Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

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P. S. I am very sorry for your sake that the Prince and
Princess(10) are leaving Florence; if ever I return thither, as
I always flatter myself I shall, I should miss them extremely.
Lord Albemarle goes ambassador to Paris.

(1) Upon the last clause of the Mutiny-bill, an amendment to
render half pay officers subject to the act, only in case of
actual war, insurrection, rebellion, or invasion, was rejected
by 203 to 137.-E.

(2) Compiled principally for Lord Egmont by Anderson, the
genealogist. It was printed, but not published, in 1742. "
Some," says Boswell, in his Life of Johnson, "have affected to
laugh at the History of the House of Very: it would be well if
many others would transmit their pedigrees to posterity, with
the same accuracy and generous zeal with which the noble Lord
who compiled that work has honoured and perpetuated his
ancestry. Family histories, likv, the imagines majorum of the
ancients, excite to virtue." Vol. viii. p. 188.-E.

(3) James, Lord Strange, eldest son of Edward Stanley, eleventh
Earl of Derby. In 1762 he was made Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster, and died during his father's life-time, in 1771. He
always called himself Lord Strange; though the title, which was
a barony in fee, had in fact descended to the Duke of Atholl,
as heir general of James, seventh Earl of Derby.-]).
(4) The Hon. Henry Bathurst, second heir of Allen, first Lord
Bathurst, He became heir to the title upon the death, without
issue, of his elder brother, the Hon. Benjamin Bathurst, in
1761. In 1746 he was appointed Attorney-General to Frederick,
Prince of Wales; in 1754, one of the puisne judges of the Court
of Common Pleas, and in 1771, Lord Chancellor. He was, upon
this occasion, created a peer, by the title of Lord Apsley. He
succeeded his father as second Earl Bathurst in 1775, and died
in 1794.-D.

(5) Richard, third son of Sir Thomas, and brother of Sir George
Lyttelton: he married the Duchess-dowager of Bridgewater, and
was afterwards made a knight of the Bath.

(6) William Duke of Cumberland. He was "Captain-general of the
Forces," having been so created in 1745.-D.

(7) George Townshend, afterwards the first Marquis of that name
and title.-D.

(8) Selina, daughter of Washington, Earl Ferrers, and widow of
Theophilus, Earl of Huntingdon.

(9) In 1754, Dr. Cocchi published his "Chirurgici Veteres," a
very curious work, containing numerous valuable extracts from
the Greek physicians.-E.

(10) Craon.

16 Letter 2
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, March 23, 1749.

Our debates on the two military bills, the naval one of which
is not yet finished, have been so tedious, that they have
rather whittled down the Opposition than increased it. In the
Lords, the Mutiny-bill passed pretty easily, there happening no
quarrel between Lord Bathurst and Lord Bath on the method of
their measures; so there never divided above sixteen in the
minority, and those scarce any of the Prince's Lords. Duke
William was there and voted, which was too indecent in a rigorous
bill calculated for his own power. There is a
great disunion among the ministers on the Naval bill: Mr.
Pelham and Pitt (the latter out of hatred and jealousy of Lord
Sandwich) gave up the admiralty in a material point, but the
paramount little Duke of Bedford has sworn that they shall
recant on the report-what a figure they will make! This bill
was chiefly of Anson's projecting, who grows every day into new
unpopularity.(11) He has lately had a sea-piece drawn of the
victory for which he was lorded, in which his own ship in a
cloud of cannon was boarding the French Admiral. This
circumstance, which was as true as if Mademoiselle Scudery had
written his life (for he was scarce in sight when the Frenchman
struck to Boscawen)(12) has been so ridiculed by the whole
tar-hood, that the romantic part has been forced to be
cancelled, and one only gun remains firing at Anson's ship.
The two Secretaries of State(13) grow every day nearer to a
breach; the King's going abroad is to decide the contest.
Newcastle, who Hanoverizes more and more every day, pushes on
the journey, as he is to be the attendant minister: his
lamentable brother is the constant sacrifice of all these
embroils.

At the Leicester-house the jars are as great: Doddington, who
has just resigned the treasuryship of the navy, in hopes of
once more governing that court (and there is no court where he
has not once or twice tried the same scheme!) does not succeed:
Sir Francis Dashwood and Lord Talbot are strongly for him-could
one conceive that he could still find a dupe? Mr. Fox had a
mind to succeed him, but both King and Duke have so earnestly
pressed him to remain secretary at war, that he could not
refuse. The King would not hear of any of the newer court; and
Legge, who of the old was next oars, has managed in the
Prussian business so clumsily, that the King would not bear him
in his closet: but he has got the navy-office, which Lyttelton
would have had, but could not be rechosen at his borough, which
he had stolen by surprise from his old friend and brother Tom
Pitt. The treasury is to be filled up with that toad-eater and
spy to all parties, Harry Vane:(14) there is no enumerating all
the circumstances that make his nomination scandalous and
ridiculous!-but such is our world! General Charles Howard and a
Mr. Saville are named to the red riband.
My friend the Duke of Modena is again coming hither, which
astonishes me, considering how little reason he had to be
satisfied with his first visit; and sure he will have less now!
I believe I told you that King Theodore(15) is here: I am to
drink coffee with him to-morrow at Lady Schaub's. I have
curiosity to see him, though I am not commonly fond of sights,
but content myself with the oil-cloth picture of them that is
hung out, and to which they seldom come up. There are two
black Princes of Anamaboe here, who are in fashion at all the
assemblies, of whom I scarce know any particulars, though their
story(16) is very like Oroonoko's: all the women know it-and
ten times more than belongs to it. Apropos to Indian
historians, half our thoughts are taken up--that is, my Lord
Halifax's are--with colonizing in Nova Scotia: my friend
Colonel Cornwallis is going thither commander-in-chief. The
Methodists will scarce follow him as they did Oglethorpe; since
the period of his expedition,(17) their lot is fallen in a
better land. Methodism is more fashionable than any thing but
brag; the women play very deep at both--as deep, it is much
suspected, as the matrons of Rome did at the mysteries of the
Bona Dea. If gracious Anne was alive, she would make an
admirable defendress of the new faith, and build fifty more
churches for female proselytes.

If I had more paper or time, I could tell you an excellent long
history of my brother Ned'S(18) envy, which was always up at
highwater-mark, but since the publication of my book of
Houghton (one should have thought a very harmless performance),
has overflowed on a thousand ridiculous occasions. Another
great object of his jealousy is my friendship with Mr. Fox: my
brother made him a formal visit at nine o'clock the other
morning, and in a set speech of three quarters of an hour,
begged his pardon for not attending the last day of the Mutiny
bill, which, he said was so particularly brought in by him,
though Mr. Fox assured him that he had no farther hand in it
than from his office. Another instance: when my brother went
to live at Frogmore, Mr. Fox desired him to employ his
tradesmen at Windsor, by way of supporting his interest in that
borough. My brother immediately went to the Duke of St. Albans,
to whom he had never spoke, (nor indeed was his acquaintance with
Mr. Fox much greater), and notified to him, that if seven years
hence his grace should have any contest with Mr. Fox about that
borough, he should certainly espouse the latter. Guess how the
Duke stared at so strange and unnecessary a declaration!

Pigwiggin's Princess has mis-pigged, to the great joy, I
believe, of that family, for you know a child must have eaten.
Adieu!

(11) It was entitled, A bill for amending, explaining, and
reducing into one act, the laws relating to the Navy. "it was,"
says Sir John Barrow, "a most desirable and highly useful
measure. The principal and , indeed, the only novelties
attempted to be introduced, were, first, that of subjecting
half pay officers to courts-martial, which after much
opposition was thrown out; the second was the administration of
an oath of secrecy to the members, which was carried, and
continues to the present time." See Life of Lord Anson, p.
218.--E.

(12) The Hon. Edward Boscawen, third son of Hugh, first
Viscount Falmouth. He was a distinguished naval commander, and
had a large share in the success of Lord Anson's engagement
with the French fleet off Cape Finisterre in 1747. He died in
1761.-D.

(13) The Dukes of Bedford and Newcastle.-D.

(14) Eldest son of Lord Barnard, and afterwards first Earl of
Darlington. he died in 1758.-E.

(15) Theodore, King of Corsica.-D.

(16) Their story is briefly this: A Moorish king, who had
entertained with great hospitality a British captain
trafficking on the coast of Africa, reposed such confidence in
him, as to intrust him with his son, about eighteen years of
age, and another sprightly youth, to be brought to England and
educated in the European manners. The captain received them,
and basely sold them for slaves. He shortly after died; and,
the ship coming to England, the officers related the whole
affair: upon which the government sent to pay their ransom, and
they were brought to England and put under the care of the Earl
of Halifax, then at the head of the board of trade, who had
them clothed and educated in a suitable manner. They were
afterwards received in the higher circles, and introduced to
the King. On the first of February in this year, they appeared
at the Covent-Garden theatre, to see the tragedy of Oroonok;
where they were received with a loud clap of applause, which
they returned with a genteel bow. The tender interview between
Imoinda and Oroonoko so affected the Prince, that he was
obliged to retire at the end of the fourth act. His companion
remained, but wept all the time so bitterly that it affected
the audience more than the play.-E.

(17) General Oglethorpe was the great promoter of the colony of
Georgia. See vol. i.-E.

(18) Sir Edward Walpole, K. B.-D.

19 Letter 3
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, May 3, 1749.

I am come hither for a few days, to repose myself after a
torrent of diversions, and am writing to you in my charming
bow-window with a tranquillity and satisfaction which, I fear,
I am grown old enough to prefer to the hurry of amusements, in
which the whole world has lived for this last week. We have at
last celebrated the peace, and that as much in extremes as we
generally do everything, whether we have reason to be glad or
sorry, pleased or angry. Last Tuesday it was proclaimed: the
King did not go to St. Paul's, but at night the whole town was
illuminated. The next day was what was called "a
jubilee-masquerade in the Venetian manner" at Ranelagh: it had
nothing Venetian in it, but was by far the best understood and
the prettiest spectacle I ever saw: nothing in a fairy tale
ever surpassed it. One of the proprietors, who is a German, and
belongs to court, had got my Lady Yarmouth to persuade the King
to order it. It began at three o'clock, and, about five,
people of fashion began to go. When you entered, you found the
whole garden filled with masks and spread with tents, which
remained all night very commodely. In one quarter was a
May-pole dressed with garlands, and people dancing round it to
a tabor and pipe and rustic music, all masqued,'as were all the
various bands of music that were disposed in different parts of
the garden; some like huntsmen with French-horns, some like
peasants, with a troop of harlequins and scaramouches in the
little open temple on the mount. On the canal was a sort of
gondola, adorned with flags and streamers, and filled with
music, rowing about. All round the outside of the amphitheatre
were shops, filled with Dresden china, Japan, etc. and all the
shop-keepers in mask. The amphitheatre was illuminated; and in
the middle was a circular bower, composed of all kinds of firs
in tubs from twenty to thirty feet high: under them
orange-trees, with small lamps in each orange, and below them
all sorts of the finest auriculas in pots; and festoons of
natural flowers hanging from tree to tree. Between the arches
too were firs, and smaller ones in the balconies above. There
were booths for tea and wine, gaming-tables and dancing, and
about two thousand persons. In short, it pleased me more than
any thing I ever saw. It is to be once more, and probably
finer as to dresses, as there has since been a
subscription-masquerade, and people will go in their rich habits.
The next day were the fire-works, which by no means answered the
expense, the length of preparation, and the expectation that
had been raised; indeed, for a week before, the town was like a
country fair, the streets filled from morning to night,
scaffolds building wherever you could or could not see, and
coaches arriving from every corner of the kingdom. This hurry
and lively scene, with the sight of the immense crowd in the
Park and on every house, the guards, and the machine itself,
which was very beautiful, was all that was worth seeing. The
rockets, and whatever was thrown up into the air, succeeded
mighty well; but the wheels, and all that was to compose the
principal part, were pitiful and ill-conducted, with no changes
of coloured fires and shapes: the illumination was mean, and
lighted so slowly that scarce any body had patience to wait the
finishing; and then, -what contributed to the awkwardness of
the whole, was the right pavilion catching fire, and being
burnt down in the middle of the show. The King, the Duke, and
Princess Emily saw it from the library,(19) with their courts:
the Prince and Princess, with their children, from Lady
Middlesex's; no place being provided for them, nor any
invitation given to the library. The lords and Commons had
galleries built for them and the chief citizens along the rails
of the mall: the lords had four tickets a-piece, and each
Commoner, at first, but two, till the Speaker bounced and
obtained a third. Very little mischief was done, and but two
persons killed: at Paris, there were forty killed and near
three hundred wounded, by a dispute between the French and
Italians in the management, who, quarrelling for precedence in
lighting the fires, both lighted at once and blew up the whole.
Our mob was extremely tranquil, and very unlike those I
remember in my father's time, when it was a measure in the
Opposition to work up every thing to mischief, the excise and
the French players, the convention and the gin-act. We are as
much now in the opposite extreme, and in general so pleased
with the peace, that I could not help being struck with a
passage I read lately in Pasquier an old French author, who
says, "that in the time of Francis 1. the French used to call
their creditors 'Des Anglois,' from the facility with which the
English gave credit to them in all treaties, though they had
broken so many." On Saturday we had a serenata at the
Opera-house, called Peace in Europe, but it was a wretched
performance. On Monday there was a subscription-masquerade,
much fuller than that of last year, but not so agreeable or so
various in dresses. The King was well disguised in an
old-fashioned English habit, and much pleased with somebody who
desired him to hold their cup as they were drinking tea. The
Duke had a dress of the same kind, but was so immensely
corpulent that he looked like Cacofogo, the drunken captain, in
Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. The Duchess of Richmond was a
lady mayoress in the time of James I.; and Lord Delawarr,(20)
Queen Elizabeth's porter, from a picture in the guard-chamber at
Kensington; they were admirable masks. Lady Rochford, Miss
Evelyn, Miss Bishop, Lady Stafford,(21) and
Mrs. Pitt,(22) were in vast beauty; particularly the last, who
had a red veil, which made her look gloriously handsome. I
forgot Lady Kildare. Mr. Conway was the Duke in Don Quixote,
and the finest figure I ever saw. Miss Chudleigh(23) was
Iphigenia, but so naked that you would have taken her for
Andromeda; and Lady Betty Smithson had such a pyramid of
baubles upon her head, that she was exactly the Princess of
Babylon in Grammont.

You will conclude that, after all these diversions, people
begin to think of going out of town--no such matter: the
Parliament continues sitting, and will till the middle Of June;
Lord Egmont told us we should sit till Michaelmas. There are
many private bills, no public ones of any fame. We were to
have had some chastisement for Oxford, where, besides the late
riots, the famous Dr. King,(24) the Pretender's great agent,
made a most violent speech at the opening of the Ratcliffe
library. The ministry denounced judgment, but, in their old
style, have grown frightened, and dropped it. However, this
menace gave occasion to a meeting and union between the
Prince's party and the Jacobites, which Lord Egmont has been
labouring all the winter. They met at the St. Alban's tavern,
near Pall-mall, last Monday morning, an hundred and twelve
Lords and Commoners. The Duke of Beaufort(25) opened the
assembly with a panegyric on the stand that had been made this
winter against so corrupt an administration, and hoped it would
continue, and desired harmony. Lord Egmont seconded this
strongly, and begged they would come up to Parliament early
next winter. Lord Oxford(26) spoke next; and then Potter, with
great humour, and to the great Abashment of the Jacobites, said
he was very glad to see this union, and from thence hoped, that
if another attack like the last rebellion should be made on the
Royal Family, they would all stand by them. No reply was made
to this. Then Sir Watkyn Williams spoke, Sir Francis Dashwood,
and Tom Pitt,(27) and the meeting broke up. I don't know what
his coalition may produce; it will require time with no better
heads than compose it at present, though great Mr. Doddington
had carried to the conference the assistance of his. In France a
very favourable event has happened for us, the disgrace of
Maurepas,(28) one of our bitterest enemies, and the promoter of
their marine. Just at the beginning of the war, in a very
critical period, he had obtained a very large sum for that
service, but which one of the other factions, lest he should gain
glory and credit by it, got to be Suddenly given away to the King
of Prussia.

Sir Charles Williams is appointed envoy to this last King: here
is an epigram which he has just sent over on Lord Egmont's
opposition to the Mutiny-bill;

"Why has lord Egmont 'gainst this bill
So much declamatory skill
So tediously exerted?
The reason's plain: but t'other day
He mutinied himself for pay,
And he has twice descried."

I must tell you a bon-mot that was made the other night at the
serenata of "Peace in Europe" by Wall,(29) who is Much in
fashion, and a kind of Gondomar. Grossatesta, the Modenese
minister, a very low fellow, with all the jackpuddinghood of an
Italian, asked, "Mais qui est ce qui repres`ente mon maitre>"
Wall replied, "Mais, mon Die, l'abb`e, ne scavez vous pas que
ce n'est pas un op`era boufon!" And here is another bon-mot of
my Lady Townshend: We were talking of the Methodists: somebody
said, "Nay, Madam, is it true that Whitfield has recanted?"
"No, Sir, he has only canted."

If you ever think of returning to England, as I hope it will be
long first, you must prepare yourself with Methodism. I really
believe that by that time it will be necessary; this sect
increases as fast as almost ever any religious nonsense did.

Lady Fanny Shirley has chosen this way of bestowing the dregs
of her beauty; and Mr. Lyttelton is very near making the same
sacrifice of the dregs of all those various characters that he
has worn. The Methodists love your big sinners as proper
subjects to work upon--and indeed they have a plentiful
harvest--I think what you call flagrancy was never more in
fashion. Drinking is at the highest wine-mark; and gaming
joined with it so violent, that at the last Newmarket meeting,
in the rapidity of both, a bank-bill was thrown down, and
nobody immediately claiming it, they agreed to give it to a man
that was standing by.

I must tell you of Stosch's letter, which he had the
impertinence to give you without telling the contents. It was
to solicit the arrears of his pension, which I beg you will
Tell him I have no manner of interest to procure; and to tell
me of a Galla Placidia, a gold medal lately found. It is not for
myself, but I wish you would ask him the price for a friend of
mine who would like to buy it. Adieu! my dear child; I have been
long in arrears to you, but I trust you will take this huge
letter as an acquittal. You see my villa makes me a good
correspondent; how happy I should be to show it you, if I could,
with no mixture of disagreeable circumstances to you. I have
made a vast plantation! Lord Leicester told me the other day that
he heard I would not buy some old china, because I was laying out
all my money in trees; "Yes," said I, my Lord, I used to love
blue trees, but Now I like green ones."

(19) Probably the old brick building near the bottom of the
Green Park, which was called the Queen's Library," and which
was pulled down by the late Duke of York when he built his new
house in the Stable-yard, St. James's.-D.

(20) John West, seventh Lord Delawarr, created Earl Delawarr,
in 1761-D.

(21) Henrietta Cantillon, wife of Matthias Howard, third Earl
of Stafford.-D.

(22) Penelope Atkyns a celebrated beauty, wife of George Pitt,
Esq. of Strathfieldsaye, in Hants, created in 1776 Lord
Rivers.-D.

(23) Afterwards Duchess of Kingston.-D.

(24) last conspicuous Jacobite at Oxford. He was public orator
of that University and principal of St. Mary Hall.-D.

(25) Lord Noel Somerset,- who, in 1746 succeeded his brother in
the dukedom.

(26) Edward Harley, of Eywood, in the county of Hereford, to
whom, pursuant to the limitations of the patent, the earldoms
of Oxford and Mortimer descended, upon the death, without male
issue, of the Lord Treasurer's only son, Edward, the second
Earl. Lord Oxford was of the Jacobite party. He died in
1755.--D.

(27) Thomas Pitt, Esq. of Boconnock, in Cornwall, warden of the
Stannaries. He married the sister of George, Lord Lyttelton,
and was the father of the first Lord Camelford.-D.

(28) Phelypeaux, Count de Maurepas, son of the Chancellor de
Pontchartrain. He was disgraced in consequence of some quarrel
with the King's mistress. He returned to office, unhappily for
France, in the commencement of the reign of louis the
Sixteenth.-D.

(29) General Wall, the Spanish ambassador. Gondomar was the
able Spanish ambassador in England in the reign of james the
First.-D.

23 Letter 4
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, May 17, 1749.

We have not yet done diverting ourselves: the night before last
the Duke of Richmond gave a firework; a codicil to the peace.
He bought the rockets and wheels that remained in the pavilion
which miscarried, and took the pretence of the Duke of Modena
being here to give a charming entertainment. The garden(30)
lies with a slope down to the Thames, on which were lighters,
from whence were thrown up, after a concert of water-music, a
great number of rockets. Then from boats on every side were
discharged water-rockets and fires of that kind; and then the
wheels Which were ranged along the rails of the terrace were
played off; and the whole concluded with the illumination of a
pavilion on the top of the slope, of two pyramids on each side,
and of the whole length of the balustrade to the water. You
can't conceive a prettier sight; the garden filled with every
body of fashion, the Duke, the Duke of Modena, and the two
black Princes. The King and Princess Emily were in their barge
under the terrace; the river was covered with boats, and the
shores and adjacent houses with crowds. The Duke of Modena
played afterwards at brag, and there was a fine supper for him
and the foreigners, of whom there are numbers here; it is grown
as much the fashion to travel hither as to France or Italy.
Last week there was a vast assembly and music at Bedford-house
for this Modenese; and to-day he is set out to receive his
doctor's degree at the two Universities. His appearance is
rather better than it used to be, for, instead of wearing his
wig down to his nose to hide the humour in his face, he has
taken to paint his forehead white, which, however, with the
large quantity of red that he always wears on the rest of his
face, makes him ridiculous enough. I cannot say his manner is
more polished; Princess Emily asked him if he did not find the
Duke much fatter than when he was here before? He replied, "En
verit`e il n'est pas si effroiable qu'on m'avoit dit." She
commended his diamonds; he said, "Les v`otres sont bien
petits." As I had been graciously received at his court, I
went into his box the first night at the Opera: the first thing
he did was to fall asleep; but as I did not choose to sit waiting
his reveil in the face of the whole theatre, I waked him, and
would discourse him: but here I was very unlucky, for of the only
two persons I could recollect at his court to inquire after, one
has been dead these four years, and the other, he could not
remember any such man. However, Sabbatini, his secretary of
state, flattered me extremely: told me he found me beaucoup
mieux, and that I was grown very fat-I fear, I fear it was
flattery! Eight years don't improve one,-and for my corpulence,
if I am grown fat, what must I have been in my Modenese days!