Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1

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I am sure you blame me all this time, for chatting about so many
trifles, and telling you no politics. I own to you, I am so
wearied, so worn with them, that I scarce know how to turn my
hand to them; but you shall know all I know. I told you of the
meeting at the Fountain tavern: Pultney had promised to be there,
but was-not; nor Carteret. As the Lords had put off the debate
on the Indemnity Bill, nothing material passed; but the meeting
was very Jacobite. Yesterday the bill came on, and Lord Carteret
took the lead against it, and about seven in the evening it was
flung out by almost two to one, 92 to 47, and 17 proxies to 10.
To-day we had a motion by the new Lord
Hillsborough,(596) (for the father is Just dead,) and seconded by
Lord Barrington,(597) to examine the Lords' votes, to see what
has become of the bill: this is the form. The chancellor of the
exchequer, and all the new ministry, were with us
against it; but they carried it, 164 to 159. It is to be
reported to-morrow, and as we have notice, we may possibly throw
it out; else they will hurry on to a breach with the Lords.
Pultney was not in the House: he was riding the other day, and
met the King's coach; endeavouring to turn out of the way, his
horse started, flung him, and fell upon him: he is much bruised
but not at all dangerously. On this occasion, there was an
epigram fixed to a list, which I will explain to you afterwards
it is not known who wrote it, but it was
addressed to him:

"Thy horse does things by halves, like thee:
Thou, with irresolution,
Hurt'st friend and foe, thyself and me,
The King and Constitution."

The list I meant: you must know, some time ago, before the
change, they had moved for a committee to examine, and state the
public accounts: It was passed. Finding how little
success they had with their Secret Committee, they have set this
on foot, and we were to ballot for seven commissioners, who are
to have a thousand a-year; We balloted yesterday: on our lists
were Sir Richard Corbet,(598) Charles Hamilton (599) Lady
Archibald's brother,) Sir William Middleton,(600) Mr. West, Mr.
Fonnereau, Mr. Thompson, and Mr. Ellis.(601) On theirs
Mr. Bance, George Grenville, Mr. Hooper, Sir Charles
Mordaunt,(602) Mr, Phillips, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Stuart. On
casting up the numbers, the four first on ours, and the three
first on their list, appeared to have the majority,: so no great
harm will come from this, should it pass the Lords;
which it is not likely to do. I have now told you, I think, all
the political news, except that the troops continue going to
Flanders, though we hear no good news yet from Holland.
If we can prevent any dispute between the two Houses, it is
believed and much hoped by the Court, that the Secret
Committee will desire to be dissolved: if it does, there is an
end of all this tempest!

I must tell you an ingenuity of Lord Raymond,(603) an epitaph on
the Indemnifying Bill-I believe you would guess the
author:-

"Interr'd beneath this marble stone doth lie
The Bill of Indemnity;
To show the good for which it was designed,
It died itself to save mankind."

My Lady Townshend made me laugh the other night about your old
acquaintance, Miss Edwin; who, by the way, is grown almost a
Methodist. My lady says she was forced to have an issue made on
one side of her head, for her eyes, and that Kent(604)
advised her to have another on the other side for symmetry.
There has lately been published one of the most impudent
things that ever was printed; it is called "The Irish
Recister," and is a list of all the unmarried women of any
fashion in England, ranked in order, duchesses-dowager,
ladies, widows, misses, etc. with their names at length, for the
benefit of Irish fortune-hunters, or as it is said, for the
incorporating and manufacturing of British commodities. Miss
Edwards(605) is the only one printed with a dash, because they
have placed her among the widows. I will send you this, "Miss
Lucy in Town," and the magazines, by the first
opportunity, as I should the other things, but your brother tells
me you have had then) by another hand. I received the cedarati,
for which I have already thanked you: but I have been so much
thanked by several people to whom I gave some, that I can very
well afford to thank you again.

As to Stosch expecting any present from me, he was so
extremely well paid for all I had of' him, that I do not think
myself at all in his debt: however, you was very good to offer to
pay him.

As to my Lady Walpole, I shall say nothing now, as I have not
seen either of the two persons since I received your letter to
whom I design to mention her; only that I am extremely sorry to
find you still disturbed at any of the little nonsense of' that
cibal. I hoped that the accounts which I have sent you, and
which, except in my last letter, must have been very
satisfactory, would have served you as an antidote to their
legends; and I think the great victory in the House of Lords, and
which, I assure you, is here reckoned prodigious, Will raise your
spirits against them. I am happy you have taken that step about
Sir Francis Dashwood; the credit it must have given you with the
King will more than counterbalance any
little hurt you might apprehend from the cabal.

I am in no hurry for any of my things; as we shall be moving from
hence as soon as Sir Robert has taken another house, I shall not
want them till I am more settled.

Adieu! I hope to tell you soon that we are all at peace, and then
I trust you will be so. A thousand loves to the Chutes. How I
long to see you all!

P. S. I unseal my letter to tell you what a vast and,
probably, final victory we have gained to-day. They moved, that
the lords flinging out the Bill of Indemnity was an
obstruction of justice, and might prove fatal to the liberties
of' this country. We have sat till this moment, seven
o'clock, and have rejected this motion by 245 to 193. The call
of the House, which they have kept off from fortnight to
fortnight, to keep people in town, was appointed for to-day. The
moment the division was over, Sir John Cotton rose and said, "As
I think the inquiry is at an end, you may do what you will with
the call." We have put it off for two months. There's a noble
postscript!

(591) This farce, the production of Fielding, was acted
several nights with success; but it being hinted, that one of the
characters was written in ridicule of a man of quality, the Lord
Chamberlain sent an order to forbid its being
performed any more.-E.

(592) catherine Clive, an excellent actress in low comedy.
Churchill says of her, in the Rosciad,

In spite of outward blemishes she shone,
For humour famed, and humour all her own.
Easy, as if at home, the stage she trod,
Nor sought the critic's praise, nor fear'd his rod
Original in spirit and in ease,
She pleased by hiding all attempts to please.
No comic actress ever yet could raise
On humour's base, more merit or more praise."

In after life she lived at Twickenham, in the house now called
Little Strawberry Hill, and
became an intimate friend of Horace Walpole@D.

(593) Garrick made his first appearance, October 19, 1741, in the
character of Richard the Third. Walpole does not appear to have
been singular in the opinion here given. Gray in a letter to
Chute, says, "Did I tell you about Mr. Garrick, that the town are
horn-mad after: there are a dozen dukes of a
night at Goodman-fields sometimes; and vet I am stiff in the
opposition."-E.

(594) prince Craon.

(595) Madame Sarasin, a Lorrain lady, companion to Princess
Craon.

(596) Wills Hill, the second Lord Hillsborough, afterwards
created an Irish earl and made cofferer of the household. (In the
reign of George III. he was created Earl of Hillsborough, in
England, and finally Marquis of Downshire, in Ireland; and held
the office of secretary of state for the colonies.-D.)

(597) William Wildman, Viscount Barrington, made a lord of the
admiralty on the coalition, and master of the great wardrobe, in
1754. He afterwards held the offices of chancellor of the
exchequer, secretary at war, and treasurer of the navy, and died
February 1st, 1793.-D.)

(598) Sir Richard Corbett, of Leighton, in Montgomeryshire, the
fourth baronet of that family. He was member for
Shrewsbury, and died in 1774.-D.

(599) The Hon. Charles Hamilton, sixth son of James, sixth Earl
of Abercorn. Member for Truro, comptroller of the green cloth to
the Prince of Wales, and subsequently receiver-general of the
Island of Minorca. He died in 1787.-D.

(600) Sir William Middleton, Bart. of Belsay Castle,
Northumberland, the third baronet of the family. He was
member for Northumberland, and died in 1767.-D.''

(601) Welbore Ellis, member of parliament for above half a
century; during which period he held the different offices of a
lord of the admiralty, secretary at war, treasurer of the navy,
vice-treasurer of Ireland, and secretary of state. He was created
Lord Mendip in 1794, with remainder to his nephew, Viscount
Clifden, and died February 2, 1802, at the age of
eighty-eight.-D.

(602) Sir Charles Mordaunt, of Massingham, in Norfolk, the sixth
baronet of the family. He was member for the county of Warwick,
and died in 1778.-D.

(603) Robert, the second Lord Raymond, son of the lord chief
justice. [On whose death, in 1753, without issue, the title
expired.]

(604) William Kent, of whom Walpole himself drew the following
just character:-"He was a painter, an architect, and the
father of modern gardening. In the first character he was below
mediocrity; in the second, he was a restorer of the
science; in the last, an original, and the inventor of an art
that realizes painting and improves nature. Mahomet imagined an
elysium, Kent created many."-The misfortune of Kent was, that his
fame and popularity in his own age were so great, that he was
employed to give designs for all things, even for those which he
could know nothing about-such as ladies'
birthday dresses, which he decorated with the five orders of
architecture. These absurdities drew upon him the satire of
Hogarth.-D. [Walpole further states of Kent, that Pope
undoubtedly contributed to form his taste.]

(605) Miss Edwards, an unmarried lady of great fortune, who
openly kept Lord Anne Hamilton.

260 Letter 70
To Sir Horace Mann.
London, June 3, 1742.

I have sent Mr. Chute all the news; I shall only say to you that
I have read your last letter about Lady W. to Sir R. He was not
at all surprised at her thoughts of England, but told me that
last week my Lord Carteret had sent him a letter which she had
written to him, to demand his protection. This you may tell
publicly; it will show her ladyship's credit.

Here is an epigram, which I believe will divert you: it is on
Lord Islay's garden upon Hounslow Heath.

"Old Islay, to show his fine delicate taste,(606)
In improving his gardens purloined from the waste,
Bade his gard'ner one day to open his views,
By cutting a couple of grand avenues:
No particular prospect his lordship intended,
But left it to chance how his walks should be ended.

With transport and joy he beheld his first view end
In a favourite prospects church that was ruin'd-
But alas! what a sight did the next cut exhibit!
At the end of the walk hung a rogue on a gibbet!
He beheld it and wept, for it caused him to muse on
Full many a Campbell that died with his shoes on.
All amazed and aghast at the ominous scene,
He order'd it quick to be closed up again
With a clump of Scotch firs that served for a Screen."

Sir Robert asked me yesterday about the Dominichini, but I did
not know what to answer: I said I would write to you about it.
Have you bought it? or did you quite put it off? I had forgot to
mention it again to you. If you have not, I am still of opinion
that you should buy it for him. Adieu!

(606) These lines were written by Bramston, author of
"The Art of Politics," and "The Man of Taste." [The Reverend
James Bramston, vicar of Starling, Sussex. Pope took the line in
the Dunciad, "Shine in the dignity of F. R. S." from his Man of
Taste;-"A satire," says Warton, "in which the author has been
guilty of the absurdity of making his hero laugh at himself and
his own follies." He died in 1744.]

261 Letter 71
To Sir Horace Mann.
June 10, the Pretender's birthday, which, by the way, I believe
he did not expect to keep at Rome this year, 1742.

Since I wrote you my last letter, I have received two from you of
the 27th May and 3d of June, N. S. I hope you will get my two
packets; that is, one of them was addressed to Mr. Chute, and in
them was all my fagot of compliments.

Is not poor SCUlly (607) vastly disappointed that we are not
arrived? But really, will that mad woman never have done! does
she still find credit for her extravagant histories. I
carried her son with me to Vauxhall last night: he is a most
charming boy,(608) but grows excessively like her in the face.
I don't at all foresee how I shall make out this letter: every
body is gone out of town during the Whitsuntide, and many will
not return, at least not these six weeks; for so long they say it
will be before the Secret Committee make their Report, with which
they intend to finish. We are, however, entertained with
pageants every day-reviews to gladden the heart of
David,(609) (609) and triumphs to Absalom! He,(610) and his wife
went in great parade yesterday through the city and the dust to
dine at Greenwich; they took water at the Tower, and trumpeting
away to Grace Tosier's,

"Like Cimon, triumph'd over land and wave"

I don't know whether it was my Lord of Bristol (611) or some of
the SaddlerS,((612) Company who had told him that this was the
way "to steal the hearts of the people." He is in a
quarrel with Lord Falmouth.(613) There is just dead one
Hammond,(614) a disciple of Lord Chesterfield,
and equerry to his royal highness: he had parts, and was Just
come into parliament, strong of the Cobham faction, or
nepotism, as Sir Robert calls it. The White Prince desired Lord
Falmouth to choose Dr. Lee, who, you know, has disobliged the
party by accepting a lordship of the admiralty. Lord
Falmouth has absolutely refused, and insists upon choosing one of
his own brothers: his highness talks loudly of opposing him. The
borough is a Cornish one.

There is arrived a courier from Lord Stair, with news of
Prince Lobkowitz having cut off five thousand French. We are
hurrying away the rest of our troops to Flanders, and say that we
are in great spirits, and intend to be in greater when we have
defeated the French too.

For my own particular, I cannot say I am well; I am afraid I have
a little fever upon my spirits, or at least have nerves, which,
you know, every body has in England. I begin the
cold-bath to-morrow, and talk of going to Tunbridge, if the
parliament rises soon.

Sir R. who begins to talk seriously of Houghton, has desired me
to go -with him thither;' but that is not all settled. Now I
mention Houghton, you was in the right to miss a gallery there;
but there is one actually fitting up, where the
green-house was, and to be furnished with the spoils of
Downing-street.

I am quite sorry you have [)ad so much trouble with those
odious cats of Malta: dear child, fling them into the Arno, if
there is water enough at this season to drown them; or, I'll tell
you, give them to Stosch, to pay the postage he talked of. I
have no ambition to make my court with them to the old wizard.

I think I have not said any thing lately to you from Patapan; he
is handsomer than ever, and crows fat: his eyes are
charming; they have that agreeable lustre which the vulgar
moderns call sore eyes, but the judicious ancients golden
eyes, ocellos Patapanicos.

The process is begun against her Grace of Beaufort,(615) and
articles exhibited in Doctors' Commons. Lady Townshend has had
them copied, and lent them to me. There is every thing proved to
your heart's content, to the birth of the child, and much
delectable reading.

Adieu! my dear child; you see I have eked out a letter: I hate
missing a post, and yet at this dead time I have almost been
tempted to invent a murder or a robbery. But you are good, and
will be persuaded that I have used my eyes and ears for your
service; when, if it were not for you, I should let them lie by
in a drawer from week's end to week's end. Good night!

(607) An Irish tailor at Florence, who let out ready-furnished
apartments to travelling English. Lady W. had reported that Lord
Orford was flying from England and would come thither.
(608) George Walpole, afterwards the third Earl of Orford. He
succeeded to the earldom in 1751, and was appointed
lord-lieutenant and custos rotulorum of the county of Norfolk Mr,
Pitt, in a letter, written in 1759, says, "Nothing could make a
better appearance than the two Norfolk battalions: Lord Orford,
with the port of Mars himself, and really the
genteelest figure under arms I ever saw, was the theme of
every tongue." Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 4.-E.

(609) George the Second.

(610) Frederic, Prince of Wales.

(611) Dr. Secker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford. (And eventually
Archbishop of Canterbury. According to Walpole, he was bred a
man-midwife.-D.) [Secker had committed in Walpole's eyes, the
unpardonable offence of having "procured a marriage between the
heiress of the Duke of Kent and the chancellor's
(Hardwicke's) son;" he, therefore, readily propagated the
charges of his being "a Presbyterian, a man-midwife, and
president of a very freethinking club," (Memoires, i. p. 56,)
when the fact is, the parents of Secker were Dissenters, and he
for a time pursued the study, though not the practice of medicine
and surgery. The third charge is a mere falsehood. See also
Quarterly Review, xxv'i. p. 187.]

(612) The Prince was a member of the Saddlers' company.

(613) Hugh Boscawen, second Viscount Falmouth, a great dealer in
boroughs. It is of him that Lord Dodington tells the
story, that he went to the minister to ask a favour, which the
minister seemed unwilling to grant; upon which Lord Falmouth
said, "Remember, Sir, we are seven."-D.

(614) Author of Love Elegies. [See ant`e, p. 210.)

(615) Frances, daughter and heir of the last Lord Scudamore, wife
of Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort; from whom she was divorced
for adultery with Lord Talbot. She was afterwards married to
Colonel Fitzroy, natural son of the Duke of
Grafton. [The duke Having clearly proved the incontinence of his
wife, obtained a divorce in March 1743-4.)

263 Letter 72
To Sir Horace Mann.
Downing Street, June 14, 1742.

We were surprised last Tuesday with the great good news of the
peace between the Queen and the King of Prussia. it was so
unexpected and so welcome, that I believe he might get an act of
parliament to forbid any one thinking that he ever made a slip in
integrity. Then, the reported accounts of the
successes of Prince Charles and Lobkowitz over the French have
put us into the greatest spirits. Prince charles is extremely
commended for courage and conduct, and makes up a little for
other flaws in the family.

it is at last settled that Lords gower,(616) Cobham, and
Bathurst (617) are to come in. The first is to be privy-seal,
and was to have kissed hands last Friday, but Lord Hervey had
carried the seal with him to Ickworth; but he must bring it back.
Lord Cobham is to be field-marshal, and to command all the forces
in England. Bathurst was to have the
Gentleman-pensioners, but Lord Essex,(618) who is now the
Captain, and was to have had the Beef-eaters, will not change.
Bathurst is to have the Beef-eaters; the Duke of Bolton (619) who
has them, is to have the Isle of Wight, and Lord
lymington,(620) who has that, is to have--nothing!

The Secret Committee are in great perplexities about
Scrope:(621) he would not take the oath, but threatened the
Middlesex justices who tendered it to him "Gentlemen," said he,
"have you any complaint against Me? if you have not,
don't you fear that I will prosecute you for enforcing oaths?"
However, one of them began to read the oath--"I, John
Scrope,"--"I John Scrope:"said he; "I did not say any such thing;
but come, however, let's hear the oath;"--"do promise that I will
faithfully and truly answer all such questions as shall be asked
me by the Committee of Secrecy, and--" they were going on, but
Scrope cried out, "Hold, hold! there is more than I can digest
already." He then went before the
committee, and desired time to consider. Pitt asked him
abruptly, if he wanted a quarter of an hour: he replied, "he did
not want to inform either his head or his heart, for both were
satisfied what to do; but that he would ask the King's leave."
He wants to fight Pitt. He is a most testy little old gentleman,
and about eight years ago would have fought Alderman Perry. It
was in the House, at the time of the
excise: he said we should carry it: Perry said he hoped to see
him hanged first. "You see me hanged, you dog, you!" said
Scrope, and pulled him by the nose. The committee have tried all
ways to soften him, and have offered to let him swear to only
what part he pleased, or only with regard to money given to
members of parliament. Pultney himself has tried to work on him;
but the old gentleman is inflexible, and answered, "that he was
fourscore years old, and did not care whether he spent the few
months he had to live (622) in the Tower or not; that the last
thing he would do should be to betray the King and next to him
the Earl of Orford." It remains in suspense.
The troops continue going to Flanders, but slowly enough. Lady
Vane has taken a trip thither after a cousin (623) of Lord
Berkeley, who is as simple about her as her own husband is, and
has written to Mr. Knight at Paris to furnish her with what money
she wants. He says she is vastly to blame; for he was trying to
get her a divorce from Lord Vane, and then would have married her
himself. Her adventures(624 arc worthy to be bound up with those
of my good sister-in-law,
as the German Princess, and Moll Flanders.

Whom should I meet in the Park last night but Ceretesi! He told
me he was at a Bagne. I will find out his bagnio; for though I
was not much acquainted with him, yet the obligations I had to
Florence make me eager to show any Florentine all the civilities
in my power; though I do not love them near so
well, since what you have told me of their late behaviour;
notwithstanding your letter of June 20th, which I have just
received. I perceive that simple-hearted, good, unmeaning
Ituccilai is of the number of the false, though you do not
directly say so.

I was excessively diverted with your pompous account of the siege
of Lucca by a single Englishman. I do believe that you and the
Chutes might put a certain city into as great a panic. Adieu!

(616) John Leveson Gower, second Lord Gower; in 1746 created an
earl. He died in 1754.-E.

(617) Allan, first Lord Bathurst, one of the twelve Tory peers
created by Queen Anne, in 1711. He was the friend of Pope,
Congreve, Swift, Prior, and other men of letters. He lived to
see his eldest son chancellor of England, and died at the
advanced age of ninety, in 1775; having been created an earl in
1772.-D.

(618) William Capel, third Earl of Essex; ambassador at the court
of Turin. he died in January 1743. The Beef-eaters are otherwise
called the Yeomen of the Guard.-D.

(619) Charles Powlett, third Duke of Bolton. His second wife was
Miss Lavinia Fenton, otherwise Mrs. Beswick, the actress; who
became celebrated in the character of Polly Peacham in the
Beggar's Opera. By her the duke had three sons, born before
marriage. With his first wife, the daughter and sole heiress of
John Vaughan, Earl of Carberry in Ireland, he never
cohabited. He died in 1754.-D.

(620) John Wallop, first Viscount Lymington; in the following
April created Earl of Portsmouth. He died in 1762.-E.

(621) John Scrope, secretary of the treasury. He had been in
Monmouth's rebellion, when very young, and carried
intelligence to Holland in woman's clothes.

(622) He did not die till 1753. Tindal states that, upon
giving this answer he was no further pressed.-E.

(623) Henry Berkeley; killed the next year at the battle of
Dettingen.

(624) Lady Vane's Memoirs, dictated by herself, were actually
published afterward,,; in a book, called "The Adventures of
Peregrine Pickle;" and she makes mention of Lady Orford. [See
ant`e, p. 189, Letter 42. Sir Walter Scott says, that "she not
only furnished Smollett with the materials for recording her own
infamy, but rewarded him handsomely for the insertion of her
story."]

265 Letter 73
To sir Horace Mann.
Midsummer Day, 1742.

One begins every letter with an Io Paean! indeed our hymns are
not so tumultuous as they were some time ago, to the tune of
Admiral Vernon. They say there came an express last night, of
the taking of Prague and the destruction of some thousand
French. It is really amazing the fortune of the Queen! We expect
every day the news of the king of Poland having made his peace;
for it is affirmed that the Prussians left him but sixteen days
to think of it. There is nothing could stop the King of Prussia,
if he should march to Dresden: how long his being at peace with
that king will stop him I look upon as very uncertain.