The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford Volume II Part 57

390 Letter 233 To George Montagu, Esq.

Strawberry Hill, Aug. 4, 1757.

I shall to-morrow deliver to your agentess, Mrs. Moreland, something to send to you.

The Duke(814) is beaten by the French; he and his family are safe; I know no more particulars-if I did, I should say, as I have just said to Mr. Chute, I am too busy about something to have time to write them. Adieu!

(814) The Duke of c.u.mberland, in the affair of Hastenbeck.

391 Letter 234 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.

Strawberry Hill, August 14, 1757.

You are too kind to me, and, if it were possible, would make me feel still more for your approaching departures.(815) I can only thank you ten thousand times; for I must not expatiate, both from the nature of the subject, and from the uncertainty of this letter reaching you. I was told yesterday, that you had hanged a French spy in the Isle of Wight; I don't mean you, but your government. Though I wish no life taken away, it was some satisfaction to think that the French were at this hour wanting information.

Mr. Fox breakfasted here t'other day. He confirmed -what you tell me of Lord Frederick Cavendish's account: it is universally said that the Duke failed merely by inferiority, the French soldiers behaving in general most scandalously. They had fourscore pieces of cannon, but very ill served. Marshal D'Estr'ees was recalled before the battle, but did not know it.

He is said to have made some great mistakes in the action. I cannot speak to the truth of it, but the French are reported to have demanded two millions sterling of Hanover.

My whole letter will consist of hearsays: for, even at so little distance from town, one gets no better news than hawkers and pedlars retail about the country. From such I hear that George Haldane(816) is made governor of Jamaica, and that a Mr. Campbell, whose father lives in Sweden, is going thither to make an alliance with that country, and hire twelve thousand men. If one of my acquaintance, as an antiquary, were alive, Sir Anthony s.h.i.+rley,,(817) I suppose we should send him to Persia again for troops; I fear we shall get none nearer!

Adieu! my dearest Harry! Next to wis.h.i.+ng your expedition still-born, my most constant thought is, how to be of any service to poor Lady Ailesbury, whose reasonable concern makes even that of the strongest friends.h.i.+p seem trifling. Yours most entirely.

(815) On the expedition to Rochfort.

(816) Brigadier-General Haldane.

(817) Sir Thomas, Sir Anthony, and Sir Robert s.h.i.+rley, were three brothers, all great travellers, and all distinguished by extraordinary adventures in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I.

392 Letter 235 To George Montagu, Esq.

Strawberry Hill, August 25, 1757.

I did not know that you expected the pleasure of seeing the Colonel so soon. It is plain that I did not solicit leave of absence for him; make him my many compliments. I should have been happy to have seen you and Mr. John, but must not regret it, as you were so agreeably prevented. You are very particular, I can tell you, in liking Gray's Odes--but you must remember that the age likes Akenside, and did like Thomson! can the same people like both? Milton was forced to wait till the world had done admiring Quarles. Cambridge told me t'other night that my Lord Chesterfield heard Stanley read them as his own, but that must have been a mistake of my lord's deafness. Cambridge said, "Perhaps they are Stanley's; and not caring to own them, he gave them to Gray." I think this would hurt Gray's dignity ten times more than his poetry not succeeding. My humble share as his printer has been more favourably received. We proceed soberly. I must give you account of less amus.e.m.e.nts, des eaux de Strawberry. T'other day my Lady Rochfort, Lady Townshend, Miss Bland,(818) and the knight of the garter dined here, and were carried into the printing-office, and were to see the man print. There were some lines ready placed, which he took off; I gave them to Lady Townshend; here they are-

"The press speaks: >From me wits and poets their glory obtain; Without me their wit and their verses were vain.

Stop, Townshend, and let me but print what you say; You, the fame I on others bestow, will repay."

They then asked, as I foresaw, to see the man compose: I gave him four lines out of the Fair Penitent, which he set; but while he went to place them in the press, I made them look at something else without their observing, and in an instant he whipped away what he had just set, and to their great surprise when they expected to see "Were ye, ye fair," he presented to my Lady Rochford the following lines:-

"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 Hamps.h.i.+re, 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 Warwicks.h.i.+re 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sistance: 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 lat.i.tude 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 a.s.siduous 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.