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

I have exhausted my gazette; and this being both Easter and
Newmarket week, I may possibly have nothing to tell you by
to-morrow se'nnight's post, and may wait till Friday se'nnight:
of which I give you notice, lest you should think I have had a
fall, and hurt my nose which I know gives one's friend a dreadful
alarm. Good night!

P. S. I never saw such a blotted letter: I don't know how you
will read it. I am so earnest when writing to YOU two, that I
omit half the words, and write too small; but I will try to mend.

(779) Francis Godolphin Osborne, fifth Duke of Leeds. In 1776,
he was appointed a lord of the bedchamber, and in 1783, secretary
of state for foreign affairs. He was succeeded in the office by
Lord Grenville.-E.

(780) The numbers on the division were, for the abolition 88,
against it 163.-E.

(781) In a letter written on this day, Miss More says,--"My time
has been literally passed with thief takers, officers of justice,
and such pretty kind of people." The young lady, who was an
heiress and only fourteen years of age, had been trepanned away
from school. All the efforts to discover the victim proved
fruitless; the poor girl having been betrayed into a marriage and
carried to the Continent.-E.

(782) The Earl of Bristol; for an account of whom, see ante, p.
236, letter 182.-E.

(783) A natural daughter of Lord Cholmondeley.

(784) Armand-Emanuel du Plessis, Duc do Richelieu. He had just
succeeded to the title, by the death of his father. In the
preceding year, he had entered a volunteer into the service of
Catherine the Second, and distinguished himself at the siege of
Ismael, not more by his bravery than his humanity; as appears by
the following anecdote recorded in the "Histoire de la Nouvelle
Russie," tom. iii. p. 217:--"Je sauvai la vie `a une fille de dix
ans, dont l'innocence et la candeur formaient un contraste bien
frappant avec la rage de tout ce qui mlenvironnait. En arrivant
sur le bastion o`u commen`ca le carnage, j'apperus un groupe de
quatre femmes `egorg`ees, entre lesquelles cet enfant, d'une
figure charmante, cherchait un asile contre la fureur de deux
Kosaks qui `etaient sur le point de la massacrer: ce spectacle
m'attira bient`ot, et je n'h`esitai pas, comme on peut le croire,
prendre entre mes bras cette infortun`ee, que les barbares
voulaient y poursuivre encore." Lord Byron has paraphrased the
affecting incident in the eighth canto of Don Juan:--

"Upon a taken bastion, where there lay
Thousands of slaughter'd men, a yet warm group
Of murder'd women, who had found their way
To this vain refuge, made the good heart droop
And shudder;--while, as beautiful as May,
A female child of ten years tried to stoop
And hide her little palpitating breast
Amidst the bodies lull'd in bloody rest.
Two villainous Cossacques pursued the child
With flashing eyes, and weapons. * * *
Don Juan raised his little captive from
The heap, a moment more had made her tomb."

In 1803, the Duke returned to Russia, and was nominated civil and
military governor of Odessa; -and to his administration," says
Bishop Heber, 44 and not to any natural advantages, the town owes
its prosperity." On the restoration of Louis the Eighteenth, he
was appointed first gentleman of the bedchamber; and in 1815,
president of the council and minister for foreign affairs. He
finally retired from office in 1820, and died in 1822.-E.

Letter 378 To Miss Berry.
Berkeley Square, May 12, 1791. (page 495)

A letter from Florence (that of April 20th) does satisfy me about
your nose-till I can see it with my own eyes; but I will own to
you now, that my alarm at first went much farther. I dreaded
lest so violent a fall upon rubbish might not have hurt your
head; though all your letters since have proved how totally that
escaped any danger. Yet your great kindness in writing to me
yourself so immediately did not tranquillize me, and only proved
your good-nature-but I will not detail my departed fears, nor
need I prove my attachment to you two. If you were really my
wives, I could not be more generally applied to for accounts of
you; of which I am proud. I should be ashamed, if, at my age, it
were a ridiculous attachment; but don't be sorry for having been
circumstantial. My fears did not spring thence; nor did I
suspect your not having told the whole-no; but I apprehended the
accident might be worse than you knew yourself.

Poor Hugh Conway,(785) though his life has long been safe, still
suffers at times from his dreadful blow, and has not yet been
able to come to town: nor would Lord Chatham's humanity put his
ship into commission; which made him so unhappy, that poor
Horatia,(786) doating on him as she does, wrote to beg he might
be employed; preferring her own misery in parting with him to
what she saw him suffer. Amiable conduct! but, happily, her suit
did not prevail.

I am not at all surprised at the private interviews between
Leopold(787) and C. I am persuaded that the first must and will
take more part than he has yet seemed to do, and so will others
too; but as speculations are but guesses, I will say no more on
the subject now; nor of your English and Irish travellers, none
of whom I know. I have one general wish, that you may be amused
while you stay, by the natives of any nation: and I thank you a
thousand times for confirming Your intention of returning by the
beginning of November; which I should not desire coolly, but from
the earnest wish of putting you in possession of Cliveden while I
live; which every body would approve, at least, not wonder at
(Mr. Batt, to whom I have communicated my intention, does
extremely); and the rest would follow of course, as I had done
the same for Mrs. Clive. I smiled at your making excuses for
your double letter. Do you think I would not give twelvepence to
hear more of you and your proceedings, than a single sheet would
contain?

The Prince is recovered; that is all the domestic news, except a
most memorable debate last Friday, in the House of Commons. Mr.
Fox had most imprudently thrown out a panegyric on the French
revolution.(788) His most considerable friends were much hurt,
and protested to him against such sentiments. Burke went much
farther, and vowed to attack these opinions. Great pains were
taken to prevent such altercation, and the Prince of Wales is
said to have written a dissuasive letter to Burke: but he was
immovable; and on Friday, on the Quebec Bill, he broke out and
sounded a trumpet against the plot, which he denounced as
carrying on here. Prodigious clamours and interruption arose
from Mr. Fox's friends: but he, though still applauding the
French, burst into tears and lamentations on the loss of Burke's
friendship, and endeavoured to make atonement; but in vain,
though Burke wept too. In short, it was the most affecting scene
possible; and undoubtedly an unique one, for both the commanders
were earnest and sincere.(789) Yesterday, a second act was
expected; but mutual friends prevailed, that the contest should
not be renewed: nay, on the same bill, Mr. Fox made a profession
of his faith, and declared he would venture his life in support
of the present constitution by King, Lords, and Commons. In
short, I never knew a wiser dissertation, if the newspapers
deliver it justly; and I think all the writers in England cannot
give more profound sense to Mr. Fox than he possesses. I know no
more particulars, having seen nobody this morning yet. What
shall I tell you else? We have expected Mrs. Damer from last
night; and perhaps she may arrive before this sets out to-morrow.

Friday morning, May 13th.

Last night we were at Lady Frederick Campbell's,--the usual
cribbage party, Conways, Mount-Edgcumbes, Johnstones. At past
ten Mrs. Damer was announced! Her parents ran down into the
hall, and I scrambled down some of the stairs. She looks vastly
well, was in great spirits, and not at all fatigued; though she
came from Dover, had been twelve hours at sea from Calais, and
had rested but four days at Paris from Madrid. We supped, and
stayed till one o'clock; and I shall go to see her as soon as I
am dressed. Madrid and the Escurial she owns have gained her a
proselyte to painting, which her statuarism had totally engrossed
in her, no wonder. Of Titian she had no idea, nor have I a just
one, though great faith, as at Venice all his works are now
coal-black: but Rubens, she says, amazed her, and that in Spain
he has even grace. Her father, yesterday morning, from pain
remaining still in his shoulder from his fall, had it examined by
Dr. Hunter, and a little bone of the collar was found to be
broken, and he must wear his arm for some time in a sling. Miss
Boyle, I heard last night, had consented to marry Lord Henry
Fitzgerald. I think they have both chosen well--but I have
chosen better. Adieu! Care spose!

(785) Lord Hugh Seymour Conway, brother of the then Marquis of
Hertford.

(786) Lady Horatia Waldegrave, his wife.

(787) The Emperor Leopold, then at Florence; whither he had
returned from Vienna, to inaugurate his son in the Grand Duchy of
Tuscany.-E.

(788) In the course of his speech on the 15th of April, during
the debate on the armament against Russia, Mr. Fox had said, that
"he for one admired the new constitution of France, considered
altogether, as the most stupendous and glorious edifice of
liberty which had been erected on the foundation of human
integrity in any time or country." As soon as he had sat down
Mr. Burke rose, in much visible emotion; but was prevented from
proceeding by the general cry of question. Mr. Fox regretted the
injudicious zeal of those who would not suffer him to reply on
the spot: "the contention," be said, "might have been fiercer and
hotter, but the remembrance of it would not have settled so deep,
nor rankled so long, in the heart."-E.

(789) With the debate of this day terminated a friendship which
had lasted more than the fourth part of a century. Mr.
Wilberforce, in his Diary of the 6th of May, states, that he had
endeavoured to prevent the quarrel; and in a letter to a friend,
on the following day, he speaks of "the shameful spectacle of
last night; more disgraceful almost, and more affecting, than the
rejection of my motion for the abolition of the slave trade-a
long tried and close worldly connexion of five-and-twenty years
trampled to pieces in the conflict of a single night!" The
following anecdote, connected with this memorable evening, is
related by Mr. Curwen, at that time member for Carlisle, in his
Travels in Ireland:--"the powerful feelings were manifested on
the adjournment of the House. While I was waiting for my
carriage, Mr. Burke came to me and requested, as the night was
wet, I would set him down. As soon as the carriage-door was
shut, he complimented me on My being no friend to the
revolutionary doctrines of the French; on which he spoke with
great warmth for a few minutes, when he paused to afford me an
opportunity of approving the view he had taken of those measures
in the House. At the moment I could not help feeling disinclined
to disguise my sentiments: Mr. Burke, catching hold of the
check-string, furiously exclaimed, 'you are one of these people!
set me down!' With some difficulty I restrained him;-we had then
reached Charingcross: a silence ensued which was preserved till
we reached his house in Gerard-street, when he hurried out of the
carriage without speaking."-E.

Letter 379 To Miss Berry.
Berkeley Square, Thursday, May 19, 1791. (page 497)

Your letter of the 29th, for which you are so good as to make
excuses on not sending it to the post in time, did arrive but two
days later than usual; and as it is now two months from the 16th
of March, and I have so many certificates of the prosperous state
of your pretty nose, I attributed the delay to the elements, and
took no panic. But how kindly punctual you are, When you charge
yourself' with an irregularity of two days! and when your letters
are so charmingly long, and interest me so much in all you do!
But make no more excuses. I reproach myself with occasioning so
much waste of your time, that you might employ every hour; for it
is impossible to see all that the Medicis had collected or
encouraged in the loveliest little city, and in such beautiful
environs-nor had I forgotten the Cascines, the only spot
containing English verdure. Mrs. Damer is as well, if not
better, than she has been a great while: her looks surprise every
body; to which, as she is tanned, her Spanish complexion
contributes. She and I called, the night before last, on your
friend Mrs. Cholmeley; and they are to make me a visit to-morrow
morning, by their own appointment. At Dover Mrs. Damer heard the
Gunnings are there: here, they are forgotten.

You are learning perspective, to take views: I am glad. Can one
have too many resources in one's self? Internal armour is more
necessary to your sex, than weapons to ours. You have neither
professions, nor politics, nor ways of getting money, like men;
in any of which, whether successful or not, they are employed.
Scandal and cards you will both always hate and despise, as much
as you do now; and though I shall not flatter Mary so much as to
suppose she will ever equal the extraordinary talent of Agnes in
painting, yet, as Mary, like the scriptural Martha, is occupied
in many things, she is quite in the right to add the pencil to
her other amusements.

I knew the Duchesse de Brissac(790) a little, and but a little,
in 1766. She was lively and seemed sensible, and had an
excellent character. Poor M. de Thygnols!(791) to be deprived of
that only remaining child too!--but, how many French one pities,
and how many more one abhors! How dearly will even liberty be
bought, (if it shall prove to be obtained, which I neither think
it is or will be,) by every kind of injustice and violation of
consciences! How little conscience can they have, who leave to
others no option but between perjury and starving! The Prince de
Chimay I do not know.

After answering the articles of yours, I shall add what I can of
new. After several weeks spent in search of precedents, for
trials ceasing or not on a dissolution of parliament, the Peers
on Monday sat till three in the morning on the report; when the
Chancellor and Lord Hawkesbury fought for the cessation, but were
beaten by a large majority; which showed that Mr. Pitt(792) has
more weight (at present) in that House too, than--the diamonds of
Bengal. Lord Hawkesbury protested. The trial recommences on
Monday next, and has already caused the public fourteen thousand
pounds; the accused, I suppose, much more.

The Countess of Albany(793) is not only in England, in London,
but at this very moment, I believe, in the palace of St.
James's--not restored by as rapid a revolution as the French,
but, as was observed last night at supper at Lady
Mount-Edgcumbe's, by that topsy-turvyhood that characterizes the
present age. Within these two months the Pope has been burnt at
Paris; Madame du Barry, mistress of Louis Quinze, has dined with
the Lord Mayor of London, and the Pretender's widow is presented
to the Queen of Great Britain! She is to be introduced by her
great-grandfather's niece, the young Countess of Ailesbury.(794)
That curiosity should bring her hither, I do not quite
wonder-still less that she abhorred her husband; but methinks it
is not very well bred to his family, nor very sensible; but a new
way of passing eldest.

Apropos: I hear there is a medal struck at Rome of her brother-
in-law, as Henry the Ninth; which, as one of their Papal
majesties was so abominably mean as to deny the royal title to
his brother, though for Rome he had lost a crown, I did not know
they allow his brother to assume. I should be much obliged to
you if you could get one of those medals in copper; ay, and of
his brother, if there was one with the royal title. I have the
father's and mother's, and all the Popes', in copper; but my
Pope, Benedict the Fourteenth, is the last, and therefore I
should be glad of one of each of his successors, if you can
procure and bring them with little trouble. I should not be
sorry to have one of the Grand Duke and his father; but they
should be in copper, not only for my suite, but they are sharper
than in silver.

Thursday night.

Well! I have had an exact account of the interview of the two
Queens, from one who stood close to them. The dowager was
announced as Princess of Stolberg. She was well-dressed, and not
at all embarrassed. The King talked to her a good deal; but
about her passage' the sea, and general topics: the Queen in the
same way, but less. Then she stood between the Dukes of
Gloucester and Clarence, and had a good deal of conversation with
the former; who, perhaps, may have met her in Italy. Not a word
between her and the Princesses: nor did I hear of the Prince, but
he was there, and probably spoke to her. The Queen looked at her
earnestly. To add to the singularity of the day, it is the
Queen's birthday. Another odd accident: at the Opera at the
Pantheon, Madame d'Albany was carried into the King's box, and
sat there. It is not of a piece with her going to court, that
she seals with the royal arms. I have been told to-night, that
you will not be able to get me a medal of the royal Cardinal, as
very few were struck, and only for presents; so pray give
yourself but little trouble about it.

Boswell has at last published his long-promised Life of Dr.
Johnson, in two volumes in quarto. I will give you an account of
it when I have gone through it. I have already perceived, that
in writing the history of Hudibras, Ralpho has not forgot himself
nor will others, I believe, forget him!

(790) The Duc do Brissac was at this time commandant-general of
Louis the Sixteenth's constitutional guard. In the following
year he was denounced; and in the early days of September put to
death at Versailles, for his attachment to his unfortunate
sovereign.-E.

(791) The Duc de Nivernois, who, at this time, was employed about
the person of Louis the Sixteenth, was denounced by the infamous
Chaumette, and Cast into prison in September 1793; where he
remained till 1796. He died in 1798.-E.

(792) In Mr. Wilberforce's Diary of the 22d of December, there is
the following entry:--"Hastings's impeachment question. Pitt's
astonishing speech. This was almost the finest speech he ever
delivered: it was one which you would say at once he never could
have made if he had not been a mathematician. He put things by
as he proceeded and then returned to the very point from which he
had started, with the most astonishing clearness. He had all the
lawyers against him, but carried a majority of the House, mainly
by the force of this speech. It pleased Burke exceedingly.
'Sir,' he said, 'the right honourable gentleman and I have often
been opposed to one another, but his speech tonight has
neutralized my opposition; nay, Sir, he has dulcified me.' "
Life, vol. i. p. 286.-E.

(793) Louisa Maximiliana de Stolberg Goedern, wife of the
Pretender. After the death of Charles Edward in 1788, she
travelled in Italy and France, and lived with her favourite, the
celebrated Alfieri, to whom she is stated to have been privately
married. She continued to reside at Paris, until the progress of
the revolution compelled her to take refuge in England.-E.

(794) Lady Anne Rawdon, sister to the first Marquis of Hastings.

Letter 380 To Miss Berry.
Berkeley Square, May 26, 1791. (page 500)

I am rich in letters from you: I received that by Lord Elgin's
courier first, as you expected, and its elder the next day. You
tell me mine entertain you; tant mieux. It is my wish, but my
wonder; for I live so little in the world, that I do not know the
present generation by sight: for, though I pass by them in the
streets, the hats with valences, the folds above the chin of the
ladies, and the dirty shirts and shaggy hair of the young men,
who have levelled nobility almost as much as the mobility in
France have, have confounded all individuality. Besides, if I
did go to public places and assemblies, which my going to roost
earlier prevents, the bats and owls do not begin to fly abroad
till far in the night, when they begin to see and be seen.
However, one of the empresses of fashion, the Duchess of Gordon,
uses fifteen or sixteen hours of her four-and-twenty. I heard
her journal of last Monday. She first went to Handel's music in
the Abbey; she then clambered over the benches, and went to
Hastings's trial in the Hall; after dinner to the play; then to
Lady Lucan's assembly; after that to Ranelagh, and returned to
Mrs. Hobart's faro table; gave a ball herself in the evening of
that morning, into which she must have got a good way: and set
out for Scotland the next day. Hercules could not have achieved
a quarter of her labours in the same space of time, What will the
Great Duke think of our Amazons, if he has letters opened, as the
Emperor was wont! One of our Camillas,(795) but in a freer
style, I hear, he saw (I fancy just before your arrival); and he
must have wondered at the familiarity of the dame, and the
nincompoophood of her Prince. Sir William Hamilton is arrived--
his Nymph of the Attitudes!(796) was too prudish to visit the
rambling peeress.

The rest of my letter must be literary; for we have no news.
Boswell's book is gossiping;(797) but, having numbers of proper
names, would be more readable, at least by me, were it reduced
from two volumes to one; but there are woful longueurs, both
about his hero and himself; thefidus Achates; about whom one has
not the smallest curiosity. But I wrong the original Achates:
one is satisfied with his fidelity in keeping his master's
secrets and weaknesses, which modern led-captains betray for
their patron's glory, and to hurt their own enemies; which
Boswell has done shamefully, particularly against Mrs. Piozzi,
and Mrs. Montagu, and Bishop Percy. Dr. Blagden says justly,
that it is a new kind of libel, by which you may abuse any body,
by saying some dead body said so and so of somebody
alive. Often, indeed, Johnson made the most brutal speeches to
living persons; for though he was good-natured at bottom, he was
very ill-natured at top. He loved to dispute, to show his
superiority. If his opponents were weak, he told them they were
fools; if they vanquished him, be was scurrilous--to nobody more
than to Boswell himself, who was contemptible for flattering him
so grossly, and for enduring the coarse things he was continually
vomiting on Boswell's own country, Scotland. I expected, amongst
the excommunicated, to find myself, but am very gently treated.
I never would be in the least acquainted with Johnson; or, as
Boswell calls it, I had not a just value for him; which the
biographer imputes to my resentment for the Doctor's putting bad
arguments (purposely, out of Jacobitism,) into the speeches which
he wrote fifty years ago for my father, in the Gentleman's
Magazine; which I did not read then, or ever knew
Johnson wrote till Johnson died, nor have looked at since.
Johnson's blind Toryism and known brutality kept me aloof; nor
did I ever exchange a syllable with him: nay, I do not think I
ever was in a room with him six times in my days. Boswell came
to me, said Dr. Johnson was writing the Lives of the Poets, and
wished I would give him anecdotes of Mr. Gray. I said, very
coldly, I had given what I knew to Mr. Mason. Boswell hummed and
hawed, and then dropped, "I suppose you know Dr. Johnson does not
admire Mr. Gray." Putting as much contempt as I could Into my
look and tone, I said, "Dr. Johnson don't--humph!"--and with that
monosyllable ended our interview. After the Doctor's death,
Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Boswell sent an ambling
circular-letter to me, begging subscriptions for a monument for
him--the two last, I think, impertinently; as they could not but
know my opinion, and could not suppose I would contribute to a
monument for one who had endeavoured, poor soul! to degrade my
friend's superlative poetry. I would not deign to write an
answer; but sent down word by my footman, as I would have done to
parish officers with a brief, that I Would not subscribe. In the
two new volumes Johnson says, and very probably did, or is made
to say, that 'Gray's poetry is dull, and that he was a dull
man!(798) The same oracle dislikes Prior, Swift, and Fielding.
If an elephant could write a book, perhaps one that had read a
great deal would say, that an Arabian horse is a very clumsy
ungraceful animal. Pass to a better chapter!

Burke has published another pamphlet(799) against the French
Revolution, in which he attacks it still more grievously. The
beginning is very good; but it is not equal, nor quite so
injudicious as parts of its predecessor; is far less brilliant,
as well as much shorter: but, were it ever so long, his mind
overflows with such a torrent of images, that he cannot be
tedious. His invective against Rousseau is admirable, just, and
new.(799) Voltaire he passes almost contemptuously. I wish he
had dissected Mirabeau too; and I grieve that he has omitted the
violation of the consciences of the clergy, nor stigmatized those
universal plunderers, the National Assembly, who gorge themselves
with eighteen livres a-day; which to many of them would, three
years ago, have been astonishing opulence.