Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

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(251) John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich.

(252) Entitled "A Letter to a Noble Lord, on occasion of some
libels written and propagated at court, in the year 1732-3."-E.

(253) According to Spence, the application was made by Pope to
Sir Robert Walpole; but Dr. Warton states, that, "in gratitude
for the favour conferred on his friend, Pope presented to
Horatio Walpole, afterwards Lord Walpole, a set of his works in
quarto, richly bound; which are now in the library at
Wollerton."-E.

(254) Edwards's "Canons of Criticism;" a series of notes on
Warburton's edition of Shakspeare. Johnson thought well of it;
but upon some one endeavouring to put the author upon a level
with Warburton, "Nay," said the Doctor, "he has given him some
smart hits, but the two men must not be named together: a fly,
sir, may sting a stately horse, and make him wince; but one is
but an insect, and the other is a horse still."-E.

107 Letter 44
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, June 18, 1751.

I sent my letter as usual from the secretary's office, but of
what secretary I don't know. Lord Sandwich last week received
his dismission, on which the Duke of Bedford resigned the next
day, and Lord Trentham with him, both breaking with old Gower,
who is entirely in the hands of the Pelhams, and made to
declare his quarrel with Lord Sandwich (who gave away his
daughter to Colonel Waldegrave) the foundation 4 his detaching
himself from the Bedfords. Your friend Lord Fane(255) comforts
Lord Sandwich with an annuity of a thousand a-year-scarcely for
his handsome behaviour to his sister! Lord Hartington is to be
master of the horse, and Lord Albemarle groom of the stole;
Lord Granville is actually lord president, and, by all outward
and visible signs, something more-in short, if he don't
overshoot himself, the Pelhams have; the King's favour to him
is visible, and so much credited, that all the incense is
offered to him. It is believed that Impresario Holderness will
succeed the Bedford in the foreign seals, and Lord Halifax in
those for the plantations. If the former does, you will have
ample instructions to negotiate for singers and dancers! Here
is an epigram made upon his directorship.

"That secrecy will now prevail
In politics, is certain;
Since Holderness, who gets the seals,
Was bred behind the curtain."

The Admirals Rowley and Boscawen are brought into the admiralty
under Lord Anson, who is advanced to the head of the board.
Seamen are tractable fishes! especially it will be Boscawen's
case, whose name in Cornish signifies obstinacy, and who brings
along with him a good quantity of resentment to Anson. In
short, the whole present system is equally formed for duration!

Since I began my letter, Lord Holderness has kissed hands for
the seals. It is said that Lord Halifax is to be made easy, by
the plantations being put under the Board of Trade. Lord
Granville comes into power as boisterously as ever, and dashes
at every thing. His lieutenants already beat up for
volunteers; but he disclaims all connexions with Lord Bath,
who, he says, forced him upon the famous ministry of
twenty-four hours, and by which he says he paid all his debts
to him. This will soon grow a turbulent scene-it 'Is not
unpleasant to sit upon the beach and see it; but few people
have the curiosity to step out to the sight. You, who knew
England in other times, will find it difficult to conceive what
an indifference reigns with regard to ministers and their
squabbles. The two Miss Gunnings,(256) and a late extravagant
dinner at White's, are twenty times more the subject of
conversation than the two brothers and Lord Granville. These
are two Irish girls, of no fortune, who are declared the
handsomest women alive. I think their being two so handsome
and both such perfect figures is their chief excellence, for
singly I have seen much handsomer women than either; however,
they can't walk in the park, or go to Vauxhall, but such mobs
follow them that they are generally driven away. The dinner
was a folly of seven young men, who bespoke it to the utmost
extent of expense: one article was a tart made of duke cherries
from a hothouse; and another, that they tasted but one glass
out of each bottle of champagne. The bill of fare has got into
print, and with good people has produced the apprehension of
another earthquake. Your friend St. Leger, was at the head of
these luxurious heroes--he is the hero of all fashion. I never
saw more dashing vivacity and absurdity, with some flashes of
parts. He had a cause the other day for duelling a sharper,
and was going to swear: the judge said to him, "I see, Sir, you
are very ready to take an oath." "Yes, my lord," replied St.
Leger, "my father was a judge."

We have been overwhelmed with lamentable Cambridge and Oxford
dirges on the Prince's death: there is but one tolerable copy;
it is by a young Lord Stormont,(257) a nephew of Murray, who is
much commended. You may imagine what incense is offered to
Stone by the people of Christ Church: they have hooked in, too
poor Lord Harcourt, and call him Harcourt the Wise! his wisdom
has already disgusted the young Prince; "Sir, pray hold up your
head. Sir, for Cod's sake, turn out your toes!" Such are
Mentor's precepts!

I am glad you receive my letters; as I knew I had been
punctual, it mortified me that you should think me remiss.
Thank you for the transcript from Bubb de tribes!(258) I will
keep your secret, though I am persuaded that a man who had
composed such a funeral oration on his master and himself fully
intended that its flowers should not bloom and wither in
obscurity.

We have already begun to sell the pictures that had not found
place at Houghton: the sale gives no great encouragement to
proceed; (though I fear it must come to that!) the large
pictures were thrown away: the whole length Vandykes went for a
song! I am mortified now at having printed the catalogue.
Gideon the Jew, and Blakiston(259) the independent grocer, have
been the chief purchasers of the pictures sold already--there,
if you love moralizing! Adieu! I have no more articles to-day
for my literary gazette.

(255) Lord Sandwich married Dorothy, sister of Charles, Lord
Viscount Fane.

(256) Afterwards Countess of Coventry, and Duchess of Hamilton
and Argyll.-D.

(257) David Murray, seventh Viscount Stormont, ambassador at
Vienna and Paris, and president of the council. He died in
1796.-D.

(258) A letter to Mr. Mann from Bubb Doddington on the Prince's
death. It is dated June 4, and contains the following
bombastic and absurd passage: which, however, proves how great
were the expectations of Doddington, if the prince had lived to
succeed his father: ,We have lost the delight and ornament of
the age he lived in, the expectations of the public-in this
light I have lost more than any subject in England, but this is
light; public advantages confined to myself do not, ought not,
to weigh with me. But we have lost the refuge of private
distress, the balm of the afflicted heart, the shelter of the
miserable against the fang of private calamity; the arts, the
graces, the anguish, the misfortunes of society have lost their
patron and their remedy. I have lost my protector, my
companion, my friend that loved me, that condescended to bear,
to communicate, and to share in all the pleasures and pains of
the human heart, where the social affections and emotions of
the mind only presided, without regard to the infinite
disproportion of our rank and condition. This is a wound that
cannot, ought not, to heal--if I pretended to fortitude here I
should be infamous, a monster of ingratitude; and unworthy of
all consolation, if I was not inconsolable.-D.

(259) Blakiston has been caught in smuggling, and pardoned by
Sir Robert Walpole; but continuing the practice, and being
again detected was fined five thousand pounds; on which he grew
a violent party man, and a ringleader of the Westminster
independent electors, and died an alderman of London.

109 Letter 45
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, July 16, 1751.

I shall do little more to-day than answer your last letter of
the 2d of this month; there is no kind of news. My chief
reason for writing to you is to notify a visit that you will
have at Florence this summer from Mr. Conway, who is forced to
go to his regiment at Minorca, but is determined to reckon
Italy within his quarters. You know how, particularly he is my
friend; I need not recommend him to you; but you will see
something very different from the staring boys that come in
flocks to you new, once a year, like woodcocks. Mr. Conway is
deservedly reckoned one of the first and most rising young men
in England. He has distinguished himself in the greatest style
both in the army and in Parliament. This is for you. for the
Florentine ladies, there is still the finest person and the
handsomest face I ever saw--no, I cannot say that all this will
be quite for them; he will not think any of them so handsome as
my Lady Aylesbury.

It is impossible to answer you why my Lord Orford would not
marry Miss Nicholl. I don't believe there was any particular
reason or attachment any where else; but unfortunately for
himself and for us, he is totally insensible to his situation,
and talks of selling Houghton with a coolness that wants
nothing but being intended for philosophy to be the greatest
that ever was. Mind, it is a virtue that I envy more than I
honour.

I am going into Warwickshire to Lord Hertford, and set out this
evening, and have so many things to do that you must excuse me,
for I neither know what I write, nor have time to write more.
Adieu!

110 Letter 46
To George Montagu, Esq.
Daventry, July 22, 1751.

You will wonder in what part of the county of Twicks lies this
Daventry. It happens to be in Northamptonshire. My letter
will scarce set out till I get to London, but I choose to give
it its present date lest you should admire, that Mr. Usher of
the exchequer, the lord treasurer of pen, ink, and paper,
should write with such coarse materials. I am on my way from
Ragley,(260) and if ever the waters subside and my ark rests
upon dry land again, I think of stepping over to TOnghes: but
your journey has filled my postchaise's head with such terrible
ideas of your roads, that I think I shall let it have done
raining for a month or six weeks, which it has not done for as
much time past, before I begin to grease my wheels again, and
lay in a provision of French books, and tea, and blunderbusses,
for my journey.

Before I tell you a word of Ragley, you must hear how busy I
have been upon Grammont. You know I have long had a purpose of
a new edition, with notes, and cuts of the principal beauties
and heroes, if I could meet with their portraits. I have made
out all the people at all remarkable except my Lord Janet, whom
I cannot divine unless he be Thanet. Well, but what will
entertain you is, that I have discovered the philosophe
Whitnell; and what do you think his real name was? Only
'Whetenhall! Pray do you call cousins?(261) Look in Collins's
Baronets, and under the article Bedingfield you will find that
he was an ingenious gentleman, and la blanche Whitnell, though
one of the greatest beauties of the age, an excellent wife. I
am persuaded the Bedingfields crowded in these characters to
take off the ridicule in Grammont; they have succeeded to a
miracle. Madame de Mirepoix told me t'other day, that she had
known a daughter of the Countess de Grammont, an Abbess in
Lorrain, who, to the ambassadress's great scandal, was ten
times more vain of the blood of Hamilton than of an equal
quantity of that of Grammont. She had told her much of her
sister my Lady Stafford,(262) whom I remember to have seen when I
was a child. She used to live at Twickenham when Lady Mary
Wortley(263) and the Duke of Wharton lived there; she had more
wit than both of them. What would I give to have had Strawberry
Hill twenty years ago! I think any thing but twenty years. Lady
Stafford used to say to her sister, "Well, child, I have come
without my wit to-day;" that is, she had not taken her opium,
which she was forced to do if she had any appointment, to be in
particular spirits. This rage of Grammont carried me a little
while ago to old Marlborough's,(264) at Wimbledon, where I had
heard there was a picture of Lady Denham;(265) it is a charming
one. The house you know stands in a hole, or, as the whimsical
old lady said, seems to be making a courtesy. She had directed
my Lord Pembroke not to make her go up any steps; "I wont go up
steps;"--and so he dug a saucer to put it in, and levelled the
first floor with the ground. There is a bust of Admiral
Vernon, erected I suppose by Jack Spencer, with as many lies
upon it as if it was a tombstone; and a very curious old
picture up-stairs that I take to be Louis Sforza the Moor, with
his nephew Galeazzo. There are other good pictures in the
house, but perhaps you have seen them. As I have formerly seen
Oxford and Blenheim, I did not stop till I came to
Stratford-upon-Avon, the wretchedest old town I ever saw, which
I intended for Shakspeare's sake, to find snug and pretty, and
antique, not old. His tomb, and his wife's, and John Combes',
are in an agreeable church, with several other monuments; as
one of the Earl of Totness,(266) and another of Sir Edward
Walker, the memoirs writer. There are quantities of Cloptons,
too but the bountiful corporation have exceedingly bepainted
Shakspeare and the principal personages.

I was much struck with Ragley; the situation is magnificent;
the house far beyond any thing I have seen of that bad age: for
it was begun, as I found by an old letter in the library from
Lord Ranelagh to Earl Conway, in the year 1680. By the way, I
have had, and am to have, the rummaging of three chests of
pedigrees and letters to that secretary Conway, which I have
interceded for and saved from the flames. The prospect is as
fine as one destitute of a navigated river can be, ind hitherto
totally unimproved; so is the house, which is but just covered
in, after so many years. They have begun to inhabit the naked
walls of the attic story; the great one is unfloored and
unceited - the hall is magnificent, sixty by forty, and
thirty-eight high. I am going to pump Mr. Bentley for designs.
The other apartments are very lofty, and in quantity, though I
had suspected that this leviathan hall must have devoured half
the other chambers.

The Hertfords carried me to dine at Lord Archer's,(267) an
odious place. On my return, I saw Warwick, a pretty old town,
small, and thinly inhabited, in the form of a cross. The
castle is enchanting; the view pleased me more than I can
express; the river Avon tumbles down a cascade at the foot of
it. It is well laid out by one Brown(268 who has set up on a
few ideas of Kent and Mr. Southcote. One sees what the
prevalence of taste does; little Brooke, who would have
chuckled to have been born in an age of clipt hedges and
cockle-shell avenues, has submitted to let his garden and park
be natural. Where he has attempted Gothic in the castle, he
has failed; and has indulged himself in a new apartment, that
is paltry. The chapel is very pretty, and smugged up with tiny
pews, that look like `etuis for the Earl and his diminutive
Countess. I shall tell you nothing of the glorious chapel of
the Beauchamps in St. Mary's church, for you know it is in
Dugdale; nor how ill the fierce bears and ragged staves are
succeeded by puppets and corals. As I came back another road,
I saw Lord Pomfret's,(269) by Towcester, where there are a few
good pictures, and many masked statues; there is an exceeding
fine Cicero, which has no fault, but the head being modern. I
saw a pretty lodge. just built by the Duke of Grafton, in
Whittleberry-forest; the design is Kent's, but, as was his
manner, too heavy. Iran through the gardens at Stowe, which I
have seen before, and had only time to be charmed with the
variety of scenes. I do like that Albano glut of buildings,
let them be ever so much condemned.

(260) The seat of the Earl of Hertford in Warwickshire.

(261) A sister of Mr. Montagu's was married to Nathaniel
Whetenhall, Esq.

(262) Claude Charlotte, Countess of Stafford, wife of Henry,
Earl of Stafford, and daughter of Philibert, Count of Grammont,
and Elizabeth Hamilton, his wife.

(263) Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

(264) Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough.

(265) Miss Brooke, one of the beauties of the court of Charles
II., second wife of Sir John Denham the poet. This second
marriage brought upon him so much disquiet, as for a time to
disorder his understanding, and Butler lampooned him for his
lunacy. In Grammont's Memoirs many circumstances are related,
both of his marriage and his frenzy, very little favourable to
his character.-E.

(266) George Carew, Earl of Totness, died without heirs male in
1629, leaving an only daughter, married to Sir Allen Apsley.-E.

(267) Umberslade, near Stratford-upon-Avon.

(268) Lancelot Brown, generally called "Capability Brown," from
his frequent use of that word. He rose by his merit, from a
low condition, to be head gardener at Stowe; and was afterwards
appointed to the same situation at Hampton Court. Lord
Chatham, who had a great regard for him, thus speaks of him, in
a letter to Lady Stanhope:--"The chapter of my friend's dignity
must not be omitted. He writes Lancelot Brown, Esquire, en
titre d'affic: please to consider, he shares the private hours
of Majesty, dines familiarly with his neighbour of Sion, and
sits down to the tables of all the House of Lords, etc. To be
serious, he is deserving of the regard shown to him; for I know
him, upon very long acquaintance to be an honest man, and of
sentiments much above his birth." see Chatham Correspondence,
vol. iv. p. 430.-E.

(269) Easton Neston.

112 letter 47
To Sir Horace Mann.
Mistley, Aug. 31, 1751.

I am going to answer two of your letters, without having the
fear of Genoa(270) before my eyes. Your brother sent to me
about this embassy the night before I came out of town, and I
had not time nor opportunity to make any inquiry about it.
Indeed, I am persuaded it is all a fable, some political nonsense
of Richcourt. How should his brother know any thing of it? or,
to speak plainly, what can we bring about by a sudden negotiation
with the Genoese? Do but put these two things together, that we
can do nothing, and the Richcourts can know nothing, and you will
laugh at this pretended communication of a secret that relates
to yourself' from one who is ignorant of what relates to you,
and who would not tell you if he did know. I have had a note
from your brother since I came hither, which confirms my
opinion; and I find Mr. Chute is of the same. Be at peace, my
dear child: I should not be so if I thought you in the least
danger.

I imagined you would have seen Mr. Conway before this time; I
have already told you how different you will find him from the
raw animals that you generally see. As you talk of our
Beauties, I shall tell you a new story of the Gunnings, who
make more noise than any of their predecessors since the days
of Helen, though neither of them, nor any thing about them,
have yet been teterrima belli causa. They went the other day
to see Hampton Court; as they were going Into the Beauty-room,
another company arrived; the housekeeper said, "This way,
ladies; here are the Beauties." The Gunnings flew into a
passion, and asked her what she meant; that they came to see
the palace, not to be showed as a sight themselves.

I am charmed with your behaviour to the Count on the affair of
the Leghorn allegiance; I don't wonder he is willing to
transport you to Genoa! Your priest's epigram is strong; I
suppose he had a dispensation for making a false quantity in
secunda.

Pray tell me if you know any thing of Lady Mary Wortley: we
have an obscure history here of her being in durance in the
Brescian, or the Bergamasco: that a young fellow whom she set
out with keeping has taken it into his head to keep her close
prisoner, not permitting her to write or receive any letters
but what he sees: he seems determined, if her husband should
die, not to lose her, as the Count lost my Lady Orford.(271)

Lord Rockingham told me himself of his Guercino, and seemed
obliged for the trouble you had given yourself in executing the
commission. I can tell you nothing farther of the pictures at
Houghton; Lord Orford has been ill and given over, and is gone
to Cheltenham.

The affair of Miss Nicholl is blown up by the treachery of my
uncle Horace and some lawyers, that I had employed at his
recommendation. I have been forced to write a narrative of the
whole transaction, and was with difficulty kept from publishing
it. You shall see it whenever I have an opportunity. Mr.
Chute, who has been still worse used than I have been, is,
however, in better spirits than he was, since he got rid of all
this embroil. I have brought about a reconciliation with his
brother, which makes me less regard the other disappointments.
I must bid you good night, for I am at too great a distance to
know any news, even if there were any in season. I shall be in
town next week, and will not fail you in inquiries, though I am
persuaded you will before that have found that all this Genoese
mystery was without foundation. Adieu!

(270) Count Richcourt pretended that he had received
intelligence from his brother, then minister in London, that
Mr. Mann was to be sent on a secret commission to Genoa.

(271) Lord Wharncliffe, in his edition of Lady Mary's Works,
vol. iii. p. 435, makes the following observation on this
passage:--"Among Lady Mary's papers there is a long paper,
written in Italian, not by herself, giving an account of her
having been detained for some time against her will in a
country-house belonging to an Italian Count, and inhabited by
him and his mother. This paper seems to have been submitted to
a lawyer for his opinion, or to be produced in a court of law.
There is nothing else to be found in Lady Mary's papers
referring in the least degree to this circumstance. It would
appear, however, that some such forcible detention as is
alluded to did take place, probably for some pecuniary or
interested object; but, like many of Horace Walpole's stories,
he took care not to let this lose any thing that might give it
zest, and he therefore makes the person by whom Lady Mary was
detained a young fellow whom she set out with keeping.' Now, at
the time of this transaction, Lady Mary was sixty-one years
old. The reader, therefore, may judge for himself, how far
such an imputation upon her is likely to be founded in
truth."-E.

114 Letter 48
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Oct. 8, 1751.

So you have totally forgot that I sent you the pedigree of the
Crouches, as long ago as the middle of last August, and that
you promised to come to Strawberry Hill in October. I shall be
there some time in next week, but as my motions neither depend
on resolutions nor almanacs, let me know beforehand when you
intend to make me a visit; for though keeping an appointment is
not just the thing you ever do, I suppose you know you dislike
being disappointed yourself, as much as if you were the most
punctual person in the world to engagements.

I came yesterday from Woburn, where I have been a week. The
house is in building, and three sides of the quadrangle
finished. The park is very fine, the woods glorious, and the
plantations of evergreens sumptuous; but upon the whole, it is
rather -what I admire than like-I fear that is what I am a
little apt to do at the finest places in the world where there
is not a navigable river. You would be charmed, as I was, with
an old gallery, that is not yet destroyed. It is a bad room,
powdered with little gold stars, and covered with millions of
old portraits. There are all the successions of Earls and
Countesses of Bedford, and all their progenies. One countess
is a whole-length drawing in the drollest dress you ever saw; and
another picture of the same woman leaning on her hand, I
believe by Cornelius Johnson, is as fine a head as ever I saw.
There are many of Queen Elizabeth's worthies, the Leicesters,
Essexes, and Philip Sidneys, and a very curious portrait of the
last Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, who died at Padua. Have not
I read somewhere that he was in love with Queen Elizabeth, and
Queen Mary -with him? He is quite in the style of the former's
lovers, red-bearded, and not comely. There is Essex's friend,
the Earl of Southampton; his son the Lord Treasurer; and Madame
l'Empoisonneuse,(273) that married Carr,(274) Earl of
Somerset--she is pretty. Have not you seen a copy Vertue has
made of Philip and Mary? That is in this gallery too, but more
curious than good. They showed me two heads, who, according to
the tradition of the family, were the originals of Castalio and
Polydore. They were sons to the second Earl of Bedford; and the
eldest, if not both, died before their father. The eldest has
vipers in his hand, and in the distant landscape appears in a
maze, with these words, Fata viam invenient. The other has a
woman behind him, sitting near the sea, with strange monsters
surrounding her. I don't pretend to decipher this, nor to
describe half the entertaining morsels I found here; but I can't
omit, as you know I am Grammont-mad, that I found "le vieux
Roussel, qui `etoit le plus fier danseur d'Angleterre." The
portrait is young, but has all the promise of his latter
character. I am going to send them a head of a Countess of
Cumberland,(275) sister to Castalio and Polydore, and mother of a
famous Countess of Dorset,(276) who Afterwards married the Earl
of Pembroke,(277) of Charles the First's time. She was an
authoress, and immensely rich. After the restoration, Sir
Joseph Williamson, the secretary of state, wrote to her to
choose a courtier at Appleby: she sent him this answer: "I have
been bullied by an usurper, I have been ill-treated by a court,
but I won't be dictated to by a subject; your man shall not
stand. Ann Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery." Adieu! If you
love news a hundred years old, I think you can't have a better
correspondent. For any thing that passes now, I shall not
think it worth knowing these fifty years.