UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES

 
 E LIBRIS 
 H. Q. DOGGETT, 
 
 f IN CATALOGUE 
 
 v>\ ^ 
 
 \ -
 
 LETTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 EARL OF ORFORD, 
 
 TO 
 
 SIR HORACE MANN. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, 
 
 Dorset Street, Fle'et Street.
 
 ffltWRAiCJB 
 
 -: 
 
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 LETTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 EARL OF ORFORD, 
 
 TO 
 
 SIR HORACE MANN, 
 
 BRITISH ENVOY AT THE COURT OF TUSCANY. 
 
 NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINALS IN THE POSSESSION OF 
 
 L OF WALDEGRAVE. 
 
 EDITED BY LORD DOVER. 
 
 '- 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, 
 
 NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 1833.
 
 X* ~ 
 
 a 
 
 I
 
 IDA 
 
 V. I 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 IN the Preface to the "Memoires of the last 
 Ten Years of the Reign of George II. by 
 Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford," published 
 ^ in the year 1822, is the following statement. 
 
 " Among the papers found at Strawberry 
 Hill, after the death of Lord Orford, was the 
 o following memorandum, wrapped in an enve- 
 lope, on which was written, * Not to be opened 
 till after my will.' 
 
 " ' In my library at Strawberry Hill are 
 two wainscot chests or boxes, the larger mark- 
 ed with an A, the lesser with a B : I desire, 
 that as soon as I am dead, my executor and 
 executrix will cord up strongly and seal the 
 larger box, marked A, and deliver it to the 
 Honourable Hugh Conway Seymour, to be 
 kept by him unopened and unsealed till the 
 eldest son of Lady Waldegrave, or whichever 
 
 VOL. i. b
 
 yi PREFACE. 
 
 of her sons, being Earl of Waldegrave, shall 
 attain the age of twenty-five years ; when 
 the said chest, with whatever it contains, shall 
 be delivered to him for his own. And I beg 
 that the Honourable Hugh Conway Seymour, 
 when he shall receive the said chest, will give 
 a promise in writing, signed by him, to Lady 
 Waldegrave, that he or his representatives will 
 deliver the said chest, unopened and unsealed, 
 by my executor and executrix, to the first son 
 of Lady Waldegrave who shall attain the age 
 of twenty-five years. The key of the said chest 
 is in one of the cupboards of the green closet, 
 within the blue breakfast-room, at Strawberry 
 Hill ; and that key, I desire, may be delivered 
 to Laura, Lady Waldegrave, to be kept by 
 her till her son shall receive the chest. 
 
 " March 21st, 1790. 
 
 (Signed) HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 EARL OF ORFORD. 
 
 " Aug. 19, 1796.' 
 
 " In obedience to these directions, the box 
 described in the preceding memorandum was 
 corded and sealed with the seals of the Honour- 
 able Mrs. Darner and the late Lord Frederick 
 Campbell, the executrix and executor of Lord 
 Orford, and by them delivered to the late Lord
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 Hugh Seymour, by whose representatives it 
 was given up, unopened, and unsealed, to the 
 present Earl of Waldegrave, when he attained 
 the age of twenty-five. On examining the 
 box, it was found to contain a number of 
 manuscript volumes and other papers, among 
 which were the Memoires now published." 
 
 The correspondence of Horace Walpole with 
 Sir Horace Mann, now first published, was also 
 contained in the same box. It appears that 
 Walpole, after the death of Sir Horace, became 
 again the possessor of his own letters. He had 
 them copied very carefully in three volumes, 
 and annotated them with short notes, expla- 
 natory of the persons mentioned in them, with 
 an evident view to their eventual publication. 
 
 It is from these volumes that the present 
 publication is taken. The notes of the Author 
 have also been printed verbatim. As, how- 
 ever, in the period of time which has elapsed 
 since Walpole's death, many of the personages 
 mentioned in the letters, whom he appears to 
 have thought sufficiently conspicuous not to 
 need remark, have become almost forgotten, 
 the Editor has deemed it necessary to add, as 
 shortly as possible, some account of them ; and 
 he has taken care, whenever he has done so, 
 to distinguish his notes from those of the origi-
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 nal author, by the letter D. placed at the end 
 of them. 
 
 This correspondence is perhaps the most in- 
 teresting one of Walpole's that has as yet ap- 
 peared ; as, in addition to his usual merit as a 
 letter writer, and the advantage of great ease, 
 which his extreme intimacy with Sir Horace 
 Mann gives to his style, the letters to him are 
 the most uninterrupted series which has thus 
 far been offered to the public. They are also 
 the only letters of Walpole which give an ac- 
 count of that very curious period when his 
 father, Sir Robert Walpole, left office. In his 
 letters hitherto published, there is a great gap 
 at this epoch ; probably in consequence of his 
 other correspondents being at the time either 
 in or near London. A single letter to Mr. 
 Conway, dated "London, 1741" one to Mr. 
 West, dated " May 4th 1742," (none in 1743,) 
 and one to Mr. Conway, dated " Hough ton, 
 Oct. 6th 1744," are all that appear till " May 
 18th 1745," when his letters to George Mon- 
 tagu recommence, after an interval of eight 
 years. Whereas, in the correspondence now 
 published, there are no less than 117 letters 
 during that interval. 
 
 The letters of Walpole to Sir H. Mann have 
 also another advantage over those of the same
 
 PREFACE IX 
 
 author previously published namely, that Sir 
 Horace's constant absence from home, and the 
 distance of his residence from the British Is- 
 lands, made every occurrence that happened 
 acceptable to him as news. In consequence, 
 his correspondent relates to him every thing 
 that takes place, both in the court and in soci- 
 ety, whether the anecdotes are of a public 
 or private nature, and hence the collection of 
 letters to him becomes a most exact chronicle 
 of the events of the day, and elucidates very 
 amusingly both the manners of the time, and 
 the characters of the persons then alive. In 
 the sketches, however, of character, which 
 Walpole has thus left us, we must always re- 
 member that, though a very quick and accu- 
 rate observer, he was a man of many preju- 
 dices ; and that, above all, his hostility was 
 unvarying and unbounded with regard to any 
 of his contemporaries, who had been adverse 
 to the person or administration of Sir Robert 
 Walpole. This, though an amiable feeling, 
 occasionally carries him too far in his invec- 
 tives, and renders him unjust in his judg- 
 ments. 
 
 The answers of Sir Horace Mann are also 
 preserved at Strawberry Hill they are very 
 voluminous, but particularly devoid of interest,
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 as they are written in a dry heavy style, and 
 consist almost entirely of trifling details, of 
 forgotten Florentine society, mixed with small 
 portions of Italian political news of the day 
 which are even still less amusing than the 
 former topic. They have, however, been 
 found useful to refer to occasionally, in order 
 to explain allusions in the letters of Walpole. 
 
 Sir Horace Mann was a contemporary and 
 early friend of Horace Walpole.* He was 
 the second son of Robert Mann, of Linton, in 
 the county of Kent, Esq. He was appointed 
 in 1740 Minister Plenipotentiary from Eng- 
 land to the Court of Florence a post he con- 
 tinued to occupy for the long period of forty- 
 six years, till his death, at an advanced age, 
 Nov. 6, 1786. In 1755 he was created a 
 Baronet, with remainder to the issue of his 
 brother Galfridus Mann, and in the reign of 
 George the Third, a Knight of the Bath. It 
 will be observed that Walpole calls his corre- 
 
 * The coincidence of remarkable names in the two families of 
 Mann and Walpole, would lead one to imagine that there was also 
 some connexion of relationship between them and yet none is to 
 be traced in the pedigree of either family. Sir Robert Walpole had 
 two brothers named Horace and Galfridus and Sir Horace Mann's 
 next brother was named Galfridus Mann. If such a relationship did 
 exist, it probably came through the Burwells, the family of Sir Ro- 
 bert Walpole's mother.
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 spondent Mr. Mann, whereas the title-pages of 
 these volumes, and all the notes which have 
 been added by the Editor, designate him as Sir 
 Horace Mann. This latter appellation is un- 
 doubtedly, in the greater part of the corre- 
 spondence, an anachronism ; as Sir Horace 
 Mann was not made a Baronet till the year 
 1755 ; but as he is best known to the world 
 under that designation, it was considered bet- 
 ter to allow him the title by courtesy, through- 
 out the work. 
 
 As the following letters turn much upon the 
 politics of the day, and as the ignoble and un- 
 stable governments which followed that of Sir 
 Robert Walpole, are now somewhat forgotten, 
 it may not be unacceptable to the reader to be 
 furnished with a slight sketch of the political 
 changes which took place from the year 1742 
 to the death of George the Second. 
 
 At the general election of 1741, immense 
 efforts were made by the Opposition to the Wal- 
 pole administration to strengthen their phalanx 
 great sums were spent by their leaders in 
 elections and an union was at length effected 
 between the Opposition or " Patriots," headed 
 by Pulteney, and the Tories or Jacobites, who 
 had hitherto, though opposed to Walpole, never 
 acted cordially with the former.
 
 Xli PREFACE. 
 
 Sir Robert, upon the meeting of parliament, 
 exerted himself with almost more than his 
 usual vigour and talent, to resist this formid- 
 able band of opponents ; but the chances were 
 against him. The timidity of his friends, and, if 
 we may believe Horace Walpole, the treachery 
 of some of his colleagues, and finally the majo- 
 rity in the House of Commons against him, 
 compelled him at length to resign, which he 
 did in the beginning of February 1742. Upon 
 this step being taken, and perhaps even before 
 it, the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Hard- 
 wicke, the two most influential members of 
 Sir Robert Walpole's Cabinet, entered into 
 communication with Mr. Pulteney and Lord 
 Carteret, the leaders of the regular Opposition, 
 with a view of forming a Government, to the 
 exclusion of the Tories and Jacobites, and 
 even of part of Mr. Pulteney 's own party. The 
 negotiation was successful; but it was so at 
 the expense of the popularity, reputation, and 
 influence of Pulteney, who never recovered the 
 disgrace of thus deserting his former associates. 
 
 In consequence of these intrigues, the King 
 agreed to send for Lord Wilmington, and to 
 place him at the head of the ministry. It is 
 remarkable, that this man, who was a mere 
 cipher, should have been again had recourse
 
 PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 to, after his failure in making a government 
 at the very commencement of the reign of 
 George the Second, when his manifest incapa- 
 city, and the influence of Queen Caroline, had 
 occasioned the retaining of his opponent Sir 
 Robert Walpole in power. With Lord Wil- 
 mington came in Lord Harrington, as Presi- 
 dent of the Council ; Lord Gower, as Privy 
 Seal ; Lord Winchilsea, as First Lord of the 
 Admiralty ; Lord Carteret, as Secretary of 
 State ; the other Secretary being the Duke of 
 Newcastle, who had been so under Walpole ; 
 Lord Hardwicke continued Chancellor ; and 
 Samuel Sandys was made Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer. Several of the creatures of Pult- 
 erey obtained minor offices ; but he himself, 
 hampered by his abandonment of many of his 
 forrner friends, took no place ; but only ob- 
 tained a promise of an Earldom, whenever he 
 might wish for it. 
 
 These arrangements produced, as was natu- 
 ral, a great schism "in the different parties, 
 which broke out at a meeting at the Fountain 
 Tavern, on the 12th of February, where the 
 Duke of Argyll declared himself in opposition 
 to the new government, upon the ground of the 
 unjust exclusion of the Tories. The Duke of 
 Argyll subsequently relented, and kissed hands
 
 XIV PREFACE. 
 
 for the Master Generalship of the Ordnance, 
 upon the understanding, that Sir John Hinde 
 Cotton, a notorious Jacobite, was to have a 
 place. This the King refused ; upon which 
 the Duke finally subsided into Opposition. 
 Lord Stair had the Ordnance, and Lord Cob- 
 ham was made a Field Marshal, and Com- 
 mander of the Forces in England. This latter 
 event happened at the end of the Session of 
 
 1742, when Lord Gower and Lord Bathurst, 
 and one or two other Jacobites, were pro- 
 moted. It was at this period, (July 1742,) 
 that the King, by the advice of Sir Robert 
 Walpole, who saw that such a step would 
 complete the degradation of Pulteney, insisted 
 upon his taking out the patent for his Earl- 
 dom, and quitting the House of Commons, 
 which he did, with the greatest unwillingness. 
 
 On the death of Lord Wilmington in July 
 
 1743, Mr. Pelham was made First Lord of the 
 Treasury, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 (from which office Sandys was dismissed,) by 
 the advice of Sir Robert Walpole, and instead 
 of Lord Bath, who now found that his adver- 
 sary had really turned the key upon him,* and 
 that the door of the Cabinet was never to be 
 
 * Sir Robert Walpole's expression, when he found that Pulteney 
 had consented to be made Earl of Bath.
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 unlocked to him. The ministry was at this 
 time, besides its natural feebleness, rent by 
 internal dissensions. For Lord Carteret, who, 
 as Secretary of State, had accompanied the 
 King abroad in 1743, had acquired great influ- 
 ence over his royal master, and trusting to 
 this, and to the superiority of his talents over 
 his colleagues, his insolence to them became 
 unbounded. The timid and time-serving Pel- 
 hams were quite ready to humble themselves 
 before him ; but Lord Carteret was not con- 
 tent with this. He was not content, unless he 
 showed them, and made them feel all the con- 
 tempt he entertained for them. In addition to 
 these difficulties, Lord Gower resigned the 
 Privy Seal in December 1743, upon the plea 
 that no more Tories were taken into office ; 
 but probably more from perceiving that the 
 administration could not go on. Lord Cob- 
 ham also resigned, and went again into Op- 
 position. 
 
 Finally, in November 1744, the greater part 
 of the Cabinet (having previously made their 
 arrangements with the Opposition,) joined in a 
 remonstrance to the King against Lord Car- 
 teret, and offered, if he was not dismissed, their 
 own resignations. After some resistance, the 
 King, again by the advice of Lord Orford,
 
 xvi PREFACE. 
 
 yielded. Lord Carteret and his adherents, and 
 those of Lord Bath, were dismissed, and a 
 mixed Government of Whigs and Tories was 
 formed. Mr. Pelham continued First Minis- 
 ter ; the Duke of Dorset was made President 
 of the Council ; Lord Gower again took the 
 Privy Seal, which had been held for a few 
 months by Lord Cholmondeley. The Duke 
 of Bedford became First Lord of the Ad- 
 miralty; Lord Harrington Secretary of State; 
 Lord Chesterfield, Lord Sandwich, George 
 Grenville, Doddington, and Lyttelton, and 
 Sir John Hinde Cotton, Sir John Philipps, 
 and some other Tories had places. But though 
 the King had dismissed Lord Carteret, now 
 become Earl of Granville, from his councils, 
 he had not from his confidence. He treated 
 his new ministers with coldness and incivility, 
 and consulted Lord Granville secretly upon all 
 important points. 
 
 At length, in the midst of the Rebellion, in 
 August 1746, the ministry went to the King, 
 and gave him the option of taking Pitt into 
 office, which he had previously refused, or 
 receiving their resignations. After again en- 
 deavouring in vain to form an administration 
 through the means of Lord Granville and Lord 
 Bath, the King was obliged to consent to the 
 demands of his ministers and here may be
 
 PREFACE. XV11 
 
 said to commence the leaden rule of the Pel- 
 hams, which continued to influence the coun- 
 cils of this country, more or less, for so many 
 years. Pitt took the inferior, but lucrative 
 office of Paymaster; and from this time no 
 material change took place, till the death of 
 Mr. Pel ham in March 1754 ; unless we except 
 the admission of Lord Granville to the Cabinet 
 in 1751, as President of the Council, an office 
 which he contrived, with an interested pru- 
 dence very unlike his former conduct, to re- 
 tain during all succeeding ministries and the 
 getting rid of the Duke of Bedford and Lord 
 Sandwich, of whom the Pelhams had become 
 jealous. 
 
 The death of Pelham called into evidence 
 the latent divisions and hatreds of public men, 
 who had been hitherto acting in concert. Fox 
 and Pitt were obviously the two persons, upon 
 one of whom the power of Pelham must even- 
 tually fall. But the intriguing Duke of New- 
 castle hated, and was jealous of both. He, 
 therefore, placed Sir Thomas Robinson in the 
 House of Commons, as Secretary of State and 
 leader, and made Henry Bilson Legge Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer, while he himself took 
 the Treasury leaving Fox* and Pitt in the 
 subordinate situations they had hitherto held. 
 
 * Fox was Secretary at War.
 
 xviii PREFACE. 
 
 The incapacity of Sir Thomas Robinson be- 
 came, however, soon so apparent, that a change 
 was inevitable. This was hastened by a tem- 
 porary coalition between Fox and Pitt, which 
 was occasioned, naturally enough, by the ill- 
 treatment they had both received from the 
 Duke of Newcastle. At length the latter re- 
 luctantly consented to admit Fox into the 
 Cabinet, in 1755. Upon this, Pitt again broke 
 with Fox, and went with his friends into Op- 
 position, with the exception of Sir George 
 Lyttelton, who became Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer. The new Government, however, 
 lasted but one Session of Parliament its own 
 dissensions, the talent of its opponents, and 
 the dissatisfaction of the King, who had been 
 thwarted in his German subsidiary treaties, 
 aiding in its downfal. 
 
 The Duke of Devonshire, who had been 
 very active in the previous political negotia- 
 tions, was now commissioned, in 1756, by the 
 King to form a Government. The Duke of 
 Newcastle and Fox were turned out, and 
 Pitt became Lord of the Ascendant. But the 
 King's aversion to his new ministers was even 
 greater than it had been to his old ; and in 
 February 1757, he commissioned Lord Walde- 
 grave to endeavour to form a Government,
 
 PREFACE. XIX 
 
 with the assistance of Newcastle and Fox. In 
 this undertaking he failed, very mainly 
 through the irresolutions and jealousies of 
 Newcastle. Thus circumstanced, the King, 
 however unwillingly, was obliged to deliver 
 himself up into the hands of Pitt, who now 
 (in June 1757,) succeeded in forming that 
 administration, which was destined to be one 
 of the most glorious ones England has ever 
 seen. He placed himself at the head of it, 
 holding the situation of Secretary of State 
 and leader of the House of Commons, leaving 
 the Duke of Newcastle at the head of the 
 Treasury, and placing Legge again in the Ex- 
 chequer. This administration lasted till the 
 reign of the succeeding Sovereign. D.
 
 SKETCH OF THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 HORACE WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD. 
 
 ANY one who attempts to become a biogra- 
 pher of Horace Walpole must labour under 
 the disadvantage of following a greater master 
 in the art namely, Sir Walter Scott, whose 
 lively and agreeable account of this Author, 
 contained in his "Lives of the Novelists," is 
 well known and deservedly admired. As, 
 however, the greater part of Walter Scott's 
 pages is devoted to a very able criticism of 
 the only work of fiction produced by Walpole, 
 " The Castle of Otranto," it has been thought, 
 that a more general sketch of his life and 
 writings might not prove unacceptable to the 
 reader. 
 
 Horace Walpole was the third and youngest 
 son of that eminent Minister, Sir Robert Wal- 
 
 VOL. i. c
 
 XX11 
 
 pole the glory of the Whigs, the preserver 
 of the throne of these realms to the present 
 Royal Family, and under whose fostering rule 
 and guidance the country flourished in peace 
 for more than twenty years. The elder bro- 
 thers of Horace were, Robert Lord Walpole, 
 so created in 1723, who succeeded his father 
 in the Earldom of Orford in 1745, and died in 
 1751 ; and Sir Edward Walpole, Knight of 
 the Bath, whose three natural daughters were, 
 Mrs. Keppel, wife to the Hon. Frederick 
 Keppel, Bishop of Exeter; the Countess of 
 Waldegrave, afterwards Duchess of Glou- 
 cester; and the Countess of Dysart. Sir Ed- 
 ward Walpole died in 1784. His sisters were, 
 Catherine, who died of consumption at the 
 age of nineteen ; and Mary, married to George 
 Viscount Malpas, afterwards third Earl of 
 Cholmondeley she died in 1732. The mother 
 of Horace, and of his brothers and sisters here 
 mentioned, was Catherine Shorter, daughter 
 of John Shorter, Esq. of Bybrook, in Kent, 
 and granddaughter of Sir John Shorter, Lord 
 Mayor of London in 1688.* She died in 
 
 * The occasion of the death of Sir John Shorter was a curious one. 
 It is thus related in the " Ellis Correspondence" : 
 
 " Sir John Shorter, the present Lord Mayor, is very ill with a fall 
 off his horse, under Newgate, as he, was going to proclaim Bartholo-
 
 XX111 
 
 1737, and her youngest son, who always pro- 
 fessed the greatest veneration for her memory, 
 erected a monument to her in Westminster 
 Abbey, in one of the side aisles of Henry the 
 Seventh's Chapel. Horace Walpole had also 
 a half sister, the natural daughter of his father, 
 by his Mistress Maria Skerrett, whom he after- 
 wards married. She also was named Mary 
 Walpole, and married Colonel Charles Churchill, 
 the natural son of General Churchill ; who was 
 himself a natural son of an elder brother of the 
 great Duke of Marlborough. 
 
 Horace Walpole was born October 5th, 
 1717,* and educated at Eton School, and at 
 
 mew Fair. The City custom is, it seems, to drink always under 
 Newgate when the Lord Mayor passes that way ; and at this time the 
 Lord Mayor's horse being somewhat skittish, started at the sight of a 
 large glittering tankard which was reached to his Lordship." Letter 
 of Aug. 30th, 1688. 
 
 " On Tuesday last died the Lord Mayor, Sir John Shorter : the 
 occasion of his distemper was his fall under Newgate, which bruised 
 him a little, and put him into a fever." Letter of Sept. 6tk, 1688. 
 
 * In Chalmers' Biographical Dictionary it is said, that Horace 
 Walpole was born in 1718 ; and Sir Walter Scott says he was born in 
 1716-17, which according to the new style would mean, that he was 
 born in one of the three first months of the year 1717. Both these 
 statements are, however, erroneous, as he himself fixes the day of his 
 birth, in a letter to Mr. Conway, dated October 5th, 1764, where he 
 says, " What signifies what happens when one is seven-and-forty, as 
 I am to-day ? They tell me 'tis my birth-day, &c." And again, in 
 a letter to the same correspondent, dated October 5th, 1777, he says., 
 " I am threescore to-day."
 
 XXIV 
 
 King's College, Cambridge. Upon leaving the 
 latter place, he set out on his travels on the 
 Continent, in company with Gray the poet, 
 with whom he had formed a friendship at 
 school. They commenced their journey in 
 March 1739, and continued abroad above two 
 years. Almost the whole of this time was 
 spent in Italy, and nearly a year of it was 
 devoted to Florence ; where Walpole was de- 
 tained by the society of his friends, Mr. Mann, 
 Mr. Chute, and Mr. Whithed. It was in these 
 classic scenes, that his love of art, and taste for 
 elegant and antiquarian literature became more 
 developed ; and that it took such complete 
 possession of him, as to occupy the whole of 
 his long life, diversified only by the occasional 
 amusement of politics, or the distractions of 
 society. Unfortunately, the friendship of Wal- 
 pole and his travelling companion could not 
 survive two years of constant intercourse. 
 They quarrelled and parted at Reggio, in July 
 1741 ; and afterwards pursued their way home- 
 wards by different routes. 
 
 Walpole arrived in England in September 
 1741, at which time his Correspondence with 
 Sir Horace Mann commences. He had been 
 chosen Member for Callington, in the Parlia- 
 ment which was elected in June of that year ;
 
 XXV 
 
 and arrived in the House of Commons just 
 in time to witness the angry discussions, which 
 preceded and accompanied the downfal of his 
 father's administration. He plunged at once 
 into the excitement of political partizanship, 
 with all the ardour of youth, and all the zeal 
 which his filial affection for his father inspired. 
 His feelings at this period are best explained 
 by a reference to his letters in the following 
 collection. Public business and attendance 
 upon the House of Commons, apart from the 
 interest attached to peculiar questions, he seems 
 never to have liked. He consequently took 
 very little part either in debates or Committees. 
 In March 1742, on a motion being made for an 
 enquiry into the conduct of Sir Robert Wai- 
 pole for the preceding ten years, he delivered 
 his Maiden Speech ; on which he was compli- 
 mented by no less a judge of oratory than Pitt. 
 This speech he has preserved in his letter to Sir 
 Horace Mann, of March 24th, 1742.* He 
 moved the Address in 1751 ; and in 1756 made 
 a speech on the question of employing Swiss 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott says, that Walpole on one occasion " vindicated 
 the memory of his father with great dignity and eloquence" in the 
 House of Commons ; but as I cannot find any trace of a speech of 
 this kind made by him after Sir Robert Walpole's death, I am in- 
 clined to think Sir Walter must have made a mistake, as to the time 
 of delivery of the speech mentioned in the text.
 
 XXVI 
 
 Regiments in the Colonies. This speech he has 
 also himself preserved in the second volume of 
 his " Memoires." In 1757, he was active in 
 his endeavours to save the unfortunate Admiral 
 Byng. Of his conduct upon this occasion he 
 has left a detailed account in his " Memoires." 
 This concludes all that can be collected of his 
 public life, and at the general election of 1768,* 
 he finally retired from Parliament. 
 
 Upon this occasion he writes thus to George 
 Montagu : " As my senatorial dignity is gone, 
 I shall not put you to the expense of a cover, 
 and I hope the advertisement will not be taxed, 
 as I seal it to the paper. In short, I retain so 
 much iniquity from the last infamous Parlia- 
 ment, that you see I would still cheat the 
 public. The comfort I feel in sitting peaceably 
 here, instead of being at Lynn in the high 
 fever of a contested election, which at best 
 would end in my being carried about that 
 large town like a figure of a Pope at a bon- 
 fire, is very great. I do not think, when that 
 function is over, that I shall repent my resolu- 
 tion. What could I see but sons and grand- 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott is in error when he says that Walpole retired 
 from the House of Commons in 1758, "at the active age of forty- 
 one." This event occurred, as is here stated, in March 1768, and 
 when Walpole was consequently in his fifty-first year.
 
 XXV11 
 
 sons playing over the same knaveries, that I 
 have seen their fathers and grandfathers act? 
 Could I hear oratory beyond my Lord Chat- 
 ham's ? Will there ever be parts equal to 
 Charles Townshend's ? Will George Grenville 
 cease to be the most tiresome of beings ?"* 
 
 From this time Walpole devoted himself 
 more than ever to his literary and antiquarian 
 pursuits; though the interest he still, in so- 
 ciety at least, took in politics, is obvious from 
 the frequent reference to the subject in his 
 letters. In the course of his life his political 
 opinions appear to have undergone a great 
 change. In his youth, and indeed till his old 
 age, he was not only a strenuous Whig, but 
 at times almost a Republican. How strong 
 his opinions were in this sense may be gathered, 
 both from the frequent confessions of his po- 
 litical faith, which occur in his letters, and 
 from his reverence for the death-warrant of 
 Charles the First, of which he hung up the 
 engraving in his bed-room, and wrote upon it 
 with his own hand the words " Major Charta" 
 The horrors of the French Revolution drove 
 
 * Letter dated, " Arlington-street, March 12th, 1768." It is but fair 
 to mention, in opposition to the opinion respecting George Grenville, 
 here delivered by Walpole, that of no less an authority than Burke, 
 who says, " Mr. Grenville was a first-rate figure in this country."
 
 XXV111 
 
 him, in the latter period of his life, into other 
 views of politics; and he seems to have be- 
 come, in theory at least, a Tory, though he 
 probably would have indignantly repudiated 
 the appellation, had it been applied to him. 
 
 Even during the earlier part of his career 
 his politics had varied a good deal, (as, indeed, 
 in a long life, whose do not?) but in his case 
 the course of variation was a most amiable 
 one. His devoted attachment to Marshal Con- 
 way, which led him, when that distinguished 
 man was turned out of his command of a 
 regiment, and of his place at Court, in 1764,* 
 
 * He had also offered to share his fortune with Mr. Conway in the 
 year 1744, (see Letter of July 20th of that year,) in order to enable 
 Mr. Conway to marry a lady he was then in love with. He ends his 
 very pressing entreaties by saying, " For these reasons, don't deny 
 me what I have set my heart on the making your fortune easy to 
 you." Nor were these the only instances of generosity to a friend, 
 which we find in the life of Walpole. In the year 1770, when the 
 Abbe" Terrai was administering the finances of France, (or to use the 
 more expressive language of Voltaire, " Quand Terrai nous raan- 
 geoit,") his economical reductions occasioned the loss of a portion of 
 her pension, amounting to three thousand livres, to Madame du 
 Deffand. Upon this occasion Walpole wrote thus to his old blind 
 friend, who had presented a memorial of her case to Monsieur de 
 St. Florentin, a course of proceeding which Walpole did not approve 
 of "Ayez assez d'amitie" pour moi pour accepter les trois mille 
 livres de ma part. Je voudrois que la somme ne me fut pas aussi 
 indifferente qu'elle 1'est, mais je vous jure qu'elle ne retranchera rien, 
 pas mcme sur mes amusemens. La prendriez vous de la main de la 
 grandeur, et la refuseriez vous de moi ? Vous me connoissez : faites
 
 XXIX 
 
 to offer, with much earnestness, to divide his 
 fortune with him, caused him also to look with 
 a favourable eye upon the government of the 
 day, whenever Mr. Conway was employed; 
 and to follow him implicitly in his votes in 
 the House of Commons. Upon this subject 
 he writes thus to Conway, who had not told 
 him beforehand of a speech he made on the 
 Qualification Bill, in consequence of which 
 Walpole was absent from the House of Com- 
 mons upon that occasion. " I don't suspect 
 you of any reserve to me : I only mention it 
 now for an occasion of telling you, that I don't 
 like to have anybody think, that I would not 
 do whatever you do. I am of no consequence ; 
 but at least it would give me some to act in- 
 
 ce sacrifice & mon orgueil, qui seroit enchante" de vous avoir empe- 
 che"e de vous abaisser jusqu'a la sollicitation. Votre memoire me 
 blesse. Quoi ! vous, vous, re'duite a representer vos malheurs ! 
 Accordez moi, je vous conjure, la grace que je vous demande a genoux, 
 et jouissez de la satisfaction de vous dire, J'ai un ami qui ne per- 
 mettra jamais que je me jette aux pieds des grands. Ma Petite, 
 j'insiste. Voyez, si vous aimez mieux me faire le plaisir le plus 
 sensible, ou de devoir une grace qui, ayant ete sollicitce, arrive toujours 
 trop tard pour contenter I'amitie'. Laissez moi gouter la joie la plus 
 pure, de vous avoir mise a votre aise, et que cette joie soit un secret 
 profond entre nous deux." (Letters of the Marquise du Dcjfand 
 to the Honourable Horace Walpole.) It was impossible to make a 
 pecuniary offer with more earnestness or greater delicacy; and 
 Madame du Deffand's not having found it necessary subsequently to 
 accept it, in no degree diminishes the merit of the proffered gift.
 
 XXX 
 
 variably with you, and that I shall most cer- 
 tainly be ever ready to do."* Upon another 
 occasion he writes again in a similar strain 
 " My only reason for writing is, to repeat to 
 you, that whatever you do, I shall act with 
 you. I resent any thing done to you as to 
 myself. My fortunes shall never be separated 
 from yours except that some day or other I 
 hope yours will be great, and I am content 
 with mine."| 
 
 Upon one political point Horace Walpole 
 appears to have entertained from the first the 
 most just views ; and even at a time when such 
 were not sanctioned by the general opinion of 
 the nation. From its very commencement, he 
 objected to that disastrous contest the Ame- 
 rican War, which commenced in ignorant and 
 presumptuous folly, was prolonged to gratify 
 the wicked obstinacy of individuals, and ended, 
 as Walpole had foretold it would, in the dis- 
 comfiture of its authors, and the national dis- 
 grace and degradation, after a profuse and use- 
 less waste of blood and treasure. Nor must 
 his sentiments upon the Slave Trade be for- 
 gotten sentiments, which he held too, in an 
 age when, far different from the present one, 
 
 * Letter dated " Monday, five o'clock, Feb. 1761." 
 f Letter dated "April 19th, 1764."
 
 XXXI 
 
 the " Assiento Treaty," and other horrors of 
 the same kind, were deemed, not only justi- 
 fiable, but praiseworthy. " We have been sit- 
 ting," he writes on the 25th of February 1750, 
 " this fortnight on the African Company. We, 
 the British Senate, that temple of Liberty, and 
 bulwark of Protestant Christianity, have, this 
 fortnight, been considering methods to make 
 more effectual that horrid traffic of selling 
 negroes. It has appeared to us, that six-and- 
 forty thousand of these wretches are sold every 
 year to our plantations alone ! It chills one's 
 blood I would not have to say I voted for it, 
 for the continent of America ! The destruction 
 of the miserable inhabitants by the Spaniards 
 was but a momentary misfortune, that flowed 
 from the discovery of the New World, com- 
 pared to this lasting havoc which it brought 
 upon Africa. We reproach Spain ; and yet do 
 not even pretend the nonsense of butchering 
 the poor creatures for the good of their souls."* 
 One of the most favourite pursuits of Wai- 
 pole, was the building and decoration of his 
 Gothic villa of Strawberry Hill. It is situated 
 at the end of the village of Twickenham, to- 
 wards Teddington, on a slope, which gives it a 
 fine view of a reach of the Thames, and the 
 
 Letter to Sir Horace Mann.
 
 XXX11 
 
 opposite wooded hill of Richmond Park. He 
 bought it in 1747, of Mrs. Chenevix, the pro- 
 prietress of a celebrated toy-shop. He thus 
 describes it in a letter of that year to Mr. Con- 
 way. " You perceive by my date that I am 
 got into a new camp, and have left my tub at 
 Windsor. It is a little plaything-house that 
 I got out of Mrs. Chenevix's shop, and is the 
 prettiest bauble you ever saw. It is set in 
 enamelled meadows, with filigree hedges : 
 
 " A small Euphrates through the piece is roll'd, 
 And little finches wave their wings of gold." 
 
 Two delightful roads, that you would call 
 dusty, supply me continually with coaches and 
 chaises ; barges as solemn as Barons of the Ex- 
 chequer move under my window ; Richmond 
 Hill and Ham Walks bound my prospects; 
 but, thank God ! the Thames is between me 
 and the Duchess of Queensberry.* Dowagers, 
 as plenty as flounders, inhabit all around, and 
 
 * Catherine Hyde, the eccentric friend of Pope and Gay. She 
 was, at this time, living in a small house in Ham Walks. Walpole 
 addressed to her the pretty compliment contained in the following 
 lines, upon her preservation of her beauty at an advanced age : 
 
 " To many a Kitty, Love his car 
 
 Would for a day engage ; 
 But Prior's Kitty, ever fair 
 Retains it for an age."
 
 XXX111 
 
 Pope's ghost is just now skimming under my 
 window by a most poetical moonlight."* 
 
 He commenced almost immediately adding 
 to the house, and Gothicizing it, assisted by the 
 taste and designs of his friend Mr. Bentley ; 
 till, in the end, the cottage of Mrs. Chenevix 
 had increased into the castellated residence 
 we now behold. He also filled it with collec- 
 tions of various sorts books, prints, pictures, 
 portraits, enamels and miniatures, antiquities, 
 and curiosities of all kinds. Among these mis- 
 cellaneous hoards are to be found some fine 
 works of art ; and many things most valuable 
 in an historical and antiquarian point of view. 
 For these various expenses, he drew upon his 
 annual income, which arose from three patent 
 places conferred on him by his father, of which 
 the designations were, Usher of the Exchequer, 
 Comptroller of the Pipe, and Clerk of the 
 Estreats. As early as the year 1744, these 
 sinecures produced to him, according to his 
 own account, nearly two thousand a-year ; and 
 somewhat later, the one place of Usher of the 
 Exchequer rose in value to double this sum. 
 This income, with prudent management, suf- 
 ficed for the gratification of his expensive 
 tastes of building and collecting, to which his 
 long life was devoted. 
 
 * Letter of June 8th, 1747.
 
 XXXIV 
 
 With regard to the merits of Strawberry 
 Hill, as a building, it is, perhaps, unfair in 
 the present age, when the principles of Go- 
 thic architecture have been so much studied, 
 and so often put in practice, to criticize it 
 too severely. Walpole himself, who in the 
 earlier part of his life seems to have had an 
 unbounded admiration for the works of his 
 own hands, appears in later times to have been 
 aware of the faults in style, of which he had 
 been guilty. For in a letter to Mr. Barrett 
 in 1788, he says, "If Mr. Matthews was really 
 entertained" (with seeing Strawberry Hill), " I 
 am glad. But Mr. Wyatt has made him too 
 correct a Goth not to have seen all the imper- 
 fections and bad execution of my attempts ; 
 for neither Mr. Bentley, nor my workmen had 
 studied the science, and I was always too de- 
 sultory and impatient to consider, that I should 
 please myself more by allowing time, than by 
 hurrying my plans into execution before they 
 were ripe. My house, therefore, is but a 
 sketch for beginners ; your's* is finished by a 
 great master and if Mr. Matthews liked mine, 
 it was en virtuose, who loves the dawnings of 
 an art, or the glimmerings of its restoration."! 
 
 In fact, the building of Strawberry Hill was 
 
 * Lee, in Kent. f Letter of June 5tb, 1788.
 
 XXXV 
 
 " the glimmering of the restoration" of Gothic 
 architecture, which had previously, for above a 
 century, been so much neglected, that its very 
 principles seemed lost. If we compare the 
 Gothic of Strawberry Hill, with that of build- 
 ings about the same period, or a little anterior 
 to it, we shall see how vastly superior it is to 
 them, both in its taste and its decorations. If 
 we look at some of the restorations of our 
 churches of the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century, we shall find them a most barbarous 
 mixture of Gothic forms, and Grecian and 
 Roman ornaments. Such are the western 
 towers of Westminster Abbey, designed by 
 Wren. The attempts at Gothic, by the same 
 architect, in one or two of his City churches 
 Gibbs's quadrangle of All Souls College, Ox- 
 ford and the buildings in the same style of 
 Kent, Batty Langley, &c. To these Straw- 
 berry is greatly superior ; and it must be ob- 
 served, that Walpole himself, in his progressive 
 building, went on improving and purifying 
 his taste. Thus the gallery and round-tower 
 at Strawberry Hill, which were among his 
 latest works, are incomparably the best part of 
 the house and in their interior decorations 
 there is very little to be objected to, and much 
 to be admired.
 
 XXXVI 
 
 It were to be wished, indeed, that Walpole's 
 haste to finish, to which he alludes in the letter 
 just quoted, and perhaps also, in some degree, 
 economy, had not made him build his castle, 
 which, with all its faults, is a curious relic of a 
 clever and ingenious man, with so little solidity, 
 that it is almost already in a state of decay. 
 Lath and plaster, and wood, appear to have 
 been his favourite materials for construction 
 which made his friend Williams* say of him, 
 towards the end of his life, " that he had out- 
 lived three sets of his own battlements." It is 
 somewhat curious, as a proof of the inconsist- 
 ency of the human mind, that having built his 
 castle with so little view to durability, Walpole 
 entailed the perishable possession with a degree 
 of strictness, which would have been more 
 fitting for a Baronial estate. And that, too, 
 after having written a fable entitled " The 
 Entail ;" in consequence of some one having 
 asked him whether he did not intend to entail 
 Strawberry Hill, and in ridicule of such a pro- 
 ceeding. 
 
 Whether Horace Walpole conferred a benefit 
 upon the public, by setting the fashion of 
 applying the Gothic style of architecture to 
 domestic purposes, may be doubtful so greatly 
 
 * George James Williams, Esq.
 
 XXXV11 
 
 has the example he gave been abused in practice 
 since. But, at all events, he thus led the pro- 
 fessors of architecture to study with accuracy 
 the principles of the art, which has occasioned 
 the restoration and preservation in such an 
 admirable manner of so many of our finest 
 cathedrals, colleges, and ancient Gothic and 
 conventual buildings. This, it must be at least 
 allowed, was the fortunate result of the rage 
 for Gothic, which succeeded the building of 
 Strawberry Hill. For a good many years after 
 that event, every new building was pinnacled 
 and turreted on all sides, however little its 
 situation, its size, or its uses might seem to fit 
 it for such ornament. Then, as fashion is never 
 constant for any great length of time, the taste 
 of the public rushed at once upon castles and 
 loop-holes, and battlements, and heavy arches, 
 and buttresses appeared in every direction. 
 Now the fancy of the time has turned as madly 
 to that bastard kind of architecture, possessing, 
 however, many beauties, which, compounded 
 of the Gothic, Castellated, and Grecian or 
 Roman, is called the Elizabethan, or, Old 
 English. No villa, no country house, no lodge 
 in the outskirts of London, no box of a retired 
 tradesman is now built, except in some modi- 
 fication of this style. The most ludicrous 
 VOL. i. d
 
 XXXV111 
 
 situations, and the most inappropriate destina- 
 tions do not deter any one from pointing his 
 gables, and squaring his bay-windows in the 
 most approved Elizabethan manner. And this 
 vulgarizing and lowering of the Old English 
 architecture, by over use, is sure, sooner or 
 later, to lose it its popularity ; and to cause 
 it to be contemned and neglected like its pre- 
 decessors. All these different styles, if pro- 
 perly applied, have their peculiar merits. In 
 old English country-houses, which have for- 
 merly been conventual buildings, the Gothic 
 style may be, with great propriety, introduced. 
 On the height of Belvoir, or in similar situa- 
 tions, nothing could be devised so appropriate 
 as the castellated and in additions to, or reno- 
 vations of old manor-houses, the Elizabethan 
 may be, with equal advantage, adopted. It is 
 the injudicious application of all three, which 
 has been, and is sure to be, the occasion of their 
 fall in public favour. 
 
 The next pursuit of Walpole, to which it 
 now becomes desirable to advert, are his lite- 
 rary labours ; and the various publications, 
 with which, at different periods of his life, he 
 favoured the world. His first effort appears to 
 have been a copy of verses, written at Cam- 
 bridge. His poetry is generally not of a very
 
 XXXIX 
 
 high order lively, and with happy turns and 
 expressions ; but injured frequently by a sort 
 of quaintness, and a somewhat inharmonious 
 rhythm. Its merits, however, exactly fitted it 
 for the purpose, which it was for the most part 
 intended for ; namely, as what are called, vers 
 de societe. Among the best of his verses may 
 be mentioned those " On the neglected Column 
 in the Place of St. Mark, at Florence," which 
 contain some fine lines. His " Twickenham 
 Register," and " The Three Vernons." 
 
 In 1752, he published his " Jdes Walpolianse," 
 or description of the family seat of Houghton 
 Hall, in Norfolk, where his father had built a 
 palace, and had made a fine collection of pic- 
 tures, which were sold by his grandson George, 
 third Earl of Orford, to the Empress Catherine 
 of Russia. This work, which is in fact a mere 
 catalogue of pictures, first showed the peculiar 
 talent of Horace Walpole for enlivening, by 
 anecdote and lightness of style, a dry subject. 
 This was afterwards still more exemplified in 
 his " Anecdotes of Painting in England," of 
 which the different volumes were published in 
 1761, 1763, and 1771 and in the "Catalogue 
 of Engravers," published in 1763. These works 
 were compiled from the papers of Vertue the 
 engraver ; but Walpole, from the stores of his 
 
 d 2
 
 xl 
 
 own historical knowledge, from his taste in the 
 fine arts, and his happy manner of sketching 
 characters, rendered them peculiarly his own. 
 But his master-piece in this line, was his 
 " Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors," 
 originally published in 1758. It is very true, 
 as Walter Scott observes, that "it would be 
 difficult, by any process or principle of sub- 
 division, to select a list of so many plebeian 
 authors, containing so very few whose genius 
 was worthy of commemoration." * But this 
 very circumstance renders the merit of Walpole 
 the greater, in having, out of such materials, 
 composed a work, which must be read with 
 amusement and interest, as long as liveliness 
 of diction and felicity in anecdote are con- 
 sidered ingredients of amusement in literature. 
 In 1757, Walpole established a private print- 
 ing-press at Strawberry Hill, and the first work 
 he printed at it was the Odes of Gray, with 
 Bentley's prints and vignettes. Among the 
 handsomest and most valuable volumes which 
 subsequently issued from this press, in addition 
 to Walpole's own Anecdotes of Painting, and 
 his description of Strawberry Hill, must be 
 mentioned the quarto Lucan, with the notes 
 of Grotius and Bentley ; the life of Lord 
 
 * Lives of the Novelists, Paris Edition, Vol. II.
 
 xli 
 
 Herbert of Cherbury by himself, Hentzner's 
 Travels, and Lord Whitworth's account of 
 Russia. Of all these he printed a very limit- 
 ed number. It does not, however, appear, as 
 stated in the Biographical Dictionary,* that 
 he reserved all the copies as presents ; on the 
 contrary it would seem, that in most instances 
 he sold a certain portion of the copies to the 
 booksellers, probably with a view of defraying 
 the expenses of his printing establishment. As, 
 however, the supply in the book-market of the 
 Strawberry Hill editions was very small, they 
 generally sold for high prices, and a great in- 
 terest was created respecting them. 
 
 In 1764, Walpole published one of the 
 most remarkable of his works, " The Castle 
 of Otranto ;" and in 1768 his still more re- 
 markable production " The Mysterious Mo- 
 ther." In speaking of the latter effort of his 
 genius, (for it undoubtedly deserves that ap- 
 pellation,) an admirable judge of literary ex- 
 cellence has made the following remarks : 
 " It is the fashion to underrate Horace Wal- 
 pole; firstly, because he was a nobleman, and 
 secondly, because he was a gentleman : but 
 to say nothing of the composition of his in- 
 comparable letters, and of * The Castle of 
 
 * Biographical Dictionary by Chalmers. Article " Walpole."
 
 xlii 
 
 Otranto,' he is the Ultimus Romanorum, the 
 author of the ' Mysterious Mother,' a tragedy 
 of the highest order, and not a puling love- 
 play. He is the father of the first romance, 
 and of the last tragedy in our language, and 
 surely worthy of a higher place than any living 
 author, be he who he may."* 
 
 In speaking of the " Castle of Otranto," it 
 may be remarked as a singular coincidence in 
 the life of Walpole, that as he had been the 
 first person to lead the modern public to seek 
 for their architecture in the Gothic style and 
 age, so he also opened the great magazine of 
 the tales of Gothic times to their literature. 
 " The Castle of Otranto is remarkable," ob- 
 serves an eminent critic, " not only for the 
 wild interest of its story, but as the first mo- 
 dern attempt to found a tale of amusing fiction 
 upon the basis of the ancient romances of chi- 
 valry." " This romance," he continues, " has 
 been justly considered not only as the original 
 and model of a peculiar species of composition, 
 attempted and successfully executed by a man 
 of great genius, but as one of the standard 
 works of our lighter literature." f 
 
 The account, which Walpole himself gives 
 
 * Lord Byron, Preface to " Marino Faliero." 
 
 t Lives of the Novelists, by Sir Walter Scott, Paris Edition, Vol. II.
 
 xliii 
 
 of the circumstances which led to the compo- 
 sition of " The Castle of Otranto," of his fancy 
 of the portrait of Lord Deputy Falkland, in 
 the gallery at Strawberry Hill, walking out 
 of its frame ; and of his dream of a gigantic 
 hand in armour on the banister of a great 
 staircase, are well-known. Perhaps it may be 
 objected to him, that he makes too frequent 
 use of supernatural machinery in his romance ; 
 but at the time it was written, this portion 
 of his work was peculiarly acceptable to the 
 public. We have since, from the labours of 
 the immense tribe of his followers and imita- 
 tors of different degrees of merit, " supped so 
 full of horrors," that we are become more fas- 
 tidious upon these points ; and even, perhaps, 
 unfairly so, as at the present moment the style 
 of supernatural romances in general is rather 
 fallen again into neglect and disfavour. " If," 
 concludes Walter Scott, in his criticism on 
 this work, (and the sentiments expressed by 
 him are so fair and just, that it is impossible 
 to forbear quoting them,) " Horace Walpole, 
 who led the way in this new species of literary 
 composition, has been surpassed by some of 
 his followers in diffuse brilliancy of com- 
 position, and perhaps in the art of detaining 
 the mind of the reader in a state of feverish
 
 xliv 
 
 and anxious suspense, through a protracted 
 and complicated narrative, more will yet re- 
 main with him than the single merit of ori- 
 ginality and invention. The applause due to 
 chastity of style to a happy combination of 
 supernatural agency with human interest to 
 a tone of feudal manners and language, sus- 
 tained by characters strongly -marked and well- 
 discriminated, and to unity of action, pro- 
 ducing scenes alternately of interest and gran- 
 deur ; the applause, in fine, which cannot 
 be denied to him who can excite the passions 
 of fear and pity, must be awarded to the author 
 of the Castle of Otranto."* 
 
 " The Mysterious Mother" is a production 
 of higher talent and more powerful genius 
 than any other, which we owe to the pen of 
 Horace Walpole ; though, from the nature of 
 its subject, and the sternness of its character, 
 it is never likely to compete in popularity 
 with many of his other writings. The story 
 is too horrible almost for tragedy. It is, as 
 Walpole himself observes, "more truly hor- 
 rid even than that of (Edipus." He took it 
 from a history which had been told him, and 
 which he thus relates : " I had heard, when 
 very young, that a gentlewoman, under un- 
 
 * Lives of the Novelists.
 
 xlv 
 
 common agonies of mind, had waited on Arch- 
 bishop Tillotson, and besought his counsel. 
 Many years before, a damsel that served her, 
 had acquainted her that she was importuned 
 by the gentlewoman's son to grant him a pri- 
 vate meeting. The mother ordered the maiden 
 to make the assignation, when, she said, she 
 would discover herself, and reprimand him for 
 his criminal passion: but being hurried away 
 by a much more criminal passion herself, she 
 kept the assignation without discovering her- 
 self. The fruit of this horrid artifice was a 
 daughter, whom the gentlewoman caused to be 
 educated very privately in the country : but 
 proving very lovely, and being accidentally 
 met by her father-brother, who had never had 
 the slightest suspicion of the truth, he had 
 fallen in love with and actually married her. 
 The wretched, guilty mother, learning what 
 had happened, and distracted with the conse- 
 quence of her crime, had now resorted to the 
 Archbishop, to know in what manner she 
 should act. The prelate charged her never 
 to let her son or daughter know what had 
 passed, as they were innocent of any criminal 
 intention. For herself, he bade her almost 
 despair." * Afterwards, Walpole found out, 
 
 * Postscript to " The Mysterious Mother."
 
 xlvi 
 
 that a similar story existed in the Tales of 
 the Queen of Navarre, and also in Bishop 
 Hall's works. In this tragedy the dreadful in- 
 terest is well sustained throughout, the march 
 of the blank verse is grand and imposing, and 
 some of the scenes are worked up with a 
 vigour and a pathos, which render it one of 
 the most powerful dramatic efforts, of which 
 our language can boast. 
 
 The next publication of Walpole, was his 
 " Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of 
 King Richard the Third," one of the most 
 ingenious historical and antiquarian disserta- 
 tions which has ever issued from the press. 
 He has collected his facts with so much in- 
 dustry, and draws his arguments and infer- 
 ences from them with so much ability, that 
 if he has not convinced the public of the en- 
 tire innocence of Richard, he has at all events 
 diminished the number of his crimes, and has 
 thrown a doubt over his whole history, as 
 well as over the credibility of his accusers, 
 which is generally favourable to his reputation. 
 This work occasioned a great sensation in 
 the literary world, and produced several re- 
 plies, from F. Guydickens, Esq. Dean Milles, 
 the Rev. Mr. Masters, and others. These 
 works, however, are now gathered to " the dull
 
 xlvii 
 
 of ancient days ;" while the book they were 
 intended to expose and annihilate, remains an 
 instructive and an amusing volume; and, to 
 say the least of it, a most creditable monument 
 of its author's ingenuity. 
 
 The remainder of the works of Walpole, 
 published or printed in his life-time, consist 
 of minor, or as he calls them, " Fugitive 
 Pieces." Of these the most remarkable are 
 his papers in " The World," and other periodi- 
 cals. " A Letter from Xo Ho, a Chinese Phi- 
 losopher, in London," on the politics of the 
 day. The " Essay on Modern Gardening." 
 The pamphlet called " A Counter Address," 
 on the dismissal of Marshal Conway from his 
 command of a regiment. The fanciful, but 
 lively, " Hieroglyphic Tales." And " The 
 Reminiscences," or Recollections of Court and 
 Political Anecdotes; which last he wrote for 
 the amusement of the Miss Berrys. All of 
 these are marked with those peculiarities, and 
 those graces of style, which belonged to him ; 
 and may still be read, however various their 
 subjects, with interest and instruction. The 
 Reminiscences are peculiarly curious and 
 may, perhaps, be stated to be, both in manner 
 and matter, the very perfection of anecdote 
 writing. We may, indeed, say with respect
 
 xlviii 
 
 to Walpole, what can be advanced of but few 
 such voluminous authors, that it is impossible 
 to open any part of his works, without de- 
 riving entertainment from them so much do 
 the charms and liveliness of his manner of 
 writing influence all the subjects he treats of. 
 
 Since the death of Walpole, a portion of his 
 political memoirs, comprising the history of 
 the last ten years of the reign of George the 
 Second, has been published ; and has made a 
 very remarkable addition to the historical in- 
 formation of that period. At the same time, 
 it must be allowed, that this work has not 
 entirely fulfilled the expectation, which the 
 public had formed of it. Though full of cu- 
 rious and interesting details, it can hardly be 
 said to form a very interesting whole ; while 
 in no other of the publications of the author 
 do his prejudices and aversions appear in so 
 strong and unreasonable a light. His satire 
 also, and we might even call it by the stronger 
 name of abuse, is too general, and thereby 
 loses its effect. Many of the characters are 
 probably not too severely drawn ; but some 
 evidently are, and this circumstance shakes our 
 faith in the rest. We must, however, remem- 
 ber, that the age he describes was one of pecu- 
 liar corruption ; and when the virtue and cha-
 
 xlix 
 
 racter of public men were, perhaps, at a lower 
 ebb, than at any other period since the days 
 of Charles the Second. The admirably graphic 
 style of Walpole, in describing particular scenes 
 and moments, shines forth in many parts of 
 the memoirs and this, joined to his having 
 been an actor in many of the circumstances 
 he relates, and a near spectator of all, must 
 ever render his book one of extreme value to 
 the politician and the historian. 
 
 But the posthumous works of Walpole, upon 
 which his lasting fame with posterity will pro- 
 bably rest, are his " incomparable letters."* Of 
 these a considerable portion was published in 
 the quarto edition of his works in 1798. Since 
 which period a quarto volume, containing his 
 letters to George Montagu, Esq. and the Rev. 
 William Cole ; and another, containing those 
 to Lord Hertford and the Rev. Henry Zouch, 
 have been given to the world; and the pre- 
 sent publication of his correspondence with Sir 
 Horace Mann completes the series, which ex- 
 tends from the year 1735, to the commence- 
 ment of 1797, within six weeks of his death 
 a period of no less than fifty-seven years. 
 
 A friend of Mr. Walpole's has observed, 
 that " his Epistolary talents have shown our 
 
 * Lord Byron.
 
 1 
 
 language to be capable of all the grace and 
 all the charms of the French of Madame de 
 Sevign6;"* and the remark is a true one, for 
 he is undoubtedly the author, who first proved 
 the aptitude of our language for that light and 
 gay epistolary style, which was before sup- 
 posed peculiarly to belong to our Gallic neigh- 
 bours. There may be letters of a higher order 
 in our literature than those of Walpole. 
 Gray's letters, and perhaps Cowper's, may be 
 taken as instances of this ; but where shall we 
 find such an union of taste, humour, and almost 
 dramatic power of description and narrative, as 
 in the correspondence of Walpole ? Where 
 such happy touches upon the manners and cha- 
 racters of the time ? Where can we find such 
 graphic scenes, as the funeral of George the 
 Second, as the party to Vauxhall with Lady 
 Harrington, as the ball at Miss Chudleigh's, in 
 the letters already published ; or as some of 
 the House of Commons' debates, and many of 
 the anecdotes of society, in those now offered 
 to the world ? Walpole's style in letter- writing 
 is occasionally quaint, and sometimes a little 
 laboured; but for the most part he has con- 
 trived to throw into it a great appearance of 
 ease, as if he wrote rapidly and without pre- 
 
 * " Social life in England and France." By Miss Berry.
 
 li 
 
 meditation. This, however, was by no means 
 the case, as he took great pains with his letters, 
 and even collected, and wrote down before- 
 hand, anecdotes, with a view to their subse- 
 quent insertion. Some of these stores have 
 been discovered among the papers at Straw- 
 berry Hill. 
 
 The account of the letters of Walpole leads 
 naturally to some mention of his friends, to 
 whom they were addressed. These were, Gray, 
 the poet ; Marshal Conway ; his elder brother, 
 Lord Hertford ; George Montagu, Esq. ; the 
 Rev. William Cole ; Lord Strafford ; Richard 
 Bentley, Esq. ; John Chute, Esq. ; Sir Horace 
 Mann ; Lady Hervey ; and in after-life, Mrs. 
 Hannah More ; Mrs. Darner, and the two Miss 
 Berrys. His correspondence with the three 
 latter ladies has never been published ; but his 
 regard for them, and intimacy with them, 
 are known to have been very great. Towards 
 Mrs. Darner, the only child of the friend of 
 his heart, Marshal Conway, he had an heredi- 
 tary feeling of affection ; and to her he be- 
 queathed Strawberry Hill. To the Miss 
 Berrys he left, in conjunction with their father, 
 the greater part of his papers, and the care 
 of collecting and publishing his works, a task 
 which they performed with great care and
 
 lii 
 
 judgment. To these friends must be added 
 the name of Richard West, Esq. a young man 
 of great promise, (only son of Richard West 
 Lord Chancellor of Ireland, by the daughter of 
 Bishop Burnet,) who died in 1742, at the pre- 
 mature age of twenty-six. 
 
 Gray had been a school friend of Walpole. As 
 has been before mentioned, they travelled toge- 
 ther, and quarrelled during the journey. Wal- 
 ter Scott suggests as a reason for their differ- 
 ences, " that the youthful vivacity, and perhaps 
 aristocratic assumption, of Walpole, did not 
 agree with the somewhat formal opinions and 
 habits of the professed man of letters."* This 
 conjecture may very possibly be the correct 
 one ; but we have no clue to guide us with 
 certainty to the causes of their rupture. In 
 after-life they were reconciled, though the inti- 
 macy of early friendship never appears to have 
 been restored between them. Scott says of 
 Walpole, that " his temper was precarious"* 
 and we may, perhaps, affirm the same of Gray. 
 At all events, they were persons of such differ- 
 ent characters, that their not agreeing could 
 not be surprising. What could be more oppo- 
 site than " the self-sequestered, melancholy 
 Gray," and the eager, volatile Walpole, of 
 
 * Lives of the Novelists.
 
 liii 
 
 whom Lady Townshend said, when some one 
 talked of his good spirits, " Oh, Mr. Walpole is 
 spirits of hartshorn." When Mason was writ- 
 ing the life of Gray, Walpole bade him throw 
 the whole blame of the quarrel upon him. 
 This might be merely magnanimity, as Gray 
 was then dead ; what makes one most in- 
 clined to think it was the truth, is the fact, 
 that Gray was not the only intimate friend of 
 Walpole with whom he quarrelled. He did 
 so with Bentley, for which the eccentric con- 
 duct of that man of talent, might perhaps 
 account. But what shall we say to his quarrel 
 with the good-humoured, laughing George 
 Montagu, with whom, for the last years of 
 the life of the latter, he held no intercourse? 
 It is true, that in a letter to Mr. Cole, Walpole 
 lays the blame upon Montagu, and says, " he 
 was become such an humourist ;" but it must 
 be remembered, that we do not know Montagu's 
 version of the story ; and that undoubtedly 
 three quarrels with three intimate friends, ra- 
 ther support the charge, brought by Scott 
 against Walpole, of his having " a precarious 
 temper." 
 
 The friendship, however, which does honour 
 both to the head and heart of Horace Walpole, 
 was that which he bore to Marshal Con way : 
 
 VOL. i. c
 
 liv 
 
 a man, who, according to all the accounts of 
 him, that have come down to us, was so truly 
 worthy of inspiring such a degree of affection. 
 Burke's panegyric * upon his public character 
 and conduct is well-known ; while the Editor 
 of Lord Orford's works thus most justly eulo- 
 gizes his private life. " It is only those, who 
 have had the opportunity of penetrating into 
 the most secret motives of his public conduct, 
 and the inmost recesses of his private life, that 
 can do real justice to the unsullied purity of 
 his character who saw and knew him in the 
 evening of his days, retired from the honour- 
 able activity of a soldier and a statesman, to 
 the calm enjoyments of private life, happy in 
 the resources of his own mind, and in the cul- 
 tivation of useful science, in the bosom of 
 domestic peace unenriched by pensions or 
 places, undistinguished by titles or ribands, 
 unsophisticated by public life, and unwearied 
 by retirement." The offer of Walpole to share 
 his fortune with Conway, when the latter was 
 dismissed from his places, an offer so creditable 
 to both parties, has been already mentioned ; 
 and if we wish to have a just idea of the 
 esteem, in which Marshal Conway was held by 
 his contemporaries, it is only necessary to men- 
 
 * Speech on American Taxation, April 19, 1774.
 
 Iv 
 
 tion, that upon the same occasion, similar 
 offers were pressed upon him by his brother 
 Lord Hertford, and by the Duke of Devon- 
 shire, without any concert between them. 
 
 The rest of Walpole's friends and correspon- 
 dents it is hardly necessary to dwell upon : they 
 are many of them already well known to the 
 public from various causes. It may, however, 
 be permitted to observe, that they were, for the 
 most part, persons distinguished either by their 
 taste in the fine arts, their love of antiquities, 
 their literary attainments, or their conversational 
 talents. To the friends already mentioned, but 
 with whom Walpole did not habitually corre- 
 spond, must be added, Mason the poet, George 
 Selwyn, Richard second Lord Edgecumbe, 
 George James Williams, Esq. Lady Suffolk, 
 and Mrs. Clive the actress. 
 
 With the Marquise du Deffand, the old blind, 
 but clever leader of French society, he became 
 acquainted at Paris late in her life. Her devo- 
 tion for him appears to have been very great, 
 and is sometimes expressed in her letters with a 
 warmth and a tenderness, which Walpole, who 
 was most sensitive of ridicule, thought so absurd 
 in a person of her years and infirmities, that he 
 frequently reproves her very harshly for it ; so 
 much so, as to give him an appearance of a want
 
 Ivi 
 
 of kindly feeling towards her, which his general 
 conduct to her, and the regrets he expressed on 
 her death, do not warrant us in accusing him of. 
 In concluding the literary part of the charac- 
 ter of Walpole, it is natural to allude to the 
 transactions which took place between him and 
 the unfortunate Chatterton ; a text upon which 
 so much of calumny and misrepresentation have 
 been embroidered. The periodicals of the day, 
 and the tribe of those " who daily scribble for 
 their daily bread," and for whom Walpole had, 
 perhaps unwisely, frequently expressed his con- 
 tempt, attacked him bitterly for his inhumanity 
 to genius, and even accused him as the author of 
 the subsequent misfortunes and untimely death 
 of that misguided son of genius ; nay, even 
 the author of " The Pursuits of Literature," 
 who wrote many years after the transaction had 
 taken place, and who ought to have known 
 better, gave in to the prevailing topic of abuse.* 
 
 * See " Pursuits of Literature," second Dialogue: 
 " The Boy, whom once patrician pens adorn'd, 
 First meanly flatter'd, then as meanly scorn'd. 
 
 Which lines are stated in a note to allude to Walpole. See also, first 
 Dialogue, where Chatterton is called, " That varlet bright." The 
 note to which passage is, " I am the veriest varlet that ever chew'd, 
 says Falstaff, in Henry IV. Part I. act 2. Mr. Horace Walpole, now 
 Lord Orford, did not, however, seem to think it necessary that this 
 varlet Ciiatterton should chew at all. See the Starvation Act, dated 
 at Strawberry Hill."
 
 Ivii 
 
 It therefore becomes necessary to state shortly 
 what really took place upon this occasion ; a 
 task which is rendered easier, by the clear view 
 of the transaction, taken both by Walter Scott 
 in his " Lives of the Novelists," and by Chal- 
 mers in his " Biographical Dictionary," which 
 is also fully borne out by the narrative drawn 
 up by Walpole himself, and accompanied by 
 the correspondence. 
 
 It appears then, that in March 1769, Walpole 
 received a letter from Chatterton, enclosing a 
 few specimens of the pretended poems of Row- 
 ley, and announcing his discovery of a series of 
 ancient painters at Bristol. To this communi- 
 cation Walpole, naturally enough, returned a 
 very civil answer. Shortly afterwards, doubts 
 arose in his mind as to the authenticity of the 
 poems ; these were confirmed by the opinions 
 of some friends, to whom he showed them ; and 
 he then wrote an expression of these doubts to 
 Chatterton. This appears to have excited the 
 anger of Chatterton, who, after one or two 
 short notes, wrote Walpole a very impertinent 
 one, in which he redemanded his manuscripts. 
 This last letter Walpole had intended to have 
 answered with some sharpness ; but did not 
 do so. He only returned the specimens on the 
 fourth of August 1769 ; and this concluded 
 the intercourse between them; and, as Walpole
 
 Iviii 
 
 observes, " I never saw him then, before, or 
 since." Subsequently to this transaction, Chat- 
 terton acquired other patrons more credulous 
 than Walpole, and proceeded with his forgeries. 
 In April 1770 he came to London, and com- 
 mitted suicide in August of that year; a fate, 
 which befell him, it is to be feared, more in 
 consequence of his own dissolute and profligate 
 habits, than from any want of patronage. How- 
 ever this may be, Walpole clearly had nothing 
 to say to it. 
 
 In addition to the accusation of crushing, in- 
 stead of fostering his genius, Walpole has also 
 been charged with cruelty in not assisting him 
 with money. Upon this, he very truly says 
 himself, " Chatterton was neither indigent nor 
 distressed at the time of his correspondence 
 with me. He was maintained by his mother, 
 and lived with a lawyer. His only pleas to my 
 assistance were, disgust to his profession, incli- 
 nation to poetry, and communication of some 
 suspicious MSS. His distress was the conse- 
 quence of quitting his master, and coming to 
 London, and of his other extravagancies. He 
 had depended on the impulse of the talents he 
 felt for making impression, and lifting him to 
 wealth, honours, and fame. I have already 
 said, that I should have been blameable to his
 
 lix 
 
 mother and society, if I had seduced an ap- 
 prentice from his master to marry him to the 
 nine Muses ; and I should have encouraged a 
 propensity to forgery, which is not the talent 
 most wanting culture in the present age."* 
 Such and so unimportant was the transac- 
 tion with Chatterton, which brought so much 
 obloquy on Walpole, and seems really to have 
 given him at different times great annoyance. 
 
 There remains but little more to relate in the 
 life of Walpole. His old age glided on peace- 
 fully, and, with the exception of his severe suf- 
 ferings from the gout, apparently contentedly, 
 in the pursuit of his favourite studies and em- 
 ployments. In the year 1791, he succeeded his 
 unhappy nephew, George third Earl of Orford, 
 who had at different periods of his life been 
 insane, in the family estate and the Earldom. 
 The accession of this latter dignity seems rather 
 to have annoyed him than otherwise. He 
 never took his seat in the House of Lords, and 
 his unwillingness to adopt his title was shown 
 in his endeavours to avoid making use of it in 
 his signature. He not unfrequently signed him- 
 self, " The Uncle of the late Earl of Orford."f 
 
 * Letter to the Editor of the Miscellanies of Chatterton. Works 
 of Lord Orford, vol. iv. 
 
 t The Duke of Bedford has a letter of Walpole's with this signature.
 
 Ix 
 
 He retained his faculties to the last, but his 
 limbs became helpless from his frequent attacks 
 of gout. As he himself expresses it, 
 
 " Fortune, who scatters her gifts out of season, 
 Though unkind to my limbs, has yet left me my reason."* 
 
 As a friend of his, who only knew him in the 
 last years of his life, speaks of " his conversa- 
 tion as, as singularly brilliant as it was origi- 
 nal,"! we may conclude his liveliness never de- 
 serted him ; that his talent for letter-writing 
 did not, we have a proof in a letter written 
 only six weeks before his death, in which, with 
 all his accustomed grace of manner, he entreats 
 a Lady of his acquaintance not to show " the 
 idle notes" of " her ancient servant." Lord 
 Orford died in the eightieth year of his age, at 
 his house, in Berkeley-square, on the 2nd of 
 March 1797. and was buried with his family in 
 the church at Houghton ; and with him con- 
 cluded the male line of the descendants of Sir 
 Robert Walpole. D. 
 
 * " Epitaphium vivi auctoris" 1792. 
 f " Social Life in England and France."
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 THE following Collection of Letters, written 
 very carelessly by a young man, had been pre- 
 served by the person to whom they were ad- 
 dressed. The Author, some years after the 
 date of the first, borrowed them, on account 
 of some anecdotes interspersed. On the peru- 
 sal, among many trifling relations and stories, 
 which were only of consequence or amusing to 
 the two persons concerned in the correspond- 
 ence, he found some facts, characters, and news, 
 which, though below the dignity of history, 
 might prove entertaining to many other people : 
 and knowing how much pleasure, not only him- 
 self, but many other persons have often found 
 in a series of private and familiar letters, he 
 thought it worth his while to preserve these, 
 
 VOL. i. /
 
 Ixii ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 as they contain something of the customs, 
 fashions, politics, diversions, and private his- 
 tory of several years ; which, if worthy of 
 any existence, can be properly transmitted to 
 posterity only in this manner. 
 
 The reader will find a few pieces of intelli- 
 gence which did not prove true ; but which 
 are retained here as the Author heard and 
 related them, lest correction should spoil the 
 simple air of the Narrative.* When the letters 
 were written, they were never intended for 
 public inspection ; and now they are far from 
 being thought correct, or more authentic than 
 the general turn of epistolatory correspondence 
 admits. The Author would sooner have burnt 
 them, than have taken the trouble to correct 
 such errant trifles, which are here presented to 
 the Reader, with scarce any variation or omis- 
 sions, but what private friendships and private 
 history, or the great haste with which the letters 
 were written, made indispensably necessary, as 
 
 * They are marked in the Notes.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. Ixiii 
 
 will plainly appear, not only by the unavoidable 
 chasms, where the originals were worn out or 
 torn away, but by many idle relations and inju- 
 dicious remarks and prejudices of a young man ; 
 for which the only excuse the Author can pre- 
 tend to make, is, that as some future reader 
 may possibly be as young as he was when he 
 first wrote, he hopes they may be amused with 
 what graver people, (if, into such hands they 
 should fall,) will very justly despise. Whoever 
 has patience to peruse the series, will find, per- 
 haps, that as the Author grew older, some of 
 his faults became less striking.
 
 LETTERS 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 TO 
 
 SIR HORACE MANN. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Calais, and Friday, and here I have been these two days, 1741. 
 
 Is the wind laid ? Shall I never get aboard ? 
 I came here on Wednesday night, but found a 
 tempest that has never ceased since. At Bou- 
 logne I left Lord Shrewsbury and his mother, 
 and brothers and sisters, waiting too : Bulstrode* 
 passes his winter at the Court of Boulogne, and 
 then is to travel with two young Shrewsburys. 
 I was overtaken by Amorevoli and Monti- 
 celli/f who are here with me and the Vis- 
 contina, and Barberina, and Abbate VanneschiJ 
 
 * Tutor to the young Earl of Shrewsbury, 
 f Italian singers. 
 
 J An Italian Abbe, who directed and wrote the Operas, under the 
 protection of Lord Middlesex. 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 what a coxcomb ! I would have talked to 
 him about the opera, but he preferred politics. 
 I have wearied Amorevoli with questions about 
 you. If he was not just come from you, and 
 could talk to me about you, I should hate him ; 
 for, to flatter me, he told me that I talked Italian 
 better than you. He did not know how little I 
 think it a compliment to have anything preferred 
 to you besides, you know the consistence of my 
 Italian ! They are all frightened out of their 
 senses about going on the sea, and are not a little 
 afraid of the English. They went aboard the 
 William and Mary yacht yesterday, which waits 
 here for Lady Cardigan from Spa. The Cap- 
 tain clapped the door, and swore in broad Eng- 
 lish, that the Viscontina should not stir till she 
 gave him a song, he did not care whether it was 
 a catch or a moving ballad but she would not 
 submit. I wonder he did ! When she came 
 home and told me, I begged her not to judge of 
 all the English from this specimen but, by the 
 way, she will find many sea-captains, that grow 
 on dry land. 
 
 Sittinburn, Sept. 13, O.S. 
 
 Saturday morning, or yesterday, we did set 
 out, and after a good passage of four hours and 
 a half, landed at Dover. I begin to count my 
 comforts, for I find their contraries thicken on
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 3 
 
 my apprehension. I have, at least, done for a 
 while with post-chaises. My trunks were a lit- 
 tle opened at Calais, and they would have stop- 
 ped my medals, but with much ado and much 
 three louis's they let them pass. At Dover I 
 found the benefit of the motions* having mis- 
 carried last year, for they respected Sir Robert's 
 son even in the person of his trunks. I came 
 over in a yacht with East India captains' widows, 
 a Catholic girl, coming from a convent to be 
 married, with an Irish priest to guard her, who 
 says he studied medicines for two years, and 
 after that he studied learning for two years 
 more. I have not brought over a word of 
 French or Italian for common use ; I have so 
 taken pains to avoid affectation in this point, 
 that I have failed only now and then in a chi e 
 la to the servants, who, I can scarce persuade 
 myself yet, are English. The country-town 
 (and you will believe me, who, you know, am 
 not prejudiced) delights me : the populousness, 
 the ease, the gaiety, and well-dressed everybody 
 amaze me. Canterbury, which, on my setting 
 out, I thought deplorable, is a paradise to Mo- 
 dena, Reggio, Parma, &c. I had before dis- 
 covered that there was nowhere but in England 
 
 * The motion in both Houses of Parliament 1740, for removing 
 Sir Robert Walpole from the King's councils. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 the distinction of middling people ; I perceive 
 now, that there is peculiar to us middling houses : 
 how snug they are ! I write to-night because I 
 have time ; to-morrow I get to London just as 
 the post goes. Sir Robert is at Houghton. 
 
 Good night till another post. You are quite 
 well, I trust, but tell me so always. My loves 
 to the Chutes * and all the &c.a's. 
 
 Oh ! a story of Mr. Pope and the Prince : 
 " Mr. Pope, you don't love princes." " Sir, I 
 beg your pardon." " Well, you don't love kings, 
 then !" " Sir, I own I love the lion best before 
 his claws are grown." Was it possible to make 
 a better answer to such simple questions ? 
 Adieu ! my dearest child ! 
 
 Yours, ten thousand times over. 
 
 P.S. Patapanf does not seem to regret his 
 own country. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 [The beginning of this letter is lost.] 
 
 * * * I had written and sealed my letter, 
 but have since received another from you, dated 
 
 * John Chute and Francis Whithed, Esqrs. two great friends of 
 Mr. W.'s, whom he had left at Florence, where he had been himself 
 thirteen months, in the house of Mr. Mann, his relation and particular 
 friend. f Mr. W.'s dog.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 5 
 
 Sept. 24. I read Sir Robert your account of 
 Corsica ; he seems to like hearing any account 
 sent this way indeed, they seem to have more 
 superficial relations in general than I could have 
 believed ! You will oblige me, too, with any 
 farther account of Bianca Colonna* it is ro- 
 mantic, her history ! 
 
 I am infinitely obliged to Mr. Chute for his 
 kindness to me, and still more for his friendship 
 to you. You cannot think how happy I am 
 to hear that you are to keep him longer. You 
 do not mention his having received my letter 
 from Paris : I directed it to him, recommended 
 to you. I would not have him think me capa- 
 ble of neglecting to answer his letter, which 
 obliged me so much. I will deliver Amorevoli 
 his letter the first time I see him. 
 
 Lord Islayf dined here ; I mentioned Stosch's^ 
 Maltese cats : Lord Islay begged I would write 
 to Florence to have the largest male and female 
 that can be got. If you will speak to Stosch, 
 you will oblige me : they may come by sea. 
 
 * A kind of Joan of Arc, who headed the Corsican rebels against 
 the Genoese. 
 
 r Archibald Campbell, Earl of Islay, and, on his brother's death, 
 Duke of Argyll. 
 
 I Baron Stosch, a Prussian virtuoso, and spy for the Court of Eng- 
 land on the Pretender. He had been driven from Rome, though it 
 was suspected that he was a spy on both sides : he was a man of a 
 most infamous character in every respect.
 
 6 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 You cannot imagine my amazement at your 
 not being invited to Riccardi's ball ; do tell me, 
 when you know, what can be the meaning of it ; 
 it could not be inadvertence nay, that were as 
 bad! 
 
 Adieu ! my dear child, once more ! 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Downing Street, Oct. 8, 1741, O. S. 
 
 I HAVE been very near sealing this letter 
 with black wax ; Sir Robert came from Rich- 
 mond, on Sunday night, extremely ill, and on 
 Monday was in great danger. It was an ague 
 and looseness ; but they have stopped the 
 latter, and converted the other into a fever, 
 which they are curing with the bark. He 
 came out of his chamber to-day for the first 
 time, and is quite out of danger. One of the 
 newspapers says, Sir R. W. is so bad that there 
 are no hopes of him. 
 
 The Pomfrets* are arrived ; I went this morn- 
 ing to visit my lord, but did not find him. Lady 
 
 * Thomas, Earl of Pomfret, and Henrietta Louisa, his consort, and 
 their two eldest daughters, Sophia and Charlotte, had been in Italy at 
 the same time with Mr. W. : the Earl had been Master of the Horse 
 to Queen Caroline, and the Countess, Lady of the Bedchamber.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 7 
 
 Sophia is ill, and my Earl* still at Paris, not 
 coming. 
 
 There is no news, nor a soul in town. One 
 talks of nothing but distempers, like Sir Robert's. 
 My Lady Townshendf was reckoning up the 
 other day the several things that have cured 
 them ; such a doctor so many, such a medicine so 
 many ; but of all, the greatest number have 
 found relief from the sudden deaths of their 
 husbands. 
 
 The opera begins the day after the King's 
 birthday : the singers are not permitted to sing 
 till on the stage, so no one has heard them, nor 
 have I seen Amorevoli to give him the letter. 
 The opera is to be on the French system of 
 dancers, scenes, and dresses. The directors 
 have already laid out great sums. They talk of 
 a mob to silence the operas, as they did the 
 French players ; but it will be more difficult, for 
 here half the young noblemen in town are en- 
 gaged, and they will not be so easily persuaded 
 to humour the taste of the mobility : in short, 
 they have already retained several eminent law- 
 yers from the Bear Gar den, J to plead their de- 
 
 * Henry, Earl of Lincoln, was at that time in love with Lady 
 Sophia Fermor. 
 
 f Ethelreda Harrison, wife of Charles Lord Viscount Townshend, 
 but parted from him. J Boxers.
 
 8 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 fence. I have had a long visit this morning 
 from Don Benjamin :* he is one of the best kind 
 of agreeable men I ever saw quite fat and easy 
 with universal knowledge : he is in the greatest 
 esteem at my Court. 
 
 I am going to trouble you with some commis- 
 sions. Miss Rich,f who is the finest singer, 
 except your sister, J in the world, has begged 
 me to get her some music, particularly " the 
 office of the Virgin of the Seven Sorrows," by 
 Pergolesi, the " Serva Padrona, il Pastor se 
 torna Aprile," and " Semplicetta Pastorella." If 
 you can send these easily, you will much oblige 
 me. Do, too, let me know by your brother, 
 what you have already laid out for me, that I 
 may pay him. 
 
 I was mentioning to Sir Robert some pictures 
 in Italy, which I wished him to buy ; two par- 
 ticularly, if they can be got, would make him 
 delight in you beyond measure. They are, a 
 Madonna and Child, by Dominichino, in the pa- 
 lace Zambeccari, at Bologna, or Caliambec, 
 as they call it ; Mr. Chute knows the picture. 
 
 * Benjamin Keene, Ambassador at Madrid, 
 -f Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Robert Rich, since married to 
 Sir G. Lyttelton. 
 
 J Mary, daughter of R. Mann, Esq, since married to Mr. Foote. 
 A corrupted pronunciation of the Bolognese.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 9 
 
 The othqr is by Correggio, in a convent at Par- 
 ma, and reckoned the second best of that hand in 
 the world. There are the Madonna and Child, 
 St. Catherine, St. Matthew, and other figures : 
 it is a most known picture, and has been en- 
 graved by Augustin Carracci. If you can em- 
 ploy anybody privately to inquire about these 
 pictures, be so good to let me know : Sir R. 
 would not scruple almost any price, for he has of 
 neither hand : the convent is poor : the Zam- 
 beccari collection is to be sold, though, when I 
 inquired after this picture, they would not set a 
 price. 
 
 Lord Euston is to be married to Lady Doro- 
 thy Boyle* to-morrow, after so many delays. 
 
 I have received your long letter, and Mr. 
 Chute's too, which I will answer next post. I 
 wish I had the least politics to tell you ; but all 
 is silent. The Opposition say not a syllable, 
 because they don't know what the Court will 
 
 * This unfortunate marriage is alluded to several times in the 
 course of the subsequent letters. George, Earl of Euston, was the 
 eldest son of Charles, second Duke of Grafton. He married, in 
 1741, Lady Dorothy Boyle, eldest daughter and co-heir of Richard, 
 third and last Earl of Burlington. She died in 1742, from the effects, 
 as it is supposed, of his brutal treatment of her. The details of his 
 cruelty towards her are almost too revolting to be believed. In Sir 
 Charles Hanbury Williams's poems are some pretty lines on her 
 death, beginning, " Behold one moment Dorothea's fate." D.
 
 10 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 think of public affairs ; and they will not take 
 their part, till they are sure of contradicting. 
 The Court will not be very ready to declare 
 themselves, as their present situation is every 
 way disagreeable. All they say, is to throw the 
 blame entirely on the obstinacy of the Austrian 
 Court, who would never stir or soften for them- 
 selves, while they thought any one obliged to 
 defend them. All I know of news is, that 
 Poland is leaning towards the acquisition side, 
 like her neighbours, and proposes to get a lock 
 of the Golden Fleece too. Is this any part 
 of Gregory's* negotiation ? I delight in his 
 Scappata " Scappata, no ; egli solamente ha 
 preso la posta." My service to Seriston ; he is 
 . charming. 
 
 How excessively obliging to go to Madame 
 Grifoni'sf festino ! but believe me, I shall be 
 angry, if, for my sake, you do things that are out 
 of your character : don't you know that I am in- 
 finitely fonder of that than of her ? 
 
 I read your story of the Sposa Panciatici at 
 table, to the great entertainment of the company, 
 and Prince Craon's epitaph, which Lord Cholm- 
 
 * Gregorio Agdollo, an Asiatic, from being a prisoner at Leghorn, 
 raised himself to be employed to the great Duke by the King of 
 Poland. 
 
 f Elisabetta Capponi, wife of Signer Grifoni, a great beauty..
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 11 
 
 ley* says he has heard before, and does not think 
 it is the Prince's own ; no more do I, it is too 
 good : but make my compliments of thanks to 
 him ; he shall have his buckles the first opportu- 
 nity I find of sending them. 
 
 Say a thousand things for me to dear Mr. 
 Chute, till I can say them next post for myself; 
 
 till then, adieu. 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 London, Oct. 13, 1741. 
 [The greatest part of this letter is wanting.] 
 
 * * * The Town will come to town, and then 
 one shall know something. Sir Robert is quite 
 recovered. 
 
 Lady Pomfret I saw last night : Lady Sophia 
 has been ill with a cold ; her head is to be dress- 
 ed French, and her body English, for which I 
 am sorry ; her figure is so fine in a robe : she is 
 full as sorry as I am. Their trunks are not 
 arrived yet, so they have not made their appear- 
 ance. My Lady told me, a little out of humour, 
 that Uguccioni wrote her word, that you said 
 
 * George, third Earl of Cholmondeley, had married Mary Wai- 
 pole, only legitimate daughter of Sir Robert Walpole. D.
 
 12 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 her things could not be sent away yet : I under- 
 stood from you, that very wisely, you would have 
 nothing to do about them, so made no answer. 
 
 The Parliament meets the fifteenth of No- 
 vember. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Amorevoli has been with me two hours this even- 
 ing ; he is in panics about the first night, which 
 is the next after the birthday. 
 
 I have taken a master, not to forget my 
 Italian don't it look like returning to Flo- 
 rence ? sometime or other. Good night. 
 
 Your's ever and ever, my dear child. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 London, Oct. 19, 1741. O. S. 
 [Great part wanting.] 
 
 I WRITE to you up to the head and ears in 
 dirt, straw, and unpacking. I have been open- 
 ing all my cases from the Custom-House the 
 whole morning ; and are not you glad ? every 
 individual safe and undamaged. I am fitting up 
 an apartment in Downing Street 
 
 * * was called in the morning, and 
 was asleep as soon as his head touched the pil-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 13 
 
 low, for I have frequently known him snore ere 
 they had drawn his curtains, now never sleeps 
 above an hour without waking ; and he, who at 
 dinner always forgot he was Minister, and was 
 more gay and thoughtless than all his company, 
 now sits without speaking, and with his eyes 
 fixed for an hour together. Judge if this is the 
 Sir Robert you knew. 
 
 The politics of the age are entirely suspended, 
 nothing is mentioned; but this bottling them 
 up, will make them fly out with the greater 
 
 violence the moment the Parliament meets ; till 
 ***** 
 
 a word to you about this affair. 
 
 I am sorry to hear the Venetian journey of 
 the Suares family ; it does not look as if the 
 Teresina was to marry Pandolfini ; do you know, 
 I have set my heart upon that match. 
 
 You are very good to the Pucci, to give her 
 that advice, though I don't suppose she will 
 follow it. The Bolognese scheme * * 
 
 In return for Amorevoli's letter, he has given 
 me two. I fancy it will be troublesome to you ; 
 so put his wife into some other method of corre- 
 spondence with him. 
 
 Do you love puns ? A pretty man of the age 
 came into the playhouse the other night, booted
 
 14 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 and spurred : says he, " I am come to see Or- 
 pheus" "And Euridice You rid I see" re- 
 plied another gentleman. * * f 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 London, Oct. 22, 1741, O. S. 
 
 YOUR brother has been with me this morning, 
 and we have talked over your whole affair. He 
 thinks it will be impossible to find any servant of 
 the capacities you require, that will live with 
 you under twenty, if not thirty, pounds a-year, 
 especially as he is not to have your clothes : then 
 the expense of the journey to Florence, and of 
 back again, in case you should not like him, will 
 be considerable. He is for your taking one from 
 Leghorn ; but I, who know a little more of Leg- 
 horn than he does, should be apprehensive of 
 any person from thence being in the interest of 
 Golds worthy, or too attached to the merchants: 
 in short, I mean, he would be liable to prove a 
 spy upon you. We have agreed that I shall en- 
 deavour to find out a proper man, if such a one 
 
 f The omissions in these letters marked with stars, occur in the 
 original MS. D. 
 
 I Consul at Leghorn, who was endeavouring to supplant Mr. 
 Mann-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 15 
 
 will go to you for twenty pounds a-year, and 
 then you shall hear from me. I am very sensi- 
 ble that Palombo* is not fit for you, and shall be 
 extremely diligent in equipping you with such a 
 one as you want. You know how much I wish 
 to be of any service to you, even in trifles. 
 
 I have been much diverted privately, for it is 
 a secret that not a hundred persons know yet, 
 and is not to be spoken of. Do but think on a 
 duel between Winningtonf and Augustus Towns- 
 hend;!; : the latter a pert boy, captain of an 
 Indiaman ; the former declared Cicisbeo to my 
 Lady Townshend. The quarrel was something 
 that Augustus had said of them ; for since she 
 was parted from her husband, she has broke 
 with all his family. Winnington challenged ; 
 they walked into Hyde Park last Sunday morn- 
 ing, scratched one another's fingers, tumbled into 
 two ditches that is, Augustus did kissed and 
 walked home together. The other night, at 
 Mrs. Boothby's 
 
 Well, I did believe I should never find time to 
 
 * An Italian, Secretary to Mr. Mann. 
 
 f Thomas Winnington, cofferer, and afterwards Paymaster of the 
 Forces. 
 
 J The Hon. Augustus Townshend was second son of the Minister, 
 Lord Townshend, by his second wife, the sister of Sir Robert Wai- 
 pole. He was consequently half-brother to Charles, the third Vis- 
 count, husband to Ethelreda, Lady Townshend, D. 

 
 16 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 write to you again ; I was interrupted in my 
 letter last post/ and could not finish it ; to-day I 
 came home from the King's levee, where I kissed 
 his hand, without going to the drawing-room, 
 on purpose to finish my letter, and the moment I 
 sat down, they let somebody in. That some- 
 body is gone, and I go on. At Mrs. Boothby's, 
 Lady Townshend was coquetting with Lord 
 Baltimore :* he told her, if she meant anything 
 with him, he was not for her purpose ; if only to 
 make any one jealous, he would throw away an 
 hour with her with all his heart. 
 
 The whole town is to be to-morrow night at 
 Sir Thomas Robinson'sf ball, which he gives to 
 a little girl of the Duke of Richmond's. There 
 are already two hundred invited, from miss in 
 bib and apron, to my Lord Chancellor J in bib 
 and mace. You shall hear about it next post. 
 
 I wrote you word that Lord Euston is mar- 
 ried : in a week more I believe I shall write you 
 word that he is divorced. He is brutal enough ; 
 
 * Charles Calvert, sixth Lord Baltimore, in Ireland. He was at 
 this time Member of Parliament for the borough of St. Germains, 
 and a Lord of the Admiralty. D. 
 
 f Sir Thomas Robinson, of Rokeby Park, in Yorkshire, commonly 
 called " Long Sir Thomas," on account of his stature, and in order to 
 distinguish him from the diplomatist, Sir Thomas Robinson, after- 
 wards created Lord Grantham. D. 
 
 J Philip Yorke, Lord Hardwicke. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 17 
 
 and has forbid Lady Burlington* his house, and 
 that in very ungentle terms. The whole family 
 is in confusion ; the Duke of Grafton half dead, 
 and Lord Burlington half mad. The latter has 
 challenged Lord Euston, who accepted the chal- 
 lenge, but they were prevented. There are dif- 
 ferent stories : some say that the duel would 
 have been no breach of sanguinity ; others, that 
 there is a contract of marriage come out in ano- 
 ther place, which has had more consanguinity 
 than ceremony in it in short, one cannot go 
 into a room but you hear something of it. Do 
 not you pity the poor girl ? of the softest tem- 
 per, vast beauty, birth and fortune, to be so 
 sacrificed ! 
 
 The letters from the West Indies are not the 
 most agreeable. You have heard of the fine 
 river and little town which Vernon took, and 
 named, the former Augusta, the latter Cumber- 
 land. Since that, they have found out, that it 
 is impracticable to take St. Jago by sea ; on 
 which Admiral Vernon and Ogle insisted that 
 Wentworth, with the land forces, should march 
 to it by land ; which he, by advice of all the 
 land-officers, has refused ; for their march would 
 
 * Lady Dorothy Savile, eldest daughter and co-heiress of William 
 second Marquis of Halifax, the mother of the unhappy Lady 
 Euston. D. 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 THE HON. HORACE VVALPOLE 
 
 have been of eighty miles, through a mountain- 
 ous, unknown country, full of denies, where not 
 two men could march abreast; and they have 
 but four thousand five hundred men, and twenty- 
 four horses. Quires of paper from both sides 
 are come over to the Council, who are to deter- 
 mine from hence what is to be done. They 
 have taken a Spanish man-of-war and a register 
 ship, going to Spain, immensely valuable. 
 
 The Parliament does not meet till the first of 
 December, which relieves me into a little happi- 
 ness, and gives me a little time to settle myself. 
 I have unpacked all my things, and have not 
 had the least thing suffer. I am now only in a 
 fright about my birthday clothes, which I be- 
 spoke at Paris : Friday is the day, and this is 
 Monday, without any news of them ! 
 
 I have been two or three times at the play, 
 very unwillingly, for nothing was ever so bad as 
 the actors, except the company. There is much 
 in vogue a Mrs. Woffington,* a bad actress, but 
 she has life. 
 
 Lord Hartingtonf dines here : it is said (and 
 from his father's partiality to another person's 
 
 * Margaret Woffington, the celebrated beauty. D. 
 
 t William, Marquis of Hartington, afterwards fourth Duke of 
 Devonshire. He married Lady Charlotte Boyle, second daughter of 
 Richard, third Earl of Burlington. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 19 
 
 father, I don't think it impossible) that he is to 
 marry a certain Miss :* Lord Fitzwilliam is sup- 
 posed another candidate. 
 
 Here is a new thing, which has been much 
 about town, and liked ; your brother Gal.f gave 
 me the copy of it : 
 
 LES COURS DE L'EUROPE. 
 
 L'Allemagne craint tout; 
 
 L'Autriche risque tout; 
 
 La Baviere espere tout ; 
 
 La Prusse entreprend tout ; 
 
 La Mayence vend tout ; 
 
 Le Portugal regarde tout ; 
 
 L'Angleterre veut faire tout ; 
 
 L'Espagne embrouille tout ; 
 
 La Savoye se defie de tout ; 
 
 Le Mercure se mele de tout ; 
 
 La France achete tout ; 
 
 Les Jesuites se trouvent par tout ; 
 
 Rome benit tout ; 
 
 Si Dieu ne pourvoye a tout, 
 
 Le Diable emportera tout. 
 
 Good night, my dear child : you never say a 
 word of your own health ; are not you quite re- 
 
 * Miss Mary Walpole, daughter of Sir Robert Walpole by his 
 second wife, Maria Skerrett, but born before their marriage. When 
 her father was made an Earl, she had the rank of an Earl's daughter 
 given to her. D. 
 
 t Galfridus Mann. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 covered ? a thousand services to Mr. Chute and 
 Mr. Whithed, and to all my friends: do they 
 begin to forget me ? I don't them. 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 London, Nov. 2, 1741. 
 
 You shall not hear a word but of balls and 
 public places : this one week has seen Sir T. 
 Robinson's ball, my Lord Mayor's, the birthday, 
 and the Opera. There were an hundred and 
 ninety-seven persons at Sir Thomas's, and yet was 
 it so well conducted, that nobody felt a crowd. 
 He had taken off all his doors, and so separated 
 the old and the young, that neither were incon- 
 venienced with the other. The ball began at 
 eight, each man danced one minuet with his 
 partner, and then began country dances. There 
 were four-and-twenty couple, divided into twelve 
 and twelve ; each set danced two dances, and 
 then retired into another room, while the other 
 set took their two ; and so alternately. Except 
 Lady Ancram,* no married woman danced ; so, 
 you see, in England, we do not foot it till five- 
 
 * Lady Caroline D'Arcy, daughter of Robert third Earl of Holder- 
 nesse, and wife of William Henry fourth Marquis of Lothian, at this 
 time, during his father's life-time, called Earl of Ancram. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 21 
 
 and-fifty. The beauties were the Duke of Rich- 
 mond's two daughters* and their mother, still 
 handsomer than they : the Duke| sat by his wife 
 all night, kissing her hand : how this must sound 
 in the ears of Florentine Cicisbe's, cock or hen ! 
 Then there was Lady Euston, Lady Caroline 
 Fitzroy,f Lady Lucy Manners,^ Lady Camilla 
 Bennet, and Lady Sophia, || handsomer than all, 
 but a little out of humour at the scarcity of minu- 
 ets ; however, as usual, she danced more than any- 
 body ; and, as usual too, took out what men she 
 liked or thought the best dancers. Mem. Lord 
 Holderness^[ is a little, what Lord Lincoln** will 
 be to-morrow ; for he is expected. There was 
 Churchill's daughter,ff who is prettyish, and 
 
 * Lady Caroline and Lady Emily Lenox, since mairied to H. 
 Fox, Esq. and the Earl of Kildare. 
 
 4- Charles, second Duke of Richmond, and Lady Sarah Cadogan, 
 his Duchess, eldest daughter of William Earl Cadogan. D. 
 
 f Eldest daughter to Charles Duke of Grafton, since married to 
 Lord Petersham. 
 
 \ Sister to John, Duke of Rutland, since married to the Duke of 
 Montrose. 
 
 Only daughter of Charles second Earl of Tankerville. She mar- 
 ried, first, Gilbert Fane Fleming, Esq. and secondly, Mr. Wake, 
 of Bath. D. || Lady Sophia Fermor. 
 
 If Robert D'Arcy, fourth and last Earl of Holdemesse. D. 
 
 ** Lord Lincoln was at this time an admirer of Lady Sophia 
 Fermor. D. 
 
 H Harriot, natural daughter of Gen. Churchill, since married to Sir 
 Everard Fawkener.
 
 22 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 dances well ; and the Parsons* family from 
 Paris, who are admired too ; but indeed it is cl 
 force des muscles. Two other pretty women 
 were Mrs. Colebroke (did you know the he- 
 Colebroke in Italy?) and a Lady Schaub, a 
 foreigner, who, as Sir Luke says, would have 
 him. Sir R. was afraid of the heat, and 
 did not go. The supper was served at twelve ; 
 a large table of hot for the lady-dancers ; 
 their partners and other tables stood round. 
 We danced (for I country-danced) till four, 
 then had tea and coffee, and came home. 
 Finis Balli. 
 
 * * * Friday was the birthday ; it was vastly 
 full, the ball immoderately so, for there came all 
 the second edition of my Lord Mayor's, but not 
 much finery : Lord Fitzwilliamf and myself were 
 far the most superb. I did not get mine till 
 nine that morning. 
 
 The Opera will not tell so well as the two 
 other shows, for they were obliged to omit the 
 part of Amorevoli, who has a fever. The audi- 
 ence was excessive, without the least disturbance, 
 
 * The son and daughters of .Alderman Parsons, a Jacobite brewer, 
 who lived much in France, and had, somehow or other, been taken 
 notice of by the King. 
 
 f William third Earl Fitzwilliam, in Ireland. Created an English 
 Peer in 1 742 ; and subsequently an English Earl. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 23 
 
 and almost as little applause ; I cannot con- 
 ceive why, for Monticelli * * 
 be able to sing to-morrow. 
 
 At court I met the Shadwells ;* Mademoiselle 
 Misse Molli, &c. I love them, for they asked 
 vastly after you, and kindly. Do you know, I 
 have had a mind to visit Pucci, the Florentine 
 Minister, but he is so black, and looks so like a 
 murderer in a play, that I have never brought it 
 about yet ? I know none of the foreign minis- 
 ters, but Ossoriof a little ; he is still vastly in 
 fashion, though extremely altered. Scandal, 
 who, I believe, is not mistaken, lays a Miss 
 Macartney to his charge ; she is a companion to 
 the Duchess of Richmond, as Madame Golds- 
 worthy was ; but Ossorio will rather be Wach- 
 tendonckj than Goldsworthy : what a lament- 
 able story is that of the hundred sequins per 
 month ! I have mentioned Mr. Jackson, as you 
 desired, to Sir R., who says, he has a very good 
 opinion of him. In case of any change at Leg- 
 horn, you will let me know. He will not lose 
 
 * Sir John Shadwell, a physician, his wife and daughters, the 
 youngest of whom was pretty, and by the foreigners generally called 
 Mademoiselle Misse Motli, had been in Italy, when Mr. W. was 
 there. 
 
 t The Chevalier Ossorio, Minister from the King of Sardinia. 
 
 J General Wachtendonck, Commander of the Great Duke's troops 
 at Leghorn, was Cicisbeo to the Consul's wife there.
 
 24 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 his patron, Lord Hervey,* so soon as I imagined ; 
 he begins to recover. 
 
 I believe the Euston embroil is adjusted ; I 
 was with Lady Caroline Fitzroy on Friday even- 
 ing ; there were her brother and the bride, and 
 quite bridal together, quite honey-moonish. 
 
 I forgot to tell you that the Prince was not at 
 the Opera ; I believe it has been settled that he 
 should go thither on Tuesdays, and Majesty on 
 Saturdays, that they may not meet. 
 
 The Neutralityf begins to break out, and 
 threatens to be an excise or convention. The 
 newspapers are full of it, and the press teems. 
 It has already produced three pieces : The 
 Groans of Germany, which I will send you by 
 the first opportunity : Bedlam, a poem on his 
 Majesty's happy escape from his German domi- 
 nions, and all the wisdom of his conduct there. 
 The title of this is all that is remarkable in it. 
 The third piece is a ballad, which, not for the 
 goodness, but for the excessive abuse of it, I 
 shall transcribe : 
 
 John Lord Hervey, Lord Privy Seal, and eldest son of John first 
 Earl of Bristol. He was a man of considerable celebrity in his day ; 
 but is now principally known from his unfortunate rivalry with Pope, 
 for the good graces of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. He died 
 Augusts, 1743. D. 
 
 t The Neutrality for ihe Electorate of Hanover.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 25 
 
 THE LATE GALLANT EXPLOITS OF A FAMOUS 
 BALANCING CAPTAIN. 
 
 A NEW SONG. TO THE TUNE OF THE KING AND THE MILLER. 
 
 Mene tekel. The handwriting on the wall. 
 
 I. 
 
 I'll tell you a story as strange as 'tis new, 
 Which all, who 're concern'd, will allow to be true, 
 Of a Balancing Captain, well-known hereabouts, 
 Return'd home, God save him ! a mere King of Clouts. 
 
 n. 
 
 This Captain he takes, in a #o&7-balast'd ship, 
 Each summer to Terra damnosa a trip, 
 For which he begs, borrows, scrapes all he can get, 
 And runs his poor Owners most vilely in debt. 
 
 in. 
 
 The last time he set out for this blessed place, 
 He met them, and told them a most piteous case, 
 Of a Sister of his, who, though bred up at court, 
 Was ready to perish for want of support. 
 
 IV. 
 
 This Hun-gry Sister, he then did pretend, 
 Would be to his Owners a notable friend, 
 If they would at that critical juncture supply her 
 They did but alas ! all the Fat 's in the fire I 
 
 v. 
 
 This our Captain no sooner had finger'd the cole, 
 But he hies him aboard with his good Madam Vole 
 Where, like a true tinker, he managed this metal, 
 And while he stopp'd one hole, made ten in the kettle.
 
 26 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 VI. 
 
 His Sister, whom he to his Owners had sworn, 
 To see duly settled before his return, 
 He gulls with bad messages sent to and fro, 
 Whilst he underhand claps up a. peace with her foe. 
 
 VII. 
 
 He then turns this Sister adrift, and declares 
 
 Her most mortal foes were her Father's right heirs 
 
 " G d z ds I" cries the world, " such a step was ne'er 
 
 taken I " 
 " O, ho ! " says Nol Bluff, " I have sav'd my own bacon." 
 
 VIII. 
 
 " Let France damn the Germans, and undam the Dutch, 
 " And Spain on Old England pish ever so much, 
 " Let Russia bang Sweden, or Sweden bang that, 
 " I care not, by Robert! one kick of my hat. 
 
 IX. 
 
 " So I by myself can noun substantive stand, 
 " Impose on my Owners, and save my own land ; 
 " You call me masculine, feminine, neuter or block, 
 " Be what will the gender, Sirs, hie, haec, or hoc. 
 
 x. 
 
 " Or should my chous'd Owners begin to look sour, 
 " I'll trust to Mate Bob to exert his old power, 
 " Regit animos dictis, or nummis, with ease, 
 " So, spite of your growling, I'll act as I please." 
 
 XI. 
 
 Yet worse in this treacherous contract, 'tis said, 
 Such terms are agreed to, such promises made, 
 That his Owners must soon feeble beggars become 
 " Hold I" cries the Crown office, " 'twere scandal so, 
 mum I"
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 27 
 
 XII. 
 
 This secret, however, must out on the day 
 When he meets his poor Owners to ask for more pay ; 
 And I fear when they come to adjust the account, 
 A zero for balance will prove their amount.* 
 
 One or two of the stanzas are tolerable ; some, 
 especially the ninth, most nonsensically bad. 
 However, this is a specimen of what we shall 
 have amply commented upon in Parliament. 
 
 I have already found out a person who, I be- 
 lieve, will please you in Palombo's place : I am 
 to see your brother about it to-morrow morning, 
 and next post you shall hear more particularly. 
 
 I am quite in concern for the poor Princess,f 
 and her conjugal and amorous distresses : I 
 really pity them ; were they in England, we 
 should have all the old prudes dealing out judg- 
 ments on her, and mumbling toothless ditties, to 
 the tune of Pride will have a fall. I am buy- 
 
 * This song is a satire upon George II. " The balancing Captain, 1 ' 
 and upon that vacillating and doubtful conduct, which his fears for 
 the electorate of Hanover made him pursue, whenever Germany was 
 the seat of war. His Sister, whom he is accused of deserting, was 
 Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary. D. 
 
 f The Prince de Craon, and the Princess his wife, who had been 
 favourite mistress to Leopold, the last Duke of Lorrain, resided at this 
 time at Florence, where the Prince was head of the Council of Regency ; 
 but they were extremely ill-treated and mortified by the Count de 
 Richcourt, a low Lorrainer, who, being a creature of the Great Duke's 
 favourite Minister, had the chief ascendant and power there.
 
 28 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 ing some fans and trifles for her, si mignons ! 
 Good night. 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Downing Street, Nov. 5, 1741, O.S. 
 
 I JUST mentioned to you in my letter on Mon- 
 day, that I had found such a person as you 
 wanted ; I have since seen your brother, who is 
 so satisfied with him, that he was for sending 
 him directly away to you, without staying six 
 weeks for an answer from you ; but I chose to 
 have your consent. He is the son of a trades- 
 man in the city, so not yet a fine gentleman. 
 He is between fifteen and sixteen, but very tall 
 of his age : he was disappointed in not going to 
 a merchant at Genoa, as was intended ; but was 
 so far provided for it, as to have learned Italian 
 three months: he speaks French very well, writes 
 a good hand, and casts accounts ; so, you see, 
 there will not be much trouble in forming him to 
 your purpose. He will go to you for twenty 
 pounds a-year and his lodging. If you like this, 
 write me word by the first post, and he shall set 
 out directly. 
 
 We hear to-day that the Toulon Squadron is 
 arrived at Barcelona ; I don't like it of all
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 29 
 
 things, for it has a look towards Tuscany. If it 
 is suffered to go thither quietly, it will be no 
 small addition to the present discontents, 
 
 Here is another letter, which I am entreated 
 to send you, from poor Amorevoli ; he has a 
 continued fever, thought not a high one. Yes- 
 terday, Monticelli was taken ill, so there will be 
 no opera on Saturday ; nor was on Tuesday. 
 Monticelli is infinitely admired ; next to Fari- 
 nelli. The Viscontina is admired more than 
 liked. The music displeases every body, and 
 the dances. I am quite uneasy about the opera, 
 for Mr. Con way is one of the Directors, and 
 I fear they will lose considerably, which he 
 cannot afford. There are eight; Lord Middle- 
 sex,* Lord Holderness, Mr. Frederick,f Lord 
 Conway4 Mr. Conway, Mr. Darner, || Lord 
 
 * Charles Sackville, Earl of Middlesex, and subsequently second 
 Duke of Dorset, eldest son of Lionel first Duke of Dorset. He was 
 made a Lord of the Treasury in 1743, and Master of the Horse to 
 Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1747. D. 
 
 f John Frederick, Esq. afterwards Sir John Frederick, Bart, by 
 the death of his cousin, Sir Thomas. He was a Commissioner of 
 Customs, and Member of Parliament for West Looe. D. 
 
 f Francis Seymour Conway, first Earl and Marquis of Hertford, 
 Ambassador at Paris, Lord Chamberlain of the Household, &c. D. 
 
 Henry Seymour Conway, afterwards Secretary of State, and a 
 Field Marshal in the Army. D. 
 
 || Joseph Darner, Esq. created in 1753 Baron Milton, in Ireland, 
 and by George III. an English Peer, by the same title, and even- 
 tually Earl of Dorchester. D.
 
 30 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Brook,* and Mr. Brand.f The five last are di- 
 rected by the three first ; they by the first, and 
 he by the Abb& Vanneschi, who will make a 
 pretty sum. I will give you some instances ; 
 not to mention the improbability of eight young 
 thoughtless men of fashion understanding eco- 
 nomy : it is usual to give the poet fifty guineas for 
 composing the books Vanneschi and Rolli are 
 allowed three hundred. Three hundred more 
 Vanneschi had for his journey to Italy to pick 
 up dancers and performers, which was always as 
 well transacted by bankers there. He has addi- 
 tionally brought over an Italian tailor because 
 there are none here ! They have already given 
 this Taylormi four hundred pounds, and he has 
 already taken a house of thirty pounds a-year. 
 Monticelli and the Visconti are to have a thou- 
 sand guineas a-piece ; Amorevoli eight hundred 
 and fifty : this at the rate of the great singers, 
 is not so extravagant ; but to the Muscovita 
 (though the second woman never had above four 
 hundred,) they give six ; that is for secret servi- 
 ces.^ By this you may judge of their frugality ! 
 
 * Francis Greville, eighth Lord Brooke; created in 1746 Earl 
 Brooke, and in 1759 Earl of Warwick. D. 
 
 f Mr. Brand of the Hoo, in Hertfordshire, one of the original 
 Members of the Society of Dilettanti. D. 
 
 J She was kept by Lord Middlesex.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 31 
 
 I am quite uneasy for poor Harry, who will thus 
 be to pay for Lord Middlesex's pleasures ! 
 Good night ! I have not time now to write 
 more. 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Downing Street, Nov. 12, 1741. 
 
 NOTHING is equal to my uneasiness about you. 
 I hear or think of nothing but Spanish em- 
 barkations for Tuscany : before you receive this, 
 perhaps, they will be at Leghorn. Then, your 
 brother tells me you have received none of my 
 letters. He knows I have never failed writing 
 once a week, if not twice. We have had no 
 letters from you this post. I shall not have the 
 least respite from my anxiety, till I hear about 
 you, and what you design to do. It is impossi- 
 ble but the Great Duke must lose Tuscany ; 
 and I suppose it is as certain, (I speak on pro- 
 babilities, for, upon honour, I know nothing of 
 the matter,) that as soon as there is a peace, we 
 shall acknowledge Don Philip, and then you 
 may return to Florence again. In the mean while 
 I will ask Sir R. if it is possible to get your ap- 
 pointments continued, while you stay in readi- 
 ness at Bologna, Rome, Lucca, or where you
 
 32 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 choose. I talk at random ; but as I think so 
 much of you, I am trying to find out something 
 that may be of service to you. I write in infi- 
 nite hurry, and am called away, so scarce know 
 what I say. Lord Conway and his family are 
 this instant come to town, and have sent for me. 
 
 It is Admiral Vernon's birthday,* and the city- 
 shops are full of favours, the streets of marrow- 
 bones and cleavers, and the night will be full of 
 mobbing, bonfires, and lights. 
 
 The opera does not succeed ; Amorevoli has 
 not sung yet ; here is a letter to his wife : mind, 
 while he is ill, he sends none to the Chiaretta ! 
 The dances are infamous and ordinary. Lord 
 Chesterfield was told that the Viscontina said 
 she was but four-and-twenty : he answered, " I 
 suppose she means four-and-twenty stone !" 
 
 There is a mad parson goes about ; he called 
 to a sentinel the other day in the Park ; " Did 
 you ever see the Leviathan ?" " No." " Well, 
 he is as like Sir R. W. as ever two devils were 
 like one another." 
 
 Never was such unwholesome weather ! I have 
 
 * Admiral Vernon was now in the height of his popularity, in con- 
 sequence of his successful attack upon Porto Bello, in November 
 1739, and the great gallantry he had shown upon that occasion. His 
 determined and violent opposition, as a Member of Parliament, to the 
 measures of the government, assisted in rendering him the idol of the 
 mob, which he continued for many years. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 33 
 
 a great cold, and have not been well this fort- 
 night : even immortal Majesty has had a loose- 
 ness. 
 
 The Duke of Ancaster* and Lord James Ca- 
 vendishf are dead. This is all the news I know : 
 I would I had time to write more ; but I know 
 you will excuse me now. If I wrote more, it 
 would be still about the Italian expedition, I am 
 so disturbed about it. 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 Downing Street, Nov. 23, 1741. 
 
 YOUR letter has comforted me much, if it can 
 be called comfort to have one's uncertainty fluc- 
 tuate to the better side. You make me hope 
 that the Spaniards design on Lombardy ; my 
 passion for Tuscany, and anxiety for you, make 
 me eager to believe it ; but alas ! while I am 
 in the belief of this, they may be in the act of 
 conquest in Florence, and poor you retiring poli- 
 tically ! How delightful is Mr. Chute for cleav- 
 ing unto you like Ruth! Whither thou goest I 
 
 * Robert Bertie, first Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, Great Cham- 
 berlain of England, and Chief Justice in Eyre, North of Trent. D. 
 f The second son of William, second Duke of Devonshire. D. 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge! 
 As to the merchants at Leghorn and their con- 
 cerns, Sir R. thinks you are mistaken, and that 
 if the Spaniards come thither, they will by no 
 means be safe. I own I write to you under a 
 great dilemma ; I natter myself, all is well 
 with you ; but if not, how disagreeable to have 
 one's letters fall into strange hands. I write, 
 however. 
 
 A brother of mine,* Edward by name, has 
 lately had a call to matrimony : the virgin's 
 name was Howe.f He had agreed to take her 
 with no fortune, she him with his four children. 
 The father of him, to get rid of his importu- 
 nities, at last acquiesced. The very moment he 
 had obtained this consent, he repented ; and, 
 instead of flying on the wings of love to notify 
 it, he went to his fair one, owned his father had 
 mollified, but hoped she would be so good as to 
 excuse him. 
 
 You cannot imagine what an entertaining 
 fourth act of the opera we had the other night. 
 Lord Vane,J in the middle of the pit, making 
 
 * Second son of Sir R. W. He was Clerk of the Pells, and after- 
 wards Knight of the Bath. 
 
 f Eldest sister of the Lord Viscount Howe. She was soon after 
 this married to a relation of her own name. 
 
 J William, second Viscount Vane, in Ireland. His " Lady" was 
 the too-celebrated Lady Vane, first married to Lord William Hamil-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 35 
 
 love to my Lady. The Duke of Newcastle has 
 lately given him threescore thousand pounds, to 
 consent to cut off the entail of the Newcastle 
 estate. The fool immediately wrote to his wife, 
 to beg she would return to him from Lord 
 Berkeley ; that he had got so much money, and 
 now they might live comfortably: but she will 
 not live comfortably : she is at Lord Berkeley's 
 house, whither go divers after her. Lady 
 Towhshend told me an admirable history ; it 
 is of our friend Lady Pomfret. Somebody that 
 belonged to the Prince of Wales said, they were 
 going to Court ; it was objected that they ought 
 to say, going to Carlton House ; that the only 
 Court is where the King resides. Lady P. with 
 her paltry air of significant learning and absur- 
 dity, said, " Oh Lord ! is there no Court in 
 England, but the King's ? sure, there are many 
 more ! There is the Court of Chancery, the 
 Court of Exchequer, the Court of King's Bench, 
 &c." Don't you love her ? Lord Lincoln does 
 her daughter : he is come over, and met her the 
 other night : he turned pale, spoke to her seve- 
 
 ton, and secondly to Lord Vane ; who has given her own extraordi- 
 nary and disreputable adventures to the world, in Smollett's Novel of 
 " Peregrine Pickle," under the title of " Memoirs of a Lady of Qua- 
 lity." She is also immortalized in different ways, by Johnson, in his 
 " Vanity of Human Wishes," and by Sir Charles Ilanbury Williams, 
 in one of his odes. D. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 ral times in the evening, but not long, and 
 sighed to me at going away. He came over all 
 alive ; and not only his uncle-Duke, but even 
 Majesty is fallen in love with him. He talked 
 to the King at his levee, without being spoken 
 to. That was always thought high treason ; 
 but I don't know how the gruff gentleman liked 
 it ; and then he had been told that Lord Lin- 
 coln designed to have made the campaign, if we 
 had gone to war ; in short, he says, Lord Lincoln* 
 is the handsomest man in England. 
 
 I believe I told you that Vernon's birthday 
 passed quietly ; but it was not designed to be 
 pacific ; for at twelve at night, eight gentlemen, 
 dressed like sailors and masked, went round 
 Covent Garden with a drum, beating up for a 
 volunteer mob ; but it did not take ; and they 
 retired to a great supper, that was prepared for 
 them at the Bedford Head, and ordered by 
 Whitehead,f the author of Manners. It has 
 
 * Henry Clinton, ninth Earl of Lincoln, succeeded as Duke of 
 Newcastle, in 1768, on the death of his uncle, the Minister. D. 
 
 f Paul Whitehead, a satirical poet of bad character, was the son of 
 a tailor, who lived in Castle-yard, Holborn. He wrote several 
 abusive poems, now forgotten, entitled " The State Dunces," " Man- 
 ners," " The Gymnasiad," &c. In " Manners," having attacked 
 some members of the House of Lords, that assembly summoned 
 Dodsley, the publisher, before them, (Whitehead having absconded,) 
 and subsequently imprisoned him. In politics, Whitehead was a
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 37 
 
 been written into the country that Sir R. has 
 had two. fits of an apoplexy, and cannot live till 
 Christmas ; but I think he is recovered to be as 
 well as ever. To-morrow se'nnight is the Day!* 
 It is critical. You shall hear faithfully. 
 
 The opera takes ; Monticelli pleases almost 
 equal to Farinelli : Amorevoli is much liked ; 
 but the poor, fine Viscontina, scarce at all. I 
 carry the two former to-night to my Lady 
 Townshend's. 
 
 Lord Coventryf has had his son thrown out 
 by the party : he went to Carlton House ; the 
 Prince asked him about the election : " Sir," said 
 he, " the Tories have betrayed me, as they will 
 you, the first time you have occasion for them." 
 
 The merchants have petitioned the King for 
 more guardships. My Lord President^ referred 
 
 follower of Bubb Doddington ; in private life he was the friend and 
 companion of the profligate Sir Francis Dashwood, Wilkes, Church- 
 ill, &c. and, like them, was a member of the "Hell-fire Club," which 
 held its orgies at Mednam Abbey, in Bucks. The estimation in 
 which he was held even by his friends, may be judged of by the lines, 
 in which Churchill has " damned him to everlasting fame." 
 " May I (can worse disgrace on manhood fall ?) 
 Be born a Whitehead, and baptized a Paul." 
 Paul Whitehead died Dec. 30, 1774. D. 
 
 * The day the Parliament was to meet. 
 
 t William, fifth Earl of Coventry, died 1751. D. 
 
 J Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, a man of moderate abi- 
 lities, but who had filled many great offices : he died in 1743, when 
 his titles extinguished. D. 
 
 180222
 
 38 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 them to the Admiralty ; but they bluntly refused 
 to go, and said they would have redress from the 
 King himself. 
 
 I am called down to dinner, and cannot write 
 more now. I will thank dear Mr. Chute and 
 the Grifona next post. I hope she and you liked 
 your things. 
 
 Good night, my dearest child ! Your brother 
 and I sit upon your affairs every morning. 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 Nov. 26. 
 
 I DON'T write you a very long letter, because 
 you will see the inclosed to Mr. Chute. I for- 
 got to thank you, last post, for the songs, and 
 your design on the Maltese cats. 
 
 It is terrible to be in this uncertainty about 
 you ! We have not had the least news about the 
 Spaniards, more than what you told us, of a few 
 vessels being seen off Leghorn. I send about 
 the post, and ask Sir R. a thousand times a-day. 
 
 I beg to know if you have never heard any 
 thing from Parker about my statue :* it was to 
 
 * A copy of the Livia Mattel, which Mr. W. designed for a tomb 
 of his mother : it was erected in Henry VII.'s Chapel, in Westminster 
 Abbey, in 1754-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 39 
 
 have been finished last June. What is the mean- 
 ing he does not mention it ? If it is done, I beg 
 it may not stir from Rome, till there is no more 
 danger of Spaniards. 
 
 If you get out of your hurry, I will trouble 
 you with a new commission : I find I cannot live 
 without Stosch's* intaglio of the Gladiator, with 
 the Vase, upon a granite. You know I offered 
 him fifty pounds : I think, rather than not have 
 it, I would give a hundred. What will he 
 do, if the Spaniards should come to Florence ? 
 Should he be driven to straits, perhaps he would 
 part with his Meleager too. You see I am as 
 eager about baubles, as if I were going to Louis, 
 at the Palazzo Vecchio ! You can't think what a 
 closet I have fitted up ; such a mixture of French 
 gaiety and Roman virtu ! you would be in love 
 with it : I have not rested till it was finished : I 
 long to have you see it. Now I am angry that I 
 did not buy the Hermaphrodite ; the man would 
 have sold it for twenty-five sequins ; do buy it 
 for me ; it was a friend of Bianchi. Can you 
 forgive me ? I write all this upon the hope and 
 presumption that the Spaniards go to Lom- 
 bardy. Good night. 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 * He gave it afterwards to Lord Duncannon, for procuring him the 
 arrears of his pension.
 
 40 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 Downing Street, Dec. 3, 1741, O. S. 
 
 HERE I have two letters from you to answer. 
 You cannot conceive my joy on the prospect of 
 the Spaniards going to Lombardy : all advices 
 seem to confirm it. There is no telling you 
 what I have felt, and shall feel, till I am certain 
 you are secure. You ask me about Admiral 
 Haddock ; you must not wonder that I have 
 told you nothing of him : they know nothing of 
 him here. He had discretionary powers to act 
 as he should judge proper from his notices. He 
 has been keeping in the Spanish fleet at Cales.* 
 Sir R. says, if he had let that go out, to pre- 
 vent the embarkation, the Tories would have 
 complained, and said he had favoured the Spa- 
 nish trade, under pretence of hindering an ex- 
 pedition which was never designed. It was 
 strongly reported last week, that Haddock had 
 shot himself a satire on his having been neutral, 
 as they call it. 
 
 The Parliament met the day before yesterday, 
 and there were four hundred and eighty-seven 
 members present. They did no business, only 
 proceeded to choose a Speaker, which was, unani- 
 
 * Cadiz.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 41 
 
 mously, Mr. Onslow, moved for by Mr. Pelham,* 
 and seconded by Mr. Clutterbuck. But the 
 Opposition, to flatter his pretence to popularity 
 and impartiality, call him their own Speaker. 
 They intend to oppose Mr. Earle's being Chair- 
 man of the Committee, and to set up a Dr. Lee, 
 a civilian. To-morrow the King makes his 
 spee'ch. Well, I won't keep you any longer in 
 suspense. The Court will have a majority of 
 forty a vast number for the outset : a good 
 majority, like a good sum of money, soon makes 
 itself bigger. The first great point will be the 
 Westminster election ; another, Mr. Pultney'sf 
 election at Heydon ; Mr. Chute's brother is one 
 of the petitioners. It will be an ugly affair for 
 the Court, for Pultney has asked votes of the 
 Courtiers, and said Sir R. was indifferent about 
 it ; but he is warmer than I almost ever saw 
 him ; and declared to Chur chill, of whom Pult- 
 ney claims a promise, that he must take Walpole 
 
 * The Right Hon. Henry Pelham, so long, in conjunction with his 
 brother the Duke of Newcastle, one of the principal rulers of this 
 country. He was a man of some ability, and a tolerable speaker. 
 The vacillations, the absurdity, the foolish jealousy, of the Duke, 
 greatly injured the stability and respectability of Mr. Pelham's admi- 
 nistration. Mr. Pelham was born in 1696, and died in 1754. D. 
 
 f William Pulteney, afterwards Earl of Bath, whose character and 
 history are too well-known, to require to be here enlarged upon. D. 
 
 t General Charles Churchill, Groom of the Bedchamber to the 
 King.
 
 42 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 or Pultney. The Sackville family were engaged 
 too, by means of George Berkeley, brother to 
 Lady Betty Germayn,* whose influence with the 
 Dorset I suppose you know ; but the King was 
 so hot with his Grace about his sons, that I 
 believe they will not venture to follow their 
 inclinations * * * * to votef for 
 Pultney, though he has expressed great concern 
 about it to Sir R. 
 
 So much for politics ! for I suppose you know 
 that Prague is taken by storm, in a night's time. 
 I forgot to tell you that Commodore Lestock, 
 with twelve ships, has been waiting for a wind 
 this fortnight, to join Haddock. 
 
 I write to you in defiance of a violent head- 
 ache, which I got last night at another of Sir T. 
 Robinson's balls. There were six hundred in- 
 vited, and I believe above two hundred there. 
 Lord Lincoln, out of prudence, danced with 
 Lady Caroline Fitzroy, and Mr. Con way with 
 
 * Lady Betty Berkeley, married to the notorious adventurer and 
 gambler, Sir John Germain, who had previously married the divorced 
 Duchess of Norfolk, (Lady Mary Mordaunt,) by whose bequest he be- 
 came possessed of the estate of Drayton, in Northamptonshire, which 
 he left on his own death to Lady Betty, his second wife. Lady Betty 
 left it to Lord George Sackville, third son of Lionel, first Duke of 
 Dorset. Sir John Germain was so ignorant, that he is said to have 
 left a legacy to Sir Matthew Decker, as the author of St. Matthew's 
 Gospel. D. 
 f Sic, in the manuscript. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 43 
 
 Lady Sophia ; the two couple were just mis- 
 matched, as every body soon perceived, by the 
 attentions of each man to the woman he did not 
 dance with, and the emulation of either lady : it 
 was an admirable scene. The ball broke up at 
 three ; but Lincoln, Lord Holderness, Lord Ro- 
 bert Sutton,* young Churchill,f and a dozen 
 more, grew jolly, stayed till seven in the morn- 
 ing, and drank thirty-two bottles. 
 
 I will take great care to send the knee-buckles 
 and pocket-book ; I have got them, and Ma- 
 dame Pucci's silks, and only wait to hear that 
 Tuscany is quiet, and then I will convey them 
 by the first ship. I would write to them to- 
 night, but have not time now : old Gibber J plays 
 to-night, and all the world will be there. 
 
 Here is another letter from Amorevoli, who 
 is out of his wits at not hearing from his wife. 
 
 Adieu ! my dearest child. How happy shall I 
 be when I know you are in peace. 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 Second son of John, third Duke of Rutland. He took the name 
 of Sutton, on inheriting the estate of his maternal grandfather, Robert 
 Sutton, Lord Lexington. D. 
 
 t Natural son of General Charles Churchill, afterwards married to 
 Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Walpole. D. 
 
 t Colley Cibber, the celebrated dramatic author and actor. He 
 had left the stage in 1730; but still occasionally acted, in spite of his 
 age, for lie was now 70. D.
 
 44 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 Somerset House, (for I write to you wherever 
 I find myself,) Dec. 10, 1741. 
 
 I HAVE got no letter from you yet, the 
 post should have brought it yesterday. The 
 Gazette says, that the Cardinal* has declared 
 that they will suffer no expedition against Tus- 
 cany. I wish he had told me so! if they pre- 
 serve this guarantee, personally, I can forgive 
 their breaking the rest. But I long for your 
 letter ; every letter now from each of us is ma- 
 terial. You will be almost as impatient to hear 
 of the Parliament, as I of Florence. The Lords 
 on Friday went upon the King's Speech ; Lord 
 Chesterfield made a very fine speech against the 
 Address, all levelled at the House of Hanover. 
 Lord Cholmley, they say, answered him well. 
 Lord Halifax^ spoke very ill, and was answered 
 by little Lord Raymond, J who always will answer 
 him. Your friend Lord Sandwich affronted his 
 
 * Cardinal Fleury, First Minister of France. 
 
 f George Montague Dunk, second Earl of Halifax, of the last crea- 
 tion. Under the reign of George III. he became Secretary of State, 
 and was so unfortunate in that capacity as to be the opponent of 
 Wilkes, on the subject of General Warrants, by which he is now 
 principally remembered. D. 
 
 J Robert, second Lord Raymond, only son of the Chief Justice of 
 that name and title. D. 
 
 John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich, passed through a long
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 45 
 
 Grace of Grafton* extremely, who was ill, and sat 
 out of his place, by calling him to order ; it was 
 indecent in such a boy to a man of his age and 
 rank : the blood of Fitzroy will not easily par- 
 don it. The Court had a majority of forty-one, 
 with some converts. 
 
 On Tuesday we had the Speech ; there were 
 great differences among the party ; the Jaco- 
 bites, with Shippenf and Lord Noel Somerset J at 
 their head, were for a division, Pultney and the 
 Patriots against one ; the ill-success in the House 
 of Lords had frightened them : we had no divi- 
 sion, but a very warm battle between Sir R. and 
 
 life of office, and left behind him an indifferent character, both 
 in public and private life. He was, however, a man of some ability. 
 D. 
 
 * Charles Fitzroy, second Duke of Grafton, and grandson of Charles 
 II. was a person of considerable weight and influence at the Court of 
 George II. where he long held the post of Chamberlain of the House- 
 hold. D. 
 
 f " Honest Will Shippen," as he was called, or " Downright 
 Shippen," as Pope terms him, was a zealous Jacobite Member of 
 Parliament, possessed of considerable talents, and a vehement oppo- 
 ser of Sir Robert Walpole's government. He, however, did justice to 
 that able Minister, for he was accustomed to say, " Robin and I are 
 honest men ; but as for those fellows in long perriwigs, (meaning the 
 Tories of the day,) " they only want to get into office themselves." 
 He was the author of a satirical poem, entitled " Faction Displayed," 
 which possesses considerable merit. D. 
 
 J Lord Charles Noel Somerset, second son of Henry, second Duke 
 of Beaufort. lie succeeded to the family honours in 1746, when his 
 elder brother, Henry, the third Duke, died without children. D.
 
 46 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Pultney. The latter made a fine speech, very 
 personal, on the State of Affairs. Sir R. with 
 as much health, as much spirits, as much force 
 and command as ever, answered him for an 
 hour ; said, " He had long been taxed with all 
 our misfortunes ; but did he raise the war in 
 Germany ? or advise the war with Spain ? did 
 he kill the late Emperor or King of Prussia? 
 did he council this King ? or was he first Minis- 
 ter to the King of Poland ? did he kindle the 
 war betwixt Muscovy and Sweden ?" For our 
 troubles at home, he said, " all the grievances 
 of this nation were owing to the Patriots." They 
 laughed much at this ; but does he want proofs 
 of it ? He said, " They talked much of an equi- 
 librium in this Parliament, and of what they 
 designed against him ; if it was so, the sooner 
 he knew it, the better ; and therefore if any man 
 would move for a day to examine the state of 
 the Nation, he would second it." Mr. Pultney 
 did move for it ; Sir R. did second it, and it is 
 fixed for the Twenty-first of January. Sir R. 
 repeated some words of Lord Chesterfield's, in 
 the House of Lords, that this was a time for 
 truth, for plain truth, for English truth, and 
 hinted at the reception* his Lordship had met 
 
 * Lord Chesterfield had been sent by the party in the preceding 
 September to France, to request the Duke of Ormond (at Avignon,) 
 to obtain the Pretender's order to the Jacobites, to vote against Sir
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 47 
 
 in France. After these speeches of such conse- 
 quence, and from such men, Mr. Lyttelton* got 
 up to justify, or rather to flatter Lord Chester- 
 field, though everybody then had forgot that he 
 had been mentioned. Danvers/f who is a rough, 
 rude beast, but now and then mouths out some 
 humour, said, " that Mr. P. and Sir R. were like 
 two old bawds, debauching young members." 
 
 That day was a day of triumph, but yesterday 
 (Wednesday) the streamers of victory did not fly 
 so gallantly. It was the day of receiving peti- 
 tions : Mr. Pultney presented an immense piece 
 of parchment, which he said he could but just 
 lift ; it was the Westminster petition, and is to be 
 heard next Tuesday, when we shall all have our 
 brains knocked out by the mob ; so if you don't 
 hear from me next post, you will conclude my 
 head was a little out of order. After this we 
 went upon a Cornish petition, presented by Sir 
 William Yonge,J which drew on a debate and a 
 division, when lo ! we were but 222 to 215 
 how do you like a majority of seven ? The 
 Opposition triumphs highly, and with reason ; 
 
 R. W. upon any question whatever; many of them having either 
 voted for him, or retired, on the famous motion the last year for re- 
 moving him from the King's councils. 
 
 * George Lyttelton, afterwards created Lord Lyttelton. D. 
 
 f Joseph Danvers, afterwards made a Knight. 
 
 t The Right Hon. Sir William Yonge, Bart. He was at this time 
 Secretary at War. D.
 
 48 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 one or two such victories, as Pyrrhus, the mem- 
 ber for Macedon, said, will be the ruin of us. 
 I look upon it now, that the question is, Down- 
 ing Street or the Tower ; will you come and see 
 a body, if one should happen to lodge at the 
 latter ? There are a thousand pretty things to 
 amuse you ; the lions, the armoury, the crown, 
 and the axe that beheaded Anna Bullen. I 
 design to make interest for the room where 
 the two princes were smothered ; in long win- 
 ter evenings, when one wants company, (for I 
 don't suppose that many people will frequent me 
 then,) one may sit and scribble verses against 
 Crouchback'd Richard, and dirges on the sweet 
 babes. If I die there, and have my body thrown 
 into a wood, I am too old to be buried by robin 
 redbreasts, am not I ? 
 
 Bootle, the Prince's Chancellor, made a most 
 long and stupid speech ; afterwards, Sir R. called 
 to him, " Brother Bootle, take care you don't get 
 my old name." " What's that ?" " Blunderer." 
 
 You can't conceive how I was pleased with 
 the vast and deserved applause that Mr. Chute's* 
 
 * Francis Chute, an eminent lawyer, second brother of Antony 
 Chute, of the Vine, in Hampshire, had, in concert with Luke Robin- 
 son, another lawyer, disputed Mr. Pultney's borough of Heydon with 
 him at the general election, and been returned ; but on a petition, 
 and the removal of Sir R. W., they were voted out of their seats, and 
 Mr. Chute died soon after.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 49 
 
 brother, the lawyer, got : I never heard a clearer 
 or finer speech. When I went home, " Dear 
 Sir," said I to Sir R. " I hope Mr. Chute will 
 carry his election for Heydon ; he would be a 
 great loss to you." He replied, "We will not 
 lose him." I, who meddle with nothing, espe- 
 cially elections, and go to no committees, in- 
 terest myself extremely for Mr. Chute. 
 
 Old Marlborough* is dying but who can 
 tell ! last year she had lain a great while ill, 
 without speaking ; her physicians said, " She 
 must be blistered or she will die." She called 
 out, " I won't be blistered, and I won't die." 
 If she takes the same resolution now, I don't 
 believe she will.f 
 
 Adieu ! my dear child : I have but room to say, 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 Wednesday night, eleven o'clock, Dec. 16, 1741. 
 Remember this day. 
 
 Nous voila de la Minorite ! entens tu 9ela ? 
 he ! My dear child, since you will have these 
 
 * Sarah, Duchess Dowager of Marlborough. 
 t Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, did not die till the year 
 1744. D. 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 ugly words explained, they just mean that we 
 are metamorphosed into the minority. This 
 was the night of choosing a chairman of the 
 'committee of elections. Gyles Earle* (as in the 
 two last parliaments) was named by the Court ; 
 Dr. Lee/f a civilian, by the Opposition, a man of 
 a fair character. Earle was formerly a depen- 
 dent on the Duke of Argyle,| is of remarkable 
 covetousness and wit, which he has dealt out 
 largely against the Scotch and the Patriots. It 
 was a day of much expectation, and both sides 
 had raked together all probabilities : I except 
 near twenty, who are in town, but stay to 
 vote on a second question, when the majority 
 may be decided to either party. Have you 
 not read of such in story ? Men, who would 
 not care to find themselves on the weaker side, 
 contrary to their intent. In short, the deter- 
 mined sick were dragged out of their beds : 
 zeal came in a great coat. There were two 
 
 * Gyles Earle, one of the Lords of the Treasury. 
 
 t George Lee, brother to the Lord Chief Justice ; he was appoint- 
 ed one of the Lords of the Admiralty on the following change, which 
 post he resigned on the disgrace of his patron, Lord Granville. He 
 was afterwards designed by the Prince of Wales for his first Minister, 
 and immediately on the Prince's death, was appointed Treasurer to 
 the Princess Dowager, and soon after made Dean of the Arches, a 
 Knight, and Privy Counsellor. 
 
 J John, the great Duke of Argyll and Greenwich. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 51 
 
 vast dinners at two taverns, for either party ; 
 at six we met in the house. Sir William Yonge, 
 seconded by my uncle Horace,* moved for Mr. 
 Earle : Sir Paul Methuenf and Sir Watkyn Wil- 
 liams Wynne J proposed Dr. Lee and carried 
 him, by a majority of four : 242 against 238 
 the greatest number, I believe, that ever lost a 
 question. You have no idea of their huzza ! 
 unless you can conceive how people must tri- 
 umph after defeats for twenty years together. 
 We had one vote shut out, by coming a moment 
 too late ; one that quitted us, for having been 
 ill used by the Duke of Newcastle but yesterday 
 for which, in all probability, he will use him 
 well to-morrow I mean, for quitting us. Sir 
 Thomas Lowther, Lord Hartington's|| uncle, 
 was fetched down by him, and voted against us. 
 
 * Horace Walpole, younger brother of Sir Robert, created in his 
 old age Lord Walpole, of Wolterton. He was commonly called 
 " Old Horace," to distinguish him from his nephew, the writer of 
 these letters. D. 
 
 f The son of John Methuen, Esq. the diplomatist, and author of 
 the celebrated Methuen treaty with Portugal. Sir Paul was a Knight 
 of the Bath, and died in 1757. D. 
 
 J Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart, the third baronet of the family, 
 was long one of the leaders of the Jacobite party in the House of 
 Commons. D. 
 
 Sir Thomas Lowther, Bart, of Holker, in Lancashire, had 
 married Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, second daughter of the second 
 Duke of Devonshire. D. 
 
 || Afterwards the fourth Duke of Devonshire. D. 
 E 2
 
 52 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Young Ross,* son to a commissioner of the cus- 
 toms, and saved from the dishonour of not liking 
 to go to the West-Indies when it was his turn, 
 by Sir R.'s giving him a lieutenancy, voted 
 against us ; and Tom Hervey,-f who is always 
 with us, but is quite mad ; and being asked why 
 he left us, replied, " Jesus knows my thoughts ; 
 one day I blaspheme, and pray the next." So, 
 you see what accidents were against us, or we 
 had carried our point. They cry, Sir R. mis- 
 calculated ; how should he calculate, when there 
 are men like Ross, and fifty others he could 
 name ! It was not very pleasant to be stared in 
 the face, to see how one bore it you can guess 
 at my bearing it, who interest myself so little 
 about anything. I have had a taste of what I 
 am to meet from all sorts of people. The 
 moment we had lost the question, I went from 
 the heat of the house into the Speaker's chamber, 
 and there were some fifteen others of us an un- 
 der door-keeper thought a question was new put 
 when it was not, and, without giving us notice, 
 clapped the door to. I asked him how he dared 
 lock us out without calling us ; he replied inso- 
 
 * Charles Ross, killed in Flanders at the battle of Fontenoy, 1745. 
 
 f Thomas Hervey, second son of the Earl of Bristol, and surveyor 
 of the royal gardens. He was at this time writing his famous letter 
 to Sir T. Hanmer.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 53 
 
 lently, " It was his duty, and he would do it 
 again :" one of the party went to him, com- 
 mended him, and told him he should be punish- 
 ed if he acted otherwise. Sir R. is in great 
 spirits, and still sanguine. I have so little expe- 
 rience, that I shall not be amazed at whatever 
 scenes follow. My dear child, we have triumph- 
 ed twenty years ; is it strange that fortune should 
 at last forsake us ! or ought we not always 
 to expect it, especially in this kingdom ? They 
 talk loudly of the year forty-one, and promise 
 themselves all the confusions that began a hun- 
 dred years ago from the same date. I hope 
 they prognosticate wrong, but should it be so, I 
 can be happy in other places. One reflection 
 I shall have very sweet, though very melan- 
 choly ; that if our family is to be the sacrifice 
 that shall first pamper discord, at least the one*, 
 the part of it that interested all my concerns, 
 and must have suffered from our ruin, is safe, 
 secure, and above the rage of confusion : no- 
 thing in this world can touch her peace now ! 
 
 To-morrow and Friday we go upon the West- 
 minster election you will not wonder, shall you, 
 if you hear next post that we have lost that too ? 
 
 Good night. 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 * His mother, Catherine Lady Walpole, who died August 20, 1737.
 
 54 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 Thursday, 6 o'clock. 
 
 You will hardly divine where I am writing to 
 you in the Speaker's chamber. The House is 
 examining witnesses on the Westminster election, 
 which will not be determined to-day ; I am not 
 in haste it should, for I believe we shall lose it. 
 A great fat fellow, a constable, on their side, has 
 just deposed, that Lord Sundon* and the high 
 constable took him by the collar at the election, 
 and threw him down stairs. Do you know the 
 figure of Lord Sundon ? if you do, only think of 
 that little old creature throwing any man down 
 stairs ! 
 
 As I was coming down this morning, your 
 brother brought me a long letter from you, in 
 answer to mine of the 12th of November. You 
 try to make me mistrust the designs of Spain 
 against Tuscany, but I will hope yet : hopes are 
 all I have for anything now ! .; '- 
 
 As to the young man, I will see his mother 
 the first minute I can ; and by next post, 
 hope to give you a definitive answer, whether 
 he will submit to be a servant or not : in 
 
 * William Clayton, Lord Sundon in Ireland, so created in 1735. 
 His wife was a favourite of Queen Caroline, to whom she was 
 Mistress of the Robes. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 55 
 
 every other respect, I am sure he will please 
 you. 
 
 Your friend, Mr. Fane,* would not come for 
 us last night, nor will vote till after the West- 
 minster election : he is brought into parliament 
 by the Duke of Bedford,f and is unwilling to dis- 
 oblige him in this. We flattered ourselves with 
 better success, for last Friday, after sitting till 
 two in the morning, we carried a Cornish elec- 
 tion in four divisions the first by a majority of 
 six, then of twelve, then of fourteen, and lastly 
 by thirty-six. You can't imagine the zeal of 
 the young men on both sides : Lord Fitzwilliam, 
 Lord Hartington, and my friend CokeJ on ours, 
 are warm as possible ; Lord Quarendon and Sir 
 Francis Dash wood || are as violent on theirs : the 
 former speaks often and well. But I am talking 
 to you of nothing but Parliament ; why really 
 all one's ideas are stuffed with it, and you your- 
 self will not dislike to hear things so material. 
 
 * Charles Fane, only son of Lord Viscount Fane, whom he suc- 
 ceeded, had been Minister at Florence. 
 
 f John Russell, fourth Duke of Bedford. D. 
 
 I Edward, Lord Viscount Coke, only son of the Earl of Leicester. 
 He died in 1753. 
 
 George Henry Lee, Lord Viscount Quarendon, eldest son of the 
 Earl of Litchfield, whom he succeeded in that title. 
 
 || Sir Francis Dashwood, Bart, afterwards Lord Ledespencer. 
 Under the administration of Lord Bute, he was, for a short time, 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. D.
 
 56 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 The Opposition, who invent every method of 
 killing Sir R., intend to make us sit on Satur- 
 days ; but how mean and dirty is it, how scan- 
 dalous ! when they cannot ruin him by the least 
 plausible means, to murder him by denying him* 
 air and exercise. 
 
 There was a strange affair happened on Satur- 
 day; it was strange, yet very English. One 
 Nourse, an old gamester, said, in the coffee-house, 
 that Mr. Shuttleworth, a member, only pretend- 
 ed to be ill. This was told to Lord Windsor,f 
 his friend, who quarrelled with Nourse, and the 
 latter challenged him. My Lord replied, he 
 would not fight him, he was too old. The 
 other replied, he was not too old to fight with 
 pistols. Lord Windsor still refused : Nourse, 
 in a rage, went home and cut his own throat. 
 This was one of the odd ways in which men are 
 made. 
 
 I have scarce seen Lady Pomfret lately, but I 
 am sure Lord Lincoln is not going to marry her 
 daughter. I am not surprised at her sister 
 being shy of receiving civilities from you that 
 was English too ! 
 
 * Sir R. Walpole always went every Saturday to Newpark, Rich- 
 mond, to hunt. 
 
 f Herbert Windsor Hickman, second Viscount Windsor in Ireland, 
 and Baron Montjoy, of the Isle of Wight. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 57 
 
 Say a great deal for me to the Chutes. How 
 I envy your snug suppers ! I never have such 
 suppers ! Trust me, if we fall, all the grandeur, 
 the envied grandeur of our house, will not cost 
 me a sigh : it has given me no pleasure while we 
 have it, and will give me no pain when I part 
 with it. My liberty, my ease, and choice of my 
 own friends and company will sufficiently coun- 
 terbalance the crowds of Downing-street. I am 
 so sick of it all, that if we are victorious or not, 
 I propose leaving England in the spring. Adieu! 
 
 Yours, ever and ever. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 Christmas eve, 1741. 
 
 MY dearest child, if I had not heard regularly 
 from you, what a shock it would have given me ! 
 The other night, at the opera, Mr. Worseley, with 
 his peevish face, half-smiling through ill-nature, 
 told me (only mind!) by way of news, that he 
 heard Mr. Mann was dead at Florence ! How 
 kind ! To entertain one with the chit-chat of 
 the town, a man comes and tells one, that one's 
 dearest friend is dead ! I am sure he would have 
 lost his speech, if he had had anything pleasur- 
 able to tell. If ever there is a metempsychosis,
 
 58 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 his soul will pass into a vulture, and prey upon 
 carcases after a battle, and then go and bode at 
 the windows of their relations. But I will say 
 no more of him : I will punish him sufficiently, 
 if sufficiently there be, by telling him you are 
 perfectly well : you are, are you not ? Send me 
 a certificate signed by Dr. Cocchi,* and I will 
 choke him with it : another's health must be 
 venomous to him. 
 
 Sir Francis Dashwood too, as you know all ill- 
 natured people hear all ill news, told me he 
 heard you was ill : I vowed you was grown as 
 strong as the Farnese Hercules. Then he de- 
 sires you will send him four of the Volterra urns, 
 of the chimney-piece size ; send them with any of 
 my things ; do, or he will think I neglected it 
 because he is our enemy ; and I would not be 
 peevish, not to be like them. He is one of the 
 most inveterate ; they list under Sandys,f a par- 
 cel of them with no more brains than their 
 General ; but being malicious, they pass for 
 ingenious, as in these countries fogs are reckon- 
 ed warm weather. Did you ever hear what 
 
 * Antonio Cocchi, a learned physician and author, at Florence: a 
 particular friend of Mr. Mann. 
 
 f Samuel Sandys, a Republican, raised on the fall of Sir R. W. to 
 be Chancellor of the Exchequer, then degraded to a Peer and Cofferer, 
 and soon afterwards laid aside.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 59 
 
 Earle* said of Sandys ? " that he never laughed 
 but once, and that was when his best friend 
 broke his thigh." 
 
 Last Thursday I wrote you word of our losing 
 the Chairman of the Committee. This winter is 
 to be all ups and downs. The next day (Fri- 
 day,) we had a most complete victory. Mr. 
 Pultney moved for all papers and letters, &c. 
 between the King and the Queen of Hungary 
 and their Ministers. Sir R. agreed to give 
 them all the papers relative to those trans- 
 actions, only desiring to except the letters writ- 
 ten by the two Sovereigns themselves. They 
 divided, and we carried it, 237 against 227. 
 They moved to have those relating to France, 
 Prussia, and Holland. Sir R. begged they would 
 defer asking for those of Prussia till the end 
 of January, at which time a negotiation would 
 be at an end with that King, which now he might 
 break off, if he knew it was to be made public. 
 Mr. Pultney persisted ; but his obstinacy, which 
 might be so prejudicial to the public, revolted 
 even his own partisans, and seven of them spoke 
 against him. We carried that question by twen- 
 ty-four ; and another by twenty-one, against sit- 
 ting on the next day (Saturday.) Monday and 
 Tuesday we went on the Westminster election. 
 
 * Gyles Earle, a Lord of the Treasury ; a man of great humour.
 
 60 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Murray* spoke divinely; he was their Counsel. 
 Loydf answered him extremely well : but on 
 summing up the evidence on both sides, and in 
 his reply, Murray was in short, beyond what 
 was ever heard at the bar. That day (Tuesday,) 
 we went on the merits of the cause, and at ten 
 at night divided, and lost it. They had 220 ; 
 we 216, so the election was declared void. You 
 see four is a fortunate number to them. We 
 had forty-one more members in town, who would 
 not, or could not come down. The time is a 
 touchstone for wavering consciences. All the 
 arts, money, promises, threats, all the arts of the 
 former year, 41, are applied ; and self-interest, in 
 the shape of Scotch members nay, and of Eng- 
 lish ones, operates to the aid of their party, and 
 to the defeat of ours. Lord Doneraile,^ a young 
 Irishman, brought in by the Court, was petition- 
 ed against, though his competitor had had but 
 one vote. This young man spoke as well as 
 
 * William Murray, brother of Lord Stormont, and of Lord Dun- 
 bar, the Pretender's first Minister. He is known by his eloquence 
 and the friendship of Mr. Pope. He was soon afterwards promoted 
 to be Solicitor-General, (afterwards the celebrated Chief Justice of 
 the King's Bench, and Earl of Mansfield. D.) 
 
 f Sir Richard Loyd, advanced in 1754 to be Solicitor-General, in 
 the room of Mr. Murray, appointed Attorney-General. 
 
 \ Arthur St. Leger Lord Doneraile, died in 1750, being Lord of the 
 Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 61 
 
 ever any one spoke in his own defence ; insisted 
 on the petition being heard, and concluded with 
 declaring that his cause was his Defence, and 
 Impartiality must be his support. Do you know, 
 that after this, he went and engaged, if they 
 would withdraw the petition, to vote with them 
 in the Westminster affair ! His friends reproach- 
 ed him so strongly with his meanness, that he 
 was shocked, and went to Mr. Pultney to get 
 off: Mr. P. told him, he had given him his ho- 
 nour, and he would not release him, though 
 Lord Doneraile declared it was against his con- 
 science : but he voted with them, and lost us 
 the next question which they put (for censuring 
 the High Bailiff) by his single vote; for in that 
 the numbers were 217 against 215 : the altera- 
 tion of his vote would have made it even ; and 
 then the Speaker, I suppose, would have chosen 
 the merciful side, and decided for us. After 
 this, Mr. Pultney, with an affected humanity, 
 agreed to commit the High Bailiff only to the 
 Serjeant at Arms. Then, by a majority of six, 
 they voted that the soldiers, who had been sent 
 for, after the poll was closed, to save Lord Sun- 
 don's* life, had come in a military and illegal 
 
 Lord Sundon and Sir Charles Wager had been the Court candi- 
 dates for Westminster at the late election, against Admiral Vernon 
 and Charles Edwin, Esq. D.
 
 62 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 manner, and influenced the election. In short, 
 they determined, as Mr. Murray had dictated 
 to them, that no civil magistrate, on any pre- 
 tence whatsoever, though he may not be able to 
 suppress even a riot by the assistance of the 
 militia and constables, may call in the aid of the 
 army. Is not this doing the work of the Jaco- 
 bites ? have they any other view than to render 
 the riot act useless ? and then they may rise for 
 the Pretender whenever they please. Then they 
 moved to punish Justice Blackerby, for calling 
 in the soldiers ; and when it was desired that he 
 might be heard in his own defence, they said he 
 had already confessed his crime. Do but think 
 on it ! without being accused, without knowing, 
 or being told it was a crime, a man gives evi- 
 dence in another cause, not his own, and then 
 they call it his own accusation of himself, and 
 would condemn him for it. You see what jus- 
 tice we may expect, if they actually get the ma- 
 jority. But this was too strong a pill for one of 
 their own leaders to swallow : Sir John Barnard* 
 did propose and persuade them to give him a day 
 to be heard. In short, we sat till half an hour 
 after four in the morning ; the longest day that 
 
 * A great London merchant, and one of the Members for the City. 
 His reputation for integrity and ability gave him much weight in the 
 House of Commons. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 63 
 
 ever was known. I say nothing of myself, for I 
 could but just speak when I came away, but Sir 
 Robert was as well as ever, and spoke with as 
 much spirit as ever, at four o'clock : this way, 
 they will not kill him ; I will not answer for any 
 other. As he came out, Whitehead,* the author 
 of Manners, and agent, with one Carey, a sur- 
 geon, for the Opposition, said, " D n him, how 
 well he looks !" Immediately after their success, 
 Lord Gagef went forth, and begged there might 
 be no mobbing ; but last night we had bonfires 
 all over the town ; and I suppose shall have 
 notable mobbing at the new election ; though I 
 do not believe there will be any opposition to 
 their Mr. Edwin and Lord Perceval. J Thank 
 God ! we are now adjourned for three weeks. 
 
 * Paul Whitehead, au infamous but not despicable poet. 
 
 f Thomas Lord Viscount Gage, had been a Roman Catholic, and 
 was Master of the Household to the Prince. 
 
 J John Perceval, second Earl of Egmont, in Ireland, created in 
 1762 Lord Lovel and Holland in the Peerage of Great Britain. He 
 became, in 1747, a Lord of the Bedchamber to Frederick Prince of 
 Wales, and in the early part of the reign of George III. held succes- 
 sively the offices of Postmaster-General, and First Lord of the Admi- 
 ralty. He was a man of some ability, and a frequent and fluent 
 speaker, and was the author of a celebrated party pamphlet of the 
 day, entitled " Faction Detected." His excessive love of ancestry 
 led him, in conjunction with his father, and assisted by Anderson, 
 the Genealogist, to print two thick octavo volumes respecting his 
 family, entitled " History of the House of Ivery ;" a most remarkable 
 monument of human vanity. D.
 
 64 THE -HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 I shall go to Swallowfield* for a few days : so for 
 one week you will miss hearing from me. We 
 have escaped the Prince's f affair hitherto, but 
 we shall have it after the holidays. All depends 
 upon the practices of both sides in securing or 
 getting new votes during this recess. Sir Ro- 
 bert is very sanguine : I hope, for his sake and his 
 honour, and for the Nation's peace, that he will 
 get the better ; but the moment he has the ma- 
 jority secure, I shall be very earnest with him to 
 resign. He has a constitution to last some 
 years, and enjoy some repose ; and for my own 
 part (and both my brothers agree with me in it,) 
 we wish most heartily to see an end of his minis- 
 try. If I can judge of them by myself, those 
 who want to be in our situation, do not wish to 
 see it brought about, more than we do. It is 
 fatiguing to bear so much envy and ill-will unde- 
 servedly. Otium Divos rogo; but adieu, politics, 
 for three weeks ! 
 
 The Duchess of Buckingham, J who is more 
 mad with pride than any mercer's wife in Bed- 
 lam, came the other night to the Opera, en 
 
 * Swallowfield, in Berkshire, the seat of John Dodd, Esq. 
 
 f A scheme for obtaining a larger allowance for the Prince of Wales. 
 
 J Catherine, Duchess Dowager of Buckingham, natural daughter 
 of King James II. (Supposed to be really the daughter of Colonel 
 Graham, a man of gallantry of the time, and a lover of her mother, 
 Lady Dorchester. D.)
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 65 
 
 Princesse, literally in robes, red velvet and er- 
 mine. I must tell you a story of her : last week 
 she sent for Cori,* to pay him for her Opera 
 ticket ; he was not at home, but went in an hour 
 afterwards. She said, " Did he treat her like a 
 tradeswoman ? She would teach him respect to 
 women of her birth ; said he was in league with 
 Mr. Sheffield,"!'' to abuse her, and bade him come 
 the next morning at nine." He came, and she 
 made him wait till eight at night, only sending 
 him an omlet and a bottle of wine, and said, " As 
 it was Friday, and he a Catholic, she supposed 
 he did not eat meat." At last she received him 
 in all the form of a Princess giving audience to 
 an Ambassador. " Now," she said, " she had 
 punished him." 
 
 In this age we have some who pretend to im- 
 partiality ; you will scarce guess how Lord 
 Brook J shows his : he gives one vote on one 
 side, one on the other, and the third time does 
 not vote at all, and so on, regularly. 
 
 My sister is up to the elbows in joy and 
 flowers that she has received from you this 
 morning, and begs I will thank you for her. 
 
 * Angelo Maria Cori, prompter to the Opera. 
 f Mr. Sheffield, natural son of the late Duke of Bucks, with whom 
 she was at law. 
 
 I Francis, Baron, and afterwards created Earl Brooke. 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 You know, or have heard, of Mrs. Nugent, 
 Newsham's mother ; she went the other morning 
 to Lord Chesterfield to beg " he would encou- 
 rage Mr. Nugent* to speak in the house, for that 
 really he was so bashful, she was afraid his abili- 
 ties would be lost to the world." I don't know 
 who lias encouraged him, but so it is, that this 
 modest Irish converted Catholic does talk a 
 prodigious deal of nonsense in behalf of English 
 liberty. 
 
 Lord Gagef is another ; no man would trust 
 him in a wager, unless he stakes, and yet he is 
 trusted by a whole borough with their privileges 
 and liberties ! He told Mr. Winnington the 
 other day that he would bring his son into par- 
 liament, that he would not influence him, but 
 
 leave him entirely to himself. " D it," said 
 
 Winnington, " so you have all his life-time." 
 
 Your brother says you accuse him of not writ- 
 ing to you, and that his reasons are, he has not 
 time, and next, that I tell you all that can be 
 said. So I do, I think : tell me when I begin to 
 
 * Robert Nugent, a poet, a patriot, an author, a Lord of the Trea- 
 sury, (and finally an Irish Peer by the titles of Lord Clare and Earl 
 Nugent. He seems to have passed his long life in seeking lucrative 
 places and courting rich widows, in both of which pursuits he was 
 eminently successful. D.) 
 
 t Lord Gage was one of those persons to whom the privileges of 
 Parliament were of extreme consequence, as their own liberties were 
 inseparable from them.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 67 
 
 tire you, or if I am too circumstantial ; but I 
 don't believe you will think so, for I remember 
 how we used to want such a correspondent 
 when I was with you. 
 
 I have spoke about the young man, who is 
 well content to live with you as a servant out of 
 livery. I am to settle the affair finally with his 
 father on Monday, and then he shall set out as 
 soon as possible. I will send the things for 
 Prince Craon, &c. by him. I will write to 
 Madame Grifoni the moment I hear she is re- 
 turned from the country. 
 
 The Princess of Hesse* is brought to bed 
 of a son. We are going into mourning for the 
 Queen of Sweden ;f she had always been ap- 
 prehensive of the small-pox, which has been very 
 fatal in her family. 
 
 You have heard, I suppose, of the new revo- 
 lutionsj in Muscovy. The letters from Holland 
 to-day, say, that they have put to death the 
 young Czar and his mother, and his father too ; 
 which, if true, is going very far, for he was of a 
 
 * Mary, fourth daughter of King George II. 
 
 f Ulrica, Queen of Sweden, sister of Charles XII. 
 
 t This relates to the revolution, by which the young Czar John 
 was deposed, and the Princess Elizabeth raised to the throne. 
 
 This was not true. The Princess Anne of Mecklenburgh died 
 in prison at Riga, a few years afterwards. Her son, the young Czar, 
 and her husband, Prince Antony, of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle, were 
 confined for many years. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 sovereign house in another country, no subject 
 of Russia, and after the death of his wife and 
 son, could have no pretence or interest to raise 
 more commotions there. 
 
 We have got a new opera, not so good as the 
 former ; and we have got the famous Bettina to 
 dance, but she is a most indifferent performer. 
 The house is excessively full every Saturday, 
 never on Tuesday : here, you know, we make 
 everything a fashion. 
 
 I am happy that my fears for Tuscany vanish 
 every letter. There ! there is a letter of twelve 
 sides ! I am forced to page it, it is so long, and 
 I have not time to read it over and look for the 
 
 mistakes. 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 London, Dec. 29, 1741. 
 
 I WRITE to you two days before the post goes 
 out, because to-morrow I am to go out of town ; 
 but I would answer your letter by way of Hol- 
 land, to tell you how much you have obliged 
 both Sir Robert and me about the Domini- 
 chin ;* and to beg you to thank Mr. Chute 
 
 * A celebrated picture of a Madonna and Child, by Dominichino, 
 in the Palace Zambeccari, at Bologna, now in the collection of the
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 69 
 
 and Mr. Whithed but I cannot leave it to 
 you. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Chute, was ever anything so 
 kind ! I crossed the Giogo* with Mr. Coke/f 
 but it was in August, and I thought it then the 
 greatest compliment that ever was paid to mor- 
 tal ; and I went with him too ! but you to go 
 only for a picture, and in the month of Decem- 
 ber ! What can I say to you ? You do more to 
 oblige your friend, than I can find terms to 
 thank you for. If I was to tell it here, it would 
 be believed as little as the rape of poor Tory % by 
 a wolf. I can only say that I know the Giogo, 
 its snows and its inns, and consequently know 
 the extent of the obligation that I have to you 
 and Mr. Whithed." 
 
 Now I return to you, my dear child : I am 
 really so much obliged to you and to them, that 
 I know not what to say. I read Pennee's letter 
 to Sir R., who was much pleased with his dis- 
 cretion ; he will be quite a favourite of mine. 
 
 Earl of Orford, at Houghton, in Norfolk. (Since sent to Russia with 
 the rest of the collection. D.) 
 
 * The Giogo is the highest part of the Apennine between Florence 
 and Bologna. 
 
 \ Son of Lord Lovel, since Earl of Leicester. 
 
 \ A black spaniel of Mr. Walpole's was seized by a wolf on the 
 Alps, as it was running at the head of the chaise horses, at noon- 
 day.
 
 70 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 And now we are longing for the picture : you 
 know, of old, my impatience. 
 
 Your young secretary-servant is looking out 
 for a ship, and will set out in the first that goes : 
 I envy him. 
 
 The Court has been trying, but can get no- 
 body to stand for Westminster. You know Mr. 
 Doddington* has lost himself extremely by his 
 new turn, after so often changing sides ; he is 
 grown very fat and lethargic : my brother Ned 
 says, he is grown of less consequence, but more 
 weight. 
 
 One hears of nothing but follies said by the 
 Opposition, who grow mad on having the least 
 prospect. Lady Carteret,f who, you know, did 
 not want any new fuel to her absurdity, says, 
 they talk every day of making her Lord first 
 Minister, but he is not so easily persuaded as they 
 think for. Good night. Yours, ever. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 London, Jan. 7, 1741-2. O.S. 
 
 I MUST answer for your brother a paragraph 
 that he showed me in one of your letters : Mr. 
 
 * George Bubb Doddington had lately resigned his post of one of 
 the Lords of the Treasury, and gone again into Opposition. 
 
 t Frances, daughter of Sir Robert Worseley, and first wife of 
 John Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl of Granville.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 71 
 
 W.'s letters are full oj'wit; don't they adore him 
 in England ? Not at all and I don't wonder at 
 them ; for if I have any wit in my letters, which 
 I do not at all take for granted, it is ten to one 
 that I have none out of my letters. A thousand 
 people can write, that cannot talk ; and besides, 
 you know, (or I conclude so, from the little one 
 hears stirring,) that numbers of the English have 
 wit, who don't care to produce it. Then, as to 
 adoring ; you now see only my letters, and you 
 may be sure I take care not to write you word 
 of any of my bad qualities, which other people 
 must see in the gross ; and that may be a great 
 hindrance to their adoration. Oh ! there are a 
 thousand other reasons I could give you, why I 
 am not the least in fashion. I came over in an 
 ill season : it is a million to one that nobody 
 thinks a declining old Minister's son has wit. 
 At any time, men in opposition have always 
 most ; but now, it would be absurd for a Cour- 
 tier to have even common sense. There is not 
 a Mr. Sturt, or a Mr. Stewart, whose names 
 begin but with the first letters of Stanhope,* 
 that has not a better chance than I, for being 
 liked. I can assure you, even those of the same 
 party would be fools, not to pretend to think me 
 one. Sir Robert has showed no partiality for 
 
 * The name of Lord Chesterfield.
 
 72 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 me ; and do you think they would commend 
 where he does not ? even supposing they had no 
 envy, which, by the way, I am far from saying 
 they have not. Then, my dear child, I am the 
 coolest man of my party, and if I am ever warm, 
 it is by contagion ; and where violence passes 
 for parts, what will indifference be called ? But 
 how could you think of such a question ? I don't 
 want money, consequently no old women pay me 
 or my wit ; I have a very flimsy constitution, 
 consequently the young women won't taste my 
 wit, and it is a long while before wit makes its own 
 way in the world ; especially, as I never prove 
 it, by assuring people that I have it by me. 
 Indeed, if I were disposed to brag, I could quote 
 two or three half-pay officers, and an old aunt 
 or two, who laugh prodigiously at every thing I 
 say ; but till they are allowed judges, I will not 
 brag of such authorities. 
 
 If you have a mind to know who is adored 
 and has wit ; there is old Churchill* has as much 
 
 * General Charles Churchill. (Whose character has been so in- 
 imitably sketched, at about the same period when this letter was writ- 
 ten, by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in his poem of " Isabella, or 
 The Morning." 
 
 " The General, one of those brave old commanders, 
 " Who serv'd through all our glorious wars in Flanders. 
 " Frank and good-natur'd, of an honest heart, 
 " Loving to act the steady friendly part ; 
 
 " None
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 73 
 
 God-d n-ye wit as ever except that he has 
 lost two teeth. There are half a dozen Scotch- 
 men who vote against the Court, and are cried 
 up by the Opposition for wit, to keep them 
 steady. They are forced to cry up their parts, 
 for it would be too barefaced to commend their 
 honesty. Then Mr. Nugent has had a great 
 deal of wit till within this week ; but he is so 
 busy and so witty, that even his own party grow 
 tired of him. His plump wife, who talks of 
 nothing else, says he entertained her all the way 
 on the road with repeating his speeches. 
 
 I did not go into the country last week, as I 
 intended, the weather was so bad ; but I shall 
 
 " None led through youth a gayer life than he, 
 
 " Cheerful in converse, smart in repartee ; 
 
 " But with old age, its vices come along, 
 
 " And in narration he 's extremely long ; 
 
 " Exact in circumstance and nice in dates, 
 
 " He each minute particular relates. 
 
 " If you name one of Marlbro's ten campaigns, 
 
 " He gives you its whole history for your pains, 
 
 " And Blenheim's field becomes by his reciting, 
 
 " As long in telling as it was in fighting ! 
 
 " His old desire to please is still express'd, 
 
 " His hat's well cock'd, his perriwig's well dress'd. 
 
 " He rolls his stockings still, white gloves he wears, 
 
 " And in the boxes with the beaux appears. 
 
 " His eyes through wrinkled corners cast their rays, 
 
 " Still he looks cheerful, still soft things he says, 
 
 " And still remembering that he once was young, 
 
 " He strains his crippled knees, and struts along." D.)
 
 74 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 go on Sunday for three or four days, and per- 
 haps shall not be able to write to you that 
 week. 
 
 You are in an agitation, I suppose, about po- 
 litics : both sides are trafficking deeply for votes 
 during the holidays. It is allowed, I think, that 
 we shall have a majority of twenty-six : Sir R. 
 says more ; but now, upon a pinch, he brags like 
 any bridegroom. 
 
 The Westminster election passed without any 
 disturbance, in favour of Lord Perceive-all* and 
 Mr. Perceive-nothing, as my uncle calls them. 
 Lord Chesterfield was vaunting to Lord Lovel,f 
 that they should have carried it, if they had set 
 up two broomsticks. " So I see," replied Lovel. 
 But it seems we have not done with it yet : if 
 we get the majority, this will be declared a void 
 election too, for my Lord Chancellor^ has found 
 out, that the person who made the return, had 
 no right to make it : it was the High Bailiff's 
 Clerk, the High Bailiff himself being in custody 
 of the Serjeant-at-Arms. It makes a great 
 
 * Vide an account of the Election of Lord Perceval and one Edwin, 
 in that Lord's History of the House of Ivery. 
 
 f Thomas Coke, created Lord Lovel, in 1728, and Earl of Leices- 
 ter, in 1744 : died in 1759, when his titles became extinct. D. 
 
 I Philip Yorke, Lord, and afterwards Earl of Hardwicke, for twenty 
 years Lord Chancellor of England. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 75 
 
 noise, and they talk of making subscriptions for 
 a petition. 
 
 Lord Stafford* is come over. He told me 
 some good stories of the Primate.f 
 
 Last night I had a good deal of company to 
 hear Monticelli and Amorevoli, particularly the 
 three beauty-Fitzroys, Lady Euston, Lady Con- 
 way, and Lady Caroline. J Sir R. liked the 
 singers extremely: he had not heard them be- 
 fore. I forgot to tell you all our beauties : there 
 was Miss Hervey, my Lord's daughter, a fine, 
 black girl, but as masculine as her father should 
 be; and Jenny Con way, || handsomer still, though 
 changed with illness, than even the Fitzroys. I 
 made the music for my Lord Hervey, who is too 
 ill to go to operas ; yet, with a coffin-face, is as 
 full of his little dirty politics as ever. He will 
 not be well enough to go to the House till the 
 majority is certain somewhere, but lives shut up 
 
 * William Matthias Howard, Earl of Stafford. He died in 1751 . 
 
 f The Primate of Lorrain, eldest son of Prince Craon, was famous 
 for his wit and vices of all kinds. 
 
 \ Lady Dorothy Boyle, eldest daughter of Lord Burlington ; Isa- 
 bella, wife of Francis Lord Conway, and Caroline, afterwards mar- 
 ried to Lord Petersham, were the daughter-in-law and daughters of 
 Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, Lord Chamberlain. 
 
 Lepel, eldest daughter of John Lord Hervey, afterwards married 
 to Mr. Phipps. 
 
 || Jane, only daughter of Francis, the first Lord Conway, by his 
 second wife, Mrs. Bodens. (She died unmarried, May 5, 1749. D.)
 
 ?0 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 with my Lord Chesterfield and Mr. Pultney a 
 triumvirate, who hate one another more than 
 anybody they could proscribe, had they the power. 
 I dropped in at my Lord Hervey 's, the other 
 night, knowing my lady had company : it was 
 soon after our defeats. My Lord, who has al- 
 ways professed particularly to me, turned his 
 back on me, and retired for an hour into a whis- 
 per with young Hammond,* at the end of the 
 room. Not being at all amazed at one, whose 
 heart I knew so well, I stayed on, to see more 
 of this behaviour ; indeed, to use myself to it. 
 At last he came up to me, and begged this 
 music, which I gave him, and would often again, 
 to see how many times I shall be ill and well 
 with him within this month. Yesterday came 
 news that his brother, Captain W. Hervey, has 
 taken a Caracca ship, worth full two hundred 
 thousand pounds. He was afterwards separated 
 from it by a storm, for two or three days, and 
 was afraid of losing it, having but five-and- 
 twenty men to thirty-six Spaniards ; but he has 
 brought it home safe. I forgot to tell you, that 
 upon losing the first question, Lord Hervey 
 kept away for a week ; on our carrying the next 
 great one, he wrote to Sir Robert, how much he 
 
 * Author of some Love Elegies, and a favourite of Lord Chester- 
 field. He died this year.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 77 
 
 desired to see him, " not upon any business, but 
 Lord Hervey longs to see Sir Robert Walpole" 
 
 Lady Sundon * is dead, and Lady M 
 disappointed : she, who is full as politic as my 
 Lord Hervey, had made herself an absolute ser- 
 vant to Lady Sundon, but I don't hear that she 
 has left her even her old clothes. Lord Sundon 
 is in great grief : I am surprised, for she has had 
 fits of madness, ever since her ambition met such 
 a check by the death of the Queen.f She had 
 great power with her, though the Queen pre- 
 tended to despise her ; but had unluckily told 
 her, or fallen into her power, by some secret. I 
 was saying to Lady Pomfret, " To be sure she is 
 dead very rich !" she replied, with some warmth, 
 " She never took money." When I came home, 
 I mentioned this to Sir R. " No," said he, " but 
 she took jewels ; Lord Pomfret's place of Master 
 of the Horse to the Queen was bought of her for 
 a pair of diamond ear-rings, of fourteen hundred 
 pounds value." One day that she wore them at 
 a visit at old Marlbro's, as soon as she was gone, 
 the Duchess said to Lady Mary Wortley,:}: " How 
 
 * Dives, wife of William Clayton, Lord Sundon : woman of 
 
 the bedchamber, and mistress of the robes to Queen Caroline. 
 
 f Queen Caroline, died November 1737. D. 
 
 t The celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, eldest daughter of 
 Evelyn, first Duke of Kingston, and wife of Wortley Montagu, Esq. 
 D.
 
 78 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 can that woman have the impudence to go about 
 in that bribe ?" " Madam," said Lady Mary, 
 " how would you have people know where wine 
 is to be sold, unless there is a sign hung out ?" 
 Sir R. told me, that in the enthusiasm of her 
 vanity, Lady Sundon had proposed to him to 
 unite with her, and govern the kingdom toge- 
 ther : he bowed, begged her patronage, but said 
 he thought nobody fit to govern the kingdom, 
 but the King and Queen. Another day. Friday 
 morning. 
 
 I was forced to leave off last night, as I found 
 it would be impossible to send away this letter 
 finished in any time. It will be enormously 
 long, but I have prepared you for it. When I 
 consider the beginning of my letter, it looks as if 
 I were entirely of your opinion about the agree- 
 ableness of them. I believe you will never com- 
 mend them again, when you see how they in- 
 crease upon your hands. I have seen letters of two 
 or three sheets, written from merchants at Bengal 
 and Canton to their wives ; but then they con- 
 tain the history of a twelvemonth : I grow volu- 
 minous from week to week. I can plead in 
 excuse nothing but the true reason ; you desired 
 it ; and I remember how I used to wish for 
 such letters, when I was in Italy. My Lady 
 Pomfret carries this humanity still farther, and
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 79 
 
 because people were civil to her in Italy, she 
 makes it a rule to visit all strangers in general. 
 She has been to visit a Spanish Count* and his 
 wife, though she cannot open her lips in their 
 language. They fled from Spain, he and his 
 brother having offended the Queen,f by their 
 attachments to the Prince of Asturias ; his bro- 
 ther ventured back, to bring off this woman, 
 who was engaged to him. Lord Harrington J has 
 procured them a pension of six hundred a-year. 
 They live chiefly with Lord Carteret and his 
 daughter, who speak Spanish. But to pro-, 
 ceed from where I left off last night, like the 
 Princess Dinarzade in the Arabian Nights, for 
 you will want to know what happened one day. 
 Sir Robert was at dinner with Lady Sundon, 
 who hated the Bishop of London, as much as she 
 loved the Church. " Well," said she to Sir R. 
 " how does your Pope do ?" " Madam," replied 
 he, " he is my Pope, and shall be my Pope ; 
 
 * Marquis de Sabernego : he returned to Spain after the death of 
 Philip V. 
 
 f The Princess of Parma, second wife of Philip V. King of Spain, 
 and consequently step-mother to the Prince of Asturias, son of that 
 King, by his first wife, a Princess of Savoy. D. 
 
 J William Stanhope, created Lord Harrington, in 1729, and Earl 
 of the same in 1741. He held various high offices, and was at the 
 time this letter was written, Secretary of State. D. 
 
 Frances, youngest daughter of Lord Carteret, afterwards married 
 to the Marquis of Tweedale.
 
 80 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 everybody has some Pope or other ; don't you 
 know that you are one? They call you Pope 
 Joan." She flew into a passion, and desired he 
 would not fix any names on her ; that they were 
 not so easily got rid of. 
 
 We had a little ball the other night at Mrs. 
 Boothby's, and by dancing, did not perceive an 
 earthquake, which frightened all the undancing 
 part of the town. 
 
 We had a civility from his Royal Highness,* 
 who sent for Monticelli the night he was en- 
 gaged here, but on hearing it, said he would 
 send for him some other night. If I did not 
 live so near St. James's, I would find out some 
 politics in this should not one ? 
 
 Sir William Stanhope f has had a hint from 
 the same Highness, that his company is not quite 
 agreeable : whenever he met anybody at Carl- 
 ton House whom he did not know, he said, 
 " Your humble servant, Mr. or Mrs. Hamilton." 
 
 I have this morning sent aboard the St. Quin- 
 tin a box for you, with your Secretary not 
 in it. 
 
 Old Weston of Exeter is dead. Dr. Clarke, 
 
 * Frederic Prince of Wales. D. 
 
 f Brother to Lord Chesterfield. This Ion mot was occasioned by 
 the numbers of Hamiltons which Lady Archibald Hamilton, the 
 Prince's mistress, had placed at that Court.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 81 
 
 the Dean, Dr. Willes, the decipherer, and Dr. 
 Gilbert of Llandaff, are candidates to succeed 
 him.* Sir R. is for Willes, who, he says, knows 
 so many secrets, that he might insist upon being 
 Archbishop. 
 
 My dear Mr. Chute ! how concerned I am that 
 he took all that trouble to no purpose. I will 
 not write to him this post, for as you show him 
 my letters, this here will sufficiently employ any 
 one's patience but I have done. I long to 
 hear that the Dominichin is safe. Good night ! 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 Friday, Jan. 22,1742. 
 
 DON'T wonder that I missed writing to you 
 yesterday, my constant day : you will pity me 
 when you hear that I was shut up in the House 
 of Commons till one in the morning. I came 
 away more dead than alive, and was forced to 
 leave Sir R. at supper with my brothers : he was 
 all alive and in spirits. He says he is younger 
 than me, and indeed I think so, in spite of his 
 forty years more. My head aches to-night, but 
 
 * Nicholas Clagget, Bishop of St. David's, succeeded on Weston's 
 death to the See of Exeter. D. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 we rose early ; and if I don't write to-night, when 
 shall I find a moment to spare ? Now you want 
 to know what we did last night ; stay, I will tell 
 you presently in its place : it was well, and of 
 infinite consequence so far I tell you now. 
 
 Our recess finished last Monday, and never at 
 school did I enjoy holidays so much but, les 
 voila Jinis jusqu'au printems ! Tuesday (for 
 you see I write you an absolute journal) we sat 
 on a Scotch election, a double return ; their man 
 was Hume Campbell,* Lord Marchmont's bro- 
 ther, lately made solicitor to the Prince, for 
 being as troublesome, as violent, and almost as 
 able as his brother. They made a great point of 
 it, and gained so many of our votes, that at ten 
 at night we were forced to give it up without 
 dividing. Sandys, who loves persecution, even 
 unto the death, moved to punish the sheriff; and 
 as we dared not divide, they ordered him into 
 custody, where by this time, I suppose, Sandys 
 has eaten him. 
 
 * Hume Campbell was twin brother of Hugh, third Earl of March- 
 mont. They were sons of Alexander, the second Earl, who had quar- 
 relled with Sir Robert Walpole at the time of the Excise Scheme in 
 1733. Sir Robert, in consequence, prevented him from being re- 
 elected one of the sixteen representative Scotch peers in 1 734 ; in 
 requital for which, the old Earl's two sons became the bitterest oppo- 
 nents of the Minister. They were both men of considerable talents ; 
 extremely similar in their characters and dispositions, and so much 
 so in their outward appearance, that it was very difficult to know 
 them apart. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 83 
 
 On Wednesday Sir Robert Godschall, the 
 Lord Mayor, presented the Merchant's petition, 
 signed by three hundred of them, and drawn up 
 by Leonidas Glover.* This is to be heard next 
 Wednesday. This gold-chain came into parlia- 
 ment, cried up for his parts, but proves so dull, 
 one would think he chewed opium. Earle says, " I 
 have heard an oyster speak as well twenty times." 
 
 Well, now I come to yesterday : we met, not 
 expecting much business. Five of our members 
 were gone to the York election, and the three Lord 
 Beauclercsf to their mother's funeral at Wind- 
 sor, for that old beauty St. Albans^ is dead at last. 
 On this they depended for getting the majority, 
 and towards three o'clock, when we thought of 
 breaking up, poured in their most violent ques- 
 tions : one was a motion for leave to bring in 
 the place-bill, to limit the number of placemen 
 in the House. This was not opposed, because, 
 out of decency, it is generally suffered to pass the 
 Commons, and is thrown out by the Lords ; only 
 
 * Glover, a merchant, author of Leonidas, a poem ; Boadicea, a 
 tragedy, &c. 
 
 f Lord Vere, Lord Henry, and Lord Sidney Beauclerc, sons of 
 the Duchess Dowager of St. Albans, who is painted among the beau- 
 ties at Hampton-Court. 
 
 \ Lady Diana Vere, daughter, and at length sole heir, of Aubrey 
 de Vere, twentieth and last Earl of Oxford. She married, in 1694, 
 Charles, first Duke of St. Albans, natural son of Charles II. by Nell 
 Gwin. She died Jan. 15, 1742. D. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Colonel Cholmondeley* desired to know if they 
 designed to limit the number of those that have 
 promises of places, as well as of those that have 
 places now. I must tell you that we are a very 
 Conclave ; they buy votes with reversions of 
 places on the change of the Ministry. Lord 
 Gage was giving an account in Tom's coffee- 
 house of the intended alterations ; that Mr. 
 Pultney is to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 and Chesterfield and Carteret, Secretaries of 
 State. Somebody asked who was to be pay- 
 master ? Numps Edwin, who stood by, replied, 
 " We have not thought so low as that yet." 
 Lord Gage harangues every day at Tom's, and 
 has read there a very false account of the 
 King'sf message to the Prince. The Court, to 
 show their contempt of Gage, have given 
 their copy to be read by Swinny.J This is 
 the authentic copy, which they have made the 
 Bishop write from the message which he car- 
 ried, and as he and Lord Cholmondeley agree 
 it was given. 
 
 * Colonel James Cholmondeley, only brother of the Earl. 
 
 f During the holidays, Sir R. W. had prevailed on the King to 
 send to the Prince of Wales, to offer to pay his debts and double his 
 allowance. This negociation was entrusted to Lord Cholmondeley 
 on the King's, and to Seeker, Bishop of Oxford, on the Prince's side ; 
 but came to nothing. 
 
 t Owen Mac Swinny, a buffoon ; formerly director of the playhouse.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 85 
 
 On this Thursday, of which I was telling you, 
 at three o'clock, Mr. Pultney rose up, and moved 
 for a Secret Committee of twenty-one. This 
 Inquisition, this Council of ten, was to sit and 
 examine whatever persons and papers they should 
 please, and to meet when and where they pleased. 
 He protested much on its not being intended 
 against any person, but merely to give the King 
 advice, and on this foot they fought it till ten at 
 night, when Lord Perceval blundered out what 
 they had been cloaking with so much art, and 
 declared that he should vote for it as a Commit- 
 tee of Accusation. Sir Robert immediately rose, 
 and protested that he should not have spoken, 
 but for what he had heard last : but that now, 
 he must take it to himself. He pourtrayed the 
 malice of the Opposition, who, for twenty years, 
 had not been able to touch him, and were now 
 reduced to this infamous shift. He defied them 
 to accuse him, and only desired that if they 
 should, it might be in an open and fair manner : 
 desired no favour, but to be acquainted with his 
 accusation. He spoke of Mr. Doddington, who 
 had called his administration infamous, as of a 
 person of great self-mortification, who, for six- 
 teen years, had condescended to bear part of the 
 odium. For Mr. Pultney, who had just spoken 
 a second time, Sir R. said, he had begun the
 
 86 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 debate with great calmness, but give him his due, 
 he had made amends for it in the end. In short, 
 never was innocence so triumphant ! 
 
 There were several glorious speeches on both 
 sides: Mr. Pultney's two, W. Pitt's* and G. Gren- 
 ville's,f Sir Robert's, Sir W. Yonge's, Harry 
 Fox's,J Mr. Chute's, and the Attorney-General's. 
 My friend Coke, for the first time, spoke vastly 
 well, and mentioned how great Sir Robert's cha- 
 racter is abroad. Sir Francis Dashwood replied, 
 that he had found quite the reverse from Mr. 
 Coke, and that foreigners always spoke with con- 
 tempt of the Chevalier de Walpole. This was 
 going too far, and he was called to order, but got 
 off well enough, by saying, that he knew it was 
 contrary to rule to name any member, but that 
 he only mentioned it as spoken by an imperti- 
 nent Frenchman. 
 
 But of all speeches, none ever was so full of 
 wit as Mr. Pultney's last. He said, " I have 
 heard this Committee represented as a most 
 dreadful spectre ; it has been likened to all terri- 
 ble things ; it has been likened to the King ; to 
 the inquisition ; it will be a committee of safety ; 
 
 * Afterward the great Lord Chatham. D. 
 
 f First Minister in the early part of the reign of George III. D. 
 
 J Afterwards the first Lord Holland. D. 
 
 Sir Dudley Ryder. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 87 
 
 it is a committee of danger ; I don't know what 
 it is to be! One gentleman, I think, called it 
 a cloud! (this was the Attorney) a cloud! I re- 
 member Hamlet takes Lord Polonius by the hand 
 and shows him a cloud, and then asks him if he 
 does not think it is like a whale." Well, in 
 short, at eleven at night we divided, and threw 
 out this famous Committee by 253 to 250, the 
 greatest number that ever was in the house, and 
 the greatest number that ever lost a question. 
 
 It was a most shocking sight to see the sick 
 and dead brought in on both sides! Men on 
 crutches, and Sir William Gordon from his bed, 
 with a blister on his head, and flannel hanging 
 out from under his wig. I could scarce pity him 
 for his ingratitude. The day before the West- 
 minster petition, Sir Charles Wager* gave his son 
 a ship, and the next day the father came down 
 and voted against him. The son has since been 
 cast away, but they concealed it from the father, 
 that he might not absent himself. However, as 
 we have our good-natured men too on our side, 
 one of his own countrymen went and told him of 
 it in the house. The old man, who looked like 
 
 * Admiral Sir Charles Wager. He had been knighted by Queen 
 Anne, for bis gallantry in taking and destroying some rich Spanish 
 galleons. He was at this time tirst Lord of the Admiralty. He 
 died in 1743. D.
 
 88 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Lazarus at his resuscitation, bore it with great 
 resolution, and said, he knew why he was told of 
 it, but when he thought his country in danger, 
 he would not go away. As he is so near death, 
 that it is indifferent to him whether he died two 
 thousand years ago or to-morrow, it is unlucky 
 for him not to have lived when such insensibility 
 would have been a Roman virtue. 
 
 There are no arts, no menaces which the Op- 
 position do not practise. They have threatened 
 one gentleman to have a reversion cut off from 
 his son, unless he will vote with them. To 
 Totness there came a letter to the Mayor from 
 the Prince, and signed by two of his Lords, to re- 
 commend a candidate in opposition to the Solici- 
 tor-General. The mayor sent the letter to Sir 
 Robert. They have turned the Scotch to the 
 best account. There is a young Oswald,* who 
 had engaged to Sir R., but has voted against us. 
 Sir R. sent a friend to reproach him : the mo- 
 ment the gentleman, who had engaged for him, 
 came into the room, Oswald said, " You had like 
 to have led me into a fine error ! did you not tell 
 me that Sir R. would have the majority ?" 
 
 When the debate was over, Mr. Pultney owned 
 that he had never heard so fine a debate on our 
 
 * James Oswald, afterwards one of the Commissioners of Trade 
 and Plantations.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 89 
 
 side ; and said to Sir Robert, " Well, nobody can 
 do what you can!" "Yes," replied Sir R., 
 " Yonge did better." Mr. P. answered, " It was 
 fine, but not of that weight with what you said." 
 They all allow it ; and now their plan is to per- 
 suade Sir Robert to retire with honour. All that 
 evening there was a report about the town, that 
 he and my uncle were to be sent to the Tower, 
 and people hired windows in the city to see them 
 pass by but for this time I believe we shall not 
 exhibit so historical a parade. 
 
 The night of the Committee, my brother 
 Walpole* had got two or three invalids at his 
 house, designing to carry them into the house 
 through his door, as they were too ill to go round 
 by Westminster hall : the Patriots, who have 
 rather more contrivances than their predecessors 
 of Grecian and Roman memory, had taken the 
 precaution of stopping the keyhole with sand. 
 How Livy's eloquence would have been hamper- 
 ed, if there had been backdoors and keyholes to 
 the Temple of Concord ! 
 
 A few days ago there were lists of the officers 
 at Port Mahon, laid before the House of Lords : 
 
 * Robert Lord Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford. He was Au- 
 ditor of the Exchequer, and his house joined to the House of Com- 
 mons, to which he had a door ; but it was soon afterwards locked up, 
 by an order of the House.
 
 90 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 unfortunately, it appeared that two-thirds of the 
 regiment had been absent. The Duke of Argyll * 
 said, " Such a list was a libel on the Govern- 
 ment;" and of all men, the Duke of Newcastle 
 was the man who rose up and agreed with him : 
 remember what I told you once before of his 
 union with Carteret. We have carried the York 
 election by a majority of 956. 
 
 The other night the Bishop of Canterbury-)- was 
 with Sir Robert, and on going away, said, " Sir, 
 I have been lately reading Thuanus ; he men- 
 tions a minister, who having long been perse- 
 cuted by his enemies, at length vanquished them : 
 the reason he gives, quia se non desermt." 
 
 Sir Thomas Robinson is at last named to the 
 government of Barbadoes ; he has long prevented 
 its being asked for, by declaring that he had the 
 promise of it. Luckily for him, Lord Lincoln 
 liked his house, and procured him this govern- 
 ment on condition of hiring it. 
 
 I have mentioned Lord Perceval's speeches ; 
 he has a set who have a rostrum at his house, and 
 harangue* there. A gentleman who came thither 
 one evening was refused, but insisting that he 
 was engaged to come, " Oh, Sir," said the Porter, 
 
 * John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich. D. 
 f John Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury, translated, in 1737, 
 from the see of Oxford ; died in 1747. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 91 
 
 " what are you one of those who play at members 
 of Parliament?" 
 
 I must tell you something, though Mr. Chute 
 will see my letter. Sir Robert brought home 
 yesterday to dinner, a fat comely gentleman, 
 who came up to me, and said, he believed I 
 knew his brother abroad. I asked his name ; he 
 replied, " He is with Mr. Whithed." I thought 
 he said, "it is Whithed." After I had talked 
 to him of Mr. Whithed, I said, " There is a very 
 sensible man with Mr. Whithed, one Mr. Chute." 
 "Sir," said he, "my name is Chute." "My 
 dear Mr. Chute, now I know both your bro- 
 thers. You will forgive my mistake." 
 
 With what little conscience I begin a third 
 sheet ! but it shall be but half a one. I have re- 
 ceived your vast packet of music by the messen- 
 ger, for which I thank you a thousand times ; 
 and the political sonnet, which is far from bad. 
 Who translated it ? I like the translation. 
 
 I am obliged to you about the Gladiator, &c. : 
 the temptation of having them at all is great, but 
 too enormous. If I could have the Gladiator 
 for about an hundred pounds, I would give it. 
 
 I inclose one of the bills of lading of the 
 things that I sent you by your secretary : he sets 
 out to-morrow. By Oswald's* folly, to whom I 
 
 * George Oswald, steward to Sir R. W.
 
 92 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 entrusted the putting them on board, they are 
 consigned to Goldsworthy,* but pray take care 
 that he does not open them. The captain mor- 
 tifies me by proposing to stay three weeks at 
 Genoa. I have sent away to-night a small addi- 
 tional box of steel wares, which I received but to- 
 day from Woodstock. As they are better than 
 the first, you will choose out some of them for 
 Prince Craon, and give away the rest as you 
 please. 
 
 We have a new Opera by Pescetti, but a very 
 bad one ; however, all the town runs after it, for 
 it ends with a charming dance. They have 
 flung open the stage to a great length, and 
 made a perfect view of Venice, with the Rialto, 
 and numbers of Gondolas that row about full of 
 masks, who land and dance. You would like it. 
 
 Well, I have done. Excuse me if I don't take 
 the trouble to read it all over again, for it is im- 
 mense, as you will find. Good night ! 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 . London, Feb. 4, 1741-2. 
 
 I AM miserable that I have not more time to 
 write to you, especially as you will want to know 
 
 * Mr. Goldsworthy, Consul at Leghorn, had married Sir Charles 
 Wager's niece, and was endeavouring to supplant Mr. Mann at 
 Florence.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 93 
 
 so much of what I have to tell you ; but for 
 a week or fortnight I shall be so hurried, 
 that I shall scarce know what I say. I sit 
 here writing to you, and receiving all the 
 town, who flock to this house ; Sir Robert has 
 already had three levees this morning, and 
 the rooms still overflowing they overflow up 
 to me. You will think this the prelude to 
 some victory ! On the contrary, when you 
 receive this, there will be no longer a Sir 
 Robert Walpole : you must know him for the 
 future by the title of Earl of Orford. That 
 other envied name expires next week with his 
 Ministry ! 
 
 Preparatory to this change, I should tell you 
 that last week we heard in the House of Com- 
 mons the Chippenham election, when Jack Fre- 
 derick and his brother-in-law, Mr. Hume, on our 
 side, petitioned against Sir Edmund Thomas and 
 Mr. Baynton Rolt. Both sides made it the 
 decisive question but our people were not all 
 equally true ; and upon the previous question 
 we had but 235 against 236, so lost it by one. 
 From that time my brothers, my uncle, I and 
 some of his particular friends persuaded Sir R. 
 to resign. He was undetermined till Sunday 
 night. Tuesday we were to finish the election, 
 when we lost it by 16 ; upon which Sir Robert 
 declared to some particular persons in the house
 
 94 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 his resolution to retire, and had that morning- 
 sent the Prince of Wales notice of it. It is under- 
 stood from the heads of the party, that nothing 
 more is to be pursued against him. Yesterday 
 (Wednesday) the King adjourned both Houses 
 for a fortnight, for time to settle things. Next 
 week Sir Robert resigns and goes into the House 
 of Lords. The only change yet fixed, is, that 
 Lord Wilmington* is to be at the head of the 
 Treasury but numberless other alterations and 
 confusions must follow. The Prince will be re- 
 conciled, and the Whig-patriots will come in. 
 There were a few bonfires last night, but they 
 are very unfashionable, for never was fallen 
 Minister so followed. When he kissed the 
 King's hand to take his first leave, the King fell 
 on his neck, wept and kissed him, and begged to 
 see him frequently. He will continue in town, 
 and assist the Ministry in the Lords. Mr. Pel- 
 ham has declared that he will accept nothing 
 that was Sir Robert's ; and this moment the 
 Duke of Richmond has been here from Court 
 to tell Sir R. that he had resigned the master- 
 ship of the horse, having received it from him, 
 unasked, and that he would not keep it beyond 
 his Ministry. This is the greater honour, as it 
 
 * Sir Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, Knight of the Gar- 
 ter, and at this time Lord President of the Council.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 95 
 
 was so unexpected, and as he had no personal 
 friendship with the Duke. 
 
 For myself, I am quite happy to be free from 
 all the fatigue, envy, and uncertainty of our late 
 situation. I go everywhere ; indeed, to have 
 the stare over, and to use myself to neglect, but 
 I meet nothing but civilities. Here have been 
 Lord Hartington, Coke, and poor Fitzwilliam,* 
 and others crying ; here has been Lord Deskfordf 
 and numbers to wish me joy ; in short, it is a 
 most extraordinary and various scene. 
 
 There are three people whom I pity much ; 
 the King, Lord Wilmington, and my own sister ; 
 the first, for the affront, to be forced to part with 
 his Minister, and to be forced to forgive his son ; 
 the second, as he is too old, and (even when he 
 was young,) unfit for the burthen ; and the poor 
 girl,J who must be created an Earl's daughter, as 
 her birth would deprive her of the rank. She 
 must kiss hands, and bear the flirts of imperti- 
 nent real quality. 
 
 * William, Baron, and afterwards Earl Fitzwilliam ; a young 
 lord, much attached to Sir R. W. 
 
 f James Ogilvy, Lord Deskford, succeeded his father in 1764, as 
 sixth Earl of Findlater, and third Earl of Seafield. He held some 
 inconsiderable offices in Scotland, and died himself in 1770. D. 
 
 J Maria, natural daughter to Sir R. W. by Maria Skerret, his mis- 
 tress, whom he afterwards married. She had a patent to take place 
 as an Earl's daughter.
 
 96 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 I am invited to dinner to-day by Lord Straf- 
 ford,* Argyll's son-in-law. You see we shall 
 grow the fashion. 
 
 My dear child, these are the most material 
 points : I am sensible how much you must 
 want particulars ; but you must be sensible, too, 
 that just yet, I have not time. 
 
 Don't be uneasy ; your brother Ned has been 
 here to wish me joy : your brother Gal. has been 
 here and cried : your tender nature will at first 
 make you like the latter ; but afterwards you 
 will rejoice with your elder and me. Adieu! 
 Yours, ever, and the same. 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 Feb. 9, 1741-2. 
 
 You will have had my letter that told you of 
 the great change. The scene is not quite so 
 pleasant as it was, nor the tranquillity arrived 
 that we expected. All is in confusion : no over- 
 tures from the Prince, who, it must seem, pro- 
 poses to be King. His party have persuaded 
 him not to make up, but on much greater con- 
 
 * William Wentworth, second Earl of Stratford, of the second 
 creation. He married Lady Anne Campbell, second daughter of 
 John Duke of Argyll. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 97 
 
 ditions than he first demanded ; in short, not- 
 withstanding his professions to the Bishop,* he is 
 to insist on the impeachment of Sir R., saying 
 now, that his terms not being accepted at first, 
 he is not bound to stick to them. He is pushed 
 on to this violence by Argyll, Chesterfield, Cob- 
 ham,! Sir John Hind Cotton,:): and Lord March- 
 mont. The first says, " What impudence it is 
 in Sir R. to be driving about the streets !" and 
 all cry out, that he is still Minister behind the 
 curtain. They will none of them come into the 
 ministry, till several are displaced ; but have 
 summoned a great meeting of the Faction for 
 Friday, at the Fountain Tavern, to consult mea- 
 sures against Sir R., and to-morrow the Com- 
 mon Council meet, to draw up instructions for 
 their Members. They have sent into Scotland 
 and into the counties, for the same purpose. 
 
 * Seeker, Bishop of Oxford. 
 
 f Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham, so created in 1718, with re- 
 mainder to the issue male of his sister, Hester Grenville. He had 
 served in Flanders, under the Duke of Marlborough, and was, upon 
 the overthrow of Sir Robert Walpole's administration, promoted to 
 the military rank of Field Marshal. He is now best remembered as 
 the friend of Pope, and the creator of the Gardens of Stowe. D. 
 
 J Sir John llinde Cotton, Bart, of Landwade, in Cambridgeshire ; 
 long a Member of Parliament, and one of the leaders of the Jacobite 
 party. He died in 1752, and Horace Walpole, in his Memoirs, in 
 noticing this event, says, " Died Sir John Cotton, the last Jacobite of 
 any sensible activity." D. 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Carteret and Pultney * pretend to be against 
 this violence, but own that if their party insist 
 upon it, they cannot desert them. The cry 
 against Sir R. has been greater this week than 
 ever ; first, against a grant of four thousand 
 pounds a-year, which the King gave him on his 
 resignation, but which, to quiet them, he has 
 given up.f Then, upon making his daughter a 
 lady ; their wives and daughters declare against 
 giving her place. He and she both kissed hands 
 yesterday, and on Friday go to Richmond for a 
 week. He seems quite secure in his innocence 
 but what protection is that, against the power 
 and malice of party ! Indeed, his friends seem as 
 firm as ever, and frequent him as much ; but 
 they are not now the strongest. As to an im- 
 peachment, I think they will not be so mad as 
 to proceed to it ; it is too solemn and too public 
 to be attempted, without proof of crimes, of 
 which he certainly is not guilty. For a bill of 
 
 * Lord Carteret and Mr. Pultney had really betrayed their party ; 
 and so injudiciously, that they lost their old friends, and gained no 
 new. 
 
 f Sir R., at the persuasion of his brother, Mr. Selwyn, and others, 
 desisted from pursuing this grant. Three years afterwards, when the 
 clamour was at an end, and his affairs extremely involved, he sued 
 for it; which Mr. Pelham, his friend, and leve, was brought with 
 the worst grace in the world to ask, and his old obliged master the 
 King, prevailed upon, with as ill grace, to grant.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 99 
 
 pains and penalties, they may if they will, I be- 
 lieve, pass it through the Commons, but will 
 scarce get the assent of the King and Lords. 
 In a week more I shall be able to write with 
 less uncertainty. 
 
 I hate sending you false news, as that was, of 
 the Duke of Richmond's resignation. It arose 
 from his being two hours below with Sir R., and 
 from some very warm discourse of his in the 
 House of Lords, against the present violences ; 
 but went no farther. Zeal magnified this, as 
 she came up stairs to me, and I wrote to you 
 before I had seen Sir Robert. 
 
 At a time when we ought to be most unit- 
 ed, we are in the greatest confusion ; such is 
 the virtue of the patriots, though they have ob- 
 tained what they professed alone to seek. They 
 will not stir one step in Foreign affairs, though 
 Sir R. has offered to unite with them, with all 
 his friends, for the common cause. It will now 
 be seen, whether he or they are most patriot. 
 You see I call him Sir Robert still ! after one 
 has known him by that name for these threescore 
 years, it is difficult to accustom one's mouth to 
 another title. 
 
 In the midst of all this, we are diverting our- 
 selves as cordially as if Righteousness and Peace 
 had just been kissing one another. Balls, operas, 
 
 H 2
 
 100 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 and masquerades ! The Duchess of Norfolk* 
 makes a grand masquing next week ; and to- 
 morrow there is one at the Opera-house. 
 
 Here is a Saxe-Gothic Prince, brother to her 
 Royal Highness^ : he sent her word from Dover 
 that he was driven in there, in his way to Italy. 
 The man of the inn, whom he consulted about 
 lodgings in town, recommended him to one of 
 very ill-fame, in Suffolk-Street. He has got a 
 neutrality for himself, and goes to both Courts. 
 
 Churchill J asked Pultney the other day, 
 " Well, Mr. Pultney, will you break me, too ?" 
 " No, Charles," replied he, " you break fast 
 enough of yourself!" Don't you think it hurt 
 him more than the other breaking would ? Good 
 night ! 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 Thursday, Feb. 11, 1741-2. 
 
 P. S. I had finished my letter, and unwillingly 
 resolved to send you all that bad news, rather 
 than leave you ignorant of our doings ; but I 
 have the pleasure of mending your prospect a 
 little. Yesterday the Common Council met and 
 resolved upon instructions to their Members, 
 
 * Mary, daughter of Edward Blount, Esq. and wife of Edward, 
 ninth Duke of Norfolk. D. 
 f The Princess of Wales. D. 
 t General Charles Churchill. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 101 
 
 which, except one not very descriptive para- 
 graph, contains nothing personal against our 
 new Earl ; and ends with resolutions to stand by 
 our present Constitution. Mind what followed ! 
 One of them proposed to insert the. King and 
 Royal Family before the words our present Con- 
 stitution; but, on a division, it was rejected by 
 three to one. 
 
 But to-day, for good news ! Sir Robert has 
 resigned : Lord Wilmington is first Lord of the 
 Treasury, and Sandys has accepted the Seals as 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, with Gibbon* and 
 Sir John Rushout,j- joined to him as other Lords 
 of the Treasury. Waller was to have been the 
 other, but has formally refused. So, Lord Sun- 
 don, Earle, Treby,J and Clutterbuck, are the 
 first discarded, unless the latter saves himself by 
 Waller's refusal. Lord Harrington, who is created 
 an Earl, is made President of the Council, and 
 Lord Carteret has consented to be Secretary of 
 
 * Philip Gibbons, Esq. D. 
 
 f Sir John Rushout, the fourth Baronet of the family, had particu- 
 larly distinguished himself as an opponent of Sir R. Walpole's Excise 
 Scheme. He was made Treasurer of the Navy, in 1743, and died in 
 1775, at the advanced age of ninety-one. His son was created Lord 
 Northwick, in 1797. D. 
 
 JGeorge Treby, Esq. D. 
 
 Thomas Clutterbuck, Esq. He left the Treasury in February 
 1742, and was made Treasurer of the Navy. D.
 
 102 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 State in his room but mind ; not one of them 
 has promised to be against the prosecution of 
 Sir Robert, though I don't believe now that it 
 will go on. You see, Pultney is not come in, 
 except in his friend, Sir John Rushout ; but is to 
 hold the balance between Liberty and Preroga- 
 tive at least, in this, he acts with honour. 
 They say, Sir John Hind Cotton and the Jaco- 
 bites will be left out ; unless they bring in Dr. 
 Lee and Sir John Barnard, to the Admiralty, as 
 they propose for I do not think it is decided 
 what are their principles. Sir Charles Wager 
 has resigned this morning : he says, " We shall 
 not die, but be all changed !" though he says, a 
 parson lately reading this text in an old Bible, 
 where the c was rubbed out, read it, not die but 
 be all hanged. 
 
 To-morrow our Earl goes to Richmond Park, 
 en retire, comes on Thursday to take his seat in 
 the Lords, and returns thither again. Sandys 
 is very angry at his taking the title of Orford, 
 which belonged to his wife's* great uncle. You 
 know a step of that nature cost the great Lord 
 Straffordf his head, at the prosecution of a less 
 bloody-minded man than Sandys. 
 
 * Lady Sandys was daughter of Lady Tipping, niece of Russel 
 Earl of Orford. 
 
 t Sir Thomas Wentworth, the great Earl of Strafford, took the title 
 of Raby from a castle of that name, which belonged to Sir Henry 
 Vane, who, from that time, became his mortal foe.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 103 
 
 I remain in town, and have not taken at all to 
 withdrawing, which I hear has given offence, as 
 well as my gay face in public ; but as I had so 
 little joy in the grandeur, I am determined to 
 take as little part in the disgrace. I am looking 
 about for a new house. 
 
 I have received two vast packets from you to- 
 day, I believe from the bottom of the sea, for 
 they have been so washed, that I could scarce 
 read them. I could read the terrible history 
 of the earthquakes at Leghorn : how infinitely 
 good you was to poor Mrs. Goldsworthy ! how 
 could you think I should not approve such vast 
 humanity ? but you are all humanity and for- 
 giveness. I am only concerned that they will be 
 present when you receive all these disagreeable 
 accounts of your friends. Their support* is re- 
 moved as well as yours. I only fear the interest 
 of the Richmonds-j" with the Duke of Newcastle ; 
 but I will try to put you well with Lord Lin- 
 coln. We must write circumspectly, for our 
 letters now are no longer safe. 
 
 I shall see Amorevoli to-night, to give him 
 the letter. Ah ! Monticelli and the Visconti 
 are to sing to-night at a great assembly, at Lady 
 Con way's. I have not time to write more ; so, 
 
 * Sir Charles Wager. 
 
 f Mrs. Goldsworthy had been a companion of the Duchess of 
 Richmond.
 
 104 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 good night, my dearest child ! be in good 
 spirits. 
 
 Yours, most faithfully. 
 
 P. S. We have at last got Crebillon's " Sofa :" 
 Lord Chesterfield received three hundred, and 
 gave them to be sold at White's. It is admir- 
 able ! except the beginning of the first volume, 
 and the last story, it is equal to anything he has 
 written. How he has painted the most refined 
 Nature in Mazulhim ! the most retired Nature 
 in Modes ! the Man of Fashion that sets himself 
 above natural sensations, and the Man of Sense 
 and Devotion, that would skirmish himself from 
 their influence, are equally justly reduced to the 
 standard of their own weakness.* 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 Feb. 18, 1741-2. 
 
 I WRITE to you more tired, and with more 
 head-ache, than any one but you could conceive ! 
 I came home at five this morning, from the 
 Duchess of Norfolk's masquerade ; and was for- 
 ced to rise before eleven, for my father, who came 
 
 * Posterity has not confirmed the eulogium here given to the inde- 
 cent trash of the younger Crebillon. But in the age of George II. 
 coarseness passed for humour, and " obscenity was wit." D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 105 
 
 from Richmond, to take his seat in the Lords, 
 for the Houses met to-day. He is gone back to 
 his retirement. Things wear a better aspect : 
 at the great meeting* on Friday, at the Foun- 
 tain, Lord Carteret and Lord Winchelseaf re- 
 fused to go, only saying, that they never dined 
 at a tavern. Pultney and the new Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer went, and were abused by his 
 Grace of Argyll. The former said, he was con- 
 tent with what was already done, and would not 
 be active in any farther proceedings, though he 
 would not desert the party. Sandys said the 
 King had done him the honour to offer him that 
 place ; why should he not accept it ? if he had 
 not, another would : if nobody would, the King 
 would be obliged to employ his old Minister 
 again, which he imagined the gentlemen present 
 would not wish to see, and protested against 
 screening, with the same conclusion as Pultney. 
 The Duke of Bedford was very warm against 
 Sir William Yonge ; Lord Talbot| was so in 
 general. 
 
 During the recess, they have employed Faza- 
 
 * See an account of this meeting in Lord Egmont's Faction 
 Detected. 
 
 f Daniel Finch, seventh Earl of Winchelsea, and third Earl of Not- 
 tingham. He was made first Lord of the Admiralty upon the break- 
 ing up of Sir R. Walpole's government. D. 
 
 t William, second Lord Talbot, eldest son of the Lord Chancellor 
 of that name and title. D.
 
 106 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 kerley to draw up four impeachments ; against 
 Sir Robert, my uncle, Mr. Keene, and Colonel 
 Bladen, who was only Commissioner for the 
 Tariff at Antwerp. One of the articles against 
 Sir R. is, his having at this conjuncture, trusted 
 Lord Waldgrave as Ambassador, who is so near 
 a relation * of the Pretender ; but these im- 
 peachments are likely to grow obsolete manu- 
 scripts. The minds of the people grow much 
 more candid : at first, they made one of the 
 actors at Drury Lane repeat some applicable 
 lines at the end of Harry the Fourth ; but last 
 Monday, when his Royal Highness had purposely 
 bespoken The Unhappy Favourite, for Mrs. Por- 
 ter's benefit, they never once applied the most 
 glaring passages, as where they read the indict- 
 ment against Robert Earl of Essex, 8$c. The 
 Tories declare against any farther prosecution 
 if Tories there are, for now one hears of nothing 
 but the Broad Bottom; it is the reigning cant 
 word, and means, the taking all parties and peo- 
 ple, indifferently, into the ministry. The Whigs 
 are the dupes of this, and those in the Opposition 
 affirm that Tories no longer exist. Notwith- 
 standing this, they will not come into the new 
 
 * His mother was natural daughter of King James II. (James, 
 first Earl Waldegrave, appointed Ambassador to the Court of France, 
 in 1730: died 1741. D.)
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 107 
 
 ministry, unless what were always reckoned 
 Tories, are admitted. The Treasury has gone 
 a-begging ; I mean, one of the Lordships, which 
 is at last filled up with a Major Compton, a re- 
 lation of Lord Wilmington ; but now we shall 
 see a new scene. On Tuesday night, Mr. Pult- 
 ney went to the Prince, and, without the know- 
 ledge of Argyll, &c. prevailed on him to write 
 to the King : he was so long determining, that 
 it was eleven at night before the King received 
 his letter. Yesterday morning the Prince, at- 
 tended by two of his Lords, two grooms of the 
 bedchamber, and Lord Scarborough,* his Trea- 
 surer, went to the King's levee. The King said, 
 " How does the Princess do ? I hope she is 
 well." The Prince kissed his hand, and this 
 was all! He returned to Carlton House, whi- 
 ther crowds went to him : he spoke to the Duke 
 of Newcastle and Mr. Pelham ; but would not 
 to the three Dukes, Richmond, Grafton, and 
 Marlborough. -f- At night the Royal Family were 
 all at the Duchess of Norfolk's, and the streets 
 were illuminated and bonfired. To-day the 
 Duke of Bedford, Lord Halifax, and some others, 
 
 * Thomas Lumley, third Earl of Scarborough D. 
 
 f Charles Spencer, second Duke of Marlborough, succeeded to 
 that title on the death of his aunt, Henrietta Duchess of Marlborough, 
 in 1733. D.
 
 108 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 were at St. James's : the King spoke to all the 
 Lords. In a day or two I shall go with my 
 uncle and brothers to the Prince's levee. 
 
 Yesterday there was a meeting of all the 
 Scotch of our side, who, to a man, determined to 
 defend Sir Robert. 
 
 Lyttleton* is going to marry Miss Fortescue, 
 Lord Clinton's sister. 
 
 When our Earl went to the House of Lords 
 to-day, he apprehended some incivilities from his 
 Grace of Argyll, but he was not there. The 
 Bedford, Halifax, Berkshire,']" and some more 
 were close by him ; but would not bow to him. 
 Lord Chesterfield wished him joy. This is all I 
 know for certain, for I will not send you the 
 thousand lies of every new day. 
 
 I must tell you how fine the masquerade of 
 last night was. There were five hundred per- 
 sons, in the greatest variety of handsome and 
 rich dresses I ever saw, and all the jewels of 
 London and London has some ! There were 
 
 * Sir George Lyttelton, afterwards created Lord Lyttelton. Miss 
 Fortescue was his first wife, and mother of Thomas, called the wicked 
 Lord Lyttelton. She died in child-bed, in 1747, and Lord Lyttelton 
 honoured her memory with the well-known Monody, which was so 
 unfairly parodied by Smollett. D. 
 
 f Henry Bowes Howard, fourth Earl of Berkshire. He succeeded 
 in 1 745, as eleventh Earl of Suffolk, on the death, without issue, of 
 Henry, tenth Earl. He died 1757. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 109 
 
 dozens of ugly Queens of Scots, of which I will 
 only name to you the eldest Miss Shadwell ! 
 The Princess of Wales was one, covered with 
 diamonds ; but did not take off her mask : none 
 of the Royalties did ; but everybody else. Lady 
 Conway* was a charming Mary Stuart : Lord 
 and Lady Euston, man and woman hussars. 
 But the two finest and most charming masks 
 were their Graces of Richmond,f like Harry the 
 Eighth and Jane Seymour ; excessively rich, and 
 both so handsome ! Here is a nephew of the King 
 of Denmark, who was in armour, and his Go- 
 vernor, a most admirable Quixote. There were 
 quantities of pretty Vandykes, and all kinds of 
 old pictures walked out of their frames. It was 
 an assemblage of all ages and nations, and would 
 have looked like the day of judgment, if tradi- 
 tion did not persuade us that we are all to meet 
 naked, and if something else did not tell us, that 
 we shall not meet then with quite so much indif- 
 ference, nor thinking quite so much of the be- 
 coming. My dress was an Aurengzebe : but of 
 all extravagant figures, commend me to our friend 
 
 * Lady Isabella Fitzroy, youngest daughter of the Duke of Graf- 
 ton, and wife of Francis Seymour, Lord Conway, afterwards Earl of 
 Hertford. 
 
 f Charles Lenox, Duke of Richmond, Master of the Horse, and 
 Sarah Cadogan, his Duchess. He died in 1750, and she the year 
 following.
 
 110 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 the Countess !* She and my Lord trudged in, 
 like pilgrims, with vast staffs in their hands, and 
 she was so heated, that you would have thought 
 her pilgrimage had been, like Pantagruel's voy- 
 age, to the Oracle of the Bottle ! Lady Sophia 
 was in a Spanish dress so was Lord Lincoln : 
 not, to be sure, by design ; but so it happened. 
 When the King came in, the Faussansf were 
 there, and danced an entree. At the masque- 
 rade the King sat by Mrs. Selwyn, and with 
 tears told her, that " the Whigs should find he 
 loved them, as he had done the poor man that 
 was gone !" He had sworn that he would not 
 speak to the Prince at their meeting, but was 
 prevailed on. 
 
 I received your letter by Holland, and the 
 paper about the Spaniards. By this time you 
 will conceive that I can now speak of nothing to 
 any purpose, for Sir R. does not meddle in the 
 least with business. 
 
 As to the Sibyl, I have not mentioned it to 
 him ; I still am for the other. Except that, he 
 will not care, I believe, to buy more pictures, 
 having now so many more than he has room for 
 at Houghton ; and he will have but a small 
 house in town when we leave this. But you 
 must thank the dear Chutes for their new offers ; 
 
 * The Countess of Pomfret. f Two celebrated comic dancers.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. Ill 
 
 the obligations are too great, but I am most 
 sensible to their goodness, and were I not so ex- 
 cessively tired now, would write to them. 
 
 I cannot add a word more, but to think of the 
 Princess :* " Comment! vous avez done des enfans!" 
 You see how nature sometimes breaks out, in 
 spite of religion and prudery, grandeur and 
 pride, delicacy and epuisements ! Good night ! 
 
 Yours, ever. 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 London, Fe125, 1742. 
 
 I AM impatient to hear that you have received 
 my first account of the change ; as to be sure 
 you are now for every post. This last week has 
 not produced many new events. The Prince of 
 Wales has got the measles, so there has been 
 but little incense offered up to him : his brother 
 of Saxe-Gotha has got them too. When the 
 Princess went to St. James's, she fell at the 
 King's feet, and struggled to kiss his hand, and 
 burst into tears. At the Norfolk masquerade 
 she was vastly bejewelled ; Frankz had lent her 
 forty thousand pounds' worth, and refused to be 
 paid for the hire, only desiring that she would 
 
 * Princess Craon, so often mentioned in these letters. D.
 
 112 THE HON. HORACE WAI.POLE 
 
 tell whose they were. All this is nothing, but to 
 introduce one of Madame de Pomfret's ingenui- 
 ties, who, being dressed like a pilgrim, told the 
 Princess, that she had taken her for the Lady of 
 Loreto. 
 
 But you will wish for politics now, more than 
 for histories of masquerades, though this last has 
 taken up people's thoughts full as much. The 
 House met last Thursday, and voted the Army 
 without a division : Shippen* alone, unchanged, 
 opposed it. They have since been busied on 
 elections, turning out our friends, and voting in 
 their own, almost without opposition. The chief 
 affair has been the Denbighshire election, on the 
 petition of Sir Watkyn Williams. They have 
 voted him into Parliament, and the High-Sheriff 
 into Newgate. Murrayf was most eloquent : 
 Loyd,J the council on the other side, and no bad 
 one, said, (for I go constantly, though I do not 
 stay long, but leave the dead to bury their dead,} 
 that it was objected to the Sheriff, that he was 
 related to the sitting member ; but, indeed, in 
 that country (Wales) it would be difficult not to 
 
 * William Shippen, a celebrated Jacobite. Sir R. Walpole said, 
 that he was the only man whose price he did not know. 
 
 f William Murray, Mr. Pope's friend, afterwards Solicitor, and 
 then Attorney-General. 
 
 J Sir Richard Loyd, who succeeded Mr. Murray, in 1754, as So- 
 licitor-General.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 113 
 
 be related. Yesterday we had another hear- 
 ing of the petition of the Merchants, when Sir 
 Robert Godschall shone brighter than even his 
 usual : there was a copy of a letter produced, 
 the original being lost; he asked whether the 
 copy had been taken before the original was lost, 
 or after ! 
 
 Next week they commence their prosecutions, 
 which they will introduce by voting a Committee 
 to inquire into all the offices : Sir William 
 Yonge is to be added to the impeachments, but 
 the chief whom they wish to punish is my uncle.* 
 He is the more to be pitied, because nobody 
 will pity him. They are not fond of a formal 
 message which the States General have sent 
 to Sir Robert, to compliment him on his new 
 honour, and to condole with him on being out 
 of the ministry., which will be so detrimental to 
 Europe ! 
 
 The third augmentation in Holland is con- 
 firmed, and that the Prince of Hesse is chosen 
 Generalissimo, which makes it believed that 
 his Grace of Argyll will not go over, but that 
 we shall certainly have a war with France 
 in the spring. Argyll has got the ordnance 
 restored to him, and they wanted to give 
 him back his regiment; to which end Lord 
 
 * Horace Walpole, brother of Sir Robert. 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Hertford* was desired to resign it, with the offer 
 of his old troop again. He said he had received 
 the regiment from the King; if his Majesty 
 pleased to take it back, he might, but he did not 
 know why he should resign it. Since that, he 
 wrote a letter to the King, and sent it by his 
 son, Lord Beauchamp, resigning his regiment, 
 his government, and his wife's pension, as Lady 
 of the bed-chamber to the late Queen. 
 
 No more changes are made yet. They have 
 offered the Admiralty to Sir Charles Wager 
 again, but he refused it : he said, he heard that 
 he was an old woman, and that he did not know 
 what good old women could do any where. 
 
 A comet has appeared here for two nights, 
 which, you know, is lucky enough at this time, 
 and a pretty ingredient for making prophecies. 
 
 These are all the news. I receive your letters 
 regularly, and hope you receive mine so : I 
 never miss one week. Adieu ! my dearest child ! 
 I am perfectly well ; tell me always that you 
 are. Are the good Chutes still at Florence ? 
 My best love to them, and services to all. 
 
 Here are some new lines much in vogue :f 
 
 * Algernon Seymour, Earl of Hertford, eldest son of Charles, 
 called the proud Duke of Somerset, whom he succeeded in that title, 
 and was the last Duke of Somerset of that branch his son, who is 
 here mentioned, having died before him. D. 
 
 f These lines were written by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 115 
 
 1741. 
 
 Unhappy England, still in forty-one* 
 
 By Scotland art thou doom'd to be undone ! 
 
 But Scotland now, to strike alone afraid, 
 
 Calls in her worthy sister Cornwall's -j- aid ; 
 
 And these two common Strumpets, hand in hand, 
 
 Walk forth, and preach up virtue through the land ; 
 
 Start at corruption, at a bribe turn pale, 
 
 Shudder at pensions, and at placemen rail. 
 
 Peace, peace ! ye wretched hypocrites ; or rather 
 
 With Job, say to Corruption, Thou 'rt ottr Fattier. 
 
 But how will Walpole justify his fate? 
 He trusted Islay,j; till it was too late. 
 Where were those parts ! where was that piercing mind ! 
 That judgment, and that knowledge of mankind ! 
 To trust a Traitor that he knew so well ! 
 (Strange truth ! betray'd, but not deceived, he fell !) 
 He knew his heart was, like his aspect, vile ; 
 Knew him the tool, and Brother of Argyll ! 
 Yet to his hands his power and hopes gave up ; 
 And though he saw 'twas poison, drank the cup I 
 Trusted to One he never could think true, 
 And perished by a villain that he knew. 
 
 * Alluding to the Grand Rebellion against Charles the First. 
 
 f The Parliament which overthrew Sir R. W. was carried against 
 him by his losing the majority of the Scotch and Cornish boroughs ; 
 the latter managed by Lord Falmouth and T. Pitt. 
 
 J Archibald Campbell, Earl of Islay, brother of John Duke of 
 Argyll, in conjunction with whom (though then openly at variance) 
 he was supposed to have betrayed Sir R. W. and to have let the Op- 
 position succeed in the Scotch elections, which were trusted to his 
 management. It must be observed that Sir R. W. would never allow 
 that he believed himself betrayed by Lord Islay. 
 
 These lines are published in the edition of Sir Charles Hanbury 
 Williams's Works in three volumes, 12mo. D. 
 
 i 2
 
 116 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 London, March 3, 1742. 
 
 I AM obliged to write to you to-day, for I am 
 sure I shall not have a moment to-morrow ; they 
 are to make their motion for a Secret Committee 
 to examine into the late Administration. We 
 are to oppose it strongly, but to no purpose, for 
 since the change, they have beat us on no divi- 
 sion under a majority of forty. This last week 
 has produced no new novelties ; his Royal High- 
 ness has been shut up with the measles, of which 
 he was near dying, by eating China oranges. 
 
 We are to send 16,000 men into Flanders in 
 the spring, under his Grace of Argyll ; they talk 
 of the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Albe- 
 marle to command under him. Lord Cadogan* 
 is just dead, so there is another regiment vacant : 
 they design Lord Delawar's for Lord Westmore- 
 landf ; so now Sir Francis Dashwood J will grow 
 
 * Charles Lord Cadogan, of Oakley, to which title he succeeded on 
 the death of his elder brother, William Earl Cadogan, who was one 
 of the most distinguished " of Marlborough's captains." Charles Lord 
 Cadogan did not die at the period when this letter was written. On 
 the contrary, he lived till the year 1776. D. 
 
 f John seventh Earl of Westmorland. He built the Palladian- 
 Villa of Mereworth, in Kent, which is a nearly exact copy of the cele- 
 brated Villa Capra near Vicenza. He died in 1762. Sir Francis 
 Dashwood succeeded, on his decease, to the Barony in fee of Lede- 
 spencer. D. 
 
 J Sir Francis Dashwood, nephew to the Earl of Westmorland, 
 had gone violently into Opposition, on that Lord's losing his regiment.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 117 
 
 as fond of the King again as he used to be or 
 as he has hated him since. 
 
 We have at last finished the Merchants' peti- 
 tion, under the conduct of the Lord Mayor and 
 Mr. Leonidas ;* the greatest coxcomb and the 
 greatest oaf that ever met in blank verse or 
 prose. I told you the former's question about 
 the copy of a letter taken after the original was 
 lost. They have got a new story of him ; that 
 hearing of a gentleman who had had the small- 
 pox twice and died of it, he asked, if he died the 
 first time or the second if this is made for him, 
 it is at least quite in his style. After summing 
 up the evidence (in doing which, Mr. Glover 
 literally drank several times to the Lord Mayor 
 in a glass of water that stood by him) Sir John 
 Barnard moved to vote, that there had been 
 great neglect in the protection of the trade, to 
 the great advantage of the enemy, and the dis- 
 honour of the nation. He said he did not mean 
 to charge the Admiralty particularly, for then 
 particular persons must have had particular days 
 assigned to be heard in their own defence, which 
 would take up too much time, as we are now 
 going to make inquiries of a much higher nature. 
 Mr. Pelham was for leaving out the last words. 
 
 * Mr. Glover. (Walpole always depreciates Glover, but his con- 
 duct, upon the occasion referred to in the text, displayed considerable 
 ability. D.)
 
 118 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Mr. Doddington rose, and in a set speech de- 
 clared that the motion was levelled at a particu- 
 lar person, who had so usurped all authority, 
 that all inferior offices were obliged to submit 
 to his will, and so either bend and bow, or be 
 broken: but that he hoped the steps we were 
 now going to take, would make the office of 
 first minister so dangerous a post, that nobody 
 would care to accept it for the future. Do but 
 think of this fellow, who has so lost all character, 
 and made himself so odious to both King and 
 Prince, by his alternate flatteries, changes, op- 
 positions, and changes of flatteries and opposi- 
 tions, that he can never expect what he has so 
 much courted by all methods, think of his talk- 
 ing of making it dangerous for any one else to 
 accept the first ministership ! Should such a 
 period ever arrive, he would accept it with joy 
 the only chance he can ever have for it! But 
 sure, never was impudence more put to shame ! 
 The whole debate turned upon him. Lord Do- 
 neraile* (who, by the way, has produced blossoms 
 of Doddington like fruit, and consequently is 
 the fitter scourge for him) stood up and said, 
 
 * Arthur Mohun St. Leger third Viscount Doneraile, in Ireland, of 
 the first creation. He was at this time Member of Parliament for 
 Winchilsea, was appointed a lord of the bedchamber to Frederick 
 Prince of Wales in 1747, and died at Lisbon in 1749. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 119 
 
 he did not know what that gentleman meant ; 
 that he himself was as willing to bring all offend- 
 ers to justice as any man ; but that he did not 
 intend to confine punishment to those who had 
 been employed only at the end of the last minis- 
 try, but proposed to extend it to all who had 
 been engaged in it, and wished that that gentle- 
 man would speak with more lenity of an Admi- 
 nistration in which he himself had been con- 
 cerned for so many years. Winnington said, he 
 did not know what Mr. Doddington had meant, 
 by either bending or being broken ; that he knew 
 some who had been broken, though they had 
 both bowed and bended. Waller defended Dod- 
 dington, and said, if he was guilty, at least 
 Mr. Winnington was so too ; on which Fox rose 
 up, and, laying his hand on his breast, said, he 
 never wished to have such a friend, as could only 
 excuse him by bringing in another for equal 
 share of his guilt. Sir John Cotton replied ; 
 he did not wonder that Mr. Fox (who had 
 spoken with great warmth) was angry at hear- 
 ing his friend in place, compared to one out of 
 place. Do but figure how Doddington must 
 have looked and felt during such dialogues ! 
 In short, it ended in Mr. Pultney's rising, and 
 saying, he could not be against the latter 
 words, as he thought the former part of the
 
 120 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 motion had been proved ; and wished both par- 
 ties would join in carrying on the war vigor- 
 ously, or in procuring a good peace, rather than 
 in ripping open old sores, and continuing the 
 heats and violences of parties. We came to no 
 division for we should have lost it by too 
 many. 
 
 Thursday evening. 
 
 I had written all the former part of my letter, 
 only reserving room to tell you, that they had 
 carried the Secret Committee but it is put off 
 till next Tuesday. To-day we had nothing but 
 the giving up the Heydon election, when Mr. 
 Pultney had an opportunity (as Mr. Chute and 
 Mr. Robinson would not take the trouble to 
 defend a cause which they could not carry) to 
 declaim upon corruption : had it come to a 
 trial, there were eighteen witnesses ready to 
 swear positive bribery against Mr. Pultney. I 
 would write to Mr. Chute, and thank him for 
 his letter which you sent me, but I am so out 
 of humour at his brother's losing his seat, that 
 I cannot speak civilly even to him to-day. 
 
 It is said that my Lord's Grace of Argyll has 
 carried his great point of the Broadbottom as I 
 suppose you will hear by rejoicings from Rome. 
 The new Admiralty is named ; at the head
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 121 
 
 is to be Lord Winchilsea, with Lord Granard,* 
 Mr. Cockburn, his Grace's friend, Dr. Lee, 
 the chairman, Lord Vere Beauclercf ; one of 
 the old set, by the interest of the Duke of 
 Dorset, and the connection of Lady Betty 
 Germain, whose niece Lord Vere married; 
 and two Tories, Sir John Hind Cotton 
 and Will. Chetwynd, | an agent of Boling- 
 broke's all this is not declared yet, but is 
 believed. 
 
 This great Duke has named his four aid-de- 
 camps Lord Charles Hay ; George Stanhope, 
 brother of Earl Stanhope ; Dick Lyttelton, who 
 was page ; and a Campbell. Lord Cadogan is 
 not dead, but has been given over. 
 
 We are rejoicing over the great success of the 
 Queen of Hungary's arms, and the number of 
 blows and thwarts which the French have re- 
 
 * George Forbes third Earl of Granard in Ireland an admiral 
 and a member of the House of Commons. D. 
 
 t Third son of the first Duke of St. Albans, created in 1750 Lord 
 Vere of Hanworth in Middlesex. He was the direct ancestor of the 
 present line of the St. Albans family. His wife was Mary, daughter 
 and heiress of Thomas Chambers, Esq of Hanworth, by Lady 
 Mary Berkeley, the sister of Lady Betty Germain. D. 
 
 J William Richard Chetwynd, second brother of the first Viscount 
 of that name. Member of Parliament successively for Stafford and 
 Plymouth. He had been envoy at Genoa, and a lord of the Admi- 
 ralty ; and he finally succeeded his two elder brothers as third Vis- 
 count Chetwynd, in 1767. D.
 
 122 THE HON. HORACE VVALPOLE 
 
 ceived. It is a prosperous season for our new 
 popular generals to grow glorious ! 
 
 But to have done with politics. Old Marl- 
 borough has at last published her Memoirs ; 
 they are digested by one Hooke *, who wrote a 
 Roman history ; but from her materials, which 
 are so womanish, that I am sure the man might 
 sooner have made a gown and petticoat with 
 them. There are some choice letters from 
 Queen Anne, little inferior in the fulsome to 
 those from King James to the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham. 
 
 Lord Oxford's f famous sale begins next Mon- 
 day, where there is as much rubbish of another 
 kind as in her Grace's history. Feather bonnets 
 
 * Nathaniel Hooke, a laborious compiler, but a very bad writer. 
 It is said that the Duchess of Marlborough gave him 5000/. for the 
 services he rendered her, in the composition and publication of her 
 apology. She, however, afterwards quarrelled with him, because she 
 said he tried to convert her to Popery. Hooke was himself of that 
 religion, and was also a " Quietist," and an enthusiastic follower of 
 Fenelon. It was Hooke who brought a Catholic Priest to attend the 
 death-bed of Pope, a proceeding which excited such bitter indigna- 
 tion in the infidel Bolingbroke. Hooke died July 19, 1763. D. 
 
 f Edward Harley second Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, only 
 son of the Minister. He was a great and liberal patron of literature 
 and learned men, and completed the valuable collection of manu- 
 scripts commenced by his father, which is now in the British 
 Museum. He married the great Cavendish heiress, Lady Henrietta 
 Cavendish Holies, daughter of Holies Duke of Newcastle, and died 
 June 16, 1741. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 123 
 
 presented by the Americans to Queen Elizabeth ; 
 elks'-horns converted into caudle-cups ; true 
 copies of original pictures that never existed ; 
 presents to himself from the Royal Society, &c. 
 particularly forty volumes of prints of illustrious 
 English personages ; which collection is col- 
 lected from frontispieces to godly books, bibles 
 and poems ; head-pieces and tail-pieces to Wal- 
 ler's works ; views of King Charles's sufferings ; 
 tops of ballads ; particularly earthly crowns for 
 heavenly ones, and streams of glory. There are 
 few good pictures, for the miniatures are not to 
 be sold, nor the manuscripts ; the books not till 
 next year. There are a few fine bronzes, and a 
 very fine collection of English coins. 
 
 We have got another opera, which is liked : 
 there was to have been a vast elephant, but the 
 just Directors, designing to give the audience 
 the full weight of one for their money, made it 
 so heavy, that at the Prova it broke through the 
 stage. It was to have carried twenty soldiers 
 with Monticelli on a throne in the middle. 
 There is a new subscription begun for next year, 
 thirty subscribers at two hundred pounds each. 
 Would you believe that I am one ? You need 
 not believe it quite, for I am but half an one ; 
 Mr. Conway and I take a share between us. 
 We keep Monticelli and Amorevoli, and, to
 
 124 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 please Lord Middlesex, that odious Muscovita ; 
 but shall discard Mr. Vaneschi. We are to 
 have the Barberina, and the two Faussans ; so, 
 at least, the singers and dancers will be equal to 
 anything in Europe. 
 
 Our Earl is still at Richmond ; I have not 
 been there yet ; I shall go once or twice, for 
 however little inclination I have to it, I would 
 not be thought to grow cool just now. You 
 know I am above such dirtiness, and you are 
 sensible that my coolness is of much longer 
 standing. Your sister* is with mine at the 
 Park ; they came to town last Tuesday for the 
 Opera, and returned next day. After supper I 
 prevailed on your sister to sing, and though 
 I had heard her before, I thought I never heard 
 anything beyond it; there is a sweetness in her 
 voice equal to Cuzzoni's, with a better manner. 
 
 I was last week at the masquerade, dressed 
 like an old woman, and passed for a good mask. 
 I took the English liberty of teasing whomever 
 I pleased, particularly old Churchill : I told him 
 I was quite ashamed of being there, till I met 
 him ; but was quite comforted with finding one 
 person in the room older than myself. The 
 Duke/f who had been told who I was, came up 
 
 * Mary Mann, afterwards married to Mr. Foote. 
 f Of Cumberland,
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 125 
 
 and said, " Je connois cette poitrine." I took him 
 for some Templar, and replied, " Vous ! vous ne 
 connoissez que des poitrines gui sont bien plus usees;" 
 it was unluckily pat. The next night, at the 
 drawing-room, he asked me, very good-humour- 
 edly, if I knew who was the old woman that 
 had teased everybody at the masquerade ? We 
 were laughing so much at this, that the King 
 crossed the room to Lady Hervey, who was with 
 us, and said, " What are those boys laughing at 
 so ?" She told him, and that I had said I was so 
 awkward at undressing myself, that I had stood 
 for an hour in my stays and under-petticoat 
 before my footman. My thanks to Madame 
 Grifoni ; I cannot write more now, as I must 
 not make my letter too big, when it appears at 
 the Secretary's office now. As to my sister, I 
 am sure Sir Robert would never have accepted 
 Prince Craon's offer, who now, I suppose, would 
 not be eager to repeat it. 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 March 10, 1742. 
 
 I WILL not work you up into a fright, only to 
 have the pleasure of putting you out of it ; but 
 will tell you at once that we have gained the
 
 126 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 greatest victory ! I don't mean in the person of 
 Admiral Vernon, nor of Admiral Haddock ; no, 
 nor in that of his Grace of Argyll by we, I 
 don't mean we-England, but we, literally we 
 not you and I, but we, the house of Orford. 
 The certainty that the Opposition (or rather 
 the Coalition, for that is the new name they have 
 taken) had of carrying every point they wished, 
 made them, in the pride of their hearts, declare 
 that they would move for the Secret Committee 
 yesterday, (Tuesday,) and next Friday would 
 name the list, by which day they should have 
 Mr. Sandys from his re-election. It was, how- 
 ever, expected to be put off, as Mr. Pultney 
 could not attend the House, his only daughter 
 was dying ; they say she is dead. But an affair 
 of consequence to them, and indeed, to the na- 
 tion in general, roused all their rage, and drove 
 them to determine on the last violences. I 
 told you in my last, that the new Admiralty was 
 named, with a mixture of Tories ; that is, it was 
 named by my Lord of Argyll ; but the King 
 flatly put his negative on Sir John Cotton. 
 They said, he was no Tory now, (and, in truth, 
 he yesterday in the House professed himself a 
 Whig,) and that there were no Tories left in 
 the nation. The King replied, " That might be ; 
 but he was determined to stand by those who
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 127 
 
 had set him and his family upon the throne." 
 This refusal enraged them so much, that they 
 declared they would force him, not only to turn 
 out all the old ministry, but the new too, if he 
 wished to save Sir R. and others of his friends ; 
 and that, as they supposed he designed to get 
 the great bills passed, and then prorogue the 
 Parliament, they were determined to keep back 
 some of the chief bills, and sit all the summer, 
 examining into the late Administration. Ac- 
 cordingly, yesterday, in a most full House, Lord 
 Limerick,* (who last year seconded the famous 
 motion,f) moved for a Committee to examine 
 into the conduct of the last twenty years, and 
 was seconded by Sir John St. Aubin. J In short, 
 (for I have not time to tell you the debate at 
 length,) we divided between eight and nine, 
 when there was not a man of our party that did 
 not expect to lose it, by at least, fifteen or 
 twenty ; but, to our great amazement, and their 
 as great confusion, we threw out the motion by 
 a majority of 244 against 242. Was there ever 
 a more surprising event ? a disgraced Minister, 
 
 * William Hamilton, Lord Viscount Limerick. (According to the 
 peerages, Lord Limerick's Christian name was James, and not 
 William. D.) 
 
 f For removing Sir Robert Walpole. 
 
 t Sir John St. Aubyn, of Clowance, in Cornwall, third Baronet of 
 that family. D.
 
 128 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 by his personal interest, to have a majority to 
 defend him even from inquiry ! What was ridi- 
 culous, the very man who seconded the motion, 
 happened to be shut out at the division ; but 
 there was one on our side shut out too. 
 
 I don't know what violent step they will take 
 next ; it must be by surprise, for when they 
 could not carry this, it will be impossible for 
 them to carry anything more personal. We 
 trust that the danger is now past, though they 
 had a great meeting to-day at Doddington's, 
 and threaten still. He was to have made the 
 motion, but was deterred by the treatment he 
 met last week. Sir John Norris* was not pre- 
 sent ; he has resigned all his employments, in a 
 pique for not being named of the new Admi- 
 ralty. His old Grace of Somerset'!" is recon- 
 ciled to his son Lord Hertford, on his late affair 
 of having the regiment taken from him : he 
 sent for him, and told him, he had behaved 
 like his son. 
 
 My dearest child, I have this moment received 
 a most unexpected and most melancholy letter 
 from you, with an account of your fever and new 
 
 * An Admiral for many years a Lord of the Admiralty. D. 
 
 f Charles, commonly called " the proud Duke of Somerset." An 
 absurd, vain, pompous man, who appears to have been also most 
 harsh and unfeeling to those who depended on him. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 129 
 
 operation. I did not in the least dream of 
 your having any more trouble from that disor- 
 der ! are you never to be delivered from it ? Your 
 letter has shocked me extremely ; and then I am 
 terrified at the Spaniards passing so near Flo- 
 rence. If they should, as I fear they will, stay 
 there, how inconvenient and terrible it would be 
 for you, now you are ill ! You tell me, and 
 my good Mr. Chute tells me, that you are out of 
 all danger, and much better ; but to what can 
 I trust, when you have these continual relapses ! 
 The vast time that passes between your writing 
 and my receiving your letters, makes me flatter 
 myself, that by now you are out of all pain : but 
 I am miserable, with finding that you may be 
 still subject to new torture ! not all your cou- 
 rage, which is amazing, can give me any about 
 you. But how can you write to me ? I will not 
 suffer it and now, good Mr. Chute, will write 
 for you. I am so angry at your writing imme- 
 diately after that dreadful operation, though I 
 see your goodness in it, that I will not say 
 a word more to you. All the rest is to Mr. 
 Chute. 
 
 What shall I say to you, my dearest Sir, for 
 all your tenderness to poor Mr. Mann and me ? 
 as you have so much friendship for him, you may 
 conceive how much I am obliged to you. How 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 much do I regret not having had more oppor- 
 tunities of showing you my esteem and love, 
 before this new attention to Mr. Mann. You 
 do flatter me, and tell me he is recovering may 
 I trust you ? and don't you say it, only to com- 
 fort me ? Say a great deal for me to Mr. Whit- 
 hed ; he is excessively good to me ; I don't know 
 how to thank him. I am happy that you are so 
 well yourself, and so constant to your fasting. 
 To reward your virtues, I will tell you all the 
 news I know ; not much, but very extraordinary. 
 What would be the most extraordinary event 
 that you think could happen ? Would not 
 next to his becoming a real patriot the Duke 
 of Argyll's resigning, be the most unexpected ? 
 would anything be more surprising than his im- 
 mediately resigning power and profit, after 
 having felt the want of them ? Be that as it 
 will, he literally, actually resigned all his new 
 commissions yesterday, because the King refused 
 to employ the Tories. What part he will act 
 next, is yet to come. Mrs. Boothby said, upon 
 the occasion, " That in one month's time he 
 had contrived to please the whole nation 
 the Tories, by going to Court ; the Whigs, by 
 leaving it." 
 
 They talk much of impeaching my father, 
 since they could not committee him ; but as they
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 131 
 
 could not, I think they will scarce be able to 
 carry a more violent step. However, to show 
 how little Tory resentments are feared, the King 
 has named a new Admiralty ; Lord Winchilsea, 
 Admiral Cavendish, Mr. Cockburn, Dr. Lee, 
 Lord Baltimore, young Trevor,* (which is much 
 disliked, for he is of no consequence for estate, 
 and less for parts, but is a relation of the Pel- 
 hams,) and Lord Archibald Hamiltonf to please 
 his Royal Highness. Some of his people (not 
 the Lytteltons and Pitts,) stayed away the other 
 night upon the Secret Committee, and they 
 think he will at last rather take his father's part, 
 than Argyll's. 
 
 Poor Mr. Pultney has lost his girl ; she was 
 an only daughter, and sensible and handsome. 
 He has only a son left, and, they say, is afflicted 
 to the greatest degree. 
 
 I will say nothing about old Sarah's Memoirs, 
 for with some spirit, they are nothing but rem- 
 
 The Hon. John Trevor, second son of Thomas, first Lord Trevor. 
 He succeeded his elder brother Thomas, as third Lord Trevor, in 
 1744. D. 
 
 f- Lord Archibald Hamilton was the seventh and youngest son of 
 Anne Duchess of Hamilton, in her own right, and of William Earl of 
 Selkirk, her husband, created by Charles II. Duke of Hamilton, for 
 life. Lord Archibald married Lady Jane Hamilton, daughter of James 
 Earl of Abercorn, and by her had three sons ; of whom the youngest 
 was Sir William Hamilton, so long the British Envoy at the Court 
 of Naples. D. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 nants of old women's frippery. Good night ! I 
 recommend my poor Mr. Mann to you, and am 
 
 Yours, most faithfully. 
 
 P. S. My dearest child, how unhappy I shall 
 be, till I hear you are quite recovered ! 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 Monday, March 22. 
 [Great part of this letter is lost.] 
 
 * * * I have at last received a letter from 
 you in answer to the first I wrote to you upon 
 the change in the Ministry. I hope you have 
 received mine regularly since, that you may 
 know all the consequent steps. I like the Pas- 
 quinades you sent me, and think the Emperor's* 
 letter as mean as you do. I hope his State will 
 grow more abject every day. It is amazing, the 
 progress and success of the Queen of Hungary's 
 arms ! It is said to-day that she has defeated a 
 great body of Prussians in Moravia. We are 
 going to extend a helping hand to her at last. 
 Lord Stairf has accepted what my Lord Argyll 
 
 * Charles VII. the Emperor of the Bavarian family. D. 
 
 f John Dalrymple, second Earl of Stair, a man much distinguished 
 both as a general and a diplomatist. He died in 1747. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 133 
 
 resigned, and sets out Ambassador to Holland in 
 two days ; and afterwards will have the com- 
 mand of the troops, that are to be sent into 
 Flanders. I am sorry I must send away this 
 to-night, without being able to tell you the event 
 of to-morrow ; but I will let you know it on 
 Thursday, if I write but two lines. You have 
 no notion how I laughed at Mrs. Goldsworthy's* 
 talking from hand to mouth. How happy I am 
 that you have Mr. Chute still with you ; you 
 would have been distracted else with that simple 
 woman ; for fools prey upon one, when one has 
 no companion to laugh them off. 
 
 I shall say every thing that is proper for you 
 to the Earl, and shall take care about expressing 
 you to him, as I know you have your gratitude 
 far more at heart, than what I am thinking of 
 for you, I mean your stay at Florence. I have 
 spoken very warmly to Lord Lincoln about you, 
 who, I am sure, will serve you to his power. 
 Indeed, as all changes are at a stop, I am con- 
 vinced there will be no thought of removing you. 
 However, till I see the situation of next winter, 
 I cannot be easy on your account. 
 
 I have made a few purchases at Lord Oxford's 
 sale ; a small Vandyke, in imitation of Teniers ; 
 an old picture of the Duchess of Suffolk, mother 
 
 * An expression of Mr. Chute.
 
 134 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 of Lady Jane Grey, and her young husband ; 
 a sweet bronze vase by Flamingo, and two or 
 three other trifles. The things sold dear ; the 
 antiquities and pictures for about five thousand 
 pounds, which yet, no doubt, cost him much 
 more, for he gave the most extravagant prices. 
 His coins and medals are now selling, and go 
 still dearer. Good night ! How I wish for 
 every letter, to hear how you mend ! 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 March 24, 1742. 
 
 I PROMISED you in my last letter to send you 
 the event of yesterday. It was not such as you 
 would wish, for on the division, at nine o'clock at 
 night, we lost it by 242 against 245. We had 
 three people shut out, so that a majority of three 
 is so small, that it is scarce doubted, but that, 
 on Friday, when we ballot for the twenty-one to 
 form the committee, we shall carry a list com- 
 posed of our people, so that then it will be 
 better that we lost it yesterday, as they never 
 can trouble my Lord Orford more, when the 
 Secret Committee consists of his own friends. 
 The motion was made and seconded by the same 
 people as before : Mr. Pultney had been desired,
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 135 
 
 but refused, yet spoke very warmly for it. He 
 declared, " that if they found any proofs against 
 the Earl, he would not engage in the prosecu- 
 tion ;" and especially protested against resump- 
 tions of grants to his family, of which, he said, 
 " there had been much talk, but were what he 
 would never come into, as being very illegal and 
 unjust." The motion was quite personal against 
 Lord Orford, singly and by name, for his last 
 ten years the former question had been for 
 twenty years, but as the rules of Parliament do 
 not allow of repeating any individual motion in 
 the same session of its rejection, and as every 
 evasion is allowed in this country, half the term 
 was voted by the same House of Commons that 
 had refused an inquiry into the whole ; a sort of 
 proof that every omne mqjus does not continere in 
 se minus but Houses of Commons can find out 
 evasions to logical axioms, as well as to their 
 own orders. If they carry their list, my Lord 
 will be obliged to return from Houghton. 
 
 After the division, Mr. Pultney* moved for an 
 address to the King, to declare their resolution 
 of standing by him, especially in assisting the 
 
 * This was much mentioned in the pamphlets written against the 
 war, which was said to have been determined by a gentleman's 
 fumbling in his pocket for a piece of paper at ten o'clock at nigkt, and 
 the House's agreeing to the motion without any consideration.
 
 136 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Queen of Hungary but I believe, after the loss 
 of the question, he will not be in very good 
 humour with this address. 
 
 I am now going to tell you what you will not 
 have expected that a particular friend of yours 
 opposed the motion, and it was the first time he 
 ever spoke. To keep you not in suspense, 
 though you must have guessed, it was 220.* 
 As the speech was very favourably heard, and 
 has done him service, I prevailed with him to 
 give me a copy here it is : 
 
 " Mr. Speaker,f I have always thought, Sir, 
 that incapacity and inexperience must prejudice 
 the cause they undertake to defend ; and it has 
 been diffidence of myself, not distrust of the 
 cause, that has hitherto made me so silent upon 
 a point, on which I ought to have appeared so 
 zealous. 
 
 " While the attempts for this inquiry were 
 made in general terms, I should have thought 
 it presumption in me to stand up and defend 
 measures, in which so many abler men have been 
 engaged, and which, consequently, they could so 
 much better support ; but when the attack grows 
 more personal, it grows my duty to oppose it 
 
 * The Author of these letters. 
 
 f There is a fictitious speech printed for this in several Magazines 
 of that time, hut which does not contain one sentence of the true one.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 137 
 
 more particularly, lest I be suspected of an 
 ingratitude which my heart disdains. But I 
 think, Sir, I cannot be suspected of that, unless 
 my not having abilities to defend my father can 
 be construed into a desire not to defend him. 
 
 " My experience, Sir, is very small ; I have 
 never been conversant in business and politics, 
 and have sat a very short time in this house 
 with so slight a fund, I must much mistrust my 
 power to serve him especially as in the short 
 time I have sat here, I have seen that not his 
 own knowledge, innocence, and eloquence, have 
 been able to protect him against a powerful 
 and determined party. I have seen, since his 
 retirement, that he has many great and noble 
 friends, who have been able to protect him 
 from farther violence. But, Sir, when no re- 
 pulses can calm the clamour against him, no 
 motives should sway his friends from openly un- 
 dertaking his defence. When the King has con- 
 ferred rewards on his services ; when the Parlia- 
 ment has refused its assent to any inquiries of 
 complaint against him ; it is but maintaining 
 the King's and our own honour, to reject this 
 motion for the repeating which, however, I 
 cannot think the authors to blame, as I suppose 
 now they have turned him out, they are willing 
 to inquire, whether they had any reason to do so.
 
 138 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 " I shall say no more, Sir, but leave the 
 material part of this defence to the impartiality, 
 candour and credit of men who are no ways 
 dependent on him. He has already found that 
 defence, Sir, and I hope he always will ! It is 
 to their authority I trust and to me, it is the 
 strongest proof of innocence, that for twenty 
 years together, no crime could be solemnly 
 alleged against him ; and since his dismission, he 
 has seen a majority rise up to defend his charac- 
 ter in that very House of Commons, in which a 
 majority had overturned his power. As, there- 
 fore, Sir, I must think him innocent, I stand up 
 to protect him from injustice had he been ac- 
 cused, I should not have given the House this 
 trouble : but I think, Sir, that the precedent of 
 what was done upon this question a few days 
 ago, is a sufficient reason, if I had no other, for 
 me to give my negative now." 
 
 William Pitt, some time after, in the debate, 
 said, how very commendable it was in him to 
 have made the above speech, which must have 
 made an impression upon the House ; but if it 
 was becoming in him to remember that he was 
 the child of the accused, that the House ought 
 to remember too that they are the children of 
 their country. It was a great compliment from 
 him, and very artful too.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 139 
 
 I forgot to tell you in my last, that one of 
 our men-of-war, commanded by Lord Bamffe,* 
 a Scotchman, has taken another register ship, 
 of immense value. 
 
 You will laugh at a comical thing that hap- 
 pened the other day to Lord Lincoln. He sent 
 the Duke of Richmond word that he would dine 
 with him in the country, and if he would give 
 him leave, would bring Lord Bury with him. 
 It happens that Lord Buryf is nothing less than 
 the Duke of Richmond's nephew. The Duke, 
 very properly, sent him word back, that Lord 
 Bury might bring him, if he pleased. 
 
 I have been plagued all this morning with 
 that oaf of unlicked antiquity, Prideaux,| and 
 his great boy. He talked through all Italy, and 
 every thing in all Italy. Upon mentioning 
 Stosch, I asked if he had seen his collection. 
 He replied, very few of his things, for he did 
 not like his company ; that he never heard so 
 much heathenish talk in his days. I inquired 
 
 * Alexander Ogilvy, sixth Lord Banff, commanded the Hastings 
 man-of-war in 1742-1743, and captured, during that time, a valuable 
 outward-bound Spanish register-ship, a Spanish privateer of 20 guns, 
 a French polacca with a rich cargo, and other vessels. He died at 
 Lisbon in November 46, at the early age of 28. D. 
 
 f George Lord Bury, afterwards third Earl of Albemarle. His 
 mother was Lady Anne Lennox, sister of the Duke of Richmond. D. 
 
 $ Grandson of Dean Prideaux ; he was just returned out of Italy, 
 with his son.
 
 140 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 what it was, and found that Stosch had one day 
 said before him, that the soul was only a little 
 glue. I laughed so much, that he walked off; 
 I suppose, thinking that I believed so too. By 
 the way, tell Stosch that a gold Alectus sold at 
 Lord Oxford's sale for above threescore pounds. 
 
 Good night, my dear child. I am just going to 
 the Ridotto ; one hates those places, comes away 
 out of humour, and yet one goes again ! How 
 are you ? I long for your next letter to answer 
 me. 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 Downing Street, April 1, 1742. 
 
 I RECEIVED your letter of March 18th, and 
 would be as particular in the other dates which 
 you have sent me in the end of your letter, but 
 our affairs having been in such confusion, I have 
 removed all my papers in general from hence, 
 and cannot now examine them. I have, I think, 
 received all yours ; but lately I received them two 
 days at least after their arrival, and evidently 
 opened ; so we must be cautious now what we 
 write. Remember this, for of your last the seal 
 had been quite taken off and set on again. 
 
 Last Friday we balloted for the Secret Com- 
 mittee. Except the vacancies, there were but
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 141 
 
 thirty-one members absent : five hundred and 
 eighteen gave in lists. At six that evening they 
 named a Committee, of which Lord Hartington 
 was chairman, (as having moved for it,) to ex- 
 amine the lists. This lasted from that time, all 
 that night, till four in the afternoon of the 
 next day ; twenty-two hours without remis- 
 sion. There were sixteen people, of which 
 were Lord Hartington and Coke, who sat 
 up the whole time, and one of them, Velters 
 Cornwall,* fainted with the fatigue and heat, 
 for people of all sorts were admitted into the 
 room, to see the lists drawn; it was in the 
 Speaker's chambers. On the conclusion, they 
 found the majority was for a mixed list, but 
 of which the Opposition had the greater num- 
 ber. Here are the two lists, which were given 
 out by each side, but of which people altered 
 several in their private lists. 
 
 THE COURT LIST. THE OPPOSITION LIST. 
 
 William Bowles. Sir John Barnard. 
 
 *Lord Cornbury. 1 Alexander Hume Campbell. 3 
 
 *William Finch. 2 Sir John Cotton. 
 
 Lord Fitzwilliam. George Bubb Doddington. 4 
 
 Sir Charles Gilmour. Nicholas Fazakerley. 
 
 1 Son of the Earl of Clarendon. 8 Afterwards Vice-Chamberlain. 
 
 3 Afterwards Solicitor to the Prince. 
 
 4 Had been a Lord of the Treasury. 
 
 Velters Cornwall, Esq. of Moccas Court, in Herefordshire, and 
 Member of Parliament for that County. D.
 
 142 
 
 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 *Charles Gore. 
 
 H. Arthur Herbert. 1 
 
 Sir Henry Liddel. 2 
 
 John Plumptree. 3 
 
 Sir John Ramsden. 
 
 Strange, Solicitor-General. 
 
 Cholmley Turner. 
 
 John Talbot. 4 
 
 General Wade. 5 
 
 James West. 6 
 
 Henry Furnese. 
 
 Earl of Granard. 
 
 Mr. Hooper. 7 
 
 Lord Limerick. 8 
 
 George Lyttelton. 9 
 
 John Phillips. 10 
 
 William Pitt. 11 
 
 Mr. Prowse. 
 
 Edmund Waller. 12 
 
 Sir Watkyn Williams Wynn. 
 
 *George Compton 
 *William Noel 13 . 
 *Lord Quarendon 14 
 *Sir John Rushout 15 
 *Samuel Sandys 16 
 *Sir John St. Aubin 
 
 Besides the following six, which were in both lists : 
 
 515 These six, on casting up the 
 512 numbers, had those marked 
 512 against their names, and were 
 
 516 consequently chosen. Those 
 516 with this mark (*) were reck- 
 518 oned of the Opposition. 
 
 On casting up the numbers, the lists proved thus : 
 *Sir John Barnard . 268 *Mr. Prowse . . 259 
 
 1 Afterwards Earl of Powis. 2 Afterwards Lord Ravensworth. 
 
 * He had a place in the Ordnance. 
 
 4 Son of the late Lord Chancellor, and afterwards a Judge. 
 
 3 Afterwards Field-Marshal. 
 
 6 Afterwards Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 7 Had a place on the change of the Ministry. (He was a Hamp- 
 shire gentleman, and Member of Parliament for Christchurch. D.) 
 
 8 Afterwards King's Remembrancer. 
 
 9 Afterwards Cofferer. 10 Afterwards a Lord of Trade, and Baronet. 
 " Afterwards Paymaster. Ia Afterwards Cofferer. 
 
 13 Afterwards a Judge. H Afterwards Earl of Lichfield. 
 
 15 Afterwards Treasurer of the Navy. 
 
 1G Afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer, then Cofferer, and 
 then a Baron.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 143 
 
 *Nicholas Fazakerley 17 262 *Edmund Waller . , . 259 
 
 *Henry Furnese . 262 William Bowles . 259 
 
 *EarlofGranard. . 259 *Lord Cornbury . . 262 
 
 *Mr. Hooper . . 265 Solicitor-General . 259 
 
 *William Pitt . . 259 Cholmley Tumor . 259 
 
 This made eighteen: Mr. Finch, Sir Harry 
 Liddel, and Mr. Talbot, had 258 each, and 
 Hume Campbell 257, besides one, in which his 
 name was mis-written, but allowed ; out of these 
 four, two were to be chosen : it was agreed that 
 the Speaker was to choose them. He, with a 
 resolution, not supposed to be in him, as he has 
 been the most notorious affecter of popularity, 
 named Sir Harry Liddel and Mr. Talbot ; so 
 that, on the whole, we have just five that we can 
 call our own. These will not be sufficient to stop 
 their proceedings ; but by being privy, may stop 
 any iniquitous proceedings. They have chosen 
 Lord Limerick chairman. Lord Orford returns to- 
 morrow from Houghton to Chelsea, from whence 
 my uncle went in a great fright to fetch him. 
 
 I was yesterday presented to the Prince and 
 Princess ; but had not the honour of a word from 
 either : he did vouchsafe to talk to Lord Walpole 
 the day before. 
 
 17 Nicholas Fazakerley, Esq. Walpole calls him " a tiresome Ja- 
 cobite lawyer." He, however, appears to have been a speaker of 
 some weight in the House of Commons, and distinguished himself by 
 his opposition to Lord Hardwicke's mischievous marriage bill in the 
 year 1753. D.)
 
 144 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Yesterday the Lord Mayor brought in their 
 favourite bill for repealing the Septennial Act, 
 but we rejected it by 284 to 204. 
 
 You shall have particular accounts of the Se- 
 cret Committee and their proceedings ; but it 
 will be at least a month before they can make 
 any progress. You did not say anything about 
 yourself in your last ; never omit it, my dear 
 child. 
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 London, April 8, 1742. 
 
 You have no notion how astonished I was, at 
 reading your account of Sir Francis Dashwood ! 
 That it should be possible for private and per- 
 sonal pique so to sour any man's temper and 
 honour, and so utterly to change their principles. 
 I own I am for your naming him in your next 
 despatch : they may at least intercept his letters, 
 and prevent his dirty intelligence. As to Lady 
 Walpole,* her schemes are so wild and so ill- 
 
 * Margaret Rolle, a great Devonshire heiress, the wife of Robert 
 Lord Walpole, afterwards second Earl of Orford, the eldest son of 
 the Minister. She was separated from her husband, and had quar- 
 relled violently with his whole family. She resided principally at 
 Florence, where she died in 1781 ; having married secondly, after the 
 death of Lord Orford, the Hon. Sewallis Shirley. She was a woman 
 of bad character, as well as half mad ; which last quality she commu- 
 nicated to her unfortunate son George, third Earl of Orford. She sue-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 145 
 
 founded, that I don't think it worth while to 
 take notice of them. I possibly may mention 
 this new one of changing her name, to her hus- 
 band, and of her coming-over design, but I am 
 sure he will only laugh at it. 
 
 The ill-situation of the King, which you say is 
 so much talked of at the Petraia,* is not true ; 
 indeed he and the Prince are not at all more 
 reconciled for being reconciled ; but I think his 
 resolution has borne him out. All the public 
 questions are easily carried, even with the con- 
 currence of the Tories. Mr. Pultney proposed 
 to grant a large sum for assisting the Queen of 
 Hungary, and got Sir John Barnard to move it. 
 They have given the King five hundred thousand 
 pounds for that purpose. The Land tax of four 
 shillings in the pound is continued. Lord Stair 
 is gone to Holland, and orders are given to the 
 regiments and guards, to have their camp equi- 
 pages ready. As to the Spanish war and Ver- 
 non, there is no more talk of them ; one would 
 think they had both been taken by a privateer. 
 
 We talk of adjourning soon for a month or six 
 weeks, to give the Secret Committee time to 
 proceed, which yet they have not done. Their 
 
 ceeded in her own right to the Baronies of Clinton and Say, upon the 
 death, in 1751, of Hugh Earl and Baron Clinton. D. 
 
 * The Petraia is a villa belonging to the Great Duke, where Prince 
 Craon resided in summer. 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 object is returned from Houghton in great health 
 and greater spirits. They are extremely angry 
 with him for laughing at their power. The con- 
 course to him is as great as ever ; so is the rage 
 against him. All this week the mob has been 
 carrying about his effigies in procession, and to 
 the Tower. The chiefs of the Opposition have 
 been so mean as to give these mobs money for 
 bonfires, particularly the Earls of Litchfield, 
 Westmorland, Denbigh,* and Stanhope :f the 
 servants of these last got one of these figures, 
 chalked out a place for the heart, and shot at it. 
 You will laugh at me, who, the other day, meet- 
 ing one of these mobs, drove up to it to see what 
 was the matter : the first thing I beheld was a 
 mawkin, in a chair, with three footmen, and a 
 label on the breast, inscribed Lady Mary.\ 
 
 The Speaker, who has been much abused for 
 naming two of our friends to the Secret Commit- 
 tee, to show his disinterestedness, has resigned 
 his place of Treasurer of the Navy. Mr. Clutter- 
 buck^ one of the late Treasury, is to have it ; 
 
 * William Feilding fifth Earl of Denbigh, died 1755. D. 
 
 f Philip second Earl Stanhope, eldest son of the general and states- 
 man, who founded this branch of the Stanhope family. Earl Philip 
 was a man of retired habits, and much devoted to scientific pursuits. 
 He died in 1786. D. 
 
 \ Lady Mary Walpole, daughter of Sir R. W. 
 
 This Mr. Clutterbuck had been raised by Lord Carteret, when 
 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whom he betrayed to Sir R. Walpole ; 
 the latter employed him, but never would trust him. He then ingra-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN, 147 
 
 so there seems a stop put to any new persons 
 from the Opposition. 
 
 His Royal Highness is gone to Kew ; his 
 drawing-rooms will not be so crowded at his re- 
 turn, as he has disobliged so many considerable 
 people, particularly the Dukes of Montagu* and 
 Richmond, Lord Albemarle,f &c. The Rich- 
 mond went twice, and yet was not spoken to ; 
 nor the others ; nay, he has vented his princely 
 resentment even upon the women, for to Lady 
 Hervey not a word. 
 
 This is all the news, except that little Brook J 
 
 tiated himself with Mr. Pelham, under a pretence of candour and 
 integrity, and was continually infusing scruples into him on political 
 questions, to distress Sir R. On the latter's quitting the ministry, 
 he appointed a Board of Treasury at his own house, in order to 
 sign some grants ; Mr. Clutterbuck made a pretence to slip away, 
 and never returned. He was a friend too of the Speaker's : when 
 Sir R. W. was told that Mr. Onslow had resigned his place, and that 
 Mr. Clutterbuck was to succeed him, he said, " I remember that the 
 Duke of Roxburgh, who was a great pretender to conscience, per- 
 suaded the Duke of Montrose to resign the seals of Secretary of State, 
 on some scruple, and begged them himself the next day." Mr. Clut- 
 terbuck died very soon after this transaction. 
 
 * John second and last Duke of Montagu, of the first creation. 
 He was a man of some talent, and great eccentricity. Sarah Duchess 
 of Marlborough, his mother-in-law, used to say of him, " My son- 
 in-law Montagu is fifty, and he is still as mere a boy, as if he was 
 only fifteen." D. 
 
 f William Anne Keppel, second Earl of Albemarle. An amiable 
 prodigal, who filled various great offices, through the favour of Lady 
 Yarmouth, and died insolvent. D. 
 
 J Francis Greville Lord Brooke, created an Earl in 1746. 
 L 2
 
 148 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 is on the point of matrimony with Miss Hamil- 
 ton, Lady Archibald's daughter. She is exces- 
 sively "pretty and sensible, but as diminutive 
 as he. 
 
 I forgot to tell you, that the place-bill has 
 met with the same fate from the Lords, as the 
 pension-bill, and the triennial act ; so that, after 
 all their clamour and changing of measures, 
 they have not been able to get one of their popu- 
 lar bills passed, though the newspapers, for these 
 three months, have swarmed with instructions 
 for these purposes from the constituents of all 
 parts of Great Britain, to their representatives. 
 
 We go into mourning on Sunday, for the old 
 Empress Amelia.* Lord Chedworth,f one of 
 three new peers, is dead. We hear the King of 
 Sardinia is at Piacenza, to open the campaign. 
 I shall be in continual fears, lest they disturb 
 you at Florence. My love to the Chutes, and my 
 compliments to all my old acquaintance. I don't 
 think I have forgot one of them. Patapan is 
 entirely yours, and entirely handsome. Good 
 night ! 
 
 * Widow of the Emperor Joseph. She was of the house of 
 Wolfenbuttel. 
 
 f John Howe, created a Baron, 1741.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 149 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 April 15, 1742. 
 
 THE great pleasure I receive from your letters, 
 is a little abated, by my continually finding that 
 they have been opened. It is a mortification, as 
 it must restrain the freedom of our correspon- 
 dence ; and at a time when more than ever I 
 must want to talk to you. 
 
 Your brother showed me a letter, which I ap- 
 prove extremely, yet do not think this a proper 
 time for it ; for there is not only no present pro- 
 spect of any further alterations ; but if there 
 were, none that will give that person any inte- 
 rest. He really has lost himself so much, that 
 it will be long before he can recover credit 
 enough to do anybody any service. His childish 
 and troublesome behaviour, particularly lately, 
 (but I will not mention instances, because I 
 would not have it known whom I mean) has 
 set him in the lowest light imaginable. I have 
 desired your brother to keep your letter, and 
 when we see a necessary or convenient oppor- 
 tunity, which I hope will not arrive, it shall be 
 delivered. However, if you are still of that opi- 
 nion, say so, and your brother shall carry it. 
 At present, my dear child, I am much more at 
 repose about you, as I trust no more will happen
 
 150 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 to endanger your situation. I shall not only 
 give you the first notice, but employ all the 
 means in my power to prevent your removal. 
 
 The Secret Committee, it seems, are almost 
 aground, and, it is thought, will soon finish. 
 They are now reduced, as I hear, to inquire into 
 the last month, not having met with any founda- 
 tion for proceeding in the rest of the time. 
 However, they have this week given a strong- 
 instance of their arbitrariness and private resent- 
 ments. They sent for Paxton,* the Solicitor of 
 the Treasury, and examined him about five 
 hundred pounds, which he had given seven 
 years ago at Lord Limerick's election. The 
 man, as it directly tended to accuse himself, 
 refused to answer. They complained to the 
 House, and after a long debate he was commit- 
 ted to the Serjeant-at-arms ; and to-day, I hear, 
 for still refusing, will be sent to Newgate. We 
 adjourn to-day for ten days, but the Committee 
 has leave to continue sitting. But, my dear 
 child, you may be quite at ease, for they them- 
 selves seem to despair of being able to effect 
 anything. 
 
 The Duke is of age to-day, and, I hear by the 
 guns, is just gone with the King to take his seat 
 in the Lords. 
 
 * Commemorated in a line of Pope, 
 
 " Tis all a libel, Paxton, Sir, will say." D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 151 
 
 I have this morning received the jar of cedrati 
 safe, for which I give you a million of thanks. 
 I am impatient to hear of the arrival of your 
 secretary and the things at Florence ; it is time 
 for you to have received them. 
 
 Here! Amorevoli has sent me another letter. 
 Would you believe that our wise Directors for 
 next year will not keep the Visconti, and have 
 sent for the Fumagalli ? She will not be heard 
 to the first row of the pit. 
 
 I am growing miserable, for it is growing fine 
 weather that is, everybody is going out of town. 
 I have but just begun to like London, and to 
 be settled in an agreeable set of people, and now 
 they are going to wander all over the kingdom. 
 Because they have some chance of having a 
 month of good weather, they will bury them- 
 selves three more in bad. 
 
 The Duchess of Cleveland* died last night of 
 what they call a milliary fever, which is much 
 about : she had not been ill two days. So the 
 poor creature, her Duke, is again to be let : she 
 paid dear for the hopes of being Duchess 
 Dowager. 
 
 Lady Catherine Pelhamf has miscarried of 
 
 * Lady Henrietta Finch, sister of the Earl of Winchelsea, wife of 
 William Duke of Cleveland. 
 
 t Catherine, sister of John Manners, Duke of Rutland, and wife 
 of Henry Pelham. They lost their two sons by an epidemic sore
 
 152 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 twins ; but they are so miserable with the loss 
 of their former two boys, that they seem glad 
 now of not having any more to tremble for. 
 
 There is a man who has by degrees bred him- 
 self up to walk upon stilts so high, that he now 
 stalks about and peeps into the one pair of stairs 
 windows. If this practice should spread, dining- 
 rooms will be as innocent as chapels. Good 
 night! I never forget my best loves to the 
 Chutes. 
 
 P.S. I this moment hear that Edgcumbe* and 
 Lord Fitzwilliam are created English peers : I 
 am sure the first is, and I believe the second. 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 London, April 22, 1742. 
 
 You perceive, by the size of my paper, how 
 little I have to say. The whole town is out of 
 town for Easter, and nothing left but dust, old 
 women, and the Secret Committee. They go 
 
 throat, after which she would never go to Esher, or any house where 
 she had seen them. 
 
 * Richard Edgcumbe, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a 
 great friend of Sir R. Walpole, was created a Baron to prevent his 
 being examined by the Secret Committee concerning the manage- 
 ment of the Cornish boroughs.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 153 
 
 on warmly, and have turned their whole thoughts 
 to the secret-service money, after which they are 
 inquiring by all methods. Sir John Rawdon* 
 (you remember that genius in Italy) voluntarily 
 swore before them, that at the late election at 
 Wallingford he spent two thousand pounds, and 
 that one Morley promised him fifteen hundred 
 more, if he would lay it out. "Whence was 
 Morley to have it ?" " / don't know ; I believe 
 from the First Minister." This makes an evi- 
 dence. It is thought that they will ask leave 
 to examine members, which was the reason of 
 Edgcumbe's going into the peerage, as they sup- 
 posed he had been the principal agent for the 
 Cornish boroughs. Sir John Cotton said upon 
 the occasion, " Between Newgate f and the 
 House of Lords, the Committee will not get any 
 information." 
 
 The troops for Flanders go on board Satur- 
 day se'nnight, the first embarkation of five thou- 
 sand men : the whole number is to be sixteen 
 
 * He was afterwards made an Irish Lord, (Lord Rawdon in 1750, 
 and Earl of Moira in 1761. His two first wives were the daughters 
 of the Earl of Egmont and Viscount Hillsborough. His third wife, 
 by whom he was the father of the late Lord Hastings, was the daugh- 
 ter, and eventually the heiress, of Theophilus, ninth Earl of Hunting- 
 don. D.) 
 
 t Alluding to Paxton, who was senTthither for refusing to give 
 evidence
 
 154 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 thousand. It is not yet known what success 
 Earl Stair has had at the Hague. We are in 
 great joy upon the news of the King of Prussia's 
 running away from the Austrians :* though his 
 cowardice is well established, it is yet believed 
 that the flight in question was determined by 
 his head, not his heart in short, that it was 
 treachery to his allies. 
 
 I forgot to tell you, that of the Secret Com- 
 mittee Sir John Rushout and Cholmley Tumor 
 never go to it, nor, which is more extraordinary, 
 Sir John Barnard. He says, he thought their 
 views were more general, but, finding them so 
 particular against one man, he will not engage 
 with them. 
 
 I have been breakfasting this morning at 
 Ranelagh-garden ; they have built an immense 
 amphitheatre, with balconies full of little ale- 
 houses ; it is in rivalry to Vauxhall, and costs 
 above twelve thousand pounds. The building 
 is not finished, but they get great sums by 
 people going to see it, and breakfasting in 
 the house : there were yesterday no less than 
 
 * This must allude to the King of Prussia's abandonment of his 
 design to penetrate through Austria to Vienna, which he gave up in 
 consequence of the lukewarmness of his Saxon, and the absence of 
 his French Allies It is curious now, when the mist of contemporary 
 prejudices has passed away, to hear Frederick the Great accused of 
 cowardice. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 155 
 
 three hundred and eighty persons, at eighteen 
 pence a-piece. You see how poor we are, 
 when, with a tax of four shillings in the 
 pound, we are laying out such sums for cakes 
 and ale. 
 
 We have a new opera, with your favourite 
 song, Se cerca, se dice :* Monticelli sings it beyond 
 what you can conceive. Your last was of April 
 8th. I like the medal of the Caesars and 
 Nihils f extremely ; but don't at all like the 
 cracking of your house, J except that it drives 
 away your Pettegola. What I like much worse, 
 is your recovering your strength so slowly ; but 
 I trust to the warm weather. 
 
 Miss Granville, daughter of the late Lord 
 Lansdown,|| is named maid of honour, in the 
 room of Miss Hamilton, who, I told you, is to 
 
 * In the Olimpiade. 
 
 f A satirical medal : on one side was the head of Francis Duke of 
 Lorrain (afterwards Emperor), with this motto, aut Ccesaraut nihil ; 
 on the reverse, that of the Emperor Charles VII. Elector of Bavaria, 
 who had been driven out of his dominions, et Caesar et ni/dl. 
 
 I Sir II. Mann had mentioned, in one of his letters, the appearance 
 of several cracks in the walls of his house at Florence. Mrs. Golds- 
 worthy, the wife of the English consul, had taken refuge in it when 
 driven from Leghorn by an earthquake. D. 
 
 Mrs. Goldsworthy. 
 
 || George Granville Lord Lansdown, Pope's " Granville the polite,'' 
 one of Queen Anne's twelve peers, and one of the minor poets of that 
 time. He died in 1734, without male issue, and his honours extin- 
 guished. D.
 
 156 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 be Lady Brook : they are both so small ! what 
 little eggs they will lay ! 
 
 How does my Princess !* does not she deign 
 to visit you too? Is Sadef there still? Is 
 Madame Suares quite gone into devotion yet ? 
 Tell me anything, I love anything that you 
 write to me. Good night ! 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 London, April 29. 
 
 BY yours of April 17, N. S. and some of your 
 last letters, I find my Lady Walpole is more 
 mad than ever why, there never was so wild a 
 scheme as this of setting up an interest through 
 Lord Chesterfield ! one who has no power ; and 
 if he had, would think of, or serve her, one of the 
 last persons upon earth. What connexion has 
 he with, what interest could he have in obliging 
 her ? and, but from views, what has he ever 
 done, or will he ever do ? But is Richcourt^ so 
 shallow, and so ambitious, as to put any trust 
 in these projects ? My dear child, believe me, 
 if I was to mention them here, they would sound 
 
 * Princess Craon. f The Chevalier de Sade. 
 
 I Count Richcourt was a Lorrainer, and Chief Minister of Flo- 
 rence ; there was great connexion between him and Lady W.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 157 
 
 so chimerical, so womanish, that I should be 
 laughed at for repeating them. For yourself, be 
 quite at rest, and laugh, as I do, at feeble vision- 
 ary malice, and assure yourself, whoever men- 
 tions such politics to you, that my Lady Wai- 
 pole must have very frippery intelligence from 
 hence, if she can raise no better views, and on 
 no better foundations. For the poem you men- 
 tion, I never read it : upon inquiry, I find there 
 was such a thing, though now quite obsolete : 
 undoubtedly not Pope's, and only proves what 
 I said before, how low, how paltry, how unin- 
 formed, her Ladyship's correspondents must be. 
 
 We are now all military ! all preparations for 
 Flanders ! no parties but reviews ; no officers 
 but hope they are to go abroad at least, it is 
 the fashion to say so. I am studying lists of 
 regiments and names of colonels not that / 
 hope I am to go abroad, but to talk of those who 
 do. Three thousand men embarked yesterday 
 and the day before, and the thirteen thousand 
 others sail as soon as the transports can return. 
 Messieurs d'Allemagne* roll their red eyes, 
 stroke up their great beavers, and look fierce 
 you know one loves a review and a tattoo. 
 
 We had a debate yesterday in the House on a 
 proposal for replacing four thousand men of 
 
 * The Royal Family.
 
 158 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 some that are to be sent abroad, that in short 
 we might have fifteen thousand men to guard 
 the kingdom. This was strongly opposed by 
 the Tories, but we carried it in the Committee, 
 214 against 123, and to-day, in the House, 280 
 against 169. Sir John Barnard, Pultney, the 
 new Ministry, all the Prince's people, except the 
 Cobham-cousins,* the Lord Mayor, and several of 
 the Opposition voted with us ; so you must in- 
 terpret Tories in the strongest sense of the word. 
 The Secret Committee has desired leave to- 
 day, to examine three members, Burrel, Bristow, 
 and Hanbury Williams :f the two first are direc- 
 tors of the Bank ; and it is upon an agreement 
 made with them, and at which Williams was 
 present, about remitting some money to Ja- 
 maica, and in which they pretend Sir Robert 
 made a bad bargain, to oblige them, as mem- 
 bers of Parliament. They all three stood up, 
 and voluntarily offered to be examined ; so no 
 vote passed upon it. 
 
 * Pitts, Grenvilles, Lytteltons, all related by marriage, or female 
 descent, to Lord Cobham. D. 
 
 f Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, a devoted follower of Sir Robert 
 Walpole. His various satirical poems against the enemies and suc- 
 cessors of that Minister are well known, and must ever be admired 
 for their ease, their spirit, and the wit and humour of their sarcasm. 
 It was said at the time, that Sir Charles's poetry had done more in three 
 months to lower and discredit those it was written against, than the 
 Craftsman and other abusive papers had been able to effect against 
 Sir Robert in a long series of years. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 159 
 
 These are all the political news : there is 
 little of any other sort : so little gallantry is 
 stirring, that I do not hear of so much as one 
 maid of honour who has declared herself with 
 child by any officer, to engage him not to go 
 abroad. I told you once or twice that Miss 
 Hamilton is going to be married to Lord Brook : 
 somebody wished Lord Archibald joy. He re- 
 plied, " Providence has been very good to my 
 family." 
 
 We had a great scuffle the other night at the 
 Opera, which interrupted it. Lord Lincoln was 
 abused in the most shocking manner by a 
 drunken officer, upon which he kicked him, and 
 was drawing his sword, but was prevented. 
 They were put under arrest, and the next 
 morning the man begged his pardon before the 
 Duke of Marlborough, Lord Albemarle, and 
 other officers, in the most submissive terms. I 
 saw the quarrel from the other side of the house, 
 and rushing to get to Lord Lincoln, could not 
 for the crowd. I climbed into the front-boxes, 
 and stepping over the shoulders of three ladies, 
 before I knew where I was, found I had lighted 
 into Lord Rockingham's* lap it was ridiculous ! 
 Good night! 
 
 * Lewis Watson second Earl of Rockingham, died December 
 1745. D.
 
 160 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 Downing Street, May 6, 1742. 
 
 I HAVE received a long letter from you of the 
 22nd of April. It amazes me ! that our friends 
 of Florence should not prove our friends !* Is it 
 possible ? I have always talked of their cor- 
 diality, because I was convinced they could have 
 no shadow of interest in their professions : of 
 that indeed I am convinced still but how could 
 they fancy they had ? There is the wonder ! 
 If they wanted common honesty, they seem to 
 have wanted common sense more. What hope 
 of connexion could there ever be between the 
 English Ministry and the Florentine nobility ? 
 The latter have no views of being, or knowledge 
 for being envoys, &c. They are too poor and 
 proud to think of trading with us; too abject, 
 to hope for the restoration of their liberty from 
 us and indeed, however we may affection our 
 own, we have showed no regard for their liberty 
 they have had no reason ever to expect that 
 from us ! In short, to me it is mystery ! But 
 
 * This alludes to an account given by Sir Horace Mann in one of 
 his letters, of the change he had observed in the manner of many of 
 the Florentines towards himself, since Sir Robert Walpole's retire- 
 ment from office, upon the supposition entertained by them that he 
 was intimately connected with the fallen minister. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. l6l 
 
 how could you not tell me some particulars ? 
 Have I so little interested myself with Florence, 
 that you should think I can be satisfied without 
 knowing the least particulars ? I must know 
 names. Who are these wretches that I am to 
 scratch out of my list ? I shall give them a 
 black blot the moment I know who have be- 
 haved ill to you. Is Casa Ferroni of the num- 
 ber ? I suspect it that was of your first attach- 
 ments. Are the Prince and Princess dirty ? 
 the Suares ? tell me, tell me. Indeed, my dear 
 Mr. Chute, I am not of your opinion, that he 
 should shut himself up and despise them ; let 
 him go abroad and despise them ! Must he 
 mope, because the Florentines are like the rest 
 of the world ? But that is not true, for the 
 world in England have not declared themselves 
 so suddenly. It has not been the fashion to 
 desert the Earl and his friends : he has had 
 more concourse, more professions, and has still, 
 than in the height of his power. So your neigh- 
 bours have been too hasty ; they are new style, 
 at least, eleven days before us. Tell them, tell 
 Richcourt, tell his Cleopatra,* that all their hopes 
 are vanished, all their faith in Secret Com- 
 mittees the reconciliation is made, and what- 
 ever reports their Secretships may produce, 
 
 Lady Walpole. D. 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 there will be at least above a hundred votes added 
 to our party. Their triumph has been but in 
 hope, and their hope has failed in two months. 
 
 As to your embroil with Richcourt, I condemn 
 you excessively : not that you was originally in 
 fault, but by seeming to own yourself so. He is an 
 impertinent fellow, and will be so, if you let him. 
 My dear child, act with the spirit of your friends 
 here ; show we have lost no credit, by losing 
 power ; and that a little Italian Minister must 
 not dare to insult you. Publish the accounts I 
 send you, which I give you my honour are 
 authentic ; if they are not, let Cytheris, your 
 Antony's travelling concubine, contradict them. 
 
 You tell me the St. Quintin is arrived at 
 Genoa ; I see by the prints of to-day that it is 
 got to Leghorn : I am extremely glad, for I 
 feared for it, for the poor boy, and for the things. 
 Tell me how you like your Secretary. I shall be 
 quite happy, if I have placed one with you that 
 you like. 
 
 I laughed much at the family of cats I am to 
 receive ; I believe they will be extremely wel- 
 come to Lord Islay now, for he appears little, 
 lives more darkly and more like a wizard than 
 ever : these huge cats will figure prodigiously in 
 his cell : he is of the mysterious, dingy nature of 
 Stosch.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 163 
 
 As words is what I have not rhetoric tojind out 
 to thank you, for sending me this paragraph of 
 Madame Goldsworthy, I can only tell you, that 
 I laughed for an hour at it. This was one of 
 my Lady Pomfret's correspondents. 
 
 There seems to be a little stop in our em- 
 barkations : since the first, they have discovered 
 that the horse must not go till all the hay is 
 provided. Three thousand men will make a fine 
 figure towards supporting the balance of power ! 
 our whole number was to be but sixteen : and if 
 all these cannot be assembled before the end of 
 July, what will be said of it ? 
 
 The Secret Committee go on very pitifully : 
 they are now inquiring about some Custom-house 
 officers that were turned out at Weymouth, for 
 voting wrong at elections. Don't you think 
 these articles will prove to the world what they 
 have been saying of Sir Robert for these twenty 
 years? The House still sits in observance to 
 them, which is pleasant to me, for it keeps peo- 
 ple in town. We have operas too, but they are 
 almost over, and if it were not for a daily east 
 wind, they would give way to Vauxhall and 
 Chelsea. The new Directors have agreed with 
 the Fumagalli, for next year ; but she is to be 
 second woman ; they keep the Visconti. Did I 
 never mention the Bettina, the first dancer ? It 
 
 M 2
 
 164 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 seems she was kept by a Neapolitan Prince, who 
 is extremely jealous of her coming hither : about 
 a fortnight ago, she fell ill, upon which her Nea- 
 politan footman made off immediately. She 
 dances again, but is very weak, and thinks her- 
 self poisoned. 
 
 Adieu ! my dear child ; tell me you are well, 
 easy, and in spirits : kiss the Chutes for me, and 
 believe me, &c. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 London, May 13, 1742. 
 
 As I am obliged to put my letter into the 
 Secretary's office by nine o'clock, and it now 
 don't want a quarter of it, I can say but three 
 words, and must defer till next post answering 
 your long letter by the courier. I am this mo- 
 ment come from the House, where we have had 
 the first part of the Report from the Secret Com- 
 mittee. It is pretty long, but unfortunately for 
 them, there is not once to be found in it the 
 name of the Earl of Orford : there is a good 
 deal about Mr. Paxton and the borough of 
 Wendover ; and it appears that in eleven years 
 Mr. Paxton has received ninety-four thousand 
 pounds unaccounted for : now, if Lady Richcourt
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 165 
 
 can make anything of all this, you have freely 
 my leave to communicate it to her. Pursuant 
 to this Report, and Mr. Paxton's contumacy, 
 they moved for leave to bring in a bill to indem- 
 nify all persons who should accuse themselves of 
 any crime, provided they do but accuse Lord 
 Orford, and they have carried it by 251 to 228 ! 
 but it is so absurd a bill, that there is not the 
 least likelihood of its passing the Lords. By 
 this bill, whoever is guilty of murder, treason, 
 forgery, &c. have nothing to do but to add per- 
 jury, and swear Lord Orford knew of it, and 
 they may plead their pardon. Tell Lady Rich- 
 court this. Lord Orford knew of her gallantries : 
 she may plead her pardon. Good night ! I 
 have not a moment to lose. 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 May 20, 1742. 
 
 I SENT you a sketch last post of the division 
 on the Indemnity-bill. As they carried the 
 question for its being brought in, they brought 
 it in on Saturday ; but were prevailed on to 
 defer the second reading till Tuesday. Then 
 we had a long debate till eight at night, when 
 they carried it, 228 against 217, only eleven
 
 166 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 majority : before, they had had twenty-three. 
 They immediately went into the Committee on 
 it, and reported it that night. Yesterday it 
 came to the last reading; but the House, having 
 sat so late the night before, was not so full, and 
 they carried it, 216 to 184. But to-day it 
 comes into the Lords, where they do not in the 
 least expect to succeed ; yet, to show their spi- 
 rit, they have appointed a great dinner at the 
 Fountain* to-morrow, to consider on methods 
 for supporting the honour of the Commons, as 
 they call it, against the Lords. So now all 
 prospect of quiet seems to vanish ! The noise 
 this bill makes is incredible, it is so unprece- 
 dented, so violent a step ! Every thing is in- 
 flamed by Pultney, who governs both parties, 
 only, I think, to exasperate both more. Three 
 of our own people of the Committee, the Soli- 
 citor^ Talbot, and Bowles, vote against us in 
 the Indemnity-bill, and the two latter have even 
 spoke against us. Sir Robert said, at the begin- 
 ning, when he was congratulated on having some 
 of his own friends in the Committee, " The mo- 
 
 * A great tavern in the Strand, where the most numerous 
 meetings of the Opposition were generally held. 
 
 } John Strange, Esq. made Solicitor-General in 1736. In Novem- 
 ber 1742 he was succeeded by Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield. 
 D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 167 
 
 ment they are appointed, they will grow so 
 jealous of the honour of the Committee, that 
 they will prefer that to every other considera- 
 tion."* 
 
 Our foreign news are as bad as our domestic : 
 there seem little hopes of the Dutch coming into 
 our measures ; there are even letters, that men- 
 tion strongly their resolution of not stirring so 
 we have Quixoted away sixteen thousand men ! 
 On Saturday we had accounts of the Austrians 
 having cut off two thousand Prussians, in a re- 
 treat; but on Sunday came news of the great 
 victoryf which the latter have gained, killing six, 
 and taking two thousand Austrians prisoners, 
 and that Prince Charles is retired to Vienna 
 wounded. This will but too much confirm the 
 Dutch in their apprehensions of Prussia. 
 
 As to the long letter you wrote me, in answer 
 to a very particular one of mine, I cannot ex- 
 plain myself, till I find a safer conveyance than 
 the post, by which, I perceive, all our letters are 
 opened. I can only tell you, that in most things 
 
 * Voltaire has since made the same kind of observation in his Life 
 of Louis XIV. Art. of Calvinism : Les hommes se piquent toujours de 
 remplir un devoir gui les distingue. 
 
 f The battle of Chotusitz, or Czaslau, gained by the King of 
 Prussia over the very superior forces of the Austrians. This victory 
 occasioned peace between the contending powers, and the cession of 
 Silesia to the Prussian monarch. D.
 
 168 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 you guessed right ; and that as to myself* all is 
 quiet. 
 
 I am in great concern, for you seem not satis- 
 fied with the boy we sent you. Your brother 
 entirely agreed with me, that he was what you 
 seemed to describe ; and as to his being on the 
 foot of a servant, I give you my honour I re- 
 peated it over and over to his mother. I sup- 
 pose her folly was afraid of shocking him. As 
 to Italian, she assured me he had been learning 
 it some time. If he does not answer your pur- 
 pose, let me know if you can dispose of him any 
 other way, and I will try to accommodate you 
 better. Your brother has this moment been 
 here, but there was no letter for me, at least, 
 none that they will deliver yet. 
 
 I know not in the least how to advise Mr. 
 Jackson.f I do not think Mr. Pelham the pro- 
 per person to apply to, for the Duke of Newcas- 
 tle is as jealous of him as of anybody. J Don't 
 
 * This relates to some differences between Mr. Walpole and his 
 father, to which the former had alluded in one of his letters. They 
 never suited one another either in habits, tastes, or opinions ; in addi- 
 tion to which, Sir Robert appears to have been rather a harsh father 
 to his youngest son. If such was the case, the latter nobly revenged 
 himself, by his earnest solicitude through life for the honour of his 
 parent's memory. D. 
 
 f He had been Consul at Genoa. 
 
 | Sir Robert Walpole used to say of the Duke of Newcastle, " He 
 has a foolish head and a perfidious heart. His name is perfidy." D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 169 
 
 say this to him. For Lord Hervey, though Mr. 
 Jackson has interest there, I would not advise 
 him to try it, for both hate him. The applica- 
 tion to the Duke of Newcastle, by the most direct 
 means, I should think the best, or by any one 
 that can be serviceable to the Government. 
 
 You will laugh at an odd accident that hap- 
 pened the other day to my uncle :* they put him 
 into the papers for Earl of Sheffield : there have 
 been little disputes between the two Houses 
 about coming into each other's House ; when a 
 Lord comes into the Commons, they call out 
 withdraw : that day, the moment my uncle came 
 in, they all roared out, withdraw! withdraw! 
 
 The great Mr. Nugent has been unfortunate 
 too in Parliament ; besides being very ill-heard, 
 from being a very indifferent speaker : the other 
 day on the Place-bill, (which, by the way, we 
 have new modelled and softened, and to which 
 the Lords have submitted to agree to humour 
 Pultney ;) he rose, and said, " He would not 
 vote, as he was not determined in his opinion ; 
 but he would offer his sentiments ; which were, 
 particularly, that the Bishops had been the 
 cause of this bill being thrown out before." 
 Winnington called him to order, desiring he 
 would be tender of the Church of England. 
 
 * Horace Walpole the elder. D.
 
 170 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 You know he was a papist. In answer to the 
 beginning of his speech, Velters Cornwall, who 
 is of the same side, said, " He wondered that 
 when that gentleman could not convince himself 
 by his eloquence, he should expect to convince 
 the majority." 
 
 Did I tell you that Lord Rochford* has at last 
 married Miss Young ?f I say, at last, for they 
 don't pretend to have been married this twelve- 
 month ; but were publicly married last week. 
 Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 Downing-Street, May 26, 1742. 
 
 TO-DAY calls itself May the 26th, as you per- 
 ceive by the date, but I am writing to you by 
 the fire-side, instead of going to Vauxhall. If 
 we have one warm day in seven, we bless our 
 stars, and think it luxury. And yet we have as 
 much waterworks and fresco diversions, as if we 
 lay ten degrees nearer warmth. Two nights 
 ago Ranelagh gardens were opened at Chelsea ; 
 the Prince, Princess, Duke, much nobility, and 
 
 * William Henry Zulestein Nassau, fourth Earl of Rochford. He 
 filled many diplomatic situations, and was also at different times, 
 Groom of the Stole and Secretary of State. He died in 1781 . D. 
 
 f Daughter of Edward Young, Esq. She had been Maid of 
 Honour to the Princess of Wales.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 171 
 
 much mob besides, were there. There is a vast 
 amphitheatre, finely gilt, painted, and illumi- 
 nated, into which everybody that loves eating, 
 drinking, staring, or crowding, is admitted for 
 twelvepence. The building and disposition of 
 the gardens cost sixteen thousand pounds. Twice 
 a-week there are to be Ridottos, at guinea 
 tickets, for which you are to have a supper and 
 music. I was there last night, but did not find 
 the joy of it. Vauxhall is a little better, for the 
 garden is pleasanter, and one goes by water. 
 Our operas are almost over ; there were but 
 three-and-forty people last night in the pit and 
 boxes. There is a little simple farce at Drury- 
 Lane, called Miss Lucy in Town, in which Mrs. 
 Clive* mimics the Muscovita admirably, and 
 Beard, Amorevoli intolerably. But all the run 
 
 * Catherine Clive, an excellent actress in low comedy. Churchill 
 says of her in the Rosciad, 
 
 " In spite of outward blemishes, she shone, 
 For humour fam'd, and humour all her own. 
 Easy, as if at home, the stage she trod, 
 Nor sought the Critic's praise, nor fear'd his rod ; 
 Original in spirit and in ease, 
 She pleas'd by hiding all attempts to please. 
 No comic actress ever yet could raise 
 On humour's base, more merit, or more praise." 
 
 In after life she lived at Twickenham, in the house now called little 
 Strawberry Hill, and became an intimate friend of Horace Walpole. 
 D.
 
 172 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 is now after Garrick, a wine-merchant, who is 
 turned player, at Goodman's fields. He plays 
 all parts, and is a very good mimic. His acting 
 I have seen, and may say to you, who will not 
 tell it again here, I see nothing wonderful in it ; 
 but it is heresy to say so : the Duke of Argyll 
 says, he is superior to Betterton. Now I talk of 
 players, tell Mr. Chute, that his friend Brace- 
 girdle breakfasted with me this morning. As 
 she went out, and wanted her clogs, she turned 
 to me, and said, " I remember at the playhouse, 
 they used to call Mrs. Oldfield's chair ! Mrs. 
 Barry's clogs ! and Mrs. Bracegir die's pattens !" 
 I did, indeed, design the letter of this post for Mr. 
 Chute ; but I have received two such charming 
 long ones from you of the 15th and 20th of May, 
 (N. S.) that I must answer them, and beg him 
 to excuse me till another post ; so must the 
 Prince,* Princess, the Grifona/f and Countess 
 Galli. For the Princess's letter, I am not sure 
 I shall answer it so soon, for hitherto I have not 
 been able to read above every third word ; how- 
 ever, you may thank her as much as if I under- 
 stood it all. I am very happy that mes bagatelles 
 (for I still insist they were so,) pleased. You, 
 my dear child, are very good to be pleased with 
 
 Prince Craon. 
 
 f The Signora Elisabetta Capponi Grifoni, a great beauty.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 173 
 
 the snuff-box. I am much obliged to the supe- 
 rior lumikres of old Sarasin* about the Indian 
 ink : if she meant the black, I am sorry to say I 
 had it into the bargain with the rest of the 
 Japan : for the coloured, it is only a curiosity, 
 because it has seldom been brought over. I 
 remember Sir Hans Sloane was the first who 
 ever had any of it, and would on no account give 
 my mother the least morsel of it. She after- 
 wards got a good deal of it from China ; and 
 since that, more has come over ; but it is even 
 less valuable than the other, for we never could 
 tell how to use it ; however, let it make its 
 figure. 
 
 I am sure you hate me all this time, for chat- 
 ting about so many trifles, and telling you no 
 politics. I own to you, I am so wearied, so 
 worn with them, that I scarce know how to turn 
 my hand to them ; but you shall know all I 
 know. I told you of the meeting at the Foun- 
 tain tavern : Pultney had promised to be there, 
 but was not; nor Carteret.f As the Lords had 
 put off the debate on the Indemnity-bill, nothing 
 material passed ; but the meeting was very Jaco- 
 
 * Madame Sarasin, a Lorrain lady, companion to Princess Craon. 
 
 f John Lord Carteret, afterwards, on the death of his mother, Earl 
 of Granville ; a statesman of shining abilities, which his rashness, his 
 intemperance, and his want of consistency of character, prevented him 
 from making useful either to himself or to his country. D.
 
 174 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 bite. Yesterday the bill came on, and Lord 
 Carteret took the lead against it, and about 
 seven in the evening it was flung out by almost 
 two to one, 92 to 47, and 17 proxies to 10. To- 
 day we had a motion by the new Lord Hillsbo- 
 rough,* (for the father is just dead,) and second- 
 ed by Lord Barrington,-}- to examine the Lords' 
 votes, to see what was become of the bill : this is 
 the form. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 and all the new ministry, were with us against 
 it ; but they carried it, 164 to 159. It is to be 
 reported to-morrow, and as we have notice, we 
 may possibly throw it out ; else they will hurry 
 on to a breach with the Lords. Pultney was 
 not in the House ; he was riding the other day, 
 and met the King's coach ; endeavouring to turn 
 out of the way, his horse started, flung him, and 
 fell upon him : he is much bruised ; but not at 
 all dangerously. On this occasion, there was an 
 epigram fixed to a list, which I will explain to 
 
 * Wills Hill, the second Lord Hillsborough, afterwards created an 
 Irish Earl, and Cofferer of the Household. (In the reign of George 
 III. he was created Earl of Hillsborough, in England, and finally 
 Marquis of Downshire, in Ireland; and held the office of Secretary 
 of State for the Colonies. D.) 
 
 f William Wildman, Viscount Barrington, made a Lord of the Ad- 
 miralty on the coalition, and Master of the great Wardrobe, in 1754. 
 (He afterwards held the offices of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secre- 
 tary at War, and Treasurer of the Navy, and died February 1st, 1793. 
 -D.)
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 175 
 
 you afterwards : it is not known who wrote it, 
 but it was addressed to him : 
 
 Thy horse does things by halves, like thee : 
 
 Thou, with irresolution, 
 Hurt'st friend and foe, thyself and me, 
 
 The King and Constitution. 
 
 The list I meant : you must know, some time 
 ago, before the change, they had moved for a 
 committee to examine, and state the public 
 accounts : it was passed. Finding how little 
 success they had with their Secret Committee, 
 they have set this on foot, and we were to ballot 
 for seven Commissioners, who are to have a 
 thousand a-year. We balloted yesterday : on 
 our list were Sir Richard Corbet,* Charles Ha- 
 milton^ (Lady Archibald's brother,) Sir William 
 Middleton,J Mr. West, Mr. Fonnereau, Mr. 
 Thompson, and Mr. Ellis. On their's, Mr. 
 Bance, George Grenville, Mr. Hooper, Sir 
 
 * Sir Richard Corbett, of Leighton,in Montgomeryshire, the fourth 
 Baronet of the family. Member of Parliament for Shrewsbury. Died 
 in 1774.- D. 
 
 f The Hon. Charles Hamilton, sixth son of James, sixth Earl of 
 Abercorn. Member of Parliament for Truro. Comptroller of the 
 Green Cloth to the Prince of Wales, and subsequently Receiver- 
 General of the Island of Minorca. Died 1787. D. 
 
 J Sir William Middleton, Bart, of Belsay castle, Northumberland, 
 the third Baronet of the family. Member of Parliament for North- 
 umberland. Died 1767. D. 
 
 Welbore Ellis, Member of Parliament for above half a century ; 
 during which period he held the different offices of a Lord of the
 
 176 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Charles Mordaunt,* Mr. Phillips, Mr. Pitt, and 
 Mr. Stuart. On casting up the numbers, the 
 four first on ours, and the three first on their 
 list, appeared to have the majority : so no great 
 harm will come from this, should it pass the 
 Lords, which it is not likely to do. I have now 
 told you, I think, all the political news, except 
 that the troops continue going to Flanders, 
 though we hear no good news yet from Hol- 
 land. 
 
 If we can prevent any dispute between the 
 two Houses, it is believed and much hoped by 
 the Court, that the Secret Committee will desire 
 to be dissolved : if it does, there is an end of all 
 this tempest ! 
 
 I must tell you an ingenuity of Lord Ray- 
 mond,f an epitaph on the Indemnifying Bill I 
 believe you would guess the author : 
 
 Interr'd beneath this marble stone doth lie 
 
 The Bill of Indemnity ; 
 To show the good for which it was design' d, 
 
 It died itself to save mankind. 
 
 Admiralty, Secretary at War, Treasurer of the Navy, Vice-Treasurer 
 of Ireland, and Secretary of State. He was created Lord Mendip in 
 1794, with remainder to his nephew Viscount Clifden, and died at 
 his house in Hanover-Square, February 2, 1802, at the age of 88. D. 
 
 * Sir Charles Mordaunt, of Massingham, in Norfolk, the sixth 
 Baronet of the family. Member of Parliament for the County of 
 Warwick. Died 1778. D. , 
 
 f Robert, the second Lord Raymond, son of the Lord Chief 
 J ustice.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 177 
 
 My Lady Townshend made me laugh the 
 other night about your old acquaintance, Miss 
 Edwin ; who, by the way, is grown almost a 
 Methodist. My Lady says she was forced to 
 have an issue made on one side of her head, for 
 her eyes, and that Kent* advised her to have 
 another on the other side for symmetry. 
 
 There has lately been published one of the 
 most impudent things that ever was printed ; it 
 is called The Irish Register, and is a list of all 
 the unmarried women of any fashion in England, 
 ranked in order, duchesses-dowager, ladies, 
 widows, misses, &c. with their names at length, 
 for the benefit of Irish fortune-hunters, or, as it is 
 said, for the incorporating and manufacturing 
 of British commodities. Miss Edwards f is the 
 only one printed with a dash, because they have 
 placed her among the widows. I will send you 
 
 * William Kent, of whom Walpole himself drew the following 
 just character. *' He was a painter, an architect, and the father of 
 modern gardening. In the first character he was below mediocrity ; 
 in the second, he was a restorer of the science ; in the last, an origi- 
 nal, and the inventer of an art that realizes painting, and improves 
 nature. Mahomet imagined an elysium, Kent created many." The 
 misfortune of Kent was, that his fame and popularity in his own age 
 were so great, that he was employed to give designs for all things, even 
 for those which he could know nothing about such as ladies' birth- 
 day dresses, which he decorated with the five orders of architecture. 
 These absurdities drew upon him the satire of Hogarth. D. 
 
 t Miss Edwards, an unmarried lady of great fortune, who openly 
 kept Lord Anne Hamilton. 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 this, Miss Lucy in Town, and the Magazines, by 
 the first opportunity, as I should the other 
 things, but your brother tells me you have had 
 them by another hand. I received the cedrati, 
 for which I have already thanked you; but I 
 have been so much thanked by several people 
 to whom I gave some, that I can very well 
 afford to thank you again. 
 
 As to Stosch expecting any present from me, 
 he was so extremely well paid for all I had of 
 him, that I do not think myself at all in his 
 debt : however, you was very good to offer to 
 pay him. 
 
 As to my Lady Walpole, I shall say nothing 
 now, as I have not seen either of the two per- 
 sons since I received your letter, to whom I 
 design to mention her ; only that I am ex- 
 tremely sorry to find you still disturbed at any 
 of the little nons'ense of that cabal. I hoped 
 that the accounts which I have sent you, and 
 which, except in my last letter, must have been 
 very satisfactory, would have served you as an 
 antidote to their legends ; and I think the great 
 victory in the House of Lords, and which, I 
 assure you, is here reckoned prodigious, will 
 raise your spirits against them. I am happy 
 you have taken that step about Sir Francis 
 Dashwood ; the credit it must have given you
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 179 
 
 with the King, will more than counterbalance 
 any little hurt you might apprehend from the 
 cabal. 
 
 I am in no hurry for any of my things ; as 
 we shall be moving from hence as soon as Sir 
 Robert has taken another house, I shall not 
 want them till I am more settled. 
 
 Adieu ! I hope to tell you soon that we are 
 all at peace, and then I trust you will be so ! 
 A thousand loves to the Chutes. How I long to 
 see you all ! 
 
 P.S. I unseal my letter to tell you what a 
 vast and probably final victory we have gained 
 to-day. They moved, that the Lords flinging 
 out the Bill of Indemnity, was an obstruction of 
 justice, and might prove fatal to the liberties of 
 this country. We have sat till this moment, 
 seven o'clock, and have rejected this motion by 
 245 to 193. The call of the House, which they 
 have kept off from fortnight to fortnight, to 
 keep people in town, was appointed for to-day. 
 The moment the division was over, Sir John 
 Cotton rose and said, "As I think the inquiry 
 is at an end, you may do what you will with the 
 call." We have put it off for two months. 
 There 's a noble postscript ! 
 
 N 2
 
 180 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 London, June 3, 1742. 
 
 I HAVE sent Mr. Chute all the news ; I shall 
 only say to you, that I have read your last letter 
 about Lady W. to Sir R. He was not at all 
 surprised at her thoughts of England, but told 
 me that last week my Lord Carteret had sent 
 him a letter which she had written to him, to 
 demand his protection. This you may tell pub- 
 licly ; it will show her Ladyship's credit. 
 
 Here is an epigram, which I believe will divert 
 you ; it is on Lord Islay's garden upon Houns- 
 low Heath. 
 
 Old Islay, to show his fine delicate taste* 
 
 In improving his gardens purloin'd from the waste, 
 
 Bade his Gard'ner one day to open his views, 
 
 By cutting a couple of grand Avenues : 
 
 No particular prospect his Lordship intended, 
 
 But left it to chance how his walks should be ended. 
 
 With transport and joy he beheld his first view end 
 In a favourite prospect a Church that was ruin'd 
 But alas ! what a sight did the next cut exhibit I 
 At the end of the walk hung a rogue on a gibbet I 
 He beheld it and wept, for it caus'd him to muse on 
 Full many a Campbell, that died with his shoes on. 
 
 * These lines were written by Bramston, author of " The Art of 
 Politics," and "The Man of Taste."
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 181 
 
 All amazed and aghast at the ominous scene, 
 
 He order' d it quick to be closed up again 
 
 With a clump of Scotch firs, that serv'd for a Screen. 
 
 Sir Robert asked me, yesterday, about the 
 Dominichin, but I did not know what to answer : 
 I said I would write to you about it. Have you 
 bought it ? or did you quite put it off? I had 
 forgot to mention it again to you. If you have 
 it not, I am still of opinion that you should buy 
 it for him. Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 June 10, the Pretender's birthday, which, by the way, I 
 believe he did not expect to keep at Rome this year, 
 1742. 
 
 SINCE I wrote you my last letter, I have re- 
 ceived two from you of the 27th of May and 
 3d of June, N. S. I hope you will get my two 
 packets ; that is, one of them was addressed to 
 Mr. Chute, and in them w,as all my faggot of 
 compliments. 
 
 Is not poor Scully* vastly disappointed that 
 we are not arrived ? But really, will that mad 
 woman never have done ? does she still find 
 
 * An Irish tailor, at Florence, who let out ready-furnished apart- 
 ments to travelling English. Lady W. had reported that Lord 
 Orford was flying from England and would come thither.
 
 182 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 credit for her extravagant histories ? I carried 
 her son* with me to Vauxhall last night : he is 
 a most charming boy, but grows excessively like 
 her in the face. 
 
 I don't at all foresee how I shall make out 
 this letter : everybody is gone out of town 
 during the Whitsuntide, and many will not 
 return, at least not these six weeks, for so long 
 they say it will be before the Secret Committee 
 make their report, with which they intend to 
 finish. We are, however, entertained with 
 pageants every day reviews to gladden the 
 heart of David,f and triumphs of Absalom ! He J 
 and his wife went in great parade, yesterday, 
 through the city and the dust, to dine at 
 Greenwich ; they took water at the Tower, and 
 trumpeting away to Grace T osier's, 
 
 Like Cimon, triumph'd over land and wave. 
 
 I don't know whether it was my Lord of 
 Bristol or some one of the Saddlers' || company 
 who had told him that this was the way to steal 
 the hearts of the people. He is in a quarrel with 
 
 * George Walpole, afterwards the third Earl of Orford. 
 
 f George the Second. 
 
 J Frederic Prince of Wales. 
 
 Dr. Seeker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, (and eventually Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. According to Walpole, he was bred a man- 
 midwife. D.) 
 
 || The Prince was a member of the Saddlers' company.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 183 
 
 Lord Falmouth.* There is just dead, one Ham- 
 mond, f a disciple of Lord Chesterfield, and 
 equerry to his Royal Highness : he had parts, 
 and was just come into Parliament, strong of 
 the Cobham faction, or Nepotism, as Sir Robert 
 calls it. The White Prince desired Lord Fal- 
 mouth to choose Dr. Lee, who, you know, has 
 disobliged the party by accepting a Lordship of 
 the Admiralty. Lord Falmouth has absolutely 
 refused, and insists upon choosing one of his 
 own brothers : his Highness talks loudly of op- 
 posing him. The borough is a Cornish one. 
 
 There is arrived a courier from Lord Stair, 
 with news of Prince Lobkowitz having cut off 
 five thousand French. We are hurrying away 
 the rest of our troops to Flanders, and say, that 
 we are in great spirits, and intend to be in 
 greater when we have defeated the French too. 
 
 For my own particular, I cannot say I am 
 well ; I am afraid I have a little fever upon my 
 spirits, or at least have nerves, which, you know, 
 every body has in England. I begin the cold- 
 bath to-morrow, and talk of going to Tun- 
 
 * Hugh Boscawen, second Viscount Falmouth, a great dealer in 
 boroughs. It is of him that Doddington tells the story, that he went 
 to the minister to ask a favour, which the latter seemed unwilling to 
 grant. Upon which Lord Falmouth said, " Remember, Sir, we are 
 seven!" D. 
 
 f Author of Love Elegies.
 
 184 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 bridge, if the Parliament rises soon. Sir R. who 
 begins to talk seriously of Houghton, has desired 
 me to go with him thither, but that is not at all 
 settled. Now I mention Houghton, you was in 
 the right to miss a gallery there, but there is 
 one actually fitting up, where the green-house 
 was, and to be furnished with the spoils of 
 Downing-street. 
 
 I am quite sorry you have had so much 
 trouble with those odious cats of Malta ; dear 
 child, fling them into the Arno, if there is water 
 enough at this season to drown them ; or, I '11 
 tell you, give them to Stosch, to pay the postage 
 he talked of. I have no ambition to make my 
 court with them to the old wizard. 
 
 I think I have not said anything lately to you 
 from Patapan ;* he is handsomer than ever, and 
 grows fat : his eyes are charming ; they have 
 that agreeable lustre, which the vulgar moderns 
 call sore eyes, but the judicious ancients, golden 
 eyes, ocellos Patapanicos. 
 
 The process is begun against her Grace of 
 Beaufort,f and articles exhibited in Doctors' 
 
 * Mr. W.'s dog. 
 
 f Frances, daughter and heiress of the last Lord Seudamore, wife 
 of Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort, from whom she was divorced 
 for adultery with Lord Talbot; afterwards married to Colonel Fitzroy, 
 natural son of the Duke of Grafton.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 185 
 
 Commons. Lady Townshend has had them 
 copied, and lent them to me. There is every 
 thing proved to your heart's content, to the birth 
 of the child, and much delectable reading. 
 
 Adieu ! my dear child ; you see I have eked 
 out a letter : I hate missing a post, and yet at 
 this dead time, I have almost been tempted to 
 invent a murder, or a robbery. But you are 
 good, and will be persuaded that I have used my 
 eyes and ears for your service ; when, if it were 
 not for you, I should let them lie by in a drawer 
 from week's end to week's end. Good night ! 
 
 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 Downing-street, June 17, 1742. 
 
 WE were surprised last Tuesday with the great 
 good news of the peace between the Queen and 
 the King of Prussia. It was so unexpected and 
 so welcome, that I believe he might get an act 
 of Parliament to forbid any one thinking that he 
 ever made a slip in integrity. Then the re- 
 peated accounts of the successes of Prince Charles 
 and Lobkowitz over the French, have put us 
 into the greatest spirits. Prince Charles is ex- 
 tremely commended for courage and conduct, 
 and makes up a little for other flaws in the 
 family.
 
 186 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 It is at last settled that Lords Gower,* Cob- 
 ham, and Bathurst,-}- are to come in. The first 
 is to be Privy-seal, and was to have kissed hands 
 last Friday ; but Lord Hervey had carried the 
 seal with him to Ickworth ; but he must bring it 
 back. Lord Cobham is to be Field-Marshal, 
 and to command all the forces in England. Ba- 
 thurst was to have the Gentlemen-pensioners, 
 but Lord Essex,J who is now the Captain, and 
 was to have had the Beef-eaters, will not change. 
 Bathurst is to have the Beef-eaters; the Duke 
 of Bolton, who has them, is to have the Isle of 
 Wight, and Lord Lymington,|| who has that, is 
 to have nothing. 
 
 * John Leveson Gower, second Lord Gower, afterwards created an 
 Earl. D. 
 
 f Allen first Lord Bathurst, one of the twelve Tory Peers created 
 by Queen Anne, in 1711. He was the friend of Pope, Congreve, 
 Swift, Prior, and other men of letters. He lived to see his eldest son 
 Chancellor of England, and died at the advanced age of 91, in 1775; 
 having been created an Earl in 1772. D. 
 
 J William Capel third Earl of Essex. Ambassador at the Court of 
 Turin. He died in January 1743. "The Beef-eaters" are other- 
 wise called " The Yeomen of the Guard." D. 
 
 Charles Powlett third Duke of Bolton. His second wife was Miss 
 Lavinia Fenton, otherwise Mrs. Beswick, the actress, who became 
 celebrated in the character of " Polly Peachem," in the Beggar's 
 Opera. By her the Duke had three sons, born before marriage. With 
 his first wife, the daughter and sole heiress of John Vaughan Earl of 
 Carbery, in Ireland, he never cohabited. He died in 1754. D. 
 
 || John Wallop first Viscount Lymington, afterwards created Earl 
 of Portsmouth. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 187 
 
 The Secret Committee are in great perplexities 
 about Scrope :* he would not take the oath, but 
 threatened the Middlesex Justices, who tendered 
 it to him : " Gentlemen," said he, " have you 
 any complaint against me? if you have not, 
 don't you fear that I will prosecute you for en- 
 forcing oaths !" however, one of them began to 
 read the oath " I, John Scrope" " I, John 
 Scrope !" said he, " I did not say any such 
 thing; but come, however, let's hear the oath ;" 
 ' do promise that I will faithfully and truly an- 
 swer all such questions as shall be asked me by 
 the Committee of Secrecy, and ' they were go- 
 ing on, but Scrope cried out, " Hold, hold ! 
 there is more than I can digest already." He 
 then went before the Committee, and desired 
 time to consider. Pitt asked him, abruptly, if 
 he wanted a quarter of an hour ? he replied, 
 " He did not want to inform either his head or 
 his heart, for both were satisfied what to do; 
 but that he would ask the King's leave." He 
 wants to fight Pitt : he is a most testy little old 
 gentleman, and about eight years ago would 
 have fought Alderman Perry. It was in the 
 House, at the time of the excise : he said we 
 
 * John Scrope, Secretary of the Treasury. He had been in Mon- 
 mouth's rebellion, when very young, and carried intelligence to Hol- 
 land in woman's clothes.
 
 188 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 should carry it : Perry said he hoped to see him 
 hanged first. " You see me hanged, you dog, 
 you !" said Scrope, and pulled him by the nose. 
 The Committee have tried all ways to soften 
 him, and have offered to let him swear to only 
 what part he pleased, or only with regard to 
 money given to Members of Parliament. Pult- 
 ney himself has tried to work on him ; but the 
 old gentleman is inflexible, and answered, " That 
 he was fourscore years old, and did not care 
 whether he spent the few months he had to live,* 
 in the Tower, or not; that the last thing he 
 would do, should be to betray the King, and 
 next to him the Earl of Orford." It remains in 
 suspense. 
 
 The troops continue going to Flanders, but 
 slowly enough. Lady Vane has taken a trip 
 thither, after a cousin f of Lord Berkeley, who is 
 as simple about her, as her own husband is, and 
 has written to Mr. Knight, at Paris, to furnish 
 her with what money she wants. He says, she 
 is vastly to blame, for he was trying to get her a 
 divorce from Lord Vane, and then would have 
 married her himself. Her adventures J are wor- 
 
 * He did not die till 1753. 
 
 f Henry Berkeley, killed the next year at the battle of Dettingen. 
 
 I Lady Vane's Memoirs, dictated by herself, were actually pub- 
 lished afterwards in a book, called The Adventures of Peregrine 
 Pickle ; and she makes mention of Lady Orford.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 189 
 
 thy to be bound up with those of my good 
 sister-in-law, the German Princess, and Moll 
 Flanders. 
 
 Whom should I meet in the Park, last night, 
 but Ceretesi ! he told me he was at a Bagne. I 
 will find out his bagnio, for though I was not 
 much acquainted with him, yet the obligations 
 I had to Florence, make me eager to show any 
 Florentine all the civilities in my power ; though 
 I do not love them near so well, since what you 
 have told me of their late behaviour ; notwith- 
 standing your letter of June 20th, which I have 
 just received. I perceive that simple-hearted, 
 good, unmeaning, Rucellai, is of the number of 
 the false, though you do not directly say so. 
 
 I was excessively diverted with your pompous 
 account of the siege of Lucca, by a single Eng- 
 lishman. I do believe that you and the Chutes 
 might put a certain city into as great a panic. 
 Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 Midsummer Day, 1742. 
 
 ONE begins every letter now with an lo Pcean! 
 indeed our hymns are not so tumultuous as they 
 were some time ago, to the tune of Admiral
 
 190 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Vernon. They say, there came an express last 
 night, of the taking of Prague, and the destruc- 
 tion of some thousand French. It is really 
 amazing, the fortune of the Queen ! We expect 
 every day the news of the King of Poland having 
 made his peace, for it is affirmed, that the Prus- 
 sian left him but sixteen days to think of it. 
 There is nothing could stop the King of Prussia, 
 if he should march to Dresden : how long his 
 being at peace with that King will stop him, I 
 look upon as very uncertain. 
 
 They say, we expect the Report from the 
 Secret Committee, next Tuesday, and then 
 finish. I preface all my news with they say, for 
 I am not at all in the secret, and I had rather 
 that they say should tell you a lie than myself. 
 They have sunk the affair of Scrope : the Chan- 
 cellor* and Sir John Rushout spoke in the Com- 
 mittee against persecuting him, for he is Secre- 
 tary to the Treasury. I don't think there is so 
 easy a language as the ministerial in the world 
 one learns it in a week ! There are few members 
 in town, and most of them no friends to the 
 Committee ; so that there is not the least appre- 
 hension of any violence following the Report. I 
 dare say there is not, for my uncle, who is my 
 political weather-glass, and whose quicksilver 
 
 * Mr. Sandys, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 191 
 
 rises and falls with the least variation of parlia- 
 mentary weather, is in great spirits, and has 
 spoken three times in the House within this 
 week ; he had not opened his lips before, since 
 the change. Mr. Pultney has got his warrant 
 in his pocket for Earl of Bath, and kisses hands 
 as soon as the Parliament rises. The promo- 
 tions I mentioned to you, are not yet come to 
 pass ; but a fortnight will settle things won- 
 derfully. 
 
 The Italian,* who I told you is here, has let 
 me into a piece of secret history, which you 
 never mentioned ; perhaps it is not true ; but he 
 says the mighty mystery of the Count's f elope- 
 ment from Florence, was occasioned by a letter 
 from Wachtendonck, J which was so impertinent 
 as to talk of satisfaction for some affront. The 
 great Count very wisely never answered it his 
 life, to be sure, is of too great consequence to 
 be trusted at the end of a rash German's sword ! 
 however, the General wrote again, and hinted at 
 coming himself for an answer. So it happened, 
 that when he arrived, the Count was gone to the 
 baths of Lucca those waters were reckoned bet- 
 ter for his health, than steel in the abstract 
 
 * Ceretesi. t Count Richcourt. 
 
 J General Wachtendonck, Commander of the Queen of Hungary's 
 troops at Leghorn.
 
 192 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 How oddly it happened! He just returned to 
 Florence as the General was dead ! Now was 
 not this heroic lover worth running after ? I 
 wonder, as the Count must have known my 
 lady's courage and genius for adventures, that he 
 never thought of putting her into men's clothes, 
 and sending her to answer the challenge. How 
 pretty it would have been to have fought for 
 one's lover ! and how great the obligation, when 
 he durst not fight for himself. 
 
 I heard the other day, that the Primate of 
 Lorrain was dead of the small-pox : will you 
 make my compliments of condolence ? though I 
 dare say, they are little afflicted : he was a most 
 worthless creature, and all his wit and parts, I 
 believe, little comforted them for his brutality 
 and other vices. 
 
 The fine Mr. Pitt* is arrived : I dine with him 
 to-day at Lord Lincoln's, with the Pomfrets. 
 So now the old partie quarrie is complete again. 
 The Earl is not quite cured,f and a partner in 
 sentiments may help to open the wound again. 
 
 * George Pitt, of Stratfieldsea ; he had been in love with Lady 
 Charlotte Fermor, second daughter of Lord Pomfret, who was after- 
 wards married to William Finch, Vice -Chamberlain. (Mr. Pitt was 
 created Lord Rivers in 1776. In 1761 he was British Envoy at 
 Turin; in 1770, Ambassador Extraordinary to Spain, and died in 
 1803. D.) 
 
 f Of his love for Lady Sophia Fermor. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 193 
 
 My Lady Townshend dines with us too. She 
 flung the broadest Wortley-eye* on Mr. Pitt, the 
 other night, in the Park ! 
 
 Adieu ! my dear child ; are you quite well ? 
 I trust the summer will perfectly re-establish 
 you. 
 
 LETTER XLI. 
 
 Downing Street, June 30, 1742. 
 
 IT is about six o'clock, and I am come from 
 the House, where, at last, we have had another 
 Report from the Secret Committee. They have 
 been disputing this week among themselves, 
 whether this should be final or not. The new 
 Ministry, thank them ! were for finishing ; but 
 their arguments were not so persuasive as duti- 
 ful, and we are to have yet another. This 
 lasted two hours and half in reading, though 
 confined to the affair of Burrel and Bristow, 
 the Weymouth election, and Secret-service 
 money. They moved to print it, but though 
 they had fetched most of their members from 
 Ale and the country, they were not strong 
 enough to divide. Velters Cornwall, whom I 
 have mentioned to you, I believe, for odd 
 
 * Mr. Pitt was very handsome, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 
 had liked him extremely, when he was in Italy. 
 VOL. I. O
 
 194 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 humour, said, " he believed the somethingness 
 of this Report would make amends for the 
 nothingness of the last, and that he was for 
 printing it, if it was only from believing that the 
 King would not see it, unless it is printed." 
 Perhaps it may be printed at the conclusion, at 
 least it will without authority so you will see it. 
 
 I received yours of June 24, N. S. with one 
 from Mr. Chute, this morning, and I will now 
 go answer it and your last. You seem still to 
 be uneasy about my letters, and their being 
 retarded. I have not observed, lately, the same 
 signs of yours being opened ; and for my own, I 
 think it may very often depend upon the packet- 
 boat and winds. 
 
 You ask me if Pultney has lately received any 
 new disgusts how can one answer for a temper 
 so hasty, so unsettled ! not that I know, unless 
 that he finds, what he has been twenty years 
 undoing, is not yet undone. 
 
 I must interrupt the thread of my answer, to 
 tell you that I hear news came last night that 
 the States of Holland have voted forty-seven 
 thousand men for the assistance of the Queen,* 
 and that it was not doubted but the States- 
 General would imitate this resolution. This 
 seems to be the consequence of the King of 
 
 * The Queen of Hungary, Maria Theresa. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 195 
 
 Prussia's proceedings but how can they trust 
 him so easily ? 
 
 I am amazed that your Leghorn Ministry are 
 so wavering ; they are very old style, above 
 eleven days out of fashion, if they any longer 
 fear the French : my only apprehension is, lest 
 these successes should make Richcourt more 
 impertinent. 
 
 You have no notion how I laughed at the 
 man that talks nothing but Madeira.* I told it 
 to my Lady Pomfret, concluding it would divert 
 her too ; and forgetting that she repines when 
 she should laugh, and reasons when she should 
 be diverted. She asked gravely what language 
 that was ! " That Madeira being subject to an 
 European Prince, to be sure they talk some 
 European dialect !" The grave personage ! It 
 was of a piece with her saying, " that Swift 
 would have written better, if he had never writ- 
 ten ludicrously." 
 
 I met a friend of yours the other day at an 
 auction, and though I knew him not the least, 
 yet being your friend, and so like you (for, do 
 you know, he is excessively), I had a great need 
 to speak to him and did. He says, " he has 
 
 * The only daughter and heiress of the Marquis Accianoli at 
 Florence, was married to one of the same name, who was born at 
 Madeira. 
 
 o 2
 
 196 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 left off writing to you, for he never could get 
 an answer." I said, you had never received but 
 one from him in all the time I was with you, 
 and that I was witness to your having answered 
 it. He was with his mother, Lady Abercorn,* a 
 most frightful gentlewoman : Mr. Winnington 
 says, he one day overheard her and the Duchess 
 of Devonshire f talking of hideous ugly women! 
 By the way, I find I have never told you that it was 
 Lord Paisley ;J but that you will have perceived. 
 
 Amorevoli is gone to Dresden for the summer ; 
 our Directors are in great fear that he will serve 
 them like Farinelli, and not return for the 
 winter. 
 
 I am writing to you in one of the charming 
 rooms towards the Park : it is a delightful even- 
 ing, and I am willing to enjoy this sweet corner 
 while I may, for we are soon to quit it. Mrs. 
 Sandys came yesterday to give us warning ; 
 Lord Wilmington has lent it to them. Sir Robert 
 might have had it for his own at first, but would 
 only take it as first Lord of the Treasury. He 
 
 * Jane Plummer Countess of Abercorn, wife of James the seventh 
 Earl. D. 
 
 f Catherine Hoskins Duchess of Devonshire, married to the third 
 Duke of that title D. 
 
 I James Hamilton succeeded as eighth Earl of Abercorn on the 
 death of his father in 1743. He was created Viscount Hamilton in 
 England in 1786, and died in 1789. D. 
 
 This is the house in Downing Street, which is still the resi-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 197 
 
 goes into a small house of his own in Arlington 
 Street, opposite to where we formerly lived. 
 Whither I shall travel is yet uncertain : he is 
 for my living with him ; but then I shall be 
 cooped and besides, I never found that people 
 loved one another the less for living asunder. 
 
 The drowsy Lord Mayor* is dead so the 
 newspapers say. I think he is not dead, but 
 sleepeth. Lord Gower is laid up with the gout : 
 this, they say, is the reason of his not having the 
 privy seal yet. 
 
 The town has talked of nothing lately but a 
 plot : I will tell you the circumstances. Last 
 week the Scotch Herof sent his brother J two 
 papers, which he said had been left at his house 
 by an unknown hand ; that he believed it was 
 by Colonel Cecil, agent for the Pretender 
 though how could that be, for he had had no con- 
 versation with Colonel Cecil for these two years ? 
 He desired Lord Islay to lay them before the 
 Ministry. One of the papers seemed a letter, 
 though with no address or subscription, written 
 in true genuine Stuart characters. It was to 
 
 dence of the first Lord of the Treasury. George the First gave 
 it to Barou Bothmar, the Hanoverian Minister, for life. On his 
 death, George the Second offered to give it to Sir Robert Walpole ; 
 who, however, refused it, and begged of the King that it might be 
 attached to the office of first Lord of the Treasury. D. 
 
 * Sir Robert Godschall. 
 
 t The Duke of Argyll. J Earl of Islay.
 
 198 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 thank Mr. Burnus (D. of A.) for his services, 
 and that he hoped he would answer the assu- 
 rances given of him. The other was to com- 
 mand the Jacobites, and to exhort the Patriots 
 to continue what they had mutually so well 
 begun, and to say how pleased he was with 
 their having removed Mr. Tench. Lord Islay 
 showed these letters to Lord Orford, and then 
 to the King, and told him he had showed them 
 to my father. " You did well." Lord Islay, 
 " Lord Orford says one is of the Pretender's 
 hand." King, " He * knows it : whenever any 
 thing of this sort comes to your hand, carry it 
 to Walpole." This private conversation you 
 must not repeat. A few days afterwards, the 
 Duke wrote to his brother, " That upon recollec- 
 tion he thought it right to say, that he had 
 received those letters from Lord Barrimore"f 
 who is as well known for General to the Che- 
 valier, as Montemar is to the Queen of Spain 
 
 * Besides intercepted letters, Sir R. Walpole had more than once 
 received letters from the Pretender, making him the greatest offers, 
 which Sir R. always carried to the King, and got him to endorse, 
 when he returned them to Sir R. 
 
 f James Barry fourth Earl of Barrymore, succeeded his half 
 brother Lawrence in the family titles in 1699, and died in 1747. 
 James Lord Barrymore was an adherent of the Pretender, whereas 
 Lawrence had been so great a supporter of the revolution, that he was 
 attainted, and his estates sequestered by James the Second's Irish 
 Parliament, in 1689. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 199 
 
 or as the Duke of A. would be to either of 
 them. Lord Islay asked Sir R. if he was 
 against publishing this story, which he thought 
 was a justification both of his brother and Sir 
 R. The latter replied, he could certainly have 
 no objection to its being public but, pray, will 
 his Grace's sending these letters to the Secre- 
 taries of State justify him from the assurances* 
 that had been given of him ? However, the 
 Pretender's being of opinion that the dismission 
 of Mr. Tench was for his service, will scarce be 
 an argument to the new Ministry for making 
 more noise about these papers. 
 
 I am sorry the boy is so uneasy at being on 
 the foot of a servant. I will send for his mother, 
 and ask her why she did not tell him the condi- 
 tions to which we had agreed ; at the same time, 
 I will tell her that she may send any letters for 
 him to me. 
 
 Adieu ! my dear child ; I am going to write 
 to Mr. Chute, that is, to-morrow. I never was 
 more diverted than with his letter. 
 
 * The Duke of Argyll, in the latter part of his life, was often 
 melancholy and disordered in his understanding. After this transac- 
 tion, and it is supposed he had gone still farther, he could with diffi- 
 culty be brought even to write his name. The marriage of his eldest 
 daughter with the Earl of Dalkeith was deferred for some time, 
 because the Duke could not be prevailed upon to sign the writings.
 
 200 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER XLII. 
 ON THE DEATH OF RICHARD WEST, ESQ.* 
 
 While surfeited with life, each hoary knave 
 Grows, here, immortal, and eludes the grave, 
 Thy virtues immaturely met their fate, 
 Cramp'd in the limit of too short a date I 
 
 Thy mind not exercis'd so oft in vain, 
 In health was gentle, and compos'd in pain : 
 Successive trials still refin'd thy soul, 
 And plastic patience perfected the whole. 
 
 A friendly aspect, not suborn'd by art ; 
 An eye, which look'd the meaning of thy heart ; 
 A tongue, with simple truth and freedom fraught, 
 The faithful index of thy honest thought. 
 
 Thy pen disdain'd to seek the servile ways 
 Of partial censure, and more partial praise : 
 Through ev'ry tongue it flow'd in nervous ease, 
 With sense to polish, and with wit to please. 
 
 No lurking venom from thy pencil fell ; 
 
 Thine was the kindest satire, living well : 
 
 The vain, the loose, the base, might blush to see 
 
 In what thou wert, what they themselves should be. 
 
 * Richard West, only son of the Lord Chancellor West, of Ire- 
 land, by Elizabeth, daughter of Bishop Burnet, died of a consump- 
 tion about the 26th year of his age, and is buried at Hatfield. He 
 had a great genius for poetry ; a fine Ode of his, on the death of 
 Queen Caroline, is published in Dodsley's Miscellanies.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 201 
 
 Let me not charge on Providence a crime, 
 Who snatch'd thee, blooming, to a better clime, 
 To raise those virtues to a higher sphere : 
 Virtues I which only could have starv'd thee here. 
 
 A RECEIPT TO MAKE A LORD, 
 
 OCCASIONED BY A LATE REPORT OF A PROMOTION.* 
 
 Take a man, who by nature 's a true son of earth, 
 
 By rapine enrich' d, though a beggar by birth ; 
 
 In genius the lowest, illbred and obscene ; 
 
 In morals most wicked, most nasty in mien ; 
 
 By none ever trusted, yet ever employ'd ; 
 
 In blunders quite fertile, of merit quite void ; 
 
 A scold in the Senate, abroad a buffoon, 
 
 The scorn and the jest of all courts but his own : 
 
 A slave to that wealth that ne'er made him a friend, 
 
 And proud of that cunning that ne'er gain'd an end ; 
 
 A dupe in each treaty, a Swiss in each vote ; 
 
 In manners and form a complete Hottentot. 
 
 Such an one could you find, of all men you'd commend 
 
 him; 
 
 But be sure let the curse of each Briton attend him. 
 Thus fully prepared, add the grace of the throne, 
 The folly of monarchs and screen of a crown 
 Take a prince for his purpose, without ears or eyes, 
 And a long parchment roll stuff'd brim-full of lies : 
 These mingled together, a fiat shall pass, 
 And the thing be a Peer, that before was an ass. 
 
 * The Report, mentioned in a preceding letter, that Horace Wai- 
 pole, brother to Sir Robert, was created a Peer.
 
 202 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 The former copy I think you will like : it was 
 written by one Mr. Ashton* on Mr. West, two 
 friends of mine, whom you have heard me often 
 mention. The other copy was printed in the 
 Common Sense, I don't know by whom com- 
 posed : the end of it is very bad, and there are 
 great falsities in it, but some strokes are terribly 
 like! 
 
 I have not a moment to thank the Grifona, 
 nor to answer yours of June 17, N. S. which I 
 have this instant read. 
 
 Yours, in great haste. 
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 London, July 7, 1742. 
 
 WELL ! you may bid the Secret Committee 
 good night. The House adjourns to-day till 
 Tuesday, and on Thursday is to be prorogued. 
 Yesterday we had a bill of Pultney's, about re- 
 turning officers and regulating elections : the 
 House was thin, and he carried it by 93 to 92. 
 Mr. Pelham was not there, and Winnington did 
 not vote, for the gentleman is testy still ; when 
 he saw how near he had been to losing it, he said 
 
 * Thomas Ashton, afterwards Fellow of Eton College. (Minister of 
 St. Botolph's, London ; a preacher of Lincoln's Inn. He died in 
 1775. D.)
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 
 
 loud enough to be heard, " I will make the gen- 
 tlemen of that side feel me !" and, rising up, he 
 said, " He was astonished, that a bill so calcu- 
 lated for the freedom of elections, was so near 
 being thrown out ; that there was a report on 
 the table, which showed how necessary such a bill 
 was, and that though we had not time this year 
 to consider what was proper to be done in conse- 
 quence of it, he hoped we should next," with 
 much to the same purpose ; but all the effect 
 this notable speech had, was to frighten my 
 uncle, and make him give two or three shrugs 
 extraordinary to his breeches. They now say,* 
 that Pultney will not take out the patent for his 
 earldom, but remain in the House of Commons in 
 terror em i however, all his friends are to have places 
 immediately, or, as the fashion of expressing it 
 is, they are to go to Court in the Bath coach ! 'f 
 
 Your relation Guise J is arrived from Cartha- 
 gena, madder than ever. As he was marching 
 up to one of the forts, all his men deserted him ; 
 
 * Sir R. W., to defeat Pultney's ambition, persuaded the King to 
 insist on his going into the House of Lords : the day he carried his 
 patent thither, he flung it upon the floor in a passion, 'and could 
 scarce be prevailed on to have it passed. 
 
 f His title was to be Earl of Bath. 
 
 J General Guise, a very brave officer, but apt to romance ; and a 
 great connoisseur in pictures. (He bequeathed his collection of pic- 
 tures, which is a very indifferent one, to Christ Church College, 
 Oxford. D.)
 
 204 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 his Lieutenant advised him to retire ; he replied, 
 " He never had turned his back yet, and would 
 not now," and stood all the fire. When the 
 pelicans were flying over his head, he cried out, 
 " What would Chloe* give for some of these to 
 make a pelican pie !" When he is brave enough 
 to perform such actions as are really almost in- 
 credible, what pity it is that he should for ever 
 persist in saying things that are totally so ! 
 
 Lord Annandalef is at last mad in all the 
 forms : he has long been an out-pensioner of 
 Bedlam college. Lord and Lady Talbot^: are 
 parted ; he gives her three thousand pounds 
 a-year. Is it not amazing, that in England 
 people will not find out that they can live sepa- 
 rate without parting ? The Duke of Beaufort 
 says, " He pities Lord Talbot to have met with 
 two such tempers as their two wives !" 
 
 Sir Robert Rich is going to Flanders, to try 
 to make up an affair for his son, who having 
 quarrelled with a Captain Vane, as the com- 
 
 * The Duke of Newcastle's French cook. 
 
 f George Johnstone third Marquis of Annandale, in Scotland. He 
 was not declared a lunatic till the year 1748. Upon his death, in 
 1792, his titles became either extinct or dormant. D. 
 
 I Mary, daughter of Adam Cardonnel, Secretary to John the Great 
 Duke of Marlborough, married to William second Lord Talbot, eldest 
 son of the Chancellor. D. 
 
 Sir Robert Rich, Bart, of Rose Hall, Suffolk, a Lieutenant-Gene- 
 ral in the army. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 205 
 
 manding officer was trying to make it up at the 
 head of the regiment, Rich came behind Vane, 
 " And to show you," said he, " that I will not 
 make it up, take that," and gave him a box 
 on the ear. They were immediately put in 
 arrest ; but the learned in the laws of honour 
 say, they must fight, for no German officer will 
 serve with Vane, till he has had satisfaction. 
 
 Mr. Harris,* who married Lady Walpole's 
 mother, is to be one of the peace-ofFerings on 
 the new altar. Bootle f is to be Chief Justice ; 
 but the Lord Chancellor would not consent to 
 it, unless Lord Glenorchy,^ whose daughter is 
 married to Mr. Yorke, had a place in lieu of 
 the Admiralty, which he has lost he is to have 
 Harris's. Lord Edgcumbe's, in Ireland, they 
 say, is destined to Harry Vane, Pultney's toad- 
 eater. 
 
 * This article did not prove true : Mr. Harris was not removed, 
 nor Bootle made Chief Justice. 
 
 t Sir Thomas Bootle, Chancellor to the Prince of Wales; a dull, 
 heavy man, and who is therefore ironically called by Sir C. H. Wil- 
 liams, " Bright Bootle." D. 
 
 I John Campbell Lord Glenorchy, and, on his father's death, in 
 1752, third Earl of Breadalbane. His first wife was Lady Amabel 
 Grey, eldest daughter and co-heir of the Duke of Kent. By her he 
 had an only daughter, Jemima, who, upon the death of her grand- 
 father, became Baroness Lucas of Crudwell, and Marchioness de 
 Grey. She married Philip Yorke, eldest son of the Chancellor Hard- 
 wicke, and eventually himself the second Earl of that title. D. 
 
 Harry Vane, eldest son of Gilbert second Lord Barnard, and one
 
 206 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Monticelli lives in a manner at our house. I 
 tell my sister that she is in love with him, and 
 that I am glad it was not Amorevoli. Monti- 
 celli dines frequently with Sir Robert, which 
 diverts me extremely : you know how low his 
 ideas are of music and the virtuosi ; he calls 
 them alljiddlers. 
 
 I have not time now to write more, for I am 
 going to a masquerade at the Ranelagh amphi- 
 theatre : the King is fond of it, and has pressed 
 people to go ; but I don't find that it will be full. 
 Good night ! My love to the Pope for his good 
 thing. 
 
 LETTER XLIV. 
 
 Downing Street, July 14, 1742. 
 
 SIR ROBERT BROWN* is displaced from being 
 Paymaster of something, I forget what, for Sir 
 Charles Gilmour, a friend of Lord Tweedale.f 
 
 of the tribe who came into office upon the breaking up of Sir Robert 
 Walpole's administration. He was created Earl of Darlington in 
 1753, and died in 1758. D. 
 
 * Sir Robert Brown had been a merchant at Venice, and British 
 Resident there, for which he was created a Baronet in 1732. He held 
 the place at this time of " Paymaster of his Majesty's Works, con- 
 cerning the repairs, new buildings, and well-keeping of any of his 
 Majesty's houses of access, and others, in time of progress." D. 
 
 -f- John Hay fourth Marquis of Tweeddale. He was son-in-law of 
 Lord Carteret. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 207 
 
 Ned Finch* is made Groom of the Bedchamber, 
 which was vacant ; and Will Finchf Vice Cham- 
 berlain, which was not vacant ; but they have 
 emptied it of Lord Sidney Beauclerc. Boone 
 is made Commissary-General, in Huxley's room, 
 and Jeffries in Will Stuart's. All these have 
 been kissing hands to-day, headed by the Earl 
 of Bath. He went in to the King the other day 
 
 * The Hon. Edward Finch, fifth son of Daniel sixth Earl of Win- 
 chilsea and second Earl of Nottingham, and the direct ancestor of the 
 present Lord Winchilsea. He assumed the name of Hatton, in 1764, 
 in consequence of inheriting the fortune of William Viscount Hatton, 
 his mother's brother. He was employed in diplomacy, and was made 
 Master of the Robes in 1757. D. 
 
 f The Hon. William Finch, second son of the sixth Earl of Win- 
 chilsea, had been Envoy in Sweden and in Holland. He continued 
 to hold the office of Vice-Chamberlain of the Household till his death, 
 in 1766. These two brothers, and their elder brother Daniel, seventh 
 Earl of Winchilsea, are the persons whom Sir Charles Hanbury Wil- 
 liams calls, on account of the blackness of their complexions, " The 
 dark, funereal Finches." 
 
 I Lord Sidney Beauclerc, fifth son of the first Duke of St. Albans; 
 a man of bad character. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams calls him 
 " Worthless Sidney." He was notorious for hunting after the for- 
 tunes of the old and childless. Being very handsome, he had almost 
 persuaded Lady Betty Germain, in her old age, to marry him ; but 
 she was dissuaded from it by the Duke of Dorset and her relations. 
 He failed also in obtaining the fortune of Sir Thomas Reeve, Chief 
 Justice of the Common Pleas, whom he used to attend on the circuit, 
 with a view of ingratiating himself with him. At length he induced 
 Mr. Topham, of Windsor, to leave his estate to him. He died in 
 1 744, leaving one son, Topham Beauclerc, Esq. D. 
 
 John Jeffries, Secretary of the Treasury. D.
 
 208 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 with this long list, but was told shortly, that un- 
 less he would take up his patent and quit the 
 House of Commons, nothing should be done 
 he has consented. I made some of them very 
 angry, for when they told me who had kissed 
 hands, I asked, if the Pretender had kissed hands 
 too, for being King ? I forgot to tell you, that 
 Murray is to be Solicitor-General, in Sir John 
 Strange's place, who is made Chief Justice, or 
 some such thing.* 
 
 I don't know who it was that said it, but it 
 was a very good answer to one who asked why 
 Lord Gower had not kissed hands sooner " the 
 Dispensation was not come from Rome."f 
 
 I am writing to you up to the ears in packing : 
 Lord Wilmington has lent this house to Sandys, 
 and he has given us instant warning; we are 
 moving as fast as possible to Siberia, Sir Robert 
 has a house there, within a few miles of the 
 Duke of Courland ; in short, child, we are all 
 going to Norfolk, till we can get a house ready 
 in town : all the furniture is taken down, and 
 lying about in confusion. I look like St. John, 
 in the Isle of Patmos, writing revelations, and 
 
 * Sir John Strange was made Master of the Rolls, but not till 
 some years afterwards: he died in 1754. 
 
 f From the Pretender. Lord Gower had been, until he was made 
 Privy Seal, one of the leading Jacobites ; and was even supposed to 
 lean to that party, after he had accepted the appointment.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 209 
 
 prophesying " Woe ! woe ! woe ! the kingdom of 
 desolation is at hand !" indeed, I have prettier 
 animals about me, than he ever dreamt of: here 
 is the dear Patapan, and a little Vandyke cat, 
 with black whiskers and boots ; you would swear 
 it was of a very ancient family, in the West of 
 England, famous for their loyalty. 
 
 I told you I was going to the masquerade at 
 Ranelagh gardens, last week : it was miserable ; 
 there were but an hundred men, six women, and 
 two shepherdesses. The King liked it, and that 
 he might not be known, they had dressed him a 
 box with red damask ! Lady Pomfret and her 
 daughters were there, all dressed alike, that they 
 wight not be known. My Lady said to Lady Bel 
 Finch,* who was dressed like a Nun, and for 
 coolness, had cut off the nose of her mask, " Ma- 
 dam, you are the first Nun that ever I saw with- 
 out a nose !" 
 
 As I came home last night, they told me there 
 was a fire in Downing Street ; when I came to 
 Whitehall, I could not get to the end of the 
 street in my chariot, for the crowd : when I got 
 
 * Lady Isabella Finch, third daughter of the sixth Earl of Win- 
 chilsea, first Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess Amelia. It was 
 for her that Kent built the pretty and singular house on the western 
 side of Berkeley Square, with a fine room in it, of which the ceiling is 
 painted in arabesque compartments, by Zucchi ; now the residence 
 of C. B. Wall, Esq. D. 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 out, the first thing I heard was a man enjoying 
 himself : " Well ! if it lasts two hours longer, 
 Sir Robert Walpole's house will be burnt to the 
 ground !" it was a very comfortable hearing ! 
 but I found the fire was on the opposite side of 
 the way, and at a good distance. I stood in the 
 crowd an hour to hear their discourse : one man 
 was relating at how many fires he had happened 
 to be present, and did not think himself at all 
 unlucky in passing by, just at this. What 
 diverted me most, was a servant-maid, who was 
 working, and carrying pails of water, with the 
 strength of half-a-dozen troopers, and swearing 
 the mob out of her way the soft creature's name 
 was Phillis ! When I arrived at our door, I found 
 the house full of goods, beds, women, and chil- 
 dren, and three Scotch Members of Parliament, 
 who lodge in the row, and who had sent in a 
 saddle, a flitch of bacon, and a bottle of ink. 
 There was no wind, and the house was saved, 
 with the loss of only its garret, and the fur- 
 niture. 
 
 I forgot to mention the Dominichin last post, 
 as I suppose I had before, for I always was for 
 your buying it ; it is one of the most engaging 
 pictures I ever saw. I have no qualms about 
 its originality ; and even, if Sir Robert should 
 not like it when it comes, which is impossible, I
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 211 
 
 think I would live upon a flitch of bacon and a 
 bottle of ink, rather than not spare the money 
 to buy it myself : so, my dear Sir, buy it. 
 
 Your brother has this moment brought me a 
 letter : I find by it, that you are very Old Style 
 with relation to the Prussian peace. Why, we 
 have sent Robinson* a red, and Lord Hyndfordf 
 a green ribbon, for it, above a fortnight ago. 
 Muley (as Lord Lovel calls him,) Duke of Bed- 
 ford, J is, they say, to have a blue one, for 
 making his own peace : you know we always 
 mind home-peaces more than foreign ones. 
 
 I am quite sorry for all the trouble you have 
 had about the Maltese cats ; but you know they 
 were for Lord Islay, not for myself. Adieu ! I 
 have no more time. 
 
 LETTER XLV. 
 
 You scolded me so much about my little 
 paper, that I dare not venture upon it even now, 
 
 * Sir Thomas Robinson, Minister at Vienna ; he was made Secre- 
 tary of State in 1754, (and a peer, by the title of Lord Grantham, in 
 1761. D.) 
 
 f John Carmichael third Earl of Hyndford. Had been sent as 
 Envoy to the King of Prussia, during the first war of Silesia. He 
 was afterwards sent Ambassador to Petersburgh and Vienna, and 
 died in 1767.D . 
 
 I The Duke of Bedford had not the Garter till some years after this. 
 
 p 2
 
 212 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 when I have very little to say to you. The long 
 session is over, and the Secret Committee already 
 forgotten. Nobody remembers it but poor Pax- 
 ton, who has lost his place * by it. I saw him 
 the day after he came out of Newgate ; he came 
 to Chelsea :f Lord Fitzwilliam was there, and in 
 the height of zeal, took him about the neck and 
 kissed him. Lord Orford had been at Court 
 that morning, and with his usual spirits, said to 
 the new Ministers, " So ! the Parliament is up, 
 and Paxton, Bell, and I have got our liberty !" 
 The King spoke in the kindest manner to him at 
 his levee, but did not call him into the closet, as 
 the new ministry feared he would, and as, per- 
 haps, the old ministry expected he would. The 
 day before, when the King went to put an end to 
 the session, Lord Quarendon asked Winnington, 
 " Whether Bell would be let out time enough 
 to hire a mob to huzza him as he went to the 
 House of Lords ?" 
 
 The few people that are left in town, have 
 been much diverted with an adventure that has 
 befallen the new Ministers. Last Sunday the 
 Duke of Newcastle gave them a dinner at Clare- 
 mont, where their servants got so drunk, that 
 when they came to the inn over against the gate 
 
 * Solicitor to the Treasury. 
 
 f Sir R. Walpole's house at Chelsea. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 213 
 
 of Newpark,* the coachman, who was the only 
 remaining fragment of their suite, tumbled off 
 the box, and there they were planted. There 
 were Lord Bath, Lord Carteret, Lord Limerick, 
 and Harry Fumese^ in the coach :J they asked 
 the innkeeper if he could contrive no way to 
 convey them to town : " No," he said, " not he, 
 unless it was to get Lord Orford's coachman 
 to drive them." They demurred ; but Lord 
 Carteret said, " Oh ! I dare say, Lord Orford 
 will willingly let us have him." So they sent, 
 and he drove them home. 
 
 Ceretesi had a mind to see this wonderful Lord 
 Orford, of whom he has heard so much ; I car- 
 ried him to dine at Chelsea. You know the 
 Earl don't speak a word of any language but 
 English and Latin, and Ceretesi not a word of 
 
 Lord Walpole was Ranger of Newpark. (Now called Richmond 
 Park D.) 
 
 f One of the band of incapables, who obtained power and place on 
 the fall of Walpole. Horace Walpole in his Memoirs, calls him, 
 " That old rag of Lord Bath's quota to an administration, the mute 
 Harry Furnese." D. 
 
 t This occurrence was celebrated in a ballad, which is inserted in 
 Sir C. Hanbury Williams's works, and begins thus : 
 
 " As Caleb and Carteret, two birds of a feather, 
 Went down to a feast at Newcastle's together." 
 
 Lord Bath is called " Caleb," in consequence of the name of 
 Caleb D'/lnvers having been used in The Craftsman, of which he was 
 the principal author. D. 
 
 It was very remarkable, that Lord Orford could get and keep 
 such an ascendant with King George 1., when they had no way of 
 conversing but very imperfectly in Latin.
 
 214 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 either ; yet he assured me that he was very 
 happy to have made cost bella conoscenza ! he 
 whips out his pocket-book every moment, and 
 writes descriptions in issimo, of every thing he 
 sees : the grotto alone took up three pages. 
 What volumes he will publish at his return, in 
 usum Serenissimi Pannoni!* 
 
 There has lately been the most shocking scene 
 of murder imaginable ; a parcel of drunken con- 
 stables took it into their heads to put the laws in 
 execution against disorderly persons, and so took 
 up every woman they met, till they had collected 
 five or six-and-twenty, all of whom they thrust 
 into St. Martin's round-house, where they kept 
 them all night, with doors and windows closed. 
 The poor creatures, who could not stir or 
 breathe, screamed as long as they had any 
 breath left, begging at least for water : one poor 
 wretch said she was worth eighteen pence, and 
 would gladly give it for a draught of water, 
 but in vain ! So well did they keep them there, 
 that in the morning four were found stifled to 
 death, two died soon after, and a dozen more 
 are in a shocking way. In short, it is horrid to 
 think what the poor creatures suffered ; several 
 of them were beggars, who, from having no 
 lodging, were necessarily found in the street, and 
 
 * The coffee-house at Florence, where the Nobility meet.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 215 
 
 others honest labouring women : one of the dead 
 was a poor washerwoman, big with child, who 
 was returning home late from washing. One of 
 the constables is taken, and others absconded, 
 but I question * if any of them will suffer death, 
 though the greatest criminals in this town are 
 the officers of justice ; there is no tyranny they 
 do not exercise, no villainy of which they do not 
 partake. These same men, the same night, 
 broke into a bagnio in Covent-Garden, and took 
 up Jack Spencer,f Mr. Stewart, and Lord George 
 Graham, J and would have thrust them into the 
 round-house with the poor women, if they had 
 not been worth more than tighteen-pence ! 
 
 I have just now received yours of the 15th of 
 July, with a married letter from both Prince and 
 Princess : but sure nothing ever equalled the 
 
 * The keeper of the round-house was tried, but acquitted of wilful 
 murder. 
 
 f The Hon. John Spencer, second son of Charles third Earl of 
 Sunderland, by Anne his wife, second daughter of the great Duke of 
 Marlborough. He was the favourite grandson of old Sarah Duchess 
 of Marlborough, who left him a vast fortune, having disinherited, to 
 the utmost of her power, his eldest brother, Charles Duke of Marl- 
 borough. The condition upon which she made this bequest was, 
 that neither he nor his heirs should take any place or pension from any 
 government. This condition was, however, set aside. He was the 
 ancestor of Earl Spencer. D. 
 
 J Lord George Graham was the youngest son of the Duke of 
 Montrose, and a captain in the navy. Died in 1747. D. 
 
 Prince and Princess Craon.
 
 216 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 setting out of it ! She says, " The generosity of 
 your friendship for me, Sir, leaves me nothing to 
 desire of all that is precious in England, China, 
 and the Indies." Do you know, after such a 
 testimony under the hand of a Princess, that I 
 am determined, after the laudable example of 
 the House of Medici, to take the title of Horace 
 the magnificent ? I am only afraid it should be a 
 dangerous example for my posterity, who may 
 ruin themselves in emulating the magnificence of 
 their ancestor. It happens comically, for the 
 other day, in removing from Downing Street, 
 Sir Robert found an old account-book of his 
 father, wherein he set down all his expences. In 
 three months and ten days that he was in Lon- 
 don one winter as Member of Parliament, he 
 spent what do you think ? sixty-four pounds 
 seven shillings and five pence. There are many 
 articles for Nottingham ale, eighteen pences for 
 dinners, five shillings to Bob (now Earl of 
 Orford) and one memorandum of six shillings 
 given in exchange to Mr. Wilkins for his wig 
 and yet this old man, my grandfather, had two 
 thousand pounds a-year, Norfolk sterling he 
 little thought that what maintained him for a 
 whole sessions, would scarce serve one of his 
 younger grandsons to buy japan and fans for 
 Princesses at Florence! 
 
 Lord Orford has been at court again to-day :
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 217 
 
 Lord Carteret came up to thank him for his 
 coachman ; the Duke of Newcastle standing by : 
 my father said, " My Lord, whenever the Duke 
 is near overturning you, you have nothing to do 
 but to send to me, and I will save you." The 
 Duke said to Lord Carteret, " Do you know, 
 my Lord, that the venison you eat that day 
 came out of Newpark ?" Lord Orford laughed 
 and said, " Soh ! you see I am made to kill the 
 fatted calf for the return of the prodigals!" 
 The King passed by all the new Ministry, to 
 speak to him, and afterwards only spoke to my 
 Lord Carteret. 
 
 Should I answer the letters from the Court of 
 Petraia again ? there will be no end of our 
 magnificent correspondence ! but would it not 
 be too haughty to let a Princess write last ! 
 
 Oh, the cats ! I can never keep them, and yet 
 it is barbarous to send them all to Lord Islay: 
 he will shut them up and starve them, and then 
 bury them under the stairs with his wife. 
 
 Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER XLVI. 
 
 Chelsea, July 29, 1742. 
 
 I AM quite out of humour ; the whole town 
 is melted away ; you never saw such a desert. 
 You know what Florence is in the vintage-
 
 218 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 season, at least I remember what it was : Lon- 
 don is just as empty, nothing but half-a-dozen 
 private gentlewomen left, who live upon the 
 scandal that they laid up in the winter. I am 
 going too ! this day se'nnight we set out for 
 Houghton for three months but I scarce think 
 that I shall allow thirty days apiece to them. 
 Next post I shall not be able to write to you ; 
 and when I am there, shall scarce find materials 
 to furnish a letter above every other post. I 
 beg, however, that you will write constantly to 
 me ; it will be my only entertainment, for I 
 neither hunt, brew, drink, nor reap. When 
 I return in the winter, I will make amends for 
 this barren-season of our correspondence. 
 
 I carried Sir Robert the other night to Rane- 
 lagh for the first time my uncle's prudence, or 
 fear, would never let him go before. It was 
 pretty full, and all its fullness flocked round us ; 
 we walked with a train at our heels like two 
 chairmen going to fight but they were ex- 
 tremely civil, and did not crowd him, or say the 
 least impertinence I think he grows popular 
 already ! The other day he got it asked, 
 whether he should be received if he went to 
 Carleton-House ? no, truly ! but yesterday 
 morning Lord Baltimore* came to soften it a 
 
 * Lord of the Bedchamber to the Prince.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 219 
 
 little ; that his Royal Highness did not refuse to 
 see him, but that now the Court was out of 
 town, and he had no drawing-room, he did not 
 see anybody. 
 
 They have given Mrs. Pultney an admirable 
 name, and one that is likely to stick by her 
 instead of Lady Bath, they call her the wife of 
 Bath.* Don't you figure her squabbling at the 
 gate with St. Peter for a half-penny. 
 
 Gibber has published a little pamphlet against 
 Pope, which has a great deal of spirit, and, 
 from some circumstances, will notably vex him : 
 I will send it you by the first opportunity, with 
 a new pamphlet, said to be Doddington's, called, 
 " A Comparison of the Old and New Ministry :" 
 it is much liked. I have not forgot your maga- 
 zines, but will send them and these pamphlets 
 together. 
 
 Adieu ! I am at the end of my tell. 
 
 P.S. Lord Edgcumbe is just made Lord- 
 Lieutenant of Cornwall, at which the Lord of 
 Bath looks sour. He said, yesterday, that the 
 King would give orders for several other consi- 
 derable alterations but he gave no orders, 
 except for this, which was not asked by that 
 Earl. 
 
 * In allusion to the old ballad.
 
 220 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER XLVII. 
 
 
 
 (From Houghton.) 
 
 HERE are three new ballads,* and you must 
 take them as a plump part of a long letter. Con- 
 sider, I am in the barren land of Norfolk, where 
 news grow as slow as anything green : and 
 besides, I am in the house of a fallen Minister ! 
 The first song I fancy is Lord Edgcumbe's ; at 
 least he had reason to write it. The second, I 
 do not think so good as the real story that occa- 
 sioned it. The last is reckoned vastly the best, 
 and is much admired : I cannot say I see all 
 those beauties in it, nor am charmed with the 
 poetry, which is cried up. I don't find that 
 anybody knows whose it is.f Pultney is very 
 angry, especially, as he pretends, about his wife, 
 and says, " it is too much to abuse ladies ! " 
 You see, their twenty years' satires come home 
 thick ! He is gone to the Bath in great dud- 
 geon : the day before he went, he went in to the 
 King to ask him to turn out Mr. Hill of the 
 Customs, for having opposed him at Heydon. 
 
 * As these ballads have been frequently published, and lastly in 
 the edition of Sir Charles Hanbuiy Williams's Works published in 
 1822, it has been deemed better to omit them here. They are called, 
 < Labour in Vain," " The Old Coachman," and The Country 
 Girl." D. 
 
 f It was written by Hanbury Williams.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 221 
 
 "Sir," said the King, "was it not, when you 
 was opposing me ? I won't turn him out : I 
 will part with no more of my friends." Lord 
 Wilmington was waiting to receive orders ac- 
 cordingly, but the King gave him none. 
 
 We came hither last Saturday ; as we passed 
 through Grosvenor-square, we met Sir Roger 
 Newdigate* with a vast body of Tories proceed- 
 ing to his election at Brentford : we might have 
 expected some insult, but only one single fellow 
 hissed, and was not followed. Lord Edgcumbe, 
 Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Hervey, in their way to 
 Coke's,f and Lord Chief Justice Wills (on the 
 circuit) are the only company here yet. My 
 Lord invited nobody, but left it to their charity. 
 The other night, as soon as he had gone through 
 showing Mr. Ellis the house, " Well," said he, 
 "here I am to enjoy it, and my Lord of Bath 
 may ." I forgot to tell you in confir- 
 mation of what you see in the song of the wife 
 of Bath having shares of places, Sir Robert told 
 me, that when formerly he got a place for her 
 
 * Sir Roger Newdigate, the fifth baronet of the family. He was 
 elected member for Middlesex, upon the vacancy occasioned by Pulte- 
 ney's being created Earl of Bath. Subsequently in his life he re- 
 presented the University of Oxford in Parliament. He belonged to 
 the Tory or Jacobite party. D. 
 
 t Holkham. Coke was the son of Lord Lovel, afterwards Vis- 
 count Coke, when his father was created Earl of Leicester. D.
 
 222 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 own father, she took the salary and left him only 
 the perquisites ! 
 
 It is much thought that the King will go 
 abroad, if he can avoid leaving the Prince in his 
 place Imagine all this ! 
 
 I received to-day yours of July 29, and two 
 from Mr. Chute and Madame Pucci,* which I 
 will answer very soon : where is she now ? 
 
 I delight in Mr. Villiers'sf modesty in one 
 place you had written it Villettes ; I fancy on 
 purpose, for it would do for him. 
 
 Good night, my dear child! I have written 
 myself threadbare. I know you will hate my 
 campaign, but what can one do ! 
 
 LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 Houghton, Aug. 20, 1742. 
 
 BY the tediousness of the post, and distance 
 of place, I am still receiving letters from you 
 about the Secret Committee, which seems 
 
 * She was daughter of the Conte di Valvasone, of Friuli, sister of 
 Madame Suares, and of the bedchamber to the Duchess of Modena. 
 
 f Thomas Villiers, a younger son of William second Earl of Jersey, 
 at this time British Minister at the Court of Dresden ; and eventually 
 created Lord Hyde, and Earl of Clarendon. Sir H. Mann had 
 alluded in one of his letters to a speech attributed to Mr. Villiers, in 
 which he took great credit to himself for having induced the King of 
 Poland to become a party to the peace of Breslau, recently con- 
 cluded between the Queen of Hungary and the King of Prussia ; a
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 
 
 strange, for it is as much forgotten now, as if it 
 had happened in the last reign. Thus much I 
 must answer you about it, that it is possible to 
 resume the inquiry upon the Report next ses- 
 sion ; but you may judge whether they will, 
 after all the late promotions. 
 
 We are willing to believe that there are no 
 news in town, for we hear none at all : Lord 
 Lovel sent us word to-day, that he heard, by a 
 messenger from the post-office, that Montemar* 
 is put under arrest. I don't tell you this for 
 news, for you must know it long ago ; but I 
 expect the confirmation of it from you next post. 
 Since we came hither I have heard no more of 
 the King's journey to Flanders : our troops are 
 as peaceable there as on Hounslow Heath, ex- 
 cept some bickerings and blows about beef with 
 butchers, and about sacraments with friars. You 
 know the English can eat no meat, nor be civil 
 to any God but their own. 
 
 As much as I am obliged to you for the de- 
 scription of your Cocchiata,f I don't like to hear 
 
 course of proceeding, which, in fact, his Polish Majesty had no alter- 
 native but to adopt. Villettes was an inferior diplomatic agent from 
 England to some of the Italian Courts, and was at this moment Re- 
 sident at the Court of Turin. D. 
 
 * Montemar was the General of the King of Spain, who commanded 
 the troops of that Sovereign against the Imperialists in Italy. D. 
 
 f A sort of serenade. Sir H. Mann had mentioned that he was 
 about to give an entertainment of this kind in his garden to the society 
 of Florence. D.
 
 224 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 of it. It is very unpleasant, instead of being at 
 it, to be prisoner in a melancholy, barren pro- 
 vince, which would put one in mind of the de- 
 luge, only that we have no water. Do remem- 
 ber exactly how your last was, for I intend that 
 you shall give me just such another Cocchiata 
 next summer, if it pleases the Kings and Queens 
 of this world to let us be at peace ! For it rests 
 that without Jig-leaves, (as my Lord Bacon says 
 in one of his letters,) I do ingenuously confess and 
 acknowledge that I like nothing so well as Italy. 
 
 I agree with you extremely about Tuscany for 
 Prince Charles,* but I can only agree with you 
 on paper ; for as to knowing anything of it, I 
 am sure Sir Robert himself knows nothing of it : 
 the Duke of Newcastle and my Lord Carteret 
 keep him in as great ignorance as possible, espe- 
 cially the latter ; and even in other times, you 
 know how little he ever thought on those things. 
 Believe me, he will every day know less. 
 
 Your last, which I have been answering, was 
 of the 5th of August ; I this minute receive 
 another of the 12th. How I am charmed with 
 your spirit and usage of Richcourt ! Mais ce n'est 
 
 * Prince Charles of Lorraine, younger brother of Francis, who was 
 now Grand Duke of Tuscany. He was a General of some abilities ; 
 but it was his misfortune to be so often opposed to the superior talents 
 of the King of Prussia. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 225 
 
 pas (Taujourdhui que je commence a les mepriser! 
 I am so glad that you have quitted your calm, 
 to treat them as they deserve. You don't tell 
 me if his opposition in the Council hindered 
 your intercession from taking place for the valet 
 de chambre : I hope not ! I could not bear his 
 thwarting you ! 
 
 I am now going to write to your brother, to 
 get you the overtures ; and to desire he will 
 send them with some pamphlets and the maga- 
 zines, which I left him in commission for you, 
 at my leaving London. I am going to send him, 
 too, des pleins pouvoirs, for nominating a person 
 to represent me at his new babe's christening. 
 
 I am sorry Mrs. Goldsworthy is coming to 
 England, though I think it can be of no effect. 
 Sir Charles* has no sort of interest with the 
 new powers, and I don't think the Richmonds 
 have enough to remove foreign ministers. How- 
 ever, I will consult with Sir Robert about it, and 
 see if he thinks there is any danger for you, 
 which I do not in the least ; and whatever can 
 be done by me, I think you know, will. Adieu ! 
 
 P. S. I inclose an answer to Madame Pucci's 
 letter. Where is she in all this Modenese deso- 
 lation ? 
 
 * Sir Charles Wager. 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER XL1X. 
 
 Houghton, August 28, 1742. 
 
 I DID receive your letter of the 12th, as I 
 think I mentioned in my last ; and to-day ano- 
 ther of the 19th. Had I been you, instead of 
 saying that I would have taken my Lady's* wo- 
 man for my spy, I should have said, that I 
 would hire Richcourt himself: I dare to say 
 that one might buy the Count's own secrets of 
 himself. 
 
 I am sorry to hear that the Impresarii have 
 sent for the Chiaretta ; I am not one of the ma- 
 nagers ; I should have remonstrated against her, 
 for she will not do on the same stage with the 
 Barbarina. I don't know who will be glad of her 
 coming, but Mr. Blighe and Amorevoli. 
 
 'Tis amazing, but we hear not a syllable of 
 Prague taken,-)- it must be! Indeed, Cartha- 
 gena too, was certain of being taken ! but it 
 seems, Maillebois is to stop at Bavaria I hope 
 
 * Lady Walpole. Richcourt, the Florentine Minister, was her 
 lover, and both, as has been seen in the former part of these letters, 
 were enemies of Sir H. Mann. D. 
 
 f This means retaken by the Imperialists from the French, who had 
 obtained possession of it on the 25th of November 1741. The 
 Austrian troops drove the French out of Prague, in December 1742. 
 D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 227 
 
 Belleisle* will be made prisoner ? I am indifferent 
 about the fate of the great Broglio but Belle- 
 isle is able, and is our most determined enemy : 
 we need not have more, for to-day it is con- 
 firmed that Cardinal Tencin f and Monsieur d'Ar- 
 genson are declared of the Prime-Ministry. The 
 first moment they can, Tencin will be for trans- 
 porting the Pretenders into England. Your ad- 
 vice about Naples was quite judicious : the ap- 
 pearance of a bomb will have great weight in 
 the councils of the little King. 
 
 We don't talk now of any of the Royals pass- 
 ing into Flanders ; though the Champion J this 
 morning had an admirable quotation, on the sup- 
 position that the King would go himself : it was 
 this line from the Rehearsal : 
 
 " Give us our fiddle ; we ourselves will play." 
 
 * This wish was gratified, though not in this year. Marshal Belle- 
 isle was taken prisoner in 1745, by the Hanoverian dragoons, was 
 confined for some months in Windsor Castle, and exchanged after the 
 battle of Fontenoy. D. 
 
 f- A profligate ecclesiastic, who was deeply engaged in the corrupt 
 political intrigues of the day. In these he was assisted by his sister 
 Madame Tencin, an unprincipled woman of much ability, who had 
 been the mistress of the still more infamous Cardinal Dubois. Voltaire 
 boasts in his Memoirs, of having killed the Cardinal Tencin from 
 vexation, at a sort of political hoax, which he played off upon him. 
 D. 
 
 I The Champion was an opposition Journal, written by Fielding. 
 
 Q2
 
 228 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 The lesson for the day * that I sent you, I gave 
 to Mr. Coke, who came in as I was writing it, 
 and by his dispersing it, it has got into print, 
 with an additional one, which I cannot say I am 
 proud should go under my name. Since that, 
 nothing but lessons are the fashion : first and 
 second lessons, morning and evening lessons, epis- 
 tles, &c. One of the Tory papers published so 
 abusive an one last week on the new ministry, 
 that three gentlemen called on the printer, to 
 know how he dared to publish it. Don't you 
 like these men, who for twenty years together 
 led the way, and published every thing that was 
 scandalous, that they should wonder at any body's 
 daring to publish against them ! Oh ! it will 
 come home to them ! Indeed, every body's name 
 now is published at length : last week the Cham- 
 pion mentioned the Earl of Orford and his natu- 
 ral daughter, Lady Mary, at length, (for which 
 he had a great mind to prosecute the printer.) 
 To-day, the London Evening Post says, Mr. 
 Fane, nephew of Mr. Scrope, is made first Clerk 
 of the Treasury, as a reward for his uncle's taci- 
 turnity before the Secret Committee. He is in 
 the room of old Tilson, who was so tormented 
 
 * Entitled " The Lessons for the Day, 1742." Published in 
 Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's works, but written by Walpole, 
 D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 229 
 
 by that Committee, that it turned his brain, and 
 he is dead. 
 
 I am excessively shocked at Mr. Fane's* be- 
 haviour to you ; but Mr. Fane is an honourable 
 man ! he lets poor you pay him his salary for eigh- 
 teen months, without thinking of returning it ! 
 But if he had lost that sum to Jansen,f or to any 
 of the honourable men at White's, he would think 
 his honour engaged to pay it. There is nothing, 
 sure, so whimsical as modern honour ! You may 
 debauch a woman upon a promise of marriage, 
 and not marry her ; you may ruin your tailor's 
 or baker's family by not paying them ; you may 
 make Mr. Mann maintain you for eighteen 
 months, as a public minister, out of his own 
 pocket, and still be a man of honour ! But not to 
 pay a common sharper, or not to murder a man 
 that has trod upon your toe, is such a blot in 
 your scutcheon, that you could never recover 
 your honour, though you had in your veins all the 
 blood of all the Howards! 
 
 My love to Mr. Chute ; tell him, as he looks 
 
 * Charles Fane, afterwards Lord Fane, had been Minister at Flo- 
 rence before Mr. Manu. 
 
 f- A notorious gambler. He is mentioned by Pope, in the character 
 of the young man of fashion, in the fourth canto of " The Dunciad,'' 
 
 " As much estate, and principle, and wit, 
 
 As Jansen, Fleetwood, Gibber, shall think fit." D.
 
 230 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 on the east front of Houghton, to tap under the 
 two windows in the left-hand wing, up stairs, 
 close to the colonnade there are Patapan and I, 
 at this instant, writing to you ; there we are 
 almost every morning, or in the library ; the 
 evenings, we walk till dark; then Lady Mary, 
 Miss Leneve, and I play at Comet ; the Earl, 
 Mrs. Leneve, and whoever is here, discourse ; 
 car idle est notre vie ! Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER L. 
 Houghton, Sept. 11, 1742. 
 
 I COULD not write to you last week, for I was 
 at Woolterton,* and in a course of visits, that 
 took up my every moment. I received one from 
 you there, of August 26th, but have had none at 
 all this week. 
 
 You know I am not prejudiced in favour of 
 the country, nor like a place because it bears 
 turnips well, or because you may gallop over it 
 without meeting a tree ; but I really was charm- 
 ed with Woolterton : it is all wood and water ! 
 My uncle and aunt may, without any expense, 
 do what they have all their lives avoided, wash 
 
 * The seat of Horatio Walpole, brother of Sir R. Walpole, near 
 Norwich.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 231 
 
 themselves and make fires.* Their house is 
 more than a good one ; if they had not saved 
 eighteen-pence in every room, it would have 
 been a fine one. I saw several of my acquaint- 
 ance^ Volterra vases, Grisoni landscapes, the 
 four little bronzes, the raffle-picture, &c. 
 
 We have printed about the expedition to 
 Naples : the affair at Elba, too, is in the papers, 
 but we affect not to believe it. We are in great 
 apprehensions of not taking Prague the only 
 thing that has been taken on our side lately, I 
 think, is my Lord Stair's journey hither and 
 back again we don't know for what he is such 
 an Orlando ! The papers are full of the most de- 
 fending King's journey to Flanders ; our private 
 letters say not a word of it I say our, for at pre- 
 sent I think the Earl's intelligences and mine are 
 pretty equal as to authority. 
 
 Here is a little thing, which I think has hu- 
 mour in it. 
 
 * This thought was afterwards put into verse, thus : 
 
 What woods, what streams around the seat ! 
 
 Was ever mansion so complete ? 
 Here happy PugJ and Horace may, 
 (And yet not have a groat to pay,) 
 Two things they most have shunn'd, perform ; 
 I mean, they may be clean and warm. 
 
 \ Mr. Walpole's name of fondness for his wife, 
 t Presents from Mr. Mann to Mr. Walpole.
 
 232 THE HON. HORACE VVALPOLE 
 
 A CATALOGUE OF NEW FRENCH BOOKS. 
 
 1. Jean-sans-terre, ou 1'Empereur en pet-en-1'air ; imprime 
 a Frankfort. 
 
 2. La France mourante d'une suppression d'hommes et 
 d'argent : dedie au public. 
 
 3. L'art de faire les Neutralites, invente en Allemagne, 
 et ecrit en cette langue, par Un des Electeurs, et nouvelle- 
 ment traduit en Napolitain ; par le Chef d'Escadre Martin. 
 
 4. Voyage d' Allemagne, par Monsieur de Maupertuis ; 
 avec un telescope, invente pendant son voyage ; a 1'usage 
 des Heros, pour regarder leur victoires de loin. 
 
 5. Methode courte et facile pour faire entrer les troupes 
 Francoises en Allemagne : mais comment faire, pour les en 
 faire sortir? 
 
 6. Traite tres salutaire et tres utile sur la Reconnoissance 
 envers les bienfaicteurs, par le Roy de Pologne. Folio, im- 
 prime a Dresde. 
 
 7. L'Obligation sacree des Traites, Promesses, and Re- 
 nonciations, par le Grand Turc ; avec des Remarques re- 
 tractoires, par un Jesuite. 
 
 8. Probleme ; combien il faut d'argent Franois pour 
 payer le sang Suedois ; calcule par le Comte de Gyllem- 
 bourg. 
 
 9. Nouvelle methode de friser les cheveux a la Fran- 
 coise ; par le Colonel Mentz et sa Confrairie. 
 
 10. Recueil de Dissertations sur la meilleure maniere de 
 faire la partition des successions, par le Cardinal de Fleury; 
 avec des notes, historiques et politiques, par la Reyne 
 d'Espagne. 
 
 11. Nouveau Voyage de Madrid a Antibes, par 1'Infant 
 Dom Philippe.
 
 TO Sill HORACE MANN. 233 
 
 12. L'art de chercher les ennemis sans les trouver ; par 
 le Marechal de Maillebois. 
 
 13. La fidelite couronnee, par le General Munich et le 
 Comte d'Osterman. 
 
 14. Le bal de Lintz et les amusements de Donawert ; 
 piece pastorale en galante, en un acte, par le Grand Due. 
 
 15. L'Art de maitriser les Femmes, par sa Majeste 
 Catholique. 
 
 16. Avantures Bohemiennes, tragi-comiques, tres curi- 
 euses, tres interessantes, et chargees 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 ? 
 
 LETTER LI. 
 
 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 poli-
 
 234 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 tician as Villettes,* and such a blustering nego- 
 tiator as il Furibondo,^ are enough to put all 
 your little economy of health and spirits in con- 
 fusion. I agree with you, that they don't pique 
 themselves upon understanding sense, any more 
 than neutralities! The grand journey to Flan- 
 ders J is a little at 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 fort- 
 night. The Regency has been settled and un- 
 settled 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 Flan- 
 ders 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 last journey was not con- 
 clusive. The converting of the siege of Prague 
 into a blockade, makes no great figure in the jour- 
 nals 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 
 
 * Mr. Villettes was Minister at Turin. 
 
 f Admiral Matthews; his ships having committed some outrages 
 on the coast of Italy, the Italians called him il Furibondo. 
 J Of George the Second. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 235 
 
 having thought of putting off her epuisements 
 and lassitudes, to take a trip to Leghorn, pen- 
 dant qu'on ne donnoit a manger a Monsieur le 
 Prince sonfds, que de la chair de chevaux ! Poor 
 Prince Beauvau ! * 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 volun- 
 teering, 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 land- 
 lord; but he redeemed them, by pawning his 
 Modenese bill of credit to his landlady ! I de- 
 light in the style of the neutrality-maker ^ his 
 neutralities and his English are perfectly of a 
 piece. 
 
 You have diverted me excessively with the 
 history of the Princess Eleonora's J posthumous 
 
 * Afterwards a Marshal of France. He was a man of some abi- 
 lity, and the friend and patron of St. Lambert, and of other men of 
 letters of the time of Lewis the XVth. D. 
 
 f Admiral Matthews. 
 
 J Eleonora of Guastalla, widow of the last Cardinal of Medici, 
 died at Venice. (The father of the children was a French running 
 footman. D.)
 
 236 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 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 an- 
 other. If they would but agree not to cen- 
 sure 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 his ward to his own 
 son, nobody thinks of leaving him off for such 
 trifles ! 
 
 The English parson at Stosch's, the Arch- 
 bishop on the chapter of music, the Fanciulla's 
 persisting in her mistake, and old Count Galli's 
 distress, are all admirable stories.* But what 
 is the meaning of Montemar's writing to the 
 Antinora ? I thought he had left the Galla 
 for my Illustrissima, f her sister. Lord! I am 
 
 * These are stories in a letter of Sir H. Mann's, which are neither 
 very decent nor very amusing. D. 
 f Madame Grifoni.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 237 
 
 horridly tired of that romantic love and corre- 
 spondence ! 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* 
 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 1'Archeveque ne 
 veut pas qu'on lejoue." 
 
 My Lord is very impatient for his Domini- 
 chin ; so you will send it by the first safe con- 
 veyance. He is making a gallery, for the ceil- 
 ing 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. Naylorf came here the 
 
 * The Archbishop of Florence had forbid the acting of a burletta 
 called Don Pilogio, a sort of imitation of Tartuffe. When the Im- 
 presario 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. 
 
 t He was son of Dr. Hare, Bishop of Chichester, and changed 
 his name for an estate.
 
 238 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 other day with two coaches full of relations : 
 as his mother-in-law, who was one of the com- 
 pany, 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, Nay- 
 lor said, " Father, they say you are to be mar- 
 ried to-day, are you ?" " Well, replied the Bi- 
 shop, " and what is that to you ?" " Nay, 
 nothing ; only if you had told me I would have 
 powdered my hair." 
 
 LETTER LII. 
 
 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 writ- 
 ten 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 neutra- 
 lities ; your letters are my only diversion. As 
 to German news, it is all so simple that I am
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 239 
 
 peevish : the raising of the siege of Prague,* 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 Due 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 illus- 
 trious Bassa : you may judge by the quantity of 
 napkins, which were to the amount of nine hun- 
 dred dozen indeed, I don't recollect that an- 
 cient heroes were ever so provident of neces- 
 
 * 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 Belle-Isle, 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 Belle- Isle 
 continued to be blockaded in Prague with 22,000 men, till Decem- 
 ber 1742, when he made his escape to Egra. D.
 
 240 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 saries, 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 fdr a bull-fight 
 at the conquest of Granada. Felton Hervey's * 
 warhorse, 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,')' I be- 
 lieve by the same hand as the former, though 
 none are equal to the Nova Progenies, which has 
 been more liked than almost ever anything 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 con- 
 
 * Son of the Earl of Bristol, afterwards groom of the bedchamber 
 to the Duke. 
 
 t These are " The Capuchin," and the ode beginning " Great 
 Earl of Bath, your reign is o'er ;" as they have been frequently pub- 
 lished already, they are omitted. The " Nova Progenies" is the well- 
 known ode beginning, " See, a new progeny descends." D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 241 
 
 sultation was held who were to have places, and 
 my Lord Gower was named to succeed Lord 
 Hervey, Pultney said with some warmth, " I de- 
 signed to be Privy Seal myself?" 
 
 We expect some company next week from 
 Newmarket : here is at present only Mr. Keene 
 and Pigwiggin* 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 Mesdamesf pulled the chair from 
 under Countess Deloraine J at cards, who, being 
 
 * Eldest son of old Horace Walpole. (Afterwards the second 
 Lord Walpole of Wolterton, and in his old age created Earl of Or- 
 ford in 1806. D.) 
 
 f The Princesses, daughters of George II. D. 
 
 J Elizabeth Fenwick, widow of Henry Scott third Earl of Delo- 
 raine. She was a favourite of George II. and lived much in his inti- 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 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* remains in the sole and quiet 
 possession of her royal master's favour. 
 
 Oct. 9th. 
 
 Well! I have waited till this morning, but 
 have no letter from you ; what can be the mean- 
 ing 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^ Patapanique^ has had a dreadful 
 misfortune ! not lost his first Minister, nor his 
 purse nor had part of his camp equipage burn- 
 ed 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 ter- 
 rible shake by the back and a bruise on the left 
 
 mate 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. 
 * Lady Yarmouth, f Patapan. Mr. W.'s dog.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 243 
 
 eye poor dear Pat ! you never saw such uni- 
 versal consternation ! it was at supper. Sir Ro- 
 bert, who makes as much rout with him as I do, 
 says, he never saw ten people show so much real 
 concern! Adieu! Your's, ever and ever but 
 write to me. 
 
 LETTER LIII. 
 
 Houghton, Oct. 16, 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 buy- 
 ing 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 dispatches to you are as 
 R 2
 
 244 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 ridiculous as good Mr. Matthews's devotion. I 
 fancy Mr. Matthews's own god* would make as 
 foolish a figure about a monkey's neck, as a Ro- 
 man Catholic one. You know, Sir Francis Dash- 
 wood used to say that Lord Shrewsbury's pro- 
 vidence 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 des cart-loads of news : I know none now, 
 but that we hear to-day of the arrival of Due 
 d'Aremberg I suppose to return my Lord Car- 
 teret'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 we 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,f he has taken 
 true care to disguise the niceness of his style. 
 
 * Admiral Matthews's crew having disturbed some Roman Catho- 
 lic ceremonies in a little island on the coast of Italy, hung a crucifix 
 about a monkey's neck. 
 
 f It was certainly written by Lord Hervey.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 245 
 
 i. 
 
 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, 
 
 1 am sure none can think that I hint at the King. 
 
 n. 
 
 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. 
 
 in. 
 
 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. 
 
 IV. 
 
 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. 
 
 v. 
 
 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." 
 
 VI. 
 
 Quoth the King, " My good Lord, perhaps, you've been 
 
 told, 
 That I used to abuse you a little of old ;
 
 246 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 But now bring whom you will, and eke turn away, 
 Let but me and my money, and Walmoden* stay." 
 
 VII. 
 
 " For you and Walmoden, I freely consent, 
 
 But as for your money, I must have it spent ; 
 
 I have promis'd your son, (nay, no frowns,) shall have some, 
 
 Nor think 'tis for nothing we patriots are come. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 " 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 '11 do what I can 
 To make you look yet like a King and a man. 
 
 IX. 
 
 " At your Admiralty and your Treasury-board, 
 
 To save one single man you shan't say a word, 
 
 For, by God ! all your rubbish from both you shall shoot, 
 
 Walpole's ciphers and Gasherry'sf vassals to boot. 
 
 " 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 '11 leave only those 
 Who we know never dare to say boh ! to a goose. 
 
 XI. 
 
 " 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. 
 
 * Lady Yarmouth. 
 
 t Sir Charles Wager's nephew, and Secretary to the Admiralty.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 247 
 
 XII. 
 
 " 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.* 
 
 XIII. 
 
 " 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. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 " 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 employ'd him before, 
 Yet I leave him in place, but I leave him no power. 
 
 xv. 
 
 " 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 '11 shake when I frown : 
 
 You call'd him a rascal, I '11 use him like one. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 " And since his estate at elections he '11 spend, 
 And beggar himself, without making a friend ; 
 So whilst the extravagant fool has a souse, 
 As his brains I can't fear, so his fortune I '11 use. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 " 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 !' 
 
 * Countess Dowager of Deloraine, Governess to the young 
 Princesses.
 
 248 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 " The Countess of Wilmington, excellent nurse, 
 I '11 trust with the Treasury, not with its purse ; 
 For nothing by her I 've resolv'd shall be done, 
 She shall sit at that board, as you sit on the throne. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 " 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 '11 know soon enough, when they come to kiss 
 hands. 
 
 xx. 
 
 " 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. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 " 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. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 " 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. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 " For your foreign affairs, howe'er they turn out, 
 At least I '11 take care you shall make a great rout : 
 Then cock your great hat, strut, bounce, and look bluff, 
 For though kick'd and cuff'd here, you shall there kick and 
 cuff.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 249 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 " That Walpole did nothing they all us'd to say, 
 So I '11 do enough, but I '11 make the dogs pay ; 
 Great fleets I '11 provide, and great armies engage, 
 Whate'er debts we make, or whate'er wars we wage." 
 
 xxv. 
 
 With cordials like these the Monarch's new guest 
 Reviv'd his sunk spirits and gladden'd his breast ; 
 Till in raptures he cried, " My dear Lord, you shall do 
 Whatever you will, give me troops to review. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 " But oh I 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 ! 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 " For though you have made that rogue Walpole retire, 
 
 You are out of the frying-pan into the fire I 
 
 But since to the Protestant line I 'm a friend, 
 
 I tremble to think where these changes may end 1" 
 
 This has not been printed. You see the bur- 
 then 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 !
 
 250 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER LIV. 
 
 Houghton, Oct. 23, 1742. 
 
 AT last I see an end of my pilgrimage : the 
 day after to-morrow I do go to London. 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 in exe- 
 cution. It is horrid to have a prospect of a 
 Session like the last ! 
 
 In the mean time, 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
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 251 
 
 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 pre- 
 serve 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 Hol- 
 land. 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,* 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 odes, for 
 the newspapers are every day full of bad ones on 
 this famous Earl. 
 
 * Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's ode, beginning " What States- 
 man, what Hero, what King ." It is to be found in all editions of 
 la's poems. D.
 
 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 My compliments to the Princess ; I dreamed 
 last night that she was come to Houghton, and 
 not at all epuisie 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 buy- 
 ing 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 
 Abbe Bonducci ; my dear child, you will oblige 
 me much if you can get them. 
 
 LETTER LV. 
 
 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
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 253 
 
 should have taken it for Carlton-House, or my 
 Lady Mayoress's visiting-day, only the peo- 
 ple 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 awk- 
 ward jollity of them is inexpressible ! They tit- 
 ter, 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 
 birth-day, (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 sil- 
 ver, 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
 
 254 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Savoy. I suppose he will retain the title : you 
 know great Princes are fond of titles, which 
 prove that they are not half 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 stopping the Supplies ; but the 
 new ministry laugh at these threats, having se- 
 cured a vast majority in the House : the Oppo- 
 sition themselves own that the Court will have 
 upwards of a hundred majority : I don't, indeed, 
 conceive how ; but they are confident of carry- 
 ing 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 * 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 ex- 
 tremely absent and deep in politics, he walked 
 through the little room to a convenience be- 
 hind the curtain, from whence (still absent) he 
 produced himself in a situation extremely divert- 
 
 * Lord Hervey.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 255 
 
 ing 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 birth-day, 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 Fuma- 
 galli 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 'a hundred more, she would come next 
 year. Villettes has 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.
 
 256 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 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 re- 
 fuse humouring our Captains* 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 ask 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 ! 
 
 LETTER LVI. 
 
 London, Nov. 15, 1742. 
 
 I HAVE not written to you lately, expecting 
 letters from you ; at last I have received two. I 
 still send mine through France, as I am afraid 
 
 * The Captains of ships in the English fleet at Leghorn.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 257 
 
 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 are in parliament are 
 come over, for the troops are only to be in gar- 
 rison 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 Hanoverian measure. They begin to-morrow, 
 with opposing the address on the King's Speech : 
 Pitt is to be the leading man ; 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, of 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 Chester- 
 field, who is still in Opposition. 
 
 You have heard, I suppose, of the revolution 
 in the French Court ; Madame de Mailly is dis- 
 
 VOL. i. s
 
 258 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 graced, and her handsome sister de la Tournelle* 
 succeeds : the latter insisted on three conditions ; 
 first, that the Mailly should quit the palace be- 
 fore 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, &c. you to snatch at the first place 
 you could get, &c." In short, they charge him, 
 who is in the Treasury and Exchequer, not to 
 vote for any supplies. 
 
 I write to you in a vast hurry, for I am going 
 to the meeting at the Cock-pit, to hear the King's 
 
 * Afterwards created Duchess of Chateauroux. (Mary Aime de 
 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 
 death-bed accused Monsieur 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.)
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 259 
 
 Speech read to the members : Mr. Pelham pre- 
 sides there. They talk of a majority of four- 
 score 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.* 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 per- 
 formed 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 be- 
 fore rebelled against his. The Duke of Montagu 
 says, there is to be an opera of dancing, with 
 singing between the acts. 
 
 My Lord Tyrawleyf is come from Portugal, 
 and has brought three wives and fourteen chil- 
 dren ; one of the former is a Portuguese, with 
 
 * An admirer of Lady Sophia Fermor. D. 
 
 f 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 tliat family. D.) 
 
 S 2
 
 260 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 long black hair, plaited down to the bottom of 
 her back. He was asked the other night at sup- 
 per, 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 ivas: and then I found 
 my Lord Grantham* 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.f 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 Spa- 
 niards 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 
 
 * Henry of Nassau Auverquerque, second Earl of Grantham. He 
 had been Chamberlain to Queen Caroline. He died in 1754, when 
 his titles extinguished. D. 
 
 f Mrs. Beghan.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 26l 
 
 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 ! 
 
 LETTER LVII. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Dec. 2, 1742. 
 
 You will wonder that it is above a fortnight 
 since I wrote to you ; but I have had an inflam- 
 mation in one of my eyes, and durst not meddle 
 with a pen. I have had two letters from you of 
 November 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
 
 262 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 of last year ; but the whole debate ran not upon 
 Robert Earl of Orford, but Robert Earl of 
 Sandys :* 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,f all his servants but one 
 were with us. I don't know whether they will 
 attempt anything 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 be always with the minority, for no ma- 
 jority will accept him. It is believed that Lord 
 Gower will retire or be desired to do so. I sup- 
 pose you have heard from RomeJ 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 win- 
 
 * Samuel Sandys, Chancellor of the Exchequer, iu the room of Sir 
 R. Walpole. 
 
 f Lord Cobham's nephews and cousins. D. 
 
 J This alludes to the supposed Jacobite principles of Murray, 
 afterwards Lord Mansfield. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 263 
 
 ter (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 ves- 
 sel, 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 men- 
 tion 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.* 
 
 * 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 (// 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.
 
 204 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER LVIII. 
 
 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 head- 
 aches 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 head-aches. 
 
 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 an 
 hundred and twenty. Murray spoke for the 
 first time, with the greatest applause ; Pitt an- 
 swered him with all his force and art of language,
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 265 
 
 but on an ill-founded argument. In all appear- 
 ances, they will be great rivals. Shippen was in 
 great rage at Murray's apostasy ;* if anything 
 can really change his principles, possibly this 
 competition may. To-morrow we shall have a 
 tougher battle on the sixteen thousand Hanove- 
 rians. Hanover is the word given out for this 
 winter : there is a most bold pamphlet come out, 
 said to be Lord Marchmont's,f which affirms that 
 in every treaty made since the accession of this 
 family, England has been sacrificed to the inte- 
 rests of Hanover, and consequently insinuates 
 the incompatibility of the two. Lord Chester- 
 field says, " that if we have a mind effectually 
 to prevent the Pretender from ever obtaining 
 this crown, we should make him Elector of Han- 
 over, 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, J 
 finer than Milton's ; no contest about harlequins 
 
 * From Toryism. D. 
 
 \ Hugh Hume, third Earl of March mont. D. 
 \ This alludes to the extravagant encomiums bestowed on Glover's 
 Leonidas, by the young patriots.
 
 266 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 and Polly Peachem's. Jansen* 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'f being 
 attacked by four men masked, 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 provision for their reception. 
 They will probably march in two months, if no 
 peace prevents it. Adieu ! 
 
 * 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." 
 f A famous dancer.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 267 
 
 LETTER LIX. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Dec. 23, 1742. 
 
 I HAVE had no letter from you this fortnight, 
 and I have heard nothing this month : judge 
 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 fire-side, 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-Dow- 
 ager ; as the old Duchess of Rutland* 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, " it 
 can't be true !" " Oh, no matter, child ; it will 
 do for news into the country next post." But do 
 
 * Lady Lucinda Sherard, widow of John Manners, second Duke 
 of Rutland. Her daughter, Lady Lucy Manners, was married in this 
 year to the Duke of Montrose. D.
 
 268 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 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 worm- 
 wood ; no locusts, like horses, with their hair as 
 the hair of women in short, no thousand things, 
 each of which destroy a third part of mankind : 
 the only token of this new kingdom is a woman 
 riding on a beast, which is the mother of abomi- 
 nations, 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 whis- 
 per I have heard this fortnight, is of an intrigue 
 between the Queen of hearts and the Knave of 
 clubs. 
 
 Your friend Lady Sandwich* has got a son ; 
 if one may believe the belly she wore, it is a 
 brave one. 
 
 Lord Holdernessj" has lately given a magnifi- 
 cent repas to fifteen persons ; there were three 
 
 * Dorothy, sister of Lord Viscount Fane, wife of John Montagu 
 Earl of Sandwich. 
 
 f Robert D'Arcy fourth Earl of Iloldernesse. Subsequently made
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 269 
 
 courses of ten, fifteen, and fifteen, and a sumptu- 
 ous dessert : a great saloon illuminated, odours, 
 and violins and, who do you think were the in- 
 vited ? the Visconti, Guiletta, the Galli, Amo- 
 revoli, Monticelli, Vanneschi and his wife, Wee- 
 demans the hautboy, the prompter, &c. 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 sur- 
 prisingly, 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 
 connection 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, 
 
 Secretary of State. Upon his death his earldom extinguished, and 
 what remained of his estate, as well as the Barony of Conyers, de- 
 scended to his only daughter, who was married to Francis Osborne 
 fifth Duke of Leeds. D.
 
 270 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 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 ! 
 
 LETTER LX. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Jan. 6, 1743. 
 
 You will wonder that you have not heard from 
 me, but I have been too ill to write. I have 
 been confined these ten days with a most violent 
 cough, and they suspected an inflammation on 
 my lungs, but I am come off with the loss of my 
 eyes and my voice, both which I am recovering, 
 and would write to you to-day. I have received 
 your long letter of December llth, and return 
 you a thousand thanks for giving me up so much 
 of your time ; I wish I could make as long a let- 
 ter for you, but we are in a neutrality of news. 
 The Elector Palatine * is dead ; but I have not 
 heard what alterations that will make. Lord 
 Wilmington's death, which is reckoned hard upon, 
 is likely to make more conversation here. He 
 is going to the Bath, but that is only to pass 
 away the time till he dies. 
 
 * Charles Philip of Neubourg, Elector Palatine, died Dec. 31, 
 1742. Charles Theodore, Prince of Sulzbach, descended from a 
 younger branch of the House of Neubourg, succeeded him ; who, in 
 his old age, became Elector of Bavaria. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 271 
 
 The great Vernon is landed; but we have not 
 been alarmed with any bonfires or illuminations : 
 he has outlived all his popularity. There is 
 nothing new but the separation of a Mr. and 
 Mrs. French, whom it is impossible you should 
 know. She has been fashionable these two win- 
 ters ; her husband has commenced a suit in Doc- 
 tors' Commons against her cat, and will, they 
 say, recover considerable damages ; but the law- 
 yers are of opinion that the kittens must inherit 
 Mr. French's estate, as they were born in law- 
 ful wedlock. 
 
 The parliament meets again on Monday, but 
 I don't hear of any fatigue that we are likely to 
 have ; in a little time, I suppose, we shall hear 
 what campaigning we are to make. 
 
 I must tell you an admirable reply of your 
 acquaintance the Duchess of Queensberry : old 
 Lady Granville, Lord Carteret's mother, whom 
 they call the Queen-Mother, from taking upon 
 her to do the honours of her son's power, was 
 pressing the Duchess to ask her for some place 
 for herself or friends, and assured her that she 
 would procure it, be it what it would : Could she 
 have picked out a fitter person to be gracious 
 to ! the Duchess made her a most grave curtsey, 
 and said, " Indeed, there was one thing she had 
 set her heart on." " Dear child, how you oblige 
 me by asking anything ! what is it ? tell me."
 
 272 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 " Only that you would speak to my Lord Car- 
 teret to get me made Lady of the Bedchamber 
 to the Queen of Hungary." 
 
 I come now to your letter, and am not at all 
 pleased to find that the Princess absolutely in- 
 tends to murder you with her cold rooms. I 
 wish you could come on those nights and sit by 
 my fire-side ; I have the prettiest warm little 
 apartment, with all my baubles and Patapans, 
 and cats ! Patapan and I go to-morrow to New 
 Park, to my Lord, for the air, and come back 
 with him on Monday. 
 
 What an infamous story that affair of Nomis 
 is ! and how different the ideas of honour among 
 officers in your world and ours ! Your history of 
 Cicisbeism is more entertaining : I figure the 
 distress of a parcel of lovers who have so many 
 things to dread the Government in this world ! 
 purgatory in the next ! inquisitions, villeggia- 
 turas, convents, &c. 
 
 Lord Essex is extremely bad, and has not 
 strength enough to go through the remedies that 
 are necessary to his recovery. He now fancies 
 that he does not exist, and will not be persuaded 
 to walk or talk, because, as he sometimes says, 
 " How should he do anything ? he is not." 
 
 You say, " How came I not to see Due 
 D'Aremberg !" I did once at the opera ; but he
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 273 
 
 went away soon after ; and here it is not the 
 way to visit foreigners, unless you are of the 
 Court, or are particularly in a way of having 
 them at your house : consequently Sir R. never 
 saw him neither we are not of the Court ! Next 
 as to Arlington-street : Sir R. is in a middling 
 kind of house, which has long been his, and was 
 let ; he has taken a small one next to it for me, 
 and they are laid together. 
 
 I come now to speak to you of the affair of the 
 Duke of Newcastle ; but absolutely on consider- 
 ing it much myself, and on talking of it with 
 your brother, we both are against your attempt- 
 ing'any such thing. In the first place, I never 
 heard a suspicion of the Duke's taking presents, 
 and should think he would rather be affronted : 
 in the next place, my dear child, though you are 
 fond of that^coffee-pot, it would be thought no- 
 thing among such wardrobes as he has, of the 
 finest wrought plate : why, he has a set of gold 
 plates that would make a figure on any side- 
 board in the Arabian Tales ; and as to Benve- 
 nuto Cellini, if the Duke could take it for his, 
 people in England understand all work too well 
 to be deceived. Lastly, as there has been no 
 talk of alterations in the foreign ministers, and 
 asjall changes seem at an end, why should you 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 be apprehensive ? As to Stone,* if anything was 
 done, to be sure it should be to him : though I 
 really can't advise even that. These are my sen- 
 timents sincerely : by no means, think of the 
 Duke. Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER LXI. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Jan. 13, 1743. 
 
 YOUR brother brought me two letters together 
 this morning, and at the same time showed me 
 yours to your father. How should I be ashamed, 
 were I he, to receive such a letter! so duti- 
 ful ! so humble, and yet so expressive of the 
 straits to which he has let you be reduced ! My 
 dear child, it looks too much like the son of a 
 minister, when I am no longer so; but I can't 
 help repeating to you offers of any kind of ser- 
 vice, that you think I can do for you any way. 
 
 I am quite happy at your thinking Tuscany 
 so secure from Spain, unless the wise head of 
 Richcourt works against the season ; but how 
 can I ever be easy, while a provincial French- 
 man, something half French, half German, insti- 
 gated by a mad Englishwoman, is to govern an 
 Italian dominion ? 
 
 * Andrew Stone, Secretary to the Duke of Newcastle.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 275 
 
 I laughed much at the magnificent presents 
 made by one of the first families in Florence to 
 their young accouchee. Do but think if a Duke 
 and Duchess of Somerset were to give a Lady 
 Hertford fifty pounds and twenty yards of velvet, 
 for bringing an heir to the blood of Seymour ! 
 
 It grieves me that my letters drop in so slowly 
 to you : I have never missed writing, but when I 
 have been absolutely too much out of order, or 
 once or twice, when I had no earthly thing to tell 
 you. This winter is so quiet, that one must in- 
 quire much, to know anything. The parliament 
 is met again ; but we do not hear of any intended 
 opposition to anything. The Tories have drop- 
 ped the affair of the Hanoverians in the House 
 of Lords, in compliment to my Lord Gower. 
 There is a second pamphlet published on that 
 subject, which makes great noise. The ministry 
 are much distressed on the ways and means for 
 raising the money for this year : there is to be 
 a lottery, but that will not supply a quarter of 
 what they want. They have talked of a new 
 duty on tea, to be paid by every housekeeper for 
 all the persons in their families ; but it will scarce 
 be proposed. Tea is so universal, that it would 
 make a greater clamour than a duty on wine. 
 Nothing is determined ; the new folks do not 
 shine at expedients. Sir Robert's health is now 
 
 T 2
 
 276 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 drunk at all the clubs in the city ; there they are 
 for having him made a Duke, and placed again at 
 the head of the Treasury ; but I believe nothing 
 could prevail on him to return thither. He says 
 he will keep the twelfth of February, (the day 
 he resigned,) with his family as long as he lives. 
 They talk of Sandys being raised to the peerage, 
 by way of getting rid of him ; he is so dull, they 
 can scarce drag him on. 
 
 The English troops in Flanders march to-day, 
 whither we don't know ; but probably to Liege ; 
 from whence they imagine the Hanoverians are 
 going into Juliers and Bergue. The ministry 
 have been greatly alarmed with the King of Sar- 
 dinia's retreat, and suspected that it was a total 
 one from the Queen's interest ; but it seems he 
 sent for Villettes and the Hungarian Minister, 
 and had their previous approbations of his de- 
 serting Chamberry, &c. 
 
 Vernon is not yet got to town ; we are impa- 
 tient for what will follow the arrival of this mad 
 hero. Wentworth will certainly challenge him, 
 but Vernon does not profess personal valour ; he 
 was once knocked down by a merchant, who 
 then offered him satisfaction but he was satis- 
 fied. 
 
 Lord Essex* is dead ; Lord Lincoln will have 
 
 * William Capel, third Earl of Essex.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 277 
 
 the bedchamber ; Lord Berkeley of Stratton* (a 
 disciple of Carteret's,) the Pensioners ; and Lord 
 Carteret himself probably the riband. 
 
 As to my Lady Walpole's dormant title,f it 
 was in her family; but being in the King's 
 power to give to which sister in equal claim he 
 pleased, it was bestowed on Lord Clinton, who 
 descended from the younger sister of Lady W.'s 
 grandmother or great grand-something. My 
 Lady Clifford,! Coke's mother, got her barony 
 so, in preference to Lady Salisbury and Lady 
 Sondes, her elder sisters, who had already titles 
 
 * John fifth and last Lord Berkeley of Stratton. Died in 1773. 
 D. 
 
 f The Barony of Clinton in fee descended to the daughters of 
 Theophilus Earl of Huntingdon, who died without male issue. One 
 of those ladies died without children, by which means the title lay 
 between the families of Rolle and Fortescue. King George I. gave 
 it to Hugh Fortescue, afterwards created an Earl ; on whose death it 
 descended to his only sister, a maiden lady, after whom, without 
 issue, it devolved on Lady Orford. 
 
 J Lady Margaret Tufton, third daughter of Thomas sixth Earl o^ 
 Thanet. The barony of Ue Clifford had descended to Lord Thanet, 
 from his mother, Lady Margaret Sackville, daughter of Anne Clifford, 
 Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery. Upon Lord 
 Thanet's death, the barony of De Clifford fell into abeyance between 
 his live daughters. These were Lady Catherine, married to Edward 
 Watson Viscount Sondes : Lady Anne, married to James Cecil Earl 
 of Salisbury : Lady Margaret, before-mentioned : Lady Mary, mar- 
 ried first to Anthony Grey Earl of Harold, and secondly to John 
 Earl Gower : and Lady Isabella, married to Lord Nassau Powlett. 
 D.
 
 278 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 for their children. It is called a title in abey- 
 ance. 
 
 Sir Robert has just bid me tell you to send the 
 Dominichin by the first safe conveyance to Mat- 
 thews, who has had orders from Lord Winchilsea* 
 to send it by the first man-of-war to England ; 
 or if you meet with a ship going to Portmahon, 
 then you must send it thither to Anstruther, and 
 write to him that Lord Orford desires he will 
 take care of it, and send it by the first ship that 
 comes directly home. He is so impatient for it, 
 that he will have it thus ; but I own, I should 
 not like having my things jumbled out of one 
 ship into another, and rather beg mine may stay 
 till they can come at once. Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER LXII. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Jan. 27, 1743. 
 
 I COULD not write to you last Thursday, I was 
 so much out of order with a cold ; your brother 
 came and found me in bed. To-night, that I can 
 write, I have nothing to tell you ; except, that 
 yesterday the welcome news (to the ministry) 
 came of the accession of the Dutch to the King's 
 measures. They are in great triumph ; but till 
 it is clear what part his Prussian Uprightness is 
 
 * First Lord of the Admiralty. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 279 
 
 acting, other people take the liberty to be still 
 in suspense. So they are about all our domestic 
 matters too It is a general stare ! the altera- 
 tion that must soon happen in the Treasury, 
 will put some end to the uncertainties of this 
 winter. Mr. Pelham is universally named to 
 the head of it ; but Messrs. Prince,* Carteret, 
 Pultney, and Companies, must be a little con- 
 sidered how they will like it : the latter the 
 least. 
 
 You will wonder, perhaps be peevish, when I 
 protest I have not another paragraph by me in 
 the world I want even common conversation, 
 for I cannot persist, like the royal family, in 
 asking people the same questions, " Do you love 
 walking ?" " Do you love music ?" " Was you 
 at the opera?" " When do you go into the 
 country ?" I have nothing else to say : nothing 
 happens ; scarce the common episodes of a news- 
 paper, of a man falling off a ladder and breaking 
 his leg ; or of a countryman cheated of his lea- 
 ther pouch, with fifty shillings in it. We are in 
 such a state of sameness, that I shall begin to 
 wonder at the change of seasons, and talk of the 
 Spring, as a strange accident. Lord Tyrawley, 
 who has been fifteen years in Portugal, is of my 
 opinion ; he says he finds nothing but a fog, 
 whist, and the House of Commons. 
 
 * Frederick Prince of Wales. D.
 
 280 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 In this lamentable state, when I know not 
 what to write even to you, what can I do about 
 my serene Princess Grifoni ? Alas ! I owe her 
 two letters, and where to find a beau sentiment, 
 I cannot tell ! I believe I may have some by 
 me in an old chest of drawers, with some ex- 
 ploded red-heel shoes and full-bottom wigs ; but 
 they would come out so yellow and moth-eaten ! 
 Do, vow to her in every superlative degree in the 
 language, that my eyes have been so bad, that 
 as I wrote you word, over and over, I have not 
 been able to write a line. That will move her, 
 when she hears what melancholy descriptions I 
 write, of my not being able to write nay, indeed 
 it will not be so ridiculous as you think, for it is 
 ten times worse for the eyes to write in a lan- 
 guage one don't much practise ! I remember a 
 tutor at Cambridge, who had been examining 
 some lads in Latin, but in a little while excused 
 himself, and said he must speak English, for his 
 mouth was very sore. 
 
 I had a letter from you yesterday of January 
 7th, N. S. which has wonderfully excited my 
 compassion for the necessities of the princely 
 family,* and the shifts the old Ladyf is put to 
 for quadrille. 
 
 I triumph much on my penetration about the 
 
 * Prince and Princess Craon. f Madame Sarasin.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 281 
 
 honest Rucellai* we little people, who have no 
 honesty, virtue, nor shame, do so exult when a 
 good neighbour, who was a pattern, turns out as 
 bad as oneself ! We are like the good woman in 
 the Gospel, who chuckled so much on finding her 
 lost bit ; we have more joy on a saint's fall, than 
 in ninety-nine devils, who were always de nous 
 autres ! I am a little pleased too, that Marquis 
 Bagnesi,f whom you know I always liked much, 
 has behaved so well ; and am more pleased to 
 
 hear what a BefFanaJ the Electress is Pho ! 
 
 here am I, sending you back your own para- 
 graphs, cut and turned ! it is so silly, to think 
 that you won't know them again ! I will not 
 spin myself any longer ; it is better to make a 
 short letter. I am going to the masquerade, 
 
 * Sir H. Mann says, in his letter of January 7, 1743, " 1 must 
 be so just as to tell you my friend, the Senator Rucellai, is, as you 
 always thought, a sad fellow. He has quite abandoned me for fear 
 of offending." D. 
 
 f " Apropos of duels, two of our young nobles, Marquis Bagnesi 
 and Strozzi, have fought about a debt of fifteen shillings ; the latter, 
 the creditor and occasion of the fight, behaved ill." Letter from Sir 
 H. Mann, dated Jan 7, 1743. D. 
 
 J A Beffana was a puppet, which was carried about the town on 
 the evening of the Epiphany. The word is derived from Epifania. 
 It also means an ugly woman. The Electress happened to go out for 
 the first time after an illness on the Epiphany, and said in joke to 
 Prince Craon, that " the Beffane all went abroad on that day." D. 
 
 The Electress Palatine Dowager, the last of the House of 
 Medici.
 
 282 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 and will fancy myself in via della Pergola * 
 adieu ! " Do you know me ?" " That man there 
 with you, in the black domino, is Mr. Chute" 
 Good night. 
 
 LETTER LXIII. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Feb. 2, 1743. 
 
 LAST night at the Duchess of Richmond's, I 
 saw Madame Goldsworthy : what a pert, little 
 unbred thing it is ! The Duchess presented us to 
 one another ; but I cannot say that either of us 
 stepped a foot beyond the first civilities. The 
 good Duchess was for harbouring her and all her 
 brood : how it happened to her I don't conceive, 
 but the thing had decency enough to refuse it. 
 She is going to live with her father at Plymouth 
 taut mieux I 
 
 The day before yesterday the Lords had a 
 great day : Earl Stanhope moved for an address 
 to his Britannic Majesty, in consideration of the 
 heavy wars, taxes, &c. far exceeding all that ever 
 were known, to exonerate his people of foreign 
 troops, (Hanoverians,) which are so expensive, 
 and can in no light answer the ends for which 
 they were hired. Lord Sandwich seconded ; ex- 
 
 * A street at Florence, in which the Opera-house stands.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 283 
 
 tremely well, I hear, for I was not there. Lord 
 Carteret answered, but was under great concern. 
 Lord Bath spoke too, and would fain have per- 
 suaded that this measure was not solely of one 
 minister, but that himself and all the council 
 were equally concerned in it. The late Privy- 
 Seal* spoke for an hour and half, with the 
 greatest applause, against the Hanoverians ; and 
 my Lord Chancellor extremely well for them. 
 The division was, 90 for the Court, 35 against 
 it. The present Privy-Seal f voted with the 
 Opposition : so there will soon be another. Lord 
 Halifax, the Prince's new Lord, was with the 
 minority too ; the other, Lord Darnley, J with the 
 Court. After the division, Lord Scarborough, 
 his Royal Highness's Treasurer, moved an ad- 
 dress of approbation of the measure, which was 
 carried by 78 to the former 35. Lord Orford 
 was ill, and could not be there, but sent his 
 proxy : he has got a great cold and slow fever, 
 but does not keep his room. If Lord Gower 
 loses the Privy-seal, (as it is taken for granted 
 he does not design to keep it,) and Lord Bath 
 refuses it, Lord Cholmondeley stands the fairest 
 for it. 
 
 * Lord Hervey. f Lord Gower. 
 
 I Edward Bligh, second Earl of Darnley, in Ireland, and Lord of 
 the Bedchamber to Frederick Prince of Wales. D.
 
 284 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 I will conclude abruptly, for you will be tired 
 of my telling you that I have nothing to tell 
 you but so it is literally oh! yes, you will 
 want to know what the Duke of Argyle did he 
 was not there ; he is every thing but superan- 
 nuated. Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER LXIV. 
 
 Feb. 13, 1743. 
 
 CERETESI tells me that Madame Galli is dead : 
 I have had two letters from you this week ; but 
 the last mentions only the death of old Strozzi. 
 I am quite sorry for Madame Galli, because I 
 proposed seeing her again, on my return to Flo- 
 rence, which I have firmly in my intention : I 
 hope it will be a little before Ceretesi's, for he 
 seems to be planted here. I don't conceive who 
 waters him ! Here are two noble Venetians that 
 have carried him about lately to Oxford and 
 Blenheim : I am literally waiting for him now, 
 to introduce him to Lady Brown's Sunday night ; 
 it is the great mart for all travelling and travelled 
 calves pho ! here he is. 
 
 Monday morning. Here is your brother : he 
 tells me you never hear from me ; how can that 
 be ? I receive yours, and you generally mention
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 285 
 
 having got one of mine, though long after the 
 time you should. I never miss above one post, 
 and that but very seldom. I am longer receiv- 
 ing yours, though you have never missed ; but 
 then I frequently receive two at once. I am 
 delighted with Goldsworthy's mystery about King 
 Theodore ! If you will promise me not to tell 
 him, I will tell you a secret, which is, that if 
 that person is not King Theodore, I assure you 
 it is not Sir Robert Walpole. 
 
 I have nothing to tell you but that Lord Ef- 
 fingham Howard* is dead, and Lord Litchfieldf 
 at the point of death ; he was struck with a palsy 
 last Thursday. Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER LXV. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Feb. 24, 1743. 
 
 I WRITE to you in the greatest hurry in the 
 world, but write I will. Besides, I must wish 
 you joy; you are warriors; nay, conquer ors;J 
 
 * Francis first Earl of Effingham, and seventh Lord Howard of 
 Effingham. Died February 12, 1743. D. 
 
 t George Henry Lee second Earl of Lichfield. He died in Feb. 
 743. D. 
 
 J This alludes to an engagement, which took place on the 8th of 
 February, near Bologna, between the Spaniards under M. de Gages, 
 and the Austrians under General Traun, in which the latter were 
 successful. D.
 
 286 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 two things quite novel in this war, for hitherto 
 it has been armies without fighting, and deaths 
 without killing. We talk of this battle as of a 
 comet ; " Have you heard of the battle ?" it is so 
 strange a thing, that numbers imagine you may 
 go and see it at Charing Cross. Indeed, our 
 officers who are going to Flanders don't quite 
 like it ; they are afraid it should grow the 
 fashion to fight, and that a pair of colours 
 should no longer be a sinecure. I am quite 
 unhappy about poor Mr. Chute : besides, it is 
 cruel to find that abstinence is not a drug. 
 If mortification ever ceases to be a medicine, or 
 virtue to be a passport to carnivals in the other 
 world, who will be a self-tormentor any longer 
 not, my child, that I am one but, tell me, is 
 he quite recovered ! 
 
 I thank you for King Theodore's declaration,* 
 and wish him success with all my soul. I hate 
 the Genoese ; they make a commonwealth the 
 most devilish of all tyrannies ! 
 
 We have every now and then motions for dis- 
 banding Hessians and Hanoverians, alias merce- 
 naries ; but they come to nothing. To-day the 
 party have declared that they have done for 
 this session ; so you will hear little more but of 
 
 * With regard to Corsica, of which he had declared himself King. 
 D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 287 
 
 fine equipages for Flanders : our troops are ac- 
 tually marched, and" the officers begin to follow 
 them I hope they know whither ! You know in 
 the last war in Spain, Lord Peterborough rode 
 galloping about to inquire for his army. 
 
 But to come to more real contests ; Handel 
 has set up an oratorio against the operas, and 
 succeeds. He has hired all the goddesses from 
 farces and the singers of Roast Beef* from be- 
 tween the acts at both theatres, with a man with 
 one note in his voice, and a girl without ever an 
 one ; and so they sing, and make brave halle- 
 lujahs ; and the good company encore the re- 
 citative, if it happens to have any cadence like 
 what they call a tune. I was much diverted 
 the other night at the opera ; two gentlewomen 
 sat before my sister, and not knowing her, dis- 
 coursed at their ease. Says one, " Lord ! how 
 fine Mr. W. is !" " Yes," replied the other, 
 with a tone of saying sentences, " some men 
 love to be particularly so, your petit-matt res 
 but they are not always the brightest of their 
 sex." Do thank me for this period ! I am sure 
 you will enjoy it as much as we did. 
 
 I shall be very glad of my things, and ap- 
 
 * It was customary at this time for the galleries to call for a ballad 
 called "The Roast Beef of Old England," between the acts, or before 
 or after the play.
 
 288 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 prove entirely of your precautions ; Sir R. will 
 be quite happy, for there is no telling you how 
 impatient he is for his Dominichin. Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER LXVI. 
 
 March 3d, 1743. 
 
 So, she is dead at last, the old Electress !* 
 well, I have nothing more to say about her 
 and the Medici ; they had outlived all their ac- 
 quaintance : indeed, her death makes the battle 
 very considerable makes us call a victory what 
 before we did not look upon as very decided 
 laurels. 
 
 Lord Hervey has entertained the town with 
 another piece of wisdom : on Sunday it was 
 declared that he had married his eldest daughter 
 the night before to a Mr. Phipps,f grandson of 
 the Duchess of Buckingham. They sent for 
 the boy but the day before from Oxford, and 
 bedded them at a day's notice. But after all this 
 mystery, it does not turn out that there is any 
 
 * Anna Maria of Medicis, daughter of Cosmo III. widow of 
 John William Elector Palatine. After her husband's death she re- 
 turned to Florence, where she died, Feb. 7, 1743, aged seventy-five, 
 being the last of that family. 
 
 f Afterwards created Lord Mulgrave, in Ireland. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 289 
 
 thing great in this match, but the greatness of 
 the secret. Poor Hervey,* the brother, is in fear 
 and trembling, for he apprehends being ravished 
 to bed to some fortune or other with as little 
 ceremony. The Oratorios thrive abundantly 
 for my part, they give me an idea of heaven, 
 where every body is to sing whether they have 
 voices or not. 
 
 The Board (the Jacobite Club) have chosen 
 his Majesty's Lord Privy Sealf for their Pre- 
 sident, in the room of Lord Litchfield. Don't 
 you like the harmony of parties ? We expect 
 the Parliament will rise this month : I shall be 
 sorry, for if I am not hurried out of town, at 
 least everybody else will and who can look for- 
 ward from April to November ? Adieu ! though 
 I write in defiance of having nothing to say, 
 yet you see I can't go a great way in this ob- 
 stinacy ; but you will bear a short letter rather 
 than none. 
 
 LETTER LXVII. 
 
 Arlington Street, March 14, 1743. 
 
 I don't at all know how to advise you about 
 mourning ; I always think that the custom of 
 
 * George William Hervey, afterwards second Earl of Bristol. D. 
 t Lord Gower. 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 the country, and what other foreign ministers 
 do, should be your rule. But I had a private 
 scruple rose with me : that was, whether you 
 should show so much respect to the late woman* 
 as other ministers do, since she left that legacy 
 to Quello a Roma.^ I mentioned this to my 
 Lord, but he thinks that the tender manner of 
 her wording it, takes off that exception ; how- 
 ever, he thinks it better that you should write 
 for advice to your commanding officer. That 
 will be very late, and you will probably have 
 determined before. You see what a casuist I 
 am in ceremony ; I leave the question more per- 
 plexed than I found it. 
 
 Pray, Sir, congratulate me upon the new ac- 
 quisition of glory to my family ! We have long 
 been eminent statesmen ; now that we are out of 
 employment we have betaken ourselves to war 
 and we have made great proficiency in a short 
 season. We don't run, like my Lord Stair, into 
 Berg and Juliers, to seek battles where we are 
 sure of not finding them we make shorter 
 marches ; a step across the Court of Requests 
 brings us to engagement. But not to detain 
 you any longer with flourishes, which will pro- 
 
 * The Electress Palatine Dowager. 
 
 f She left a legacy to the Pretender, describing him only by these 
 words, To Him at Rome.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 291 
 
 bably be inserted in my uncle Horace's patent 
 when he is made a field-marshal ; you must 
 know that he has fought a duel, and has scratch- 
 ed a scratch three inches long on the side of his 
 enemy lo Ptean ! The circumstances of this 
 memorable engagement were, in short, that on 
 some witness being to be examined the other 
 day in the House upon remittances to the army, 
 my uncle said, " He hoped they would indemnify 
 him, if he told anything that affected himself." 
 Soon after he was standing behind the Speaker's 
 chair, and Will. Chetwynd, * an intimate of 
 Bolinbroke, came up to him, and said, " What, 
 Mr. Walpole, are you for rubbing up old sores ?" 
 He replied, " I think I said very little, consider- 
 ing that you and your friends would last year 
 have hanged up me and my brother at the 
 lobby-door without a trial." Chetwynd answer- 
 ed, " I would still have you both have your 
 deserts." The other said, " If you and I had, 
 probably I should be here and you would be 
 somewhere else." This drew more words, and 
 Chetwynd took him by the arm and led him out. 
 In the lobby, Horace said, " We shall be observ- 
 ed, we had better put it off till to-morrow." 
 " No, no, now ! now !" When they came to 
 
 * William Chetwynd, brother of the Lord Viscount Chetwynd. 
 On the coalition he was made Master of the Mint. 
 
 u 2
 
 292 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 the bottom of the stairs, Horace said, " I am out 
 of breath, let us draw here." They drew ; 
 Chetwynd hit him on the breast, but was not 
 near enough to pierce his coat. Horace made 
 a pass, which the other put by with his hand, 
 but it glanced along his side a clerk, who had 
 observed them go out together so arm-in-arm-ly, 
 could not believe it amicable, but followed them, 
 and came up just time enough to beat down 
 their swords, as Horace had driven him against a 
 post, and would probably have run him through 
 at the next thrust. Chetwynd went away to 
 a surgeon's, and kept his bed the next day ; he 
 has not reappeared yet, but is in no danger. 
 My uncle returned to the House, and was so 
 little moved as to speak immediately upon the 
 Cambrick billy which made Swinny say, " That 
 it was a sign he was not ruffled." Don't you 
 delight in this duel ? I expect to see it daubed 
 up by some circuit-painter on the ceiling of the 
 saloon at Woolterton. 
 
 I have no news to tell you, but that we hear 
 King Theodore has sent over proposals of his 
 person and crown to Lady Lucy Stanhope,* 
 with whom he fell in love the last time he was 
 in England. 
 
 * Sister of Earl Stanhope.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 293 
 
 Princess Buckingham* is dead or dying : she 
 has sent for Mr. Anstis, and settled the cere- 
 monial of her burial. On Saturday she was 
 so ill that she feared dying before all the pomp 
 was come home : she said " Why won't they 
 send the canopy for me to see ? let them send 
 it, though all the tassels are not finished." But 
 yesterday was the greatest stroke of all ! She 
 made her ladies vow to her, that if she should 
 lie senseless, they would not sit down in the 
 room before she was dead. She has a great 
 mind to be buried by her father at Paris. Mrs. 
 Selwyn says, " She need not be carried out of 
 
 * Catherine Duchess of Buckingham, natural daughter of King 
 James II. by the Countess of Dorchester. She was so proud of her 
 birth, that she would never go to Versailles, because they would not 
 give her the rank of Princess of the Blood. At Rome, whither she 
 went two or three times to see her brother, and to carry on negotia- 
 tions with him for his interest, she had a box at the Opera distin- 
 guished like those of crowned heads. She not only regulated the 
 ceremony of her own burial, and dressed up the waxen figure of 
 herself for Westminster Abbey, but had shown the same insensible 
 pride on the death of her only son, dressing his figure, and sending 
 messages to her friends, that if they had a mind to see him lie in state, 
 she would carry them in conveniently by a back-door. She sent to 
 the old Duchess of Marlborough to borrow the triumphal car that 
 had carried the Duke's body. Old Sarah, as mad and proud as her- 
 self, sent her word, " that it had carried my Lord Marlborough, and 
 should never be profaned by any other corpse." The Buckingham 
 returned, that " she had spoken to the undertaker, and he had en- 
 gaged to make a finer for twenty pounds."
 
 294 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 England, and yet be buried by her father." You 
 know that Lady Dorchester always told her that 
 old Graham * was her father. 
 
 I am much obliged to you for the trouble 
 you have taken about the statue ; do draw upon 
 me for it immediately, and for all my other 
 debts to you : I am sure they must be nume- 
 rous ; pray don't fail. 
 
 A thousand loves to the Chutes : a thousand 
 compliments to the Princess ; and a thousand 
 whats ? to the Grifona. Alas ! what can one 
 do ; I have forgot all my Italian. Adieu ! 
 
 * Colonel Graham. When the Duchess was young, and as in- 
 solent as afterwards, her mother used to say, " You need not be so 
 proud, for you are not the King's but old Graham's daughter." It 
 is certain, that his legitimate daughter, the Countess of Berkshire 
 and Suffolk, was extremely like the Duchess, and that he often said 
 with a sneer, " Well, well, Kings are great men, they make free 
 with whom they please ! All I can say is, that I am sure the same 
 man begot those two women." The Duchess often went to weep over 
 her father's body at Paris : one of the monks seeing her tenderness, 
 thought it a proper opportunity to make her observe how ragged the 
 pall is that lies over the body, (which is kept unburied, to be some 
 time or other interred in England,) but she would not buy a new 
 one !
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 295 
 
 LETTER LXVIII. 
 
 Arlington-Street, March 25, 1743. 
 
 WELL ! my dear Sir, the Genii, or whoever 
 are to look after the seasons, seem to me to 
 change turns, and to wait instead of one an- 
 other, like Lords of the bedchamber. We have 
 had loads of sunshine all the winter ; and within 
 these ten days nothing but snows, north-east 
 winds, and blue plagues. The last ships have 
 brought over all your epidemic distempers : not 
 a family in London has escaped under five or six 
 ill : many people have been forced to hire new 
 labourers. Guernier, the apothecary, took two 
 new apothecaries, and yet could not drug all his 
 patients. It is a cold and fever. I had one of 
 the worst, and was blooded on Saturday and 
 Sunday, but it is quite gone : my father was 
 blooded last night : his is but slight. The phy- 
 sicians say that there has been nothing like it 
 since the year Thirty-three, and then not so bad 
 in short, our army abroad would shudder to 
 see what streams of blood have been let out! 
 Nobody has died of it, but old Mr. Eyres, of 
 Chelsea, through obstinacy of not bleeding ; and 
 his ancient Grace of York,* Wilcox of Roches- 
 
 * Doctor Lancelot Blackburne. (Walpole says he had been in his 
 youth a buccaneer ; but the fact has been disputed. D.)
 
 296 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 ter,* succeeds him, who is fit for nothing in the 
 world, but to die of this cold too. 
 
 They now talk of the King's not going abroad : 
 I like to talk on that side, because though it 
 may not be true, one may at least be able to 
 give some sort of reason why he should not. 
 We go into mourning for your Electress on Sun- 
 day ; I suppose they will tack the Elector of 
 Mentz to her, for he is just dead. I delight in 
 Richcourt's calculation : I don't doubt but it is 
 the method he often uses in accounting with the 
 Great Duke. 
 
 I have had two letters from you of the 5th 
 and 12th, with a note of things coming by sea ; 
 but, my dear child, you are either run Roman 
 Catholicly devout, or take me to be so, for no- 
 thing but a religious fit of zeal could make you 
 think of sending me so many presents why, 
 there are Madonnas enough in one case to fur- 
 nish a more than common cathedral I abso- 
 lutely will drive to Demetrius, the silversmith's, 
 and bespeak myself a pompous shrine ! But in- 
 deed, seriously, how can I, who have a consci- 
 ence, and am no saint, take all these things ? 
 You must either let me pay for them, or I will 
 demand my unfortunate coffee-pot again, which 
 
 * He was not succeeded by Dr. Wilcox, but by Dr. Herring, since 
 promoted to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 297 
 
 has put you upon ruining yourself. By the way, 
 do let me have it again, for I cannot trust it 
 any longer in your hands at this rate ; and since 
 I have found out its virtue, I will present it to 
 somebody, whom I shall have no scruple of let- 
 ting send me bales and cargoes, and ship-loads 
 of Madonnas, perfumes, prints, frankincense, &c. 
 You have not even drawn upon me for my 
 statue, my hermaphrodite, my gallery, and twen- 
 ty other things, for which I am lawfully your 
 debtor. 
 
 I must tell you one thing, that I will not say 
 a word to my Lord of this Argosie, as Shakspeare 
 calls his costly ships, till it is arrived, for he will 
 tremble for his Dominichin, and think it will not 
 come safe in all this company by the way, will 
 a Captain of a man-of-war care to take all? We 
 were talking over Italy last night : my Lord pro- 
 tests, that if he thought he had strength, he 
 would see Florence, Bologna, and Rome, by way 
 of Marseilles, to Leghorn. You may imagine 
 how I gave in to such a jaunt. I don't set my 
 heart upon it, because I think he cannot do 
 it ; but if he does, I promise you, you shall be 
 his Cicerone. I delight in the gallantry of my 
 Princess's brother.* I will tell you what, if the 
 Italians don't take care, they will grow as brave 
 
 * Signer Capponi, brother of Madame Grifoui.
 
 298 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 and as wrong-headed as their neighbours. Oh ! 
 how shall I do about writing to her ? Well, if 
 I can, I will be bold, and write to her to-night. 
 
 I have no idea what the two minerals are that 
 you mention, but I will inquire, and if there are 
 such, you shall have them ; and gold and silver, 
 if they grow in this land, for I am sure I am deep 
 enough in your debt. Adieu ! 
 
 P. S. It won't do ! I have tried to write, but 
 you would bless yourself to see what stuff I have 
 been forging for half an hour, and have not 
 waded through three lines of paper. I have 
 totally forgot my Italian, and if she will but 
 have prudence enough to support the loss of 
 a correspondence, which was long since worn 
 threadbare, we will come to as decent a silence 
 as may be. 
 
 LETTER LXIX. 
 
 Monday, April 4, 1743. 
 
 I HAD my pen in my hand all last Thursday 
 morning, to write to you, but my pen had nothing 
 to say. I would make it do something to-day, 
 though what will come of it, I don't conceive. 
 
 They say, the King does not go abroad : we
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 299 
 
 know nothing about our army. I suppose it is 
 gone to blockade Egra, and to not take Prague, 
 as it has been the fashion for every body to send 
 their army to do these three years. The officers 
 in parliament are not gone yet. We have no- 
 thing to do, but I believe the ministry have 
 something for us to do, for we are continually 
 adjourned, but not prorogued. They talk of 
 marrying Princess Caroline and Louisa, to the 
 future Kings of Sweden and Denmark ; but if 
 the latter* is King of both, I don't apprehend 
 that he is to marry both the Princesses in his 
 double capacity. 
 
 Herring, of Bangor, the youngest bishop, is 
 named to the See of York. It looks as if the 
 bench thought the church going out of fashion, 
 for two or three f of them have refused this 
 mitre. 
 
 Next Thursday we are to be entertained with 
 a pompous parade for the burial of old Princess 
 Buckingham. They have invited ten Peeresses 
 to walk ; all somehow or other dashed with 
 blood-royal, and rather than not have King 
 James's daughter attended by Princesses, they 
 
 * There was a party at this time in Sweden, who tried to choose 
 the Prince Royal of Denmark for successor to King Frederick of 
 Sweden. 
 
 t Dr. Wilcox, bishop of Rochester, and Dr. Sherlock, bishop of 
 Salisbury ; the latter afterwards accepted the See of London.
 
 300 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 have fished out two or three Countesses descend- 
 ed from his competitor Monmouth. 
 
 There, I am at the end of my tell ! If I write 
 on, it must be to ask questions. I would ask 
 why Mr. Chute has left me off? but when he 
 sees what a frippery correspondent I am, he will 
 scarce be in haste to renew with me again. I 
 really don't know why I am so dry ; mine used 
 to be the pen of a ready writer, but whist seems 
 to have stretched its leaden wand over me too, 
 who have nothing to do with it. I am trying to 
 set up the noble game of bilboquet against it, 
 and am composing a grammar in opposition to 
 Mr. Hoyle's. You will some day or other see an 
 advertisement in the papers, to tell you where it 
 may be bought, and that ladies may be waited 
 upon by the author at their houses, to receive 
 any farther directions. I am really ashamed to 
 send this scantling of paper by the post, over so 
 many seas and mountains : it seems as imper- 
 tinent as the commission which Prior gave to the 
 winds, 
 
 " Lybs must fly south, and Eurus east, 
 For jewels for her neck and breast." 
 
 Indeed, one would take you for my Chloe, when 
 one looks on this modicum of gilt paper, which 
 resembles a billet-doux more than a letter to a 
 minister. But you must take it as the widow's
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 301 
 
 mite, and since the death of my spouse, poor 
 Mr. News, I cannot afford such large doles as 
 formerly. Adieu ! my dear child, I am yours 
 ever, from a quire of the largest foolscap to a 
 vessel of the smallest gilt. 
 
 LETTER LXX. 
 
 Arlington-Street, April 14, 1743. 
 
 THIS has been a noble week ; I have received 
 three letters at once from you. I am ashamed 
 when I reflect on the poverty of my own ! but 
 what can one do ? I don't sell you my news, and 
 therefore should not be excusable to invent. I 
 wish we don't grow to have more news ! Our 
 politics, which have not always been the most in 
 earnest, now begin to take a very serious turn. 
 Our army is wading over the Rhine, up to their 
 middles in snow. I hope they will be thawed be- 
 fore their return : but they have gone through ex- 
 cessive hardships. The King sends six thousand 
 more of his Hanoverians at his own expense this 
 will be popular and the six thousand Hessians 
 march too. All this will compose an army con- 
 siderable enough to be a great loss if they mis- 
 carry. The King certainly goes abroad in less 
 than a fortnight. He takes the Duke with him
 
 302 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 to Hanover, who from thence goes directly to 
 the army. The Court will not be great : the 
 King takes only Lord Carteret, the Duke of 
 Richmond, Master of the Horse, and Lord Hol- 
 derness, and Lord Harcourt,* for the bed- 
 chamber. The Duchesses of Richmond and 
 Marlborough,f and plump Carteret, | go to the 
 Hague. 
 
 His Royal Highness is not Regent : there are 
 to be fourteen. The Earl of Bath and Mr. Pel- 
 ham, neither of them in Regency-posts, are to be 
 of the number. 
 
 I have read your letters about Mystery to Sir 
 Robert. He denies absolutely having ever had 
 transactions with King Theodore, and is amazed 
 Lord Carteret can ; which he can't help thinking 
 but he must, by the intelligence about Lady W. 
 Now I can conceive all that affected friendship 
 for Richcourt ! She must have meant to return 
 to England by Richcourt's interest with Touis- 
 sant and then where was her friendship ? You 
 
 * Simon second Viscount Harcourt. Created an Earl in 1749. 
 Subsequently Ambassador at Paris, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 He was drowned in a well in his park at Nuneham, in 1777. D. 
 
 f Elizabeth Trevor, wife of Charles Spencer Duke of Marlborough. 
 D. 
 
 I Frances, only daughter of Sir Robert Worseley, first wife of Lord 
 Carteret. 
 
 First Minister of the Great Duke.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 303 
 
 are quite in the right not to have engaged with 
 King Theodore : your character is not Furibondo. 
 Sir R. entirely disapproves all Mysterious deal- 
 ings : he thinks Furibondo most bad and most 
 improper, and always did. You mistook me 
 about Lady W.'s Lord I meant Quarendon, 
 who is now Earl of Litchfield, by his father's 
 death, which I mentioned. I think her lucky in 
 Sturges's death, and him lucky in dying. He 
 had outlived resentment I think had almost 
 lived to be pitied. 
 
 I forgot to thank you about the model, which 
 I should have been sorry to have missed. I long 
 for all the things, and my Lord more. Am I 
 not to have a bill of lading, or how ? 
 
 I never say anything of the Pomfrets, because 
 in the great city of London the Countess's follies 
 do not make the same figure as they did in little 
 Florence. Besides, there are such numbers here 
 who have such equal pretensions to be absurd, 
 that one is scarce aware of particular ridicules. 
 
 I really don't know whether Vanneschi be 
 dead ; he married some low English woman, 
 who is kept by Amorevoli so the Abbate turn- 
 ed the opera every way to his profit. As to 
 Bonducci,* I don't think I could serve him, for I 
 
 * Bonducci was a Florentine Abbe", who translated some of Pope's 
 works into Italian.
 
 304 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 have no interest with the Lords Middlesex and 
 Holderness, the two sole managers. Nor if I 
 had, would I employ it, to bring over more ruin 
 to the operas. Gentlemen directors, with favou- 
 rite Abbe's and favourite mistresses, have almost 
 overturned the thing in England. You will 
 plead my want of interest to Mr. Smith * too 
 besides, we had Bufos here once, and from not 
 understanding the language, people thought it a 
 dull kind of dumb show. We are next Tuesday 
 to have the Miserere of Rome. It must be curi- 
 ous ! the finest piece of vocal music in the world, 
 to be performed by three good voices, and forty 
 bad ones, from Oxford, Canterbury, and the 
 farces ! There is a new subscription formed for 
 an opera next year, to be carried on by the 
 Dilettanti, a club, for which the nominal qualifi- 
 cation is having been in Italy, and the real one, 
 being drunk : the two chiefs are Lord Middlesex 
 and Sir Francis Dashwood, who were seldom 
 sober the whole time they were in Italy. 
 
 The parliament rises next week : every body 
 is going out of town ; my Lord goes the first 
 week in May ; but I shall reprieve myself till 
 towards August. Dull as London is in summer, 
 there is always more company in it than in any 
 one place in the country. I hate the country 
 
 * The English Consul at Venice.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 305 
 
 I am past the shepherdly age of groves and 
 streams, and am not arrived at that of hating 
 every thing but what I do myself, as building 
 and planting. Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER LXXI. 
 
 Arlington-Street, April 25, 1743. 
 
 NAY, but it is serious ! the King is gone, and 
 the Duke with him. The latter actually to the 
 army. They must sow laurels, if they design to 
 reap any, for there are no conquests forward 
 enough for them to come just in time and finish. 
 The French have relieved Egra and cut to 
 pieces two of the best Austrian regiments, the 
 Cuirassiers. This is ugly! We are sure, you 
 know, of beating the French always in France 
 and Flanders ; but I don't hear that the Heralds 
 have produced any precedents for our conquering 
 them on the other side the Rhine.* We at home 
 may be excused for trembling at the arrival of 
 every post : I am sure I shall. If I were a wo- 
 man, I should support my fears with more dig- 
 nity, for if one did lose a husband or a lover, 
 there are those becoming comforts, weeds and 
 cypresses, jointures and weeping cupids ; but I 
 
 * Walpole seems to have forgotten the battle of Blenheim. D. 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 have only a friend or two to lose, and there are 
 no ornamental substitutes settled, to be one's 
 proxy for that sort of grief. One has not the 
 satisfaction of fixing a day for receiving visits of 
 consolation from a thousand people whom one 
 don't love, because one has lost the only person 
 one did love. This is a new situation, and I 
 don't like it. 
 
 You will see the Regency in the newspapers 
 I think the Prince might have been of it when 
 my Lord Gower is. I don't think the latter 
 more Jacobite than his royal Highness. 
 
 The Prince is to come to town every Sunday 
 fortnight to hold drawing-rooms ; the Princesses 
 stay all the summer at St. James's would I 
 did ! but I go in three weeks to Norfolk ; the 
 only place that could make me wish to live at 
 St. James's. My Lord has pressed me so much, 
 that I could not with decency refuse : he is going 
 to furnish and hang his picture-gallery, and wants 
 me. I can't help wishing that I had never 
 known a Guido from a Teniers : but who could 
 ever suspect any connexion between painting and 
 the wilds of Norfolk ? 
 
 Princess Louisa's contract with the Prince of 
 Denmark was signed the morning before the 
 King went; but I don't hear when she goes.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 307 
 
 Poor Caroline misses her man of Lubeck,* by 
 his missing the crown of Sweden. 
 
 I must tell you an odd thing that happened 
 yesterday at Leicester-House. The Prince's chil- 
 dren were in the circle : Lady Augustaf heard 
 somebody call Sir Robert Rich by his name. She 
 concluded there was but one Sir Robert in the 
 world, and taking him for Lord Orford, the child 
 went staring up to him, and said, " Pray, where 
 is your blue string! and pray what is become of 
 your fat belly!" Did one ever hear of a more 
 royal education, than to have rung this mob-cant 
 in the child's ears, till it had made this impres- 
 sion on her ! 
 
 Lord Stafford is come over to marry Miss 
 Cantillon, a vast fortune, of his own religion. 
 She is daughter of the Cantillon, who was rob- 
 bed and murdered, and had his house burned by 
 his cook, "I a few years ago. She is as ugly as he ; 
 
 * Adolphus Frederick of Holstein, Bishop of Lubeck, was elected 
 successor, and did succeed to the Crown of Sweden. He married 
 the Princess Louisa Ulrica, of Prussia. 
 
 f Afterwards Duchess of Brunswick. D. 
 
 I Cantillon was a Paris banker, who had been engaged with Law in 
 the Mississipi scheme. He afterwards brought his riches to England, 
 and settled in this country. Some of his servants, headed by his cook, 
 conspired to murder him, knowing that he kept large sums of money 
 in his house. They killed him, and then set fire to the house ; but 
 
 x 2
 
 308 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 but when she comes to Paris, and wears a good 
 deal of rouge, and a separate apartment, who 
 knows but she may be a beauty ! There is no 
 telling what a woman is, while she is as she is. 
 
 There is a great fracas in Ireland, in a noble 
 family or two heightened by a pretty strong cir- 
 cumstance of Iricism. A Lord Belfield* married a 
 very handsome daughter of a Lord Molesworth.f 
 A certain Arthur Rochfort, who happened to be 
 acquainted in the family by being Lord Bel- 
 field's own brother, looked on this woman, and 
 saw she was fair. These ingenious people, that 
 their history might not be discovered, corre- 
 sponded under feigned names And what names 
 do you think they chose ? Silvia and Philan- 
 der ! Only the very same that Lord Grey and 
 
 the fire was extinguished, and the body with the wounds upon it, 
 found. D. 
 
 * Robert Rochfort, created Lord Belfield in Ireland in 1737, Vis- 
 count Belfield in 1751, and Earl of Belvedere in 1756. His second 
 wife, whom he married in 1736, was the Hon. Mary Molesworth. D. 
 
 f Richard third Viscount Molesworth, in Ireland. He had been 
 aid-de-camp to the great Duke of Marlborough, and in that capacity 
 distinguished himself greatly at the battle of Ramilies. He became 
 afterwards Master-General of the Ordnance in Ireland, and Com- 
 mander of the Forces in that kingdom, and a Field Marshal. He 
 died in 1758. D. 
 
 I Ford, the infamous Lord Grey, of Wales, and his sister-in-law, 
 Lady Henrietta Berkeley, whose " Love Letters," under these ro- 
 mantic names, were published in three small volumes. They are 
 supposed to have been compiled by Mrs. Behn. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 309 
 
 his sister-in-law took upon a parallel occasion, 
 and which are printed in their letters ! 
 
 Patapan sits to Wootton to-morrow for his 
 picture. He is to have a triumphal arch at a dis- 
 tance, to signify his Roman birth, and his having 
 barked at thousands of Frenchmen in the very 
 heart of Paris. If you can think of a good Ita- 
 lian motto, applicable to any part of his history, 
 send it me. If not, he shall have this antique 
 one, (for I reckon him a Senator of Rome, while 
 Rome survived,) O et Presidium et dulce decus 
 meum! He is writing an ode on the future cam- 
 paign of this summer ; it is dated from his villa, 
 where he never was, and begins truly in the 
 classic style, While you, great Sir, 8$c. Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER LXXII. 
 
 May 4, 1743. 
 
 THE King was detained four or five days at 
 Sheerness ; but yesterday we heard that he was 
 got to Helvoetsluys. They talk of an interview 
 between him and his nephew of Prussia I never 
 knew any advantage result from such conferences. 
 We expect to hear of the French attacking our 
 army, though there are accounts of their re- 
 tiring, which would necessarily produce a peace
 
 310 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 I hope so ! I don't like to be at the eve, even 
 of an Agincourt ; that you know every English- 
 man is bound in faith to expect ; besides, they 
 say my Lord Stair has in his pocket, from the 
 records of the Tower, the original patent, em- 
 powering us always to conquer. I am told that 
 Marshal Noailles is as mad as Marshal Stair 
 Heavens ! twice fifty thousand men trusted to two 
 mad Captains, without one Dr. Monroe * over 
 them! 
 
 I am sorry I could give you so little in- 
 formation about King Theodore ; but my Lord 
 knew nothing of him, and as little of any con- 
 nexion between Lord Carteret and him. I am 
 sorry you have him on your hands. He quite 
 mistakes his province : an adventurer should 
 come hither ;-f- this is the soil for mobs and pa- 
 triots ; it is the country of the world to make 
 
 * Physician of Bedlam. 
 
 f He afterwards came to England, where he suffered much from 
 poverty and destitution, and was finally arrested by his creditors, 
 and confined in the King's Bench prison. He was released from 
 thence under the Insolvent act, having registered the kingdom of 
 Corsica for the use of his creditors. Shortly after this event he died, 
 December 11, 1756, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Anne's, 
 Soho, where Horace Walpole erected a marble slab to his memory. 
 He was an adventurer, whose name was Theodore Anthony Baron 
 Newhoff, and was born at Metz, in 1696. Horace Walpole, who 
 had seen him, describes him as " a comely, middle-sized man, very 
 reserved, and affecting much dignity." D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 311 
 
 one's fortune : with parts never so scanty, one's 
 dullness is not discovered, nor one's dishonesty, 
 till one obtains the post one wanted and then, 
 if they do come to light why, one slinks into 
 one's green velvet bag,* and lies so snug ! I 
 don't approve of your hinting at the falsehoods *( 
 of Stosch's intelligence ; nobody regards it but 
 the King ; it pleases him e basta. 
 
 I was not in the House at Vernon's frantic 
 speech ; but I know he made it, and have heard 
 him pronounce several such ; but he has worn 
 out even laughter, and did not make impression 
 enough on me to remember till the next post 
 that he had spoken. 
 
 I gave your brother the translated paper, he 
 will take care of it. Ceretesi is gone to Flan- 
 ders with Lord Holderness : poor creature ! he 
 was reduced, before he went, to borrow five gui- 
 neas of Sir Francis Dashwood. How will he 
 ever scramble back to Florence ? 
 
 We are likely at last to have no opera next 
 year : Handel has had a palsy and can't com- 
 pose ; and the Duke of Dorset has set himself 
 
 * The Secretaries of State and Lord Treasurer carry their papers in 
 a green velvet bag. 
 
 f Stosch used to pretend to send over an exact Journal of the life 
 of the Pretender and his sons, though he had been sent out of Rome 
 at the Pretender's request, and must have had very bad or no intelli- 
 gence of what passed in that family.
 
 312 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 strenuously to oppose it, as Lord Middlesex is the 
 Impresario, and must ruin the house of Sack- 
 ville by a course of these follies. Besides what 
 he will lose this year, he has not paid his share 
 to the losses of the last, and yet is singly under- 
 taking another for next season, with the almost 
 certainty of losing between four or five thousand 
 pounds, to which the deficiencies of the opera 
 generally amount now. The Duke of Dorset 
 has desired the King not to subscribe ; but Lord 
 Middlesex is so obstinate, that this will probably 
 only make him lose a thousand pounds more. 
 
 The Free Masons are in so low repute now in 
 England, that one has scarce heard the proceed- 
 ings at Vienna against them mentioned. I be- 
 lieve nothing but a persecution could bring them 
 into vogue again here. You know as great as 
 our follies are, we even grow tired of them, and 
 are always changing. 
 
 LETTER LXXIII. 
 
 Arlington-Street, May 12, 1743. 
 
 IT is a fortnight since I have got any of your 
 letters, but I will expect two at once. I don't 
 tell you by way of news, because you will have 
 had expresses, but I must talk of the great Aus-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 313 
 
 trian victory ! * We have not heard the exact 
 particulars yet, nor whether it was Kevenhuller 
 or Lobkowitz, who beat the Bavarians, but their 
 General, Minucci, is prisoner : at first, they said 
 Seckendorffe was too ; I am glad he is not ; 
 poor man, he has suffered enough by the House 
 of Austria ! But my joy is beyond the common, 
 for I flatter myself that this victory will save us 
 one we talk of nothing but its producing a 
 peace, and then one's friends will return. 
 
 The Duchess of Kendalf is dead, eighty-five 
 years old ; she was a year older than her late 
 King. Her riches were immense, but I believe 
 my Lord Chesterfield will get nothing by her 
 death but his wife :J she lived in the house 
 with the Duchess, where he had played away all 
 his credit. 
 
 * There was no great victory this year, till the battle of Dettingen, 
 which took place in June ; but the Austrians obtained many advan- 
 tages during the spring over the Bavarians and the French, and 
 obliged the latter to re-cross the Rhine. D. 
 
 f Erangard Melusina Schulembergh, the mistress of George I. 
 George I. created the Duchess of Kendal, Duchess of Munster and 
 Marchioness of Dungannon in Ireland, in 1719, and Duchess of 
 Kendal, Countess of Feversham, and Baroness of Glastonbury in 
 England, in 1723. All these honours were for life only. He also 
 persuaded the Emperor to create her Princess of Eberstein in the 
 Roman empire, in 1723. D. 
 
 t Melusina Schulembergh Countess of Walsingham, niece of the 
 Duchess of Kendal, and her heiress.
 
 314 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Hough,* the good old Bishop of Worcester, is 
 dead too. I have been looking at the Fathers in 
 God, that have been flocking over the way this 
 morning, to Mr. Pelham, who is just come to his 
 new house. This is absolutely the ministerial 
 street : Carteret has a house here too ; and Lord 
 Bath seems to have lost his chance by quitting 
 this street. Old Marlborough has made a good 
 story of the latter ; she says that when he found 
 he could not get the Privy-seal, he begged that 
 at least they would offer it to him, and upon his 
 honour he would not accept it, but would plead 
 his vow of never taking a place ; in which she 
 says they humoured him. The truth is, Lord 
 Carteret did hint an offer to him, upon which 
 he went with a nolo episcopari to the King he 
 bounced, and said, " Why I never offered it to 
 you :" upon which he recommended my Lord 
 Carlisle "f" with equal success. 
 
 Just before the King went, he asked my Lord 
 Carteret, " Well, when am I to get rid of those 
 fellows in the Treasury ?" They are on so 
 low a foot, that somebody said, Sandys had 
 
 * Hough was a man of piety, ability, and integrity, and had dis- 
 tinguished himself early in his life, by his resistance to the arbitrary 
 proceedings of James II. against Magdalen College Oxford, of which 
 he was the President. Pope, with much justice, speaks of "Hough's 
 unsullied mitre." D. 
 
 t Henry Howard fourth Earl of Carlisle, K.G. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 315 
 
 hired a stand of hackney-coaches, to look like a 
 levee. 
 
 Lord Conway has begged me to send you a 
 commission, which you will oblige me much by 
 executing. It is to send him three Pistoia bar- 
 rels for guns : two of them, of two feet and a 
 half in the barrel in length ; the smallest of the 
 inclosed buttons to be the size of the bore, hole, 
 or calibre, of the two guns. The third barrel to 
 be three feet and an inch in length ; the largest 
 of these buttons to be the bore of it : these feet 
 are English measure. You will be so good to 
 let me know the price of them. 
 
 There has happened a comical circumstance 
 at Leicester-House : one of the Prince's coach- 
 men who used to drive the Maids of Honour, was 
 so sick of them, that he has left his son three 
 hundred pounds, upon condition that he never 
 marries a Maid of Honour ! 
 
 Our journey to Houghton is fixed to Saturday 
 se'nnight ; 'tis unpleasant, but I flatter myself 
 that I shall get away in the beginning of August. 
 Direct your letters as you have done all this 
 winter ; your brother will take care to send them 
 to me. Adieu !
 
 316 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER LXXIV. 
 
 May 19, 1743. 
 
 I AM just come tired from a family dinner at 
 the Master of the Rolls ;* but I have received 
 two letters from you since my last, and will 
 write to you, though my head aches with maiden 
 sisters' healths, forms, and Devonshire and Nor- 
 folk. With yours I received one from Mr. 
 Chute, for which I thank him a thousand times, 
 and will answer as soon as I get to Houghton. 
 Monday is fixed peremptorily, though we have 
 had no rain this month ; but we travel by the 
 day of the week, not by the day of the sky. 
 
 We are in more confusion than we care to 
 own. There lately came up a highland regi- 
 ment from Scotland, to be sent abroad. One 
 heard of nothing but their good discipline and 
 quiet disposition. When the day came for their 
 going to the water-side, an hundred and nine of 
 them mutinied, and marched away in a body. 
 They did not care to go where it would not be 
 equivocal for what King they fought. Three 
 companies of dragoons are sent after them. If 
 you happen to hear of any rising, don't be sur- 
 prised I shall not, I assure you. Sir Robert 
 
 * William Fortescue, Master of the Rolls, a relation of Margaret 
 Lady Walpole.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 317 
 
 Monroe, their Lieutenant-Colonel, before their 
 leaving Scotland, asked some of the Ministry, 
 " But suppose there should be any rebellion in 
 Scotland, what should we do for these eight 
 hundred men ?" it was answered, " Why, there 
 would be eight hundred fewer rebels there." 
 
 Utor permisso, caudaeque pilos ut equinae 
 Paulatim vello, demo unum, demo etiam unum, 
 Dum 
 
 My dear child, I am surprised to find you en- 
 ter so seriously into earnest ideas of my Lord's 
 passing into Italy ! could you think (however 
 he, you, or I might wish it,) that there could be 
 any probability of it ? can you think his age 
 could endure it, or him so indifferent, so totally 
 disministered, as to leave all thoughts of what he 
 has been, and ramble like a boy after pictures 
 and statues ? Don't expect it. 
 
 We had heard of the Duke of Modena's com- 
 mand before I had your letter. I am glad, for 
 the sake of the Duchess, as she is to return to 
 France. I never saw any body wish anything 
 more ! and indeed, how can one figure any par- 
 ticle of pleasure happening to a daughter of the 
 Regent,* and a favourite daughter too, full of 
 
 * Mademoiselle de Valois, who had made herself notorious during 
 the Regency of her father, by her intrigue with the Duke of Richelieu. 
 She consented to marry the Duke of Modena, in order to obtain the
 
 318 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 wit and joy, buried in a dirty, dull Italian 
 duchy, with an ugly, formal object for a hus- 
 band, and two uncouth sister-Princesses for eter- 
 nal companions ? I am so near the eve of going 
 into Norfolk, that I imagine myself something in 
 her situation, and married to some Hammond or 
 Hoste,* who is Duke of Wootton or Dasingham. 
 I remember in the fairy tales where a yellow 
 dwarf steals a Princess, and shows her his 
 duchy, of which he is very proud : among the 
 blessings of grandeur, of which he makes her 
 mistress, there is a most beautiful ass for her 
 palfrey, a blooming meadow of nettles and this- 
 tles to walk in, and a fine troubled ditch to 
 slake her thirst, after either of the above-men- 
 tioned exercises. 
 
 Adieu ! my next will be dated from some of 
 the doleful castles in the principality of your 
 forlorn friend, the Duchess of Ruffham. 
 
 liberty of her lover, who was confined in the Bastille, for conspiring 
 against the Regent. The Duke of Richelieu, in return, followed her 
 afterwards secretly to Modena. D. 
 
 * The Hammonds and Hostes, are two Norfolk families, nearly 
 allied to the Walpoles.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 319 
 
 LETTER LXXV. 
 
 Houghton, June 4, 1743. 
 
 I WROTE this week to Mr. Chute, addressed to 
 you ; I could not afford two letters in one post 
 from the country, and in the dead of summer. 
 I have received one from you of May 21st, since 
 I came down. I must tell you a smart dialogue 
 between your father and me the morning we left 
 London : he came to wish my Lord a good jour- 
 ney : I found him in the parlour. " Sir," said 
 he, " I may ask you how my son does ; I think 
 you hear from him frequently : I never do." I 
 replied, " Sir, I write him kind answers ; pray 
 do you do so ?" He coloured, and said with a 
 half mutter, " Perhaps I have lived too long for 
 him !" I answered shortly, " Perhaps you have." 
 My dear child, I beg your pardon, but I could 
 not help this. When one loves any body, one 
 can't help being warm for them at a fair oppor- 
 tunity. Dr. Bland and Mr. Legge were present 
 your father could have stabbed me. I told 
 your brother Gal, who was glad. 
 
 We are as private here, as if we were in devo- 
 tion : there is nobody with us now, but Lord 
 Edgecumbe and his son. The Duke of Grafton 
 and Mr. Pelham come next week, and I hope 
 Lord Lincoln with them. Poor Lady Sophia is
 
 320 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 at the gasp of her hopes ; all is concluded for his 
 match with Miss Pelham. It is not to be till 
 the winter. He is to have all Mr. Pelham and 
 the Duke of Newcastle can give or settle ; un- 
 less Lady Catherine should produce a son, or 
 the Duchess should die, and the Duke marry 
 again. 
 
 Earl Poulett* is dead, and makes vacant an- 
 other riband. I imagine Lord Carteret will 
 have one ; Lord Bath will ask it. I think they 
 should give Prince Charles f one of the two, for 
 all the trouble he saves us. The papers talk of 
 nothing but a suspension of arms : it seems to- 
 ward, for at least we hear of no battle, though 
 there are so many armies looking at one an- 
 other. 
 
 Old Sir Charles Wager is dead at last, and 
 has left the fairest character. I can't help 
 having a little private comfort, to think that 
 Goldsworthy but there is no danger. 
 
 Madox of St. Asaph has wriggled himself into 
 the See of Worcester. He makes haste ; I re- 
 member him only domestic chaplain to the late 
 
 * John first Earl Poulett, Knight of the Garter. He died, aged 
 upwards of eighty, on the 28th May 1743. D. 
 
 f Prince Charles of Lorraine, the Queen of Hungary's General 
 against the French. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 
 
 Bishop of Chichester.* Durham is not dead, as 
 I believe I told you from a false report. 
 
 You tell me of dining with Madame de Mo- 
 dene^ but you don't tell me of being charmed 
 with her. I liked her excessively I don't mean 
 her person, for she is as plump as the late 
 Queen ; but sure her face is fine ; her eyes vastly 
 fine ! and then she is as agreeable as one should 
 expect the Regent's daughter to be. 
 
 The Princess and she must have been an ad- 
 mirable contrast : one has all the good breeding 
 of a French Court, and the latter all the ease of 
 it. I have almost a mind to go to Paris to see her. 
 She was so excessively civil to me. You don't 
 tell me if the Pucci goes into France with her. 
 
 I like the Genoese selling Corsica! I think we 
 should follow their example and sell France ; we 
 have about as good a title, and very near as 
 much possession. At how much may they value 
 Corsica ? at the rate of islands, it can't go for 
 much. Charles the Second sold Great Britain 
 and Ireland to Louis XIV. for 300,000/. a-year, 
 and that was reckoned extravagantly dear. Lord 
 Bolingbroke took a single hundred thousand for 
 them, when they were in much better repair. 
 
 * Dr. Waddington. 
 
 f It was not the Duchess of Modena, but the Duke's second sister, 
 who went to Florence. 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 We hear to-day that the King goes to the 
 army on the 15th, N. S. that is, to-day ; but I 
 don't tell it you for certain. There has been 
 much said against his commanding it, as it is 
 only an army of succour, and not acting as prin- 
 cipal in the cause. In my opinion, his command- 
 ing will depend upon the more or less probability 
 of its acting at all. Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER LXXVI. 
 
 Hough ton, June 10, 1743. 
 
 You must not expect me to write you a very 
 composed, careless letter ; my spirits are all in 
 agitation ! I am at the eve of a post that may 
 bring me the most dreadful news ! we expect to- 
 morrow the news of a decisive battle Oh! if 
 you have any friend there, think what apprehen- 
 sions I * must have of such a post ! By yester- 
 day's letters our army was within eight miles of 
 the French, who have had repeated orders to 
 attack them. Lord Stair and Marshal Noailles 
 both thintf themselves superior, and have pressed 
 for leave to fight. The latter call themselves 
 fourscore thousand ; ours sixty. Mr. Pelham 
 
 * Mr. Conway, the most intimate friend of Horace Walpole, was 
 now serving in Lord Stair's army. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 323 
 
 and Lord Lincoln come to Houghton to-day, so 
 we are sure of hearing as soon as possible, if any 
 thing has happened. By this time the King 
 must be with them. My fears for one or two 
 friends have spoiled me for any English hopes 
 I cannot dwindle away the French army every 
 man in it appears to my imagination as big as 
 the sons of Anak ! I am conjuring up the ghosts 
 of all who have perished by French ambition, and 
 am dealing out commissions to these spectres, 
 
 " To sit heavy on their souls to-morrow I" 
 
 Alas ! perhaps that glorious to-morrow was a 
 dismal yesterday ! at least, perhaps it was to 
 me ! The genius of England might be a mere 
 mercenary man of this world, and employed all 
 his attention to turn aside cannon-balls from my 
 Lord Stair, to give new edge to his new Marl- 
 borough's sword ; was plotting glory for my 
 Lord Carteret, or was thinking of furnishing his 
 own apartment in Westminster-Hall with a new 
 set of trophies who would then take care of 
 Mr. Conway ? You, who are a Minister, will 
 see all this in still another light, will fear our 
 defeat, and will foresee the train of consequences 
 Why, they may be wondrous ugly ; but till I 
 know what I have to think about my own 
 friends, I cannot be wise in my generation. 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 I shall now only answer your letter, for till I 
 have read to-morrow's post, I have no thoughts 
 but of a battle. 
 
 I am angry at your thinking that I can dislike 
 to receive two or three of your letters at once. 
 Do you take me for a child, and imagine, that 
 though I like one plum-tart, two may make me 
 sick ? I now get them regularly ; so I do but 
 receive them, I am e^asy. 
 
 You are mistaken about the gallery ; so far 
 from unfurnishing any part of the house, there 
 are several pictures undisposed of, besides num- 
 bers at Lord Walpole's, at the Exchequer, at 
 Chelsea, and at New Park. Lord Walpole has 
 taken a dozen to Stanno, a small house, about 
 four miles from hence, where he lives with 
 my Lady Walpole's Vicegerent.* You may 
 imagine that her deputies are no fitter than 
 she is to come where there is a modest, unmar- 
 ried girl.f 
 
 I will write to London for the life of 
 Theodore, though you may depend upon its 
 being a Grub-street piece, without one true 
 fact. Don't let it prevent your undertaking 
 his Memoirs. Yet I should imagine Mrs. Hey- 
 
 * Miss Norsa ; she was a Jewess, and had been a singer, 
 f Lady Maria Walpole.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 325 
 
 wood* or Mrs. Behn'f were fitter to write his 
 history. 
 
 How slightly you talk of Prince Charles's vic- 
 tory at Brunau ! We thought it of vast conse- 
 quence so it was. He took three posts after- 
 wards, and has since beaten the Prince of Conti, 
 and killed two thousand men. Prince Charles 
 civilly returned him his baggage. The French 
 in Bavaria are quite dispirited poor wretches ! 
 how one hates to wish so ill as one does to four- 
 score thousand men ! 
 
 There is yet no news of the Pembroke. The 
 Dominichin has a post of honour reserved in the 
 gallery. My Lord says, as to that Dalton's Ra- 
 phael, he can say nothing without some particu- 
 lar description of the picture and the size, and 
 some hint at the price, which you have promised 
 to get. I leave the residue of my paper for to- 
 
 * Eliza Heywood, a voluminous writer of indifferent novels ; of 
 which the best known is one called " Betsy Thoughtless." She was 
 also authoress of a work entitled " The Female Spectator." Mrs. 
 Heywood was bora in 1693, and died in 1756. D. 
 
 f Mrs. Afra Behn, a woman whose character and writings were 
 equally incorrect. Of her plays, which were seventeen In number, 
 Pope says, 
 
 " The stage, how loosely does Astrea tread, 
 
 Who fairly puts all characters to bed." 
 
 Her novels and other productions were also marked with similar cha- 
 racteristics. She died in 1689. D.
 
 326 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 morrow : I tremble, lest I be forced to finish it 
 abruptly ! I forgot to tell you that I left a par- 
 ticular commission with my brother Ned, who is 
 at Chelsea, to get some tea-seed from the physic- 
 garden ; and he promised me too to go to Lord 
 Islay, to know what cobolt and zingho* are, and 
 where they are to be got. 
 
 Saturday morning. 
 
 The post is come : no battle ! Just as they 
 were marching against the French, they received 
 orders from Hanover not to engage, for the 
 Queen's Generals thought they were inferior, 
 and were positive against fighting. Lord Stair, 
 with only the English, proceeded, and drew out in 
 order ; but though the French were then so vastly 
 superior, they did not attack him. The King 
 is now at the army, and, they say, will endea- 
 vour to make the Austrians fight. It will make 
 great confusion here if they do not. The French 
 are evacuating Bavaria as fast as possible, and 
 seem to intend to join all their force together. 
 I shall still dread all the events of this campaign. 
 Adieu ! 
 
 * Cobalt and Zinck, two metallic substances, the former composed 
 of silver, copper, and arsenic ; the latter of tin and iron. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 327 
 
 LETTER LXXVII. 
 
 Houghton, June 20th, 1743. 
 
 I HAVE painted the Raphael to my Lord 
 almost as fine as Raphael himself could but he 
 will not think of it : he will not give a thousand 
 guineas for what he never saw. I wish I could 
 persuade him. For the other hands, he has 
 already fine ones of every one of them. There 
 are yet no news of the Pembroke we grow im- 
 patient. 
 
 I have made a short tour to Euston this week 
 with the Duke of Grafton, who came over from 
 thence with Lord Lincoln and Mr. Pelham. 
 Lord Lovel and Mr. Coke carried me and 
 brought me back. It is one of the most admired 
 seats in England in my opinion, because Kent 
 has a most absolute disposition of it. Kent is 
 now so fashionable, that, like Addison's Liberty, 
 he 
 
 " Can make bleak rocks and barren mountains smile." 
 
 I believe the Duke wishes he could make them 
 green too. The house is large and bad ; it was 
 built by Lord Arlington, and stands, as all old 
 houses do for convenience of water and shelter, 
 in a hole ; so it neither sees, nor is seen : he has 
 no money to build another. The park is fine,
 
 328 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 the old woods excessively so : they are much 
 grander than Mr. Kent's passion, clumps that 
 is, sticking a dozen. trees here and ther v e, till a 
 lawn looks like the ten of spades. Clumps have 
 their beauty ; but in a great extent of country, 
 how trifling to scatter arbours, where you should 
 spread forests ! He is so unhappy in his heir 
 apparent,* that he checks his hand in almost 
 every thing he undertakes. Last week he heard 
 a new exploit of his barbarity. A tenant of 
 Lord Euston, in Northamptonshire, brought him 
 his rent : the Lord said it wanted three and six- 
 pence : the tenant begged he would examine 
 
 * George Earl of Euston, who died in the lifetime of his father. 
 He seems to have been a man of the most odious character. He has 
 been already mentioned in the course of these letters, upon the occasion 
 of his marriage with the ill-fated Lady Dorothy Boyle, who died from 
 his ill-treatment of her. Upon a picture of Lady Dorothy at the 
 Duke of Devonshire's at Chiswick, is the following touching inscrip- 
 tion, written by her mother, which commemorates her virtues and 
 her fate. 
 
 " Lady Dorothy Boyle, 
 Born May the 14th 1724. 
 
 She was the comfort and joy of her parents, the delight of all who 
 knew her angelick temper, and the admiration of all who saw her 
 beauty. 
 
 She was marry'd October the 10th, 1741, and delivered (by death) 
 from misery, 
 
 May the 2nd, 1742. 
 
 This picture was drawn seven weeks after her death (from memory) 
 by her most affectionate mother, 
 
 Dorothy Burlington." D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 329 
 
 the account, that it would prove exact how- 
 ever, to content him, he would willingly pay him 
 the three and sixpence. Lord E. flew into a 
 rage, and vowed he would write to the Duke to 
 have him turned out of a little place he has in 
 the post-office of thirty pounds a-year. The 
 poor man, who has six children, and knew no- 
 thing of my Lord's being upon no terms of power 
 with his father, went home and shot himself! 
 
 I know no syllable of news, but that my Lady 
 Carteret is dead at Hanover, and Lord Wilming- 
 ton dying. So there will be to let, a First-Mi- 
 nister's Ladyship, and a First Lordship of the 
 Treasury. We have nothing from the army, 
 though the King has now been there some time. 
 As new a thing as it is, we don't talk much of it. 
 
 Adieu ! the family are gone a-fishing : I 
 thought I stayed at home to write to you, but 
 I have so little to say, that I don't believe you 
 will think so. 
 
 LETTER LXXVIII. 
 
 Friday noon, June 29, 1743. 
 
 I DON'T know what I write, I am all a hurry 
 of thoughts a battle a victory I dare not yet 
 be glad I know no particulars of my friends
 
 330 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 this instant my Lord has had a messenger from 
 the Duke of Newcastle, who has sent him a copy 
 of Lord Carteret's letter from the field of battle. 
 The King was in all the heat of the fire, and 
 safe the Duke is wounded in the calf of the leg, 
 but slightly ; Due d'Aremberg in the breast 
 General Clayton and Colonel Piers are the only 
 officers of note said to be killed here is all my 
 trust ! The French passed the Mayne that 
 morning with twenty-five thousand men, and are 
 driven back. We have lost two thousand, and 
 they four several of their general officers and 
 of the Maison du Roy are taken prisoners : the 
 battle lasted from ten in the morning till four. 
 The Hanoverians behaved admirably. The Im- 
 perialists * were the aggressors in short, in all 
 public views, it is all that could be wished the 
 King in the action and his son wounded ; the 
 Hanoverians behaving well ; the French beaten : 
 what obloquy will not all this wipe off? Triumph, 
 and write it to Rome ! I don't know what our 
 numbers were, I believe about thirty thousand, 
 for there were twelve thousand Hessians and 
 Hanoverians who had not joined them. O ! in 
 my hurry, I had forgot the place you must talk 
 of the battle of Dettingen ! 
 
 After dinner. My dear child, I am calling 
 
 * The Bavarians.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 331 
 
 together all my thoughts, and rejoice in this vic- 
 tory as much as I dare ; for in the raptures of 
 conquest how dare I think that my Lord Car- 
 teret, or the rest of those who have written, 
 thought just of whom I thought ? The post comes 
 in to-morrow morning, but it is not sure that we 
 shall learn any particular certainties so soon as 
 that. Well ! how happy it is that the King has 
 had such an opportunity of distinguishing him- 
 self!* what a figure he will make ! They talked 
 of its being below his dignity to command an 
 auxiliary army : my Lord says, it will not be 
 thought below his dignity to have sought danger. 
 These were the flower of the French troops : I 
 flatter myself they will tempt no more battles. 
 Another such, and we might march from one end 
 of France to the other. So ! we are in a French 
 war, at least well begun ! My Lord has been 
 drinking the healths of Lord Stair and Lord 
 
 * Frederick the Great, in his " Histoire de mon Temps," gives the 
 following account of George the Second at the battle of Dettingen. 
 " The King was on horseback, and rode forward to reconnoitre the 
 enemy : his horse, frightened at the cannonading, ran away with his 
 Majesty, and nearly carried him into the midst of the French lines: 
 fortunately, one of his attendants succeeded in stopping him. George 
 then abandoned his horse, and fought on foot, at the head of his 
 Hanoverian battalions. With his sword drawn, and his body placed 
 in the attitude of a fencing-master, who is about to make a lunge in 
 carte, he continued to expose himself without flinching to the 
 enemy's fire." D.
 
 332 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Carteret : he says, " since it is well done, he does 
 not care by whom it was done." He thinks dif- 
 ferently from the rest of the world : he thought 
 from the first, that France never missed such an 
 opportunity, as when they undertook the Ger- 
 man war, instead of joining with Spain against 
 us. If I hear any more to-morrow before the 
 post goes out, I will let you know tell me, if 
 this is the first you hear of the victory : I would 
 fain be the first to give you so much pleasure. 
 
 Saturday morning. 
 
 Well ! my dear child, all is safe ! I have not 
 so much as an acquaintance hurt. The more we 
 hear, the greater it turns out. Lord Cholmon- 
 deley writes my Lord from London, that we gain- 
 ed the victory with only fifteen regiments, not 
 eleven thousand men, and so not half in number 
 to the French. I fancy their soldiery behaved 
 ill, by the gallantry of their officers ; for Ranby, 
 the King's private surgeon, writes that he alone 
 has 150 officers of distinction desperately wound- 
 ed under his care. Marquis Fenelon's son is 
 among the prisoners, and says Marshal Noailles 
 is dangerously wounded : so is Due d'Aremberg. 
 Honeywood's regiment sustained the attack, and 
 are almost all killed : his natural son has five 
 wounds, and cannot live. The horse were pursu-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 333 
 
 ing when the letters came away, so there is no 
 certain account of the slaughter. Lord Albe- 
 marle had his horse shot under him. In short, 
 the victory is complete. There is no describing 
 what one hears of the spirits and bravery of our 
 men. One of them dressed himself up in the belts 
 of three officers, and swore he would wear them 
 as long as he lives. Another ran up to Lord 
 Carteret, who was in a coach near the action 
 the whole time, and said, " Here, my Lord, do 
 hold this watch for me ; I have just killed a 
 French officer and taken it, and I will go take 
 another." 
 
 Adieu ! my dear Sir ! may the rest of the war 
 be as glorious as the beginning. 
 
 TO MR. CHUTE. 
 
 My dear Sir, I wish you joy, and you wish me 
 joy, and Mr. Whithed, and Mr. Mann, and Mrs. 
 Bosville, &c. &c. &c. Don't get drunk and get 
 the gout. I expect to be drunk with hogsheads 
 of the Mayne-water, and with odes to his Ma- 
 jesty and the Duke and Te Deums. Patapan 
 begs you will get him a dispensation from Rome, 
 to go and hear the thanksgiving at St. Paul's. 
 We are all mad, drums, trumpets, bumpers, bon- 
 fires ! the mob are wild, and cry, " Long live 
 King George, and the Duke of Cumberland, and
 
 334 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Lord Stair and Lord Carteret, and General 
 Clayton that 's dead ! " My Lord Lovel says, 
 
 " Thanks to the Gods that John* has done his duty." 
 
 Adieu ! my dear Dukes of Marlborough ! 
 
 I am ever your 
 JOHN DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. 
 
 LETTER LXXIX. 
 
 Houghton, July 4, 1743. 
 
 I HEAR no particular news here ; and I don't 
 pretend to send you the common news, for as I 
 must have it first from London, you will have it 
 from thence sooner in the papers than in my 
 letters. There have been great rejoicings for 
 the victory, which I am convinced is very con- 
 siderable, by the pains the Jacobites take to per- 
 suade it is not. My Lord Carteret's Hanoverian 
 articles have much offended; his express has 
 been burlesqued a thousand ways. By all the 
 letters that arrive, the loss of the French turns 
 out more considerable than by the first accounts : 
 they have dressed up the battle into a victory for 
 themselves I hope they will always have such ! 
 By their not having declared war with us, one 
 should think they intended a peace. It is allow- 
 
 * John Bull. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 335 
 
 ed that our fine horse did us no honour : the 
 victory was gained by the foot. Two of their 
 Princes of the Blood, the Prince de Dombes and 
 the Count d'Eu* his brother, were wounded, and 
 several of their first nobility. Our prisoners 
 turn out but seventy-two officers, besides the 
 private men ; and by the printed catalogue, I 
 don't think many of great family. Marshal 
 Noailles's mortal wound is quite vanished; and 
 Due d'Aremberg's shrunk to a very slight one. 
 The King's glory remains in its first bloom. 
 
 Lord Wilmington is dead. I believe the civil 
 battle for his post will be tough. Now we shall 
 see what service Lord Carteret's Hanoverians 
 will do him. You don't think the crisis unlucky 
 for him, do you ? If you wanted a treasury, 
 should you choose to have been in Arlington- 
 Street^ or driving by the battle of Dettingen ? 
 You may imagine our Court wishes for Mr. 
 Pelham. I don't know any one who wishes for 
 Lord Bath but himself I believe that is a pretty 
 substantial wish. 
 
 I have got the Life of King Theodore, but I 
 don't know how to convey it I will inquire for 
 some way. 
 
 * The two sons of the Duke du Maine, a natural son, but legi- 
 timated, of Lewis the Fourteenth. D. 
 f Where Mr. Pelham lived.
 
 336 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 We are quite alone you never saw anything 
 so unlike as being here five months out of place, 
 to the congresses of a fortnight in place but 
 you know the Justum et tenacem propositi Virum 
 can amuse himself without the Civium ardor ! 
 As I have not so much dignity of character to 
 fill up my time, I could like a little more com- 
 pany. With all this leisure you may imagine 
 that I might as well be writing an ode or so 
 upon the victory ; but as I cannot build upon 
 the Laureat's place, till I know whether Lord 
 Carteret or Mr. Pelham will carry the treasury, 
 I have bounded my compliments to a slender 
 collection of quotations, against I should have 
 any occasion for hem. Here are some fine lines 
 from Lord Halifax's* poem on the battle of the 
 Boyne 
 
 " The King leads on, the King does all inflame, 
 The King ! and carries millions in the name." 
 
 Then follows a simile about a deluge, which 
 you may imagine; but the next lines are very 
 good : 
 
 " So on the foe the firm battalions prest, 
 And he, like the tenth wave, drove on the rest. 
 Fierce, gallant, young, he shot through ev'ry place, -\ 
 Urging their flight, and hurrying on the chace, 
 He hung upon their rear, or lighten'd in their face." J 
 
 * Charles Montagu Earl of Halifax the " Bufo" of Pope. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 337 
 
 The next are a magnificent compliment, and 
 as far as verse goes, to be sure very applicable : 
 
 Stop, stop, brave Prince, allay that generous flame ; 
 Enough is given to England and to Fame. 
 Remember, Sir, you in the centre stand ; 
 Europe's divided interests you command, 
 All their designs uniting in your hand. 
 Down from your throne descends the golden chain, 
 Which does the fabric of our world sustain : 
 That once dissolved by any fatal stroke, 
 The scheme of all our happiness is broke. 
 
 Adieu ! my dear Sir ; pray for peace ! 
 
 LETTER LXXX. 
 
 Houghton, July 11, 1743. 
 
 THE Pembroke is arrived ! Your brother slip- 
 ped a slice of paper into a letter which he sent 
 me from you the other day, with those pleasant 
 words, The Pembroke is arrived. I am going to 
 receive it. I shall be in town the end of this 
 week, only stay there about ten days, and wait 
 on the Dominichin hither. Now I tremble ! If 
 it should not stand the trial among the number 
 of capital pictures here ! But it must : it will. 
 
 O sweet Lady !* What shall I do about her 
 
 * Madame Grifoni. 
 VOL. 1. Z
 
 338 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 letter ? I must answer it and where to find a 
 penful of Italian in the world, I know not 
 Well ! she must take what she can get : gold 
 and silver I have not, but what I have I give 
 unto her. Do you say a vast deal of my concern 
 for her illness, and that I could not find decom- 
 pounds and superlatives enough to express my- 
 self. You never tell me a syllable from my 
 sovereign Lady the Princess : has she forgot me ? 
 What is become of Prince Beauvau ?* is he war- 
 ring against us ? Shall I write to Mr. Conway, 
 to be very civil to him for my sake, if he is 
 taken prisoner ? We expect another battle every 
 day : Broglio has joined Noailles, and Prince 
 Charles is on the Neckar. Noailles says, " Qu'il 
 a fait une folie, mais qu'il est pr&t d la rtparer." 
 There is great blame thrown on Baron Ilton, the 
 Hanoverian General, for having hindered the 
 Guards from engaging. If they had, and the 
 horse, who behaved wretchedly, had done their 
 duty, it is agreed that there would be no second 
 engagement. The poor Duke is in a much 
 worse way than was at first apprehended: his 
 wound proves a bad one, he is gross, and has 
 had a shivering fit, which is often the forerunner 
 of a mortification. There has been much thought 
 of making Knights-banneret, but I believe the 
 
 * Son of Prince Craon.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 339 
 
 scheme is laid aside ; for in the first place, they 
 are never made but on the field of battle; and 
 now it was not thought on till some days after 
 and besides, the King intended to make some 
 who were not actually in the battle. 
 
 Adieu! Possibly I may hear something in 
 town worth telling you. 
 
 LETTER LXXXI. 
 
 Arlington-Street, July 19. 
 
 HERE am I come a-Dominichining ! and the 
 first thing I hear is, that the Pembroke must 
 perform quarantine fourteen days for coming 
 from the Mediterranean, and a week airing. It 
 is forty days, if they bring the plague from 
 Sicily. I will bear this misfortune as heroically 
 as I can ; and considering I have London to 
 bear it in, may possibly support it well enough. 
 
 The private letters from the army all talk of 
 the King's going to Hanover, second of August, 
 N. S. If he should not, one shall be no longer 
 in pain for him, for the French have repassed 
 the Rhine, and think only of preparing against 
 Prince Charles, who is marching sixty-two thou- 
 sand men, full of conquest and revenge, to regain 
 his own country. I most cordially wish him 
 
 z 2
 
 340 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 success, and that his bravery may recover what 
 his abject brother gave up so tamely, and which 
 he takes as little personal pains to regain. It is 
 not at all determined whether we are to carry 
 the war into France. It is ridiculous enough! 
 we have the name of war with Spain, without the 
 thing ; and war with France, without the name ! 
 
 The maiden heroes of the Guards are in great 
 wrath with General Ilton, who kept them out of 
 harm's way. They call him the Confectionery 
 because he says he preserved them. 
 
 The week before I left Houghton, my father 
 had a most dreadful accident ; it had near been 
 fatal ; but he escaped miraculously. He dined 
 abroad, and went up to sleep. As he was 
 coming down again, not quite awaked, he was 
 surprised at seeing the company through a 
 glass-door which he had not observed : his foot 
 slipped, and he, who is now entirely unwieldy 
 and helpless, fell at once down the stairs against 
 the door which, had it not been there, he had 
 dashed himself to pieces into a stone hall. He 
 cut his forehead two inches long to the pericra- 
 nium, and another gash upon his temple, but 
 most luckily did himself no other hurt, and was 
 quite well again before I came away. 
 
 I find Lord Stafford married to Miss Can- 
 tillon ; they are to live half the year in London,
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 341 
 
 half in Paris. Lord Lincoln is soon to marry 
 his cousin Miss Pelham : it will be great joy to 
 the whole house of Newcastle. 
 
 There is no determination yet come about the 
 Treasury. Most people wish for Mr. Pelham ; 
 few for Lord Carteret ; none for Lord Bath. 
 My Lady Townshend said an admirable thing 
 the other day to this last : he was complaining 
 much of a pain in his side " Oh !" said she, 
 " that can't be ; you have no side." 
 
 I have a new cabinet for my enamels and 
 miniatures just come home, which I am sure 
 you would like : it is of rosewood ; the doors 
 inlaid with carvings in ivory.* I wish you could 
 see it ! Are you to be for ever ministerial sans 
 relache? Are you never to have leave to come 
 and settle your private affairs, as the newspapers 
 call it ? 
 
 A thousand loves to the Chutes : does my 
 sovereign Lady yet remember me, or has she 
 lost with her eyes all thought of me ? Adieu ! 
 
 P. S. Princess Louisa goes soon to her young 
 Denmark ; and Princess Emily, it is now said, 
 will have the man of Lubeck : if he had missed 
 the crown of Sweden, he was to have taken 
 Princess Caroline, because, in his private capa- 
 
 * It is now in the Tribune at Strawberry Hill. D.
 
 342 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 city, he was not a competent match for the now- 
 first daughter of England. He is extremely 
 handsome it is fifteen years since Princess 
 Emily was so. 
 
 LETTER LXXXII. 
 
 Arlington-Street, July 31, 1743. 
 
 IF I went by my last week's reason for not writ- 
 ing to you, I should miss this post too, for I have 
 no more to tell you than I had then : but at that 
 rate, there would be great vacuums in our cor- 
 respondence. I am still here, waiting for the 
 Dominichin and the rest of the things. I have 
 incredible trouble about them, for they arrived 
 just as the quarantine was established. Then 
 they found out that the Pembroke had left the 
 fleet so long before the infection in Sicily began, 
 and had not touched at any port there, that the 
 Admiralty absolved it. Then the things were 
 brought up ; then they were sent back to be 
 aired ; and still I am not to have them in a 
 week. I tremble for the pictures, for they are 
 to be aired at the rough discretion of a master of 
 a hoy, for nobody I could send would be suffer- 
 ed to go aboard. The city is outrageous, for
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 343 
 
 you know, to merchants there is no plague so 
 dreadful as a stoppage of their trade. The Re- 
 gency are so temporizing and timid, especially 
 in this Inter-ministerium, that I am in great 
 apprehensions of our having the plague : an 
 island, so many ports, no power absolute or 
 active enough to establish the necessary precau- 
 tions, and all are necessary ! it is terrible ! And 
 now it is on the continent too ! While confined to 
 Sicily, there were hopes : but I scarce conceive 
 that it will stop in two or three villages in Cala- 
 bria. My dear child, Heaven preserve you from 
 it ! I am in the utmost pain on its being so near 
 you. What will you do ! whither will you go, 
 if it reaches Tuscany ? Never think of staying 
 in Florence : shall I get you permission to retire 
 out of that State, in case of danger ? but sure 
 you would not hesitate on such a crisis. 
 
 We have no news from the army : the Minis- 
 ter there communicates nothing to those here. 
 No answer comes about the Treasury. All is 
 suspense ; and clouds of breaches ready to burst. 
 How strange is all this jumble ! France with an 
 unsettled ministry ; England with an unsettled 
 one ; a victory just gained over them, yet no war 
 ensuing, or declared from either side ; our Mi- 
 nister still at Paris, as if to settle an amicable
 
 344 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 intelligence of the losses on both sides ! I think 
 there was only wanting for Mr. Thompson * to 
 notify to them in form our victory over them : 
 and for Bussy* to have civil letters of congratu- 
 lation 'tis so well-bred an age ! 
 
 I must tell you a bon-rnot of Winnington ; I 
 was at dinner with him and Lord Lincoln, and 
 Lord Stafford, last week, and it happened to 
 be a maigre-day, of which Stafford was talking, 
 though, you may believe, without any scruples : 
 Why," said Winnington, " what a religion is 
 yours ! they let you eat nothing, and yet make 
 you swallow every thing !" 
 
 My dear child, you will think, when I am 
 going to give you a new commission, that I 
 ought to remember those you give me. Indeed 
 I have not forgot one, though I know not how 
 to execute them. The Life of King Theodore 
 is too big to send but by a messenger ; by the 
 first that goes you shall have it. For cobolt 
 and zingho, your brother and I have made all 
 inquiries, but almost in vain, except that one 
 person has told him that there is some such 
 thing in Lancashire : I have written thither to 
 inquire. For the tea-trees, it is my brother's 
 fault, whom I desired, as he is at Chelsea, to get 
 
 * Mr. Thompson and the Abbe" de Bussy, were the English and 
 French Residents.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 345 
 
 some from the Physic-garden : he forgot it ; but 
 now I am in town myself, if possible, you shall 
 have some seed. After this, I still know not 
 how to give you a commission, for you over-exe- 
 cute. But upon conditions uninfringeable, I will 
 give you one. I have begun to collect draw- 
 ings : now, if you will at any time buy me any 
 that you meet with at reasonable rates, for I will 
 not give great prices, I shall be much obliged to 
 you. I would not have above one, to be sure, 
 of any of the Florentine school, nor above 
 one of any master after the immediate scholars 
 of Carlo Maratti. For the Bolognese school, 
 I care not how many, though I fear they 
 will be too dear. But Mr. Chute understands 
 them. One condition is, that if he collects 
 drawings as well as prints, there is an end of 
 the commission ; for you shall not buy me any, 
 when he perhaps would like to purchase them. 
 The other condition is, that you regularly set 
 down the prices you pay otherwise, if you 
 send me any without the price, I instantly 
 return them unopened to your brother : this, 
 upon my honour, I will most strictly perform. 
 
 Adieu ! write me minutely the history of the 
 plague : if it makes any progress towards you, I 
 shall be a most unhappy man : I am far from 
 easy on our own account here.
 
 346 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER LXXXIII. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Aug. 14, 1743. 
 
 I SHOULD write to Mr. Chute to-day, but I 
 won't till next post : I will tell you why pre- 
 sently. Last week I did not write at all, be- 
 cause I was every day waiting for the Domini- 
 chin, 8$c. which I at last got last night But oh! 
 that 8$c ! It makes me write to you, but I must 
 leave it 8$c. for I can't undertake to develope it. 
 I can find no words to thank you from my own 
 fund, but must apply an expression of the Princess 
 Craon's to myself, which the number of charming 
 things you have sent me absolutely melts down 
 from the bombast, of which it consisted when 
 she sent it to me. " Monsieur, votre generosite, 
 (I am not sure it was not votre magnificence,) ne 
 me laisse rien a desirer de tout ce qui se trouve 
 de precieux en Angleterre, dans la Chine, et aux 
 Indes" But still this don't express 8$c. The 
 charming Madame Sevigne, who was still hand- 
 somer than Madame de Craon, and had infinite 
 wit, condescended to pun on sending her daugh- 
 ter an excessively fine pearl neck-lace : " Voila, 
 majUle, un present passant tous les presents passes 
 et presents !" Do you know that these words 
 reduced to serious meaning, are not sufficient for 
 what you have sent me ? If I were not afraid of
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 347 
 
 giving you all the trouble of airing and quaran- 
 tine which I have had with them, I would send 
 them to you back again ? It is well our virtue 
 is out of the ministry ! What reproach it would 
 undergo ! Why, my dear child, here would be 
 bribery in folio ! How would mortals stare at 
 such a present as this to the son of a fallen 
 minister ! I believe half of it would reinstate 
 us again though the vast box of essences would 
 not half sweeten the Treasury after the dirty 
 wretches that have fouled it since. 
 
 The Dominichin is safe ; so is every thing. I 
 cannot think it of the same hand with the Sasso 
 Ferrati you sent me. This last is not so manieri 
 as the Dominichin ; for the more I look at it, the 
 more I am convinced it is of him. It goes down 
 with me to-morrow to Houghton. The Andrea 
 del Sarto is particularly fine ! the Sasso Ferrati 
 particularly graceful oh ! I should have kept 
 that word for the Magdalen's head, which is 
 beautiful beyond measure. Indeed, my dear 
 Sir, I am glad, after my confusion is a little 
 abated, that your part of the things is so delight- 
 ful ; for I am very little satisfied with my own 
 purchases. Donato Creti's* copy is a wretched, 
 raw daub ; the beautiful Virgin of the original 
 
 * A copy of a celebrated picture by Guido at Bologna, of the 
 Patron Saints of that city.
 
 348 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 he has made horrible. Then for the statue, the 
 face is not so broad as my nail, and has not the 
 turn of the antique. Indeed, La Vallee has done 
 the drapery well, but I can't pardon him the 
 head. My table I like, though he has stuck in 
 among the ornaments two vile china jars, that 
 look like the modern japanning by ladies. The 
 Hermaphrodite, on my seeing it again, is too 
 sharp and hard in short, your present has put me 
 out of humour with everything of my own. You 
 shall hear next week how my Lord is satisfied 
 with his Dominichin. I have received the letter 
 and drawings by Crewe. By the way, my draw- 
 ings of the gallery are as bad as anything of 
 my own ordering. They gave Crewe the letter 
 for you at the office I believe, for I knew nothing 
 of his going, or had sent you the Life of King 
 Theodore. 
 
 I was interrupted in my letter this morning by 
 the Duke of Devonshire, who called to see the 
 Dominichin. Nobody knows pictures better : he 
 was charmed with it, and did not doubt its Do- 
 minichinality. 
 
 I find another letter from you to-night of 
 August 6th, and thank you a thousand times for 
 your goodness about Mr. Conway ; but I believe 
 I told you, that as he is in the Guards, he was 
 not engaged. We hear nothing but that we are
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 349 
 
 going to cross the Rhine. All we know is from 
 private letters : the Ministry hear nothing. 
 When the Hussars went to Kevenhuller for 
 orders, he said, " Messieurs, r Alsace est & vous;je 
 rial point d'autres ordres d. vous donner." They 
 have accordingly taken up their residence in a 
 fine chateau belonging to the Cardinal de Rohan, 
 as Bishop of Strasbourg. We expect nothing but 
 war ; and that war expects nothing but conquest. 
 Your account of our officers was very false, for 
 instead of the soldiers going on without Com- 
 manders, some of them were ready to go without 
 their soldiers. I am sorry you have such plague 
 with your Neptune* and the Sardinian we know 
 not of them scarce. 
 
 I really forget anything of an Italian grey- 
 hound for the Tesi : I promised her, I remember, 
 a black spaniel but how to send it ! I did pro- 
 mise one of the former to Marquis Mari at 
 Genoa, which I absolutely have not been able to 
 get yet, though I have often tried ; but since the 
 last Lord Halifax died, there is no meeting with 
 any of the breed. If I can, I will get her one. 
 I am sorry you are engaged in the opera : I have 
 found it a most dear undertaking ! I was not 
 in the management : Lord Middlesex was chief. 
 We were thirty subscribers at two hundred 
 
 Admiral Matthews. D.
 
 350 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 pounds each, which was to last four years, and 
 no other demands ever to be made. Instead of 
 that, we have been made to pay fifty-six pounds 
 over and above the subscription in one winter. 
 I told the Secretary in a passion, that it was the 
 last money I would ever pay for the follies of 
 directors. 
 
 I tremble at hearing that the plague is not 
 over as we thought, but still spreading. 
 
 You will see in the papers that Lord Hervey 
 is dead luckily I think for himself, for he had 
 outlived his last inch of character. Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER LXXXIV. 
 
 Houghton, Aug. 29, 1743. 
 
 You frighten me about the Spaniards entering 
 Tuscany : it is so probable, that I have no hopes 
 against it, but in their weakness. If all the ac- 
 counts of their weakness and desertion are true, 
 it must be easy to repel them. If their march to 
 Florence is to keep pace with Prince Charles's 
 entering Lorrain, it is not yet near : hitherto he 
 has not found the passage of the Rhine practica- 
 ble. The French have assembled greater armies 
 to oppose it than was expected. We are march- 
 ing to assist him : the King goes on with the 
 army. I am extremely sorry for the Chevalier
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 351 
 
 de Beauvau's* accident as sorry perhaps as the 
 Prince or Princess, for you know he was no fa- 
 vourite. The release of the French prisoners 
 prevents the civilities which I would have taken 
 care to have had shown him. You may tell the 
 Princess, that though it will be so much honour 
 to us to have any of her family in our power, yet 
 I shall always be extremely concerned to have 
 such an opportunity of showing my attention to 
 them. There 's a period in her own style 
 " Comment ! Monsieur, des attentions ! qu'il est 
 poll ! qifil scait tourner une civilite ! " 
 
 " 77tf/f la brave Angloise! e viva!" What 
 would I have given to have overheard you break- 
 ing it to the gallant ! But of all, commend me 
 to the good man Nykin! Why, Mamie% him- 
 
 * Third son of Prince Craon, and Knight of Malta. 
 
 f This relates to an intrigue which was observed in a church 
 between an English gentleman and a lady who was at Florence with 
 her husband. Mr. Mann was desired to speak to the lover to choose 
 properer places. 
 
 I Prince Craon's name for the Princess. She was Mistress of 
 Leopold, the last Duke of Lorrain, who married her to Monsieur de 
 Beauvau, and prevailed on the Emperor to make him a prince of 
 the Empire. Leopold had twenty children by her, who all resembled 
 him, and he got his death by a cold which he contracted in standing 
 to see a new house, which he had built for her, furnished. The 
 Duchess was extremely jealous, and once retired to Paris to complain 
 to her brother the Regent ; but he was not a man to quarrel with his 
 brother-in-law for things of that nature, and sent his sister back. 
 Madame de Craon gave into devotion after the Duke's death.
 
 352 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 self could not have cuddled up an affair for his 
 Sovereign Lady better. 
 
 I have a commission from my Lord to send 
 you ten thousand thanks for his bronze : he ad- 
 mires it beyond measure. It came down last 
 Friday, on his birthday,* and was placed at the 
 upper end of the gallery, which was illuminated 
 on the occasion : indeed, it is incredible what a 
 magnificent appearance it made ! There were 
 sixty-four candles, which showed all the pictures 
 to great advantage. The Dominichin did itself 
 and us honour. There is not the least question 
 of its being original : one might as soon doubt 
 the originality of King Patapan! His Pata- 
 panic Majesty is not one of the least curiosities 
 of Houghton. The crowds that come to see the 
 house, stare at him, and ask what creature it is. 
 As he does not speak one word of Norfolk, there 
 are strange conjectures made about him. Some 
 think that he is a foreign prince come to marry 
 Lady Mary. The disaffected say he is a Hano- 
 verian : but the common people, who observe 
 my Lord's vast fondness for him, take him for 
 his good genius, which they call his familiar. 
 
 You will have seen in the papers that Mr. 
 Pelham is at last First Lord of the Treasury. 
 Lord Bath had sent over Sir John Rushout's 
 
 * August 26.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 353 
 
 valet de chambre to Hanau to ask it. It is a 
 great question now what side he will take, or 
 rather if any side will take him. It is not yet 
 known what the good folks in the Treasury will 
 do I believe what they can. Nothing farther 
 will be determined till the King's return. 
 
 LETTER LXXXV. 
 
 Houghton, Sept. 7, 1743. 
 
 MY letters are now at their ne plus ultra of 
 nothingness, so you may hope they will grow 
 better again. I shall certainly go to town soon, 
 for my patience is worn out. Yesterday, the 
 weather grew cold ; I put on a new waistcoat for 
 its being winter's birthday ; the season I am 
 forced to love, for summer has no charms for 
 me when I pass it in the country. 
 
 We are expecting another battle, and a con- 
 gress at the same time : Ministers seem to be 
 flocking to Aix la Chapelle and what will much 
 surprise you, unless you have lived long enough 
 not to be surprised, is, that Lord Bolingbroke has 
 hobbled the same way too you will suppose as a 
 Minister for France ; I tell you, no. My uncle, 
 who is here, was yesterday stumping along the 
 gallery with a very political march : my Lord 
 
 VOL. i. 2 A
 
 354 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 asked him whither he was going ? Oh ! said I, 
 to Aix la Chapelle. 
 
 You ask me about the marrying Princesses : 
 I know not a tittle. Princess Louisa seems to 
 be going, her clothes are bought ; but marrying 
 our daughters makes no conversation. For 
 either of the other two, all thoughts seem to be 
 dropped of it. The Senate of Sweden design 
 themselves to choose a wife for their man of 
 Lubeck. 
 
 The city, and our supreme governors, the 
 mob, are very angry that there is a troop of 
 French players at Cliefden. One of them was 
 lately impertinent to a countryman, who thrashed 
 him. His Royal Highness sent angrily to know 
 the cause. The fellow replied, " He thought 
 to have pleased his Highness in beating one of 
 them, who had tried to kill his father, and had 
 wounded his brother." This was not easy to 
 answer ! 
 
 I delight in Prince Craon's exact intelligence ! 
 For his satisfaction I can tell him, that numbers 
 even here would believe any story full as absurd 
 as that of the King and my Lord Stair ; or that 
 very one, if anybody will write it over. Our 
 faith in politics will match any Neapolitan's in 
 religion. A political missionary will make more 
 converts in a county progress, than a Jesuit in
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 355 
 
 the whole empire of China, and will produce 
 more preposterous miracles. Sir Watkyn Wil- 
 liams, at the last Welsh races, convinced the 
 whole Principality (by reading a letter that 
 affirmed it) that the King was not within two 
 miles of the battle of Dettingen. We are not 
 good at hitting off anti-miracles, the only way of 
 defending one's own religion. I have read an 
 admirable story of the Duke of Buckingham, 
 who, when James II. sent a priest to him to 
 persuade him to turn Papist, and was plied by 
 him with miracles, told the Doctor, that if mira- 
 cles were proofs of a religion, the Protestant 
 cause was as well supplied as theirs. We have 
 lately had a very extraordinary one near my 
 estate in the country. A very holy man, as you 
 might be, Doctor, was travelling on foot and was 
 benighted. He came to the cottage of a poor 
 dowager, who had nothing in the house for her- 
 self and daughter, but a couple of eggs and a 
 slice of bacon. However, as she was a pious 
 widow, she made the good man welcome. In 
 the morning at taking leave, the saint made her 
 over to God for payment, and prayed that what- 
 ever she should do as soon as he was gone, she 
 might continue to do all day. This was a very 
 unlimited request, and unless the saint was a 
 prophet too, might not have been very pleasant 
 
 2 A 2
 
 356 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 retribution. The good woman, who minded her 
 affairs, and was not to be put out of her way, went 
 about her business. She had a piece of coarse 
 cloth to make a couple of shifts for herself and 
 child. She no sooner began to measure it, but 
 the yard fell a-measuring, and there was no stop- 
 ping it. It was sun-set before the good woman 
 had time to take breath. She was almost stifled, 
 for she was up to her ears in ten thousand 
 yards of cloth. She could have afforded to have 
 sold Lady Mary Wortley a clean shift, of the 
 usual coarseness she wears, for a groat half- 
 penny. 
 
 I wish you would tell the Princess this 
 story. Madame Riccardi, or the little Countess 
 d'Elbenino, will doat on it. I don't think it will 
 be out of Pandolfini's way, if you tell it to the 
 little Albizzi. You see I have not forgot the 
 tone of my Florentine acquaintance. I know I 
 should have translated it to them : you remem- 
 ber what admirable work I used to make of such 
 stories in broken Italian. I have heard old 
 Churchill tell Bussy, English puns out of jest- 
 books : particularly a reply about eating hare, 
 which he translated, j'ay mon venire plein de poll. 
 Adieu !
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 357 
 
 LETTER LXXXVI. 
 
 Houghton, Sept. 17, 1743. 
 
 As much as we laughed at Prince Craon's his- 
 tory of the King and Lord Stair, you see it was 
 not absolutely without foundation. I don't just 
 believe that he threatened his master with the 
 parliament. They say he gives for reason of 
 his quitting, their not having accepted one plan 
 of operation that he has offered. There is a 
 long memorial that he presented to the King, 
 with which I don't doubt but his Lordship will 
 oblige the public. He has ordered all his equi- 
 pages to be sold by public auction in the camp. 
 This is all I can tell you of this event, and this 
 is more than has been written to the ministry 
 here. They talk of great uneasinesses among 
 the English officers, all of which I don't believe. 
 The army is put into commission. Prince Charles 
 has not passed the Rhine, nor we anything 
 but our time. The papers of to-day tell us 
 of a definitive treaty signed by us and the 
 Queen of Hungary with the King of Sardinia, 
 which I will flatter myself will tend to your de- 
 fence. I am not in much less trepidation about 
 Tuscany than Richcourt is, though I scarce 
 think my fears reasonable; but while you are 
 concerned, I fear every thing.
 
 358 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 My Lord does not admire the account of the 
 Lanfranc ; thanks you, and will let it alone. 
 
 I am going to town in ten days, not a little 
 tired of the country, and in the utmost impati- 
 ence for the winter, which I am sure, from all 
 political prospects, must be entertaining to one 
 who only intends to see them at the length of a 
 telescope. 
 
 I was lately diverted with an article in the 
 Abecedario Pittorico, in the article of William 
 Dobson ; it says, " Nacque net quartiere d^Hol- 
 brons in Inghilterra" Did the author take 
 Holborn for a city, or Inghilterra for the capital 
 of the island of London ? Adieu. 
 
 LETTER LXXXVII. 
 
 Newmarket, Oct. 3, 1743. 
 
 I AM writing to you in an inn, on the road to 
 London. What a paradise should I have thought 
 this, when I was in the Italian inns ! in a wide 
 barn with four ample windows, which had no- 
 thing more like glass than shutters and iron 
 bars ! no tester to the bed, and the saddles and 
 portmanteaus heaped on me to keep off the cold. 
 What a paradise did I think the inn at Dover 
 when I came back, and what magnificence were
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 359 
 
 twopenny prints, salt-sellers, and boxes to hold 
 the knives : but the summum bonum was small- 
 beer and the newspaper. 
 
 " I bless'd my stars, and called it luxury 1" 
 
 Who was the Neapolitan Ambassadress,* that 
 could not live at Paris, because there was no 
 maccaroni ? Now am I relapsed into all the 
 dissatisfied repinement of a true English grum- 
 bling voluptuary. I could find in my heart to 
 write a Craftsman against the Government, be- 
 cause I am not quite so much at my ease as on 
 my own sofa. I could persuade myself that 
 it is my Lord Carteret's fault, that I am only 
 sitting in a common arm-chair, when I would be 
 lolling in a peche-mortel. How dismal, how soli- 
 tary, how scrub does this town look ; and yet it 
 has actually a street of houses better than Parma 
 or Modena. Nay, the houses of the people of 
 fashion, who come hither for the races, are pa- 
 laces to what houses in London itself were fifteen 
 years ago. People do begin to live again now, 
 and I suppose in a term we shall revert to York 
 Houses, Clarendon Houses, &c. But from that 
 grandeur, all the nobility had contracted them- 
 selves to live in coops of a dining-room, a dark 
 back-room, with one eye in a corner, and a 
 
 * The Princess of Campoflorido.
 
 360 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 closet. Think what London would be, if the 
 chief houses were in it, as in the cities in other 
 countries, and not dispersed like great rarity- 
 plums in a vast pudding of country. Well ! 
 it is a tolerable place as it is ! Were I a physi- 
 cian, I would prescribe nothing but recipe CCCLXV 
 drachm. Londin. Would you know why I like 
 London so much ? Why, if the world must con- 
 sist of so many fools as it does, I choose to take 
 them in the gross, and not made into separate 
 pills, as they are prepared in the country. Be- 
 sides, there is no being alone but in a metro- 
 polis : the worst place in the world to find soli- 
 tude is the country : questions grow there, and 
 that unpleasant Christian commodity, neigh- 
 bours. Oh ! they are all good Samaritans, and 
 do so pour balms and nostrums upon one, if one 
 has but the toothache, or a journey to take, that 
 they break one's head a journey to take ay ! 
 they talk over the miles to you, and tell you, 
 you will be late in. My Lord Lovel says, John 
 always goes two hours in the dark in the morning, 
 to avoid being one hour in the dark in the even- 
 ing. I was pressed to set out to-day before 
 seven : I did before nine ; and here am I arrived 
 at a quarter past five, for the rest of the night ! 
 I am more convinced every day that there is not 
 only no knowledge of the world out of a great
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 361 
 
 city, but no decency, no practicable society I 
 had almost said, not a virtue. I will only in- 
 stance in modesty, which all old Englishmen are 
 persuaded cannot exist within the atmosphere of 
 Middlesex. Lady Mary has a remarkable taste 
 and knowledge of music, and can sing I don't 
 say, like your sister, but I am sure she would be 
 ready to die if obliged to sing before three peo- 
 ple, or before one with whom she is not intimate. 
 The other day there came to see her a Norfolk 
 heiress : the young gentlewoman had not been 
 three hours in the house, and that for the first 
 time of her life, before she notified her talent for 
 singing, and invited herself up-stairs, to Lady 
 Mary's harpsichord ; where, with a voice like 
 thunder, and with as little harmony, she sang to 
 nine or ten people for an hour. " Was ever 
 nymph like Rossymonde ?" no, d'konneur. We 
 told her, she had a very strong voice. " Lord, 
 Sir! my master says it is nothing to what it 
 was." My dear child, she brags abominably ; if 
 it had been a thousandth degree louder, you 
 must have heard it at Florence. 
 
 I did not write to you last post, being over- 
 whelmed with this sort of people : I will be 
 more punctual in London. Patapan is in my 
 lap : I had him wormed lately, which he took 
 heinously : I made it up with him by tying a
 
 362 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 collar of rainbow-riband about his neck, for a 
 token that he is never to be wormed any more. 
 
 I had your long letter of two sheets of Sept. 
 17th, and wonder at your perseverance in telling 
 me so much as you always do, when I, dull crea- 
 ture, find so little for you. I can only tell you 
 that the more you write, the happier you make 
 me ; and I assure you, the more details the bet- 
 ter : I so often lay schemes for returning to you, 
 that I am persuaded I shall, and would keep up 
 my stock of Florentine ideas. 
 
 I honour Matthews's punctilious observance of 
 his Holmess's dignity. How incomprehensible 
 Englishmen are ! I should have sworn that he 
 would have piqued himself on calling the Pope 
 the w e of Babylon, and have begun his re- 
 monstrance, with you " old d d " What 
 
 extremes of absurdities ! to flounder from Pope 
 Joan to his Holiness ! I like your reflection, 
 " that every body can bully the Pope." There 
 was a humourist called Sir James of the Peak, 
 who had been beat by a fellow, who afterwards 
 underwent the same operation from a third hand. 
 " Zounds," said Sir James, " that I did not 
 know this fellow would take a beating !" Nay, 
 my dear child, I don't know that Matthews 
 would ! 
 
 You know I always thought the Tesi comique,
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 363 
 
 pendant gite $a devroit etre tragique. I am happy 
 that my sovereign Lady expressed my opinion so 
 well by the way, is De Sade still with you ? Is 
 he still in pawn by the proxy of his clothes ? 
 Has the Princess as constant retirements to her 
 bedchamber with the colique and Antenori ? 
 Oh ! I was struck the other day with a resem- 
 blance of mine hostess at Brandon to old Sara- 
 zin. You must know, the ladies of Norfolk 
 universally wear perriwigs, and affirm that it 
 is the fashion at London. " Lord, Mrs. White, 
 have you been ill, that you have shaved your 
 head ?" Mrs. White, in all the days of my 
 acquaintance with her, had a professed head of 
 red hair : to-day she had no hair at all before, 
 and at a distance above her ears, I descried a 
 smart brown bob, from beneath which had escap- 
 ed some long strings of original scarlet so like 
 old Sarazin at two in the morning, when she 
 has been losing at Pharaoh, and clawed her wig 
 aside, and her old trunk is shaded with the vene- 
 rable white ivy of her own locks. 
 
 I agree with you that it would be too trouble- 
 some to send me the things now the quarantine 
 exists, except the gun-barrels for Lord Conway, 
 the length of which I know nothing about, 
 being, as you conceive, no sportsman. I must 
 send you, with the Life of Theodore, a vast
 
 364 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 pamphlet* in defence of the new administration, 
 which makes the greatest noise. It is written, 
 as supposed, by Dr. Pearse,f of St. Martin's, 
 whom Lord Bath lately made a Dean ; the 
 matter furnished by him. There is a good deal 
 of useful knowledge of the famous change to be 
 found in it, and much more impudence. Some 
 parts are extremely fine ; in particular, the an- 
 swer to the Hanoverian pamphlets, where he has 
 collected the flower of all that was said in de- 
 fence of that measure. Had you those pamph- 
 lets ? I will make up a parcel : tell me what 
 other books you would have : I will send you 
 nothing else, for if I give you the least bauble, 
 it puts you to infinite expense, which I can't 
 forgive, and indeed will never bear again: you 
 would ruin yourself, and there is nothing I wish 
 so much as the contrary. 
 
 Here is a good ode, written on the supposi- 
 tion of that new book being Lord Bath's ; I be- 
 lieve by the same hand as those charming ones 
 which I sent you last year : the author is not 
 yet known. J 
 
 * " Faction detected.'' 
 
 f Mr. Pearse, afterwards Bishop of Bangor. He was not the 
 author, but Lord Perceval, afterwards Earl of Egmont. 
 
 J The Ode by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, beginning, 
 
 " Your sheets I 've perus'd." 
 It has been frequently published. D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 365 
 
 The Duke of Argyle is dead a death of how 
 little moment, and of how much it would have 
 been a year or two ago ! It is provoking, if one 
 must die, that one can't even die apropos ! 
 
 How does your friend Dr. Cocchi ? You never 
 mention him : do only knaves and fools deserve 
 to be spoken of? Adieu! 
 
 LETTER LXXXVIII. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Oct. 12, 1743. 
 
 THEY had sent your letter of Sept. 24th to 
 Houghton the very night I came to town ; I did 
 not receive it back till yesterday, and soon after 
 another with Mr. Chute's inclosed, for which I 
 will thank him presently. But, my dear child, 
 I can, like you, think of nothing but your bitter 
 
 father's letter. ! and that I should have 
 
 contributed to it! how I detest myself!* My 
 dearest Sir, you know all I ever said to him :f 
 indeed, I never do see him, and I assure you that 
 now I would worship him as the Indians do the 
 
 * Sir Horace Mann, in a letter to Walpole, dated Sept. 24th 
 1743, gives an account of his father's refusal to give him any money; 
 and then quotes the following passage from his father's letter" He 
 tells me he has been baited by you and your uncle on my account, 
 which was very disagreeable, and believes he may charge it to me." D. 
 
 f Vide Letter LXXV.
 
 366 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Devil, for fear he should hurt you : tempt 
 you I find he will not. He is so avaricious, that 
 I believe, if you asked him for a fish, he would 
 think it even extravagance to give you a stone : 
 in these bad times, stones may come to be dear, 
 and if he loses his place and his lawsuit, who 
 knows but he may be reduced to turn pavior ? 
 Oh ! the brute ! and how shocking, that, for 
 your sake, one can't literally wish to see him 
 want bread ! But how can you feel the least 
 tenderness, when the wretch talks of his bad 
 health, and of not denying himself comforts ! 
 It is weakness in you : whose health is worse, 
 yours or his ? or when did he ever deny him- 
 self a comfort to please any mortal ? My dear 
 child, what is it possible to do for you ? is there 
 any thing in my power ? What would I not 
 do for you ? and, indeed, what ought I not, if 
 I have done you any disservice ? I don't think 
 there is any danger of your father's losing his 
 place,* for whoever succeeds Mr. Pelham, is 
 likely to be a friend to this house, and would 
 not turn out one so connected with it. 
 
 I should be very glad to show my Lord an 
 account of those statues you mention : they are 
 much wanted in his hall, where, except the 
 
 * Mr. Robert Mann, father of Mr. Horace Mann, had a place in 
 Chelsea College, under the Paymaster of the Forces.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 367 
 
 Laocoon, he has nothing but busts. For Ga- 
 burri's drawings, I am extremely pleased with 
 what you propose to me. I should be well con- 
 tent with two of each master. I can't well fix 
 on any price ; but would not the rate of a sequin 
 a-piece be sufficient? to be sure he never gave 
 anything like that : when one buys the quantity 
 you mention to me, I can't but think that full 
 enough for one with another. At least, if I 
 bought so. many as two hundred, I would not 
 venture to go beyond that. 
 
 I am not at all easy from what you tell me of 
 the Spaniards : I have now no hopes but in the 
 winter, and what it may produce. I fear our's 
 will be most ugly : the disgusts about Hanover 
 swarm and increase every day. The King and 
 Duke have left the army, which is marching to 
 winter quarters in Flanders. He will not be 
 here by his birthday, but it will be kept when he 
 comes. The parliament meets the 22nd of No- 
 vember. All is distraction ! no union in the 
 Court : no certainty about the House of Com- 
 mons : Lord Carteret making no friends, the 
 King making enemies : Mr. Pelham in vain 
 courting Pitt, &c. Pultney unresolved. How 
 will it end ? No joy but in the Jacobites. I 
 know nothing more, so turn to Mr. Chute. 
 
 My dear Sir, how I am obliged to you for
 
 368 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 your poem ! Patapan is so vain with it, that he 
 will read nothing else ; I only offered him a 
 Martial to compare it with the original, and the 
 little coxcomb threw it into the fire, and told me 
 " He never heard of a lapdog's reading Latin ; 
 that it was very well for house-dogs and pointers 
 that live in the country, and have several hours 
 upon their hands : for my part," said he, 
 
 " I am so nice, who ever saw 
 A Latin book on my sofa ? 
 You'll find as soon a primer there, 
 Or recipes for pastry-ware. 
 Why do ye think I ever read 
 But Crebillon or Calprenede ? 
 This very thing of Mr. Chute's 
 Scarce with my taste and fancy suits. 
 Oh ! had it but in French been writ, 
 'Twere the genteelest, sweetest bit ! 
 One hates a vulgar English poet : 
 I vow t'ye, I should blush to show it 
 To women de ma connoissance, 
 Did not that agrdable stance., 
 Cher double entendre ! furnish means 
 Of making sweet Patapanins !"* 
 
 * Mr. Chute had sent Mr. Walpole the following imitation of an 
 epigram of Martial : 
 
 " Issa est passere nequior Catulli, 
 Issa est purior osculo columbae." 
 
 Martial, Lib. l.Ep.\\Q. 
 " Pata is frolicksome and smart, 
 
 As Geoffry once was (Oh my heart !)
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 369 
 
 My dear Sir, your translation shall stand fore- 
 most in the Patapaniana : I hope in time to 
 have poems upon him, and sayings of his own, 
 enough to make a notable book. En attendant, 
 I have sent you some pamphlets to amuse your 
 solitude, for, do you see, as tramontane as I am, 
 
 He 's purer than a turtle's kiss, 
 
 And gentler than a little miss ; 
 
 A jewel for a lady's ear, 
 
 And Mr. Walpole's pretty dear. 
 
 He laughs and cries with mirth or spleen ; 
 
 He does not speak, but thinks, 'tis plain. 
 
 One knows his little Guai's as well 
 
 As if he'd little words to tell. 
 
 Coil'd in a heap, a plumy wreathe, 
 
 He sleeps, you hardly hear him breathe. 
 
 Then he 's so nice, who ever saw 
 
 A drop that sullied his sofa ? 
 
 His bended leg ! what *s this but sense ? 
 
 Points out his little exigence. 
 
 He looks and points, and whisks about, 
 
 And says, pray dear Sir, let me out. 
 
 Where shall we find a little wife, 
 
 To be the comfort of his life, 
 
 To frisk and skip, and furnish means 
 
 Of making sweet Patapanins ? 
 
 England, alas ! can boast no she, 
 
 Fit only for his cicisbee. 
 
 Must greedy Fate then have him all ? 
 
 No ; Wootton to our aid we '11 call 
 
 The immortality's the same, 
 
 Built on a shadow, or a name. 
 
 He shall have one by Wootton's means, 
 
 The other Wootton for his pains. 
 
 VOL. I. . 2 B
 
 370 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 and as much as I love Florence, and hate the 
 country, while we make such a figure in the 
 world, or at least such a noise in it, one must 
 consider you other Florentines as country gen- 
 tlemen. Tell our dear M'my, that when he 
 unfolds the enchanted carpet, which his brother 
 the wise Galfridus sends him, he will find all 
 the kingdoms of the earth pourtrayed in it. In 
 short, as much history as was described on the 
 ever-memorable and wonderful piece of silk, 
 which the puissant White Cat * inclosed in a nut- 
 shell, and presented to her paramour Prince. 
 In short, in this carpet, which (filberts being out 
 of season) I was reduced to pack up in a wal- 
 nut, he will find the following immense library 
 of political lore : Magazines for October, Novem- 
 ber, December ; with an Appendix for the year 
 1741 ; all the Magazines for 1742, bound in one 
 volume ; and nine Magazines for 1743. The 
 Life of King Theodore, a certain fairy monarch ; 
 with the Adventures of this Prince and the fair 
 Republic of Genoa. The miscellaneous thoughts 
 of the fairy Hervey. The Question Stated. 
 Case of the Hanover Troops ; and the Vindica- 
 tion of the Case. Faction Detected. Congra- 
 tulatory Letter to Lord Bath. The Mysterious 
 Congress ; and four Old England Journals. Tell 
 
 * See the story of the White Cat in the fairy tales.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 371 
 
 Mr. Mann, or Mr. Mann tell himself, that I 
 would send him nothing but this enchanted car- 
 pet, which he can't pretend to return. I will 
 accept nothing under enchantment. Adieu all ! 
 Continue to love the two Patapans. 
 
 LETTER LXXXIX. 
 
 London, Nov. 17, 1743. 
 
 I WOULD not write on Monday till I could tell 
 you the King was come. He arrived at St. 
 James's between five and six on Tuesday. We 
 were in great fears of his coming through the 
 city, after the treason that has been publish- 
 ing for these two months : but it is incredible 
 how well his reception was, beyond what it had 
 ever been before : in short, you would have 
 thought that it had not been a week after the 
 victory at Dettingen. They almost carried him 
 into the palace on their shoulders ; and at night 
 the whole town was illuminated and bonfired. 
 He looks much better than he has for these five 
 years, and is in great spirits. The Duke limps 
 a little. The King's reception of the Prince, 
 who was come to St. James's to wait for him, 
 and who met him on the stairs with his two sis- 
 ters, and the Privy Counsellors, was not so gra- 
 
 2 B 2
 
 372 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 cious pas un mot though the Princess was 
 brought to bed the day before, and Prince 
 George is ill of the small-pox. It is very unpo- 
 pular ! You will possibly by next week hear 
 great things : hitherto, all is silence, expectation, 
 struggle, and ignorance. The birth-day is kept 
 on Tuesday, when the Parliament was to have 
 met ; but that can't be yet. 
 
 Lord Holderness has brought home a Dutch 
 bride :* I have not seen her. The Duke of Rich- 
 mond had a letter yesterday from Lady Albe- 
 marle,-^ at Altona : she says, the Prince of Den- 
 mark is not so tall as his bride, but far from a 
 bad figure : he is thin, and not ugly, except 
 having too wide a mouth. When she returns, as 
 I know her particularly, I will tell you more 
 for the present I think I have very handsomely 
 despatched the chapter of Royalties. My Lord 
 comes to town the day after to-morrow. 
 
 The opera is begun, but is not so well as last 
 year. The Rosa Mancini, who is second woman, 
 and whom I suppose you have heard, is now old. 
 
 * Her name was Mademoiselle Doublette; and she is called in 
 the Peerages " the niece of M. Van Haaren, of the province of Hol- 
 land." D. 
 
 f Lady Anne Lenox, sister of the Duke of Richmond, and wife of 
 William Anne van Keppel Earl of Albemarle : she had been Lady 
 of the Bedchamber to the Queen ; and this year conducted Princess 
 Louisa to Altona, to be married to the Prince Royal of Denmark.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 373 
 
 In the room of Amorevoli, they have got a dread- 
 ful bass, who, the Duke of Montagu says he be- 
 lieves, was organist at Aschaffenburgh. 
 
 Do you remember a tall Mr. Vernon,* who 
 travelled with Mr. Cotton ? He is going to be 
 married to a sister of Lord Strafford. 
 
 I have exhausted my news, and you shall ex- 
 cuse my being short to-day. For the future I 
 shall overflow with preferments, alterations, and 
 Parliaments. 
 
 Your brother brought me yesterday two of 
 yours together, of Oct. 22 and 27, and I find 
 you still overwhelmed with Richcourt's folly and 
 the Admiral's explanatory ignorance. It is un- 
 pleasant to have old Puccif added to your em- 
 barras. 
 
 Chevalier OssorioJ was with me the other 
 morning, and we were talking over the Hanoveri- 
 ans, as everybody does. I complimented him very 
 sincerely on his master's great bravery and suc- 
 cess : he answered very modestly and sensibly, 
 that he was glad amidst all the clamours that 
 
 * Henry Vernon, Esq. a nephew of Admiral Vernon, married to 
 Lady Henrietta Wentworth, daughter of Thomas first Earl of Strafford, 
 of the second creation. D. 
 
 f Signer Pucci was resident from Tuscany at the Court of 
 England. 
 
 t Chevalier Ossorio was several years Minister in England from 
 the King of Sardinia, to whom he afterwards became First Minister.
 
 374 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 there had been no cavil to be found with the 
 subsidy paid to his King. Prince Lobkowitz 
 makes a great figure, and has all my wishes and 
 blessings for having put Tuscany out of the 
 question. 
 
 There is no end of my giving you trouble with 
 packing me up cases : I shall pay the money to 
 your brother. Adieu ! Embrace the Chutes, 
 who are heavenly good to you, and must have 
 been of great use in all your illness and disputes. 
 
 LETTER XC. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Nov. 30, 1743. 
 
 I HAVE had two letters from you since I wrote 
 myself. This I begin against to-morrow, for I 
 should have little time to write. The Parlia- 
 ment opens, and we are threatened with a tight 
 Opposition, though it must be vain, if the num- 
 bers turn out as they are calculated ; three hun- 
 dred for the Court, two hundred and five oppo- 
 nents ; that is, in town ; for you know the whole 
 amounts to five hundred and fifty-eight. The di- 
 vision in the Ministry has been more violent than 
 between parties ; though now, they tell you, it is 
 all adjusted. The Secretary,* since his return, 
 
 * Lord Carteret.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 375 
 
 has carried all with a high hand, and treated the 
 rest as ciphers : but he has been so beaten in the 
 Cabinet Council, that in appearance he submits, 
 though the favour is most evidently with him. 
 All the old Ministers have flown hither as zeal- 
 ously as in former days ; and of the three 
 levees* in this street, the greatest is in this 
 house ; as my Lord Carteret told them the other 
 day ; " I know you all go to Lord Orford : he 
 has more company than any of us do you think 
 I can't go to him too ?" He is never sober ; his 
 rants are amazing ; so are his parts and spirits. 
 He has now made up with the Pelhams, though 
 after naming to two vacancies in the Admiralty 
 without their knowledge ; Sir Charles Hardy 
 and Mr. Philipson. The other alterations are 
 at last fixed. Winnington is to be Paymaster ; 
 Sandys, Cofferer, on resigning the Exchequer to 
 Mr. Pelham ; Sir John Rushout, Treasurer of the 
 Navy, and Harry Fox, Lord of the Treasury. 
 Mr. Comptonf and Gybbons remain at that board. 
 Wat. Plumber, a known man, said the other day, 
 " Zounds ! Mr. Pultney took those old dishclouts 
 to wipe out the Treasury, and now they are going 
 
 * Lord Carteret's, Mr. Pelham's, and Lord Orford's. 
 
 f The Hon. George Compton, second son of George fourth Earl of 
 Northampton. He succeeded his elder brother James the fifth Earl 
 in the family titles and estates, in 1754, and died himself in 1758. D
 
 376 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 to lace them and lay them up !" It is a most 
 just idea : to be sure, Sandys and Rushout and 
 their fellows are dishclouts, if dishclouts there 
 are in the world : and now to lace them ! 
 
 The Duke of Marlborough has resigned every- 
 thing, to reinstate himself in the old Duchess's 
 will. She said the other day, " It is very natu- 
 ral : he listed as soldiers do when they are drunk, 
 and repented when he was sober." 
 
 So much for news : now for your letters. 
 
 All joy to Mr. Whithed on the increase of his 
 family ! and joy to you, for now he is established 
 in so comfortable a way, I trust you will not 
 lose him soon And la Dame s'appelle ? 
 
 If my Lady Walpole has a mind once in her life 
 to speak truth, or to foretell, the latter of which 
 has as seldom anything to do with truth as her 
 Ladyship has, why she may now about the 
 Tesi's dog, for I shall certainly forget what it 
 would be in vain to remember. My dear Sir, 
 how should one convey a dog to Florence ! 
 There are no travelling Princes of Saxe Gotha 
 or Modena here at present, who would carry a 
 little dog in a nutshell. The poor Maltese 
 cats, to the tune of how many ! never arrived 
 here ; and how should one little dog ever find 
 its way to Florence ! But tell me, and if it is 
 possible I will send it. Was it to be a grey-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 377 
 
 hound, or of King Charles's breed ? It was to 
 have been the latter ; but I think you told me 
 that she rather had a mind to the other sort, 
 which, by the way, I don't think I could get 
 for her. 
 
 Thursday, 8 o'clock at night. 
 
 I am just come from the House and dined. 
 Mr. Coke* moved the address, seconded by Mr. 
 Yorke/f- the Lord Chancellor's son. The Oppo- 
 sition divided 149 against 278, which gives a 
 better prospect of carrying on the winter easily. 
 In the Lords House there was no division. Mr. 
 Pitt called Lord Carteret the execrable author of 
 our measures and sole minister. Mr. Winning- 
 ton replied, that he did not know of any sole 
 minister, but if my Lord Carteret was so, the 
 gentlemen of the other side had contributed 
 more to make him so than he had. 
 
 I am much pleased with the prospect you 
 show me of the Correggio. My Lord is so satis- 
 fied with the Dominichin, that he will go as far 
 as a thousand pounds for the Correggio. Do you 
 really think we shall get it, and for that price ? 
 
 You talk of the new couple, and of giving the 
 
 * The only son of Lord Lovel. D. 
 
 f Philip Yorke, eldest son of Lord Hardwicke ; and afterwards 
 the second Earl of that title. D.
 
 378 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 sposa a mantilla : what new couple ? you don't 
 say. I suppose some Suares, by the raffle. 
 Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER XCI. 
 
 Dec. 15, 1743. 
 
 I WRITE in a great fright, lest this letter should 
 come too late. My Lord has been told by a 
 Dr. Bragge, a virtuoso, that some years ago the 
 Monks asked ten thousand pounds for our Cor- 
 reggio,* and that there were two copies then 
 made of it : that afterwards, he is persuaded, the 
 King of Portugal bought the original ; he does 
 not know at what price. Now I think it very 
 possible that this doctor, hearing the picture 
 was to be come at, may have invented this Por- 
 tuguese history : but as there is a possibility too 
 that it may be true, you must take all imagin- 
 able precautions to be sure it is the very ori- 
 ginal a copy would do neither you nor me 
 great honour. 
 
 We have entered upon the Hanoverian cam- 
 paign. Last Wednesday, Waller moved in our 
 House an address to the King to continue them 
 no longer in our pay than to Christmas-day, the 
 
 * One of the most celebrated pictures of Correggio, with the Ma- 
 donna and child, saints and angels, in a convent at Parma.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 379 
 
 term for which they were granted. The debate 
 lasted till half an hour after eight at night. 
 Two young officers told some very trifling stories 
 against the Hanoverians, which did not at all 
 add any weight to the arguments of the Opposi- 
 tion, but we divided 231 to 181. On Friday 
 Lord Sandwich and Lord Halifax, in good 
 speeches, brought the same motion into the 
 Lords. I was there, and heard Lord Chester- 
 field make the finest oration I ever did hear. 
 My father did not speak, nor Lord Bath. They 
 threw out the motion by 71 to 36. These mo- 
 tions will determine the bringing on the demand 
 for the Hanoverians for another year in form, 
 which was a doubtful point, the old part of the 
 Ministry being against it, though very contrary 
 to my Lord's advice. 
 
 Lord Gower, finding no more Tories were to 
 be admitted, resigned on Thursday ; and Lord 
 Cobham in the afternoon. The Privy Seal was 
 the next day given to Lord Cholmondeley. 
 Lord Gower's resignation is one of the few 
 points in which I am content the prophecy in 
 the old Jacobite ballad should be fulfilled 
 " The King shall have his own again." 
 
 The changes are begun, but will not be com- 
 pleted till the recess, as the preferments will 
 occasion more re-elections than they can spare
 
 380 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 just now in the House of Commons. Sandys 
 has resigned the Exchequer to Mr. Pelham ; Sir 
 John Rushout is to be Treasurer of the Navy ; 
 Winnington, Paymaster ; Harry Fox, Lord of 
 the Treasury ; Lord Edgcumbe, I believe, Lord 
 of the Treasury,* and Sandys, Cofferer and a 
 Peer. I am so scandalized at this, that I will 
 fill up my letter (having told you all the news) 
 with the first fruits of my indignation. 
 
 VERSES ADDRESSED TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS, 
 
 ON ITS RECEIVING A NEW PEER. 
 
 THOU senseless Hall, whose injudicious space, 
 Like Death, confounds a various mismatch'd race, 
 Where kings and clowns, th' ambitious and the mean, 
 Compose th' inactive soporific scene, 
 Unfold thy doors I and a promotion see, 
 That must amaze ev'n prostituted thee I 
 
 Shall not thy Sons, incurious as they are, 
 Raise their dull lids, and meditate a stare I 
 Thy Sons ! who sleep in monumental state, 
 To show the spot where their great Fathers sate. 
 
 Ambition first, and specious warlike worth 
 CalFd our old Peers and brave Patricians forth ; 
 And subject Provinces produced to fame 
 Their Lords with scarce a less than regal name. 
 Then, blinded Monarchs, flattery's fondled race, 
 Their fav'rite minions stamp'd with titled grace, 
 And bade the tools of pow'r succeed to Virtue's place. 
 
 * This did not happen.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 381 
 
 Hence Spensers, Gavestons, by crimes grown great, 
 Vaulted into degraded Honour's seat : 
 Hence dainty Villiers sits in high debate, 
 Where manly Beauchamps, Talbots, Cecils sate : 
 Hence Wentworth,* perjured patriot, burst each tie, 
 Profaned each oath, and gave his life the lie ; 
 Renounced whate'er he sacred held and dear, 
 Renounced his country's cause, and sank into a Peer. 
 
 Some have bought ermine, venal Honour's veil, 
 When set by bankrupt Majesty to sale ; 
 Or drew Nobility's coarse ductile thread 
 From some distinguish'd harlot's titled bed. 
 
 Not thus ennobled Samuel ! no worth 
 Call'd from his mud the sluggish reptile forth ; 
 No parts to flatter, and no grace to please, 
 With scarce an insect's impotence to tease, 
 He struts a Peer though proved too dull to stay, 
 Whence -j- ev'n poor Gybbons is not brush'd away. 
 
 Adieu ! I am just going to Leicester-House, 
 where the Princess sees company to-day and to- 
 morrow, from seven to nine, on her lying-in. I 
 mention this per amor del Signer Marchese Co- 
 simo Riccardi.J 
 
 Earl of Strafford ; but it alludes to Lord Bath. 
 
 f The Treasury. 
 
 J A gossiping old Florentine nobleman, whose whole employment 
 was to inform himself of the state of marriages, pregnancies, lyings in, 
 and such like histories.
 
 382 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 LETTER XCII. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Dec. 26, 1743. 
 
 I SHALL complain of inflammations in my eyes, 
 till you think it is an excuse for not writing; 
 but your brother is my witness that I have been 
 shut up in a dark room for this week. I get 
 frequent colds, which fall upon my eyes ; and 
 then I have bottles of sovereign eye-waters from 
 all my acquaintance ; but as they are only acci- 
 dental colds, I never use anything but sage, 
 which braces my eye-fibres again in a few days. 
 I have had two letters since my last to you ; one 
 complaining of my silence, and the other ac- 
 knowledging one from me after a month's inter- 
 mission : indeed, I never have been so long with- 
 out writing to you : I do sometimes miss two 
 weeks on any great dearth of news, which is all 
 I have to fill a letter ; for living as I do among 
 people, whom, from your long absence, you can- 
 not know, I should talk Hebrew to mention 
 them to you. Those, that from eminent birth, 
 folly, or parts, are to be found in the chronicles 
 of the times, I tell you of, whenever necessity or 
 the King puts them into new lights. The lat- 
 ter, for I cannot think the former had any hand 
 in it, has made Sandys, as I told you, a Lord 
 and Cofferer! Lord Middlesex is one of the new
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 383 
 
 Treasury, not Ambassador, as you heard. So 
 the Opera-house and White's have contributed a 
 Commissioner and a Secretary to the Treasury,* 
 as their quota to the government. It is a period 
 to make a figure in history. 
 
 There is a recess of both Houses for a fort- 
 night and we are to meet again, with all the 
 quotations and flowers that the young orators can 
 collect and forcibly apply to the Hanoverians; 
 with all the malice which the disappointed Old 
 have hoarded against Carteret, and with all the 
 impudence his defenders can sell him : and when 
 all that is vented what then? why then, 
 things will be just where they were ? 
 
 General Wadef is made Field-marshal, and is 
 to have the command of the army, as it is sup- 
 posed, on the King's not going abroad; but that 
 is not declared. The French preparations go 
 on with much more vigour than our's : they not 
 having a House of Commons to combat all the 
 winter ; a campaign that necessarily engages all 
 the attention of ministers, who have no great 
 variety of apartments in their understandings. 
 
 I have paid your brother the bill I received 
 from you, and give you a thousand thanks for 
 
 * John Jeffries. 
 
 f General George Wade, afterwards Commander of the forces in 
 Scotland. D.
 
 384 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 all the trouble you have had ; most particularly 
 from the plague of hams,* from which you 
 have saved me. Heavens ! how blank I should 
 have looked at unpacking a great case of bacon 
 and wine! My dear child, be my friend, and 
 preserve me from heroic presents. I cannot 
 possibly at this distance begin a new courtship 
 of regali ; for I suppose all those hams were to 
 be converted into watches and toys. Now it 
 would suit Sir Paul Methuen very well, who is a 
 Knight-errant at seventy-three, to carry on an 
 amour between Mrs. Chenevix'sf shop and a 
 noble cellar in Florence ; but alas ! I am nei- 
 ther old enough nor young enough to be gallant, 
 and should ill become the writing of heroic epis*- 
 ties to a fair mistress in Italy No, no : ne sono 
 uscito con onore, mi pare, et non voglio riprendere 
 quel impegno piil. You see how rustic I am 
 grown again ! 
 
 I knew your new brother-in-law J at school, 
 but have not seen him since. But your sister 
 was in love, and must consequently be happy 
 to have him. Yet I own, I cannot much felici- 
 tate anybody that marries for love. It is bad 
 
 * Madame Grifoni was going to send Mr. W. a present of hams 
 and Florence wine. 
 
 f The proprietress of a celebrated toy-shop. D. 
 I Mr. Foote.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 385 
 
 enough to marry ; but to marry where one loves, 
 ten times worse. It is so charming at first, that 
 the decay of inclination renders it infinitely more 
 disagreeable afterwards. Your sister has a thou- 
 sand merits ; but they don't count : but then 
 she has good sense enough to make her happy, 
 if her merit cannot make him so. 
 
 Adieu ! I rejoice for your sake that Madame 
 Royale* is recovered, as I saw in the papers. 
 
 LETTER XCIII. 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 I HAVE been much desired by a very particular 
 friend, to recommend to you Sir William May- 
 nard^ who is going to Florence. You will oblige 
 me extremely by any civilities you show him 
 while he stays there ; in particular, by intro- 
 ducing him to the Prince and Princess de Craon, 
 Madame Suares, and the rest of my acquaint- 
 
 * The Duchess of Lorrain, mother of the Great Duke : her death 
 would have occasioned a long mourning at Florence. (Elizabeth of 
 Orleans, only daughter of Philip Duke of Orleans, (Monsieur) by his 
 second wife, the Princess Palatine. D.) 
 
 f Sir William Maynard, the fourth Baronet of the family, and a 
 younger branch of the Lords Maynard. His son, Sir Charles May- 
 nard, became Viscount Maynard in 1775, upon the death of his cou- 
 sin Charles, the first Viscount, who had been so created, with special 
 remainder to him. D. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 C
 
 386 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 ance there, who, I dare say, will continue their 
 goodness to me, by receiving him with the same 
 politeness that they received me. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 LETTER XCIV. 
 
 Arlington-Street, Jan. 24, 1744. 
 
 DON'T think me guilty of forgetting you a 
 moment, though I have missed two or three 
 posts. If you knew the incessant hurry and 
 fatigue in which I live, and how few moments I 
 have to myself, you would not suspect me. You 
 know, I am naturally indolent, and without 
 application to any kind of business ; yet it is 
 impossible, in this country, to live in the world, 
 and be in parliament, and not find oneself every 
 day more hooked into politics and company, 
 especially inhabiting a house, that is again be- 
 come the centre of affairs. My Lord becomes 
 the last resource, to which they are all forced to 
 apply. One part of the ministry, you may be 
 sure, do ; and for the other, they affect to give 
 themselves the honour of it too. 
 
 Last Thursday I would certainly have written 
 to give you a full answer to your letter of grief,* 
 
 * Sir Horace Mann had written in great uneasiness, in consequence 
 of his having heard that Count Richcourt, the Great Duke's minis-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 387 
 
 but I was shut up in the House till past ten at 
 night ; and the night before till twelve. But I 
 must speak to you in private first. I don't in 
 the least doubt but my Lady Walpole and Rich- 
 court would willingly be as mischievous as they 
 are malicious, if they could : but, my dear child, 
 it is impossible. Don't fear from Lord Carteret's 
 silence to you ; he never writes : if that were a 
 symptom of disgrace, the Duke of Newcastle 
 would have been out long ere this : and when 
 the Regency were not thought worthy of his 
 notice, you could not expect it. As to your 
 being attached to Lord Orford, that is your 
 safety. Carteret told him the other day, " My 
 Lord, I appeal to the Duke of Newcastle, if I did 
 not tell the King, that it was you who had car- 
 ried the Hanover troops." That, too, disproves 
 the accusation of Sir Robert's being no friend to 
 the Queen of Hungary. That is now too stale 
 and old. However, I will speak to my Lord 
 and Mr. Pelham would I had no more cause to 
 tremble for you, than from little cabals! but, 
 my dear child, when we hear every day of the 
 Toulon fleet sailing, can I be easy for you ? or 
 can I not foresee where that must break, unless 
 
 ter, was using all his influence with the English Government, in con- 
 junction with Lady Walpole, to have Sir Horace removed from his 
 situation at Florence. D. 
 
 2 c 2
 
 388 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 Matthews and the wonderful fortune of England 
 can interpose effectually ? We are not without 
 our own fears : the Brest fleet of twenty-two 
 sail is out at sea ; they talk, for Barbadoes I 
 believe we wish it may be thither destined ? 
 Judge what I think ; I cannot, nor may write : 
 but I am in the utmost anxiety for your situa- 
 tion. 
 
 The whole world, nay the Prince himself 
 allows, that if Lord Orford had not come to 
 town, the Hanover troops had been lost. They 
 were in effect given up by all but Carteret. 
 We carried our own army in Flanders by a ma- 
 jority of 112. Last Wednesday was the great 
 day of expectation : we sat in the Committee on 
 the Hanover troops till twelve at night : the 
 numbers were 271 to 226. The next day on 
 the report we sat again till past ten, the Oppo- 
 sition having moved to adjourn till Monday, on 
 which we divided, 265 to 177- Then the Tories 
 all went away in a body, and the troops were 
 voted. 
 
 We have still tough work to do : there are the 
 estimates on the extraordinaries of the campaign, 
 and the treaty of Worms* to come I know 
 
 * Between the King of England, the Queen of Hungary, and the 
 King of Sardinia, to whom were afterwards added Holland and Sax- 
 ony. It is sometimes called " the triple alliance." D.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 389 
 
 who* thinks this last more difficult to fight than 
 the Hanover troops. It is likely to turn out as 
 laborious a session as ever was. All the comfort 
 is, all the abuse don't lie at your door nor mine 
 Lord Carteret has the full perquisities of the 
 ministry. The other day, after Pitt had called 
 him the Hanover-troop- Minister, a flagitious task- 
 master, and said, that the sixteen thousand Hano- 
 verians were all the party he had, and were his 
 placemen, in short, after he had exhausted invec- 
 tives, he added, " But I have done : if he were 
 present, I would say ten times more." Murray 
 , shines as bright as ever he did at the bar, which 
 he seems to decline, to push his fortune in the 
 House of Commons under Mr. Pelham. 
 
 This is the present state of our politics, which 
 is our present state, for nothing else is thought 
 of. We fear the King will again go abroad. 
 
 Lord Hartington has desired me to write to 
 you for some melon-seeds, which you will be so 
 good to get the best, and send to me for him. 
 
 I can't conclude without mentioning again the 
 Toulon squadron : we vapour, and say, by this 
 time Matthews has beaten them while / see 
 them in the port of Leghorn ! 
 
 My dear Mr. Chute, I trust to your friendship 
 to comfort our poor Miny : for my part, I am all 
 
 * Lord Orford.
 
 390 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 apprehension ! My dearest child, if it turns out 
 so, trust to my friendship for working every en- 
 gine to restore you to as good a situation as you 
 will lose, if my fears prove prophetic ! The 
 first peace would reinstate you in your favourite 
 Florence, whoever were Sovereign of it. I wish 
 you may be able to smile at the vanity of my 
 fears, as I did at yours about Richcourt. Adieu ! 
 adieu ! 
 
 LETTER XCV. 
 
 Feb. 9, 1744. 
 
 I HAVE scarce time to write, or to know what 
 I write I live in the House of Commons. We 
 sat on Tuesday till ten at night, on a Welsh 
 election ; and shall probably stay as long to-day 
 on the same. 
 
 I have received all your letters by the couriers 
 and the post : I am persuaded the Duke of 
 Newcastle is much pleased with your dispatch ; 
 but I dare not enquire, for fear he should dislike 
 your having written the same to me. 
 
 I believe we should have heard more of the 
 Brest squadron, if their appearance off the 
 Land's-end on Friday was se'nnight, steering 
 towards Ireland, had occasioned greater conster-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 391 
 
 nation. It is incredible how little impression it 
 made : the Stocks hardly fell ; though it was 
 then generally believed that the Pretender's son 
 was on board. We expected some invasion, but 
 as they were probably disappointed on finding 
 no rising in their favour, it is now believed that 
 they are gone to the. Mediterranean. They 
 narrowly missed taking the Jamaica fleet, which 
 was gone out convoyed by two men-of-war. 
 The French pursued them, outsailed them, and 
 missed them by their own inexpertness. Sir 
 John Norris is at Portsmouth, ready to sail with 
 nineteen men-of-war, and is to be joined by two 
 more from Plymouth. We hope to hear that 
 Matthews has beat the Toulon squadron before 
 they can be joined by the Brest. This is the 
 state of our situation. They have stopped the 
 embarkation of the six thousand men for Fland- 
 ers ; and I hope the King's journey thither. 
 The Opposition fight every measure of supply, 
 but very unsuccessfully. When this Welsh elec- 
 tion is over, they will probably go out of town, 
 and leave the rest of the Session at ease. 
 
 I think you have nothing to apprehend from 
 the new mine that is preparing against you. 
 My Lord is convinced it is an idle attempt ; and 
 it will always be in his power to prevent any 
 such thing from taking effect. I am very un-
 
 392 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 happy for Mr. Chute's gout, or for anything that 
 disturbs the peace of people I love so much, 
 and that I have such vast reason to love. You 
 know my fears for you ; pray Heaven they end 
 well! 
 
 It is universally believed that the Pretender's 
 son, who is at Paris, will make the campaign in 
 one of their armies. I suppose this will soon 
 produce a declaration of war : and then France, 
 perhaps, will not find her account in having 
 brought him as near to England as ever he is 
 like to be. Adieu! My Lord is hurrying me 
 down to the House I must go ! 
 
 LETTER XCVI. 
 
 House of Commons, Feb. 16, 1744. 
 
 WE are come nearer to a crisis than indeed I 
 expected ! After the various reports about the 
 Brest squadron, it has proved that they are 
 sixteen ships of the line off Torbay ; in all pro- 
 bability to draw our fleet from Dunkirk, where 
 they have two men-of-war and sixteen large 
 India-men to transport eight thousand foot and 
 two thousand horse which are there in the town. 
 There has been some difficulty to persuade peo- 
 ple of the imminence of our danger : but yester-
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 
 
 day the King sent a message to both Houses to 
 acquaint us that he has certain information of 
 the young Pretender being in France, and of the 
 designed invasion from thence, in concert with 
 the disaffected here. Immediately the Duke of 
 Maryborough, who most handsomely and season- 
 ably was come to town on purpose, moved for 
 an Address to assure the King of standing by 
 him with lives and fortunes. Lord Hartington, 
 seconded by Sir Charles Windham,* the convert 
 son of Sir William, moved the same in our 
 House. To our amazement, and little sure to 
 their own honour, Waller and Doddington, sup- 
 ported in the most indecent manner by Pitt, 
 moved to add, that we would immediately in- 
 quire into the state of the navy, the causes of 
 our danger by negligence, and the sailing of the 
 Brest fleet. They insisted on this amendment, 
 and debated it till seven at night, not one 
 (professed) Jacobite speaking. The division was 
 287 against 123. In the Lords, Chesterfield 
 moved the same amendment, seconded by old 
 dull Westmoreland ; but they did not divide. 
 
 All the troops have been sent for in the 
 greatest haste to London ; but we shall not 
 have above eight thousand men together at 
 most. An express is gone to Holland, and 
 
 * Afterwards Earl of Egremont.
 
 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 General Wentworth followed it last night, to 
 demand six thousand men, who will proba- 
 bly be here by the end of next week. Lord 
 Stair* has offered the King his service, and is to- 
 day named Commander-in-Chief. This is very 
 generous, and will be of great use. He is ex- 
 tremely beloved in the army, and most firm to 
 this family. 
 
 I cannot say our situation is the most agree- 
 able ; we know not whether Norris is gone after 
 the Brest fleet or not. We have three ships in 
 the Downs, but they cannot prevent a landing, 
 which will probably be in Essex or Suffolk. 
 Don't be surprised if you hear that this crown is 
 fought for on land. As yet there is no rising ; 
 but we must expect it on the first descent. 
 
 Don't be uneasy for me, when the whole is at 
 stake. I don't feel as if my friends would have 
 any reason to be concerned for me : my warmth 
 will carry me as far as any man ; and I think I 
 can bear as I should the worst that can happen : 
 though the delays of the French, I don't know 
 from what cause, have not made that likely to 
 happen. 
 
 The King keeps his bed with the rheumatism : 
 
 * The Duke of Marlborough and Lord Stair had quitted the army 
 in disgust, after last campaign, on the King's showing such un- 
 measurable preference to the Hanoverians.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 395 
 
 he is not less obliged to Lord Orford for the de- 
 fence of his crown, now he is out of place, than 
 when he was in the Administration. His zeal, 
 his courage, his attention are indefatigable and 
 inconceivable. He regards his own life no more, 
 than when it was most his duty to expose it, and 
 fears for everything but that. 
 
 I flatter myself that next post I shall write 
 you a more comfortable letter. I would not 
 have written this, if it were a time to admit 
 deceit. Hope the best, and fear as little as you 
 would do if you were here in the danger. My 
 best love to the Chutes ; tell them I never knew 
 how little I was a Jacobite, till it was almost my 
 interest to be one. Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER XCVII. 
 
 Thursday, Feb. 23, 1744. 
 
 I WRITE to you in the greatest hurry at eight 
 o'clock at night, while they are all at dinner round 
 me. I am this moment come from the House, 
 where we have carried a great Welsh election 
 against Sir Watkyn Williams by 26. I fear you 
 have not had my last, for the packet-boat has 
 been stopped on the French stopping our mes- 
 senger at Calais. There is no doubt of the inva-
 
 396 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 sion : the young Pretender is at Calais, and the 
 Count de Saxe is to command the embarkation. 
 Hitherto the spirit of the nation is with us. Sir 
 John Norris was to sail yesterday to Dunkirk to 
 try to burn their transports we are in the 
 utmost expectation of the news. The Brest 
 squadron was yesterday on the coast of Sussex. 
 We have got two thousand men from Ireland, 
 and have sent for two more : the Dutch are com- 
 ing : Lord Stair is General. Nobody is yet taken 
 up God knows why not ! We have repeated 
 news of Matthews having beaten and sunk eight 
 of the Toulon ships ; but the French have so 
 stopped all communication, that we don't yet 
 know it certainly : I hope you do. Three hun- 
 dred arms have been seized in a French mer- 
 chant's house at Plymouth. Attempts have been 
 made to raise the clans in Scotland, but unsuc- 
 cessfully. 
 
 My dear child, I write short, but it is much ; 
 and I could not say more in ten thousand words. 
 All is at stake ; we have great hopes, but they 
 are but hopes ! I have no more time ; I wait 
 with patience for the event, though to me it 
 must and shall be decisive.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 397 
 
 LETTER XCVIII. 
 
 March 1st, 1744. 
 
 I WISH I could put you out of the pain my 
 last letters must have given you : I don't know 
 whether your situation to be at such a distance 
 on so great a crisis, is not more disagreeable 
 than ours, who are expecting every moment to 
 hear the French are landed. We had great ill- 
 luck last week ; Sir John Norris, with four-and- 
 twenty sail, came within a league of the Brest 
 squadron, which had but fourteen : the coasts 
 were covered with people to see the engagement; 
 but at seven in the evening the wind changed, 
 and they escaped. There have been terrible 
 winds these four or five days : our fleet has not 
 suffered materially, but theirs less. Ours lies in 
 the Downs ; five of theirs at Torbay, the rest at 
 la Hogue. We hope to hear that these storms, 
 which blew directly on Dunkirk, have done great 
 damage to their transports. By the fortune of 
 the winds which have detained them in port, we 
 have had time to make preparations ; if they 
 had been ready three weeks ago, when the Brest 
 squadron sailed, it had all been decided. We 
 expect the Dutch in four and five days. Ten 
 battalions, which make seven thousand men, are 
 sent for from our army in Flanders, and four
 
 398 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 thousand from Ireland, two of which are arrived. 
 If they still attempt the invasion, it must be a 
 bloody war ! 
 
 The spirit of the nation has appeared extraor- 
 dinarily in our favour. I wish I could say as 
 much for that of the Ministry. Addresses are 
 come from all parts ; but you know how little 
 they are to be depended on King James had 
 them. The merchants of London are most zea- 
 lous : the French name will do more harm to 
 their cause, than the Pretender's service. One 
 remarkable circumstance happened to Colonel 
 Cholmondeley's regiment on their march to 
 London : the public houses on all the road 
 would not let them pay anything, but treated 
 them, and said, " You are going to defend us 
 against the French." There are no signs of any 
 rising : Lord Barrimore,* the Pretender's general, 
 and Colonel Cecil, his secretary of state, are at 
 last taken up ; the latter, who having removed 
 his papers, had sent for them back, thinking the 
 danger over, is committed to the Tower, on dis- 
 coveries from them but alas ! these discoveries 
 go on but lamely ! One may perceive who is 
 not minister, rather than who is. The Opposi- 
 tion tried to put off the suspension of the Habeas 
 Corpus feebly. Vernonf and the Grenvilles 
 
 * James Barry, fourth Earl of Barrymore: died in 1747. D. 
 t Admiral Vernon.
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 399 
 
 are the warmest : Pitt and Lyttelton went away 
 without voting. My father has exerted himself 
 most amazingly : the other day, on the King's 
 laying some information before the House, when 
 the Ministry had determined to make no Address 
 on it, he rose up in the greatest agitation, and 
 made a long and fine speech on the present 
 situation. The Prince was so pleased with it, 
 that he has given him leave to go to his court, 
 which he never would before. He went yester- 
 day, and was most graciously received. 
 
 Lord Stair is at last appointed general. Ge- 
 neral Oglethorpe* is to have a commission for 
 raising a regiment of Hussars to defend the 
 coasts. The Swiss servants in London have 
 offered to form themselves into a regiment ; six 
 hundred are already clothed and armed, but no 
 colonel or officers appointed. We flatter our- 
 selves that the divisions in the French Ministry 
 will repair what the divisions in our own undo. 
 
 The answer from the Court of France to Mr. 
 Thomson on the subject of the boy,f is most ar- 
 rogant : " That when we have given them satis- 
 faction for the many complaints which they have 
 
 * General James Oglethorpe, the friend of Pope and of Johnson. 
 The former says, in speaking of him, 
 
 " A mind, whose vast benevolence of soul 
 
 Can fly like Oglethorpe's from Pole to Pole." 
 He lived to extreme old age. D. 
 t Charles Edward, the young Pretender. D.
 
 400 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 made on our infraction of treaties, then they will 
 think of giving us des claircissements" 
 
 We have no authentic account yet from 
 Matthews : the most credited is a letter from 
 Marseilles to a Jew, which says it was the most 
 bloody battle ever fought : that it lasted three 
 days ; that the two first we had the worst, and 
 the third, by a lucky gale, totally defeated them. 
 Sir Charles Wager always said, " that if a sea- 
 fight lasted three days, he was sure the English 
 suffered the most for the two first, for no other 
 nation would stand beating for two days to- 
 gether." 
 
 Adieu ! my dear child ! I have told you every 
 circumstance I know : I hope you receive my 
 letters : I hope their accounts will grow more 
 favourable ! I never found my spirits so high, 
 for they never were so provoked. Hope the 
 best, and believe that as long as I am I shall 
 always be, 
 
 Yours sincerely. 
 
 P.S. My dear Chutes, I hope you will still re- 
 turn to your own England !
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 401 
 
 LETTER XCIX. 
 
 March 5th, 1744, 8 o'clock at night. 
 
 I HAVE but time to write you a minute-line, 
 but it will be a comfortable one. There is just 
 come advice, that the great storm on the 25th 
 of last month, the very day the embarkation 
 was to have sailed from Dunkirk, destroyed 
 twelve of their transports ; and obliged the 
 whole number of troops, which were fifteen 
 thousand, to debark. You may look upon the 
 invasion as at an end, at least for the present ; 
 though, as everything is to come to a crisis, one 
 shall not be surprised to hear of the attempt 
 renewed. 
 
 We know nothing yet certain from Matthews; 
 his victory grows a great doubt. 
 
 As this must go away this instant, I cannot 
 write more But what could be more ? Adieu ; 
 I wish you all joy ! 
 
 LETTER C. 
 
 March 15th, 1744. 
 
 I HAVE nothing new to tell you : that great 
 storm certainly saved us from the invasion 
 then. Whether it has put an end to the design 
 
 VOL. i. 2 D
 
 402 THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 is uncertain. They say the embargo at Dun- 
 kirk and Calais is taken off, but not a vessel of 
 ours is come in from thence. They have, in- 
 deed, opened again the communication with 
 Ypres and Nieuport, &c. but we don't yet hear 
 whether they have renewed their embarkation. 
 However, we take for granted it is all over 
 from which, I suppose, it will not be over. We 
 expect the Dutch troops every hour. That 
 reinforcement, and four thousand men from Ire- 
 land, will be all the advantage we shall have 
 made of gaining time. 
 
 At last we have got some light into our 
 Mediterranean affair, for there is no calling it 
 a victory. Villettes has sent a courier, by which 
 it seems we sunk one great Spanish ship ; the 
 rest escaped, and the French fled shamefully ; 
 that was, I suppose, designedly and artfully. 
 We can't account for Lestock's not coming-up 
 with his seventeen ships, and we have no mind 
 to like it, which will not amaze you. We 
 flatter ourselves, that as this was only the first 
 day, we shall get some more creditable history 
 of some succeeding day. 
 
 The French are going to besiege Mons ; I 
 wish all the war may take that turn ; I don't 
 desire to see England the theatre of it. We 
 talk no more of its becoming so, nor of the
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN. 403 
 
 plot, than of the gunpowder treason. Party is 
 very silent ; I believe, because the Jacobites have 
 better hopes than from parliamentary divisions. 
 Those in the ministry run very high, and I 
 think near some crisis. 
 
 I have enclosed a proposal from my book- 
 seller to the undertaker of the Museum Flo- 
 rentinum, or the concerners of it, as the paper 
 called them : but it was expressed in such won- 
 derfully-battered English, that it was impossible 
 for Dodsley .or me to be sure of the meaning of 
 it. He is a fashionable author, and though that 
 is no sign of perspicuity, I hope more intelligi- 
 ble. Adieu ! 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 LONDON : 
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