Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3

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Three weeks are a great while, my dear lord, for me to have been
without writing to you; but besides that I have passed many days
at Strawberry, to cure my cold (which it has done), there has
nothing happened worth sending across the sea. Politics have
dozed, and common events been fast asleep. Of Guerchy's
affair,(773) you probably know more than I do; it is now
forgotten. I told him I had absolute proof of his innocence, for
I was sure, that if he had offered money for assassination, the
men who swear against him would have taken it.

The King has been very seriously ill,; and in great danger. I
would not alarm you, as there were hopes when he was at the
worst. I doubt he is not free yet from his complaint, as the
humour fallen on his breast still oppresses him. They talk of
his having a levee next week, but he has not appeared in public,
and the bills are passed by commission; but he rides out. The
Royal Family have suffered like us mortals; the Duke of
Gloucester has had a fever, but I believe his chief complaint is
of a youthful kind. Prince Frederick is thought to be in a deep
consumption; and for the Duke of Cumberland, next post will
probably certify you of his death, as he is relapsed, and there
are no hopes Of him. He fell into his lethargy again, and when
they waked him, he said he did not know whether he could call
himself obliged to them.

I dined two days ago at Monsieur de Guerchy's, with the Comte de
Caraman,(774) who brought me your letter. He seems a very
agreeable Man, and you may be sure, for Your sake, and Madame de
Mirepoix's, no civilities in my power shall be wanting. I have
not yet seen Schouvaloff,(775) about whom one has more
curiosity--it is an opportunity of gratifying that passion which
one can so seldom do in Personages of his historic nature,
especially remote foreigners. I wish M. de Caraman had brought
the "Siege of Calais,"(776) which he tells me is printed, though
your account has a little abated my impatience. They tell us the
French comedians are to act at Calais this summer--is it possible
they can be so absurd, or think us so absurd as to go thither, if
we would not go further? I remember, at Rheims, they believed
that English ladies went to Calais to drink champagne!--is this
the suite of that belief? I was mightily pleased with the Duc de
Choiseul's answer to the Clairon;(777) but when I hear of the
French admiration of Garrick, it takes off something of my wonder
at the prodigious admiration of him at home. I never could
conceive the marvellous merit of repeating the words of other's
in one's own language with propriety, however well delivered.
Shakspeare is not more admired for writing his plays, than
Garrick for acting them. I think him a very good and very
various player--but several have pleased me more, though I allow
not in so many parts. Quin in Falstaff, was as excellent as
Garrick in Lear. Old Johnson far more natural in every thing he
attempted. Mrs. Porter and your Dumesnil surpassed him in
passionate tragedy; Cibber and O'Brien were what Garrick could
never reach, coxcombs, and men of fashion.(778) Mrs. Clive is at
least as perfect in low comedy--and Yet to me, Ranger was the
part that suited Garrick the best of all he ever performed. He
was a poor Lothario, a ridiculous Othello, inferior to Quin(779)
in Sir John Brute and Macbeth, and to Cibber in Bayes, and a
woful Lord Hastings and Lord Townley. Indeed, his Bayes was
original, but not the true part: Cibber was the burlesque of a
great poet, as the part was designed, but Garrick made it a
Garretteer. The town did not like him in Hotspur, and yet I don't
know whether he did not succeed in it beyond all the rest. Sir
Charles Williams and Lord Holland thought so too, and they were
no bad judges. I am impatient to see the Clairon, and certainly
will, as I have promised, though I have not fixed my day. But do
you know you alarm me! There was a time when I was a match for
Madame de Mirepoix at pharaoh, to any hour of the night, and
believe did play, with her five nights in a week till three and
four in the morning--but till eleven o'clock to-morrow morning-
-Oh! that is a little too much even at loo. Besides, I shall not
go to Paris for pharaoh--if I play all night, how shall I see
every thing all day?

Lady Sophia Thomas has received the Baume de vie, for she gives
you a thousand thanks, and I ten thousand.

We are extremely amused with the wonderful histories of your
hyena(780) in the Gevaudan: but our fox-hunters despise you: it
is exactly the enchanted monster of old romances. If I had known
its history a few months ago, I believe it would have appeared in
the Castle of Otranto,--the success of which has, at last,
brought me to own it, though the wildness of it made me terribly
afraid: but it was comfortable to have it please so much, before
any mortal suspected the author: indeed, it met with too much
honour far, for at first it was universally believed to be Mr.
Gray's. As all the first impression is sold, I am hurrying out
another, with a new preface, which I will send you.

There is not so much delicacy of wit as in M. de Choiseul's
speech to the Clairon, but I think the story I am going to tell
you in return, will divert you as much: there was a vast assembly
at Marlborough-house, and a throng in the doorway. My Lady
Talbot said, "Bless me! I think this is like the Straits of
Thermopylae!" My Lady Northumberland replied, "I don't know what
Street that is, but I wish I could get my - through." I hope you
admire the contrast. Adieu! my dear lord! Yours ever.

(773) This alludes, it is presumed, to a bill of indictment which
was found in the beginning of March, at the sessions at Hick's
Hall, against the Count de Guerchy, for the absurd charge of a
conspiracy to murder D'Eon.-C.

(774) Probably fran`cois Joseph, Count de Caraman, who married a
Princess de Chimay, heiress of the house of Benin, niece of
Madame de Mirepoix.-C.

(775) He had been favourite to the Empress Catherine; and, as Mr.
Walpole elsewhere says, "a favourite without an enemy."-C.

(776) A tragedy by M. du Belloy, which, with little other merit
than its anti-Anglicism, (which, in all times, has passed in
France for patriotism,) "faisait fureur" at this time.-C.

(777) Mademoiselle Clairon was at this moment in such vogue on
the French stage, that her admirers struck a medal in honour of
her, and wore it as a kind of order. A critic of the name of
Fr`eron, however, did not partake these sentiments, and drew, in
his journal, an injurious character of Mademoiselle Clairon.
This insult so outraged the tragedy queen, that she and her
admirers moved heaven and earth to have Fr`ron sent to the
Bastile, and, failing in her solicitation to the inferior
departments, she at last had recourse to the prime-minister, the
Duke of Choiseul, himself. His answer, which Lord Hertford, no
doubt, had communicated to Mr. Walpole, was admired for its
polite persiflage of her theatric Majesty. "I am," said the Duke,
"like yourself, a public performer, with this difference in your
favour, that you choose the parts you please, and are sure to be
crowned with the applause of the public (for I reckon as nothing
the bad taste of one or two wretched individuals who have the
misfortune of not admiring you). I, on the other hand, am
obliged to act the parts imposed on me by necessity. I am sure to
please nobody; I am satirized, criticised, libelled, hissed,--yet
I continue to do my best. Let us both, then, sacrifice our
little resentments and enmities to the public service, and serve
our country each in our own station. Besides," he added, "the
Queen has condescended to forgive Fr`eron, and you may,
therefore, without compromising your dignity, imitate her
Majesty's clemency." M`emoires de Bachaumont, t. i. p. 61. Such
were the miserable intrigues and squabbles, and such the examples
of ministerial pleasantry and prudence which occupied and amused
the Parisian public!--this; is but a straw to show which way the
wind blew; but such instances moderate our surprise and our
sorrow at the storm which followed.-C.

(778) There was some little personal pique in Mr. Walpole's
opinion of Garrick; yet it would be difficult to imagine a more
forcible eulogium on that great actor than is here inadvertently
pronounced, when, in order to find an equivalent for him, Mr.
Walpole is obliged to bring together old Johnson and Colley
Cibber, Quin and Clive, Porter and Dumesnil--two nations, two
generations, and both sexes.-C.

(779) "In Brute he shone unequalled; all agree
Garrick's not half so great a brute as he." Rosciad.-E.

(780) A wolf of enormous size, and, in some respects, irregular
conformation, which for a long time ravaged the Gevaudan; it was,
soon after the date of this letter, killed, and Mr. Walpole saw
it in Paris.-C.

Letter 246 To George Montagu, Esq.

Arlington Street, April 5, 1765. (page 384)

I sent you two letters t'other day from your kin, and might as
well have written then as now, for I have nothing to tell you.
Mr. Chute has quitted his bed to-day the first time for above
five weeks, but is still swathed like a mummy. He was near
relapsing; for old Mildmay, whose lungs, and memory, and tongue,
will never wear out, talked to him t'other night from eight till
half an hour after ten, on the Poor-bill; but he has been more
comfortable with Lord Dacre and me this evening.

I have read the Siege of Calais, and dislike it extremely, though
there are fine lines, but the conduct is woful. The outrageous
applause it has received ,it Paris was certainly Political, and
intended to stir up their spirit and animosity against us, their
good, merciful, and forgiving allies. they will have no occasion
for this ardour; they may smite one cheek, and we shall turn
t'other.

Though I have little to say, it is worth while to write, only to
tell you two bon-mots of Quin, to that turncoat hypocrite
infidel, Bishop Warburton. That saucy priest was haranguing at
Bath in behalf of prerogative: Quin said, "Pray, my lord, spare
me, you are not acquainted with my principles, I am a republican;
and perhaps I even think that the execution of Charles the First
might be justified." "AY!" said Warburton, "by what law?" Quin
replied, "By all the laws he had left them." The Bishop(781)
would have got off upon judgments, and bade the player remember,
that all the regicides came to violent ends; a lie, but no
matter. "I would not advise your lordship," said Quin, "to make
use of that inference; for, if I am not mistaken, that was the
case of the twelve apostles." There was great wit ad hominem in
the latter reply, but I think the former equal to any thing I
ever heard. It is the sum of the whole controversy couched in
eight monosyllables, and comprehends at once the King's guilt and
the justice of punishing it. The more one examines it, the finer
it proves. One can say nothing after it: so good night! Yours
ever.

(781) Gray, in a letter of the 29th, relates the following
anecdote:--"Now I am talking of bishops, I must tell you that,
not long ago, Bishop Warburton, in a sermon at court, asserted
that all preferments were bestowed on the most illiterate and
worthless objects; and, in speaking, turned himself about and
stared at the Bishop of London: he added, that if any one arose
distinguished for merit and learning, there was a combination of
dunces to keep him down. I need not tell you that he expected
the bishopric of London when Terrick got it: so ends my
ecclesiastical history." Works, vol. iv. p. 40.-E.

Letter 247 To The Earl Of Hertford.
Strawberry Hill, Easter Sunday, April 7, 1765. (page 385)

Your first wish -will be to know how the King does: he came to
Richmond last Monday for a week; but appeared suddenly and
unexpected at his lev`ee at St. James's last Wednesday; this was
managed to prevent a crowd. Next day he was at the drawing-room,
and at chapel on Good Friday. They say, he looks pale; but it is
the fashion to call him very well:--I wish it may be true.(782)
The Duke of Cumberland is actually set out for Newmarket to-day:
he too is called much better; but it is often as true of the
health of princes as of their prisons, that there is little
distance between each and their graves.(783) There has been a
fire at Gunnersbury, which burned four rooms: her servants
announced it to Princess Amalie with that wise precaution of "
Madam, don't be frightened!"--accordingly, she was terrified.
When they told her the truth, she said, "I am very glad; I had
concluded my brother was dead."--So much for royalties!

Lord March and George Selwyn are arrived, after being wind-bound
for nine days, at Calais. George is so charmed with my Lady
Hertford, that I believe it was she detained him at Paris, not
Lord March. I am full as much transported with Schouvaloff--I
never saw so amiable a man! so much good breeding, humility, and
modesty, with sense and dignity! an air of melancholy, without
any thing abject. Monsieur de Caraman is agreeable too, informed
and intelligent; he supped at your brother's t'other night, after
being at Mrs. Anne Pitt's. As the first curiosity of foreigners
is to see Mr. Pitt, and as that curiosity is one of the most
difficult points in the world to satisfy, he asked me if Mr. Pitt
was like his sister? I told him, "Qu'ils se ressembloient comme
deux gouttes de feu."

The Parliament is adjourned till after the holidays, and the
trial.(784) There have been two very long days in our own House,
on a complaint from Newfoundland merchants on French
encroachments. The ministry made a woful piece of work of it the
first day, and we the second. Your brother, Sir George Savile,
and Barr`e shone; but on the second night, they popped a sudden
division upon us about nothing; some went out, and some stayed
in; they were 161, we but 44, and then they flung pillows upon
the question, and stifled it,--and so the French have not
encroached.

There has been more serious work in the Lords, upon much less
important matter; a bill for regulating the poor,--(don't ask me
how, for you know I am a perfect goose about details of
business,) formed by one Gilbert,(785) a member, and steward to
the Duke of Bridgewater, or Lord Gower, or both,--had passed
pacifically through the Commons, but Lord Egmont set fire to it
in the Lords. On the second reading, he opposed it again, and
made a most admired speech; however it passed on. But again,
last Tuesday, when it was to be in the committee, such forces
were mustered against the bill, that behold all the world
regarded it as a pitched battle between Lord Bute and Lord
Holland on One side, and the Bedfords and Grenville on the other.
You may guess if it grew a day of expectation. When it arrived,
Lord Bute was not present, Lord Northumberland voted for the
bill, and Lord Holland went away. Still politicians do not give
up the mystery. Lord Denbigh and Lord Pomfret, especially the
latter, were the most personal against his Grace of Bedford. He
and his friends, they say, (for I was not there, as you will find
presently,) kept their temper well. At ten at night the House
divided, and, to be sure, the minority was dignified; it
consisted of the Dukes of York and Gloucester, the Chancellor,
Chief Justice, Lord President, Privy Seal, Lord Chamberlain,
Chamberlain to the Queen, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and a
Secretary of State. Lord Halifax, the other Secretary, was ill.
The numbers were 44 to 58. Lord Pomfret then moved to put off
the bill for four months; but the cabinet rallied, and rejected
the motion by a majority of one. So it is to come on again after
the holidays. The Duke of Newcastle, Lord Temple, and the
opposition, had once more the pleasure, which, I believe, they
don't dislike, of being in a majority.

Now, for my disaster; you will laugh at it, though it was woful
to me. I was to dine at Northumberland-house, and went a little
after four: there I found the Countess, Lady Betty Mekinsy, Lady
Strafford; my Lady Finlater,(787) who was never out of Scotland
before; a tall lad of fifteen, her son; Lord Drogheda, and Mr.
Worseley.(788) At five,(789) arrived Mr. Mitchell,(790) who said
the Lords had begun to read the Poor-bill, which would take at
least two hours, and perhaps would debate it afterwards. We
concluded dinner would be called for, it not being Very
precedented for ladies to wait for gentlemen:--no such thing.
Six o'clock came,--seven o'clock came,--our coaches came,--well!
we sent them away, and excuses were we were engaged. Still the
Countess's heart did not relent, nor uttered a syllable of
apology. We wore out the wind and the weather, the opera and the
play, Mrs. Cornelys's and Almack's, and every topic that would do
in a formal circle. We hinted, represented--in vain. The clock
struck eight: my lady, at last, said, she would go and order
dinner; but it was a good half hour before it appeared. We then
sat down to a table for fourteen covers; but instead of
substantials, there was nothing but a profusion of plates striped
red, green, and yellow, gilt plate, blacks and uniforms! My Lady
Finlater, who had never seen these embroidered dinners, nor dined
after three, was famished. The first course stayed as long as
possible, in hopes of the lords: so did the second. The dessert
at last arrived, and the middle dish was actually set on when
Lord Finlater and Mr. Mackay(791) arrived!--would you believe
it?--the dessert was remanded, and the whole first course brought
back again!--Stay, I have not done:--just as this second first
course had done its duty, Lord Northumberland, Lord Strafford,
and Mekinsy came in, and the whole began a third time! Then the
second course, and the dessert! I thought we should have dropped
from our chairs with fatigue and fumes! When the clock struck
eleven, we were asked to return to the drawing-room, and drink
tea and coffee, but I said I was engaged to supper, and came home
to bed. My dear lord, think of four hours and a half in a circle
of mixed company, and three great dinners, one after another,
without interruption;--no, it exceeded our day at Lord Archer's!
Mrs. Armiger,(792) and Mrs. Southwell,(793) Lady Gower's(794)
niece, are dead, and old Dr. Young, the poet.(795) Good night!

(782) "In April 1765," says the Quarterly Review for June 1840,
"his Majesty had a serious illness: its particular character was
then unknown, but we have the best authority for believing that
it was of the nature of those which thrice after afflicted his
Majesty, and finally incapacitated him for the duties of
government."-E.

(783) The French express this thought very dramatically;
"Monseigneur est malade--Monscigneur est mieux--Monseigneur est
mort!"-C.

(784) See ant`e, p. 296, letter 194.-E.

(785) Of Lord Byron.

(786) Thomas Gilbert, Esq. At this time member for
Newcastle-under-Line, and comptroller of the King's wardrobe.-E.

(787) Lady Mary Murray, daughter of John first Duke of Athol, and
wife of James sixth Earl of Finlater: her son, afterwards seventh
Earl, was born in 1750.-E.

(788) Probably Thomas Worseley, Esq. member for Oxford, and
surveyor-general of the board of works.-C.

(789) This was probably the hour of extreme fashion at this
time.-C.

(790) Afterwards Sir Andrew Mitchell, K. B. He was at this time
our minister at Berlin, and also member for the burghs of Elgin,
etc.-E.

(791) Probably J. Ross Mackie, member for Kirkcudbright,
treasurer of the ordnance.-C.

(792) The lady of Major-General Robert Armiger, who had been
aide-de-camp to George II.-E.

(793) Catherine, heiress of Edward Watson, Viscount Sondes, by
Lady Catherine Tufton, coheiress of the sixth Earl of Thanet, the
son of Lady margaret Sackville, the heiress of the De Cliffords:
she was the mother of Edward Southwell, Esq., member for
Gloucestershire, who, on the death of the great-aunt, Margaret
Tufton, Baroness de Clifford, was confirmed in that barony.-C.

(794) Mary, another daughter and coheiress of the sixth Earl
Thanet, widow of Anthony Grey, Earl of harold, and third wife of
John first Earl Gower.-C.

(795) Dr. Young died on the 5th of April, in his eighty-fourth
year.-E.

Letter 248 To The Earl Of Hertford.
Arlington Street, April 18, 1765. (page 388)

Lady Holland carries this, which enables me to write a little
more explicitly than I have been able to do lately. The King has
been in the utmost danger; the humour in his face having fallen
upon his breast. He now appears constantly; yet, I fear, his
life is very precarious, and that there is even apprehension of a
consumption. After many difficulties from different quarters, a
Regency-bill is determined; the King named it first to the
ministers, who said, they intended to mention it to him as soon
as he was well; yet they are not thought to be fond of it. The
King is to come to the House on Tuesday, and recommend the
provision to the Parliament.(796) Yet, if what is whispered
proves true, that the nomination of the Regent is to be reserved
to the King's will, it is likely to cause great uneasiness. If
the ministers propose such a clause, it is strong evidence of
their own instability, and, I should think, would not save them,
at least, some of them. The world expects changes Soon, though
not a thorough alteration; yet, if any takes place shortly, I
should think It would be a material One than not. The enmity
between Lord Bute and Mr. Grenville is not denied on either side.
There is a notion, and I am inclined to think not ill founded,
that the former and Mr. Pitt are treating. It is certain that
the last has expressed wishes that the opposition may lie still
for the remainder of the session. This, at least, puts an end to
the question on your brother,(797) of which I am glad for the
present. The common town-talk is, that Lord Northumberland does
not care to return to Ireland,--that you are to succeed him
there, Lord Rochford you, and that Sandwich is to go to Spain.
My belief is, that there will be no change, except, perhaps, a
single one for Lord Northumberland, unless there are capital
removals indeed.

The Chancellor, Grenville, the Bedfords, and the two Secretaries
are one body; at least, they pass for such: yet it is very
lately, if one of them has dropped his prudent management with
Lord Bute. There seems an unwillingness to discard the Bedfords,
though their graces themselves keep little terms of civility to
Lord Bute, none to the Princess (Dowager). Lord Gower is a
better courtier, and Rigby would do any thing to save his place.

This is the present state, which every day may alter: even
to-morrow is a day of expectation, as the last struggle of the
Poor-bill. If the Bedfords carry it, either by force or
sufferance, (though Lord Bute has constantly denied being the
author of the opposition to it,) I shall less expect any great
change soon. In those less important, I shall not wonder to find
the Duke of Richmond come upon the scene, perhaps for Ireland,
though he is not talked of.

Your brother is out of town, not troubling himself, though the
time seems so critical. I am not so philosophic; as I almost
wish for any thing that may put an end to my being concerned in
the m`el`ee--for any end to a most gloomy prospect for the
country: alas! I see it not.

Lord Byron's trial lasted two days, and he was acquitted totally
by four lords, Beaulieu, Falmouth, Despenser,(798) and
Orford,(799) and found guilty of manslaughter by one hundred and
twenty. The Dukes of York and Gloucester were present in their
places. The prisoner behaved with great decorum, and seemed
thoroughly shocked and mortified. Indeed, the bitterness of the
world against him has been great, and the stories they have
revived or invented to load him, very grievous. The Chancellor
has behaved with his usual, or, rather greater vulgarness and
blunders. Lord Pomfret(800) kept away decently, from the
similitude of his own story.

I have been to wait on Messrs. Choiseul(801) and De
Lauragais,(802) as you desired, but have not seen then yet. The
former is lodged with my Lord Pembroke, and the Guerchys are in
terrible apprehensions of his exhibiting some scene.

The Duke of Cumberland bore the journey to Newmarket extremely
well, but has been lethargic Since,; yet they have found out that
Daffy's Elixir agrees with, and does him good. Prince Frederick
is very bad. There is no private news at all. As I shall not
deliver this till the day after to-morrow, I shall be able to
give you an account of the fate of the Poor-bill.

The medals that came for me from Geneva, I forgot to mention to
you, and to beg you to be troubled with them till I see you. I
had desired Lord Stanhope(803) to send them; and will beg you
too, if any bill is sent, to pay it for me, and I will repay it.
you. I say nothing of my journey, which the unsettled state of
my affairs makes it impossible for me to fix. I long for every
reason upon earth to be with you.