Chapter XXVII: Letter 1: ) In his last letter to Grey, written a few days before (3)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(704) Mr. Villettes was minister at Turin.

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

(706) Of George the Second.-D.

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

(708) Admiral Matthews.

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

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

(711) Madame Grifoni.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 9th.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(720) Lady Yarmouth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(723) It was certainly written by Lord Hervey.

(724) Lady Yarmouth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(728) Lord Hervey.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(736) Mrs. Beghan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(742) From Toryism.-D.

(743) Hugh Hume, third Earl of Marchmont.

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

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

(746) A famous dancer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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