Books: The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

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"The press speaks:
In vain from your properest name you have flown,
And exchanged lovely Cupid's for Hymen's dull throne;
By my art shall your beauties be constantly sung,
And in spite of yourself you shall ever be young."

You may imagine, whatever the poetry was, that the gallantry of
it succeeded. Poor Mr. Bentley has been at the extremity with a
fever, and inflammation in his bowels; but is so well recovered
that Mr. Muntz is gone to fetch him hither to-day. I don't
guess what sight I have to come in Hampshire, unless it is
Abbotstone. I am pretty sure I have none to come at the Vine,
where I have done nothing, as I see Mr. Chute will never execute
any thing. The very altar-piece that I sent for to Italy is not
placed yet. But when he could refrain from
making the Gothic columbarium for his family, which I propose,
and Mr. Bentley had drawn so divinely, it is not probable he
should do any thing else. Adieu!

(818) Sister of the unfortunate Sir John Bland. See ant&, p.
287, letter 157.-E.

393 Letter 236
To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(819)
Strawberry Hill, Thursday, Sept. 2, 1757.

Not being in town, there may be several more new productions,
as the Grubbaea frutex blossoms every day; but I send you all I
had gathered for myself, while I was there. I found the
pamphlet much in vogue; and, indeed, it is written smartly. My
Lady Townshend sends all her messages on the backs of these
political cards; the only good one of which the two heads facing
one another, is her son George's. Charles met D'Abreu t'other
day, and told him he intended to make a great many speeches next
winter; the first, said he, shall be to address the King not to
send for any more foreign troops, but to send for some foreign
ministers.

My Lord Chesterfield is relapsed: he sent Lord Bath word
lately, that be was grown very lean and deaf: the other
replied, that he could lend him some fat, and should be very
glad at any time to lend him an ear.

I shall go to town on Monday, and if I find any thing else new,
I will pack it up with a flower picture for Lady
Ailesbury, which I shall leave in Warwick-street, with orders
to be sent to you. Adieu!

(819) Now first printed.

393 Letter 237
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 3, 1757.

having intended a journey into Warwickshire to see Lady
Hertford while my lord is in Ireland, and having accordingly
ordered my letters thither, though without going, I did not
receive yours of the 22d till last week; and though you
desired an immediate acknowledgment of it, I own I did defer
till I could tell you I had been at Linton,(820) from whence I
returned yesterday. I had long promised your brother a visit;
the immediate cause was very melancholy, and I must pass over it
rapidly-in short, I am going to place an urn in the church there
to our dear Gal.! If I could have divested myself of that
thought, I should have passed my time very happily; the house is
fine, and stands like the citadel of Kent; the whole county is
its garden. So rich a prospect scarce wants my Thames. Mr. and
Mrs. Foote(821) are settled there, two of the most agreeable and
sensible people I ever met. Their eldest boy has the finest
countenance in the world; your nephew
Hory(822) was there too, and has a sweetness of temper, as if
begot between your brother and you, and not between him and his
Tusephone. Your eldest brother has not only established your
sister Foote there, which looks well, but dropped very agreeable
hints about Hory.

Your letter has confirmed my satisfaction about your situation
about which indeed I am easy. I am persuaded you will remain at
Florence as long as King George has any minister there. I do
not imagine that a recall obliges you to return home;
whether you could get your appointments continued is very
different. It is certainly far from unprecedented: nay, more
than one have received them at home--but that is a favour far
beyond my reach to obtain. Should there be occasion, you must
try all your friends, and all that have professed themselves so;
your Mr. Pelham(823) might do something. In the mean time,
neglect none of the ministers. If you could wind into a
correspondence with Colonel Yorke,(824) at the Hague, he may be
of great service to you. That family is very Powerful: the
eldest brother, Lord Royston,(825) is historically curious and
political: if without its appearing too forced, you could at any
time send him uncommon letters, papers, manifestoes', and things
of that sort, it might do good service. My dear child, I can
give you better advice than assistance: I believe I have told
you before, that I should rather hurt you than serve you by
acting openly for you.

I told you in my last Admiral Boscawen's affair too strongly:
he is not disgraced nor dismissed, but seems to reckon himself
both. The story is far from exactly known: what I can sift out
is, that he indulged himself in a great latitude in a most
profitable station, was recalled against his inclination, for
the present expedition; not being easily met, a second
commander was appointed, whom it seems he did not much care to
serve under at first. He does not serve at all, and his
Boscawenhood is much more Boscawened; that is surely in the
deepest shade. The wind has blown so constantly west for nearly
three weeks, that we have not only received no mails from the
continent, but the transports have been detained in the Downs,
and the secret expedition has remained at anchor. I have prayed
it might continue, but the wind has got to the east to-day.
Having never been prejudiced in favour of this exploit, what
must I think of it when the French have had such long notice?

We had a torrent of bad news yesterday from America, Lord
Loudon has found an army of twenty-one thousand French, gives
over the design on Louisbourg, and retires to Halifax.
Admiral Holbourn writes, that they have nineteen ships to his
seventeen, and he cannot attack them. It is time for England to
slip her own cables, and float away into some unknown
ocean!

Between disgraces and an inflammation in my eyes, it is time to
conclude my letter. My eyes I have certainly weakened with
using them too much at night. I went the other day to
Scarlet's to buy green spectacles; he was mighty assiduous to
give me a pair that would not tumble my hair. "Lord! Sir," said
I, "when one is come to wear spectacles, what signifies how one
looks?"

I hope soon to add another volume to your packet from my
press. I shall now only print for presents; or to talk in a
higher style, I shall only give my Louvre editions to
privy-councillors and foreign ministers. Apropos! there is a
book of this sacred sort which I wish I could by your means
procure: it is the account, with plates, of what has been found
at Herculaneum. You may promise the King of Naples in return
all my editions. Adieu! my dear Sir.

Sept. 4.

I had sealed this up, and was just sending it to London, when I
received yours of the 13th of this month. I am charmed with the
success of your campaign at Leghorn-a few such generals or
ministers would give a revulsion to our affairs.

You frighten me with telling me of innumerable copies taken of
my inscription on the Pope's picture: some of our bear-leaders
will pick it up, send it over, and I shall have the horror of
seeing it in a magazine. Though I had no scruple of sending the
good old man a cordial, I should hate to have it published at
the tail of a newspaper, like a testimonial from one of Dr.
Rock's patients! You talk of the Pope's enemies; who are they?
I thought at most he could have none but at our
bonfires on the fifth of November.

(820) In Kent, the seat of Edward Louisa Mann, brother of sir
Horace.

(821) Sister of Sir Horace.

(822) Horace, only son of Galfridus Mann.

(823) Thomas. afterwards Lord Pelham.

(824) Sir Joseph Yorke, K. B. third son of the chancellor
Hardwicke: created Lord Dover in 1788, and died without issue in
1792.-E.

(825) Afterwards second Earl of Hardwicke.-D.

395 Letter 238
To George Montagu, Esq.
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 8, 1757.

How I laughed at your picture of the shrine of Notre Dame de
Straberri, and of the vows hung up there! I little thought that
when I converted my castle into a printing office, the next
transformation Would be into an hospital for the "filles
repenties" from Mrs. Naylor's and Lady Fitzroy's.(826) You will
treat the enclosed I trust with a little more respect; not for
the sake of the hero, but of the poet. The poet, poor soul! has
had a relapse, but is again recovering. As I know no earthly
history, you must accept the sonnet as if it was written into my
letter; and therefore supposing this the end of the third page,
I bid you good night.

(826) Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel Cosby, governor of New
York, by Lucy Montagu, aunt of George Montagu, and widow of Lord
Augustus Fitzroy; by whom she had two sons, Au_gusttis Henry,
afterwards Duke of Grafton, and General Fitzroy, who was created
Lord Southampton.-E.

396 Letter 239
To The Right Hon. Lady Hervey.(827)
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 13, 1757.

Madam,
After all the trouble your ladyship has been so good as to take
voluntarily, you will think it a little hard that I
should presume to give you more; but it is a cause, Madam, in
which I know you feel, and I can suggest new motives to your
ladyship's zeal. In short, Madam, I am on the crisis of
losing Mademoiselle de l'Enclos's picture, or of getting both
that and her letters to Lady Sandwich. I enclose Lord
Sandwich's letter to me, which will explain the whole. Madame
Greffini, I suppose, is Madame Graphigny;(828) whom some of your
ladyship's friends, if not yourself, must know; and she might be
of use, if she could be trusted not to detain so tempting a
treasure as the letters. From the effects being sealed up, I
have still hopes; greater, from the goodness your ladyship had
in writing before. Don't wonder, Madam, at my eagerness:
besides a good quantity Of natural impatience, I am now
interested as an editor and printer. Think what pride it would
give me to print original letters of Ninon at Strawberry Hill!
If your ladyship knows any farther means of serving me, of
serving yourself, good Mr. Welldone, as the widow Lackit says in
Oroonoko, I need not doubt your employing them. Your ladyship
and I are of a religion, with regard to certain
saints, that inspires more zeal than such trifling temptations
as persecution and fagots infuse into bigots of other sects. I
think a cause like ours might communicate ardour even to my Lady
Stafford. If she will assist in recovering, Notre Dame des
Amours, I will add St. Raoul(829) to my calendar. I am hers and
your ladyship's most obedient and faithful humble servant.

(827) Lady Hervey was only daughter of Brigadier-General
Nicholas Lepel. She was maid of honour to Queen Caroline, and
was one of the principal ornaments of her court. In 1720, she
was married to John Lord Hervey, eldest son of John Earl of
Bristol, by whom she had four sons and four daughters. She died
in September, 1768. A collection of her Letters, with a Memoir
and Illustrative Notes, by Mr. Croker, was published in 1821.-E.

(828) Madame de Graffigny, the author of "Lettres d'une
Peruvienne," and several dramatic pieces. She died in the
following year. A collection of her works, in four volumes, was
published at Paris in 1788.-E.

(829) A favourite cat of Lady Stafford's.

396 Letter 240
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, Sept. 20(830)

My dear Sir,
I have been roving about Hampshire with Mr. Chute, and did not
receive your very kind note till yesterday, or I should
certainly not have deferred a moment to thank you for it, and
to express my great concern for Miss Montagu's bad health. You
do me justice when you reckon on my feeling most sincerely for
you: but let me ask why you will not bring her to town? She
might not only have more variety of assistance, but it would be
some relief to you: it must be dreadful, with your tenderness
and feeling, to have nobody to share and divert your uneasiness.

I did not, till on the road the day before yesterday, hear the
catastrophe of poor Sir John Bland, and the execrable villany,
or, what our ancestors would have called, the humours of
Taaffe. I am extremely sorry for Bland! He was very
good-natured, and generous and well-bred; but never was such
infatuation - I can call it by no term but flirting away his
fortune and his life; he seemed to have no passion for play
while he did it, nor sensibility when it ruined him but I fear
he had both! What judgments the good people in the city (I mean
the good in their own style, moneyed) will construe upon
White's, when two of the most remarkable members have
despatched themselves in nine months!

I shall be most sincerely glad to receive another letter to
tell me that Miss Montagu mends: you have both my most hearty
wishes. Yours ever.

(830) This letter is misplaced: the date of the year is
1755.-E.

397 Letter 241
To Sir Horace Mann.
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 29, 1757.

For how many years have I been telling you that your country
was mad, that your country was undone! It does not grow wiser;
it does not grow more prosperous! You can scarce have
recovered your astonishment at the suspension of arms(831)
concluded near Stade. How do you behave on these lamentable
occasions? Oh! believe me, it is comfortable to have an
island to hide one's head in! You will be more surprised when
you hear that it is totally disavowed here. The clamour is
going to be extreme--no wonder, when Kensington is the
headquarters of murmur. The commander-in-chief is recalled--
the late Elector(832) is outrageous. On such an occasion you
may imagine that every old store of malice and hatred is
ransacked: but you would not think that the general is now
accused of cowardice! As improbable as that is, I do not know
whether it may not grow your duty as a minister to believe
it-and if it does, you must be sure not to believe, that with
all this tempest the suspension was dictated from hence. Be
that as it may, the general is to be the sacrifice. The
difficulty will be extreme with regard to the Hessians, for
they are in English pay. The King of Prussia will be another
victim: he says we have undone him, without mending our own
situation. He expected to beat the Prince de Soubize by
surprise, but he, like the Austrians, declined a battle, and
now will be reinforced by Richelieu's army, who is doomed to be
a hero by our absurdities. Austrians, French, Russians, Swedes,
can the King of Prussia not sink under all these!
This suspension has made our secret expedition forgot by all
but us who feel for particulars. It is the fashion now to
believe it is not against the coast of France; I wish I could
believe so!

As if all these disgraces were foreign objects not worth
attending to, we have a civil war at home; literally so in many
counties. The wise Lords, to defeat it, have made the
Militia-bill so preposterous that it has raised a rebellion.
George Townshend, the promoter of it for popularity, sees it not
only most unpopular in his own county, but his father, my Lord
Townshend, who is not the least mad of your countrymen, attended
by a parson, a barber, and his own servants, and in his own long
hair, which he has let grow, raised a mob against the execution
of the bill, and has written a paper against it, which he has
pasted up on the doors of four churches near him. It is a good
name that a Dr. Stevens has given to our present situation, (for
one cannot call it a Government,) a Mobocracy.
I come to your letters which are much more agreeable subjects.
I think I must not wish you joy of the termination of the
Lorrain reign, you have lately taken to them, but I
congratulate the Tuscans. Thank you extremely for the trouble
you have given yourself in translating my inscription, and for
the Pope's letter: I am charmed with his beautiful humility, and
his delightful way of expressing it. For his ignorance about my
father, I impute it to some failure of his memory. I should
like to tell him that were my father still minister, I trust we
should not make the figure we do--at least he and England fell
together! If it is ignorance, Mr. Chute says it is a
confirmation of the Pope's deserving the inscription, as he
troubles his head so little about disturbing the peace of
others. But our enemies need not disturb us-we do their
business ourselves. I have one, and that not a little
comfort, in my politics ; this suspension will at least
prevent further hostilities between us and the Empress-Queen,
and that secures my dear you.

When I have done thinking of politics, and that is always in an
instant, unless such as you and Mr. Conway are involved in them,
I am far from passing my time disagreeably. My mind is of no
gloomy turn, and I have a thousand ways of amusing
myself. Indeed of late I have been terribly frightened lest I
must give them all up; my fears have gone to extravagance; do
not wonder; my life is not quite irrational, and I trembled to
think that I was growing fit only to consort with dowagers.
What an exchange, books and drawings, and every thing of that
sort, for cards! In short, for ten weeks I have had such pains
in my eyes with the least application, that I thought I should
lose them, at least that they would be useless. I was told that
with reading and writing at night I had strained and relaxed the
nerves. However, I am convinced that though this is partly the
case, the immediate uneasiness came from a cold, which I caught
in the hot weather by giving myself Florentine airs, by lying
with my windows open, and by lying on the
ground without my waistcoat. After trying forty 'you should do
this's,'(833) Mr. Chute has cured me -with a very simple
medicine: I will tell it you, that you may talk to Dr. Cocchi
and about my eyes too. It is to bathe and rub the outsides all
round, especially on the temples, with half a teaspoonful of
white spirit of lavender (not lavender-water) and half of
Hungary-water. I do this night and morning, and sometimes in
the day: in ten days it has taken off all the uneasiness; I can
now read in a chaise, which I had totally lost, and for five or
six hours by candle-light, without spectacles or
candle-screen. In short, the difference is incredible.
Observe that they watered but little, and were less inflamed;
only a few veins appeared red, whereas my eyes were remarkably
clear. I do not know whether this would do with any humour, but
that I never had. It is certain that a young man who for above
twelve years had studied the law by being read to, from vast
relaxation of the nerves, totally recovered the use of his eyes.
I should think I tired you with this detail, if I was not sure
that you cannot be tired with learning any thing for the good of
others. As the medicine is so hot, it must not be let into the
eyes, nor I should think be continued too long.

I approve much of your letter to Mr. Fox; I will give it to him
at his return, but at present he is on a tour. How
scrupulous you are in giving yourself the trouble to send me a
copy--was that needful? or are you not always full of
attentions that speak kindness? Your brother will take care to
procure the vases when they come, and is inquiring for the
liqueurs.

I am putting up a stone in St. Ann's churchyard for your old
friend King Theodore; in short, his history is too remarkable to
be let perish. Mr. Bentley says that I am not only an
antiquarian, but prepare materials for future antiquarians. You
will laugh to hear that when I sent the inscription to the
vestry for the approbation of the ministers and churchwardens,
they demurred, and took some days to consider whether they
should suffer him to be called King of Corsica. Happily they
have acknowledged his title! Here is the inscription; over it is
a crown exactly copied from his coin:

"Near this place is interred
Theodore King of Corsica,
Who died in this perish Dec. 11, 1756,
Immediately after leaving the King's-Bench Prison,
By the benefit of the Act of Insolvency.
In consequence of which he registered
His Kingdom of Corsica
For the use of his Creditors.
The Grave, great teacher, to a level brings
heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and kings.
But Theodore this lesson learn'd, ere dead;
Fate pour'd its lessons on his living head,
Bestow'd a kingdom and denied him bread.

I think that at least it cannot be said of me, as it was of the
Duke of Buckingham entombing Dryden,

"And help'd to bury whom he help'd to starve."

I would have served him, if a King, even in a gaol, could he
have been an honest man. Our papers say, that we are bustling
about Corsica; I wish if we throw away our own liberty, that we
may at least help others to theirs! Adieu! my dear Sir.

(831) Known by the appellation of the Convention of
Closter-Severn, concluded by the Duke of Cumberland with
Marshal Richelieu; by which he agreed for himself and army not
to serve again against the French during the war.-D.

(832) George II.; he had ordered his son to make the
capitulation, and then disavowed him.

(833) Sic, in MS.-D.

400 Letter 242
To The Hon. H. S. Conway.(834)
Arlington Street, Saturday, Oct. 8, 1757.

My dearest Harry,
But one person in the world may pretend to be so much
overjoyed as I am at your return.(835) I came hither to-day,
on purpose to learn about you; but how can you ask me such a
question, as do I think you are come too safe? is this a time
of day to question your spirit? I know but two things on
earth I esteem more, your goodness and your sense. You cannot
come into dispute; but by what I have picked up at my Lady
Townshend's, I find there is a scheme of distinguishing
between the land and the sea. The King has been told, that
Sir Edward Hawke had written, that, after waiting two days, he
asked the officers how long it would be before they took a
resolution; That if they would not attack, he should carry the
fleet home.(836) I should not entirely credit this report, if
Mr. Keith, who was present, had not dropped, in a dry way,
that some distinction would be shown to Captain Howe and
Captain Greaves. What confirms my opinion is, that I have
never received the letter you say you sent me by the last
express. I suppose it is detained, till proper emissaries
have made proper impressions; but we will not let it pass so.
If you had not bid me, I should not have given you this
intelligence, for your character is too sacred to be trifled
with; and as you are invulnerable by any slanders, it is
proper you should know immediately even what may be meditated.

The Duke is expected every hour. As he must not defend
himself, his case will be harder than yours. I was to go to
Bath on Monday, but will certainly not go without seeing you:
let me know your motions, and I will meet you any where. As I
know your scrupulousness about saying any thing I say to you
privately, I think it necessary. to tell you, that I don't
mean to preclude you from communicating any part of this
letter to those with whom it may be proper for you to consult;
only don't let more weight be given to my intelligence than it
deserves. I have told you exactly where and what I heard. It
may not prove so, but there is no harm in being prepared.

(834) Now first printed.

(835) From the Expedition to Rochfort. The expedition, under
Sir Edward Hawke, sailed early in September, and, on the 28th,
attacked the Isle of Aix; after which it returned to Spithead,
without attempting to land the troops.-E.

(836) On the 22d, Mr. Beckford writes to Mr. Pitt. "I hear
that Admiral Hawke says, the land-general has acted in a very
unbecoming manner, and will declare his sentiments to
Parliament. I hope he will: that, if possible, the mystery
may be unravelled. I have often lamented the fatality
attending conjunct commands. The French avoid them in all
their expeditions; for rank is perfectly settled among the
land and sea officers, and the eldest commission carries the
command." Chatham Correspondence, vol. i. p. 279.-E.

401 Letter 243
To The Earl Of Strafford.
Strawberry Hill, Oct. 11, 1757.

My dear lord,
You will have seen or heard that the fleet is returned. They
have brought home nothing but one little island, which is a
great deal more than I expected, having neither thought so
despicably of France, or so considerably of ourselves, as to
believe they were exposed to much damage. My joy for Mr.
Conway's return is not at all lessened by the clamour on this
disappointment. Had he been chief commander, I should be very
sure the nothing he had done was all he could do. As he was
under orders, I wait with patience to hear his general's
vindication.

I hope the Yorkists have not knocked out your brains for
living in a county. In my neighbourhood they have insulted
the Parliament in person.(837) He called in the Blues,
instead of piquing himself on dying in his curule chair in the
stable-yard at Ember-court. So entirely have we lost our
spirit, that the standing army is forced to defend us against
the people, when we endeavour to give them a militia, to save
them from a standing army; and that the representative of the
Parliament had rather owe his life to the Guards than die in
the cause of a militia. Sure Lenthall's ghost will come and
pull him by the nose!