Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

H >> Horace Walpole >> The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61

The conclusion of my letter will be a more serious story, but
very proper for the Walpoliana. I have given you scraps of
Ashton's history. To perfect his ingratitude, he has struck up
an intimacy with my second brother, and done his utmost to make
a new quarrel between us, on the merit of having broke with me
on the affair of Dr. Middleton. I don't know whether I ever
told you that my brother hated Middleton, who was ill with a
Dr. Thirlby,(215) a creature of his. He carried this and his
jealousy of me so far, that once when Lord Mountford brought
Middleton for one night only to Houghton my brother wrote my
father a most outrageous letter, telling him that he knew I had
fetched Middleton to Houghton to write my father's life, and
how much more capable Thirlby was of this task. Can one help
admiring in these instances the dignity of human nature! Poor
Mrs. Middleton is alarmed with a scheme that I think she very
justly suspects as a plot of the clergy to get at and suppress
her husband's papers. He died in a lawsuit with a builder, who
has since got a monition from the Commons for her to produce
all the Doctor's effects and papers. The whole debt is but
eight hundred pounds. She offered ten thousand pounds
security, and the fellow will not take it. Is there clergy in
it, or no? Adieu!

(208) Lady Yarmouth. The new amour did not proceed.

(209) Mrs. Marriot.

(210) She was, though maid of honour, privately married to
Augustus, second son of the late Lord Hervey, by whom she had
two children; but disagreeing, the match was not owned. She
afterwards, still maid of honour, lived very publicly with the
Duke of Kingston, and at last married him during Mr. Hervey's
life.

(211) Princess Craon, formerly mistress of Leopold, Duke of
Lorraine.

(212) I think he was an Irish bricklayer; he wrote an "Earl of
Essex." ["Having a natural inclination for the Muses," says his
biographer, "he pursued his devotions to them even during the
labours of his more mechanical avocations, and composing a line
of brick and a line of verse alternately, his wall and poems
rose up in growth together." His tragedy of the "Earl of
Essex" came out at Covent Garden in 1753, and met with
considerable success. He died in great want, in 1770.-E.]

(213) Meaning President of the Council. The two fires were the
Pelham brothers; between whom all private intercourse was at
this time suspended.-E.

(214) See the Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus in Swift's Works;
Indamora alludes to Mr. Pelham, Lindamira to the Duke of
Newcastle.

(215) For a notice of the Doctor, see ant`e.-E.

89 Letter 35
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Feb. 9, 1751.

You will wonder that I, who am pretty punctual, even when I
have little to say, should have been so silent at the beginning
of a session: I will tell you some reasons why; what I had to
tell you was not finished; I wished to give you an entire
account: besides, we have had so vigorous an attendance, that
with that, and the fatigue, it was impossible to write. Before
the Parliament met, there was a dead tranquillity, and no
symptoms of party spirit. What is more extraordinary, though
the Opposition set out vehemently the very first day, there has
appeared ten times greater spirit on the court side, a Whig
vehemence that has rushed on heartily. I have been much
entertained-what should I have been, if I had lived in the
times of the Exclusion-bill, and the end of queen Anne's reign,
when votes and debates really tended to something! Now they
tend but to the alteration of a dozen places, perhaps, more or
less-but come, I'll tell you, and you shall judge for yourself.
The morning the Houses met, there was universally dispersed, by
the penny post, and by being dropped into the areas of houses,
a paper called Constitutional Queries, a little equivocal, for
it is not clear whether they were levelled at the Family, or by
Part of the Family at the Duke.(216) The Address was warmly
opposed, and occasioned a remarkable speech of Pitt, in
recantation of his former orations on the Spanish, war, and in
panegyric on the Duke of Newcastle, wit whom e is pushing
himself, and by whom he is pushed at all rates, in opposition
to Lord Sandwich and the Bedfords. Two or three days
afterwards there were motions in both Houses to have the
Queries publicly burnt. That too occasioned a debate with us,
and a fine speech of Lord Egmont, artfully condemning the
paper, though a little suspected of it, and yet supporting some
of the reasonings in it. There was no division on the
resolution; but two days afterwards we had a very extraordinary
and unforeseen one. Mr. Pelham had determined to have 'but
8,000 seamen this year, instead of 10,000. Pitt and his
cousins, without any notice given, declared with the Opposition
for the greater number. The key to this you will find in Pit'S
whole behaviour; whenever he wanted new advancement, he used to
go off He has openly met with great discouragement now; though
he and we know Mr. Pelham so -well, that it Will not be
surprising if, though baffled, he still carries his point of
secretary of state. However, the old corps resented this
violently, and rushed up their old anger: Mr. Pelham was
inclined to give way, but Lord Hartington, at the head of the
young Whigs, divided the House, and Pitt had the mortification
of being followed into the minority by only fifteen persons. The
King has been highly pleased with this event; and has never
named the Pitts and Grenvilles to the Duke of Newcastle, but to
abuse them, and to commend the spirit of the young people. It
has not weakened the Bedford faction, who have got more
strength by the clumsy politics of another set of their
enemies. There has all the summer been a Westminster petition
in agitation, driven on by the independent electors, headed by
Lord Elibank, Murray his brother, and one or two gentlemen.
Sir John Cotton, and Cooke the member for Middlesex,
discouraged it all they could, and even stifled the first
drawn, which was absolutely treason. However, Cooke at last
presented one from the inhabitants, and Lord Egmont another
from Sir George Vandeput; and Cooke even made a strong
invective against the High-bailiff; on which Lord Trentham
produced and read a letter written by Cooke to the
High-bailiff, when he was in their interest, and stuffed with
flattery to him. Lord Trentham's friends then called in the
High-bailiff, who accused some persons of hindering and
threatening him on the scrutiny, and, after some contention,
named Crowle, counsel for Sir George Vandeput, Gibson, an
upholsterer and independent, and Mr. Murray.(217) These three
were ordered to attend on the following Thursday to defend
themselves. Before that day came, we had the report on the
eight thousand seamen, when Pitt and his associates made
speeches of lamentation on their disagreement with Pelham, whom
they flattered inordinately. This ended in a burlesque quarrel
between Pitt and Hampden,(218) a buffoon who hates the
cousinhood, and thinks his name should entitle him to Pitt's
office. We had a very long day on Crowle's defence, who had
called the power of the House brutum fulmen: he was very
submissive, and was dismissed with a reprimand on his knees.
Lord Egmont was so severely handled by Fox, that he has not
recovered his spirits since. He used to cry up Fox against Mr.
Pelham, but since the former has seemed rather attached to the
Duke and the Duke of Bedford, the party affect to heap incense
on Pelham and Pitt--and it is returned.

The day that Murray came to the bar he behaved with great
confidence, but at last desired counsel, which was granted: in
the mean time we sent Gibson to Newgate. Last Wednesday was
the day of trial: the accusation was plentifully proved against
Murray, and it was voted to send him close prisoner to Newgate.
His party still struggling against the term close, the Whigs
grew provoked, and resolved he should receive his sentence on
his knees at the bar. To this he refused to submit. The
Speaker stormed, and the House and its honour grew outrageous
at the dilemma they were got into, and indeed out of which we
are not got yet. If he gets the better, he will indeed be a
meritorious martyr for the cause: en attendant, he is strictly
shut up in Newgate.(219)

By these anecdotes you will be able to judge a little of the
news you mention in your last, of January 29th, and will
perceive that our ministerial vacancies and successions are not
likely to be determined soon. Niccolini's account of the
aversion to Lord Sandwich is well grounded, though as to
inflexible resentments, there cannot easily be any such thing,
where parties and factions are so fluctuating as in this
country. I was to have dined the other day at Madame de
Mirepoix's with my Lord Bolingbroke, but he was ill. She said,
she had repented asking me, as she did not know if I should
like it. , Oh! Madam, I have gone through too many of those
things to make any objection to the only one that remains!"

I grieve much for the return of pains in your head and breast;
I flattered myself that you had quite mastered them.

I have seen your Pelham and Milbank, not much, but I like the
latter; I have some notion, from thinking that he resembles you
in his manner. The other seems very good-humoured, but he is
nothing but complexion. Dame is returned; he looks ill; but I
like him better than I used to do, for he commends you. My
Lord Pomfret is made ranger of the parks, and by consequence my
Lady is queen of the Duck Island.(220) Our greatest miracle is
Lady Mary Wortley's son,(221) whose adventures have made so
much noise- his parts are not proportionate, but his expense is
incredible. His father scarce allows him any thing: yet he
plays, dresses, diamonds himself, even to distinct shoe-buckles
for a frock, and has more snuff-boxes than would suffice a
Chinese idol with an hundred noses. But the most curious part
of his dress, which he has brought from Paris, is an iron wig;
you literally would not know it from hair--I believe it is on
this account that the Royal Society have just chosen him of
their body. This may surprise you: what I am now going to tell
you will not, for you have only known her follies - the Duchess
of Queensbury told Lady Di. Egerton,(222) a pretty daughter of
the Duchess of Bridgewater, that she was going to make a ball
for her: she did, but did not invite her: the girl was
mortified, and Mr. Lyttelton, her father-in-law, sent the mad
Grace a hint of it. She sent back this card-. "The
advertisement came to hand; it was very pretty and very
ingenious; but every thing that is pretty and ingenious does not
always succeed; the Duchess of Q. piques herself on her house
being unlike Socrates's; his was small and held all his friends;
hers is large, but will not hold half of hers: postponed, but not
forgot: unalterable." Adieu!

(217) The Hon. Alexander Murray, fourth son of Alexander,
fourth Lord Elibank. This family was for the most part
Jacobite in its principles.-D.

(218) John Hampden, Esq., the last descendant in the file line of
the celebrated Hampden. On his death in 1754, he left his
estates to the Hon. Robert Trevor, son of Lord Trevor, who was
descended from Ruth, the daughter of the Patriot.-D.

(219) mr Murray's health appearing to be in danger, the House,
upon the report of his physician, offered to remove him from
Newgate into the custody of the sergeant-at-arms: but he had
the resolution to reject the offer, and to continue in Newgate
till the end of the session; when he made a kind of triumphal
procession to his own house, attended by the sheriffs of
London, a large train of coaches, and the declamations of the
populace.-E.

(220) Duck Island was a spot in St. James's Park, near the
Bird-cage Walk; and was so called, because Charles the Second
had established a decoy of ducks upon it. It was destroyed
when the improvements and alterations took place in this park,
about the year 1770.-D.

(221) Edward Wortley Montague, whose singular adventures and
eccentricities are so well known. In 1747, he was chosen
member for the county of Huntingdon; but in his senatorial
capacity he did not distinguish himself. His expenses greatly
exceeding his income, towards the end of this year he quitted
the kingdom and went to Paris.-E.

(222) Daughter of Scroop, Duke of Bridgewater, by the Lady
Rachel Russel, sister of the Duke of Bedford. Lady Diana
Egerton was afterwards married to Lord Baltimore.

94 Letter 36
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, March 13, 1751.

You will be expecting the conclusion of Mr. Murray's history,
but as he is too great a hero to submit, and not hero enough to
terminate his prison in a more summary, or more English way,
you must have patience, as we shall have, till the end of the
session. His relations, who had leave to visit him, are
excluded again: rougher methods with him are not the style of
the age: in the mean time he is quite forgot. General
Anstruther is now the object in fashion, or made so by a Sir
Harry Erskine, a very fashionable figure in the world of
politics, who has just come into Parliament, and has been
laying a foundation for the next reign by attacking the
Mutiny-bill, and occasionally General Anstruther, who treated
him hardly ten years ago in Minorca. Anstruther has mutually
persecuted and been persecuted by the Scotch ever since
Porteous's affair, when, of all that nation, he alone voted for
demolishing part of Edinburgh. This affair would be a trifle,
if it had not opened the long-smothered rivalship between Fox
and Pitt: for these ten days they have been civilly at war
together; and Mr. Pelham is bruised between both. However,
this impetuosity of Pitt has almost overset the total
engrossment that the Duke of Newcastle had made of all power,
and if they do not, as it is suspected, league with the Prince,
you will not so soon hear of the fall of the Bedfords, as I had
made you expect. With this quantity of factions ind infinite
quantity of speakers, we have had a most fatiguing session, and
seldom rise before nine or ten at night.

There have been two events, not political, equal to any
absurdities or follies of former years. My Lady Vane(223) has
literally published the memoirs of her own life, Only
suppressing part of her lovers, no part of the success of the
others with her: a degree of profligacy not to be accounted
for; she does not want money, none of her lovers will raise her
credit; and the number, all she had to brag of, concealed! The
other is a play that has been acted by people of some fashion
at Drury Lane, hired on purpose. They really acted so well
that it is astonishing they should not have had sense enough
not to act at all. You would know none of their names, should I
tell you; but the chief were a family of Delavals, the eldest of
which was married by one Foote, a player, to Lady Nassau
Poulett,(224) who had kept the latter. The rage was so great
to see this performance that the House of Commons literally
adjourned at three o'clock on purpose: the footman's gallery
was strung with blue ribands. What a wise people! what an
august Senate! yet my Lord Granville once told the Prince, I
forget on occasion of what folly, "Sir, indeed your Royal
Highness is in the wrong to act thus; the English are a grave
nation."

The King has been much out of order, but he is quite well
again, and they say, not above sixty-seven! Adieu!

(223) Anne, second daughter of Mr. Hawes, the wife of William,
Lord Viscount Vane. The history of her intrigues, communicated
by herself, had just been published in Smollett's Adventures of
Peregrine Pickle. See vol. i. Gray, in a letter to Walpole,
of the 3d of March, writes, "Has that miracle of tenderness and
sensibility (as she calls it), given you any amusement?
Peregrine, whom she uses as a vehicle, is very poor indeed,
with a few exceptions."-E.

(224) Isabella, youngest daughter and co-heiress of Thomas
Tufton, Earl of Thanet, and widow of Lord Nassau Poulett,
youngest brother of the Duke of Bolton. She was mad.

95 Letter 37
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, March 21, 1751.

What, another letter, -when I wrote to you but last week!-
-Yes--and with an event too big to be kept for a regular
interval. You will imagine from the conclusion of my last
letter that our King is dead--or, before you receive this, you
will probably have heard by flying couriers that it is only our
King that was to be. In short, the Prince died last night
between nine and ten. If I don't tell you ample details, it is
because you must content yourself with hearing nothing but what
I know true. He had had a pleurisy, and was recovered. Last
Tuesday was se'nnight he went to attend the King's passing some
bills in the House of Lords; from thence to Carlton House, very
hot, where he unrobed, put on a light unaired frock and
waistcoat, went to Kew, walked in a bitter day, came home
tired, and lay down for three hours, upon a couch in a very
cold room at Carlton House, that opens into the garden. Lord
Egmont told him how dangerous it was, but the Prince did not
mind him. My father once said to this King, when he was ill
and royally untractable, "Sir, do you know what your father
died of? of thinking he could not die." In short, the Prince
relapsed that night, has had three physicians ever since, and
has never been supposed out of danger till yesterday: a thrush
had appeared, and for the two or three last evenings he had
dangerous suppressions of breath. However, his family thought
him so well yesterday, that there were cards in his outward
room. Between nine and ten he was seized with a violent fit of
coughing. Wilmot, and Hawkins the surgeon, were present: the
former said, ,Sir, have you brought up all the phlegm? I hope
this will be over in a quarter of an hour, and that your Royal
Highness will have a good night." Hawkins had occasion to go
out of the room, and said, "Here is something I don't like."
The cough continued; the prince laid his hand upon his stomach,
and said, "Je sens la mort." The page who held him up, felt him
shiver, and cried out, The Prince is going!" The Princess was at
the feet of the bed; she catched up a
candle and ran to him, but before she got to the head of the
bed, he was dead.(225)

Lord North was immediately sent to the King, who was looking
over a table, where Princess Emily, the Duchess of Dorset, and
Duke of Grafton were playing. He was extremely surprised, and
said, "Why, they told me he was better!" He bid Lord North tell
the Princess, he would do every thing she could desire; and has
this morning sent her a very kind message in writing. He is
extremely shocked--but no pity is too much for the Princess;
she has eight children, and is seven months gone with another.
She bears her affliction with great courage and sense. They
asked her if the body was to be opened; she replied, what the
King pleased.

This is all I know yet; you shall have fresh and fresh
intelligence--for reflections on minorities, Regencies,
Jacobitism, Oppositions, factions, I need not help you to them.
You will make as many as any body, but those who reflect on
their own disappointments. The creditors are no inconsiderable
part of the moralists. They talk of fourteen hundred thousand
pounds on post-obits. This I am sure I don't vouch; I Only
know that I never am concerned to see the tables of the
money-changers overturned and cast out of the temple.(226)

I much fear, that by another post I shall be forced to tell you
news that will have much worse effects for my own family, My
Lord Orford has got such another violent boil as he had two
years ago--and a thrush has appeared too along with it. We are
in the utmost apprehensions about him, the more, because there
is no possibility of giving him any about himself. He has not
only taken an invincible aversion to physicians, but to the
bark, and we have no hopes from any thing else. It will be a
fatal event for me, for your brother, and for his own son.
Princess Emily,(227) Mr. Pelham(228) and my Lady Orford, are
not among the most frightened.

Your brother, who dines here with Mr. Chute and Gray,(229) has
just brought me your letter of March 12th. The libel you ask
about was called "Constitutional Queries:" have not you
received mine of February 9th? there was some account of our
present history. Adieu! I have not time to write any longer to
you; but you may well expect our correspondence will thicken.

(225) Frederick, Prince of Wales, was a man in no way
estimable, though his understanding and disposition were cried
up by those who were in opposition to his father's government.
Walpole says of him, "His best quality was generosity; his
worst, insincerity and indifference to truth, which appeared so
early, that Earl Stanhope wrote to Lord Sunderland from
Hanover, "He has his father's head, and his mother's heart."
His death was undoubtedly a deliverance for those who, had he
lived, would have become his subjects.-D.

(226) Frederick, Prince of Wales's debts were never paid.-D.

(227) Princess Emily had the reversion of New-park.

(228) The auditor of the exchequer, was in the gift of Mr.
Pelham, as chancellor of the exchequer, and first lord of the
treasury.

(229) Thomas Gray, author of the Elegy in a Churchyard, and
other poems.

97 Letter 38
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, April 1, 1751.

How shall I begin a letter that will-that must give you as much
pain as I feel myself? I must interrupt the story of the
Prince's death, to tell you of two more, much more important,
God knows! to you and me! One I had prepared you for-but how
will you be shocked to hear that our poor Mr. Whithed is
dead(230) as well as my brother! Whithed had had a bad cough
for two months: he was going out of town to the Minchester
assizes; I persuaded and sent him home from hence one morning
to be blooded. However, he went, in extreme bad weather. His
youngest brother, the clergyman, who is the greatest brute in
the world, except the elder brother, the layman, dragged him
out every morning to hunt, as eagerly as if it had been to hunt
heretics. One day they were overturned in a water, and then
the parson made him ride forty miles: in short, he arrived it
the Vine half dead, and soon grew delirious. Poor Mr. Chute
was sent for to him last Wednesday, and sent back for two more
physicians, but in vain; he expired on Friday night! Mr. Chute
is come back half distracted, and scarce to be known again.
You may easily believe that my own distress does not prevent my
doing all in my power to alleviate his. Whithed, that best of
hearts, had forgiven all his elder brother's beastliness, and
has left him the Norton estate, the better half; the rest to
the clergyman, with an annuity of one hundred and twenty pounds
a year to his Florentine mistress, and six hundred pounds to
their child. He has left Mr. Chute one thousand pounds, which,
if forty times the sum, would not comfort him, and, little as
it is, does not in the least affect or alter his concern.
Indeed, he not only loses an intimate friend, but in a manner
an only child; he had formed him to be one of the prettiest
gentlemen in England, and had brought about a match for him,
that was soon to be concluded with a Miss Nicholl, an immense
fortune; and I am persuaded had fixed his heart on making him
his own heir, if he himself outlived his brother. With such a
fortune, and with such expectations, how hard to die!--or,
perhaps, how lucky, before he had tasted misfortune and
mortification.

I must now mention my own misfortune, Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Thursday mornings, the physicians and all the family of painful
death,(231) (to alter Gray's phrase,) were persuaded and
persuaded me, that the bark, which took great place, would save
my brother's life --but he relapsed at three o'clock on
Thursday, and died last night. He ordered to be drawn and
executed his will with the greatest tranquillity and
satisfaction on Saturday morning. His spoils are
prodigious-not to his own family! indeed I think his son the
most ruined young man in England. My loss, I fear, may be
considerable, which is not the only motive of my concern, though,
as you know, I had much to forgive, before I could regret: but
indeed I do regret. It is no small addition to my concern, to
fear or foresee that Houghton and all the remains of my father's
glory will be pulled to pieces! The widow-Countess immediately
marries--not Richcourt, but Shirley, and triumphs in advancing
her son's ruin by enjoying her own estate, and tearing away
great part of his.

Now I shall divert your private grief by talking to you of what
is called the public. The King and Princess are grown as fond
as it they had never been of different parties, or rather as
people who always had been of different. She discountenances
all opposition, and he all ambition. Prince George, who, with
his two eldest brothers, is to be lodged at St. James's, is
speedily to be created Prince of Wales. Ayscough, his tutor,
is to be removed, with her entire inclination as well as with
every body's approbation. They talk of a Regency to be
established (in case of a minority) by authority of Parliament,
even this session, with the Princess at the head of it. She
and Dr. lee, the only one she consults of the late cabal, very
sensibly burned the late Prince's papers the moment he was
dead. lord Egmont, by seven o'clock the next morning, summoned
(not very decently) the faction to his house: all was whisper!
at least he hinted something of taking the Princess and her
children under their protection, and something of the necessity
of harmony. No answer was made to the former proposal.
Somebody said, it was very likely indeed they should agree now,
when the Prince could never bring it about: and so every body
went away to take care of himself. The imposthumation is
supposed to have proceeded, not from his fall last year, but
from a blow with a tennis-ball some years ago. The grief for
the dead brother is affectedly great; the aversion to the
living one as affectedly displayed. They cried about an
elegy,(232) and added, "Oh, that it were but his brother!" On
'Change they said, "Oh, that it were but the butcher!(233)"