Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3

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With this, I send your ladyship the Orpheline Legu`ee: its
intended name was the Anglomanie, my only reason for sending it;
for it has little merit, and had as slender success, being acted
but five times. However, there is nothing else new.

The Dauphin continues in the same languishing and hopeless state,
but with great coolness and firmness. Somebody gave him t'other
day "The Preparation for Death:"(913) he said, "C'est la nouvelle
du jour."

I have nothing more to say, but what I have always to say, Madam,
from the beginning of my letters to the end, that I am your
ladyship's most obliged and most devoted humble servant.

Nov. 28, three o'clock.

Oh, Madam, Madam, Madam, what do you think I have found since I
wrote my letter this morning? I am out of my wits! Never was
any thing like my luck; it never forsakes me! I have found Count
Grammont's picture! I believe I shall see company upon it,
certainly keep the day holy. I went to the Grand Augustins to
see the pictures of the reception of' the knights of the Holy
Ghost: they carried me into a chamber full of their portraits; I
was looking for Bassompierre; my laquais de louage opened a door,
and said, "Here are more." One of the first that struck me was
Philibert Comte de Grammont!(914) It is old, not at all
handsome, but has a great deal of finesse in the countenance. I
shall think of nothing now but having it copied. If I had seen
or done nothing else, I should be content with my journey hither.

(913) The title of a French book of devotion.

(914) The witty Count de Grammont, who married Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir George Hamilton, fourth son of James first Earl
of Abercorn, by Mary, third sister of James first Duke of Ormond.
Tradition reports, that Grammont, who is not recorded to have
been a men of personal courage, having attached, if not engaged
himself to Hamilton, went off abruptly for France: the Count
George Hamilton pursued and overtook him at Dover, when he thus
addressed him: "My dear friend, I believe you have forgot a
circumstance that should take place before you return to France."
To which Grammont answered, "True, my dear friend; what a memory
I have! I quite forgot that I was to marry your sister; but I
will instantly accompany you back to London and rectify that
forgetfulness." His celebrated Memoirs were written by his
brother-in-law, Anthony, generally called Count Hamilton, who
followed the fortunes of James the Second, and afterwards entered
the French service.-E.

Letter 283 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Paris, Nov. 29, 1765. (page 448)

As I answered your short letter with a very long one, I shall be
shorter in answer to your long, which I received late last night
from Fontainbleau: it is not very necessary: but as Lord William
Gordon sets out for England on Monday, I take that opportunity.

The Duke of' Richmond tells me that Choiseul has promised every
thing. I wish it may be performed, and speedily, as it will give
you an opportunity of opening the Parliament with great `eclat.
My opinion you know is, that this is the moment for pushing them
and obtaining.

Thank you for all you say about my gout. We have had a week of
very hard frost, that has done me great good, and rebraced me.
The swelling of my legs is quite gone. What has done me more
good, is having entirely left off tea, to which I believe the
weakness of my stomach was owing, having had no sickness since.
In short, I think I am cured of every thing but my fears. You
talk coolly of going as far as Naples, and propose my going with
you. I would not go so far, if Naples was the direct road to the
new Jerusalem. I have no thought or wish but to get home, and be
quiet for the rest of my days, which I shall most certainly do
the first moment the season will let me; and if I once get to
London again, shall be scarce tempted ever to lie in an inn more.
I have refused to go to Aubign`e, though I should lie but one
night on the road. You may guess what I have suffered, when I am
grown so timorous about my health, However, I am again reverted
to my system of water, and trying to recover my hardiness--but
nothing has at all softened me towards physicians.

You see I have given you a serious answer, though I am rather
disposed to smile at your proposal. Go to Italy! for what?--Oh!
to quit--do you know, I think that as idle a thought as the
other. Pray stay where you are, and do some good to your
country, or retire when you cannot--but don't put your finger in
your eye and cry after the holidays and sugar-plums of
Park-place. You have engaged and must go through or be hindered.
Could you tell the world the reason? Would not all men say you
had found yourself incapable of what you had undertaken? I have
no patience with your thinking so idly. It would be a reflection
on your understanding and character, and a want of resolution
unworthy of you.

My advice is, to ask for the first great government that falls,
if you will not take your regiment again; to continue acting
vigorously and honestly where you are. Things are never stable
enough in our country to give you a prospect of a long slavery.
Your defect is irresolution. When you have taken your post, act
up to it; and if you are driven from it, your retirement will
then be as Honourable, and more satisfactory than your
administration. I speak frankly, as my friendship for you
directs. My way of acting (though a private instance) is
agreeable to my doctrine. I determined, whenever our opposition
should be over, to have done with politics; and you see I have
adhered to my resolution by coming hither; and therefore you may
be convinced that I speak my thoughts. I don't ask your pardon,
because I should be forced to ask my own, if I did not tell you
what I think the best for you. You have life and Park-place
enough to come, and you have not had five months of gout. Make
yourself independent honourably, which you may do by a
government. but if you will take my advice, don't accept a
ministerial place when you cease to be a minister. The former is
a reward due to your profession and services; the latter is a
degradation. You know the haughtiness of my spirit; I give you
no advice but what I would follow.

I sent Lady Ailesbury the "Orpheline Legu`ee:" a poor
performance; but the subject made me think she would like to see
it. I am over head and ears at Count Caylus's(915) auction, and
have bought half of it for a song--but I am still in greater
felicity and luck, having discovered, by mere accident, a
portrait of Count Grammont, after having been in search of' one
these fifteen years, and assured there was no such thing.
Apropos, I promised you my but besides that there is nobody here
that excels in painting skeletons, seriously, their painters are
bitter bad, and as much inferior to Reynolds and Ramsay, as
Hudson to Vandyck. I had rather stay till my return. Adieu!

(915) The Count de Caylus, member of the Royal Academy of
Inscriptions and Belles-lettre, honorary member of the Royal
Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and author of the "Recueil
d'Antiquit`es Egyptiennes, Etrusques, Grecques, Romaines, et
Gauloises," in seven volumes, 4to., died at Paris in September
1765, in the sixty-third year of his age. He was said to be the
protector of the arts and the torment of the artists; for though
he assisted them with his advice, and, better still, with his
purse, he exacted from them, in return, the greatest deference to
his opinion. Gibbon, in his Journal for May, 1763, thus speaks
of the Count:--"Je le vis trois ou quatre fois, et je vis un
homme simple, uni, bon, et qui me temoignoit une bont`e Extreme.
Si je n'en ai point profits, je l'attribue moins `a son
charact`ere qu'`a son genre de vie. Il se l`eve de grand matin,
court les atteliers des artistes pendant tout le jour, et rentre
chez lui `a six heures du soir pour se mettre en robe de chambre,
et s'enfermer dans son cabinet. Le moyen de voir ses amis?"-E.

Letter 284 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.
Paris, Dec. 5, 1765. (page 450)

I have not above a note's worth to say; but as Lord Ossory sets
out to-morrow, I just send you a line. The Dauphin, if he is
still alive, which some folks doubt, is kept so only by cordials;
though the Bishop of Glandeve has assured the Queen that he had
God's own word for his recovery, which she still believes,
whether her son is dead or not.

The remonstrance of the Parliament of Paris, on the dissolution
of that of Bretagne, is very decent; they are to have an audience
next week. They do not touch on Chalotais, because the
accusation against him is for treason. What do you think that
treason Is? A correspondence with Mr. Pitt, to whom he is made
to say, that "Rennes is nearer to London than Paris." It is now
believed that the anonymous letters, supposed to be written by
Chalotais, were forged by a Jesuit--those to Mr. Pitt could not
have even so good an author.

The Duke of Richmond is still at Aubign`e: I wonder he stays, for
it is the hardest frost alive. Mr. Hume does not go to Ireland;
where your brother finds he would by no means be welcome. I have
a notion he will stay here till Your brother's return.

The Duc de Praslin, it is said, will retire at Christmas. As La
Borde, the great banker of the court, is trying to retire too, my
consul, who is much connected with La Borde, suspects that
Choiseul is not very firm himself. I have supped with Monsieur
de Maurepas, and another night, with Marshal Richelieu: the first
is extremely agreeable and sensible; and, I am glad, not
minister. The other is an old piece of tawdry, worn out, but
endeavouring to brush itself up; and put me in mind of Lord
Chesterfield, for they laugh before they know what he has said--
and are in the right, for I think they would not laugh
afterwards.

I send Lady Ailesbury the words and music of the prettiest opera
comique in the world. I wish I could send her the actors too.
Adieu!

December 9.

Lord Ossory put off his journey; which stopped this letter, and
it will now go by Mr. Andrew Stuart.

The face of things is changed here; which I am impatient to tell
you, that you may see it is truth, not system, which I pique
myself on sending you. The vigour of the court has frightened
the Parliaments. That of Pau has submitted. The procureurs, etc
of Rennes, who, it was said, would not plead before the new
commission, were told, that if they did not plead the next day
they should be hanged without a trial. No bribe ever operated
faster! I heard t'other day, that some Spanish minister, I
forget his name, being dead, Squillace would take his department,
and Grimaldi have that of the West Indies. He is the worst that
could have it, as we have no greater enemy.

The Dauphin is certainly alive, but in the most shocking way
possible; his bones worn through his skin, a great swelling
behind, and so relaxed, that his intestines appear from that
part; and yesterday the mortification was suspected.

I have received a long letter from Lady Ailesbury, for which I
give her a thousand thanks; and would answer it directly, if I
had not told you every thing I know. The Duke and Duchess of
Richmond are, I hear, at Fontainbleau: the moment they return, I
will give the Duchess Lady Ailesbury's commission.

Letter 285 To The Countess Of Suffolk.(916)
Paris, Dec. 5, 1765; but does not set out till the 11th.
(page 451)

Madam,
Miss Hotham need not be in pain for what to say when she gives me
an account of your ladyship; which is all the trouble I thought
of giving her. If she could make those accounts more favourable,
I should be better pleased; but I know what an untractable brute
the gout is, and the joy it takes in plaguing every body that is
connected with it. We have the sharpest frost here that ever
lived; it has done me great good; and, if it has the same effect
on your ladyship, I hope you are starved to death. Since Paris
has begun to fill in spite of Fontainbleau, I am much reconciled
to it, and, have seen several people I like. I am established in
two or three societies, where I sup every night; though I have
still resisted whist, and am more constant to my old flame loo
during its absence than I doubt I have been to my other passion.
There is a young Comtesse d'Egmont, daughter of Marshal
Richelieu, so pretty and pleasing, that, if I thought it would
break any body's heart in England, I would be in love with her.
Nay, Madam, I might be so within all rules here. I am twenty
years the right side of red-heels, which her father wears still,
and he has still a wrinkle to come before he leaves them off.

The Dauphin is still alive, but kept so only by cordials. The
Queen and Dauphiness have no doubt of his recovery, having the
Bishop of Glandeve's word for it, who got a promise from a vision
under its own hand and seal. The Dauphin has certainly behaved
with great courage and tranquillity, but is so touched with the
tenderness and attention of his family, that he now expresses a
wish to live.

If there is no talk in England of politics and parliaments, I can
send your ladyship as much as you please from hence; or If you
want English themselves, I can send you about fifty head; and I
assure you, we shall still be well stocked. There were three
card-tables at Lady Berkeley's.

(916) Now first collected.

Letter 286 To the Right Hon. Lady Hervey.
Paris, Jan. 2, 1766. (page 452)

When I came to Paris, Madam, I did not know that by New year's--
day I should find myself in Siberia; at least as cold. There
have not been two good days together since the middle of October;
however, I do not complain, as I am both well and pleased, though
I wish for a little of your sultry English weather, all French as
I am. I have entirely left off dinners, and the life I always
liked, of lying late in bed, and sitting up late. I am told of
nothing but how contradictory this is to your ladyship's orders;
but as I shall have dull dinners and triste evenings enough when
I return to England, all your kindness cannot persuade me to
sacrifice my pleasures here, too. Many of my opinions are
fantastic; perhaps this is one, that nothing produces gout like
doing any thing one dislikes. I believe the gouts like a near
relation, always visits one when one has some other plague. Your
ladyship's dependence on the waters of Sunning-hill is, I hope,
better founded; but in the mean time my system is full as
pleasant.

Madame d'Aiguillon's goodness to me does not abate, nor Madame
Geoffrin's. I have seen but little of Madame d'Egmont, who seems
very good, and is universally in esteem. She is now in great
affliction, having lost suddenly Monsieur Pignatelli, the
minister at Parma, whom she bred up, and whom she and her family
had generously destined for her grand-daughter, an immense
heiress. It was very delicate and touching what Madame d'Egmont
said to her daughter-in-law on this occasion:--"Vous voyez, ma
ch`ere, combien j'aime mes enfans d'adoption!" This
daughter-in-law is delightfully pretty, and civil, and gay, and
conversable, though not a regular beauty like Madame de Monaco.

The bitterness of the frost deters me, Madam, from all sights; I
console myself with good company, and still more, with being
absent from bad. Negative as this satisfaction is, it is
incredibly great, to me in a town like this, and to be sure every
day of not meeting one face one hates! I never know a positive
pleasure equal to it.

Your ladyship and Lord Holland shall laugh at me as Much as you
please for by dread of being thought charming; yet I shall not
deny my panic, for surely nothing is so formidable as to have
one's limbs on crutches and one's understanding in
leading-strings. The Prince of Conti laughed at me t'other day
on the same account. I was complaining to the old blind charming
Madame du Deffand, that she preferred Mr. Crawford to me: "What,"
said the Prince, "does not she love you?" "No, Sir," I replied,
"she likes me no better than if she had seen me."

Mr. Hume carries this letter and Rousseau to England.(917) I
wish the former may not repent having engaged with the latter,
who contradicts and quarrels with all mankind, in order to obtain
their admiration. I think both his means and his end below such
a genius. If I had talents like his, I should despise any
suffrage below my own standard, and should blush to owe any part
of my fame to singularities and affectations. But great parts
seem like high towers erected on high mountains, the more
expose(] to every wind, and readier to tumble. Charles Townshend
is blown round the compass; Rousseau insists that the north and
South blow at the same time; and Voltaire demolishes the Bible to
erect fatalism in its stead:--so compatible are the greatest
abilities and greatest absurdities!

Madame d'Aiguillon gave me the enclosed letter for your ladyship.
I wish I had any thing else to send you; but there are no new
books, and the theatres are shut up for the Dauphin's death; who,
I believe, is the greatest loss they have had since Harry 1V.

(917) The Parliament of Paris having issued an arr`et against
Rousseau, on account of his opinions, Mr. Hume was applied to by
a friend in Paris to discover for him a retreat in England,
whither he accompanied him. The plan finally concluded on was,
that he should be comfortably boarded in the mansion of Mr.
Davenport, at Wooton, in the county of Derby; and Mr. Hume, by
his interest with the Government, obtained for him a pension of
one hundred pounds a-year. On his arrival in London, he appeared
in public in his Armenian dress, and excited much general
notice.-E

Letter 287 To John Chute, Esq.
Paris, Jan. 1766. (page 453)

It is in vain, I know, my dear Sir, to scold you, though I have
Such a mind to it--nay, I must. Yes, You that will not lie a
night at Strawberry in autumn for fear of the gout, to stay in
the country till this time, and till you caught it! I know you
will tell me, it did not come till you were two days in town.
Do, and I shall have no more pity for you this if I was your
wife, and had wanted to come to town two months ago.

I am perfectly well, though to be sure Lapland is the torrid zone
in comparison of Paris. We have had such a frost for this
fortnight, that I went nine miles to dine in the country to-day,
in a villa exactly like a green-house, except that there was no
fire but in one room. We were four in a coach, and all our
chinks stopped with furs, and yet all the glasses were frozen.
We dined in a paved hall painted in fresco, with a fountain at
one end; for in this country they live in a perpetual opera, and
persist in being young when they are old, and hot when they are
frozen. At the end of the hall sat shivering three glorious
maccaws, a vast cockatoo, and two poor parroquets, who squalled
like the children in the wood after their nursery-fire! I am
come home, and blowing my billets between every paragraph, but
can scarce move my fingers. However, I must be dressed
presently, and go to the Comtesse de la Marche,(918) who has
appointed nine at night for my audience. It seems a little odd
to us to be presented to a princess of the blood at that hour--
but I told you, there is not a tittle In which our manners
resemble one another; I was presented to her father-in-law the
Prince of Conti last Friday. In the middle of the lev`ee entered
a young woman, too plain I thought to be any thing but his near
relation. I was confirmed in my opinion, by seeing her, after he
had talked to her, go round the circle and do the honours of it.
I asked a gentleman near me if that was the Comtesse de la
Marche? He burst into a violent laughter, and then told me it
was Mademoiselle Auguste, a dancer!--Now, who was in the wrong?

I give you these as samples of many scenes that have amused me,
and which will be charming food at Strawberry. At the same time
that I see all their ridicules, there is a douceur in the society
of the women of fashion that captivates me. I like the way of
life, though not lively; though the men are posts, and apt to be
arrogant, and though there are twenty ingredients wanting to make
the style perfect. I have totally washed my hands of their
savans and Philosophers, and do not even envy you Rousseau, who
has all the charlatanerie of Count St. Germain(919 to make
himself singular and talked of. I suppose Mrs. Montagu, my Lord
Lyttelton, and a certain lady friend of mine, will be in raptures
with him, especially as conducted by Mr. Hume. But, however I
admire his parts, neither he nor any genius I have known has had
common sense enough to balance the impertinence of their
pretensions. They hate priests, but love dearly to have an altar
at their feet; for which reason it is much pleasanter to read
them than to know them. Adieu! my dear Sir!

Jan. 15.

This has been writ this week, and waiting for a conveyance, and
as yet has got none. Favre tells me you are recovered, but you
don't tell me so yourself. I enclose a trifle that I wrote
lately,(920) which got about and has made enormous noise in a
city where they run and cackle after an event, like a parcel of
hens after an accidental husk of a grape. It has made me the
fashion, and made Madame de Boufflers and the Prince of Conti
very angry with me; the former intending to be rapt to the Temple
of Fame by clinging to Rousseau's Armenian robe. I am peevish
that with his parts he should be such a mountebank: but what made
me more peevish was, that after receiving Wilkes with the
greatest civilities, he paid court to Mr. Hume by complaining of
Wilkes's visit and intrusion.(921) Upon the whole, I would not
but have come hither; for, since I am doomed to live in England,
it is some comfort to have seen that the French are ten times
more contemptible than we are. I am a little ungrateful; but I
cannot help seeing with my eyes, though I find other people make
nothing of seeing without theirs. I have endless histories to
amuse you with when we meet, which shall be at the end of March.
It is much more tiresome to be fashionable than unpopular; I am
used to the latter, and know how to behave under it: but I cannot
stand for member of parliament of Paris. Adieu!

(918) La Comtesse de la Marche, princess of Modena, married to
the only son of the Prince de Conti. Le Comte de la Marche was
the only one of the princes of the blood who uniformly sided with
the court in the disputes with the Parliament of Paris.-E.

(919) The Comte de St. Germain had acquired a considerable
military reputation in France by his conduct at Corbach in 1760;
when he commanded the reserve, and saved the army by supporting
the rear-guard and allowing the whole body to retire upon Cassel.
Considering himself ill-used by the Marshal de Broglio, his
commander-in-chief, he obtained leave to retire from the French
service, and entered that of Denmark, from which he retired into
private life in 1774. From this retirement he was summoned by
Louis XVI. upon the death of the Comte de Muy,
minister-at-war.-E.

(920) The letter from the King of Prussia to Rousseau.-E.

(921) "One evening, at the Mitre, Johnson said sarcastically to
me, 'It seems, Sir, you have kept very good company abroad--
Rousseau and Wilkes!' I answered with a smile, 'My dear Sir, you
don't call Rousseau bad company: do you r(@ally think him a f bad
man?' Johnson. 'Sir, if you are talking jestingly of this, I
don't talk with you. If you mean to be serious, I think him one
of the worst of men; a rascal, who ought to be hunted out of
society, as he has been. Three or four nations have expelled
him, and it is a shame that he is protected in this country.
Rousseau, Sir, is a very bad man. I would sooner sign a sentence
for his transportation than that of any felon who has gone from
the Old Bailey these many years. Yes, I should like to have him
work in the plantations.' " Boswell, vol. ii. p. 314, ed.
1835.-E.

Letter 288 To George Montagu, Esq.
Paris, Jan. 5, 1766. (page 455)

Lady beaulieu acts like herself, and so do you in being persuaded
that nobody will feel any satisfaction that comes to you with
more transport than I do; you deserve her friendship, because you
are more sensible to the grace of the action than to the thing
itself; of which, besides approving the sentiment, I am glad, for
if my Lady Cardigan(922) is as happy in drawing a straw, as in
picking straws, you will certainly miss your green coat. Yet
methinks you would make an excellent Robin Hood reform`e, with
little John your brother. How you would carol Mr. Percy's old
ballads under the greenwood tree! I had rather have you in my
merry Sherwood than at Greatworth, and should delight in your
picture drawn as a bold forester, in a green frock, with your
rosy hue, gray locks, and comely belly. In short, the favour
itself, and the manner are so agreeable, that I shall be at least
as much disappointed as you can be, if it fails. One is not
ashamed to wear a feather from the hand of a friend. We both
scorn to ask or accept boons; but it is pleasing to have life
painted with images by the pencil of friendship. Visions you
know have always been my pasture; and so far from growing old
enough to quarrel with their emptiness, I almost think there is
no wisdom comparable to that of exchanging what is called the
realities of life for dreams. Old castles, old pictures, old
histories, and the babble of old people, make one live back into
centuries, that cannot disappoint one. One holds fast and surely
what is past. The dead have exhausted their power of deceiving;
one can trust Catherine of Medicis now. In short, you have
opened a new landscape to my fancy; and my Lady Beaulieu will
oblige me as much as you, if she puts the long bow into your
hands. I don't know but the idea may produce some other Castle
of Otranto.