Chapter XXIV: Part 24

The ministry is to be settled to-day; there are different accounts how: some say, that the Duke of Newcastle is to take orders and to have the reversion of the bishopric of Winchester: that Mr. Pitt is to have a regiment and to go serve in Germany with the Duke; that Mr. Fox is to have Sir William Irby'S place,(791) and be chamberlain to the Princess; that my Lord Bute is to be divorced and marry Princess Emily; and that my Lord Darlington is to be first minister. Others say, that the Duke of Newcastle is to be sole minister, having broken with Mr. Pitt; that Sir Thomas Robinson is to be again secretary of state; Sir George Lee chancellor of the exchequer, and Mr. Fox paymaster, but with no place in the cabinet, nor any power. I believe the Duke himself has said this; but, as I think the former establishment would be the less ridiculous of the two, I intend to believe that.

I send you your tickets and a curious new print. The blue riband in the corner, and the line that explains it, but leaves it still in the dark, makes much noise. I choose to think it my Lord Lincoln, for, having a tenderness for royalties, I will not suppose, as most do, that it points higher. The rest are certainly admirable: the times are very entertaining; one cannot complain that no Wit is stirring, as one used to do. I never thought I should feel glad for the death of poor Mr. Pelham; but really it has opened such scenes of amusement, that I begin to bear it better than I did. I rejoice to hear that your brother is accommodated, though not by my means. The Duke of Bedford might have reflected, that what I asked was a very trifle, or that I should never have asked it; nay, that if I could have asked a favour of consequence, I should not have applied to himself, but to those who govern him,--to the Duchess and Rigby.

I certainly am glad of rain, but could wish it was boiled a little over the sun first: Mr. Bentley calls this the hard summer, and says he is forced to buy his fine weather at Newcastle. Adieu!

P. S. Pray acknowledge the receipt of your tickets. I don't know how you came not to see the advertisements of Xo Ho, which have been in continually; four editions were published in twelve days.

(791) Vice-chamberlain to the Princess of wales.

378 Letter 222 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, June 9, 1757.

I must write you a very different story from my last. The day before yesterday the Duke of Newcastle, who had resumed conferences with Mr. Pitt by the intervention of Lord Bute, though they could not agree on particulars, went to Kensington, and told the King he could not act without Mr. Pitt and a great plan of that connexion. The King reproached him with his breach of promise; It seems the King is in the wrong for Lord Lincoln and that court reckon his grace as white as snow, and as steady as virtue itself. Mr. Fox went to court, and consented to undertake the whole--but it is madness! Lord Waldegrave,(792) a worthy man as ever was born, and sensible, is to be the first lord of his treasury. Who is to be any thing else I don't know, for by to-morrow it will rain resignations as it did in the year '46. Lord Holderness has begun, and gave up to-day; the Dukes of Rutland and Leeds and all these Pelhamites are to follow immediately: the standard of opposition is, I believe, ready painted, and is to be hung out at Leicester-house by the beginning of the week. I grieve for Mr. Fox, and have told him so: I see how desperate his game is, but I shall not desert him, though I mean nor meant to profit of his friendship. So many places will be vacant, that I cannot yet guess who will be to fill them. Mr. Fox will be chancellor of the exchequer, and, I think, Lord Egremont one of the secretaries of state. What is certain, great clamour, and I fear. great confusion, will follow. You shall know more particulars in a few days, but at present I have neither time for it, nor knowledge of, more. Adieu!

(792) James second Earl Waldegrave, and first Husband to Maria Duchess of gloucester.

379 Letter 223 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, June 14, 1757.

This is Tuesday; I wrote to you but on Thursday, and promised to write again in a few days--a week cannot pass without a new revolution. On Friday Mr. Fox found that his kissing hands was to be a signal for the resignations: Lord Rockingham and Lord Coventry were the most eager to give up. The Duke of Newcastle, transported that his breach of promise and ingratitude to the King produced such noble mischief, endeavoured to spread the flame as wide as possible. On Saturday, Mr. Fox and Lord Waldegrave represented the ugly situation of their affairs, and advised against persisting, yet offering to proceed if commanded. The Chief Justice, who was to carry the exchequer seal that morning, enforced this-- "Well," said the King, "go tell the others to make what ministry they can; I only insist on two things, that Lord Winchilsea remain where he is, and that Fox be paymaster." These two preliminaries would be enough to prevent the whole, if there were no other obstacles. Lord Winchilsea, indeed, would not act with Newcastle and Pitt, if they would consent; but there are twenty other impediments: Leicester-house can never forgive or endure Fox; and if they could, his and Winchilsea's remaining would keep their friends from resigning, and then how would there be room for Newcastle's zealots or Pitt's martyrs? But what I take to be most difficult of all, is the accommodation between the chiefs themselves: his grace's head and heart seem to be just as young and as old as ever they were; this triumph will intoxicate him; if he could not agree with Pitt, when his prospect was worst, be will not be more firm or more sincere when all his doublings have been rewarded. If his vainglory turns his head, it will make no impression on Pitt, who is as little likely to be awed by another's pageant, as to be depressed by his own slender train. They can't agree--but what becomes of us? There are three factions, just strong enough to make every thing impracticable.

The willing victim, Lord Holderness, is likely to be the most real victim. His situation was exactly parallel to Lord Harrington's,(793) with the addition of the latter's experience. Both the children of fortune, unsupported by talents, fostered by the King's favour, without connexions or interest, deserted him to please this wayward Duke, who, to recover a little favour in the cabinet, sacrificed the first to the King@s resentment, and has prepared to treat the other in the same manner, by protesting that he did not ask the compliment. But no matter for him! I have already told you, and I repeat, that I see no end to these struggles without great convulsions. The provocations, and consequently the resentments, increase with every revolution. Blood royal is mixed in the quarrels: two factions might cease by the victory of either; here is always a third ready to turn the scale. Happily the people care or interest themselves very little about all this-but they will be listed soon, as the chiefs grow so much in earnest, and as there are men of such vast property engaged on every side-there is not a public pretence on any. The scramble is avowedly for power-whoever remains master of the field at last, I fear, will have power to use it!

This is not the sole uneasiness at Kensington; they know the proximity of the French army to the Duke, and think that by this time there may have been an action: the suspense is not pleasant: the event may have great consequences even on these broils at home. For the King of Prussia, he is left to the coffee-houses. Adieu! I can scarce steal a day for Strawberry; if one leaves London to itself for four-and-twenty hours, one finds it topsy-turvy.

(793) William Stanhope, Earl of Harrington, who, though a younger brother, had been raised to an earldom, to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Secretary of State, had been the first man to resign his place in 1746, when the King, his master and benefactor, had a mind to remove the Pelhams, and make Lord Granville prime minister. He was afterwards sacrificed by the Pelhams to please the King. Lord Holderness was born to an earldom, but having little fortune or parts, had been promoted by the Duke of Newcastle to great posts.

380 Letter 224 To Sir Horace Mann. Strawberry Hill, June 20, 1757.

I renounce all prophesying; I will never suppose that I can foresee politically; I can foresee nothing, what ever I may foretell. Here is a ministry formed of all the people who for these ten weeks have been giving each other exclusion! I will now not venture, even to pronounce that they cannot agree together. On Saturday last, the 18th, Lord Hardwicke carried to Kensington the result of the last negotiations between Newcastle and Pitt, and the latter followed and actually kissed hands again for the seals.(794) Here is the arrangement as far as I know it, the most extraordinary part of which is, that they suffer Mr. Fox to be paymaster--oh! no, it is more extraordinary that he will submit to be so. His grace returns to the treasury, and replaces there his singular good friend Mr. Legge. Lord Holderness "comes to life again as secretary of state; Lord Anson reassumes the admiralty, not with the present board, nor with his own, but with Mr. Pitt's, and this by Mr. Pitt's own desire. The Duke of Dorset retires with a pension of 4000 pounds a-year, to make room for Lord Gower, that he may make room for Lord Temple. Lord George Sackville forces out Lord Barrington from secretary at war, who was going to resign with the rest, for fear Mr. Fox should, and that this plan should not take place. Lord Hardwicke, young disinterested creature! waits till something drops. Thus far all was smooth; but even this perfection of harmony and wisdom meets with rubs. Lord Halifax had often and lately been promised to be erected into a secretary of state for the West Indies. Mr. Pitt says, "No, I will not part with so much power." Lord Halifax resigned on Saturday, and Lord Dublin succeeds him. The two Townshends are gone into the country in a rage; Lord Anson is made the pretence; Mr. Fox is the real sore to George, Lord G. Sackville to Charles. Sir George Lee, who resigned his treasurership to the Princess against Mr. Pitt, and as the world says, wanting to bring Lord Bute into Doctors' Commons,(795) is succeeded by Lord Bute's brother M'Kinsy; but to be sure, all this, in which there is no intrigue, no change, no policy, no hatred, no jealousy, no disappointment, no resentment, no mortification, no ambition, Will produce the utmost concord! It is a system formed to last; and to be sure it will! In the mean time, I shall bid adieu to politics; my curiosity is satisfied for some months, and I shall betake myself to employments I love better, and to this place, which I love best of all. Here is the first fruit of my retirement; behind a bas-relief in wax of the present Pope I have writ the following inscription:

Prospero Lambertini Bishop of Rome by the name of Benedict IV. who, though an absolute Prince, reigned as harmlessly as a Doge of Venice. He restored the lustre of the Tiara by those arts alone, by which alone he obtained it, his Virtues. Beloved by Papists, esteemed by Protestants: A Priest without insolence or interest; A Prince without favourites; A Pope without nepotism: An Author without vanity; In short, a Man whom neither Wit nor Power could spoil. The Son of a favourite Minister, but One, who never courted a Prince, nor worshipped a Churchman, offers, in a free Protestant Country, this deserved Incense to the Best of the Roman Pontiffs.

If the good old soul is still alive, and you could do it unaffectedly and easily, you may convey it to him; it must be a satisfaction to a good heart to know that in so distant a country, so detached from his, his merit is acknowledged, without a possibility of interest entering into the consideration. His death-bed does not want comfort or cheerfulness, but it may be capable of an expansion of heart that May still sweeten it! Adieu!

(794) "On the day they were all to kiss hands," says Lord Waldegrave, "I went to Kensington, to entertain myself with the innocent, or, perhaps, ill-natured amusement of examining the different countenances. The behaviour of Pitt and his party was decent and sensible; they had neither the insolence of men who had gained a victory, nor were they awkward and disconcerted, like those who come to a place where they know they are not welcome: but as to the Duke of Newcastle, and his friends the resigners, there was a mixture of fear and of shame on their countenances: they were real objects of compassion." Memoires, 138.-E.

(795) Meaning the offence he took at Lord Bute's favourite. Sir George Lee was a civilian.

382 Letter 225 To Sir Horace Mann. Strawberry Hill, July 3, 1757.

I have been under great uneasiness about you; Coloredo, the Austrian minister, is recalled precipitately, with orders not to take leave. our papers joined Pucci(796) with him in this recall, but I do not find with any foundation. However, I cannot be easy while your situation is precarious. One should conceive that the advantages of the English trade to Tuscany would induce the Emperor to preserve a neutrality; but what are good reasons against his wife's vengeance and obstinacy, and haughtiness? Tell me immediately what you think or hear on this head; what steps you would take; whither you would retire if this should happen; whether you would not come home to watch over your own interest and return, or whether you would be more in the way by remaining in Italy. I know not what to advise; I don't even know how this letter is to get to you, and how our correspondence will continue; at least it must be very irregular, now all communication is cut off through the Empress's dominions. I am in great solicitude!

Had this recall happened a week later I should not have wondered: it was haughty, indeed, at the time it was dictated; but two days, and we heard of the reversal of all the King of Prussia's triumphs; of his being beat by Count Daun; of the siege of Prague being raised: of Prince Charles falling on their retreat and cutting off two thousand: we would willingly not believe to the extent of all this,(797) yet we have known what it is to have our allies or ourselves beaten! The Duke has been forced to pass the Weser, but writes that the French are so distressed for provisions that he hopes to repass it. I notified to you the settlement of the ministry, and, contrary to late custom, have not to unnotify it again. However, it took ten days to complete, after an inter-ministerium of exactly three months. I have often called this the age of abortions; for the present, the struggles of the three factions, that threatened such disturbances, have gone off like other forebodings. I think I told you in my last the chief alterations; the King would not absolutely give the secretary at war to Lord George Sackville; Lord Barrington remains: the Duke of Dorset would not take a pension eo nomine; his cinque-ports are given to him for life, with a salary of four thousand pounds a-year. Lord Cholmondeley, who is removed for Potter, has a pension equal to his place. Mr. M'Kinsy is not treasurer to the Princess, as I told you. One of the most extraordinary parts of the new system is the advancement of Sir Robert Henley. He was made attorney-general by Mr. Fox at the end of last year, and made as bad a figure as might be. Mr. Pitt insisting upon an attorney-general of his own, Sir Robert Henley is made lord keeper!(798) The first mortification to Lord Holderness has been, that, having been promised a garter as well as Lord Waldegrave, and but one being vacant, that one, contrary to customs has been given to the latter, with peculiar marks of grace. I now come to your letter of June 18th, and attribute to your distance, or to my imperfect representations of our actors and affairs, that you suppose our dissensions owing to French intrigues--we want no foreign causes; but in so precarious a letter as this I cannot enter into farther explanations; indeed the French need not be at any trouble to distract or weaken our councils!

I cannot be at peace while your fate is in suspense; I shall watch every step that relates to it, but I fear absolutely impotent to be of any service to you: from Pucci's not being recalled, I would hope that he will not be. Adieu!

P. S. Lord Dublin is not yet first lord of trade; there are negotiations for recovering Lord Halifax.

July 5th.

As I was sending this to London I received the newspapers of yesterday, and see that old Pucci is just dead. I cannot help flattering myself that this is a favourable event: they cannot recall no minister; and when they do not, I think we shall not.

(796) Resident from Florence. He was here for fifty years, and said he had seen London twice built. This meant, that houses are run up so slightly that they last but few years.

(797) the King of Prussia had been completely beaten at Kolin by the Austrians, commanded by Count Daun, on the 17th of June. He was in consequence obliged to retreat from Bohemia, and soon found himself, surrounded as he was by increasing and advancing enemies, in one of the most critical positions of his whole military life. From this he at length extricated himself, by means of the victories of Rosbach and Lissa.-D.

(798) Afterwards created Lord Henley, and made lord chancellor, and finally elevated to be Earl of Northington-D.

383 Letter 226 To The Earl Of Strafford. Strawberry Hill, July 4, 1757.

My dear Lord, It is well I have not obeyed you sooner, as I have often been going to do.- what a heap of lies and contradictions I should have sent you! What joint ministries and sole ministries! What acceptances and resignations!--Viziers and bowstrings never succeeded one another quicker. Luckily I have stayed till we have got an administration that will last a little more than for ever. There is such content and harmony in it, that I don't know whether it is not as perfect as a plan which I formed for Charles Stanhope, after he had plagued me for two days for news. I told him the Duke of Newcastle was to take orders, and have the reversion of the bishopric of Winchester; that Mr. Pitt was to have a regiment, and go over to the Duke; and Mr. Fox to be chamberlain to the Princess, in the room of Sir William Irby. Of all the new system I believe the happiest is Offley; though in great humility he says he only takes the bedchamber to accommodate. Next to him in joy is the Earl of Holderness--who has not got the garter. My Lord Waldegrave has; and the garter by this time I believe has got fifty spots.(799)

Had I written sooner, I should have told your lordship, too, of the King of Prussia's triumphs-but they are addled too! I hoped to have had a few bricks from Prague to send you towards building Mr. Bentley's design, but I fear none will come from thence this summer. Thank God, the happiness of the menagerie does not depend upon administrations or victories! The happiest of beings in this part of the world is my Lady Suffolk: I really think her acquisition and conclusion of her lawsuit will lengthen her life ten years. You may be sure I am not so satisfied, as Lady Mary(800) has left Sudbroke. Are your charming lawns burnt up like our humble hills? Is your sweet river as low as our deserted Thames?--I am wishing for a handful or two of those floods that drowned me last year all the way from Wentworth Castle. I beg my best compliments to my lady, and my best wishes that every pheasant egg and peacock egg may produce as many colours as a harlequin-jacket.

Tuesday, July 5.

Luckily, my good lord, my conscience had saved its distance. I had writ the above last night, when I received the honour of your kind letter this morning. You had, as I did not doubt, received accounts of all our strange histories. For that of the pretty Countess,(801) I fear there is too much truth in all you have heard: but you don't seem to know that Lord Corydon and Captain Corydon(802) his brother have been most abominable. I don't care to write scandal; but when I see you, I will tell you how much the chits deserve to be whipped. Our favourite general(803) is at his camp: lady Ailesbury don't go to him these three weeks. I expect the pleasure of seeing her and Miss Rich and Fred. Campbell here soon for a few days. I don't wonder your lordship likes St. Philippe better than Torcy:(804) except a few passages interesting to Englishmen, there cannot be a more dry narration than the latter. There is an addition of seven volumes of Universal History to Voltaire's Works, which I think will charm you: I almost like it the best of his works.(805) It is what you have seen extended, and the Memoirs of Louis XIV. refondues in it. He is a little tiresome with contradicting La Beaumelle out of pique--and there is too much about Rousseau. Between La Beaumelle and Voltaire, one remains with scarce a fixed idea about that time. I wish they would produce their authorities and proofs; without which, I am grown to believe neither. From mistakes in the English part, I suppose there are great ones in the more distant histories; yet altogether it is a fine work. He is, as one might believe, worst informed on the present times. He says eight hundred persons were put to death for the last rebellion-I don't believe a quarter of the number were: and he makes the first ]lord Derwentwater--who, poor man! was in no such high-spirited mood--bring his son, who by the way was not above a year -,ind a half old, upon the scaffold to be sprinkled with his blood. However, he is in the right to expect to be believed: for he believes all the romances in Lord Anson's Voyage, and how Admiral Almanzor made one man-of-war box the ears of the whole empire of China!--I know nothing else new but a new edition of Dr. Young's Works. If your lordship thinks like me, who hold that even in his most frantic rhapsodies there are innumerable fine things you will like to have this edition. Adieu, once more, my best lord!

(799) He was apt to be dirty.

(800) Lady Mary Coke, daughter of John Campbell, Duke of Argyle, and sister to Lady Strafford.

(801) The Countess of Coventry.-E.

(802) Lord Bolingbroke, and his brother, the Hon. Henry St. John.-E.

(803) General Conway.

(804) A translation of the Memoirs of the Marquis de Torcy, secretary of state to Louis XIV., had just been published in London. E.

(805) For a review of these volumes by Oliver Goldsmith, see the enlarged edition of his Miscellaneous Works, vol. iii. p. 445.- E.

385 Letter 227 To John Chute, Esq. Strawberry Hill, July 12, 1757.

It would be very easy to persuade me to a Vine-voyage,(806) without your being so indebted to me, if it were possible. I shall represent my impediments, and then you shall judge. I say nothing of the heat of this magnificent weather, with the glass yesterday up to three-quarters of sultry. In all English probability this will not be a hindrance long; though at present, so far from travelling, I have made the tour of my own garden but once these three days before eight at night, and then I thought I should have died of it. For how many years we shall have to talk of the summer of fifty-seven!--But hear: my Lady Ailesbury and Miss Rich come hither on Thursday for two or three days; and on Monday next the Officina Arbuteana opens in form. The Stationers' Company, that is, Mr. Dodsley, Mr. Tonson, etc., are summoned to meet here on Sunday night. And with what do you think we open? Cedite, Romani Impressores--with nothing under Graii Carmina. I found him in town last week: he had brought his two Odes to be printed. I snatched them out of Dodsley's hands, and they are to be the first fruits of my press. An edition of Hentznerus, with a version by Mr. Bentley and a little preface of mine, were prepared, but are to wait. Now, my dear sir, can I stir? "Not ev'n thy virtues, tyrant, shall avail!"

Is not it the plainest thing in the world that I cannot go to you yet, but that you must come to me?

I tell you no news, for I know none, think of none. Elzevir, Aldous, and Stephens are the freshest personages in my memory. Unless i was appointed printer of the Gazette, I think nothing could at present make me read an article in it. Seriously you must come to us, and shall be witness that the first holidays we have I will return with you. Adieu!

(806) To visiting Mr. Chute at the Vine, his seat in Hampshire.

386 Letter 228 To George Montagu, Esq. Strawberry Hill, July 16, 1757.

You do me justice in believing that I enjoy your satisfaction; I do heartily, and particularly on this point: you know how often I have wished this reconciliation: indeed you have taken the handsomest manner of doing it, and it has been accepted handsomely. I always had a good opinion of your cousin, and I am not apt to throw about my esteem lightly. He has ever behaved with sense and dignity, and this country has more obligations to him than to most men living.

the weather has been so hot, and we are so unused to it, that nobody knew how to behave themselves; even Mr. Bentley has done shivering.

Elzevirianum opens to-day; you shall taste its first fruits. I find people have a notion that it is very mysterious; they don't know how I should abhor to profane Strawberry Hill with politics. Adieu!

386 Letter 229 To George Montagu, Esq. Strawberry Hill, Thursday, 17.

I only write you a line to tell you, that as you mention Miss Montagu's being well and alone, if she could like to accompany the Colonel(807) and you to Strawberry Hill and the Vine, the seneschals of those castles will be very proud to see her. I am sorry to be forced to say any thing civil in a letter to you; you deserve nothing but ill-usage for disappointing us so often, but we stay till we have got you into our power, and then--why then, I am afraid we shall still be what I have been so long.

(807) mr. Montagu's brother.

387 Letter 230 To Sir Horace Mann. Strawberry Hill, July 25, 1757.

The Empress-Queen has not yet hurt my particular. I have received two letters from you within this week, dated July 2d and 9th. Yet she has given up Ostend and Nieuport, and, I think, Furnes and Ypr`es, to the French. We are in a piteous way! The French have passed the Weser, and a courier yesterday brought word that the Duke was marching towards them, and within five miles: by this time his fate is decided. The world here is very inquisitive about a secret expedition(808) which we are fitting out: a letter is not a proper place to talk about it; I can only tell you, that be it whither it will, I do not augur well about it, and what makes me dislike it infinitely more, Mr. Conway is of it. I am more easy about your situation than I was, though I do not like the rejoicings ordered at Leghorn for the victory over the Prussians.

I have so little to say to-day that I should not have writ, but for one particular reason. The Mediterranean trade being arrived, I concluded the vases for Mr. Fox were on board it, but we cannot discover them. Unluckily it happens that the bill of lading is lost, and I have forgot in what ship they were embarked. In short, my dear Sir, I think that, as I always used to do, I gave the bill to your dearest brother, by which means it is lost. I imagine you have a duplicate. send it as soon as you can.

I thank you for what you have given to Mr. Phelps. I don't call this billet part of the acknowledgment. All the world is dispersed: the ministers are at their several villas: one day in a week serves to take care of a nation, let it be in as bad a plight as it will! We have a sort of Jewish superstition, and would not come to town on a Saturday or Sunday though it were to defend the Holy of Holies. Adieu!

(808) the expedition to Rochfort.

387 Letter 231 To John Chute, Esq. Strawberry Hill, July 26, 1757.

I love to communicate my satisfactions to you. You will imagine that I have got an original portrait of John Guttemburg, the first inventor of printing, or that I have met with a little boke called Eneyr dos, which I am going to translate and print. No, no; far beyond any such thing! Old Lady Sandwich(809) is dead at Paris, and my lord has given me her picture of Ninon l'Enclos; given it me in the prettiest manner in the world. I beg if he should ever meddle in any election in Hampshire, that you will serve him to the last drop of your shrievalty. If you reckon by the thermometer of my natural impatience, the picture would be here already, but I fear I must wait some time for it.

The press goes on as fast as if I printed myself. I hope in a very few days to send you a specimen, though I could wish you was at the birth of the first produce. Gray has been gone these five days. Mr. Bentley has been ill, and is not recovered of the sweating-sickness, which I now firmly believe was only a hot summer and England, being so unused to it, took it for a malady. mr. Muntz is not gone; but pray don't think that I keep him: he has absolutely done nothing this whole summer but paste two chimney-boards. In short, instead of Claude Lorrain, he is only one of Bromwich's men.

You never saw any thing so droll as Mrs. Clive's countenance, between the heat of the summer, the pride in her legacy,(810) and the efforts to appear concerned.

We have given ourselves for a day or two the air of an earthquake, but it proved an explosion of the powder-mills at Epsom. I asked Louis if it had done any mischief: he said, "Only blown a man's head off;" as if that was a part one could spare!

P. S. I hope Dr. Warburton will not think I encroach either upon his commentatorship or private pretension, if I assume these lines of Pope, thus altered, for myself:

"Some have for wits, and then for poets pass'd turn'd printers next, and proved plain fools at last."

(809) Daughter of the famous Wilmot Earl of Rochester.

(810) A legacy of fifty pounds, left her by John Robarts, the last Earl of Radnor of that family.

388 Letter 232 To Sir Horace Mann. Strawberry Hill, August 4, 1757.

Mr. Phelps (who is Mr. Phelps?) has brought me the packet safe, for which I thank you. I would fain have persuaded him to stay and dine, that I might ask him more questions about you. He told me how low your immaterial spirits are: I fear the news that came last night will not exalt them. The French attacked the Duke for three days together, and at last defeated him. I find it is called at Kensington an encounter(811) of fourteen squadrons; but any defeat must be fatal to Hanover. I know few particulars, and those only by a messenger despatched to me by Mr. Conway on the first tidings: the Duke exposed himself extremely, but is unhurt, as they say, all his small family are. In what a situation is our Prussian hero, surrounded by Austrians, French, and Muscovites-even impertinent Sweden is stealing in to pull a feather out of his tail! What devout plunderers will every little Catholic prince of the empire become! The only good I hope to extract out of this mischief is, that it will stifle our secret expedition, and preserve Mr. Conway from going on it. I have so ill an opinion of our secret expeditions, that I hope they will for ever remain so. What a melancholy picture is there of an old monarch at Kensington, who has lived to see such inglorious and fatal days! Admiral Boscawen is disgraced. I know not the cause exactly, as ten miles out of town are a thousand out of politics. He is said to have refused to serve under Sir Edward Hawke in this armament. Shall I tell you what, more than distance, has thrown me Out of attention to news? A little packet which I shall give your brother for you, will explain it. In short, I am turned printer, and have converted a little cottage here into a printing-office. My abbey is a perfect colicue or academy. I keep a painter in the house and a printer--not to mention Mr. Bentley, who is an academy himself. I send you two copies (one for Dr. Cocchi) of a very honourable opening of my press- -two amazing Odes of Mr. Gray; they are Greek, they are Pindaric, they are sublime! consequently I fear a little obscure; the second particularly, by the confinement of the measure and the nature of prophetic vision, is mysterious.(812) I could not persuade him to add more notes; he says whatever wants to be explained, don't deserve to be. I shall venture to place some in Dr. Cocchi's copy, who need not be supposed to understand Greek- and English together, though he is so much master of both separately. To divert you in the mean time, I send you the following copy of a letter written by my printer(813) to a friend in Ireland. I should tell you that he has the most sensible look in the world; Garrick said he would give any money for four actors with such eyes--they are more Richard the Third's than Garrick's own; but whatever his eyes are, is head is Irish. Looking for something I wanted in a drawer, I perceived a parcel of strange romantic words in a large hand beginning a letter; he saw me see it, yet left it, which convinces me it was left on purpose: it is the grossest flattery to me, couched in most ridiculous scraps of poetry, which he has retained from things he has printed; but it will best describe itself:--

"SIR, "I DATE this from shady bowers, nodding groves, and amaranthine shades,--close by old Father Thames's silver side- -fair Twickenham's luxurious shades--Richmond's near neighbour, where great George the King resides. You will wonder at my prolixity--in my last I informed you that I was going into the country to transact business for a private gentleman. This gentleman is the Hon. Horatio Walpole, son to the late great Sir Robert Walpole, who is very studious, and an admirer of all the liberal arts and sciences; amongst the rest he admires printing. He has fitted out a complete printing-house at this his country seat, and has done me the favour to make me sole manager and operator (there being no one but myself). All men of genius resorts his house, courts his company, and admires his understanding--what with his own and their writings, I believe I shall be pretty well employed.--I have pleased him, and I hope continue so to do. Nothing can be more warm than the weather has been here this time past; they have in London, by the help of glasses, roasted in the artillery-ground fowls and quarters of lamb. The coolest days that I have felt since May last are equal to, nay, far exceed the warmest I ever felt in Ireland. The place I am in now is all my comfort from the heat--the situation Of it is close to the Thames, and is Richmond Gardens (if you were ever in them) in miniature, surrounded by bowers, groves, cascades, and ponds, and on a rising ground, not very common in this part of the country--the building elegant, and the furniture of a peculiar taste, magnificent and superb He is a bachelor, and spends his time in the studious rural taste--not like his father, lost in the weather-beaten vessel of state-- many people censured, but his conduct was far better than our late pilots at the helm, and more to the interest of England- -they follow his advice now, and court the assistance of Spain, instead of provoking a war, for that was ever against England's interest."

I laughed for an hour at this picture of myself, which is much more like to the studious magician in the enchanted opera of Rinaldo; not but Twickenham has a romantic genteelness that would figure in a more luxurious climate. It was but yesterday that we had a new kind of auction-it was of the orange-trees and plants of your old acquaintance, Admiral Martin. It was one of the warm days of this jubilee summer, which appears only once in fifty years--the plants were disposed in little clumps about the lawn: the company walked to bid from one to the other, and the auctioneer knocked down the lots on the orange tubs. Within three doors was an auction of china. You did not imagine that we were such a metropolis! Adieu!

(811) The battle at Hastenbeck.

(812) Gray, in a letter to Dr. Wharton, of the 17th of August, says, "I hear we are not at all popular: the great objection is obscurity: nobody knows what we would be at: one man, a peer, I have been told of, that think's -the last stanza of The second Ode relates to Charles the First and Oliver Cromwell; in short, the zuveroi appear to be still fewer than even, I expected." Works, vol. iii. p. 165-E.

(813) William Robinson, first printer to the press at Strawberry Hill.

390 Letter 233 To George Montagu, Esq. Strawberry Hill, Aug. 4, 1757.

I shall to-morrow deliver to your agentess, Mrs. Moreland, something to send to you.

The Duke(814) is beaten by the French; he and his family are safe; I know no more particulars-if I did, I should say, as I have just said to Mr. Chute, I am too busy about something to have time to write them. Adieu!

(814) The Duke of Cumberland, in the affair of Hastenbeck.

391 Letter 234 To The Hon. H. S. Conway. Strawberry Hill, August 14, 1757.

You are too kind to me, and, if it were possible, would make me feel still more for your approaching departures.(815) I can only thank you ten thousand times; for I must not expatiate, both from the nature of the subject, and from the uncertainty of this letter reaching you. I was told yesterday, that you had hanged a French spy in the Isle of Wight; I don't mean you, but your government. Though I wish no life taken away, it was some satisfaction to think that the French were at this hour wanting information.

Mr. Fox breakfasted here t'other day. He confirmed -what you tell me of Lord Frederick Cavendish's account: it is universally said that the Duke failed merely by inferiority, the French soldiers behaving in general most scandalously. They had fourscore pieces of cannon, but very ill served. Marshal D'Estr`ees was recalled before the battle, but did not know it. He is said to have made some great mistakes in the action. I cannot speak to the truth of it, but the French are reported to have demanded two millions sterling of Hanover. My whole letter will consist of hearsays: for, even at so little distance from town, one gets no better news than hawkers and pedlars retail about the country. From such I hear that George Haldane(816) is made governor of Jamaica, and that a Mr. Campbell, whose father lives in Sweden, is going thither to make an alliance with that country, and hire twelve thousand men. If one of my acquaintance, as an antiquary, were alive, Sir Anthony Shirley,,(817) I suppose we should send him to Persia again for troops; I fear we shall get none nearer!

Adieu! my dearest Harry! Next to wishing your expedition still-born, my most constant thought is, how to be of any service to poor Lady Ailesbury, whose reasonable concern makes even that of the strongest friendship seem trifling. Yours most entirely.

(815) On the expedition to Rochfort.

(816) Brigadier-General Haldane.

(817) Sir Thomas, Sir Anthony, and Sir Robert Shirley, were three brothers, all great travellers, and all distinguished by extraordinary adventures in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I.

392 Letter 235 To George Montagu, Esq. Strawberry Hill, August 25, 1757.

I did not know that you expected the pleasure of seeing the Colonel so soon. It is plain that I did not solicit leave of absence for him; make him my many compliments. I should have been happy to have seen you and Mr. John, but must not regret it, as you were so agreeably prevented. You are very particular, I can tell you, in liking Gray's Odes--but you must remember that the age likes Akenside, and did like Thomson! can the same people like both? Milton was forced to wait till the world had done admiring Quarles. Cambridge told me t'other night that my Lord Chesterfield heard Stanley read them as his own, but that must have been a mistake of my lord's deafness. Cambridge said, "Perhaps they are Stanley's; and not caring to own them, he gave them to Gray." I think this would hurt Gray's dignity ten times more than his poetry not succeeding. My humble share as his printer has been more favourably received. We proceed soberly. I must give you account of less amusements, des eaux de Strawberry. T'other day my Lady Rochfort, Lady Townshend, Miss Bland,(818) and the knight of the garter dined here, and were carried into the printing-office, and were to see the man print. There were some lines ready placed, which he took off; I gave them to Lady Townshend; here they are-

"The press speaks: >From me wits and poets their glory obtain; Without me their wit and their verses were vain. Stop, Townshend, and let me but print what you say; You, the fame I on others bestow, will repay."

They then asked, as I foresaw, to see the man compose: I gave him four lines out of the Fair Penitent, which he set; but while he went to place them in the press, I made them look at something else without their observing, and in an instant he whipped away what he had just set, and to their great surprise when they expected to see "Were ye, ye fair," he presented to my Lady Rochford the following lines:-

"The press speaks: In vain from your properest name you have flown, And exchanged lovely Cupid's for Hymen's dull throne; By my art shall your beauties be constantly sung, And in spite of yourself you shall ever be young."

You may imagine, whatever the poetry was, that the gallantry of it succeeded. Poor Mr. Bentley has been at the extremity with a fever, and inflammation in his bowels; but is so well recovered that Mr. Muntz is gone to fetch him hither to-day. I don't guess what sight I have to come in Hampshire, unless it is Abbotstone. I am pretty sure I have none to come at the Vine, where I have done nothing, as I see Mr. Chute will never execute any thing. The very altar-piece that I sent for to Italy is not placed yet. But when he could refrain from making the Gothic columbarium for his family, which I propose, and Mr. Bentley had drawn so divinely, it is not probable he should do any thing else. Adieu!

(818) Sister of the unfortunate Sir John Bland. See ant&, p. 287, letter 157.-E.

393 Letter 236 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(819) Strawberry Hill, Thursday, Sept. 2, 1757.

Not being in town, there may be several more new productions, as the Grubbaea frutex blossoms every day; but I send you all I had gathered for myself, while I was there. I found the pamphlet much in vogue; and, indeed, it is written smartly. My Lady Townshend sends all her messages on the backs of these political cards; the only good one of which the two heads facing one another, is her son George's. Charles met D'Abreu t'other day, and told him he intended to make a great many speeches next winter; the first, said he, shall be to address the King not to send for any more foreign troops, but to send for some foreign ministers.

My Lord Chesterfield is relapsed: he sent Lord Bath word lately, that be was grown very lean and deaf: the other replied, that he could lend him some fat, and should be very glad at any time to lend him an ear.

I shall go to town on Monday, and if I find any thing else new, I will pack it up with a flower picture for Lady Ailesbury, which I shall leave in Warwick-street, with orders to be sent to you. Adieu!

(819) Now first printed.

393 Letter 237 To Sir Horace Mann. Strawberry Hill, Sept. 3, 1757.

having intended a journey into Warwickshire to see Lady Hertford while my lord is in Ireland, and having accordingly ordered my letters thither, though without going, I did not receive yours of the 22d till last week; and though you desired an immediate acknowledgment of it, I own I did defer till I could tell you I had been at Linton,(820) from whence I returned yesterday. I had long promised your brother a visit; the immediate cause was very melancholy, and I must pass over it rapidly-in short, I am going to place an urn in the church there to our dear Gal.! If I could have divested myself of that thought, I should have passed my time very happily; the house is fine, and stands like the citadel of Kent; the whole county is its garden. So rich a prospect scarce wants my Thames. Mr. and Mrs. Foote(821) are settled there, two of the most agreeable and sensible people I ever met. Their eldest boy has the finest countenance in the world; your nephew Hory(822) was there too, and has a sweetness of temper, as if begot between your brother and you, and not between him and his Tusephone. Your eldest brother has not only established your sister Foote there, which looks well, but dropped very agreeable hints about Hory.

Your letter has confirmed my satisfaction about your situation about which indeed I am easy. I am persuaded you will remain at Florence as long as King George has any minister there. I do not imagine that a recall obliges you to return home; whether you could get your appointments continued is very different. It is certainly far from unprecedented: nay, more than one have received them at home--but that is a favour far beyond my reach to obtain. Should there be occasion, you must try all your friends, and all that have professed themselves so; your Mr. Pelham(823) might do something. In the mean time, neglect none of the ministers. If you could wind into a correspondence with Colonel Yorke,(824) at the Hague, he may be of great service to you. That family is very Powerful: the eldest brother, Lord Royston,(825) is historically curious and political: if without its appearing too forced, you could at any time send him uncommon letters, papers, manifestoes', and things of that sort, it might do good service. My dear child, I can give you better advice than assistance: I believe I have told you before, that I should rather hurt you than serve you by acting openly for you.

I told you in my last Admiral Boscawen's affair too strongly: he is not disgraced nor dismissed, but seems to reckon himself both. The story is far from exactly known: what I can sift out is, that he indulged himself in a great latitude in a most profitable station, was recalled against his inclination, for the present expedition; not being easily met, a second commander was appointed, whom it seems he did not much care to serve under at first. He does not serve at all, and his Boscawenhood is much more Boscawened; that is surely in the deepest shade. The wind has blown so constantly west for nearly three weeks, that we have not only received no mails from the continent, but the transports have been detained in the Downs, and the secret expedition has remained at anchor. I have prayed it might continue, but the wind has got to the east to-day. Having never been prejudiced in favour of this exploit, what must I think of it when the French have had such long notice?

We had a torrent of bad news yesterday from America, Lord Loudon has found an army of twenty-one thousand French, gives over the design on Louisbourg, and retires to Halifax. Admiral Holbourn writes, that they have nineteen ships to his seventeen, and he cannot attack them. It is time for England to slip her own cables, and float away into some unknown ocean!

Between disgraces and an inflammation in my eyes, it is time to conclude my letter. My eyes I have certainly weakened with using them too much at night. I went the other day to Scarlet's to buy green spectacles; he was mighty assiduous to give me a pair that would not tumble my hair. "Lord! Sir," said I, "when one is come to wear spectacles, what signifies how one looks?"

I hope soon to add another volume to your packet from my press. I shall now only print for presents; or to talk in a higher style, I shall only give my Louvre editions to privy-councillors and foreign ministers. Apropos! there is a book of this sacred sort which I wish I could by your means procure: it is the account, with plates, of what has been found at Herculaneum. You may promise the King of Naples in return all my editions. Adieu! my dear Sir.

Sept. 4.

I had sealed this up, and was just sending it to London, when I received yours of the 13th of this month. I am charmed with the success of your campaign at Leghorn-a few such generals or ministers would give a revulsion to our affairs.

You frighten me with telling me of innumerable copies taken of my inscription on the Pope's picture: some of our bear-leaders will pick it up, send it over, and I shall have the horror of seeing it in a magazine. Though I had no scruple of sending the good old man a cordial, I should hate to have it published at the tail of a newspaper, like a testimonial from one of Dr. Rock's patients! You talk of the Pope's enemies; who are they? I thought at most he could have none but at our bonfires on the fifth of November.

(820) In Kent, the seat of Edward Louisa Mann, brother of sir Horace.

(821) Sister of Sir Horace.

(822) Horace, only son of Galfridus Mann.

(823) Thomas. afterwards Lord Pelham.

(824) Sir Joseph Yorke, K. B. third son of the chancellor Hardwicke: created Lord Dover in 1788, and died without issue in 1792.-E.

(825) Afterwards second Earl of Hardwicke.-D.

395 Letter 238 To George Montagu, Esq. Strawberry Hill, Sept. 8, 1757.