Chapter XXVI: Letter 1: ) In his last letter to Grey, written a few days before (2)

I am writing to you in one of the charming rooms towards the park: it is a delightful evening, and I am willing to enjoy this sweet corner while I may, for we are soon to quit it. Mrs. Sandys came yesterday to give us warning; Lord Wilmington has lent it to them. Sir Robert might have had it for his own at first, but would only take it as first lord of the treasury.(637) He goes into a small house of his own in Arlington Street, opposite to where we formerly lived. Whither I shall travel is yet uncertain: he is for my living with him; but then I shall be cooped-and besides, I never found that people loved one another the less for living asunder.

The drowsy Lord Mayor (638) is dead-so the newspapers say. I think he is not dead, but sleepeth. Lord Gower is laid up with the gout: this, they say, is the reason of his not having the privy seal yet. The town has talked of nothing lately but a plot: I will tell you the circumstances. last week the Scotch hero (639) sent his brother (640) two papers, which he said had been left at his house by an Unknown hand; that he believed it was by Colonel Cecil, agent for the Pretender--though how could that be, for he had had no conversation with Colonel Cecil for these two years! He desired Lord Islay to lay them before the ministry. One of the papers seemed a letter, though with no address or subscription, written in true genuine Stuart characters. It was to thank Mr. Burnus (D. of A.) for his services, and that he hoped he would answer the assurances given of him. The other was to command the Jacobites, and to exhort the patriots to continue what they had mutually so well begun, and to say how pleased he was with their having removed mr. Tench. Lord Islay showed these letters to Lord Orford, and then to the King, and told him he had showed them to my father. "You did well."-Lord Islay, "Lord Orford says one is of the Pretender's hand."-King, "He (641) knows it: whenever any thing of this sort comes to your hand, carry it to Walpole." This private conversation you must not repeat. A few days afterwards, the Duke wrote to his brother, "That upon recollection he thought it right to say, that he had received those letters from Lord Barrimore"(642) who is as well known for General to the Chevalier, as Montemar is to the 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.