Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1

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March 4th.

I had written thus far last week, without being able to find a
moment to finish. In the midst of all my attendance on my
lord and receiving visits, I am forced to go out and thank
those that have come and sent; for his recovery is now at such
a pause, that I fear it is in vain to expect much farther
amendment. How dismal a prospect for him, with the possession
of the greatest understanding in the world, not the least
impaired to lie without any use of it! for to keep him from
pains and restlessness, he takes so much opiate, that he is
scarce awake four hours of the four-and-twenty; but I -will
say no more on this.

Our coalition goes on thrivingly; but at the expense of the
old Court, who are all discontented, and are likely soon to
show their resentment. The brothers have seen the best days
of their ministry. The Hanover troops dismissed to please the
Opposition, and taken again with their consent, under the
cloak of an additional subsidy to the Queen of Hungary, who is
to pay them. This has set the patriots in so villainous a
light, that they will be ill able to support a minister who
has thrown such an odium on the Whigs, after they had so
stoutly supported that measure last year, and which, after all
the clamour, is now universally adopted, as you see. If my
Lord Granville had any resentment, as he seems to have nothing
but thirst, sure there is no vengeance he might not take! So
far from contracting any prudence from his fall, he laughs it
off every night over two or three bottles. The countess is
with child. I believe she and the countess-mother have got
it; for there is nothing ridiculous which they have not done
and said about it. There was a private masquerade lately at
the Venetian ambassadress's for the Prince of Wales, who named
the company, and expressly excepted my Lady Lincoln and others
of the Pelham faction. My Lady Granville came late, dressed
like Imoinda, and handsomer than one of the houris - the
Prince asked her why she would not dance? , Indeed, Sir, I was
afraid I could not have come at all, for I had a fainting fit
after dinner." The other night my Lady Townshend made a great
ball on her son's coming of age: I went for a little while,
little thinking of dancing. I asked my Lord Granville, why my
lady did not dance? "Oh, Lord! I wish you would ask her: she
will with you." I was caught, and did walk down one country
dance with her; but the prudent Signora-madre would not let
her expose the young Carteret any farther.

You say, you expect much information about Belleisle, but
there has not (in the style of the newspapers) the least
particular transpired. He was at first kept magnificently
close at Windsor; but the expense proving above one hundred
pounds per day, they have taken his parole, and sent him to
Nottingham, `a la Tallarde. Pray, is De Sade with you still'?
his brother has been taken too by the Austrians.

My Lord Coke is going to be married to a Miss Shawe,(1014) of
forty thousand pounds. Lord Hartington(1015) is contracted to
Lady Charlotte Boyle, the heiress of Burlington, and sister of
the unhappy Lady Euston; but she is not yet old enough. Earl
Stanhope,(1016) too, has at last lifted up his eyes from
Euclid, and directed them to matrimony. He has chosen the
eldest sister of your acquaintance Lord Haddington. I revive
about you and Tuscany. I will tell you. what is thought to
have reprieved you: it is much suspected that the King of
Spain(1017) is dead. I hope those superstitious people will
pinch the queen, as they do witches, to make her loosen the
charm that has kept the Prince of Asturias from having
children. At least this must turn out better than the death
of the Emperor has.

The Duke,(1018) you hear, is named generalissimo, with Count
Koningseg, Lord Dunmore,(1019) and Ligonier,(1020) under him.
Poor boy! he is most Brunswickly happy with his drums and
trumpets. Do but think that this sugar-plum was to tempt him
to swallow that bolus the Princess of Denmark!(1021) What
will they do if they have children? The late Queen never
forgave the Duke of Richmond, for telling her that his
children would take place before the Duke's grandchildren.

I inclose you a pattern for a chair, which your brother
desired me to send you. I thank you extremely for the views
of Florence; you can't imagine what wishes they have awakened.
My best thanks to Dr. Cocci for his book: I have delivered all
the copies as directed. Mr. Chute will excuse me yet; the
first moment I have time I will write. I have: just received
your letter of Feb. 16, and grieve for your disorder: you
know, how much concern your ill health gives m. Adieu! my
dear child: I write with twenty people in the room.

(1014) This marriage did not take place. Lord Coke afterwards
married Lady Campbell; and Miss Shawe, William, fifth Lord
Byron, the immediate predecessor of the great poet.-E.

(1015) In 1755 he succeeded his father as fourth Duke of
Devonshire. He died at Spa, in 1764; having filled at
different times, the offices of lord lieutenant of Ireland,
first lord of the treasury, and lord chamberlain of the
household. His marriage with Lady Charlotte Boyle took place
in March 1748.-E.

(1016) Philip, second Earl Stanhope. See ant`e, p. 308.
Letter 96. He married, in July following, Lady Grizel
Hamilton, daughter of Charles Lord Binning.-E.

(1017) The imbecile and insane Philip V. He did not die till
1746. The Prince of Asturias was Ferdinand VI., who succeeded
him, and died childless in 1759.-D.

(1018) Of Cumberland. He never married.-D.

(1019) John Murray, second Earl of Dunmore: colonel of the
third regiment of Scotch foot-guards. He died in 1752-E.

(1020) Sir John Ligonier a general of merit. He was created
Lord Ligonier in Ireland, in 1757, an English peer by the same
title in 1763, and Earl Ligonier in 1766. He died at the
great age of ninety-one, in 1770.-D.

(1021) The Princess was deformed and- ugly. "Having in vain
remonstrated with the King against the marriage, the Duke sent
his governor, mr. Poyntz, to consult Lord Orford how to avoid
the match. After reflecting a few moments, Orford advised
'that the Duke should give his consent, on condition of his
receiving an ample and immediate establishment; and believe
me,' added he, 'that the match will be no longer pressed.'
The Duke followed the advice, and the result fulfilled the
prediction "' Lord Mahon, vol. iii. p. 321.-E.

406 Letter 158
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, March 29, 1745.

I begged your brother to tell you what it was impossible for
me to tell you.(1023) You share nearly in our common loss!
Don't expect me to enter at all upon the subject. After the
melancholy two months, that I have passed, and in my
situation, you will not wonder I shun a conversation which
could not be bounded by a letter-a letter that would grow into
a panegyric, or a piece of moral; improper for me to write
upon, and too distressful for us both!-a death is only to be
felt, never to be talked over by those it touches!

I had yesterday your letter of three sheets - I began to
flatter myself that the storm was blown over, but I tremble to
think of the danger you are in! a danger, in which even the
protection of the great friend you have lost could have been
of no service to you. How ridiculous it seems for me to renew
protestations of my friendship for you, at an instant when my
father is just dead, and the Spaniards just bursting into
Tuscany! How empty a charm would my name have, when all my
interest and significance are buried in my father's grave! All
hopes of present peace, the only thing that could save you,
seem vanished. We expect every day to hear of the French
declaration of war against Holland. The new Elector of
Bavaria is French, like his father; and the King of Spain is
not dead. I don't know how to talk to you. I have not even a
belief that the Spaniards will spare Tuscany. My dear child
what will become of you? whither will you retire till a peace
restores you to your ministry? for upon that distant view
alone I repose!

We are every day nearer confusion. The King is in as bad
humour as a monarch can be; he wants to go abroad, and is
detained by the Mediterranean affair; the inquiry into which
was moved by a Major Selwyn, a dirty pensioner, half-turned
patriot, by the Court being overstocked with votes.(1024)
This inquiry takes up the whole time of the House of Commons,
but I don't see what conclusion it can have. My confinement
has kept me from being there, except the first day; and all I
know of what is yet come out is, as it was stated by a Scotch
member the other day, "that there had been one (Matthews) with
a bad head, another, (Lestock) with a worse heart, and four
(the captains of the inactive ships) with no heart at all."
Among the numerous visits of form that I have received, one
was from my Lord Sandys: as we two could only converse upon
general topics, we fell upon this of the Mediterranean, and I
made him allow, "that, to be sure, there is not so bad a court
of justice in the world as the House of Commons; and how hard
it is upon any man to have his cause tried there!"

Sir Everard Falkner(1025) is made secretary to the Duke, who
is not yet gone: I have got Mr. Conway to be one of his
aide-de-camps. Sir Everard has since been offered the
joint-Postmastersh'ip, vacant by Sir John Iyles'S(1026) death;
but he would not quit the Duke. It was then proposed to the
King to give it to the brother: it happened to be a cloudy
day, and he, only answered, ,I know who Sir Everard is, but I
don't know who Mr. Falkner is."

The world expects some change when the Parliament rises. My
Lord Granville's physicians have ordered him to go to the Spa,
as, you know, they often send ladies to the Bath who are very
ill of a want of diversion. It will scarce be possible for
the present ministry to endure this jaunt. Then they are
losing many of their new allies: the new Duke of
Beaufort,(1027) a most determined and unwavering Jacobite, has
openly set himself at the head of that party, and forced them
to vote against the Court, and to renounce my Lord Gower. My
wise cousin, Sir John Phillipps, has resigned his place; and
it is believed that Sir John Cotton will soon resign but the
Bedford, Pitt, Lyttelton, and that squadron, stick close to
their places. Pitt has lately resigned his bedchamber to the
Prince, which, in friendship to Lyttelton, it was expected he
would have done long ago. They have chosen for this
resignation a very apposite passage out of Cato:

"He toss'd his arm aloft, and proudly told me
He would not stay, and perish like Sempronius."

This was Williams's.

My Lord Coke's match is broken off, upon some coquetry of the
lady with Mr. Mackenzie,(1028) at the Ridotto. My Lord
Leicester says, there shall not be a third lady in Norfolk of
the species of the two fortunes(1029) that matched at Rainham
and Houghton." Pray, will the new Countess of Orford come to
England?

The town flocks to a new play of Thomson's, called Tancred and
Sigismunda: it is very dull, I have read it.(1030) I cannot
bear modern poetry; these refiners of the purity of the stage,
and of the incorrectness of English verse, are most
-,,,wofully insipid. I had rather have written the most
absurd lines in Lee, than Leonidas or the Seasons; as I had
rather be put into the round-house for a wrong-headed quarrel,
than sup quietly at eight o'clock with my grandmother. There
is another of these tame geniuses, a Mr. Akenside,(1031) who
writes Odes: in one he has lately published, he says, "Light
the tapers, urge the fire." Had not you rather make gods
jostle 'in the dark, than light the candles for fear they
should break their heads? One Russel, a mimic, has a
puppet-show to ridicule operas; I hear, very dull, not to
mention its being twenty years too late: it consists of three
acts, with foolish Italian songs burlesqued in Italian.

There is a very good quarrel on foot between two duchesses;
she of Queensberry sent to invite Lady Emily Lennox(1032) to a
ball: her Grace of Richmond, who is wonderfully cautious since
Lady Caroline's elopement, sent word, "she could not
determine." The other sent again the same night: the same
answer. The Queensberry then sent word, that she had made up
her company, and desired to be excused from having Lady
Emily's; but at the bottom of the card wrote, "Too great a
trust." You know how mad she is, and how capable of such a
stroke. There is no declaration of war come out from the
other duchess; but, I believe it will be made a national
quarrel of the whole illegitimate royal family.

It is the present fashion to make conundrums: there are books
of them printed, and produced at all assemblies: they are full
silly enough to be made a fashion. I will tell you the most
renowned--"Why is my uncle Horace like two people
conversing?-Because he is both teller and auditor." This was
Winnington's.

Well, I had almost forgot to tell you a most extraordinary
impertinence of your Florentine Marquis Riccardi. About three
weeks ago, I received a letter by Monsieur Wastier's footman
from the marquis. He tells me most cavalierly, that he has
sent me seventy-seven antique gems to sell for him, by the way
of Paris, not caring it should be known in Florence. He will
have them sold altogether, and the lowest price two thousand
pistoles. You know what no-acquaintance I had with him. I
shall be as frank as he, and not receive them. If I did, they
might be lost in sending back, and then I must pay his two
thousand doppie di Spagna. The refusing to receive them is
Positively all the notice I shall take of it.

I enclose what I think a fine piece on my father:(1033) it
was written by Mr. Ashton, whom you have often heard me
mention as a particular friend. You see how I try to make out
a long letter, in return for your kind one, which yet gave me
great pain by telling me of your fever. My dearest Sir, it is
terrible to have illness added to your other distresses! .

I will take the first opportunity to send Dr. Cocchi his
translated book; I have not yet seen it myself.

Adieu! my dearest child! I write with a house full of
relations, and must conclude. Heaven preserve you and
Tuscany.

(1023) The death of Lord Orford. - He expired," says Coxe, "on
the 18th of March, 1745, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. His
remains were interred in the parish church at Houghton,
without monument or inscription-

"So peaceful rests, without a stone, a name,
Which once had honours, titles, wealth and fame!"-E.

(1024) "February 26.-We had an unexpected motion from a very
contemptible fellow, Major Selwyn, for an inquiry into the
cause of the miscarriage of the fleet in the action off
Toulon. Mr. Pelham, perceiving that the inclination of the
House was for an inquiry, acceded to the motion; but
forewarned it of the temper, patience, and caution with which
it should be pursued."-Mr. Yorke's MS. Journal.-E.

(1025) He had been ambassador at Constantinople.

(1026) Sir John Eyles, Bart. an alderman of the city of
London, and at one time member of parliament for the same. He
died March 11, 1745.-D.

(1027) Charles Noel Somerset, fourth Duke of Beaufort,
succeeded his elder brother Henry in the dukedom, February 14,
1745.-D.

(1028) The Hon. James Stuart Mackenzie, second son of James,
second Earl of Bute, and brother of John, Earl of Bute, the
minister. He married Lady Elizabeth Campbell, one of the
daughters of John, the great Duke of Argyll, and died in
1800.-D.

(1029) Margaret Rolle, Countess of Orford, and Ethelreda
Harrison, Viscountess Townshend.

(1030) This was the most successful of all Thomson's plays;
"but it may be doubted," says Dr. Johnson, " whether he was,
either by the bent of nature or habits of study, much
qualified for tragedy: it does not appear that he had much
sense of the pathetic; and his diffusive and Descriptive style
produced declamation rather than dialogue."-E.

(1031) The author of "The Pleasures of the Imagination;" a
poem of some merit, though now but little read.-D.

(1032) Second daughter of Charles, Duke of Richmond.
(Afterwards married to James Fitzgerald, first Duke of
Leinster in Ireland.-D.)

1033) It was printed in the public papers.

410 Letter 159
To sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, April 15, 1745.

By this time you have heard of my Lord's death: I fear it will
have been a very great shock to you. I hope your brother will
write you all the particulars; for my part, you can't expect I
should enter into the details of it. His enemies pay him the
compliment of saying, they do believe now that he did not
plunder the public,, as he was accused (as they accused him)
of doing, he having died in such circumstances." If he had no
proofs of his honesty but this, I don't think this would be
such indisputable authority: not having immense riches would
be scanty evidence of his not having acquired them, there
happening to be such a thing as spending them. It is certain,
he is dead very poor: his debts, with his legacies, which are
trifling, amount to fifty thousand pounds. His estate, a
nominal eight thousand a-year, much mortgaged. In short, his
fondness for Houghton has endangered Houghton. If he had not
so overdone it, he -might have left such an estate to his
family as might have secured the glory of the place for many
years: another such debt must expose it to sale. If he had
lived, his unbounded generosity and contempt of money would
have run him into vast difficulties. However irreparable his
personal loss may be to his friends, he certainly died
critically well for himself: he had lived to stand the rudest
trials with honour, to see his character universally cleared,
his enemies brought to infamy for their ignorance or villainy,
and the world allowing him to be the only man in England fit
to be what he had been; and he died at a time when his age and
infirmities prevented his again undertaking the support of a
government, which engrossed his whole care, and which he
foresaw was falling into the last confusion. In this I hope
his judgment failed! His fortune attended him to the last; for
he died of the most painful of all distempers, with little or
no pain.

The House of Commons have at last finished their great affair,
their inquiry into the Mediterranean miscarriage. It was
carried on with more decency and impartiality than ever was
known in so tumultuous, popular, and partial a court. I can't
say it ended so; for the Tories, all but one single man, voted
against Matthews, whom they have not forgiven for lately
opposing one of their friends in Monmouthshire, and for
carrying his election. The greater part of the Whigs were for
Lestock. This last is a very great man: his cause, most
unfriended, came before the House with all the odium that
could be laid on a man standing in the light of having
betrayed his country. His merit, I mean his parts, prevailed,
and have set him in a very advantageous point of view. Harry
Fox has gained the greatest honour by his assiduity and
capacity in this affair. Matthews remains in the light of a
hot, brave, imperious, dull, confused fellow. The question
was to address the King to appoint a trial, by court-martial,
of the two admirals and the four coward captains. Matthews's
friends were for leaving out his name, but, after a very long
debate, were only 76 to 218. It is generally supposed, that
the two admirals will be acquitted and the captains hanged.
By what I can make out, (for you know I have been confined,
and could not attend the examination,) Lestock preferred his
own safety to the glory of his country; I don't mean cowardly,
for he is most unquestionably brave, but selfishly. Having to
do with a man who, he knew, would take the slightest
opportunity to ruin him, if he in the least transgressed his
orders, and knowing that man too dull to give right orders, he
chose to stick to the letter, when, by neglecting it, he might
have done the greatest service.

We hear of great news from Bavaria, of that Elector being
forced into a neutrality; but it IS not confirmed.

Mr. Legge is made lord of the admiralty, and Mr. Philipson
surveyor of the roads in his room. This is all I know. I
look with anxiety every day into the Gazettes about Tuscany,
but hitherto I find all is quiet. My dear Sir, I tremble for
you!

I have been much desired to get you to send five gesse
figures; the Venus, the Faun, the Mercury, the Cupid and
Psyche, and the little Bacchus; you know the original is
modern: if this is not to be had, then the Ganymede. My dear
child, I am sorry to give you this trouble; order any body to
buy them, and to Send them from Leghorn by the first ship. let
me have the bill, and bill of lading. Adieu!

411 Letter 160
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, April 29, 1745.

When you wrote your last of the 6th of this month, you was
still in hopes about my father. I wish I had received your
letters on his death, for it is most shocking to have all the
thoughts opened again upon such a subject!-it is the great
disadvantage of a distant correspondence. There was a report
here a fortnight ago of the new countess coming over. She
could not then have heard it. Can she be so mad? Why should
she suppose all her shame buried in my lord's grave? or does
not she know, has she seen so little of the world, as not to
be sensible that she will now return in a worse light than
ever? A few malicious, who would have countenanced her to vex
him, would now treat her like the rest of the world. It is a
private family affair; a husband, a mother, and a son, all
party against her, all wounded by her conduct, would be too
much to get over!
\\

My dear child, you have nothing but misfortunes of your
friends to lament. You have new subject by the loss of poor
Mr. Chute's brother.(1034) It really is a great loss! he was
a most rising man, and one of the best-natured and most honest
that ever lived. If it would not sound ridiculously, though,
I assure you, I am far from feeling it lightly, I would tell
you of poor Patapan's death - he died about ten days ago.

This peace with the Elector of Bavaria may Produce a general
one. You have given great respite to my uneasiness, by
telling me that Tuscany seems out of danger. We have for
these last three days been in great expectation of a battle.
The French have invested Tournay; our army came up with them
last Wednesday, and is certainly little inferior, and
determined to attack them; but it is believed they are
retired: we don't know who commands them; it is said, the Duc
d'Harcourt. Our good friend, the Count de Saxe, is
dying(1036)-by Venus, not by Mars. The King goes on Friday;
this may make the young Duke(1036) more impatient to give
battle, to have all the honour his own.

There is no kind of news; the Parliament rises on Thursday,
and every body is going out of town. I shall only make short
excursions in visits; you know I am not fond of the country,
and have no call into it now! My brother will not be at
Houghton this year; he shuts it Up to enter on new, and there
very unknown economy: he has much occasion for it! Commend me
to poor Mr. Chute! Adieu!

(1034) Francis Chute, a very eminent lawyer.

(1035) The Marshal de Saxe- did not die till 1750. He was,
however, exceedingly ill at the time of the battle of
Fontenoy. Voltaire, in his "Si`ecle de Louis XV." mentions
having met him at Paris just as he was setting out for the
campaign. Observing how unwell he seemed to b, he asked him
whether he thought he had strength enough to go through the
fatigues which awaited him. To this the Marshal's reply was
"il ne s'agit pas de vivre, mais de partir."-D.

William, Duke of Cumberland.-D.

412 Letter 161
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, May 11, 1745.

I stayed till to-day, to be able to give you some account of
the battle of Tournay:(1037) the outlines you will have heard
already. We don't allow it to be a victory on the French
side: but that is, just as a woman is not called Mrs. till she
is married, though she may have had half-a-dozen natural
children. In short, we remained upon the field of battle
three hours: I fear, too many of us remain there still!
without palliating, it is certainly a heavy stroke. We never
lost near so many officers. I pity the Duke, for it is almost
the first battle of consequence that we ever lost. By the
letters arrived to-day we find that Tournay still holds out.
There are certainly killed Sir James Campbell, General
Ponsonby, Colonel Carpenter, Colonel Douglas, young Ross,
Colonel Montagu, Geo, Berkeley, and Kellet. Mr. Vanbrugh is
since dead. Most of the your),r men of quality in the Guards
@ are wounded. I have had the vast fortune to have nobody
hurt, for whom I was in the least interested. Mr. Conway, in
particular, has highly distinguished himself; he ind Lord
Petersham,' who is slightly wounded, are most commended;
though none behaved ill but the Dutch horse. There has been
but very little consternation here: the King minded it so
little, that being set out for Hanover, and blown back into
Harwich-roads since the news came, he could not be persuaded
to return, but sailed yesterday with the fair wind. I believe
you will have the Gazette sent Tonight; but lest it should not
be printed time enough, here is a list of the numbers, as it
came over this morning.