Books: Letters of Horace Walpole, V4

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

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67

These are my sentiments, my dear lord, and, you know, very
disinterested. For myself, I have nothing to wish but ease and
tranquillity for the rest of my time. I have no enmities to
avenge. I do hope the present administration will last, as I
believe there are more honest men in it than in any set that
could replace them, though I have not a grain of partiality more
than I had for their associates. Mr. Fox I think by far the
ablest and soundest head in England, and am persuaded that the
more he is tried the greater man he will appear.

Perhaps it is impertinent to trouble your lordship with my creed,
it is certainly of no consequence to any body; but I have nothing
else that could entertain you, and at so serious a crisis can one
think of trifles? In general I am not sorry that the nation is
most disposed to trifle; the less it takes part, the more leisure
will the ministers have to attend to the most urged points. When
so many individuals assume to be legislators, it is lucky that
very few obey their institutes.

I rejoice to hear of Lady Strafford's good health, and am her and
your lordship's most faithful humble servant.

(511) In the course of a debate in the Irish House of Commons, on
the 28th of October, upon Sir Henry Cavendish's motion for a
retrenchment of the public expenditure violent altercation had
taken place between the rival orators. While Mr. Grattan
animadverted, with disgraceful bitterness, on the " broken beak
and disastrous countenance" of his opponent, and charged him with
betraying every man who trusted in him, Mr. Flood broadly
insinuated that Mr. Grattan had betrayed his country for a sum of
gold; and, for prompt payment, had sold himself to the
minister.-E.

(512) They assembled at Dublin on the 10th of November, when a
plan of reform was produced and considered by them; and on the
following day Mr. Flood moved, in the House of Commons for leave
to bring in a bill for the more equal representation of the
people in Parliament. The motion was rejected by 157 votes to
77.-E.

Letter 270 To The Earl Of Strafford.
Berkeley Square, Dec. 11, 1783. (page 341)

Your lordship is so partial to me and my idle letters, that I am
afraid of writing them; not lest they should sink below the
standard you have pleased to affix to them in your own mind, but
from fear of being intoxicated into attempting to keep them up to
it, which would destroy their only merit, their being written
naturally and without pretensions. Gratitude and good breeding
compel me to make due answers; but I entreat your lordship to be
assured, that, however vain I am of your favour, my only aim is
to preserve the honour of your friendship; that it is all the
praise I ask or wish; and that, with regard to letter-writing, I
am firmly persuaded that it is a province in which women will
always shine superiorly; for our sex is too jealous of the
reputation of good sense, to condescend to hazard a thousand
trifles and negligences, which give grace, ease, and familiarity
to correspondence.(513) I will say no more on that subject, for
I feel that I am on the brink of a dissertation; and though that
fault would prove the truth of my proposition, I will not punish
your lordship only to convince you that I am in the right. The
winter is not dull or disagreeable; on the contrary, it is
Pleasing, as the town is occupied on general subjects, and not,
as is too common, on private scandal, private vices, and follies.
The India-bill, air-balloons, Vestris, and the automaton, share
all attention. Mrs. Siddons, as less a novelty, does not engross
all conversation. If abuse still keeps above par, it confines
itself to its prescriptive province, the ministerial line. In
that walk it has tumbled a little into the kennel. The low
buffoonery of Lord Thurlow, in laying the caricatura of the
Coalition on the table of your lordship's House, has levelled it
to Sadler's Wells; and Mr. Flood, the pillar of invective, does
not promise to re-erect it; not, I conclude, from want of having
imported a stock of ingredients, but his presumptuous debut on
the very night of his entry was so wretched, and delivered in so
barbarous a brogue that I question whether he will ever recover
the blow Mr. Courtenay gave him.(514) A young man may correct
and improve, and rise from a first fall; but an elderly formed
speaker has not an equal chance. Mr. Hamilton,(515) Lord
Abercorn's heir, but by no means so laconic, had more success.
Though his first essay, ii was not at all dashed by bashfulness;
and though he might have blushed for discovering so much personal
rancour to Mr. Fox, he rather seemed to be impatient to discharge
it.

Your lordship sees in the papers that the two Houses of Ireland
have firmly resisted the innovations of the Volunteers. Indeed,
it was time for the Protestant proprietors to make their stand;
for though the Catholics behave decently, it would be into their
hands that the prize would fall. The delegates, it is true, have
sent over a most loyal address; but I wish their actions may not
contradict their words! Mr. Flood's discomfiture here will, I
suppose, carry him back to a field wherein his wicked spirit may
have more effect. It is a very serious moment! I am in pain
lest your county, my dear lord, (you know what I mean) should
countenance such pernicious designs.

(513) Some excellent advice on the subject of female
letter-writing, will be found in a letter written, in 1809, by
Lord Collingwood to one of his daughters:--"No sportsman," says
the gallant Admiral, "ever hits a partridge without aiming at it;
and skill is acquired by repeated attempts. When you write a
letter, give it your greatest care, that it may be as perfect in
all its parts as you can make it. Let the subject be sense,
expressed in the most plain, intelligible, and elegant manner
that you are capable of If in a familiar epistle you should be
playful and jocular, guard carefully that your wit be not sharp,
so as to, give pain to any person; and before You write a
sentence, examine it, even the words which it is composed, that
there be nothing vulgar or inelegant in them. Remember, my dear,
that your letter is the picture of Your brains; and those whose
brains are a compound of folly, nonsense, and impertinence, are
to blame to exhibit them to the contempt of the world, or the
pity of their friends. To write a letter with negligence,
without proper stops, with crooked lines and great, flourishing
dashes, is inelegant; it argues either great ignorance of what is
proper, or great indifference towards the person to whom it is
addressed, and is consequently disrespectful." Memoirs, p.
430.-E.

(514) Mr. Flood took his seat for Winchester on the 8th of
December, and on the same evening addressed the House in
Opposition to Mr. Fox's East India bill. "He spoke," says
Wraxall, "with great ability and good sense, but the slow,
measured, and sententious style of enunciation which
characterized his eloquence, appeared to English ears cold and
stiff: unfortunately, too, for Flood, one of his own countrymen,
Courtenay, instantly Opened on him such a battery of ridicule and
wit, as seemed to overwhelm the new Member. He made no attempt
at reply, and under these circumstances began the division. It
formed a triumphant exhibition Of ministerial strength, the
Coalition numbering 208; while only 102 persons, of whom I was
one, followed Pitt into the lobby yet, within twelve days
afterwards he found himself first minister, and so remained above
seventeen years."-E.

(515) John James Hamilton. In 1789, he succeeded his uncle as
ninth Earl of Abercorn, and second Viscount Hamilton; and in
1790, was created Marquis of Abercorn.-E.

Letter 271 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Berkeley Square, Wednesday, May 5, 1784. (page 342)

Your cherries, for aught I know, may, like Mr. Pitt, be half ripe
before others are in blossom; but at Twickenham, I am sure, I
could find dates and pomegranates on the quickset hedges, as soon
as a cherry in swaddling-clothes on my walls. The very leaves on
the horse-chestnuts are little snotty-nosed things, that cry and
are afraid of the north-wind, and cling to the bough as if old
poker was coming to take them away. For my part, I have seen
nothing like spring but a chimney-sweeper's garland; and yet I
have been three days in the country-and the consequence was, that
I was glad to come back to town. I do not wonder that you feel
differently; any thing is warmth and verdure when compared to
poring over memorials. In truth, I think you will be much
happier for being out of Parliament. You could do no good there;
you have no views of ambition to satisfy: and when neither duty.
nor ambition calls, (I do not condescend to name avarice, which
never is to be satisfied, nor deserves to be reasoned with, nor
has any place in your breast,) I cannot conceive what
satisfaction an elderly man can have in listening to the passions
or follies of others: nor is eloquence such a banquet, when one
knows that, whoever the cooks are, whatever the sauces, one has
eaten as good beef or mutton before, and perhaps, as well
dressed. It is surely time to live for one's self, when one has
not a vast while to live; and you, I am persuaded, Will live the
longer for leading a country life. How much better to be
planting, nay, making experiments on smoke (if not too dear),
than reading applications from officers, a quarter of whom you
could not serve, nor content three quarters! You had not time for
necessary exercise : and, I believe, would have blinded yourself.
In short, if you will live in the air all day, be totally idle,
and not read or write a line by candle-light, and retrench your
suppers, I shall rejoice in your having nothing to do but that
dreadful punishment, pleasing yourself. Nobody has any claims on
you; you have satisfied every point of honour; you have no cause
for being particularly grateful to the Opposition; and you want
no excuse for living for yourself. Your resolutions on economy
are not only prudent, but just; and, to say the truth, I believe
if you had continued at the head of the army, you would have
ruined yourself You have too much generosity to have curbed
yourself, and would have had too little time to attend to doing
so. I know by myself how pleasant it is to have laid up a little
for those I love, for those that depend on me, and for old
servants. Moderate wishes may be satisfied; and which is still
better, are less liable to disappointment.

I am not preaching, nor giving advice, but congratulating you it
is certainly not being selfish, when I rejoice at your being
thrown by circumstances into a retired life, though it will
occasion my seeing less of you; but I have always preferred what
was most for your own honour and happiness; and as you taste
satisfaction already, it will not diminish, for they are the
first moments of passing from busy life to a quiet one that are
the most irksome. You have the felicity of being able to amuse
yourself with what the grave world calls trifles , but as gravity
does not happen to be wisdom, trifles are full as important as
what is respected as serious; and more amiable, and generally
more innocent. Most men are bad or ridiculous, sometimes both:
at least my experience tells me what my reading had told me before, that they are so in a great capital
of a sinking 'country. If immortal fame is his object, a Cato
may die but he will do no good. If only the preservation of his
virtue had been his point, he might have lived comfortably at
Athens, like Attieus who, by the way, happens to be as immortal;
though I will give him credit for having had no such view.
Indeed, I look upon this country as so irrecoverably on the verge
of ruin, from its enormous debt, from the loss of America, from
the almost as certain prospect of losing India, that my pride
would dislike to be an actor when the crash may happen.

You seem to think that I might send you more news. So I might,
if I would talk of elections;(516) but those, you know, I hate,
as, in general, I do all details. How Mr. Fox has recovered such
a majority I do not guess, still less do I comprehend how there
could be so many that had not voted, after the poll had lasted so
long.(517) Indeed, I should be sorry to understand such
mysteries.-Of new peers, or new elevations I hear every day, but
am quite ignorant which are to be true. Rumour always creates as
many as the King, when he makes several. In fact, I do know
nothing. Adieu!

P. S. The summer is come to town, but I hope is gone into the
country too.

(516) The Parliament had been dissolved in March, and a new one
was summoned to meet on the 18th of May.-E.

(517) Mr. Pitt says in a letter to Mr. Wilberforce, of the 8th of
April, "Westminster goes on well, in spite of the Duchess of
Devonshire and the other women of the people; but when the poll
will close is uncertain." At the close of it, on the 17th of
May, the numbers were, for Hood 6694, Fox 6233, Wray 5998.
Walpole, whose delicate health at this time confined him almost
entirely to his house, went in a sedan-chair to give his vote for
Mr. Fox. "Apropos of elections," writes Hannah More to her
sister," I had like to have got into a fine scrape the other
night. I was going to pass the evening at Mrs. Cole's, in
Lincoln's-inn Fields. I went in a chair: they carried me through
Covent-Garden: a number of people, as I went along, desired the
men not to go through the Garden, as there were a hundred armed
men, who, suspecting every chairman belonged to Brookes's, would
fall upon us. In spite of my entreaties, the men would have
persisted; but a stranger, out of humanity, made them set me
down; and the shrieks of the wounded, for there was a terrible
battle, intimidated the chairmen, who were at last prevailed upon
to carry me another way. A vast number of people followed me,
crying out, 'it is Mrs. Fox: none but Mr. Fox's wife would dare
to come into Covent-Garden in a chair; she is going to canvass in
the dark!' Though not a little frightened, I laughed heartily at
this; but shall stir no more in a chair for some time." Memoirs,
vol. I. p. 315.-E.

Letter 272 To Miss Hannah More.(519)
May 6, 1784 (page 344)

Mr. Walpole thanks Miss More a thousand times, not only for so
obligingly complying with his request, but for letting him have
the satisfaction of possessing and reading again and again her
charming and very genteel poem, the "Bas Bleu." He ought not, in
modesty, to commend so much a piece in which he himself is
flattered; but truth is more durable than blushing, and he must
be just, though he may be vain. The ingenuity with which she has
introduced, so easily, very difficult rhymes, is admirable; and
though there is a quantity of learning, it has all the air Of
negligence, instead of that of pedantry. As she, commands him,
he will not disobey; and, so far from giving a single copy, he
gives her his word that it shall not go out of his hands. He
begs his particular compliments to Mrs. Garrick, and is Miss
More's most devoted and much obliged humble servant.

(519) Walpole's intimacy with Miss Hannah More commenced in the
year 1781. The following passages occur in her letters of that
and the following year:--"Mr. Walpole has done me the honour of
inviting me to Strawberry Hill: as he is said to be a shy man, I
must consider this as a great compliment."--" We dined the other
day at Strawberry Hill, and passed as delightful a day as elegant
literature, high breeding, and lively wit can afford. As I was
the greatest stranger, Mr. Walpole devoted himself to my
amusement with great politeness."-E.

Letter 273 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, May 21, 1784. (page 345)

I am perfectly satisfied with your epitaph,(520) and would not
have a Syllable altered. It tells exactly what it means to say,
and that truth being an encomium, wants no addition or
amplification. Nor do I love late language for modern facts, nor
will European tongues perish since printing has been discovered.
I should approve French least of all; it would be a kind of
insult to the vanquished: and, besides, the example of a hero
should be held out to his countrymen rather than to their
enemies. You must take care to have the word caused, in the last
line but one, spelt rightly, and not caus'd.

I know nothing of the Parliament but what you saw in the papers.
I came hither yesterday, and am transported, like you, with the
beauty of the country; ay, and with its perfumed air too. The
lilac-time scents even the insides of the rooms.

I desired Lady Ailesbury to carry you Lord Melcombe's Diary.(521)
It is curious indeed; not so much from the secrets it blabs,
which are rather characteristic than novel, but from the
wonderful folly of the author, who was so fond of talking of
himself, that he tells all he knew of himself, though scarce an
event that does not betray his profligacy; and (which is still
more surprising that he should disclose) almost every one exposes
the contempt in which he was held, and his consequential'
disappointments and disgraces! Was ever any man the better for
another's experience? What a lesson is here against versatility!
I, who have lived through all the scenes unfolded, am
entertained; but I should think that to younger readers half the
book must be unintelligible. He explains nothing but the
circumstances of his own situation; and, though he touches on
many important periods, he leaves them undeveloped, and often
undetermined. It is diverting to hear him rail at Lord Halifax
and others, for the very kind of double-dealing which he relates
coolly of himself in the next page. Had he gone backwards, he
might have given half a dozen volumes of his own life, with
similar anecdotes and variations. I am most surprised, that when
self-love is the whole groundwork of the performance, there
should be little or no attempt at shining as an author, though he
was one. As he had so much wit too, I am amazed that not a
feature of it appears. The discussion in the appendix, on the
late Prince's question for increase of allowance, is the only
part in which there is sense or honesty. There is, in the
imperfect account of Rochfort, a strong Circumstance or two that
pleased me much. There are many passages that will displease
several others throughout.

Mr. Coxe's Travels(522) are very different: plain, clear,
sensible, instructive, and entertaining. It is a noble work, and
precious to me who delight in quartos: the two volumes contain
twelve hundred pages; I have already devoured a quarter, though I
have had them but three days. [The rest of this letter is lost.]

(520) An epitaph for the monument erected by the states of Jersey
to the memory of Major Pearson, killed in the attack of that
island by the French in January 1781.

(521) "The Diary of George Bubb Dodington, Baron of Melcombe
Regis, from March 8, 1749, to February 6, 1761; published by
Henry Penruddocke Wyndham."

(522) Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark;
interspersed with Historical Relations and Political Inquiries;
by William Cox, M. A.," in two volumes quarto.-E.

Letter 274 To The Countess Of Ailesbury.
Strawberry Hill, Tuesday night, June 8, 1784. (page 346)

You frightened me for a minute, my dear Madam; but every letter
since has given me pleasure, by telling me how rapidly you
recovered, and how perfectly well you are again. Pray, however,
do not give me any more such Joys. I shall be quite content with
your remaining immortal, without the foil of any alarm. You gave
all your friends a panic, and may trust their attachment without
renewing it. I received as many inquiries the next day as if an
archbishop was in danger, and all the bench hoped he was going to
heaven.

Mr. Conway wonders I do not talk of Voltaire's Memoirs. Lord
bless me! I saw it two months ago; the Lucans brought it from
Paris and lent it to me: nay, and I have seen most of it before;
and I believe this an imperfect copy, for it ends no how at all.
Besides, it was quite out of my head. Lord Melcombe's Diary put
that and every thing else out of my mind. I wonder much more at
Mr. Conway's not talking of this! It gossips about the living as
familiarly as a modern newspaper. I long to hear what say about
it. I wish the newspapers were as accurate! They have been
circumstantial about Lady Walsingham's birthday clothes, which to
be sure one is glad to know, Only unluckily there is no such
person. However, I dare to say that her dress was very becoming,
and that she looked charmingly.

The month of June, according to custom immemorial, is as cold as
Christmas. I had a fire last night, and all my rose-buds, I
believe, would have been very glad to sit by it. I have other
grievances to boot; but as they are annuals too,--videlicet,
people to see my house,-- I will not torment Your ladyship with
them: yet I know nothing else. None of my neighbours are come
into the country yet: one would think all the dowagers were
elected into the new Parliament. Adieu, my dear Madam!

Letter 275 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, June 25, 1784. (page 347)

I can answer you very readily in your own tone, that is, about
weather and country grievances, and without one word of news or
politics; for I know neither, nor inquire of them.(523) I am
very well content to be a Strulbrug, and to exist after I have
done being: and I am still better pleased that you are in the
same way of thinking, or of not thinking; for I am sure both your
health and your mind will find the benefits of living for
yourself and family only. It were not fit that the young should
concentre themselves in so narrow a circle; nor do the young seem
to have any such intention. Let them mend or mar the world as
they please; the world takes its own way upon the whole; and,
though there may be an uncommon swarm of animalcules for a
season, things return into their own channel from their own bias,
before any effectual nostrum or fumigation is discovered. In the
mean time, I am for giving all due weight to local grievances,
though with no natural turn towards attending to them: but they
serve for conversation. We have no newly invented grubs to eat
our fruit; indeed, I have no fruit to be eaten: but I should not
lament if the worms would eat my gardener, who, you know, is so
bad an one that I never have any thing in my garden. I am now
waiting for dry weather to cut my hay; though nature certainly
never intended hay should be cut dry, as it always rains all
June. But here is a worse calamity; one is never safe by day or
night: Mrs. Walsingham, who has bought your brother's late house
at Ditton, was robbed a few days ago in the high road, within a
mile of home, at seven in the evening. The di`a nimorum gentium
pilfer every thing. Last night they stole a couple of yards of
lead off the pediment of the door of my cottage. A gentleman at
Putney, who has three men servants, had his house broken open
last week, and lost some fine miniatures, which he valued so much
that he would not hang them up. You may imagine what a pain this
gives me in my baubles! I have been making the round of my
fortifications this morning, and ordering new works.

I am concerned for the account you give me of your brother. Life
does not appear to be such a jewel as to preserve it carefully
for its own sake. I think the same of its good things; if they
do not procure amusement or comfort, I doubt they only produce
the contrary. Yet it is silly to repine; for, probably, whatever
any man does by choice, he knows will please him best, or at
least will prevent greater uneasiness. I therefore, rather
retract my concern; for, with a vast fortune, Lord Hertford might
certainly do what he would: and if, at his age, he can wish for
more than that fortune will obtain, I may pity his taste or
temper; but I shall think that you and I are much happier who can
find enjoyments in an humbler sphere, nor envy those who have no
time for trifling'. I, who have never done any thing else, am
not at all weary of my occupation. Even three days of continued
rain have not put me out of humour or spirits. C'est beaucoup
dire for an Anglais. Adieu! Yours ever.

(523) "As politics spoil all conversation, Mr. Walpole, the other
night, proposed that every body should forfeit half a crown who
said any thing tending to introduce the idea, either of ministers
or opposition. I added, that whoever mentioned pit-coal or a
fox-skin muff, should be considered as guilty; and it was
accordingly voted." Hannah More, March 8, 1784.-E.

Letter 276 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Strawberry Hill, June 30, 1784. (page 348)

Instead of coming to you, I Am thinking of packing up and going
to town for winter, so desperate is the weather! I found a great
fire at Mrs. Clive's this evening, and Mr. Rafter hanging over it
like a smoked ham. They tell me my hay will be spoiled for want
of cutting; but I had rather it should be destroyed by standing
than by being mowed, as the former will cost me nothing but the
crop, and 'tis very dear to make nothing but a water-souchy of
it.