John Lothrop Motley - "History of the United Netherlands, 1585 86"

Clement Juglar - "A Brief History of Panics"

John Lothrop Motley - "The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1563 64"

Emerson Hough - "The Passing of the Frontier"

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Books: Letters of Horace Walpole, V4

H >> Horace Walpole >> Letters of Horace Walpole, V4




(355) Now first collected.



Letter 169 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Arlington Street, May 21, 1779. (page 221)

As Mr. Essex has told me that you still continue out of order, I
am impatient to hear from yourself how you are. Do send me a
line: I hope it will be a satisfactory one. you know that Dr.
Ducarel has published a translation of a
History of the Abbey of Bec! There is a pretty print to it: and
one very curious circumstance, at least valuable to us disciples
of Alma Mater Etonensis. The ram-hunting was derived from the
manor of Wrotham in Norfolk, which formerly belonged to Bec, and
being forfeited, together with other alien priories, was bestowed
by Henry VI. on our college. I do not repine at reading any
book from which I can learn a single fact that I wish to know.
For the lives of the abbots, they were, according to the author,
all pinks of piety and holiness but there are few other facts
amusing, especially with regard to the customs of those savage
times-excepting that the Empress Matilda was buried in a bull's
hide, and afterwards had a tomb covered with silver. There is
another new book called "Sketches from Nature," in two volumes,
by Mr. G. Keate, in which I found one fact too, that, if
authentic, is worth knowing. The work is an imitation of Sterne,
and has a sort of merit, though nothing that arrives at
originality.

For the foundation of the church of Reculver, he quotes a
manuscript said to be written by a Dominican friar of Canterbury,
and preserved at Louvain. The story is evidently metamorphosed
into a novel. and has very little of an antique air; but it
affirms that the monkish author attests the beauty of Richard
III. This is very absurd, if invention has nothing to do with
the story; and therefore one should suppose it genuine. I have
desired Dodsley to ask Mr. Keate, if there truly exists such, a
manuscript: if there does, I own I wish he had printed it rather
than his own production; for I am with Mr. Gray, "that any man
living may make a book worth reading, if he will but set down
with truth what he has seen or heard, no matter whether the book
is well written or not." Let those who can write, glean.



Letter 170 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Arlington Street, May 22, 1779. (page 221)

If you hear of us no oftener than we of you, you will be as much
behindhand in news as my Lady Lyttelton. We have seen a
traveller that saw you in your island,(356) but it sounds like
hearing of Ulysses. Well! we must be content.
YOU are not only not dethroned, but owe the safety of your
dominions to your own skill in fortification. if we do not hear
of your extending your conquests, why, is it not less than all
our modern heroes have done, whom prophets have foretold and
gazettes celebrated--or who have foretold and celebrated
themselves. Pray be content to be cooped up in an island that
has no neighbours, when the Howes and Clintons and Dunmores and
Burgoynes and Campbells are not yet got beyond the great river--
Inquiry!(357) To-day's papers say, that the little Prince of
Orange(358) is to invade you again; but we trust Sir James
Wallace has clipped his wings so close, that they will not grow
again this season, though he is so ready to fly.

Nothing material has happened since I wrote last-so, as every
moment of a civil war is precious, every one has been turned to
the interest of diversion. There have been three masquerades, an
Installation, and the ball of the knights at the Haymarket this
week; not to mention Almack's festino, Lady Spencer's, Ranelagh
and Vauxhall, operas and plays. The Duchess of Bolton too saw
masks--so many, that the floor gave way, and the company in the
dining-room were near falling on the heads of those in the
parlour, and exhibiting all that has not yet appeared in Doctors'
Commons. At the knights' ball was such a profusion of
strawberries, that people could hardly get into the supper-room.
I could tell you more, but I do not love to exaggerate. Lady
Ailesbury told me this morning that Lord Bristol has got a calf
with two feet to each leg--I am convinced it is by the Duchess
of Kingston, who has got two of every thing where others have but
one.(359) Adieu! I am going to sup with Mrs. Abington--and hope
Mrs. Clive will not hear of it.

(356) Mr. Conway was now at his government of Jersey.

(357) The parliamentary inquiry which took place in the House of
Commons on the conduct of the American war.

(358) The Prince of Nassau, who had commanded the attack upon
Jersey, claiming relationship to the great house of Nassau Mr.
Walpole calls him the "little Prince of Orange." Gibbon, in a
letter to Mr. Holroyd, of the 7th, says, "You have heard of the
Jersey invasion; every body praises Arbuthnot's decided spirit.
Conway went last night to throw himself into the island."-E.

(359) "Do you know, my lord," said the Duchess, then Miss
Chudleigh, to Lord Chesterfield, "the world says I have had
twins!" "Does it?" said his lordship; "I make a point of
believing only one-half of what it says."-E.



Letter 171 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, June 2, 1779. (page 222)

I am most sincerely rejoiced, dear Sir, that you find yourself at
all better, and trust it is an omen of farther amendment. Mr.
Essex surprised me by telling me, that you, who keep yourself so
warm and so numerously clothed, do yet sometimes, if the sun
shines, sit and write in your garden for hours at a time. It is
more than I should readily do, whose habitudes are so very
different from yours. Your complaints seem to demand
perspiration--but I do not venture to advise. I understand no
constitution but my own, and should kill Milo, if I managed him
as I treat myself. I sat in a window on Saturday, with the east
wind blowing on my neck till near two in the morning-and it seems
to have done me good, for I am better within these two days than
I have been these six months. My spirits have been depressed,
and my nerves so aspen, that the smallest noise disturbed me.
To-day I do not feel a complaint; which is something at near
sixty-two.

I don't know whether I have not misinformed you, nor am sure it
was Dr. Ducarel who translated the account of the Abbey of Bec--
he gave it to Mr. Lort; but I am not certain he ever published
it. You was the first that notified to me the fifth volume of
the Archaeologia--I am not much more edified than usual; but
there are three pretty prints of Reginal Seats. Mr. Pegge's
tedious dissertation, which he calls a brief one, about the
foolish legend of St. George, is despicable: all his arguments
are equally good for proving the existence of the dragon. What
diversion might laughers make of the society! Dolly Pentraeth,
the old woman of Mousehole, and Mr. Penneck's nurse. p. 81, would
have furnished Foote with two personages for a farce. The same
grave dissertation on patriarchal customs seems to have as much
to do with British antiquities, as the Lapland: witches that sell
wind--and pray what business has the Society With Roman
inscriptions in Dalmatia! I am most pleased With the account of
Nonsuch, imperfect as it is: it appears to have been but a villa,
and not considerable for a royal one. You see lilacs were then a
novelty. Well, I am glad they publish away. The vanity of
figuring in these repositories will make many persons contribute
their manuscripts, and every now and then something valuable Will
come to light, which its own intrinsic merit might not have
saved.
\
I know nothing more of Houghton. I should certainly be glad to
have the priced catalogue; and if you will lend me yours, my
printer shall transcribe it-but I am in no hurry. I Conceive
faint hopes, as the sale is not concluded: however, I take care
not to flatter myself.

I think I told you I had purchased, at Mr. Ives's sale, a
handsome coat in painted glass, of Hobart impaling Boleyn--but I
can find no such match in my pedigree--yet I have heard that
Blickling belonged to Ann Boleyn's father. Pray reconcile all
this to me. '

Lord de Ferrers is to dine here on Saturday; and I have got to
treat him with an account of ancient painting, formerly in the
hall of Tammworth Castle; they are mentioned in Warton's
Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol i. p. 43.

Do not put yourself' to pain to answer this--only be assured I
shall be happy to know when you are able to write with ease. You
must leave Your cloister, if Your transcribing leaves you.
Believe me, dear Sir, Ever most truly.



Letter 172 To The Rev. Dr. Lort.
Strawberry Hill, June 4, 1779. (page 224)

I am sorry, dear Sir, you could not let me have the pleasure of
your company; but, I own, you have partly, not entirely, made me
amends by the sight of your curious manuscript, which I return
you, with your other book of inaugurations.

The sight of the manuscript was particularly welcome to me,
because the long visit of Henry VI. and his uncle Gloucester, to
St. Edmund's Bury, accounts for those rare altar tablets that I
bought at Mr. Ives's sale, on which are incontestably the
portraits of Duke Humphrey, Cardinal Beaufort, and the same
archbishop that is in my Marriage of Henry VI. I know the house
of Lancaster were patrons of St. Edmund's Bury; but so long a
visit is demonstration.

The fourth person on my panels is unknown. Over his head is a
coat of arms. but may be that of W. Curteys the abbot, or the
alderman, as he is in scarlet. His figure and the Duke's are far
superior to the other two, and worthy of a good Italian master.
The Cardinal and the Archbishop are in the dry hard manner of the
age. I wish you would call and look at them; they are at Mr.
Bonus's in Oxford-road; the two prelates are much damaged. I
peremptorily enjoined Bonus to repair only, and not to repaint
them; and thus, by putting him out of his way, I have put him so
much out of humour too, that he has kept them these two years,
and not finished them yet. I design them for the four void
spaces in my chapel, on the sides of the shrine. The Duke of
Gloucester's face is so like, though younger, that it proves I
guessed right at his figure in my Marriage. The tablets came out
of the abbey of Bury; were procured by old Peter Le Neve, Norroy;
and came by his widow's marriage to Tom Martin, at whose sale Mr.
Ives bought them. We have very few princely portraits so
ancient, so authentic, and none so well painted as the Duke and
fourth person. These were the insides of the doors, which I had
split into two, and value them extremely. This account I think
will be more satisfactory to you than notes.

Pray tell me how you like the pictures when you have examined
them. I shall search in Edmondson's new Vocabulary of Arms for
the coat which contains three bulls' heads on six pieces; but the
colours are either white and black. or the latter is become so
by time. I hope you are not going out of town yet; I shall
probably be there some day in next week.

I see advertised a book something in the way of your
inaugurations, called Le Costume; do you know any thing of it?
Can YOU tell me who is the author of the Second Anticipation on
the Exhibition? Is not it Barry the painter?



Letter 173 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, Saturday, June 5, 1779. (page 225)

I write to you more seldom than I am disposed to do, from having
nothing positive to tell you, and from being unwilling to say and
unsay every minute something that is reported positively. The
confident assertions of the victory over D'Estaing are totally
vanished-and they who invented them, now declaim as bitterly
against Byron, as if he had deceived them-and as they did against
Keppel. This day se'nnight there was a great alarm about
Ireland-which was far from being all invention, though not an
absolute insurrection, as it was said." The case, I believe, was
this:-The court, in order to break the volunteer army established
by the Irish themselves, endeavoured to persuade a body in Lady
Blayney's county of Monaghan to enlist in the militia--which they
took indignantly. They said, they had great regard for Lady
Blayney and Lord Clermont; but to act under them, would be acting
under the King, and that was by no means their intention. There
have since been motions for inquiries what steps the ministers
have taken to satisfy the Irish-and these they have imprudently
rejected-which will not tend to pacification. The ministers have
been pushed too on the article of Spain, and could not deny that
all negotiation is at an end--though they will not own farther.
However, the Spanish ambassador is much out of humour. From
Paris they write confidently of the approaching declaration;(360)
and Lord Sandwich, I hear, has said in a very mixed company, that
it was folly not to expect it. There is another million asked,
and given on a vote of credit; and Lord North has boasted of such
mines for next year,,that one would think he believed next year
would never Come.

The Inquiry(361) goes on,
and Lord Harrington did honour himself and Burgoyne. Barr`e and
Governor Johnstone have had warm words,(362) and Burke has been
as frantic for the Roman Catholics as Lord George Gordon against
them. The Parliament, it is said, is to rise on the 21st.

YOU Will not collect from all this that our prospect clears up.
I fear there is not more discretion in the treatment of Ireland
than of America. The court seems to-be infatuated and to think
that nothing is of any consequence but a majority in
Parliament-though they have totally lost all power but that of
provoking. Fortunate it had been for the- King and kingdom, had
the court had no majority for these six years! America had still
been ours -and all the lives and all the millions we have
squandered! A majority that has lost thirteen provinces by
bullying and vapouring, and the most childish menaces, will be a
brave countermatch for France and Spain, and a rebellion in
Ireland! In short, it is plain that there is nothing a majority
in Parliament can do, but outvote a minority; and by their own
accounts one would think they could not even do that. I saw a
paper t'other day that began with this Iriscism, "As the minority
have lost us thirteen provinces," etc. I know nothing the
minority have done, or been suffered to do, but restore the Roman
Catholic religion-and that too was by the desire of the court.

This is however the present style. They announced with infinite
applause a new production of Tickell:--it has appeared, and is a
most paltry performance. It is called the Cassette Verte of M.
de Sartine, and pretends to be his correspondence with the
opposition. Nay, they are so pitifully mean as to laugh at Dr.
Franklin, who has such thorough reason to sit and laugh at them.
What triumph it must be to him to see a miserable pamphlet all
the revenge they can take! There is another, still duller, called
Opposition Mornings, in which you are lugged in. In truth, it is
a compliment to any man to except him out of the number of those
that have contributed to the shocking disgraces inflicted on this
undone country. When Lord Chatham was minister, he never replied
to abuse but by a victory.

I know no private news: I have been here ever since Tuesday,
enjoying my tranquillity, as much as an honest man can do who
sees his country ruined. It is just such a period as makes
philosophy wisdom. There are great moments when every man is
called on to exert himself-but when folly, infatuation, delusion,
incapacity, and profligacy fling a nation away, and it concurs
itself, and applauds its destroyers, a man who has lent no hand
to the mischief, and can neither prevent nor remedy the mass of
evils, is fully justified in sitting aloof and beholding the
tempest rage, with silent scorn and indignant compassion. Nay, I
have, I own, some comfortable reflections. I rejoice that there
is still a great continent of Englishmen who will remain free and
independent, and who laugh at the impotent majorities of a
prostitute Parliament. I care not whether General Burgoyne and
Governor Johnstone cross over and figure in, and support or
oppose; nor whether Mr. Burke, or the superior of the Jesuits, is
high commissioner to the kirk of Scotland. My ideas are such as
I have always had, and are too plain and simple to comprehend
modern confusions; and, therefore, they suit with those of few
men. What will be the issue of this chaos, I know not, and,
probably, shall not see. I do see with satisfaction, that what
was meditated has failed by the grossest folly; and when one has
escaped the worst, lesser evils must be endured with patience.

After this dull effusion, I will divert you with a story that
made me laugh this morning till I cried. You know my Swiss
David, and his incomprehensible pronunciation. He came to me,
and said, "Auh! dar is Meses Ellis wants some of your large flags
to put in her great O." With much ado, I found out that Mrs.
Ellis had sent for leave to take up some flags out of my meadow
for her grotto.

I hope in a few days to see Lady Ailesbury and Miss Jennings
here; I have writ to propose it. What are your intentions? Do
you stay till you have made your island impregnable? I doubt it
will be our only one that will be so.

(360) On the breaking out of the war between this country and
America, Spain had offered to mediate between them; but,
receiving a refusal, she at once declared herself a principal in
the war and ready to fulfil the terms of the family compact.-E.

(361) The Inquiry into the Conduct of the American war.

(362) In the course of a debate in the House of Commons, on the
3d of June,
Governor Johnstone told Colonel Barr`e, that he was making a
scaramouch of himself. The Colonel got up to demand an
explanation, but the Speaker put an end to the altercation.-E.



Letter 174 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, June 16, 1779. (page 227)

Your Countess was here last Thursday, and received a letter from
you, that told us how slowly you receive ours. When you will
receive this I cannot guess; but it dates a new era, which you
with reason did not care to look at as possible. In a word,
behold a Spanish war! I must detail a little to increase your
wonder. I heard here the day before yesterday that it was
likely; and that night received a letter from Paris, telling me
(it was of the 6th) that Monsieur de Beauveau was going, they
knew not whither, at the head of twenty-five thousand men, with
three lieutenant-generals and six or eight mar`echaux de camp
under him. Yesterday I went to town, and Thomas Walpole happened
to call on me. He, who used to be informed early, did not
believe a word either of a Spanish war or a French expedition. I
saw some other persons in the evening as ignorant. At night I
went to sup at Richmond-house. The Duke said the Brest fleet was
certainly sailed, and had got the start of ours by twelve days:
that Monsieur de Beauveau was on board with a large sum of money,
and with white and red cockades; and that there would certainly
be a Spanish war. He added, that the Opposition were then
pressing in the House of Commons to have the Parliament continue
sitting, and urging to know if we were not at the eve of a
Spanish war; but the ministers persisted in the prorogation ,for
to-morrow or Friday, and would not answer on Spain.

I said I would make you wonder-But no-Why should the Parliament
continue to sit? Are not the ministers and the Parliament the
same thing? And how has either House shown that it has any
talent for war?

The Duke of Richmond does not guess whither the Brest fleet is
gone. He thinks, if to Ireland, we should have known it by this
time. He has heard that the Prince of Beauveau has said he was
going on an expedition that would be glorious in the eyes of
posterity. asked, if that might not mean Gibraltar? The Duke
doubts, but hopes it, as he thinks it no wise measure on their
side: yet he was very melancholy, as you will be, on this heavy
accession to our distresses.

Well! here we are, aris et
focis and all at stake! What can we be meaning? Unable to
conquer America before she was assisted--scarce able to keep
France at bay--are we a match for both, and Spain too? What can
be our view? nay, what can be Our expectation? I sometimes
think we reckon it will be more creditable to be forced by France
and Spain to give up America, than to have the merit with the
latter of doing it with grace.-But, as Cato says,

"I'm weary of conjectures--this must end them;"

that is, the sword:--and never, I believe, did a Country Plunge
itself into such difficulties step by step, and for six years,
together, without once recollecting that each foreign war
rendered the object of the civil war more unattainable; and that
in both the foreign wars we have not an object in prospect.
Unable to recruit our remnant of an army in America, are we to
make conquests on France and Spain? They may choose their
attacks: we can scarce choose what we will defend.

Ireland, they say, is more temperate than was expected. That is
some consolation-yet many fear the Irish will be tempted to unite
with America, which would throw all that trade into their
convenient harbours; and I own I have apprehensions that the
Parliament's rising without taking a step in their favour may
offend them. Surely at least we have courageous ministers. I
thought my father a stout man:--he had not a tithe of their
spirit.

The town has wound up the season perfectly in character by a
f`ete at the Pantheon by subscription. Le Texier managed it; but
it turned out sadly. The company was first shut into the
galleries to look down on the supper, then let to descend to it.
Afterwards they were led into the subterraneous apartment, which
was laid with mould, and planted with trees, and crammed with
nosegays: but the fresh earth, and the dead leaves, and the
effluvia of breaths made such a stench and moisture, that they
were suffocated; and when they remounted, the legs and wings of
chickens, and remnants Of ham (for the supper was not removed)
poisoned them more. A druid in an arbour distributed verses to
the ladies; then the Baccelli(363) and the dancers of the Opera
danced; and then danced the company; and then it being morning,
and the candles burnt out, the windows were opened; and then the
stewed-danced assembly were such shocking figures, that they fled
like ghosts as they looked.--I suppose there
will be no more balls unless the French land, and then we shall
show we do not mind it.

Thus I have told you all I know. You will ponder over these
things in your little distant island, when we have forgotten
them. There is another person, one Doctor Franklin, who, I
fancy, is not sorry that we divert ourselves so well. Yours
ever.

(363) After the departure of Mademoiselle Heinel, no dancing so
much delighted the frequenters of the Opera as that of
Mademoiselle Baccelli and M. Vestris le jeune.-E.



Letter 175 To The Hon. George Hardinge.(364)
Strawberry Hill, July 4, 1779. (page 229)

I have now received the drawings of Grignan, and know not how to
express my satisfaction and gratitude but by a silly witticism
that is like the studied quaintness of the last age. In short,
they are so much more beautiful than I expected, that I am not
surprised at your having surprised me by exceeding even what I
expected from your well-known kindness to me; they are charmingly
executed, and with great taste. I own too that Grignan is
grander, and in a much finer situation, than I had imagined; as I
concluded that the witchery of Madame de S`evign`e's ideas and
style had spread the same leaf-gold over places with which she
gilded her friends. All that has appeared of them since the
publication of her letters has lowered them. A single letter of
her daughter, that to Paulina, with a description of the Duchess
of Bourbon's toilette, is worthy of the mother. Paulina's own
letters contain not a little worth reading: one just divines that
she might have written well if she had had any thing to write
about (which, however, would not have signified to her
grandmother.) Coulanges was a silly good-humoured glutton, that
flattered a rich widow for her dinners. His wife was sensible,
but dry, and rather peevish at growing old. Unluckily nothing
more has come to light of Madame de S`evign`e's son, whose short
letters in the collection I am almost profane enough to prefer to
his mother's; and which makes me astonished that she did not love
his wit, so unaffected, and so congenial to her own, in
preference to the eccentric and sophisticated reveries of her
sublime and ill-humoured daughter. Grignan alone maintains its
dignity, and shall be consecrated here among other monuments of
that bewitching period, and amongst which one loves to lose
oneself, and drink oblivion of an era so very unlike; for the
awkward bigots to despotism of our time have not Madame de
S`evign`e's address, nor can paint an Indian idol with an hundred
hands as graceful as the Apollo of the Belvidere. When will you
come and accept my thanks? will Wednesday next suit you? But do
you know that I must ask you not to leave your gown behind You,
which indeed I never knew you put on Willingly, but to come in
it. I shall want your protection at Westminster Hall. Yours
most cordially.