Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1

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My Pigwiggin dinners are all over, for which I truly say
grace. I have had difficulties to keep my countenance at the
wonderful clumsiness and uncouth nicknames that the Duke has
for all his offspring: Mrs. Hopefull, Mrs. Tiddle, Puss, Cat,
and Toe, sound so strange in the middle of a most formal
banquet! The day the peace was signed, his grace could find
nobody to communicate joy with him: he drove home, and bawled
out of the chariot to Lady Rachael, "Cat! Cat!" She ran down,
staring over the balustrade; he cried, "Cat! Cat! the peace is
made, and you must be very glad, for I am very glad."

I send you the only new pamphlet worth reading, and this is
more the matter than the manner. My compliments to all your
tribe. Adieu!

P. S. The divine Asheton has got an ague, which he says
prevents his coming amongst us.

551 Letter 253
To sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, June 7, 1748.

Don't reproach me in your own Mind for not writing, but
reproach the world for doing nothing; for making peace as
slowly as they made war. When any body commits an event, I am
ready enough to tell it you; but I have always declared
against inventing news; when I do, I will set up a newspaper.

The Duke of Newcastle is not gone; he has kissed hands, and
talks of going this week: the time presses, and he has not
above three days left to fall dangerously ill. There are a
thousand wagers laid against his going: he has hired a
transport, for the yacht s not big enough to convey all the
tables and chairs and conveniences that he trails along with
him, and which he seems to think don't grow out of England. I
don't know how he proposes to lug them through Holland and
Germany, though any objections that the map can make to his
progress don't count, for he is literally so ignorant, that
when one goes to take leave of him, he asks your commands into
the north, concluding that Hanover is north of Great Britain,
because it is in the northern province, which he has just
taken: you will scarce believe this, but upon my honour it is
true.

The preliminaries wait the accession of Spain, before they can
ripen into peace. Niccolini goes to Aix-la-Chapelle, and will
be much disappointed if his advice is not asked there: he
talks of being at Florence in October.

Sir William Stanhope has just given a great ball to Lady
Petersham, to whom he takes extremely, since his daughter
married herself to Mr. Ellis,(1438) and as the Petershams are
relations, they propose to be his heirs. The Chuteheds agreed
with me, that the house, which is most magnificently
furnished, all the ornaments designed by Kent, and the whole
festino, puts us more in mind of Florence, than any thing we
had seen here. There were silver-pharaoh and whist for the
ladies that did not dance, deep basset and quinze for the men;
the supper very fine.

I am now returning to my villa, where I have been making some
alterations: you shall hear from me from Strawberry Hill,
which I have found out in my lease is the old name of my
house; so pray, never call it Twickenham again. I like to be
there better than I have liked being any where since I came to
England. I sigh after Florence, and wind up all my prospects
with the thought of returning there. I have days when I even
set about contriving a scheme for going to you, and though I
don't love to put you upon expecting me, I cannot help telling
you, that I wish more than ever to be with you again. I can
truly say, that I never was happy but at Florence, and you
must allow that it is very natural to wish to be happy once
more. Adieu!

(1438) The Right Hon. Welbore Ellis, afterwards created Lord
Mendip. His first wife was Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir
William Stanhope, K. B. She died in 1761.-D.

553 Letter 254
To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(1439)
Strawberry Hill, June 27th, 1748.

Dear Harry,
I have full as little matter for writing as you can find in a
camp. I do not call myself farmer or country gentleman; for
though I have all the ingredients to compose those characters,
yet, like the ten pieces of card in the trick you found out, I
don't know how to put them together. But, in short, planting
and fowls and cows and sheep are my whole business, and as
little amusing to relate to anybody else as the events of a
stillborn campaign. If I write to any body, I am forced to
live upon what news I hoarded before I came out of town;
and the first article of that, as I believe it is in every
body's gazette, must be about my Lord Coke. They say, that
since he has been at Sunning Hill with Lady Mary,(1440 she has
made him a declaration in form, that she hates him, that she
always did, and that she always will. This seems to have been
a very unnecessary notification. However, as you know his
part is to be extremely in love, he is very miserable upon it;
and relating his woes at White's, probably at seven in the
morning, he was advised to put an end to all this history and
shoot himself-an advice
they would not have given him if he were not insolvent. He
has promised to consider of it.

The night before I left London, I called at the Duchess of
Richmond's, who has stayed at home with the apprehension of a
miscarriage. The porter told me there was no drawing-room
till Thursday. In short, he did tell me what amounted to as
much, that her grace did not see company till Thursday, then
she should see every body: no excuse, that she was gone out or
not well. I did not stay till Thursday to kiss hands, but
went away to Vauxhall: as I was coming out, I was overtaken by
a great light, and retired under the trees of Marble Hall to
see what it should be. There came a long procession of Prince
Lobkowitz's footmen in very rich new liveries, the two last
bearing torches; and after them the Prince himself', in a new
sky-blue watered tabby Coat, with gold buttonholes and a
magnificent gold waistcoat fringed, leading Madame
ambassadrice de Venise in a green sack with a straw hat,
attended by my Lady Tyrawley, Wall, the private
Spanish agent, the two Miss Molyneux's, and some other men.
They went into one of the Prince of Wales's barges, had
another barge filled with violins and hautboys, and an open
boat with drums and trumpets. This was one of the f`etes des
adieux. The nymph weeps all the morning and says she is sure
she shall be poisoned by her husband's relations when she
returns for her behaviour with this Prince.

I have no other news, but that Mr. Fitzpatrick has married his
Sukey Young, and is very impatient to have the Duchess of
Bedford come to town to visit her new relation.

Is not my Lady Ailesbury(1442) weary of her travels? Pray make
her my compliments,-unless she has made you any such
declaration as Lady Mary Coke's. I am delighted with your
description of the bedchamber of the House of Orange, as I did
not see it; but the sight itself must have been very odious,
as the hero and heroine are so extremely ugly. I shall give
it my Lady Townshend as a new topic of matrimonial satire.

Mr. Churchill and Lady Mary have been with me two or three
days, and are now gone to Sunning. I only tell you this, to
hint that my house will hold a married pair; indeed, it is not
quite large enough for people who lie, like the patriarchs,
with their whole genealogy, and men-servants, and
maid-servants, and oxes, and asses, in the same chamber with
them. Adieu! do let this be the last letter, and come home.

(1440) Now first printed.

(1441) See ant`e, p. 498 (Letter 215).-E.

(1442) On the 19th of the preceding December, Mr. Conway had
married Caroline, widow of Charles Bruce, Earl of Ailesbury,
and only daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel John Campbell,
afterwards fourth Duke of Argyle.-E.

554 Letter 255
To Sir Horace Mann.
Mistley, July 14, 1748.

I would by no means resent your silence while you was at Pisa,
if it were not very convenient; but I cannot resist 'the
opportunity of taking it ill, when it serves to excuse my
being much more to blame; and therefore, pray mind, I am very
angry, and have not written, because you had quite left me
off-and if I say nothing from hence,(1443) do not imagine it
is because I am at a gentleman's house whom you don't know,
and threescore miles from London, and because I have been but
three days in London for above this month: I could say a great
deal if I pleased, but I am very angry, and will not. I know
several pieces of politics from Ipswich that would let you
into the whole secret of the peace; and a quarrel at Denham
assembly, that is capable of involving all Europe in a new
war-nay, I know that Admiral Vernon(1444) knows of what you
say has happened in the West Indies, and of which nobody else
in England knows a word-but please to remember that you have
been at the baths, and don't deserve that I should tell you a
tittle-nor will I. In revenge, I will tell you some- thing
that happened to me four months ago, and which I would not
tell you now. if I had not forgot to tell it you when it
happened-nay, I don't tell it you now for yourself, only that
you may tell it the Princess: I truly and seriously this
winter won and was paid a milleleva at pharaoh; literally
received a thousand and twenty-three sixpences for one: an
event that never happened in the annals of pharaoh, but to
Charles II.'s Queen Dowager, as the Princess herself informed
me: ever since I have treated myself as Queen Dowager, and
have some thoughts of being drawn so.

There are no good anecdotes yet arrived of the Duke of
Newcastle's travels, except that at a review which the Duke
made for him, as he passed through the army, he hurried about
with his glass up to his eye, crying, "Finest troops! finest
troops! greatest General!" then broke through the ranks when
he spied any Sussex man, kissed him in all his
accoutrements,-my dear Tom such an one! chattered of Lewes
races; then back to the Duke with "Finest troops! greatest
General!"-and in short was a much better show than any review.

The Duke is expected over immediately; I don't know if to
stay, or why he comes-I mean, I do know, but am angry, and
will not tell.

I have seen Sir James Grey, who speaks of you with great
affection, and recommends himself extremely to me by it, when
I am not angry with you; but I cannot possibly be reconciled
till I have finished this letter, for I have nothing but this
quarrel to talk of, and I think I have worn that out-so adieu!
you odious, shocking, abominable monster!

(1443) Mistley near Manningtree, in Essex, the seat of Richard
Rigby, Esq.

(1444) He lived near Ipswich.

555 Letter 256
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, ---

I beg you will let me know whether the peace has arrived in
Italy, or if you have heard any thing of it; for in this part
of the world nobody can tell what has become of it. They say
the Empress Queen has stopped it; that she will not take back
the towns in Flanders, which she says she knows are very
convenient for us, but of no kind of use to her, and that she
chooses to keep what she has got in Italy. However, we are
determined to have peace at any rate, and the conditions must
jumble themselves together as they can. These are the
politics of Twickenham, my metropolis; and, to tell you the
truth, I believe pretty near as good as you can have any
where.

As to my own history, the scene is at present a little gloomy:
my Lord Orford is in an extreme bad state of health, not to
say a dangerous state: my uncle(1445) ' is going off in the
same way my father did. I don't pretend to any great feelings
of affection for two men, because they are dying, for whom it
is known I had little before, my brother especially having
been as much my enemy as it was in his power to be; but I
cannot with indifference see the family torn to pieces, and
falling into such ruin as I foresee; for should my brother die
soon, leaving so great a debt, so small an estate to pay it
off, two great places(1446)
sinking, and a wild boy of nineteen to succeed, there would be
an end to the glory of Houghton, which had my father
proportioned more to his fortune, would probably have a longer
duration. This is an unpleasant topic to you who feel for
us-however, I should not talk of it to one who would not feel.
Your brother Gal. and I had a very grave conversation
yesterday morning on this head; he thinks so like you, so
reasonably and with so much good nature, that I seem to be
only finishing a discourse that I have already had with you.
As my fears about Houghton are great, I am a little pleased to
have finished a slight memorial(1447) of It, a description of
the pictures, of which I have just printed an hundred, to give
to particular people: I will send you one, and shall beg Dr.
Cocchi to accept another.

If I could let myself wish to see you in England, it would be
to see you here: the little improvements I am making have
really turned Strawberry Hill into a charming villa: Mr.
Chute, I hope, will tell you how pleasant it is; I mean
literally tell you, for we have a glimmering of' a Venetian
prospect; he is just going from hence to town by water, down
our Brenta.

You never say a word to me from the Princess, nor any of my
old friends: I keep up our intimacy in my own mind; for I will
not part with the idea of seeing Florence again. Whenever I
am displeased here, the thoughts of that journey are my
resource; just as cross would-be devout people, when they have
quarrelled with this world, begin packing up for the other.
Adieu!

(1445) Lord Orford did not die till 1751, and old Horace
Walpole not till 1757.-D.

(1446) Auditor of the exchequer and Master of the buck-hounds.

(1447) "Aedes Walpolianae, or a Description of the Pictures at
Houghton Hall, in Norfolk," first printed in 1747, and again
in 1752.

556 Letter 257
To George Montagu, Esq.
Mistley, July 25, 1748.

Dear George,
I have wished you with me extremely: you would have liked what
I have seen. I have been to make a visit of two or three days
to Nugent, and was carried to see the last remains of the
glory of the old Aubrey de Veres, Earls of Oxford. They were
once masters of' almost this entire county, but quite reduced
even before the extinction of their house: the last Earl's son
died at a miserable cottage, that I was shown at a distance;
and I think another of the sisters, besides Lady Mary Vere,
was forced to live upon her beauty.

Henningham Castle, where Harry the Seventh(1448) was so
sumptuously banqueted, and imposed that villainous fine for
his entertainment, is now shrunk to one vast curious tower,
that stands on a spacious mount raised on a high hill with a
large fosse. It commands a fine prospect, and belongs to Mr.
Ashurst, a rich citizen, who has built a trumpery new house
close to it. In the parish church is a fine square monument
of black marble of one of the Earls; and there are three more
tombs of the family at Earl's Colne, some miles from the
castle. I could see but little of them, as it was very late,
except that one of the Countesses has a headdress exactly like
the description of Mount Parnassus, with two tops. I suppose
you have heard much of Gosfield, Nugent's seat. It is
extremely in fashion, but did not answer to me, though there
are fine things about it; but being situated in a country that
is quite blocked up with hills upon hills, and even too much
wood, it has not an inch of prospect. The park is to be
sixteen hundred acres, and is bounded with a wood of five
miles round; and the lake, which is very beautiful, is of
seventy acres, directly in a line with the house, at the
bottom of a fine lawn, and broke with very pretty groves, that
fall down a Slope into it. The house is vast, built round a
very old court that has never been fine; the old windows and
gateway left, and the old gallery, which is a bad narrow room,
and hung with all the late patriots, but so ill done, that
they look like caricatures done to expose them, since they
have so much disgraced the virtues they pretended to. The
rest of the house is all modernized, but in patches, and in
the bad taste that came between the charming venerable Gothic
and pure architecture. There is a great deal of good
furniture, but no one room very fine - no tolerable pictures.
Her dressing-room is very pretty, and furnished with white
damask, china, japan, loads of easy chairs, bad pictures, and
some pretty enamels. But what charmed me more than all I had
seen, is the library chimney, which has existed from the
foundation of the house; over it is an alto-relievo in wood,
far from being ill done, of the battle of Bosworth Field. It
is all white, except the helmets and trappings, which are
gilt, and the shields, which are properly blazoned with the
arms of all the chiefs engaged. You would adore it.

We passed our time very agreeably; both Nugent and his wife
are very good-humoured, and easy in their house to a degree.
There was nobody else but the Marquis of Tweedale; his new
Marchioness,(1451) who is infinitely good-humoured and good
company, and sang a thousand French songs mighty prettily; a
sister of Nugent's, who does not figure; and a Mrs.
Elliot,(1452) sister to Mrs. Nugent, who crossed over and
figured in with Nugent: I mean she has turned Catholic, as he
has Protestant. She has built herself a very pretty small
house in the path-, and is only a daily visiter. Nugent was
extremely communicative of his own labours; repeated us an ode
of ten thousand stanzas to abuse Messieurs de la Gallerie, and
reid me a whole tragedy, which has really a great many @
pretty things in it; not indeed equal to his glorious ode on
religion and liberty, but with many of those absurdities which
are so blended with his parts. We were overturned coming
back, but, thank YOU, we were not it all hurt, and have been
to-day to see a large house and a pretty park, belonging to a
Mr. Williams; it is to be sold. You have seen in the papers
that Dr. Bloxholme is dead. He cut his throat. He always
was nervous and vapoured; and so good-natured, that he left
off his practice from not being able to bear seeing so many
melancholy objects. I remember him with as much wit as ever I
knew; there was a pretty correspondence of Latin odes that
passed between him and Hodges.

You will be diverted to hear that the Duchess of Newcastle was
received at Calais by Locheil's regiment under arms, who did
duty himself while she stayed. The Duke of Grafton is going
to Scarborough; don't you love that endless back-stairs
policy? and at his time of life! This fit of ill health is
arrived on the Prince's going to shoot for a fortnight at
Thetford, and his grace is afraid of not being civil enough or
too civil.

Since I wrote my letter I have been fishing in Rapin for any
Particulars relating to the Veres, and have already found that
Robert de Vere,(1453) the great Duke of Ireland, and favourite
of Richard the Second, is buried at Earl's COlnE, and probably
under one of the tombs I saw there; I long to be certain that
the lady with the strange coiffure is Lancerona, the joiner's
daughter, that he married after divorcing a princess of the
blood for her. I have found, too, that King Stephen's Queen
died at Henningham, a castle belonging to Alberic de
Vere:,(1454) in short, I am just now Vere mad, and extremely
mortified to have Lancerona and lady Vere Beauclerk's,
Portuguese grandmother blended with this brave old blood.
Adieu! I go to town the day after to-morrow, and immediately
from thence to Strawberry Hill. Yours ever.

(1448) See Hume's History of England, vol. iii. p. 399. ["The
Earl of Oxford, his favourite general, having splendidly
entertained him at his castle of Henningham, was desirous of
making a parade of his magnificence at the departure of his
royal guest; and ordered all his retainers, with their
liveries and badges, to be drawn up in two lines, that their
appearance might be the more gallant and splendid. 'My lord,'
said the King, 'I have heard much of your hospitality; but the
truth far exceeds the report: these handsome gentlemen and
yeomen whom I see on both sides of me are no doubt your menial
servants.' The Earl smiled, and confessed that his fortune was
too narrow for such magnificence. 'They are most of them,'
subjoined he, 'my retainers, who are come to do service at
this time, when they know I am honoured with your Majesty's
presence.' The King started a little, and said, 'By my faith!
my lord, I thank you for your good cheer, but I must not allow
my laws to be broken in my sight: my attorney must speak with
you.' Oxford is said to have paid no less than fifteen
thousand marks, as a compensation for his offence.")

(1449) Daughter of the Earl of Granville.

(1450) Harriot, wife of Richard Elliot, Esq., father of the
first Lord St. Germains, and a daughter of Mr. Secretary
Craggs. For a copy of verses addressed by Mr. Pitt to this
lady, see the Chatham Correspondence, Vol. iv. j. 373.-E.

(1451)) Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was the favourite of
Richard the Second; who created him Marquis of Dublin and Duke
of Ireland, and transferred to him by patent
the entire sovereignty of that island for life.

(1452) Alberic de Vere was an Earl in the reign of Edward the
Confessor.

(1453) Daughter of Thomas Chambers, Esq., and married to Lord
Vere Beauclerc, third son of the first Duke of St. Albans by
his wife Diana, daughter of Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford.

558 Letter 258
To George Montagu, Esq.
Strawberry Hill, Aug. 11, 1748.

I am arrived at great knowledge in the annals of the house of
Vere but though I have twisted and twined their genealogy and
my own a thousand ways, I cannot discover, as I wished to do,
that I am descended from them any how but from one of their
Christian names the name of Horace having travelled from them
into Norfolk by the marriage of a daughter of Horace Lord Vere
of Tilbury with a Sir Roger Townshend, whose family baptised
some of us with it. But I have made a really curious
discovery! the lady with the strange dress at Earl's Colne,
which I mentioned to you, is certainly Lancerona, the
Portuguese-for I have found in Rapin, from one of the old
chronicles, that Anne of Bohemia, to whom she had been Maid of
Honour, introduced the fashion of piked horns, or high heads,
which is the very attire on this tomb, and ascertains it to
belong to Robert de Vere, the great Earl of Oxford, made Duke
of Ireland by Richard II., who, after the banishment of this
Minister, and his death at Louvain, occasioned by a boar at a
hunting match, caused the body to be brought over, would have
the coffin opened once more to see his favourite, and attended
it himself in high procession to its interment at Earl's
Colne. I don't know whether the "Craftsman" some years ago
would not have found out that we were descended from this
Vere, at least from his name and ministry: my comfort is, that
Lancerona was Earl Robert's second wife. But in this search I
have crossed upon another descent, which I am taking great
pains to verify (I don't mean a pun)., and that is a
probability of my being descended from Chaucer, whose
daughter, the Lady Alice, before her espousals with Thomas
Montagute,'Earl of Salisbury, and afterwards with William de
la Pole, the great Duke of Suffolk, (another famous
favourite), was married to a Sir John Philips, who I hope to
find was of Picton Castle, and had children by her; but I have
not yet brought these matters to a consistency. mr. Chute is
persuaded I shall, for he says any body with two or three
hundred years of pedigree may find themselves descended from
whom they please; and thank my stars and my good cousin, the
present Sir John] Philips,(1454) I have a sufficient pedigree
to work upon; for he drew us up one by which Ego et rex mems
are derived hand in hand from Cadwallader, and the English
baronetage says from the Emperor Maximus (by the Philips's,
who are Welsh, s'entend). These Veres have thrown me into a
deal of this old study: t'other night I was reading to Mrs.
Leneve and Mrs. Pigot,(1455) who has been here a few days, the
description in Hall's Chronicle of the meeting of Harry VIII.
and Francis I. which is so delightfully painted in your
Windsor. We came to a paragraph, which I must transcribe; for
though it means nothing in the world, it is so ridiculously
worded in the old English that it made us laugh for three
days.!

and the wer twoo kinges served with a banket and after mirthe,
had communication in the banket time, and there sheweth the
one the other their pleasure.

Would not one swear that old Hal showed all that is showed in
the Tower? I am now in the act of expecting the house of
Pritchard,(1456) Dame Clive,(1457) and Mrs. Metheglin to
dinner. I promise you the Clive, and I will not show one
another our pleasure during the banket time nor afterwards.
In the evening, we go to a play at Kingston, where the places
are two pence a head. Our great company at Richmond and
Twickenham has been torn to pieces by civil dissensions, but
they continue acting. Mr. Lee, the ape of Garrick, not liking
his part, refused to play it, and had the confidence to go
into the pit as spectator. The actress, whose benefit was in
agitation, made her complaints to the audience, who obliged
him to mount the stage; but since that he has retired from the
company. I am sorry he was such a coxcomb, for he was the
best. . . .