Books: Letters of Horace Walpole, V4

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(432) Henry Bankes, Esq. of Kingston Hall. He represented
Corfe-Castle from 1780 to 1826, and the county of Dorset from
that time until 1831. In 1818, he published "The Civil and
Constitutional History of Rome, from the Foundation to the Age of
Augustus," in two volumes, 8vo; and died in 1834.-E.

(433) Mr. Wilberforce, in a letter to a friend, of the 9th of
June, says--"The papers will have informed you how Mr. William
Pitt, second son of the late Lord Chatham has distinguished
himself: he comes out as his father did, a ready-made orator, and
I doubt not but that I shall one day or other, see him the first
man in the country." Life, vol. 1. p. 22.-E.

Letter 220 To The Earl Of Strafford.
Strawberry Hill, June 13, 1781. (PAGE 281)

It was very kind, my dear lord, to recollect me so soon: I wish I
Could return it by amusing you; but here I know nothing, and
suppose it is owing to age that even in town I do not find the
transactions of the world very entertaining. One must sit up all
night to see or hear any thing; and if the town intends to do any
thing, they never begin to do it till next day. Mr. Conway will
certainly be here the end of this month, having thoroughly
secured his island from surprise, and it is not liable to be
taken any other way. I wish he was governor of this bigger one
too, which does not seem quite so well guaranteed.

Your lordship will wonder at a visit I had yesterday: it was from
Mr. Storer, who has passed a day and night here. It was not from
my being a fellow-scholar of Vestris, but from his being turned
antiquary; the last passion I should have thought a macaroni
would have taken. I am as proud of such a disciple as of having
converted Dicky Bateman from a Chinese to a Goth. Though he was
the founder of the Sharawadgi taste in England, I preached so
effectually that his every pagoda took the veil. The Methodists
say, one must have been very wicked before one can be of the
elect--yet is that extreme more distant from the ton, which avows
knowing and liking nothing but the fashion of the instant, to
studying what were the modes of five hundred years ago? I hope
this conversion will not ruin Mr. Storer's fortune under the Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland. How his Irish majesty will be shocked
when he asks how large Prince Boothby's shoe-buckles are grown,
to be answered, he does not know, but that Charles Brandon's
cod-piece at the last birthday had three yards of velvet in it!
and that the Duchess of Buckingham thrust out her chin two inches
farther than ever in admiration of it! and that the Marchioness
of Dorset had put out her jaw by endeavouring to imitate her!

We have at last had some rains, which I hope extended to
Yorkshire, and that your lordship has found Wentworth Castle in
the bloom of verdure. I always, as in duty bound, wish
prosperity to every body and every thing there, and am your
lordship's ever devoted and grateful humble servant.

Letter 221To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, June 16, 1781. (PAGE 282)

Your last account of yourself was so indifferent, that I am
impatient for a better: pray send me a much better.

I know little in your way but that Sir Richard Worseley has just
published a History of the Isle of Wight, with many views poorly
done enough.(434) Mr. Bull(435) is honouring me, at least my
Anecdotes of Painting, exceedingly. He has let every page into a
pompous sheet, and is adding every print of portrait, building,
etc. that I mention, and that he can get, and specimens of all
our engravers. It will make eight magnificent folios, and be a
most valuable body of our arts. Nichols the printer has
published a new Life of Hogarth,(436) of near two hundred pages-
-many more, in truth, than it required: chiefly it is the life of
his works, containing all the variations, and notices of any
persons whom he had in view. I cannot say there are discoveries
of many prints which I have not mentioned, though I hear Mr.
Gulston(437) says he has fifteen such; but I suppose he only
fancies so. Mr. Nichols says our printsellers are already adding
Hogarth's name to several spurious. Mr. Stevens, I hear, has
been allowed to ransack Mrs. Hogarth's house for obsolete and
unfinished plates, which are to be completed and published.
Though she was not pleased with my account of her husband, and
seems by these transactions to have encouraged the second, I
assure you I have much more reason to be satisfied than she has,
the editor or editors being much civiller to living me than to
dead Hogarth--yet I should not have complained. Every body has
the same right to speak their sentiments. Nay, in general, I
have gentler treatment than I expected, and I think the world and
I part good friends.

I am now setting about the completion of my AEdes Strawberrianae.
A painter is to come hither on Monday to make a drawing of the
Tribune, and finish T. Sandby's fine view of the gallery, to
which I could never get him to put the last hand. They will Then
be engraved with a few of the chimney-pieces, which will complete
the plates. I must add an appendix of curiosities, purchased or
acquired since the Catalogue was printed. This will be awkward,
but I cannot afford to throw away an hundred copies. I shall
take care if I can that Mr. Gough does not get fresh intelligence
from my engravers, or he will advertise my supplement, before the
book appears. I do not think it was very civil to publish such
private intelligence, to which he had no right without my leave;
but every body seems to think he may do what is good in his own
eyes. I saw the other day, in a collection of seats (exquisitely
engraved), a very rude insult on the Duke of Devonshire. The
designer went to draw a view of Chiswick, without asking leave,
and was not hindered, for he has given it; but he says he was
treated illiberally, the house not being shown without tickets,
which he not only censures, but calls a singularity, though a
frequent practice in other places, and practised there to my
knowledge for these thirty years: so every body is to come into
your house if he pleases, draw it whether you please or not, and
by the same rule, I suppose, put any thing into his pockets that
he likes. I do know, by experience, what a grievance it is to
have a house worth being seen, and though I submit in consequence
to great inconveniences, they do not save me from many
rudenesses. Mr. Southcote(438) was forced to shut up his
garden, for the savages who came as connoisseurs scribbled a
thousand brutalities, in the buildings, upon his religion. I
myself, at Canons, saw a beautiful table of oriental alabaster
that had been split in two by a buck in boots jumping up
backwards to sit upon it.

I have placed the oaken head Of Henry the Third over the middle
arch of the armoury. Pray tell me what the church of Barnwell,
near Oundle, was, which his Majesty endowed, and whence his head
came. Dear Sir, Yours most sincerely.

(434) Sir Richard Worsley is better known by his splendid work,
the "Museum Worsleianum; or, a Collection of antique
Basso-relievos, Bustos, Statues, and Gems; with views of places
in the Levant, taken on the spot, in the years 1785-6-7;" in two
volumes, folio. Sir Richard sat many years in Parliament for the
borough of Newport, and was governor of the Isle of Wight, where
he died in 1805.-E.

(435) Richard Bull, Esq. a famous collector of portraits.-E.

(436) " Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth; and a
Catalogue of his Works, chronologically arranged; with occasional
Remarks."-E.

(437) Joseph Gulston, Esq. also an eminent portrait collector.-E.

(438) Philip Southcote, Esq. of Wooburn Farm, Chertsey: one of
the first places improved according to the principles of modern
gardening.-E.

Letter 222 To The Earl Of Charlemont.(439)
Strawberry Hill, July 1, 1781. (PAGE 284)

I should have been exceedingly flattered, my lord, by receiving a
present from your lordship, which at once proves that I retain a
place in your lordship's memory, and you think me worthy of
reading what you like. I could not wait to give your lordship a
thousand thanks for so kind a mark of your esteem till I had done
through the volume, which I may venture to say I shall admire, as
I find it contains some pieces which I had seen, and did admire,
without knowing their author. That approbation was quite
impartial. Perhaps my future judgment of the rest will be not a
little prejudiced, and yet on good foundation; for if Mr.
Preston(440) has retained my suffrage in his favour by dedicating
his poems to your lordship, it must at least be allowed that I am
biassed by evidence of his taste. He would not possess the
honour of your friendship unless he deserved it; and, as he knows
you, he would not have ventured to prefix your name, my lord, to
poems that did not deserve your patronage. I dare to say they
will meet the approbation of better judges than I can pretend to
be. I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, esteem,
and gratitude.

(439) Now first collected.

(440) William Preston, Esq. a young Irish gentleman, of whom Lord
Charlemont had become the friend and patron. He afterwards
published "Thoughts on Lyric Poetry, with an Ode to the Moon;" an
"essay on Ridicule, Wit, and Humour;" and a translation of the
Argonautics of Appollonius Rhodius. He died in 1807.-E.

Letter 223 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, July 7, 1781. (PAGE 284)

My good Sir, you forget that I have a cousin, eldest son of Lord
Walpole, and of a marriageable age, who has the same Christian
name as I. The Miss Churchill he has married is my niece, second
daughter of my sister, Lady Mary Churchill; so that if I were in
my dotage, I must have looked out for another bride--in short, I
hope you will have no occasion to wish me joy of any egregious
folly. I do congratulate you on your better health, and on the
Duke of Rutland's civilities to you. I am a little surprised at
his brother, who is a seaman, having a propensity to divinity,
and wonder you object to it; the church navigant would be an
extension of its power. As to orthodoxy, excuse me if I think it
means nothing at all but every man's own opinion. Were every man
to define his faith, I am persuaded that no two men are or ever
were exactly of the same opinion in all points and as men are
more angry at others for differing with them on a single point,
than satisfied with their Concurrence in all others, each would
deem every body else a heretic. Old or new Opinions are exactly
of the same authority, for every opinion must have been new when
first started; and no man has nor ever had more right than
another to dictate, unless inspired. St. Peter and St. Paul
disagreed from the earliest time, and who can be sure which was
in the right? and if one of the apostles was in the wrong, who
may not be mistaken? When you will tell me which was the
orthodox, and which the heterodox apostle, I will allow that you
know what orthodoxy is.(441) You and I are perhaps the two
persons who agree the best with very different ways of thinking;
and perhaps the reason is, that we have a mutual esteem for each
other's sincerity, and, from an experience of more than forty
years, are persuaded that neither of us has any interested
views.(442) For my own part, I confess honestly that I am far
from having the same charity for those whom I suspect of
mercenary views. If Dr. Butler, when a private clergyman, wrote
Whig pamphlets, and when Bishop of Oxford preaches Tory sermons,
I should not tell him that he does not know what orthodoxy is,
but I am convinced he does not care what it is. The Duke of
Rutland seems much more liberal than Butler or I, when he is so
civil to you, though you voted against his brother. I am not
acquainted with his grace, but I respect his behaviour; he is
above prejudices.

The story of poor Mr. Cotton(443) is shocking, whichever way it
happened, but most probably it was accident.

I am ashamed at the price of my book, though not my fault; but I
have so often been guilty myself of giving ridiculous prices for
rarities, though of no intrinsic value, that I must not condemn
the same folly in others. Every thing tells me how silly I am! I
pretend to reason, and yet am a virtuoso! Why should I presume
that, at sixty-four, I am too wise to marry? and was you, who
know so many of my weaknesses, in the wrong to suspect me of one
more? Oh! no, my good friend: nor do I see any thing in your
belief of it, but the kindness with which you wish me felicity on
the occasion. I heartily thank you for it, and am most cordially
yours.

(441) On Lord Sandwich's observing that he did not know the
difference between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, Bishop Warburton is
said to have replied, "Orthodoxy, my lord, is my doxy, and
heterodoxy is another man's doxy."-E.

(442) Cole, in a letter to 'Mr. Gough, of the 10th of August,
says--"Mr. Walpole and myself are as opposite in political
matters as possible; yet we continue friends. Your political and
religious opinions possibly may be as dissimilar; yet I hope we
shall all meet in a better world, and be happy."-E.

(443) A son of Sir John Cotton, who was accidentally killed
whilst shooting in his father's Woods.-E.

Letter 224 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Strawberry Hill, July 26, 1781. (PAGE 286)

I will not delay thanking you, dear Sir, for a second letter,
which you wrote out of kindness, though I have time but to say a
word, having my house full of company. I think I have somewhere
or other mentioned the "Robertus Comentarius," (probably on some
former information from you, which YOU never forget to give me,)
at least the name sounds familiar to me; but just now I cannot
consult my papers or books from the impediment of my guests. As
I am actually preparing a new edition of my Anecdotes, I shall
very soon have occasion to search. I am sorry to hear you
complain of the gout, but trust It will be a short parenthesis.
Yours most gratefully.

Letter 225 To The Earl Of Strafford.
Strawberry Hill, August 31, 1781. (page 286)

Your lordship's too friendly partiality sees talents in me which
I am sure I do not possess. With all my desire of amusing you,
and with all my sense of gratitude for your long and unalterable
goodness, it is quite impossible to send you an entertaining
letter from hence. The insipidity of my life, that is passed
with a few old people that are wearing out like myself, after
surviving so many of my acquaintance, can furnish no matter of
correspondence. What few novelties I hear, come stale, and not
till they have been hashed in the newspapers and though we are
engaged in such big and wide wars, they produce no striking
events, nor furnish any thing but regrets for the lives and
millions we fling away to no purpose! One cannot divert when one
can only compute, nor extract entertainment from prophecies that
there is no reason to colour favourably. We have, indeed,
foretold success for seven years together, but debts and taxes
have been the sole completion.

If one turns to private life, what is there to furnish pleasing
topics? Dissipation, without object, pleasure, or genius, is the
only colour of the times. One hears every day of somebody
undone. but can we or they tell how, except when it is by the
most expeditious of all means, gaming? And now, even the loss of
an hundred thousand pounds is not rare enough to be surprising.
One may stare or growl, but cannot relate any thing that is worth
hearing. I do not love to censure a younger age; but in good
truth, they neither amuse me nor enable me to amuse others.

The pleasantest event I know happened to myself last Sunday
morning when General Conway very unexpectedly walked in as I was
at breakfast, in his way to Park-place. He looks as well in
health and spirits as ever I saw him; and though he stayed but
half an hour, I was perfectly content, as he is at home.

I am glad your lordship likes the fourth book of The Garden,(444)
which is admirably coloured. The version of Fresnoy I think the
finest translation I ever saw. It is a most beautiful poem,
extracted from as dry and prosaic a parcel of verses as could be
put together: Mr. Mason has gilded lead, and burnished it
highly. Lord and Lady Harcourt I should think would make him a
visit, and I hope, for their sakes, will visit Wentworth Castle.
As they both have taste, I should be sorry they did not see the
perfectest specimen of architecture I know.

Mrs. Damer certainly goes abroad this winter. I am glad of it
for every reason but her absence. I am certain it will be
essential to her health; and she has so eminently a classic
genius, and is herself so superior an artist, that I enjoy the
pleasure she will have in visiting Italy.

As your lordship has honoured all the productions of my press
with your acceptance, I venture to enclose the last, which I
printed to oblige the Lucans. There are many beautiful and
poetic expressions in it. A wedding to be sure, is neither a new
nor a promising subject, nor will outlast the favours: still I
think Mr. Jones's Ode(445) is uncommonly good for the occasion;
at least, if it does not much charm Lady Strafford and your
lordship, I know you will receive it kindly as a tribute from
Strawberry Hill, as every honour is due to you both from its
master. Your devoted servant.

(444) The fourth book of Mason's "English Garden" had just made
its appearance.-E.

(445) Mr. afterwards Sir William, Jones's Ode on the marriage of
Lord Althorpe, afterwards Earl Spencer, with Miss Bingham.-E.

Letter 226 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 16, 1781. (page 227)

I am not surprised that such a mind as yours cannot help
expressing gratitude: it would not be your mind, if it could
command that sensation as triumphantly as it does your passions.
Only remember that the expression is unnecessary. I do know that
you feel the entire friendship I have for you; nor should I love
you so well if I was not persuaded of it. There never was a
grain of any thing romantic in my friendship for you. We loved
one another from children, and as so near relations; but my
friendship grew up with your virtues, which I admired though I
did not imitate. We had scarce one in common but
disinterestedness. Of the reverse we have both, I may say, been
so absolutely clear, that there is nothing so natural and easy as
the little moneyed transactions between us - and therefore,
knowing how perfectly indifferent I am upon that head, and
remembering the papers I showed you, and what I have said to you
when I saw you last, I am sure you will have the complaisance
never to mention thanks more.-Now, to answer your questions.

As to coming to you, as that feu gr`egeois Lord George Gordon has
given up the election, to my great joy, I can come to you on
Sunday next. It is true, I had rather you visited your regiment
first, for this reason: I expect summons to Nuneham every day;
and besides, having never loved two journeys instead of one, I
grow more covetous of my time, as I have little left, and
therefore had rather take Park-place, going and coming, on my way
to Lord Harcourt.

I don't know a word of news, public or private. I am deep in my
dear old friend's papers.(446) There are some very delectable;
and though I believe, nay, know, I have not quite all, there are
many which I almost wonder, after the little delicacy they(447)
have shown, ever arrived to my hands. I dare to say they will
not be quite so just to the public; for though I consented that
the correspondence with Voltaire should be given to the editors
of his works, I am persuaded that there are many passages at
least which they will suppress, as very contemptuous to his chief
votaries: I mean, of the votaries to his sentiments; for, like
other heresiarchs, he despised his tools. If I live to see the
edition, it Will divert me to collate it with what I have in my
hands.

You are the person in the world the fittest to encounter the
meeting you mention for the choice of a bridge.(448) You have
temper and patience enough to bear with fools and false taste.
I, so unlike you, have learned some patience with both sorts too,
but by a more summary method than by waiting to instil reason
into them. Mine is only by leaving them to their own vagaries,
and by despairing that sense and taste should ever extend
themselves. Adieu!

P. S. In 'Voltaire's letters are some bitter traits on the King
of Prussia, which, as he is defender of their no-faith, I
conclude will be ray`es too.

(446) Madame du Deffand, who died in September 1780, and left all
her papers to Mr. Walpole. See ant`e, p. 256, letter 199.-E.

(447) The executors of Madame du Deffand; whom Walpole suspected
of having abstracted some of her papers.-E.

(448) The bridge over the Thames at Henley, to the singular
beauty of which the good taste of mr. Conway materially
contributed.

Letter 227 To John Nichols, Esq.
Strawberry Hill, Oct. 31, 1781. (page 288)

I am glad to hear, Sir, that your account of Hogarth calls for
another edition; and I am very sensible of your great civility in
offering to change any passages that criticise my own work.
Though I am much obliged by the offer, I should blush to myself
if I even wished for that complaisance. Good God! Sir, what am I
that I should be offended at or above criticism or correction? I
do not know who ought to be; I am sure, no author. I am a
private man, of no consequence, and at best an author of very
moderate abilities. In a work that comprehends so much biography
as my Anecdotes of Painting, it would have been impossible, even
with much more diligence than I employed, not to make numberless
mistakes. It is kind to me to point out those errors; to the
world it is justice. Nor have i a reason to be displeased even
with the manner. I do remember that in many passages you have
been very civil to me. I do not recollect any harsh phrases. As
my work is partly critical as well as biographic, there too I had
no reason or right to expect deference to my opinions.
Criticism, I doubt, has no very certain rule to go by; in matters
of taste it is a still more vague and arbitrary science.

As I am very sincere, Sir, in what I say, I will with the same
integrity own, that in one or two places of your book I think the
criticisms on me are not well founded. For instance; in p. 37 I
am told that Hogarth did not deserve the compliment I pay him of
not descending to the indelicacy of the Flemish and Dutch
painters. It is very true that you have produced some instances,
to which I had not adverted, where he has been guilty of the same
fault, though I think not in all you allege, nor to the degree
alleged: in some I think the humour compensates for the
indelicacy, which is never the case with the Dutch; and in one
particular I think it is a merit,--I mean in the burlesque Paul
before Felix,--for there, Sir, you should recollect that Hogarth
himself meant to satirize, not to imitate the painters of Holland
and Flanders.

You have also instanced, Sir, many more portraits in his satiric
prints than come within my defence of him as not being a personal
satirist; but in those too, with submission, I think you have
gone too far; as, though you have cited portraits, are they all
satiric? Sir John Gouson is the image of an active magistrate
identified; but it is not ridiculous, unless to be an active
magistrate is being ridiculous. Mr. Pine,(449) I think you
allow, desired to sit for the fat friar in the Gates of Calais--
certainly not with a view to being turned into derision.

With regard to the bloody fingers of Sigismunda, you Say, Sir,
that my memory must have failed me, as you affirm that they are
unstained with blood. Forgive me if I say that I am positive
they were so originally. I saw them so, and have often mentioned
that fact. Recollect, Sir, that you yourself allow, p. 46, in
the note, that the picture was continually "altered, upon the
criticism of one connoisseur or another." May not my memory be
more faithful about so striking a circumstance than the memory of
another who would engage to recollect all the changes that
remarkable picture underwent?

I should be very happy, Sir, if I could contribute any additional
lights to your new publication; indeed, what additional lights I
have gained are from your work, which has furnished me with many.
I am going to publish a new edition of all the five volumes of my
Anecdotes of Painting, in which I shall certainly insert what I
have gathered from you. This edition will be in five thin
octaves, without cuts, to make the purchase easy to artists and
such as cannot afford the quartos, which are grown so
extravagantly dear, that I am ashamed of it. Being published too
at different periods, and being many of them cut to pieces for
the heads, since the race for portraits has been carried so far,
it is very rare to meet with a complete set. My corrected copy
is now in the printer's hands, except the last volume, in which
are my additions to Hogarth from your list, and perhaps one or
two more but that volume also I have left in town, though not at
the printer's, as, to complete it, I must wait for his new works,
which Mrs. Hogarth is to publish. When I am settled in town,
Sir, I shall be very ready, if you please to call on me in
Berkeley Square, to communicate any additions I have made to my
account of Hogarth.