Books: Letters of Horace Walpole, V4

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Letter 113 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, August 19, 1776. (page 159)

I have time but to write you a line, and it is as usual to beg
your help in a sort of literary difficulty. I have received a
letter dated , "Catherine Hall" from "Ken. Prescot," whom I doubt
I have forgotten; for he begins "Dear Sir," and I protest I
cannot recollect him, though I ought. He says he wants to send
me a few classical discourses, and e speaks with respect of my
father, and, by his trembling hand, seems an old man. All these
are reasons for my treating him with great regard; and, being
afraid of hurting him, I have written a short and very civil
answer, directed to the "Rev. Dr. Prescot." God knows whether he
is a clergyman or a doctor, and perhaps I may have betrayed my
forgetfulness; but I -thought it was best to err on the over
civil side. Tell me something about him; I dread his Discourses.
Is he the strange man that a few years ago sent me a volume of an
uncommon form, and of more uncommon matter? I suspect so.(255)

You shall certainly have two or three of my prints by Mr. Essex
when he returns hither and hence, and any thing else you will
command. I am just now in great concern for the terrible death
of General Conway's son-in-law, Mr. Damer,(256) of which,
perhaps, you in your solitude have not heard.-You are happy who
take no part but in the past world, for the mortui non mordent,
nor do any of the extravagant and distressing things that perhaps
they did in their lives. I hope the gout, that persecutes even
in a hermitage, has left you. Yours most sincerely.

(255) Dr. Kenrick Prescot, master of Catherine Hall, and author
of a quarto volume, published at Cambridge in 1773, entitled,
"Letters concerning Homer the Sleeper, in Horace; with additional
classic Amusements."-E.

(256) John, eldest son of Joseph Damer, Esq, Lord Milton;
afterwards Earl of Dorchester.-E.

Letter 114 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 9, 1776. (page 160)

May I trouble you, dear Sir, when you see our friend Mr. Essex,
to tell him that the tower is covered in, and that whenever he
has nothing to do, after this week, I shall be very glad to see
him here, if he will only send me a line two or three days
beforehand. I have carried this little tower higher than the
round one, and it has an exceedingly pretty effect, breaking the
long line of the house picturesquely, and looking very ancient.
I must correct a little error in the spelling of a name in the
pedigree you was so kind as to make out for me last year. The
Derehaughs were not of Colton, but of Coulston-hall. This I
discovered only this morning. On opening a patch-box that
belonged to my mother, and which I have not opened for many
years, I found an extremely small silver collaring, about this
size--O--but broad and flat. I remember it was in an old satin
bag of coins that my mother found in old Houghton when she first
married. I call it a collar from the breadth; for it would not
be large enough for a fairy's lap-dog. It was probably made for
an infant's little finger, and must have been for a ring, not a
collar; for I believe, though she was an heiress, young ladies
did not elope so very early in those days. I never knew how it
came into the family, but now it is plain, for the inscription on
the outside is, "of Coulstonhall, Suff." and it is a confirmation
of your pedigree. I have tied it to a piece of paper, with a
long inscription, and it is so small, it will not be melted down
for the weight; and if not lost from its diminutive person, may
remain in the family a long while, and be preserved when some
gamester may Spend every other bit of silver he has in the world;
at least, if one would make heir-looms now, one must take care
that they have no value in them.

P. S. I was turning over Edmonson this evening, and observed an
odd occurrence of circumstances in the present Lord
Carmarthen.(257) By his mother he is the representative of the
great Duke of Marlborough, and of old Treasurer Godolphin;(258)
by his father, of the Lord treasurer Duke of Leeds;(259) and by
his grandmother, is descended from the Lord-treasurer
Oxford.(260) Few men are so well ancestored in so short a
compass of time.

(257) Francis Godolphin, Marquis of Carmarthen, only surviving
son of Thomas Duke of Leeds; and who, upon the death of his
father, in 17 9 succeeded to the dukedom.-E

(258) Mary Duchess of Leeds, wife of Thomas, fourth duke, was
second daughter, and eventually sole heiress, of Francis Earl Of
Godolphin, by Henrietta Duchess of Marlborough, eldest daughter
and coheir of the great Duke of Marlborough.-E.

(259) Sir Thomas Osborne, lord high treasurer of England, the
first Duke of Leeds; who, having been successively honoured with
the Barony of Osborne, the Viscounty of Latimer, the Earldom of
Danby, and the Marquisate Of Carmarthen, was, on the 4th of May
1694, created Duke of Leeds.-E.

(260) Elizabeth, the first wife of Peregrine Hyde, third Duke of
Leeds, was the youngest daughter of Robert Harley, the great Earl
of Oxford.-E.

Letter 115 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, Thursday, Oct. 31, 1776. (page 161)

Thank you for your letter. I send this by the coach. You will
have found a new scene,(261) not an unexpected one by you and me,
though I do not pretend I thought it so near. I rather imagined
France would have instigated or winked at Spain's beginning with
us. Here is a solution of the Americans declaring themselves
independent. Oh! the folly, the madness, the guilt of having
plunged us into this abyss! Were we and a few more endued with
any uncommon penetration? No: they who did not see as far, would
not. I am impatient to hear the complexion of to-day. I suppose
it will, on the part of administration, have been a wretched
farce of fear, daubed over with airs of bullying. You, I do not
doubt, have acted like yourself, feeling for our situation, above
insulting, and unprovoked but at the criminality that has brought
us to this pass. Pursue your own path, nor lean to the court
that may be paid to you on either side, as I am sure you will not
regard their being displeased that you do not go as far as their
interested views may wish. If the court should receive any more
of what they call good news, I think the war with France will be
unavoidable. It was the victory at Long Island(262) and the
frantic presumption it occasioned, that has ripened France's
measures--And now we are to awe them by pressing--an act that
speaks our impotence!--which France did not want to learn!

I would have come to town, but I had declared so much I would
not, that I thought it would look as if I came to enjoy the
distress of the ministers-but I do not enjoy the distress of my
country. I think we are undone; I have always thought so--
whether we enslaved America, or lost it totally--so we that were
against the war could expect no good issue. If you do return to
Park-place to-morrow, you will oblige me much by breakfasting
here - you know it wastes you very little time.

'I am glad I did not know of Mrs. Damer's sore throat till it is
almost well. Pray take care and do not catch it.

Thank you for your care of me: I will not stay a great deal here,
but at present I never was better in my life-and here I have no
vexatious moments. I hate to dispute; I scorn to triumph myself,
and it is very difficult to keep my temper when others do. I own
I have another reason for my retirement, which is prudence. I
have thought of it late, but, at least, I will not run into any
new expense. it would cost me more than I care to afford to buy
a house in town, Unless I do it to take some of my money out of
the stocks, for which I tremble a little. My brother is seventy;
and if I live myself, I Must not build too much on his life; and
you know, if he fails, I lose the most secure part of my income.
I refused from Holland, and last year from Lord North, to accept
the place for my own life; and having never done a dirty thing, I
will not disgrace myself at fifty-nine. I should like to live as
well as I have done; but what I wish more, is to secure what I
have already saved for those I would take care of after me.
These are the true reasons of my dropping all thought of a better
house in town, and of living so privately here. I -will not
sacrifice my health to my prudence; but my temper is so violent,
that I know the tranquillity I enjoy here in solitude is of much
more benefit to my health, than the air of the country is
detrimental to it. You see I can be reasonable when I have time
to reflect; but philosophy has a poor chance with me when my
warmth is stirred--and yet I know, that an angry old man out of
parliament, and that can do nothing but be angry, is a ridiculous
animal.

(261) On the opening of the session.

(262) On the 17th of August 1776, when the English army, under
the command of General Howe, defeated the Americans at Flat Bush,
in Long Island.-E.

Letter 116 To The Earl Of Strafford.
Strawberry Hill, Nov. 2, 1776. (page 162)

Though inclination, and consciousness that a man of my age, who
is neither in parliament nor in business, has little to do in the
world, keep me a good deal out of it, yet I will not, my dear
lord, encourage you in retirement; to which, for the interest of
your friends, you have but too much propensity. The manners of
the age cannot be agreeable to those who have lived in something
soberer times; nor do I think, except in France, where old people
are never out of fashion, that it is reasonable to tire those
whose youth and spirits may excuse some dissipation. Above all
things, it is my resolution never to profess retirement, lest,
when I have lost all my real teeth, the imaginary one, called a
colt's, should hurry me back and make me ridiculous. But one
never outlives all one's contemporaries; one may assort with
them. Few Englishmen, too, I have observed, can bear solitude
without being hurt by it. Our climate makes us capricious, and
we must rub off our roughness and humours against one another.
We have, too, an always increasing resource, which is, that
though we go not to the young, they must come to us: younger
usurpers tread on their heels, as they did on ours, and revenge
us that have been deposed. They may retain their titles, like
Queen Christina, Sir M * * * N * * *, and Lord Rivers; but they
find they have no subjects. If we could but live long enough, we
should hear Lord Carlisle, Mr. Storer, etc. complain of the airs
and abominable hours of the youth of the age. YOU see, my dear
lord, my easy philosophy can divert itself with any thing, even
with visions; which perhaps is the best way of treating the great
vision itself, life. For half one's time one should laugh with
the world, the other half at it--and then it is hard if we want
amusement.

I am heartily glad, for your lordship's and Lady Anne Conolly's
sakes, that General Howe(263) is safe. I sincerely interest
myself for every body you are concerned for. I will say no more
on a subject on which I fear I am so unlucky as to differ very
much with your lordship, having always fundamentally disapproved
our conduct with America. indeed, the present prospect of war
with France, when we have so much disabled ourselves, and are
exposed in so many quarters, is a topic for general lamentation,
rather than for canvassing Of Opinions, which every man must form
for himself: and I doubt the moment is advancing when we shall be
forced to think alike, at least on the present.

I have not yet above a night at a time in town--but shall be glad
to give your lordship and Lady Strafford a meeting there whenever
you please. Your faithful humble servant.

(263) General Sir William Howe, brother of the Admiral, was then
commander-in-chief of the British forces in America. He was
married to a daughter of Lady Anne Conolly, and consequently to a
niece of Lord Strafford.-E.

Letter 117 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, Dec. 9, 1776. (page 163)

I know you love an episcopal print, and, therefore, I send you
one of two, that have just been given to me. As you have time
and patience, too, I recommend you to peruse Sir John Hawkins's
History Of Music.(264) It is true, there are five huge volumes
in quarto, and perhaps you may not care for the expense; but
surely you can borrow them in the University, and, though you may
no more than I, delight in the scientific, there is so much about
cathedral service, and choirs, and other old matters, that I am
sure you will be amused with a great deal, particularly the two
last volumes, and the facsimiles of old music in the first. I
doubt it is a work that will not sell rapidly, but it must have a
place in all great libraries.

(264) A work full of amusement, and deserving of Walpole's good
word, notwithstanding the witty criticism which Dr. Calcott
passed upon it in his well known catch, "Have You Sir John
Hawkins's History?" in which he makes the name of the rival work,
"Burney's (Burn-HIS) History," express the fate which Hawkins's
volumes deserved.-E.

Letter 118 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Arlington Street, Feb. 20, 1777. (page 163)

Dear Sir,
You are always my oracle in any antique difficulties. I have
bought at Mr. Ives's(265) sale (immensely dear) the shutters of
the altar at Edmondsbury: Mr. Ives had them from Tom Martin,(266)
who married Peter Leneve's widow; so you see no shutters can be
better descended on the mother's side. Next to high birth,
personal merit is something: in that respect, my shutters are far
from defective: on the contrary, the figures in the inside are so
very good, as to amaze me who could paint them here in the reign
of Henry VI.; they are worthy of the Bolognese school--but they
have suffered in several places, though not considerably. Bowes
is to repair them, under oath of only filling up the cracks, and
restoring the peelings off, but without repainting or varnishing.

The possession of these boards, invaluable to me, was essential.
They authenticate the sagacity of my guesses, a talent in an
antiquary coequal with prophecy in a saint. On the outside is an
archbishop, unchristened by the late possessors, but evidently
Archbishop Kempe, or the same person with the prelate in my
Marriage of Henry VI.,_ and you will allow from the collateral
evidence that it must be Kempe, as I have so certainly discovered
another person in my picture. The other outside is a cardinal,
called by Mr. Ives, Babington; but I believe Cardinal Beaufort,
for the lion of England stands by him, which a bastardly prince
of the blood was more likely to assume than a true one. His face
is not very like, nor very unlike, the face in my picture; but
this is -shaven.-But now comes the great point. On the inside is
Humphrey Duke of Gloucester kneeling--not only exactly resembling
mine as possible, but with the same almost bald head, and the
precisely same furred robe. An apostle-like personage stands
behind him, holding a golden chalice, as his royal highness's
offering, and, which is remarkable, the duke's velvet cap of
state, with his coronet of strawberry-leaves.

I used to say, to corroborate my hypothesis, that the skull of
Duke Humphrey at St. Alban's was very like the form of head in my
picture, which argument diverted the late Lord Holland
extremely--but I trust now that nobody will dispute any longer my
perfect acquaintance with all Dukes of Gloucester.--By the way,
did I ever tell You that when I published my Historic Doubts on
Richard III., my niece's marriage not being then acknowledged,
George Selwyn said, he did not think I should have doubted about
the Duke of Gloucester? On the inside of another shutter is a
man unknown: he is in a stable, as Joseph might be, but over him
hangs a shield of arms, that are neither Joseph's nor Mary's.
The colours are either black and white, or so changed as not to
be distinguishable. * * " * I conclude the person who is in red
and white was the donor of the altar-piece, or benefactor; and
what I want of you is to discover him and his arms; and to tell
me whether Duke Humphrey, Beaufort, Kempe, and Babington were
connected with St. Edmondsbury, or whether this unknown person
was not a retainer of Duke Humphrey, at least of the royal
family.

At the same sale I bought a curious pair, that I conclude came
from Blickling, with Hobart impaling Boleyn from which latter
family the former enjoyed that seat. How does this third winter
of the season agree with you? The wind to-day is sharper than a
razor, and blows icicles into one's eyes. I was confined for
seven weeks with the gout " yet am so well recovered as to have
been abroad to-day, though it is as mild under the pole.

Pray can you tell me the title of the book that Mr. Ives
dedicated to me? I never saw it, for he was so odd (I cannot call
it modest, lest I should seem not so myself) as never to send it
me, and I never could get it. Yours truly.

(265) John Ives the antiquary, author of "Remarks upon the
Garianonum of the Romans the Site and Remains fixed and
described."-E.

(266) Tom Martin of Palgrave, the well known antiquary, whose
"History of Thetford"was published in 1779, by Gough, who has
prefixed to it a Biographical Sketch of the Author.-E.

Letter 119 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
February 27, 1777. (page 165)

You see, dear Sir, that we thought on each other just at the same
moment; but, as usual, you was thinking of obliging me, and I, of
giving YOU trouble. You have fully satisfied me of the Connexion
between the Lancastrian Princes and St. Edmondsbury. Edmondson,
I conclude, will be able to find out the proprietor of the arms,
impaling Walrond.

I am well acquainted with Sir A. Weldon(267) and the Aulicus
Coquinanae,(268) and will return them with Mr. Ives's tracts,
which I intend to buy at the sale of his books. Tell me how I
may convey them to you most safely. You say, "Till I show an
inclination to borrow more of your MSS." I hope you do not think
my appetite for that loan is in the least diminished. I should
at all minutes, and ever, be glad to peruse them all--but I was
not sure you wished to send them to me, though you deny me
nothing--and my own fear of their coming to any mischance made me
very modest about asking for them--but now, whenever you can send
me any of them with perfect security, I eagerly and impudently
ask to see them: you cannot oblige me more, I assure you.

I am sorry Dr. E * * n is got into such a dirty scrape. There is
scarce any decent medium observed at present between wasting
fortunes and fabricating them--and both by any disreputable
manner; for, as to saving money by prudent economy, the method is
too slow in proportion to consumptions: even forgery, alas!(269
seems to be the counterpart or restorative of the ruin by gaming.
I hope at least that robbery on the highway will go out of
fashion as too piddling a profession for gentlemen.

I enclose a card for your friends, but must advertise them that
March is in every respect a wrong month for seeing Strawberry.
It not only wants its leaves and beauty then, but most of the
small pictures and curiosities, which are taken down and packed
up in winter, are not restored to their places till the weather
is fine and I am more there. Unless they are confined in time,
your friends had much better wait till May-but, however, they
will be very welcome to go when they please. I am more
personally interested in hoping to See you there this summer--you
must visit my new tower. Diminutive as it is, it adds much to
the antique air of the whole in both fronts. You know I shall
sympathize with your gout, and you are always master of your own
hours.

(267) Sir Anthony Weldon was the author of "The Court and
Character of King James; written and taken by Sir A. W., being an
eye and ear witness." London, 1650. A work which has been
pronounced, by competent authority, " a despicable tissue of
filth and obscenity, of falsehood and malignity."-E.

(268) "Aulicus Coquinanae; or, an Answer to the Court and
Character of King James." London, 1650. This work has been
ascribed to William Sanderson, and to Dr. Heylin; and is, as well
as Weldon's, reprinted in the "Secret History of the Court of
King James." Edinburgh, 1811-E.

(269) Alluding to Dr. Dodd; whose trial for forgery had taken
place on the 22d, at the Old Bailey.-E.

Letter 120 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Arlington Street, May 22, 1777. (page 166)

It is not Owing to forgetfulness, negligence, or idleness--to
none of which I am subject, that you have not heard from me since
I saw you, dear Sir, but to my miserable occupation with my poor
nephew, who engrosses my whole attention, and will, I doubt,
destroy my health, if he does not recover his. I have got him
within fourteen miles of town with difficulty. He is rather
worse than better, may recover in an instant, as he did last
time, or remain in his present sullenness. I am far from
expecting he should ever be perfectly in his senses; which, in my
opinion, he scarce ever was. His intervals expose him to the
worst people ; his relapses overwhelm me.

I have-put together some trifles I promised you, and will beg Mr.
Lort to be the bearer when he goes to Cambridge, if I know of it.
At present I have time for nothing I like. My age and
inclination call for retirement: I envied your happy hermitage,
and leisure to follow your inclination. I have always lived
post, and shall not die before I can bait-yet it is not my wish
to be unemployed, could I but choose my occupations. I wish I
could think of the pictures you mention, or had time to see Dr.
Glynn and the master of Emmanuel. I doat on Cambridge, and could
like to be often there. The beauty of King's College Chapel, now
it is restored, penetrated me with a visionary longing to be a
monk in it; though my life has been passed in turbulent scenes,
in pleasures-or rather pastimes, and in much fashionable
dissipation, still books, antiquity, and virt`u kept hold of a
corner of my heart, and since necessity has forced me of late
years to be a man of business, my disposition tends to be a
recluse for what remains-but it will not be my lot: and though
there is some excuse for the young doing what they like, I doubt
an old man should do nothing but what he ought, and I hope doing
one's duty is the best preparation for death. Sitting with one's
arms folded to think about it, is a very lazy way of preparing
for it. If Charles V. had resolved to make some amends for his
abominable ambition by doing good, his duty as a King, there
would have been infinitely more merit than going to doze in a
convent.(270) One may avoid active guilt in a sequestered life;
but the virtue of it is merely negative, though innocence is
beautiful.

I approve much of 'Your corrections on Sir J. Hawkins, and send
them to the Magazine. I want the exact blazon of William of
Hatsfield his arms,--I mean the Prince buried at York. Mr. Mason
and I are going to restore his monument, and I have not time to
look for them-: I know you will be so good as to assist. Yours
most sincerely.

(270) "The Spaniard, when the lust of sway
Had lost its quickening spell,
Cast crowns for rosaries away,
An empire for a cell!

"A strict accountant of his beads,
A subtle disputant on creeds,
His dotage trifled well:
Yet better had he neither known
A bigot's shrine nor despot's throne." Byron.-E.

Letter 121 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, June 19, 1777. (page 167)

I thank YOU for your notices, dear Sir, and shall remember that
on Prince William. I did see the Monthly Review, but hope one is
not guilty of the death of every man who does not make one the
dupe of a forgery. I believe M'Pherson's success with Ossian was
more The ruin of Chatterton than I. Two years passed between my
doubting the authenticity of Rowley's(271) poems and his death.
I never knew he had been in London till some time after he had
undone and poisoned himself there. The poems he sent me were
transcripts in his own hand, and even in that circumstance he
told a lie: he said he had them from the very person at Bristol
to whom he had given them. If any man was to tell you that
monkish rhymes had been dug up at Herculaneum, which was
destroyed several centuries before there was any such poetry,
should you believe it? Just the reverse is the case of Rowley's
pretended poems. They have all the elegance of Waller and Prior,
and more than Lord Surrey--but I have no objection to any body
believing what he pleases. I think poor Chatterton was an
astonishing genius-but I cannot think that Rowley foresaw metres
that were invented long after he was dead, or that our language
was more refined at Bristol in the reign of Henry V. than it was
at court under Henry VIII. One of the chaplains of the Bishop of
Exeter has found a line of Rowley in Hudibras-the monk might
foresee that too! The prematurity of Chatterton's genius is,
however, full as wonderful, as that such a prodigy as Rowley
should never have been heard of till the eighteenth century. The
youth and industry of the former are miracles, too, yet still
more' credible. There is not a symptom in the poems, but the old
words, that savours of Rowley's age--change the old words for
modern, and the whole construction is of yesterday.