Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3

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Depend upon it, I will pay some of your debts to M. de
Lislebonne; that is, I will make as great entertainments for him
as any one can, who almost always dines alone in his
dressing-room; I will show him every thing all the morning, as
much as any one can, who lies abed till noon, and never gets
dressed till two o'clock; and I will endeavour to amuse him with
variety of diversions every evening as much as any one can, who
does nothing but play at loo till midnight, or sit behind Lady
Mary Coke in a corner of a box at the Opera. Seriously, though.
I will try to show him that I think distinctions paid to you and
my sister favours to me, and will make a point of adding the few
civilities which his name, rank, and alliance with the Guerchys
can leave necessary. M. de Guerchy is adored here, and will find
so, particularly at this Juncture, when he has been most cruelly
and publicly insulted by a mad, but villanous fellow, one D'Eon,
left here by the Duc de Nivernois, who in effect is still worse
treated. This creature, who had been made minister
plenipotentiary, which turned his brain, as you have already
heard, had stolen Nivernois's private letters, and has published
them, and a thousand scandals on M. de Guerchy, in a very thick
quarto. The affair is much too long for a letter, makes a great
noise, and gives great offence. The council have met to-day to
consider how to avenge Guerchy and punish D'Eon. I hope a legal
remedy is in their power.

I will say little on the subject of Robert; you know my opinion
of his capacity, and I dare say think as I do. He is worth
taking pains with. I heartily wish those pains may have success.
The cure performed by James's powder charms me more than
surprises me. I have long thought it could cure every thing but
physicians.

Politics are all becalmed. Lord Bute's reappearance on the
scene, though his name is in no play-bill, may chance to revive
the hurly-burly.

My Lord Townshend has not named Charles in his will, who is as
much disappointed as he has often disappointed others. We had
last night a magnificent ball at my Lady Cardigan's.

Those fiddles play'd that never play'd before,
And we have danced, where we shall dance no more.

He, that is, the totum pro parte,--you do not suspect me, I hope,
of any youthfullities--d'autant moins of dancing; that I have
rumours of gout flying about me, and would fain coax them into my
foot. I have almost tried to make them drunk, and inveigle them
thither in their cups; but as they are not at all familiar chez
moi, they formalize at wine, as much as a middle-aged woman who
is beginning to just drink in private.

Adieu, my dear Sir! my best love to all of' you. As Horace Is
evidently descended from the Conqueror, I will desire him to
pluck up the pavement by the roots, when I want to transport it
hither.

(569) Now first collected. The above letter was privately
printed, in 1833, by the Rev. Robert Walpole, with the following
introduction:--"The incomparable letters of Horace Walpole, as
they have been justly styled by Lord Byron, have long placed the
writer in the highest rank of those who have distinguished
themselves in this line of composition. The playful wit and
humour with which they abound; the liveliness of his
descriptions; the animation of his style; the shrewd and acute
observations on the different topics which form the subjects of
those letters, are not surpassed by any thing to be found in the
most perfect models of epistolary writing, either in England or
France. His correspondence extends over a period of more than
fifty years, and no subject of general interest seems to have
escaped his attention and curiosity. He not Only gives a
faithful portraiture of the manners of the times, particularly of
the highest circles of society in which he lived; but he presents
us with many striking sketches of various events and occurrences,
illustrating the political history of this country during the
latter part of the last century. If any proof were required of
the truth of this statement, in addition to what may be afforded
by an attentive examination of Mr. Walpole's Correspondence
already published, it may be found in the three volumes of
Letters addressed to Sir Horace Mann, and recently given to the
world under the superintendence of Lord Dover. The letter (now
printed for the first time with the consent of the possessor of
the original) was addressed to Charles Churchill, Esq., who
married Lady Mary, daughter of Sir Robert, and sister of Mr.
Walpole; and was written at the time when he was engaged in
completing the interior decorations of his villa, Strawberry
Hill."

(570) Robert and Horace, both mentioned in this letter, were sons
of Mr. Churchill.-E.

Letter 200 To The Earl Of Hertford.
Arlington Street, April 5, 1764. (page 308)

Your idea, my dear lord, of the abusive paragraph on you being
conceived at Paris,(571) and transmitted hither, tallies exactly
with mine. I guessed that a satire on your whole establishment
must come from thence: I said so immediately to two or three
persons; but I did not tell you I thought so, because I did not
choose to fill you with suggestions for which I had no ground,
but in my own reasoning. Your arguments convince me I was in the
right. Yet, were you master of proofs, the wisest thing you can
do, is to act as if you had no suspicion; that is, to act as you
have done, civilly, but coolly. There are men whom one would, I
think, no more acknowledge for enemies than friends. One's
resentment distinguishes them, and the only Gratitude they can
pay for that distinction is, to double the abuse. Wilkes's mind,
you see, is sufficiently volatile, when he can already forget
Lord Sandwich and the Scotch, and can employ himself on you. He
will soon flit to other prey, when you disregard him. It is my
way: I never publish a sheet, but buzz! out fly a swarm of
hornets, insects that never settle upon you, if you don't strike
at them and whose venom is diverted to the next object that
presents itself.

We have divine weather. The Bishop of Carlisle has been with me
two days at Strawberry, where we saw the eclipse(572) to
perfection: -not that there was much sight in it. The air was
very chill at the time, and the light singular; but there was not
a blackbird that left off singing for it. In the evening the
Duke of Devonshire came with the Straffords from t'other end of
Twickenham, and drank tea with us. They had none of them seen the
gallery since it was finished; even the chapel was new to the
Duke, and he was so struck with it that he desired to offer at
the shrine an incense-pot of silver philigrain.(573)

The election at Cambridge has ended, for the present in strange
confusion.(574) The proctors, who were of different sides,
assumed each a majority; the votes, however, appear to have been
equal. The learned in university decision say, an equality is a
negative: if so Lord Hardwicke is excluded. Yet the novelty of
the case, it not having been very customary to solicit such a
trifling honour, and the antiquated forms of proceeding retained
in colleges, leave the matter wide open for further contention,
an advantage Lord Sandwich cherishes as much as success. The
grave are highly scandalized:--popularity was still warmer. The
under-graduates, who, having no votes had consequently been left
to their real opinions, were very near expressing their opinions
against Lord Sandwich's friends in the most Outrageous manner:
hissed they were; and after the election, the juniors burst into
the Senate-house, elected a fictitious Lord Hardwicke, and
chaired him. The indecent arts and applications which had been
used by the Twitcherites (as they are called, from Lord
Sandwich's nickname, Jemmy Twitcher,) had provoked this rage. I
will give you but one instance:-A voter, who was blooded on
purpose that morning, was brought out of a madhouse with his
keeper. This is the great and wise nation, which the philosopher
Helvetius is come to study! When he says of us C'est un furieux
pais! he does not know that the literal translation is the true
description of us.

I don't know whether I did not tell you some lies in my last;
very likely: I tell you what I hear, and do not answer for truth
but when I tell you what I know. How should I know any thing? I
am in no confidence; I think of both sides alike; I care for
neither; I ask few questions. The King's journey to Hanover is
contradicted. The return of Lord Bute is still a mystery. The
zealous say, he declares for the administration; but some of the
latter do not trust too much to that security; and, perhaps, they
are in the right: I know what I think and why I think it; yet
some, who do not go on ill grounds, have a middle opinion, that
is not very reconcilable to mine. You will not wonder that there
is a mystery, doubt, or irresolotion. The scene will be opened
further before I get to Paris.

Lord Lyttelton and Lord Temple have dined with each other, and
the reconciliation of the former with Mr. Pitt is concluded. It
is well that enmities are as frail as friendships.

The Archbishops and Bishops, who -are so eager against Dr.
Pearse's divorce from his see, not as illegal, but improper, and
of bad example, have determined the King, who left it to them,
not to consent to it, though the Bishop himself still insists on
it. As this decision disappoints Bishop Newton, Lord Bath has
obtained a consolatory promise for him of the mitre of London, to
the great discomfort of Terrick and Warburton. You see Lord
Bath(575 does not hobble up the back-stairs for nothing. Oh, he
is an excellent courtier! The Prince of Wales shoots him with
plaything arrows, he falls down dead; and the child kisses him to
life again. Melancholy ambition I heard him, t'other night,
propose himself to Lady Townshend as a rich widow. Such spirits
at fourscore are pleasing; but when one has lost all one's
children, to be flattering those of Kings!

The Bishop of Carlisle told me, that t'other day in the House of
Lords, Warburton said to another of the bench, "I was invited by
my Lord Mansfield to dine with that Helvetius, but he is a
professed patron of atheism, a rascal, and a scoundrel, and I
would not countenance him; besides, I should have worked him, and
that Lord Mansfield would not have liked." No, in good truth:
who can like such vulgarism! His French, too, I suppose, is
equal to his wit and his piety.

I dined, on Tuesday, with the imperial minister; we were
two-and-twenty, collected from the four corners of the earth.
Since it is become the fashion to banquet whole kingdoms by
turns, I should pray, if I was minister to be sent to Lucca.
Have you received D'Eon's very curious book, which I sent by
Colonel Keith? I do not find that the administration can
discover any method of attacking him. Monsieur de Guerchy very
properly determines to take no notice Of it.
In the mean time, the wit of it gains ground, and palliates the
abomination, though it ought not.

Princess Amelia asked me again about her trees. I gave her your
message. She does not blame you, but Madame de Boufflers, for
sending them so large. Mr. Legge is in a very bad way; but not
without hopes: his last night was better. Adieu! my dear lords
and ladies!

(571) See ant`e, p. 301, letter 197. Lord Hertford suspected
this paragraph to have been written by Mr. Wilkes; which
certainly would have been ungrateful, as Lord Hertford showed Mr.
Wilkes more attention than most people thought proper to be shown
by the King's ambassador to a person in Mr. Wilkes's
circumstances.-C.

(572) A considerable eclipse of the sun, which took place on the
1st of April. It was annular at Boulogne, in France, and of
course nearly so at Paris and London.-C.

(573) Commonly called fillagree.-C.

(574) The contest was between Lords Hardwicke and Sandwich; but
according to University forms, the poll was taken on the first
name; there appeared among the Blackhoods for Lord Hardwicke,
placet 103; non-placet 101: among the Whitehoods, the proctors'
accounts differed; one made placet 108, non-placet 107; the other
made placet 107, non-placet 101: on this a scrutiny was demanded,
and refused, and a great confusion ensuing, the Vice-Chancellor
adjourned the senate sine die.-E.

(575) The once idolized patriot, William Pulteney. It must be
borne in mind, that Mr. Walpole cherished a filial aversion to
his father's great antagonist.-C.

Letter 201 To The Earl Of Hertford.
Arlington Street, April 12, 1764. (page 310)

Make yourself perfectly easy, my dear lord, about newspapers and
their tattle; they are not worth a moment's regard. In times of
party it is impossible to avoid abuse. If attached to one side,
one is pelted by the other; if to neither, by both. One can
place oneself above deserving invectives; and then it signifies
little whether they are escaped or not. But when one is
conscious that they are unmerited, it is noblest to scorn them-
-perhaps, I even think, that such a situation is not ineligible.
Character is the most precious of all blessings; but, pray allow
that it is too sacred to be hurt by any thing but itself: does it
depend on others, or on its own existence? That character must
be fictitious, and formed for man, which man can take away. Your
reputation does not depend on Mr. Wilkes,(576) like his own. It
is delightful to deserve popularity, and to despise it.

You will have heard of the sad misfortune that has happened to
Lord Ilchester by his daughter's marriage(577) with O'Brien the
actor. But, perhaps, you do not know the circumstances, and how
much his grief must be aggravated by reflection on his own
credulity and negligence. The affair has been in train for
eighteen months. The swain had learned to counterfeit Lady Sarah
Bunbury's(578) hand so well that in the country Lord Ilchester
has himself delivered several of O'Brien's letters to Lady Susan;
but it was not till about a week before the catastrophe that the
family was apprised of the intrigue. Lord Cathcart went to Miss
Reade's, the paintress; she said softly to him, "My lord, there
is a couple in the next room that I am sure ought not to be
together; I wish your lordship would look in." He did, shut the
door again, and went directly and informed Lord Ilchester. Lady
Susan was examined, flung herself at her father's feet, confessed
all, vowed to break off but--what a but!--desired to see the
loved object, and take a last leave. You will be amazed-even
this was granted. The parting scene happened the beginning of
the week. On Friday she came of age, and on Saturday morning--
instead of being under lock and key in the country--walked down
stairs, took her footman, said she was going to breakfast with
Lady Sarah, but would call at Miss Reade's; in the street,
pretended to recollect a particular cap in which she was to be
drawn, sent the footman back for it, whipped into a hackney
chair, was married at Covent-garden church, and set out for Mr.
O'Brien's villa at Dunstable. My Lady--my Lady Hertford! what
say you to permitting young ladies to act plays, and go to
painters by themselves?

Poor Lord Ilchester is almost distracted; indeed, it is the
completion of disgrace,(579)--even a footman were preferable; the
publicity of the hero's profession perpetuates the Unification.
Il ne sera pas milord, tout comme un autre. I could not have
believed that Lady Susan would have stooped so low. She may,
however, still keep good company, and say, "nos numeri sumus"--
Lady Mary Duncan,(580) Lady Caroline Adair,(581) Lady Betty
Gallini(582)--the shopkeepers of next age will be mighty well
born. If our genealogies had been so confused four hundred years
ago, Norborne Berkeley would have had still more difficulty with
his obsolete Barony of Bottelourt, which the House of Lords at
last has granted him. I have never attended the hearings, though
it has been much the fashion, but nobody cares less than I about
what they don't care for. I have been as indifferent about other
points, of which all the world is talking, as the restriction of
franking, and the great cause of Hamilton and Douglas. I am
almost as tired of what is still more in vogue, our East India
affairs. Mir Jaffeir(583) and Cossim Aly Cawn, and their
deputies Clive and Sullivan, or rather their principals, employ
the public attention, instead of Mogul Pitt and Nabob Bute; the
former of whom remains shut Up in Asiatic dignity at Hayes, while
the other is again mounting his elephant and levying troops.
What Lord Tavistock meaned of his invisible Haughtiness'S(584)
invective on Mr. Neville, I do not know. He has not been in the
House of Commons since the war of privilege. It must have been
something he dropped in private.

I was diverted just now with some old rhymes that Mr. Wilkes
would have been glad to have North-Britonized for our little
bishop of Osnaburgh.(585)

Eligimus puerum, puerorum testa colentes,
Non nostrum morem, sed Regis jussa sequentes.

They were literally composed on the election of a juvenile
bishop.

Young Dundas marries Lady Charlotte Fitzwilliam;(586) Sir
Lawrence(587) settles four thousand per annum in present, and six
more in future--compare these riches got in two years and a half,
with D'Eon's account of French economy! Lord Garlies remarries
himself with the Duchess of Manchester's(588) next sister, Miss
Dashwood. The youngest is to have Mr. Knightly--a-propos to
D'Eon, the foreign ministers had a meeting yesterday morning, at
the imperial minister's, and Monsieur de Guerchy went from thence
to the King, but on what result I do not know, nor can I find
that the lawyers agree that any thing can be done against him.
There has been a plan of some changes among the Dii Minores, your
Lord Norths, and Carysforts, and Ellises, and Frederick
Campbellsl(589) and such like; but the supposition that Lord
Holland would be willing to accommodate the present ministers
with the paymaster's place, being the axle on which this project
turned, and his lordship not being in the accommodating humour,
there are half a dozen abortions of new lords of the treasury and
admiralty--excuse me if I do not send you this list of embryos;(5
I do not load my head with such fry. I am little more au fait of
the confusion that happened yesterday at the East India House; I
only know it was exactly like the jumble at Cambridge.
Sullivan's list was chosen, all but himself-his own election
turns on one disputed vote.(590) Every thing is intricate--a
presumption that we have few heads very clear. Good night, for I
am tired; since dinner I have been at an auction of prints, at
the Antiquarian Society in Chancery-lane, at Lady Dalkeith's(591)
in Grosvenor-square, and at loo at my niece's in Pall Mall; I
left them going to supper, that I might come home and finish this
letter; it is half @n hour after twelve, and now I am going to
supper myself. I suppose all this sounds very sober to you!

(576) See ant`e, p. 301, letter 197.-E.

(577) Lady Susan Fox, born in 1743, eldest daughter of the first
Lord Ilchester.-E.

(578) Daughter of the Duke of Richmond, wife of Sir T. C.
Bunbury, and afterwards of Colonel Napier.-C.

(579) It must be observed how little consistent this
aristocratical indignation is with the Roman sentiments expressed
in page 262, letter 185, and signed so emphatically Horatius.-C.

(580) Daughter of the seventh Earl of Thanet, married, in
September 1763, to Doctor Duncan, M.D., soon after created a
baronet.-E.

(581) Daughter of the second Earl of Albemarle, married, in 1759,
to Mr. Adair, a surgeon.-C.

(582) Daughter of the third Earl of Abingdon, married to Sir John
Gallini. She died in 1804, at the age of eighty.-E.

(583) See ante, p. 281, letter 191.

(584) Mr. Pitt.

(585) Frederick, Duke of York, born in August 1763, elected
Bishop of Osnaburgh, 27th of February, 1764.-E.

(586) Second daughter of the third Earl Fitzwilliam, born in
1746.-E.

(587) Sir Lawrence Dundas, father of the first Lord Dundas, is
said to have made his fortune in the commissariat, during the
Scotch rebellion of 1745.-C.

(588) Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Dashwood, Bart. and wife
of the fourth Duke of Manchester.-E.

(589) Second son of the fourth Duke of Argyle. He was
successively keeper of the privy seal in Scotland, secretary to
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and lord register of' Scotland,
in which office he died.-C.

(590) "On the 25th of April, a very warm contest took place. Mr.
Sullivan brought forward one list of twenty-five directors, and
Mr. Rous, who was supported by Lord Clive, produced another.
Notwithstanding his friend Lord Bute was no longer minister, Mr.
Sullivan succeeded in bringing in half his numbers; but the
attack of Lord Clive had so shaken the power of this lately
popular director, that his own election was only carried by one
vote." Malcolm's Memoirs of Lord Clive, vol. ii. p. 235.-E.

(591) The eldest daughter of John Duke of Argyle and Greenwich,
the widow of Francis Earl of Dalkeith, son of the second Duke of
Buccleugh, and wife of Mr. Charles Townshend. She was, in 1767,
created Baroness Greenwich, with remainder to her sons by Mr.
Townshend. She, however, died leaving none.-C.

Letter 202 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.
Arlington Street, April 12, 1764. (page 313)

I shall send your MS. volume this week to Mr. Cartwright, and
with a thousand thanks. I ought to beg your pardon for having
detained it so long. The truth is, I had not time till last week
to copy two or three little things at most. Do not let this
delay discourage you from lending me more. If I have them in
summer I shall keep them much less time than in winter. I do not
send my print with it as you ordered me, because I find it is too
large to lie within the volume; and doubling a mezzotinto, you
know, spoils it. You shall have one more, if you please,
whenever I see you.

I have lately made a few curious additions to my collections of
various sorts, and shall hope to show them to you at Strawberry
Hill. Adieu!

Letter 203 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Arlington Street, April 19, 1764. (page 313)

I am just come from the Duchess of Argyll's,(592) where I dined.
General Warburton was there, and said it was the report at the
House of Lords, that you are turned out--he imagined, of your
regiment--but that I suppose is a mistake for the
bedchamber.(593) I shall hear more to-night, and Lady Strafford,
who brings you this, will tell you; though to be sure You will
know earlier by the post to-morrow. My only reason for writing
is, to repeat to you, that whatever you do, I shall act with
you.(594) I resent any thing done to you as to myself. My
fortunes shall never be separated from yours--except that some
time or other I hope yours will be great, and I am content with
mine.

The Manns go on with the business.(595) The letter you received
was from Mr. Edward Mann, not from Gal.'s widow. Adieu! I was
going to say, my disgraced friend--How delightful to have a
character so unspotted, that the word disgrace recoils on those
who displace you! Yours unalterably.

(592) Widow of John Campbell, Duke of Argyle. She was sister to
General Warburton, and had been maid of Honour to Queen Anne.-E.

(593) Mr. Conway was dismissed from all his employments, civil
and military, for having Opposed the ministry in the House of
Commons, on the question of the legality of warrants, at the time
of the prosecution of Mr. Wilkes for the publication of the North
Briton.-C.

(594) Mr. Walpole was then in the House of Commons, member for
King's Lynn in Norfolk.

(595) Of army-clothiers.

Letter 204 To The Earl Of Hertford.
Arlington Street, April 20, 1764. (page 314)

There has been a strong report about town for these two days that
your brother is dismissed, not only from the bedchamber, but from
his regiment, and that the latter is given to Lord Pembroke. I
do not believe it. Your brother went to Park-place but yesterday
morning at ten: he certainly knew nothing of it the night before
when we parted, after one, at Grafton-house: nor would he have
passed my door yesterday without stopping to tell me Of it: no
letter has been sent to his house since, nor were any orders
arrived at the War office at half an hour after three yesterday;
nay, though I can give the ministry credit for much folly, and
some of them credit for even violence and folly, I do not believe
they are so rash as this would amount to. For the bedchamber,
you know, your brother never liked it, and would be glad to get
rid of it. I should be sorry for his sake, and for yours too, if
it went farther;--gentle and indifferent as his nature is, his
resentment, if his profession were touched, would be as serious
as such spirit and such abilities could make it. I would not be
the man that advised provoking him; and one man(596) has put
himself wofully in his power! In my own opinion, this is one of
the lies of which the time is so fruitful; I would not even swear
that it has not the same parent with the legend I sent you last
week, relating to an intended disposition in consequence of Lord
Holland's resignation. The court confidently deny the whole
plan, and ascribe it to the fertility of Charles Townshend's
brain. However, as they have their Charles Townshends too, I do
not totally disbelieve it.