Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1

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I forgot to mention the Dominichin last post, as I suppose I
had before, for I always was for buying it; it is one of the
most engaging pictures I ever saw. I have no qualms about its
originality; and even if Sir Robert should not like
it when it comes, which is impossible, I think I would live
upon a flitch of bacon and a bottle of ink, rather than not
spare the money to buy it myself: so my dear Sir, buy it.

Your brother has this moment brought me a letter: I find by
it, that you are very old style with relation to the Prussian
peace. Why, we have sent Robinson (666) and Lord Hyndford
(667) a green ribbon, for it, above a fortnight ago. Muley,
(as Lord Lovel calls him,) Duke of Bedford, (668) is, they
say, to have a blue one, for making his own peace: you know we
always mind home-peaces more than foreign ones.

I am quite sorry for all the trouble you have had about the
Maltese cats; but you know they were for Lord Islay, not for
myself. Adieu! I have no more time.

(657) Sir Robert Brown had been a merchant at Venice, and
British resident there, for which he was created a baronet in
1732. He held the place at this time of" "paymaster of his
Majesty's works, concerning the repairs, new buildings, and
well-keeping of any of his Majesty's houses of access, and
others, in time of progress."-D

(658) John Hay, fourth Marquis of Tweedale. In 1748, he
married Frances, daughter of John Earl Granville, and died in
1762.-E.

(659) The Hon. Edward Finch, fifth son of Daniel, sixth Earl
of Winchilsea and second Earl of Nottingham, and the direct
ancestor of the present Lord Winchilsea. He assumed the name
of Hatton, in 1764, in consequence of inheriting the fortune
of William Viscount Hatton, his mother's brother. He was
employed in diplomacy, and was made master of the robes in
1757. He died in 1771.-D.

(660) The Hon. William Finch, second son of Daniel, sixth Earl of
Winchilsea, had been envoy in Sweden and in Holland. He
continued to hold the office of vice-chamberlain of the
household till his death in 1766. These two brothers, and
their elder brother Daniel, seventh Earl of Winchilsea, are
the persons whom Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, calls, on
account of the blackness of their complexions, "the dark,
funereal
Finches." [His widow, Charlotte, daughter of the Earl of
Pomfret,
was appointed governess to the young princes and princesses.]

(661) Lord Sidney Beauclerk, fifth son of the first Duke of
St. Albans; a man of bad character. Sir Charles Hanbury
Williams calls him "Worthless Sidney." He was notorious for
hunting after the fortunes of the old and childless. Being
very handsome, he had almost persuaded Lady Betty Germain, in
her old age, to marry him; but she was dissuaded from it by
the Duke of Dorset and her relations. He failed also in
obtaining
the fortune of Sir' Thomas Reeve, Chief Justice of the (common
Pleas, whom he used to attend on the circuit, with a view of
ingratiating himself with him. At length he induced Mr.
Topham, of Windsor, to leave his estate to him. He died in
1744, leaving one son, Topham Beauclerk,
Esq.-D. [This son, so celebrated for his conversational,
talents, and described by Dr. Jonson as uniting the eloquent
manners of a gentleman with the mental acccomplishments of a
scholar, married, in 1768, Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of the
Duke of Marlborough, and died in 1780.]

(662) John JefFries, secretary of the treasury.-D.

(663) Sir John Strange was made master of the rolls, but not
till some years afterwards; he died in 1754.

(664) From the Pretender. Lord Gower had been, until he was
made privy-seal, one of the leading Jacobites; and was even
supposed to lean to that party, after he had accepted the
appointment.

(665) Lady Isabella Finch, third daughter of the sixth Earl of
Winchilsea, first lady of the bedchamber to the Princess
Amelia. It was for her that Kent built the pretty and
singular house on the western side of Berkeley Square, with a
fine room in it, of which the ceiling is painted in arabesque
compartments, by Zucchi;-now the residence of C. B. Wall,
Esq.-D. [In this house her ladyship died unmarried, in 1771.)

(666) Sir Thomas Robinson, minister at Vienna; be was made
secretary of state in 1754. (And a peer, by the title of Lord
Grantham, in 1761.-D.)

(667) John Carmichael, third Earl of Hyndford. He had been
sent as envoy to the King of Prussia, during the first war of
Silesia. He was afterwards sent ambassador to St. Petersburgh
and Vienna, and died in 1767.-D.

(668) The Duke of Bedford had not the
Garter till some years after this.

275 Letter 78
To Sir Horace Mann.

You scolded me so much about my little paper, that I dare not
venture upon it even now, when I have very little to say to
you. The long session is over, and the Secret Committee
already forgotten. Nobody remembers it but poor Paxton, who
has lost his place(669) by it. saw him the day after he came
out of Newgate: he came to Chelsea:(670) Lord Fitzwilliam was
there, and in the height of zeal, took him about the neck and
kissed him. Lord Orford had been at Court that morning, and
with his usual spirits, said to the new ministers, "So! the
parliament is up, and Paxton, Bell, and I have got our
liberty!" The King spoke in the kindest manner to him at his
levee, but did not call him into the closet, as the new
ministry feared he would, and as perhaps, the old ministry
expected he would. The day before, when the King went to put
an end to the session, Lord Quarendon asked Winnington
"whether Bell would be let out time enough to hire a mob to
huzza him as he went to the House of Lords."

The few people that are left in town have been much diverted
with an adventure that has befallen the new ministers. Last
Sunday the Duke of Newcastle gave them a dinner at Claremont,
where their servants got so drunk, that when they came to the
inn over against the gate of Newpark,(671) the coachman, who
was the only remaining fragment of their suite, tumbled off
the box, and there they were planted. There were Lord Bath,
Lord Carteret, Lord Limerick, and Harry Furnese (672) in the
coach: they asked the innkeeper if he could contrive no way to
convey them to town. , No," he said, "not unless it was to get
Lord Orford's coachman to drive them." They demurred; but Lord
Carteret said "Oh, I dare say, Lord Orford will willingly let
us have him." So they sent and he drove them home.(673)

Ceretesi had a mind to see this wonderful Lord Orford, of whom
he had heard so much; I carried him to dine at Chelsea. You
know the earl don't speak a word of any language but English
and Latin,(674) and Ceretesi not a word of either; yet he
assured me that he was very happy to have made cosi bella
conascenza! He whips out his pocket-book every moment, and
writes descriptions in issimo of every thing he sees: the
grotto alone took up three pages. What volumes he will
publish at his return, in usum Serenissimi Pannom!(675)

There has lately been the most shocking scene of murder
imaginable; a parcel of drunken constables took it into their
heads to put the laws in execution against disorderly persons,
and so took up every woman they met, till they had collected
five and six or twenty, all of whom they thrust into St.
Martin's roundhouse, where they kept them all night, with
doors and windows closed. The poor creatures, who could not
stir or breathe, screamed as long as they had any breath left,
begging at least for water: one poor wretch said she was worth
eighteen-pence, and would gladly give it for a draught of
water, but in vain! So well did they keep them there, that in
the morning four were found stifled to death, two died soon
after, and a dozen more are in a shocking way. In short, it
is horrid to think what the poor creatures suffered: several
of them were beggars, who, from having no lodging, were
necessarily found in the street, and others honest labouring
women. One of the dead was a poor washerwoman, big with
child, who was returning home late from washing. One of the
constables is taken, and others absconded; but I question(676)
if any of them will suffer death, though the greatest
criminals in this town are the officers of justice; there is
no tyranny they do not exercise, no villainy of which they do
not partake. These same men, the same night, broke into a
bagnio in Covent-Garden, and took up Jack Spencer,(677) Mr.
Stewart, and Lord George Graham,(678) and would have thrust
them into the round-house with the poor women, if they had not
been worth more than eighteen-pence!

I have just now received yours of the 15th of July, with a
married letter from both Prince and Princess:(679) but sure
nothing ever equalled the setting out of it! She says, "The
generosity of your friendship for me, Sir, leaves me nothing
to desire of all that is precious in England, China, and the
Indies!" Do you know, after such a testimony under the hand of
a princess, that I am determined, after the laudable example
of the house of Medici, to take the title of Horace the
Magnificent! I am only afraid it should be a dangerous example
for my posterity, who may ruin themselves in emulating the
magnificence of their ancestor. It happens comically, for the
other day, in removing from Downing-street, Sir Robert found
an old account-book of his father, wherein he set down all
his, expenses. In three months and ten days that he was in
London one winter as member of parliament, he spent-what do
you think?-sixty-four pounds seven shillings and five-pence!
There are many articles for Nottingham ale, eighteen-pences
for dinners, five shillings to Bob (now Earl of Orford), and
one memorandum of six shillings given in exchange to Mr.
Wilkins for his wig-and yet this old man, my grandfather, had
two thousand pounds a-year, Norfolk sterling! He little
thought that what maintained him for a whole session, would
scarce serve one of his younger grandsons to buy japan and
fans for princesses at Florence!

Lord Orford has been at court again to-day: Lord Carteret came
up to thank him for his coachman; the Duke of Newcastle
standing by. My father said, "My lord, whenever the duke is
near overturning you, you have nothing to do but to send to
me, and I will save you." The duke said to Lord Carteret, "Do
you know, my lord, that the Venison you eat that day came out
of Newpark?" Lord Orford laughed, and said, "So, you see I am
made to kill the fatted calf for the return of the prodigals!"
The King passed by all the new ministry to speak to him, and
afterwards only spoke to my Lord Carteret.

Should I answer the letters from the court of Petraria again?
there will be no end of our magnificent correspondence!-but
would it not be too haughty to let a princess write last?

Oh, the cats! I can never keep them, and yet It is barbarous
to send them all to Lord Islay: he will shut them up and
starve them, and then bury them under the stairs with his
wife. Adieu!

(669) Solicitor to the treasury. See ante, p. 246.

(670) Sir R. Walpole's house at Chelsea.-D.

(671) Lord Walpole was ranger of Newpark. (Now called
Richmond Park.-D.)

(672) One of the band of incapables who obtained power and
place on the fall of Walpole. Horace Walpole, in his
Memoires, calls him "that old rag of Lord Bath's quota to an
administration, the mute Harry Furnese."-D.

(673) This occurrence was celebrated in a ballad which is
inserted in C. Hanbury Williams's works, and begins thus.

"As Caleb and Carteret, two birds of a feather,
Went down to a feast at Newcastle's together."

Lord Bath is called "Caleb," in consequence of the name of
Caleb DAnvers having been used in The Craftsman, of which he
was the principal author.-D.

(674) It was very remarkable that Lord Orford could get and
keep such an ascendant with King George 1. when they had no
way of conversing but very imperfectly in Latin.

(675) The coffee-house at Florence where the nobility meet.

(676) The keeper of the round-house was tried but acquitted of
wilful murder. [The keeper, whose name was William Bird, was
tried at the Old Bailey in October, and received sentence of
death; which was afterwards transmuted to transportation.]

(677) The Honourable John Spencer, second son of Charles,
third Earl of Sunderland, by Anne his wife, second daughter of
the great Duke of Marlborough. He was the favourite grandson
of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough who left him a vast
fortune, having disinherited, to the utmost of her power, his
eldest brother, Charles, Duke of Marlborough. The condition
upon which she made this bequest was that neither he nor his
heirs should take any place or pension from any government,
except the rangership of Windsor Park. He was the ancestor of
the present Earl Spencer, and died in 1746.- D.

(678) Lord George Graham, youngest son of the Duke of
Montrose, and a captain in the navy. He died in 1747.-D.

(679) Prince and Princess Craon.

278 Letter 79
To Sir Horace Mann.
Chelsea, July 29, 1742.

I am quite out of humour; the whole town is melted away; you
never saw such a desert. You know what Florence is in the
vintage-season, at least I remember what it was: London is
just as empty, nothing but half-a-dozen private gentlewomen
left, who live upon the scandal that they laid up in the
winter. I am going too! this day se'nnight we set out for
Houghton, for three months; but I scarce think that I shall
allow thirty days apiece to them. Next post I shall not be
able to write to you; and when I am there shall scarce find
any materials to furnish a letter above every other post. I
beg, however, that you will write constantly to me: it will be
my only entertainment, for I neither hunt, brew, drink, nor
reap. When I return in the winter, I will make amends for
this barren season of our correspondence.

I carried Sir Robert the other night to Ranelagh for the first
time: my uncle's prudence, or fear, would never let him go
before. It was pretty full, and all its fulness flocked round
us: we walked with a train at our heels, like two chairmen
going to fight; but they were extremely civil, and did not
crowd him, or say the least impertinence--I think he grows
popular already! The other day he got it asked, whether he
should be received if he went to Carleton House?-no,
truly!-but yesterday morning Lord Baltimore' came (680) to
soften it a little; that his royal highness -did not refuse to
see him, but that now the Court was out of town, and he had no
drawing-room, he did not see any body.

They have given Mrs. Pultney an admirable name, and one that
is likely to stick by her-instead of Lady Bath, they call her
the wife of Bath.(681) Don't you figure her squabbling at the
gate with St. Peter for a halfpenny.

Cibber has published a little pamphlet against Pope, which has
a great deal of spirit, and, from some circumstances, will
notably vex him.(682) I will send it to you by the first
opportunity, with a new pamphlet, said to be Doddington's,
called "A Comparison of the Old and New Ministry:" it is much
liked. I have not forgot your magazines, but will send them
and these pamphlets together. Adieu! I am at the end of my
tell.

P. S. Lord Edgecumbe is just made lord-lieutenant of Cornwall,
at which the Lord of Bath looks sour. He said, yesterday, that
the King would give orders for several other considerable
alterations; but gave no orders, except for this, which was
not asked by that earl.

(680) Lord of the bedchamber to the Prince.

(681) In allusion to the old ballad.

(682) This pamphlet, which was entitled "A Letter from Mr.
Cibber to Mr. Pope; inquiring into the motives that might
induce him, in his satirical works to be so frequently fond of
Mr. Cibber's name," so "notably vexed" the great poet, that,
in a new edition of the Dunciad, he dethroned Theobald from
his eminence as King of the dunces, and enthroned Cibber in
his stead.-E.

279 Letter 80
To Sir Horace Mann.
(From Houghton.)

Here are three new ballads,(683) and you must take them as a
plump part of a long letter. Consider, I am in the barren
land of Norfolk, where news grows as slow as any thing green;
and besides, I am in the house of a fallen minister! The
first song I fancy is Lord Edgcumbe's; at least he had reason
to write it. The second I do not think so good as the real
Story that occasioned it. The last is reckoned vastly the
best, and is much admired: I cannot say I see all those
beauties in it, nor am charmed with the poetry, which is cried
up. I don't find that any body knows whose it is.(684) Pultney
is very anoyed, especially as he pretends, about his wife, and
says, "it is too much to abuse ladies!" You see, their twenty
years' satires come back home! He is gone to the Bath in
great dudgeon: the day before he went, he went in to the King
to ask him to turn out Mr. Hill of the customs, for having
opposed him at Heydon. "Sir," said the King, "was it not when
you was opposing me? I won't turn him out: I will part with no
more of my friends." Lord Wilmington was waiting to receive
orders accordingly, but the King gave him none.

We came hither last Saturday; as we passed through
Grosvenor-square, we met Sir Roger Newdigate, (685) with a
vast body of Tories, proceeding to his election at Brentford:
we might have expected some insult, but only one single fellow
hissed. and was not followed. Lord Edgcumbe, Mr. Ellis, and
Mr. Hervey, in their way to Coke's,(686)
and Lord Chief Justice Wills (on the circuit) are the Only
company here yet. My Lord invited nobody, but left it to
their charity. The other night, as soon as he had gone
through showing Mr. Wills the house, Well," said he, "here I
am to enjoy 't, and my Lord of Bath may--." I forgot to tell
you, in confirmation of what you see in the song of the wife
of Bath having shares of places, Sir Robert told me, that when
formerly she got a place for her own father, she took the
salary and left him only the perquisites!

It is much thought that the King will go abroad, if he can avoid
leaving the Prince in his place--. Imagine all this!

I received to-day yours of July 21), and two from Mr. Chute
and Madame Pucci,(687) which I will answer very soon: where is
she now? I delight in Mr. Villiers's, (688) modesty-in one
place you had written it villette's; I fancy on purpose, for
it would do for him.

Good night, my dear child! I have written myself threadbare.
I know you will hate my campaign, but what can one do!

(683) As these ballads are to be found in the edition of Sir
Charles Hanbury Williams's works, published in 1822, it has
been deemed better to omit them here. They are called,
"Labour in Vain," "The Old Coachman," and "The Country
Girl."-D.

(684) it was written by Hanbury Williams.

(685) Sir Roger Newdigate, the fifth baronet of the family.
He was elected member for Middlesex, upon the vacancy
occasioned by Pultney's being created Earl of Bath. He
belonged to the Tory or Jacobite party.-D. [Sir Roger
afterwards represented the University of Oxford in five
parliaments, and died in 1806, in his eighty-seventh year.
Among other benefactions to his Alma Mater, he gave the noble
candelabra in the Radcliffe library, and founded an annual
prize
for English verses on ancient painting, sculpture, and
architecture.]

(686) Holkham. Coke was the son of Lord Lovel, afterward
Viscount Coke, when his father was created Earl of
Leicester.-D.

(687) She was the daughter of the Conte di Valvasone, of
Friuli, sister of Madame Suares, and of the bedchamber to the
Duchess of Modena.

(688) Thomas Villiers a younger son of william, second Earl of
Jersey, at this time British minister at the court of Dresden,
and eventually created Lord Hyde, and Earl of clarendon. Sir
H. Mann had alluded in one of his letters to a speech
attributed to Mr. Villiers, in which he took great credit to
himself for having induced the King of Poland to become a
party to the peace of Breslau, recently concluded between the
Queen of Hungary and the King, of Prussia; a course of
proceeding, which, in fact, his Polish Majesty had no
alternative but to adopt. Villettes was an inferior
diplomatic agent from England to some of the Italian courts,
and was at this moment resident at the court of Turin.-D.

280 Letter 81
To Sir Horace Mann.
Houghton, Aug. 20, 1742

By the tediousness of the post, and distance of place, I am
still receiving letters from you about the Secret Committee,
which seems strange, for it is as much forgotten now, as if it
had happened in the last reign. Thus much I must answer you
about it, that it is possible to resume the inquiry upon the
Report next session; but you may judge whether they will,
after all the late promotions.

We are willing to believe that there are no news in town, for
we hear none at all: Lord Lovel sent us word to-day, that he
heard, by a messenger from the post office, that Montemar
(689) is put under arrest. I don't tell you this for news,
for you must know it long ago: but I expect the confirmation
of it from you next post. Since we came hither I have heard
no more of the king's journey to Flanders: our troops are as
peaceable there as On Hounslow Heath, except some bickerings
and blows about beef with butchers, and about sacraments with
friars. You know the English can eat no meat, nor be civil to
any God but their own.

As much as I am obliged to you for the description of your
Cocchiata,(690) I don't like to hear of it. It is very
unpleasant, instead of being at it, to be prisoner, in a
melancholy, barren province, which would put one in mind of
the deluge, only that we have no water. Do remember exactly
how your last was; for I intend that you shall give me just
such another Cocchiata next summer, if it pleases the kings
and queens of this world to let us be at peace For "it rests
that without fig-leaves," as my Lord Bacon says in one of his
letters , "I do ingenuously confess and acknowledge," (691)
that I like nothing so well as Italy.

I agree with you extremely about Tuscany for Prince
Charles,(692) but I can only agree with you on paper; for as
to knowing anything of it, I am sure Sir Robert himself knows
nothing of it: the Duke of Newcastle and my Lord Carteret keep
him in as great ignorance as possible, especially the latter;
and even in other times, you know how little he ever thought
on those things. Believe me, he will every day know less.

Your last, which I have been answering, was the. 5th of
August; I this minute receive another of the 12th. How I am
charmed with your spirit and usage of Richcourt! Mais ce
n'est pas d'aujourdhui que je commence `a les m`epriser! I am
so glad that you have quitted your calm, to treat them as they
deserve. You don't tell me if his opposition in the council
hindered your intercession from taking place for the valet de
chambre. I hope not! I could not bear his thwarting you!

I am now going to write to your brother, to get you the
overtures; and to desire he will send them with some pamphlets
and the magazines which I left in commission for you, at my
leaving London. I am going to send him, too, des pleins
pouvoirs, for nominating a person to represent me at his new
babe's christening.

I am sorry Mrs. Goldsworthy is coming to England, though I
think it can be of no effect. Sir Charles (692) has no sort
of interest with the new powers, and I don't think the
Richmonds have enough to remove foreign ministers. However, I
will consult with Sir Robert about it, and see if he thinks
there is any danger for you, which I do not in the least; and
whatever can be done by me, I think you know, will.

P. S. I inclose an answer to Madame Pucci's letter. Where is
she in all this Modenese desolation

(689) Montemar was the General of the King of Spain, who
commanded the troops of that sovereign against the
Imperialists in Italy.-D.

(690) A sort of serenade. Sir H. Mann had mentioned, that he
was about to give an entertainment of this kind in his garden
to the society of Florence.-D.

(691) Prince Charles of Lorraine, younger brother of Francis,
who was now Grand Duke of Tuscany. He was a general of some
abilities; but it was his misfortune to be so often opposed to
the superior talents of the King of Prussia.-D.

(692) Sir Charles Wager.

281 Letter 82
To Sir Horace Mann.
Houghton, August 28, 1742.

I did receive your letter of the 12th, as I think I mentioned
in my last; and to-day another of the 19th. Had I been you,
instead of saying that I would have taken my lady's(693) woman
for my spy, I should have said, that I would hire Richcourt
himself: I dare to say that one might buy the count's own
secrets of himself.

I am sorry to hear that the Impressarii have sent for the
Chiaretta; I am not one of the managers; I should have
remonstrated against her, for she will not do on the same
stage with the Barbarina. I don't know who will be glad of
her coming, but Mr. Blighe and Amorevoli.

'Tis amazing, but we hear not a syllable of Prague taken,(694)
it must be! Indeed, Carthagena, too, was certain of being
taken! but it seems, Maillebois is to stop at Bavaria. I hope
Belleisle (695) will be made prisoner? I am indifferent about
the fate of the great Broglio-but Belleisle is able, and is
our most determined enemy: we need not have more, for to-day
it is confirmed that Cardinal Tencin (696) and M. d'Argenson
are declared of the prime ministry. The first moment they
can, Tencin will be for transporting the Pretenders into
England. Your advice about Naples was quite judicious: the
appearance of a bomb will have great weight in the councils of
the little king.