Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

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The present journal of the world and of me stands thus: King
George II does not go abroad--Some folks fear nephews,(440) as
much as others hate uncles. The Castle of Dublin has carried
the Armagh election by one vote only--which is thought
equivalent to losing it by twenty. Mr. Pelham has been very
ill, I thought of St. Patrick's fire,(441) but it proved to be
St. Antony's. Our House of Commons, mere poachers, are
piddling wit the torture of Leheup,(442) who extracted so much
money out of the lottery.

The robber of Po Yang(443) is discovered, and I hope will be
put to death, without my pity interfering, as it has done for
Mr. Shorter's servant,(444) or Lady Caroline Petersham's, as it
did for Maclean. In short, it was a heron. I like this better
than thieves, as I believe the gang will be more easily
destroyed, though not mentioned in the King's speech or
Fielding's treatises.

Lord Clarendon, Lord Thanet, and Lord Burlington are dead. The
second sent for his tailor, and asked him if he could make him
a suit of mourning in eight hours: if he could, he would go
into mourning for his brother Burlington(445)--but that he did
not expect to live twelve hours himself.

There are two more volumes come out of Sir Charles Grandison.
I shall detain them till the last is published, and not think I
postpone much of your pleasure. For my part, I stopped at the
fourth; I was so tired of sets of people getting together, and
saying, "Pray, Miss, with whom are you in love?" and of mighty
good young men that convert your Mr. M * * * *'s in the
twinkling of a sermon!--You have not been much more diverted, I
fear, with Hogarth's book(446)--'tis very silly!--Palmyra(447)
is come forth, and is a noble book; the prints finely engraved,
and an admirable dissertation before it. My wonder is much
abated: the Palmyrene empire which I had figured, shrunk to a
small trading city with some magnificent public buildings out
of proportion to the dignity of the place.

The operas succeed pretty well; and music has so much
recovered its power of charming that there is started up a
burletta at Covent Garden,(448) that has half the vogue of the
old Beggar's Opera: indeed there is a soubrette, called the
Niccolina, who, besides being pretty, has more vivacity and
variety of humour than ever existed in any creature.

(438) Mr. Bentley was now in the island of Jersey; whither he
had retired on account of the derangement of his affairs, and
whither all the following letters are addressed to him.

(439) A nurseryman at Twickenham. He had served Pope. Mr.
Walpole telling him he Would have his trees planted
irregularly, he said, "Yes, Sir, I understand: you would have
them hung down somewhat poetical."

(440) Frederick King of Prussia, nephew to George II. Mr.
Walpole alludes to himself, who was upon bad terms with his
uncle Horace Walpole, afterwards Lord Walpole of Wolterton.

(441) Alluding to the disturbances and opposition to
government, which took place in Ireland during the viceroyalty
of Lionel Duke of Dorset.

(442) In framing the act for the purchase of the Sloane Museum
and the Harleian Manuscripts by lottery Mr. Pelham, who
disapproved of this financial expedient, as tending to foster a
spirit of gambling, had taken care to restrict the number of
tickets to be sold to any single individual. Notwithstanding
which, Mr. Leheup, one of the commissioners of the lottery, had
sold to one person, under names which he knew to be fictitious,
between two and three hundred tickets. The subject was brought
before the House of Commons, where a series of resolutions was
passed against Mr. Leheup, accompanied by an address to the
King, praying that the offender might be prosecuted. The
result was, that he was prosecuted by the Attorney-general, and
fined one thousand pounds.-E.

(443) Mr. Walpole had given this Chinese name to a pond of gold
fish at Strawberry Hill.

(444) A Swiss servant of Erasmus Shorter's, maternal uncle to
Mr. Walpole, who was not without suspicion of having hastened
his master's death.

(445) The Countesses of Thanet and Burlington were sisters.

(446) The Analysis of Beauty.

(447) "The Ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tadmor in the Desert,"
by Robert Wood, Esq.; a splendid volume in folio, with a number
of elegant engravings. In 1757, Mr. Wood published a similar
description of the "Ruins of Balbec."-E.

(448) Harlequin Sorcerer.-E.

191 Letter 90
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Jan. 28, 1754.

Her Serene Highness, the great Duchess Bianca Capello,(449) is
arrived safe at a palace lately taken for her in Arlington
Street. She has been much visited by the quality and gentry,
and pleases universally by the graces of her person and
comeliness of her deportment--my dear child, this is the least
that the newspapers would say of the charming Bianca. I, who
feel all the agreeableness of your manner, must say a great
deal more, or should say a great deal more, but I can only
commend the picture enough, not you. The head is painted equal
to Titian; and though done, I suppose, after the 'clock had
struck five-and-thirty, yet she retains a great share of
beauty. I have bespoken a frame for her, with the grand-ducal
coronet at top, her story on a label at bottom, which Gray is
to compose in Latin, as short and expressive as Tacitus, (one
is lucky when one can bespeak and have executed such an
inscription!) the Medici arms on one side, and the Capello's on
the other. I must tell you a critical discovery of mine
apropos: in an old book of Venetian arms, there are two coats
of Capello, who from their name bear a hat; on one of them is
added a fleur-de-lis on a blue ball, which I am persuaded was
given to the family by the Great Duke, in consideration of this
alliance; the Medicis, you know, bore such a badge at the top
of their own arms. This discovery I made by a talisman, which
Mr. Chute calls the Sortes Walpolianae, by which I find every
thing I want, `a pointe nomm`ee, whenever I dip for it. This
discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call
Serendipity, a very expressive word, which, as I have nothing
better to tell you, I shall endeavour to explain to you: you
will understand it better by the derivation than by the
definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called "The Three
Princes of Serendip;" as their Highnesses travelled, they were
always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things
which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them
discovered that a mule blind of the right eye had travelled the
same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left
side, where it was worse than on the right--now do you
understand Serendipity? One of the most remarkable instances of
this accidental Sagacity, (for you must observe that no
discovery of a thing you are looking for comes under this
description,) was of my Lord Shaftsbury, who, happening to dine
at Lord Chancellor Clarendon's, found out the marriage of the
Duke of York and Mrs. Hyde, by the respect with which her
mother treated her at table. I will send you the inscription
in my next letter; you see I endeavour to grace your present as
it deserves.

Your brother would have me say something of my opinion about
your idea of taking the name of Guise;(450) but he has written
so fully that I can only assure you in addition, that I am
stronger even than he is against it, and cannot allow of your
reasoning on families, because, however families may be
prejudiced about them, and however foreigners (I mean, great
foreigners) here may have those prejudices too, vet they never
operate here, where there is any one reason to counterbalance
them. A minister who has the least disposition to promote a
creature of his, and to set aside a Talbot or a Nevil, will at
one breath puff away a genealogy that would reach from hence to
Herenhausen. I know a great foreigner, who always says that my
Lord Denbigh is the best gentleman in England, because he is
descended from the old Counts of Hapsburg; and yet my Lord
Denbigh, (and though he is descended from what one should think
of much more consequence here, the old Counts of Denbigh,) has
for many years wanted a place or a pension, as much as if he
were only what I think the first Count of Hapsburg was, the
Emperor's butler. Your instance of the Venetians refusing to
receive Valenti can have no weight: Venice might bully a Duke
of Mantua, but what would all her heralds signify against a
British envoy? In short, what weight do you think family has
here, when the very last minister whom we have despatched is
Sir James Gray,--nay, and who has already been in a public
character at Venice! His father was first a box-keeper, and
then footman to James the Second; and this is the man exchanged
against the Prince de San Severino! One of my father's maxims
was quieta non movere; and he was a wise man in that his day.
My dear child, if you will suffer me to conclude with a pun,
content yourself with your Manhood and Tuscany: it would be
thought injustice to remove you from thence for any body else:
when once you shift about, you lose the benefit of
prescription, and subject yourself to a thousand accidents. I
speak very seriously; I know the carte du pais.

We have no news: the flames in Ireland are stifled, I don't say
extinguished, by adjourning the Parliament, which is to be
prorogued. A catalogue of dismissions was sent over thither,
but the Lord Lieutenant durst not venture to put them in
execution. We are sending a strong squadron to the East
Indies, which may possibly bring back a war with France,
especially as we are going to ask money of our Parliament for
the equipment. We abound in diversions, which flourish
exceedingly on the demise of politics. There are no less than
five operas every week, three of which are burlettas; a very
bad company, except the Niccolina, who beats all the actors and
actresses I ever saw for vivacity and variety. We had a good
set four years ago, which did not take at all; but these being
at the playhouse, and at play prices, the people, instead of
resenting it, as was expected, are transported with them, call
them their own operas, and I will not swear that they do not
take them for English operas. They huzzaed the King twice the
other night, for bespeaking one on the night of the Haymarket
opera.

I am glad you are aware of Miss Pitt: pray continue your
awaredom: I assure you, before she set out for Italy, she was
qualified to go any Italian length of passion. Her very first
slip was with her eldest brother: and it is not her fault that
she has not made still blacker trips. Never mention this, and
forget it as soon as she is gone from Florence. Adieu!

(449) Bianca Capello was the daughter of a noble Venetian. She
had been seduced and carried off from her father's house by a
young Florentine of low origin, named Peter Bonaventuri. They
came to Florence, where she became the mistress of the Grand
Duke of Tuscany, Francis of Medicis. He was very anxious to
have a child by her; upon which she pretended to be brought to
bed of a son, who had in reality been bought of one of the
lower orders. He was called Don Anthony of Medicis. In order
to prevent the Grand Duke from discovering her fraud, Bianca
caused several of the persons who had had a part in the
deception to be assassinated. At length the wife of Francis,
the Archduchess Joan of Austria, died in childbed; and Bianca
intrigued so successfully, that she persuaded her lover to
marry her. Her marriage with the Grand Duke took place on the
12th of October, 1579, and was so sumptuous that it cost one
hundred thousand Florentine ducats. Her tyranny and rapacity
soon made her universally hated. She is supposed, as well as
her husband, to have died by poison, administered to them
through the means of his brother, the Cardinal Ferdinand of
Medicis, who succeeded him as Grand I)uke.-D.

(451) Mr. Mann's mother was an heiress of that house.

194 Letter 91
To Richard Bentley, Esq.
Arlington Street, March 2, 1754.

After calling two or three times without finding him, I wrote
yesterday to Lord Granville,' and received a most gracious
answer, but desiring to see me. I went. He repeated all your
history with him, and mentioned your vivacity at parting;
however, consented to give you the apartment, with great good
humour, and said he would write to his bailiff; and added,
laughing, that he had an old cross housekeeper, who had
regularly quarrelled with all his grantees. It is well that
some of your desires, though unfortunately the most trifling,
depend on me alone, as those at least are sure of being
executed. By Tuesday's coach there will go to Southampton two
orange trees, two Arabian jasmines, some tuberose roots, and
plenty of cypress seeds, which last I send you in lieu of the
olive trees, none of which are yet come over.

The weather grows fine, and I have resumed little flights to
Strawberry. I carried George Montagu thither, who was in
raptures, and screamed, and hooped and hollaed, and danced, and
crossed himself a thousand times over. He returns to-morrow to
Greatworth, and I fear will give himself up entirely to country
squirehood. But what will you say to greater honour which
Strawberry has received? Nolkejumskoi(453) has been to see it,
and liked the windows and staircase. I can't conceive how he
entered it. I should have figured him like Gulliver cutting
down some of the largest oaks in Windsor Forest to make
joint-stools, in order to straddle over the battlements and
peep in at the windows of Lilliput. I can't deny myself this
reflection (even though he liked Strawberry,) as he has not
employed you as an architect.

Still there is little news. To-day it is said that Lord George
Sackville is summoned in haste from Ireland, where the grand
juries are going to petition for the resitting Of the
Parliament. Hitherto they have done nothing but invent
satirical healths, which I believe gratify a taste more
peculiar to Ireland than politics, drinking. We have had one
Considerable day in the House of Commons here. Lord Egmont, in
a very long and fine speech, opposed a new Mutiny-bill for the
troops going to the East Indies (which I believe occasioned the
reports with you of an approaching war.) Mr. Conway got
infinite reputation by a most charming speech in answer to him,
in which he displayed a system of military learning, which was
at once new, striking and entertaining.(454) I had carried
Monsieur de Gisors thither, who began to take notes of all I
explained to him: but I begged he would not; for, the question
regarding French politics, I concluded the Speaker would never
have done storming at the Gaulls collecting intelligence in the
very senate-house. Lord Holderness made a magnificent ball for
these foreigners last week: there were a hundred and forty
people, and most stayed supper. Two of my Frenchmen learnt
country-dances, and succeeded very well. T'other night they
danced minuets for the entertainment of the King at the
masquerade; and then he sent for Lady Coventry to dance: it was
quite like Herodias-and I believe if he had offered her a boon,
she would have chosen the head of St. John--I believe I told
you of her passion for the young Lord Bolingbroke.

Dr. Mead is dead, and his collection going to be sold. I fear
I have not virtue enough to resist his miniatures. I shall be
ruined!(455)

I shall tell you a new instance of the Sortes Walpolianae: I
lately bought an old volume of pamphlets; I found at the end a
history of the Dukes of Lorrain, and with that an account of a
series of their medals, of which, says the author, there are
but two sets in England. It so happens that I bought a set
above ten years ago at Lord Oxford's sale; and on examination I
found the Duchess, wife of Duke Ren`e,(456) has a headdress,
allowing for being modernized, as the medals are modern, which
is evidently the same with that figure in my Marriage of Henry
VI. which I had imagined was of her. It is said to be taken
from her tomb at Angiers; and that I might not decide too
quickly en connoisseur, I have sent to Angiers for a draught of
the tomb.

Poor Mr. Chute was here yesterday, the first going out after a
confinement of thirteen weeks; but he is pretty well. We have
determined upon the plan for the library, which we find will
fall in exactly with the proportions of the room, with no
variations from the little door-case of St. Paul's, but
widening the larger arches. I believe I shall beg your
assistance again about the chimney-piece and ceiling; but I can
decide nothing till I have been again at Strawberry. Adieu! my
dear Sir.

(452) John Earl Granville, then secretary of state, had an
estate in Jersey.

(453) The Duke of Cumberland.-E.

(454) Mr. Conway's speech will be found in the Parliamentary
History, vol. xv. p. 282. The object of the bill was to extend
the operation of the Mutiny act to the troops in the service of
the East India Company. This question was strongly combated,
on constitutional grounds, as conferring on a trading body
powers which ought to be viewed with jealousy, when vested even
in the head of the state. The second reading was carried by
245 against 50.-E.

(455) Dr. Mead's pictures were chosen with so much judgment,
that at the sale of them in this month, they produced 3,417
pounds, 11 shillings, nearly seven hundred pounds more than he
gave for them.-E.

(456) Duke of Anjou, father of the unfortunate Margaret of
Anjou, Queen of Henry the Sixth of England.-E.

196 Letter 92
To Richard Bentley, Esq.
Arlington Street, March 6, 1754.

My dear Sir,
You will be surprised at my writing again so very soon; but
unpleasant as it is to be the bearer of ill news,(457) I
flattered myself that you would endure it better from me, than
to be shocked with it from an indifferent hand, who would not
have the same management for your tenderness and delicacy as I
naturally shall, who always feel for you, and on this occasion
with you! You are very unfortunate: you have not many real
friends, and you lose--for I must tell it you, the chief of
them! indeed, the only one who could have been of real use to
you--for what can I do, but wish, and attempt, and miscarry?-
-or from whom could I have hoped assistance for you, or warmth
for myself and my friends, but from the friend I have this
morning lost?--But it is too selfish to be talking of our
losses, when Britain, Europe, the world, the King, Jack
Roberts,(458) Lord Barnard, have lost their guardian angel.
What are private misfortunes to the affliction of one's
country? or how inglorious is an Englishman to bewail himself,
when a true patriot should be acting for the good of mankind!-
-Indeed, if it is possible to feel any comfort, it is from
seeing how many true Englishmen, how many true Scotchmen are
zealous to replace the loss, and snatch at the rudder of the
state, amidst this storm and danger! Oh! my friend, how will
your heart glow with melancholy admiration, when I tell you,
that even the poor Duke of Newcastle himself conquers the
torrent of his grief, and has promised Mrs. Betty Spence,(459)
and Mr. Griham the apothecary, that, rather than abandon
England to its evil genius, he will even submit to be lord
treasurer himself? My Lord Chancellor, too, is said to be
willing to devote himself in the same manner for the good of
his country. Lord Hartington(460) is the most inconsolable of
all; and when Mrs. Molly Bodens(461) and Mrs. Garrick were
entreated by some of the cabinet council to ask him whom he
wished to have minister, the only answer they could draw from
him was, "a Whig! a Whig!" As for Lord B. I may truly say, he
is humbled and licks the dust; for his tongue, which never used
to hang below the waistband of his breeches, is now dropped
down to his shoe-buckles; and had not Mr. Stone assured him
that if the worst came to the worst, they could but make their
fortunes under another family, I don't know whether he would
not have despaired of the commonwealth. But though I sincerely
pity so good a citizen, I cannot help feeling most for poor
Lord Holderness, who sees a scheme of glory dashed which would
have added new lustre to the British annals and have
transmitted the name D'Arcy down to latest posterity. He had
but just taken Mr. Mason the poet into his house to write his
deserts; and he had just reason to expect that the secretary's
office would have gained a superiority over that of France and
Italy, which was unknown even to Walsingham.

I had written thus far, and perhaps should have elegized on for
a page or two further, when Harry, who has no idea of the
dignity of grief, blundered in, with satisfaction in his
countenance, and thrust two packets from you into my hand.-
-Alas! he little knew that I was incapable of tasting any
satisfaction but in the indulgence of my concern.--I was once
going to commit them to the devouring flames, lest any light or
vain sentence should tempt me to smile but my turn for true
philosophy checked my hand, and made me determine to prove that
I could at once launch into the bosom of pleasure and be
insensible to it.-I have conquered; I have read your letters,
and yet I think of nothing but Mr. Pelham's death! Could Lady
Catherine(462) do thus @ Could she receive a love-letter from
Mr. Brown, and yet think only on her breathless Lord?

Thursday,

I wrote the above last night, and have stayed as late as I
could this evening, that I might be able to tell you who the
person is in whom all the world is to discover the proper
qualities for replacing the national loss. But, alas! the
experience of two @,whole days has showed that the misfortune
is irreparable; and I don't know whether the elegies on his
death will not be finished before there be any occasion for
congratulations to his successor. The mystery is profound.
How shocking it will be if things should go on just as they
are! I mean by that, how mortifying if it is discovered, that
when all the world thought Mr. Pelham did and could alone
maintain the calm and carry on the government, even he was not
necessary, and that it was the calm and the government that
carried on themselves! However, this is not my opinion.--I
believe all this will make a party.(453)

Good night! here are two more new plays: Constantine,(464) the
better of them, expired the fourth night at Covent-garden.
Virginia,(465) by Garrick's acting and popularity, flourishes
still: he has written a remarkably good epilogue to it. Lord
Bolingbroke is come forth in five pompous quartos, two and a
half new and most unorthodox.(466) Warburton is resolved to
answer, and the bishops not to answer him. I have not had a
moment to look into it. Good night!

(457) This is an ironic letter on the death of Henry Pelham,
first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer,
with whom Mr. Walpole was on ill terms.

(458) John Roberts, Esq. secretary to Mr. Pelham.

(459) Companion to the Duchess of Newcastle. [This lady was
related to the Rev. Joseph Spence, author of "Polymetis." She
died in 1764, after being the friend and companion of the
Duchess of Newcastle for more than forty-five years.]

(460) William, afterwards fourth Duke of Devonshire.

(461) Companion of Lady Burlington, Lord Hartington's
mother-in-law.

(462) Lady Catherine Pelham, the widow of Mr. Pelham.-E.

(463) Mr. Walpole, when young, loved faction; and Mr. Bentley
one day saying, " that he believed certain opinions would make
a sect," Mr. W. said eagerly, "Will they make a party?"

(464) "Constantine," a tragedy was written by the Rev. Philip
Francis, the translator of Horace and Demosthenes, and father
of Sir Philip Francis, the reputed author of the Letters of
Junius. He also wrote "Eugenia," a tragedy; but as a dramatic
author he was not very successful.-E.

(465) "Virginia" was written by Henry Crisp, a clerk in the
Custom-house. It was acted at Drury Lane with some success;
owing chiefly to the excellence of the performers.-E.

(466) A splendid edition of Lord Bolingbroke's Works, in five
volumes, quarto, having been published on the very day of Mr.
Pelham's death, Garrick wrote an ode on the occasion, which
contains the following stanza:-

"The same sad morn, to Church and State
(So for our sins 'twas fix'd by fate)
A double shock was given:
Black as the regions of the North,
St. John's fell genius issued forth,
And Pelham's fled to heaven!"

It was upon the appearance of this edition of Lord
Bolingbroke's works, edited by David Mallet, that Dr. Johnson
pronounced this memorable sentence upon both author and
editor:--"Sir, he was a scoundrel and a coward; a scoundrel,
for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a
coward, because he had no resolution to fire it off himself,
but left half-a-crown to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the
trigger after his death."-E.

198 Letter 93
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, March 7, 1754.

You will little have expected, my dear Sir, the great event
that happened yesterday. Mr. Pelham(467) is dead! all that
calm, that supineness, of which I have lately talked to you so
much, is at an end! there is no heir to such luck as his. The
whole people of England can never agree a second time upon the
same person for the residence of infallibility; and though so
many have found their interest in making Mr. Pelham the
fermier-general for their Venality, yet almost all have found
too, that it lowered their prices to have but one purchaser.
He could not have died at a more critical time: all the
elections were settled, all bargains made, and much money
advanced: and by the way, though there never was so little a
party, or so little to be made by a seat in Parliament, either
with regard to profit or fame, there never was such established
bribery, or so profuse. And as every thing was settled by his
life, so every thing is thrown into confusion by his death: the
difficulty Of naming, or of who should name the successor, is
almost insurmountable--for you are not such a transmontane as
to imagine that the, person who must sign the warrant will have
the filling it up. The three apparent candidates are Fox,
Pitt, and Murray; all three -with such encumbrances on their
hopes as make them very desperate. The Chancellor hates Fox;
the Duke of Newcastle does not (I don't say, love him, but to
speak in the proper phrase, does not) pretend to love him: the
Scotch abominate him, and they and the Jacobites make use of
his connexion with the Duke to represent him as formidable: the
Princess cannot approve him for the same reason: the law, as in
duty bound to the Chancellor and to Murray, and to themselves,
whom he always attacks, must dislike him. He has his parts and
the Whigs, and the seeming right of succession. Pitt has no
health, no party, and has, what in this case is allowed to
operate, the King's negative. Murray is a Scotchman, and it
has been suspected, of the worst dye: add a little of the
Chancellor's jealousy--all three are obnoxious to the
probability of the other two being disobliged by a preference.
There is no doubt but the Chancellor and the Duke of Newcastle
will endeavour to secure their own power, by giving an
exclusion to Fox: each of them has even been talked of for Lord
Treasurer; I say talked of, though Mr. Pelham died but
yesterday; but you can't imagine how much a million of people
can talk in a day on such a subject! It was even much imagined
yesterday, that Sir George Lee would be the Hulla, to wed the
post, till things are ripe for divorcing him again: he is an
unexceptionable man, sensible, of good character, the
ostensible favourite of the Princess, and obnoxious to no set
of men: for though he changed ridiculously quick on the
Prince's death, yet as every body changed with him, it offended
nobody; and what is a better reason for promoting him now, it
would offend nobody to turn him out again.