Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

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(273 Lady Frances Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, and
married to the Earl of Essex, from whom she was divorced. She
then married her lover, the Earl of Somerset. She poisoned Sir
Thomas Overbury, because he had endeavoured to dissuade his
friend the Earl of Somerset from this alliance. She was tried
and condemned, but was pardoned by King James.

(274) Robert Carr, a favourite of King James the First, who
created him Viscount Rochester and Earl of Somerset. He was
tried and condemned, but was pardoned by James the First.

(275) Margaret, Countess of Cumberland, daughter of Francis
Russell, second Earl of Bedford, and married to George
Clifford, third Earl of Cumberland.

(276)) Ann Clifford, daughter of George, Earl of Cumberland,
first married to Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset, and
afterwards to Philip, Earl of Pembroke.

(277) Philip, Earl of Pembroke, son of Henry, second Earl of
Pembroke. He was chamberlain to Charles the First.

115 Letter 49
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, Oct. 14, 1751.

It is above six weeks since I wrote to you, and I was going on
to be longer, as I stayed for something to tell you; but an
express that arrived yesterday brought a great event, which,
though you will hear long before my letter can arrive, serves
for a topic to renew our correspondence. The Prince of Orange
is dead: killed by the waters of Aix-la-Chapelle. This is all I
yet know. I shall go to town to-morrow for a day or two, and if
I pick up any particulars before the post goes away, you shall
know them. The Princess Royal(278) was established Regent some
time ago; but as her husband's authority seemed extremely
tottering, it is not likely that she will be able to maintain
hers. Her health is extremely bad, and her temper neither
ingratiating nor bending. It is become the peculiarity of the
House of Orange to have minorities.

Your last letter to me of Sept. 24th, and all I have seen since
your first fright, make me easy about your Genoese journey. I
take no honour from the completion of my prophecy; it was
sufficient to know circumstances and the trifling falsehood of
Richcourt, to confirm me in my belief that that embassy was
never intended. We dispose of Corsica! Alas! I believe there
is but one island that we shall ever have power to give away;
and that is Great Britain--and I don't know but we may exert
our power.

You are exceedingly kind about Mr. Conway-but when are not you
so to me and my friends? I have just received a miserable
letter from him on his disappointment; he had waited for a
man-of-war to embark for Leghorn; it came in the night, left
its name upon a card, and was gone before he was awake in the
morning, and had any notice of it. He still talks of seeing
you; as the Parliament is to meet so soon, I should think he
will scarce have time, though I don't hear that he is sent for,
or that they will have occasion to send for any body, unless
they want to make an Opposition.

We were going to have festivals and masquerades for the birth
of the Duke of Burgundy, but I suppose both they and the
observance of the King's birthday will be laid aside or
postponed, on the death of our son-in-law. Madame de Mirepoix
would not stay to preside at her own banquets, but is slipped
away to retake possession of the tabouret. When the King
wished her husband joy, my Lady Pembroke(279) was standing near
him; she was a favourite, but has disgraced herself by marrying
a Captain Barnard. Mirepoix said, as he had no children he was
indifferent to the honour of a duchy for himself, but was glad
it would restore Madame to the honour she had lost by marrying
him! "Oh!" replied the King, ,you are of so great a family, the
rank was nothing; but I can't bear when women of quality marry
one don't know whom!"

Did you ever receive the questions I asked you about Lady Mary
Wortley's being confined by a lover that she keeps somewhere in
the Brescian? I long to know the particulars. I have lately
been at Woburn, where the Duchess of Bedford borrowed for me
from a niece of Lady Mary about fifty letters of the latter.
They are charming! have more spirit and vivacity than you can
conceive, and as much of the spirit of debauchery in them as
you will conceive in her writing. They were written to her
sister, the unfortunate Lady Mar, whom she treated so hardly
while out of her senses, which she has not entirely recovered,
though delivered and tended with the greatest tenderness and
affection by her daughter, Lady Margaret Erskine: they live in
a house lent to them by the Duke of Bedford; the Duchess is
Lady Mary's niece.(280) Ten of the letters, indeed, are dismal
lamentations and frights of a scene of villany of Lady Mary,
who, having persuaded one Ruremonde, a Frenchman and her lover,
to entrust her with a large sum of money to buy stock for him,
frightened him out of England, by persuading him that Mr.
Wortley had discovered the intrigue, and would murder him; and
then would have sunk the trust. That not succeeding, and he
threatening to print her letters, she endeavoured to make Lord
Mar or Lord Stair cut his throat. Pope hints at these
anecdotes of her history in that line,

"Who starves a sister or denies a debt."(281)

In one of her letters she says, "We all partake of father
Adam's folly and knavery, who first eat the apple like a sot,
and then turned informer like a scoundrel." This is character,
at least, if not very delicate; but in most of them, the wit
and style are superior to any letters I ever read but Madame
Sevign`e's. It is very remarkable, how much better women write
than men. I have now before me a volume of letters written by
the widow(282) of the beheaded Lord Russel, which are full of
the most moving and expressive eloquence ; I want to persuade
the Duke of Bedford to let them be printed.(283)

17th.--I have learned nothing but that the Prince of Orange
died of an imposthume in his head. Lord Holderness is gone to
Holland to-day--I believe rather to learn than to teach. I have
received yours of Oct. 8, and don't credit a word of
Birtle's(284) information. Adieu!

(276) Anne, eldest daughter of George the Second. Walpole, in
his Memoires, vol. i. p. 173, describes her as being
immoderately jealous and fond of her husband : "Yet," adds he,
"this Mars, who was locked in the arms of that Venus, was a
monster so deformed, that when the King had chosen him for his
son-in-law, he could not help, in the honesty of his heart and
the coarseness of his expression, telling the Princess how
hideous a bridegroom she was to expect; and even gave her
permission to refuse him: she replied, she would marry him if
he was a baboon; "Well, then," said the King, "there is baboon
enough for you!"-E.

(279) Mary, daughter of the Viscount Fitzwilliam, formerly maid
of honour to the Queen, and widow of Henry Herbert, Earl of
Pembroke. [In the preceding month, Lady Pembroke had married
North Ludlow Barnard, a major of dragoons. She died in 1769.]

(280) Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Lady Mar, and the first wife
of John, Lord Gower, were daughters of Evelyn Pierpoint, Duke
of Kingston.

(281) Upon this passage Lord Wharncliffe observes, that
"nothing whatever has been found to throw light upon the ill
treatment of Lady Mar by Lady Mary, and that accusation is
supposed, by those who would probably have heard of it if true,
to be without foundation." Nine of the ten letters spoken of
by Walpole, are given in his lordship's edition of Lady Mary's
Works; and, in the opinion of the Quarterly Reviewer, "they
confirm, in a very extraordinary way, Horace Walpole's
impression." See vol. viii. p. 191.-E.

(282) @Rachel, daughter of Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of
Southampton, lord treasurer. One of these letters to Dr.
Tillotson, to persuade him to accept the archbishopric, has
been since printed, and a fragment of another of her letters,
in Birch's Life of that prelate.

(283) They were published in 1773, and met with such deserved
success as to call for a Seventh edition of them in 1809. In
1819, appeared a quarto volume, entitled "Some Account of the
Life of Rachael Wriothesley, Lady Russell, with Letters from
Lady Russell to her husband Lord Russell," by the editor of
Madame du Deffand's Letters.-E.

(284) Consul at Genoa: he had heard the report of Mr. Mann's
being designed for an embassy to Genoa.

118 Letter 50
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Nov. 22, 1751.

As the Parliament is met, you will, of course, expect to hear
something of it: the only thing to be told of it is, what I
believe was never yet to be told of an English Parliament, that
it is so unanimous, that we are not likely to have one division
this session-Day, I think not a debate.(285) On the Address,
Sir John Cotton alone said a few words against a few words of
it. Yesterday, on a motion to resume the sentences against
Murray, who is fled to France, only two persons objected--in
short, we shall not be more a French Parliament when we are
under French government. Indeed, the two nations seem to have
crossed over and figured in; one hears of nothing from Paris
but gunpowder plots in a Duke of Burgundy's cradle (whom the
clergy, by a vice versa, have converted into a Pretender,) and
menaces of assassinations. Have you seen the following verses,
that have been stuck up on the Louvre, the Pontneuf, and other
places?

"Deux Henris immol`es par nos braves Ayeux,
L'un `a la Libert`e et l'autre `a nos Dieux,
Nous animent, Louis, aux m`emes entreprises:
Ils revivent, en Toi ces anciens Tyrans:
Crains notre desespoir: La Noblesse a des Guises,
Paris des Ravaillacs, le Clerg`e des Clements."

Did you ever see more ecclesiastic fury? Don't you like their
avowing the cause of Jacques Clement?'and that Henry IV. was
sacrificed to a plurality of gods! a frank confession! though
drawn from the author by the rhyme, as Cardinal Bembo, to write
classic Latin, used to say, Deos immortales! But what most
offends me is the threat of murder: it attaints the prerogative
of chopping off the heads of Kings in a legal way. We here
have been still more interested about a private history that
has lately happened at Paris. It seems uncertain by your
accounts whether Lady Mary Wortley is in voluntary or
constrained durance - it is not at all equivocal that her son
and a Mr. Taaffe have been in the latter at Fort LEvesque and
the Chatelet.(286) All the letters from Paris have been very
cautious of relating the circumstances. The outlines are, that
these two gentlemen, who were pharaoh-bankers to Madame de
Mirepoix, had travelled to France to exercise the same
profession, where it is suppose(] they cheated a Jew, who would
afterwards have cheated them of the money he owed; and that. to
secure payment, they broke open his lodgings and bureau, and
seized jewels and other effects; that he accused them; that they
were taken out of their beds at two o'clock in the morning, kept
in different prisons, without fire or candle, for six-and-thirty
hours; have since been released on excessive bail; are still to
be tried, may be sent to the galleys, or dismissed home, where
they will be reduced to keep the best company; for I suppose
nobody else will converse with them. Their separate anecdotes
are curious: Wortley, you know, has been a perfect Gil Blas, and,
for one of his last adventures; is thought to have added the
famous Miss Ashe to the number of his wives. Taaffe is an
Irishman, who changed his religion to fight a duel; as you know
in Ireland a Catholic may not wear a sword. He is a gamester,
usurer, adventurer, and of late has divided his attentions
between the Duke of Newcastle and Madame Pompadour; travelling,
with turtles and pine-apples, in postchaises, to the
latter,-flying back to the former for Lewes races--and smuggling
burgundy at the same time. I shall finish their history with a
bon-mot. The Speaker was railing at gaming and White's, apropos
to these two prisoners. Lord Coke, to whom the conversation was
addressed, replied, "Sir, all I can say is, that they are both
members of the House of Commons, and neither of them of
White's." Monsieur de Mirepoix sent a card lately to White's,
to invite all the chess-players of both 'clamps'. Do but think
what a genius a man must have, or, my dear child, do you
consider what information you would be capable of sending to
your court, if, after passing two years in a country, you had
learned but the two first letters of"a word, that you heard
twenty times every day! I have a bit of paper left, so I will
tell you another story. A certain King, that, whatever airs
you may give yourself, you are not at all like, was last week
at the play. The Intriguing Chambermaid in the farce(287) says
to the old gentleman, "You are villanously old; you are
sixty-six; you can't have the impudence to think of living
above two years." The old gentleman in the stage-box turned
about in a passion, and said, "This is d-d stuff!" Pray have
you got Mr. Conway yet! Adieu!

(285) "Nov. 14 Parliament opened. Lord Downe and Sir William
Beauchamp Proctor moved and seconded the Address. No
opposition to it." Dodington, p. 114. Tindal says that this
session was, perhaps, the most unanimous ever known."-E.

(286) See ant`e.-E.

(287) The Intriguing Chambermaid was performed at Drury-lane on
the 6th of November; it was dedicated by Fielding to Mrs.
Clive.-E.

119 Letter 51
To Sir Horace Mann.
Dec. 12, 1751.

I have received yours and Mr. Conway's letters, and am
transported that you have met at last, and that you answer so
well to one another, as I intended. I expect that you tell me
more and more all that you think of him. The inclosed is for
him; as he has never received one of my letters since he left
England, I have exhausted all my news upon him, and for this post
you must only go halves with him, who I trust is still at
Florence. In your last, you mentioned Lord Stormont, and commend
him; pray tell me more about him. He is cried up above all the
young men of the time-in truth we want recruits! Lord Bolingbroke
is dead, or dying,(288) of a cancer, which was thought cured by a
quack plaster; but it is not every body can be cured at
seventy-five, like my monstrous uncle.

What is an uomo nero?-neither Mr. Chute nor I can recollect the
term. Though you are in the season of the villegiatura,
believe me, Mr. Conway will not find Florence duller than he
would London: our diversions, politics, quarrels, are buried
all in our Alphonso's grave!(289) The only thing talked of is
a man who draws teeth with a sixpence, and puts them in again
for a shilling. I believe it; not that it seems probable, but
because I have long been persuaded that the most incredible
discoveries will be made, and that, about the time, or a little
after, I die, the secret will be found out of how to live for
ever--and that secret, I believe, will not be discovered by a
physician. Adieu!

P. S. I have tipped Mr. Conway's direction with French, in case
it should be necessary to send it after him.

(288) lord Bolingbroke died on the 15th.-E.

(289) The late Prince of Wales: it alludes to a line in The
Mourning Bride."

120 Letter 52
To George Montagu, Esq.
THE ST. JAMES'S EVENING POST.
Thursday, Jan. 9, 1752.

Monday being the Twelfth-day, his Majesty according to annual
custom offered myrrh, frankincense, and a small bit of gold;
and at night, in commemoration of the three kings or wise men,
the King and Royal Family played a@ hazard for the benefit of a
prince of the blood. There were above eleven thousand pounds
upon the table; his most sacred Majesty won three guineas, and
his Royal Highness the Duke three thousand four hundred pounds.

On Saturday was landed at the Custom-house a large box of
truffles, being a present to the Earl of Lincoln from Theobald
Taaffe, Esq. who is shortly expected home from his travels in
foreign parts.

To-morrow the new-born son of the Earl of Egremont is to be
baptized, when his Majesty, and the Earl of Granville (if he is
able to stand), and the Duchess of Somerset, are to be
sponsors.

We are assured that on Tuesday last, the surprising strong
woman was exhibited at the Countess of Holderness's, before a
polite assembly of persons of the first quality; and some time
this week, the two dwarfs will play at brag at Madame Holman's.
N.B. The strong man, who was to have performed at Mrs. Nugent's,
is indisposed. There is lately arrived at the Lord Carpenter's,
a curious male chimpanzee, which had had the honour of being
shown before the ugliest princes in Europe, who all expressed
their approbation; and we hear that he intends to offer himself a
candidate to represent the city of Westminster at the next
general election. Note: he wears breeches, and there is a
gentlewoman to attend the ladies.'

Last night the Hon. and Rev. Mr. James Brudenel was admitted a
doctor of opium in the ancient UNIVERSITY of White's, being
received ad eundem by his grace the Rev. father in chess the
Duke of Devonshire, president, and the rest of the senior
fellows. At the same time the Lord Robert Bertie and Colonel
Barrington were rejected, on account of some deficiency of
formality in their testimonials.

Letters from Grosvenor Street mention a dreadful apparition,
which has appeared for several nights at the house of the
Countess Temple, which has occasioned several of her ladyship's
domestics to leave her service, except the coachman, who has
drove her sons and nephews for several years, and is not afraid
of spectres. The coroner's inquest have brought in their
verdict lunacy.

Last week the Lord Downe received at the treasury the sum of a
hundred kisses from the Auditor of the Exchequer, being the
reward for shooting at a highwayman.

On Tuesday the operation of shaving was happily performed on
the upper lip of her grace the Duchess of Newcastle, by a
celebrated artist from Paris, sent over on purpose by the Earl
of Albemarle. The performance lasted but one minute and three
seconds, to the great joy of that noble family; and in
consideration of his great care and expedition, his grace has
settled four hundred pounds a year upon him for life. We hear
that he is to have the honour of shaving the heads of the Lady
Caroline Petersham, the Duchess of Queensberry, and several
other persons of quality.

By authority, on Sunday next will be opened the Romish chapel
at Norfolk House; no persons will be admitted but such as are
known well-wishers to the present happy establishment. Mass
will begin exactly when the English liturgy is finished.

At the theatre royal in the House of Lords, the Royal Slave,
with Lethe. At the theatre in St. Stephen's chapel, the Fool
in Fashion.

The Jews are desired to meet on the 20th inst. at the sign of
Fort L'Evesque in Pharaoh Street, to commemorate the noble
struggle made by one of their brethren in support of his
property.

Deserted--Miss Ashe.

Lost--an Opposition.

To be let--an ambassador's masquerade, the gentleman going
abroad.

To be sold--the whole nation.

Lately published, The Analogy of political and private
Quarrels, or the Art of healing family-differences by widening
them; on these words, "Do evil that good may ensue." a sermon
preached before the Right Hon. Henry Pell)am, and the rest of
the society for propagating Christian charity, by William
Levenson, chaplain to her R. H. the Princess Amelia; and now
printed at the desire of several of the family.

For capital weaknesses, the Duke of Newcastle's true spirit of
crocodiles.

Given gratis at the Turn-stile, the corner of
Lincoln's-inn-fields, Anodyne Stars and Garters.(290)

(290) The residence of the duke of newcastle.-E.

122 Letter 53
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Feb. 2, 1752.

We are much surprised by two letters which my Lady Aylesbury
has received from Mr. Conway, to find that he had not yet heard
of his new regiment. She, who is extremely reasonable, seems
content that he went to Rome before he got the news, as it
would have been pity to have missed such an opportunity of
seeing it, and she flatters herself that he would have set out
immediately for England, if he had received the express -at
Florence. Now you know him, and you will not wonder that she
is impatient; you would wonder, if you knew her, if he were not
so too.

After all I have lately told you of our dead tranquillity, You
will be surprised to hear of an episode of Opposition: it is
merely an interlude, for at least till next @ear we shall have
no more: you will rather think it a farce, when I tell you,
that that buffoon my old uncle acted a principal part in it.
And what made it more ridiculous, the title of the drama was a
subsidiary treaty with Saxony.(291) In short, being impatient
with the thought that he should die without having it written
on his tomb, "He-re lies Baron Punch," he spirited up--whom do
you think?--only a Grenville! my Lord Cobham, to join with him
in speaking against this treaty: both did: the latter retired
after his speech; but my uncle concluded his (which was a
direct answer to all he has been making all his life,) with
declaring, that he should yet vote for the treaty! You never
heard such a shout and laughter as it caused. This debate was
followed by as new a one in, the House of Lords, where the Duke
of Bedford took the treaty, and in the conclusion of his
speech, the ministry, to pieces. His friend Lord Sandwich, by
a most inconceivable jumble of cunning, spoke for the treaty,
against the ministry; it is supposed, lest the 'Duke should be
thought to have countenanced the Opposition: you never heard a
more lamentable performance! there was no division.(292) The
next day the Tories in our House moved for a resolution against
subsidiary treaties in line of peace: Mr. Pelham, with great
agitation, replied to the philippics of the preceding, day, and
divided 180 to 52.

There has been an odd sort of codicil to these debates:
Vernon,(293) a very inoffensive, good-humoured young fellow,
who lives in the strongest intimacy with all the fashionable
young men, was proposed for the Old Club at White's, into the
mysteries of which, before a person is initiated, it is
necessary that he should be well with the ruling powers:
unluckily, Vernon has lately been at Woburn with the Duke of
Bedford. The night of' the ballot, of twelve persons present,
eight had promised him white balls, being his particular
friends--however, there were six black balls!-this made great
noise--his friends found it necessary to clear up their faith
to him--ten of the twelve assured him upon their honour that
they had given him white balls. I fear this will not give you
too favourable an idea of the honour of the young men of the
age!

Your father, who has been dying, and had tasted nothing but
water for ten days, the other day called for roast beef, and is
well; cured, I suppose, by this abstinence, which convinces me
that intemperance has been his illness. Fasting and
mortification will restore a good constitution, but not correct
a bad one.

Adieu! I write you but short letters, and those, I fear,
seldom; but they tell you all that is material; this is not an
age to furnish volumes.

(291) Mr. Pitt was so much pleased with Mr. Horatio Walpole's
speech on this occasion that he requested him to consign it to
writing, and gave it as his opinion, that it contained much
weighty matter, and from beginning to end breathed the spirit
of a man who loved his country. See Chatham Correspondence,
vol. i. p. 63.-E.

(292) For an account of this d(@bate, taken by Lord Chancellor
Hardwicke, see Parl. Hist. vol. xiv. p. 1175.-E.

(293) Richard Vernon, Esq. He married Lady Evelyn Leveson,
widow of the Earl of Upper Ossory, and sister of Gertrude,
Duchess of Bedford.-D.

123 Letter 54
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Feb. 27, 1752.

Gal. tells me that your eldest brother has written you an
account of your affairs, the particulars of which I was most
solicitous to learn, and am now most unhappy to find no
better.(294) Indeed, Gal. would have most reason to complain,
if his strong friendship for you did not prevent him from
thinking that nothing is hard that is in your favour; he told
me himself that the conditions imposed upon him were inferior
to what he always proposed to do, if the misfortune should
arrive of your recall. He certainly loves you earnestly; if I
were not convinced of it, I should be far from loving him so
well as I do.

I write this as a sort of letter of form on the occasion, for
there is nothing worth telling you. The event that has made
most noise since my last, is the extempore wedding of the
youngest of the two Gunnings, who have made so vehement a
noise. Lord Coventry,(295) a grave young lord, of the remains
of the patriot breed, has long dangled after the eldest,
virtuously with regard to her virtue, not
very honourably with regard to his own credit. About six weeks
ago Duke Hamilton,(296) the very reverse of the Earl, hot,
debauched, extravagant, and equally damaged in his fortune and
person, fell in love with the youngest at the masquerade, and
determined to marry her in the spring. About a fortnight
since, at an immense assembly at my Lord Chesterfield's, made
to show the house, which is really magnificent, Duke Hamilton
made violent love at one end of the room, while he was playing
at pharaoh at the other end; that is, he saw neither the bank
nor his own cards, which were of three hundred pounds each: he
soon lost a thousand. I own I was so little a professor in
love, that I thought all this parade looked ill for the poor
girl; and could not conceive, if he was so much engaged with
his mistress as to disregard such sums, why he played at all.
However, two nights afterwards, being left alone with her while
her mother and sister were at Bedford House, he found himself
so impatient, that he sent for a parson. The doctor refused to
perform the ceremony without license or ring: the Duke swore he
would send for the Archbishop--at last they were married with a
ring of the bed-curtain, at half an hour after twelve at night,
at Mayfair chapel,(297) The Scotch are enraged; the women mad
that so much beauty has had its effect; and what is most silly,
my Lord Coventry declares that he now will marry the other.