knows whose it is.(684) Pultney is very anoyed, especially as he pretends, about his wife, and says, “it is too much to abuse ladies!” You see, their twenty years’ satires come back home! He is gone to the Bath in great dudgeon: the day before he went, he went in to the King to ask him to turn out Mr. Hill of the customs, for having opposed him at Heydon. “Sir,” said the King, “was it not when you was opposing me? I won’t turn him out: I will part with no more of my friends.” Lord Wilmington was waiting to receive orders accordingly, but the King gave him none.
We came hither last Saturday; as we passed through Grosvenor-square, we met Sir Roger Newdigate, (685) with a vast body of Tories, proceeding to his election at Brentford: we might have expected some insult, but only one single fellow hissed. and was not followed. Lord Edgcumbe, Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Hervey, in their way to Coke’s,(686) and Lord Chief Justice Wills (on the circuit) are the Only company here yet. My Lord invited nobody, but left it to their charity. The other night, as soon as he had gone through showing Mr. Wills the house, Well,” said he, “here I am to enjoy ‘t, and my Lord of Bath may–.” I forgot to tell you, in confirmation of what you see in the song of the wife of Bath having shares of places, Sir Robert told me, that when formerly she got a place for her own father, she took the salary and left him only the perquisites!
It is much thought that the King will go abroad, if he can avoid leaving the Prince in his place–. Imagine all this!
I received to-day yours of July 21), and two from Mr. Chute and Madame Pucci,(687) which I will answer very soon: where is she now? I delight in Mr. Villiers’s, (688) modesty-in one place you had written it villette’s; I fancy on purpose, for it would do for him.
Good night, my dear child! I have written myself threadbare. I know you will hate my campaign, but what can one do!
(683) As these ballads are to be found in the edition of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams’s works, published in 1822, it has been deemed better to omit them here. They are called, “Labour in Vain,” “The Old Coachman,” and “The Country Girl.”-D.
(684) it was written by Hanbury Williams.
(685) Sir Roger Newdigate, the fifth baronet of the family. He was elected member for Middlesex, upon the vacancy occasioned by Pultney’s being created Earl of Bath. He belonged to the Tory or Jacobite party.-D. [Sir Roger afterwards represented the University of Oxford in five parliaments, and died in 1806, in his eighty-seventh year. Among other benefactions to his Alma Mater, he gave the noble candelabra in the Radcliffe library, and founded an annual prize
for English verses on ancient painting, sculpture, and architecture.]
(686) Holkham. Coke was the son of Lord Lovel, afterward Viscount Coke, when his father was created Earl of Leicester.-D.
(687) She was the daughter of the Conte di Valvasone, of Friuli, sister of Madame Suares, and of the bedchamber to the Duchess of Modena.
(688) Thomas Villiers a younger son of william, second Earl of Jersey, at this time British minister at the court of Dresden, and eventually created Lord Hyde, and Earl of clarendon. Sir H. Mann had alluded in one of his letters to a speech attributed to Mr. Villiers, in which he took great credit to himself for having induced the King of Poland to become a party to the peace of Breslau, recently concluded between the Queen of Hungary and the King, of Prussia; a course of proceeding, which, in fact, his Polish Majesty had no alternative but to adopt. Villettes was an inferior diplomatic agent from England to some of the Italian courts, and was at this moment resident at the court of Turin.-D.
280 Letter 81
To Sir Horace Mann.
Houghton, Aug. 20, 1742
By the tediousness of the post, and distance of place, I am still receiving letters from you about the Secret Committee, which seems strange, for it is as much forgotten now, as if it had happened in the last reign. Thus much I must answer you about it, that it is possible to resume the inquiry upon the Report next session; but you may judge whether they will, after all the late promotions.
We are willing to believe that there are no news in town, for we hear none at all: Lord Lovel sent us word to-day, that he heard, by a messenger from the post office, that Montemar (689) is put under arrest. I don’t tell you this for news, for you must know it long ago: but I expect the confirmation of it from you next post. Since we came hither I have heard no more of the king’s journey to Flanders: our troops are as peaceable there as On Hounslow Heath, except some bickerings and blows about beef with butchers, and about sacraments with friars. You know the English can eat no meat, nor be civil to any God but their own.
As much as I am obliged to you for the description of your Cocchiata,(690) I don’t like to hear of it. It is very unpleasant, instead of being at it, to be prisoner, in a melancholy, barren province, which would put one in mind of the deluge, only that we have no water. Do remember exactly how your last was; for I intend that you shall give me just such another Cocchiata next summer, if it pleases the kings and queens of this world to let us be at peace For “it rests that without fig-leaves,” as my Lord Bacon says in one of his letters , “I do ingenuously confess and acknowledge,” (691) that I like nothing so well as Italy.
I agree with you extremely about Tuscany for Prince Charles,(692) but I can only agree with you on paper; for as to knowing anything of it, I am sure Sir Robert himself knows nothing of it: the Duke of Newcastle and my Lord Carteret keep him in as great ignorance as possible, especially the latter; and even in other times, you know how little he ever thought on those things. Believe me, he will every day know less.
Your last, which I have been answering, was the. 5th of August; I this minute receive another of the 12th. How I am charmed with your spirit and usage of Richcourt! Mais ce n’est pas d’aujourdhui que je commence `a les m`epriser! I am so glad that you have quitted your calm, to treat them as they deserve. You don’t tell me if his opposition in the council hindered your intercession from taking place for the valet de chambre. I hope not! I could not bear his thwarting you!
I am now going to write to your brother, to get you the overtures; and to desire he will send them with some pamphlets and the magazines which I left in commission for you, at my leaving London. I am going to send him, too, des pleins pouvoirs, for nominating a person to represent me at his new babe’s christening.
I am sorry Mrs. Goldsworthy is coming to England, though I think it can be of no effect. Sir Charles (692) has no sort of interest with the new powers, and I don’t think the Richmonds have enough to remove foreign ministers. However, I will consult with Sir Robert about it, and see if he thinks there is any danger for you, which I do not in the least; and whatever can be done by me, I think you know, will.
P. S. I inclose an answer to Madame Pucci’s letter. Where is she in all this Modenese desolation
(689) Montemar was the General of the King of Spain, who commanded the troops of that sovereign against the Imperialists in Italy.-D.
(690) A sort of serenade. Sir H. Mann had mentioned, that he was about to give an entertainment of this kind in his garden to the society of Florence.-D.
(691) Prince Charles of Lorraine, younger brother of Francis, who was now Grand Duke of Tuscany. He was a general of some abilities; but it was his misfortune to be so often opposed to the superior talents of the King of Prussia.-D.
(692) Sir Charles Wager.
281 Letter 82
To Sir Horace Mann.
Houghton, August 28, 1742.
I did receive your letter of the 12th, as I think I mentioned in my last; and to-day another of the 19th. Had I been you, instead of saying that I would have taken my lady’s(693) woman for my spy, I should have said, that I would hire Richcourt himself: I dare to say that one might buy the count’s own secrets of himself.
I am sorry to hear that the Impressarii have sent for the Chiaretta; I am not one of the managers; I should have remonstrated against her, for she will not do on the same stage with the Barbarina. I don’t know who will be glad of her coming, but Mr. Blighe and Amorevoli.
‘Tis amazing, but we hear not a syllable of Prague taken,(694) it must be! Indeed, Carthagena, too, was certain of being taken! but it seems, Maillebois is to stop at Bavaria. I hope Belleisle (695) will be made prisoner? I am indifferent about the fate of the great Broglio-but Belleisle is able, and is our most determined enemy: we need not have more, for to-day it is confirmed that Cardinal Tencin (696) and M. d’Argenson are declared of the prime ministry. The first moment they can, Tencin will be for transporting the Pretenders into England. Your advice about Naples was quite judicious: the appearance of a bomb will have great weight in the councils of the little king.
We don’t talk now of any of the Royals passing into Flanders; though the Champion (697) this morning had an admirable quotation, on the supposition that the King would go himself: it was this line from the Rehearsal:-
“Give us our fiddle; we ourselves will play.”
The lesson for the Day (698) that I sent you, I gave to Mr. Coke, who came in as I was writing it, and by his dispersing it, it has got into print, with an additional one, which I cannot say I am proud should go under my name. Since that, nothing but lessons are the fashion: first and second lessons, morning and evening lessons, epistles, etc. One of the Tory papers published so abusive an one last week on the new ministry, that three gentlemen called on the printer, to know how he dared to publish it. Don’t you like these men who for twenty years together led the way, and published every thing that was scandalous, that they should wonder at any body’s daring to publish against them! Oh! it will come home to them! Indeed, every body’s fame now is published at length: last week the Champion mentioned the Earl of Orford and his natural daughter, Lady Mary, at length (for which he had a great mind to prosecute the printer). To-day, the London Evening Post says, Mr. Pane, nephew of Mr. Scrope, is made first clerk of the treasury, as a reward for his uncle’s taciturnity before the Secret Committee. He is in the room of old Tilson, who was so tormented by that Committee that it turned his brain, and he is dead.
I am excessively shocked at Mr. Fane’s (699) behaviour to you; but Mr. Fane is an honourable man! he lets poor you pay him his salary for eighteen months, without thinking of returning it! But if he had lost that sum to Jansen,(700) or to any of the honourable men at White’s, he would think his honour engaged to pay it. There is nothing, sure, so whimsical as modern honour! You may debauch a woman upon a promise of marriage, and not marry her; you may ruin your tailor’s or your baker’s family by not paying them; you may make Mr. Mann maintain you for eighteen months, as a public minister, out of his own pocket, and still be a man of honour! But, not to pay a common sharper, or not to murder a man that has trod upon your toe, is such a blot in your scutcheon, that you could never recover your honour, though you had in your veins “all the blood of all the Howards!”
My love to Mr. Chute: tell him, as he looks on the east front of Houghton, to tap under the two windows in the left-hand wing, up stairs, close to the colonnade-there are Patapan and I, at this instant, writing to you; there we are almost every morning, or in the library; the evenings, we walk till dark; then Lady Mary, Miss Leneve, and I play at comet; the Earl, Mrs. Leneve, and whosoever is here, discourse; car telle est notre vie! Adieu!
(693) Lady Walpole. Richcourt, the Florentine minister, was her lover, and both, as has been seen in the former part of these letters, were enemies of Sir . H. Mann.-D.
(694) This means retaken by the Imperialists from the French, who had obtained possession of it on the 25th of November, 1741. The Austrian troops drove the French out of Prague, in December, 1742.-D.
(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