The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford Volume I Part 29

(447) Mary, daughter of Edward Blount, Esq. and wife of Edward, ninth Duke of Norfolk.-D.

(448) The Princess of Wales.-D.

(449)General Charles Churchill.-D.

(450) Philip Gibbons, Esq.-D.

(451) Sir John Rushout, the fourth baronet of the family, had particularly distinguished himself as an opponent of Sir R.

Walpole's excise scheme. He was made treasurer of the navy in 1743, and died in 1775, at the advanced age of ninety-one. His son was created Lord Northwick, in 1797.-D.

(452) George Treby, Esq.-D.

(453) Thomas Clutterbuck, Esq. He left the Treasury in February 1742, and was made treasurer of the navy.-D.

(454) "February II. Lord Orford and Sir Charles Wager resigned. Mr. Sandys kissed hands as chancellor of the exchequer: Lord Wilmington declared first commissioner of the Treasury: offers made to the Duke of Argyle, but refused: none to Lord Chesterfield."-Secker MS.-E.

(455) Lady Sandys was daughter of Lady Tipping, niece of Russel, Earl of Orford.

(456) Sir Thomas Wentworth, the great Earl of Strafford, took the t.i.tle of Raby from a castle of that name, which belonged to Sir Henry Vane, who, from that time, became his mortal foe.

(457) Sir Charles Wager. [In the following December Sir Charles was appointed treasurer of the navy, which office he held till his death, in May 1743.)

(458) Mrs. Goldsworthy had been a companion of the d.u.c.h.ess of Richmond.

(459) Posterity has not confirmed the eulogium here given to the indecent trash of the younger Cr'ebillon: but in the age of George II. coa.r.s.eness pa.s.sed for humour, and obscenity was wit."-D

224 Letter 54 To Sir Horace Mann.

Feb. 18, 1741-2.

I write to you more tired, and with more headache, than any one but you could conceive! I came home at five this morning from the d.u.c.h.ess of Norfolk's masquerade, and was forced to rise before eleven, for my father, who came from Richmond to take his seat in the Lords, for the Houses met to-day. He is gone back to his retirement. Things wear a better aspect: at the great meeting (460) on Friday, at the Fountain, Lord Carteret and Lord Winchilsea (461) refused to go, only saying, that they never dined at a tavern. Pultney and the new chancellor of the exchequer went, and were abused by his Grace of Argyll. The former said he was content with what was already done, and would not be active in any further proceedings, though he would not desert the party. Sandys said the King had done him the honour to offer him that place; why should he not accept it? if he had not, another would: if n.o.body would, the King would be obliged to employ his old minister again, which he imagined the gentlemen present would not wish to see; and protested against screening, with the same conclusion as Pultney. The Duke of Bedford was very warm against Sir William Yonge; Lord Talbot (462) was so in general.(463)

During the recess, they have employed Fazakerley to draw up four impeachments; against Sir Robert, my uncle, Mr. Keene, and Colonel Bladen, who was only commissioner for the tariff at Antwerp. One of the articles against Sir R. is, his having at this conjuncture trusted Lord Waldegrave as amba.s.sador, who is so near a relation (464) of the Pretender-. but these impeachments are likely to grow obsolete ma.n.u.scripts. The minds of the people grow more candid: at first, they made one of the actors at Drury Lane repeat some applicable lines at the end of Harry the Fourth; but last Monday, when his Royal Highness-, had purposely bespoken "The Unhappy Favourite" (465) for Mrs.

Porter's benefit, they never once applied the most glaring pa.s.sages; as where they read the indictment against Robert Earl of Ess.e.x, etc. The Tories declare against further prosecution-if Tories there are, for now one hears of nothing but the Broad Bottom: it is the reigning cant word, and means, the taking all parties and people, indifferently into the ministry. The Whigs are the dupes of this; And those in the Opposition affirm that Tories no longer exist.

Notwithstanding this, they will not come into the new ministry, unless what were always reckoned Tories are admitted. The Treasury has gone a-begging: I mean one of the lords.h.i.+ps, which is at last filled up with Major Compton, a relation of Lord Wilmington; but now we shall see a new scene.

On Tuesday night Mr. Pultney went to the Prince, and, without the knowledge of Argyll, etc., prevailed on him to write to the King: he was so long determining, that it was eleven at night before the King received his letter. Yesterday morning the prince, attended by two of his lords, two grooms of the Bedchamber, and Lord Scarborough,(466) his treasurer went to the King's levee.(467) The King said, "How does the Princess do? I hope she is well." The Prince kissed his hand, and this was all! The Prince returned to Carlton House, whither crowds went to him. He spoke to the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pelham; but would not to the three dukes, Richmond, Grafton, and Marlborough.(468) At night the Royal Family were all at the d.u.c.h.ess of Norfolk'@' and the streets were illuminated and bonfired. To-day, the Duke of Bedford, Lord Halifax, and some others, were at St. James's: the King spoke to all the Lords. In a day or two, I shall go with my uncle and brothers to the Prince's levee.

Yesterday there was a meeting of all the Scotch of our side, who, to a man, determined to defend Sir Robert

Lyttelton (469) is going to marry Miss Fortescue, Lord Clinton's sister.

When our earl went to the House of lords to-day, he apprehended some incivilities from his Grace of Argyll, but he was not there. Bedford, Halifax, Berks.h.i.+re,(470) and some more, were close by him, but would not bow to him. Lord Chesterfield wished him joy. This is all I know for certain; for I will not send you the thousand lies of every new day.

I must tell you how fine the masquerade of last night was. There were five hundred persons, in the greatest variety of handsome and rich dresses I ever saw, and all the jewels of London-and London has some! There were dozens of ugly Queens of Scots, of which I will only name to you the eldest Miss Shadwell! The Princess of Wales was one, covered with diamonds, but did not take off her mask: none of the Royalties did, but every body else. Lady Conway (471) was a charming Mary Stuart: Lord and Lady Euston, man and woman huzzars. But the two finest and most charming masks were their Graces of Richmond,(472) like Harry the Eighth and Jane Seymour: excessively rich, and both so handsome @ Here is a nephew of the King of Denmark, who was in armour, and his governor, a most admirable Quixote. there were quant.i.ties of Vand.y.k.es, and all kinds of old pictures walked out of the frames. It was an a.s.semblage of all ages and nations, and would look like the day of judgment, if tradition did not persuade us that we are all to meet naked, and if something else did not tell us that we shall not meet with quite so much indifference, nor thinking quite so much of the becoming. My dress was an Aurungzebe: but of all extravagant figures commend me to our friend the Countess!(473) She and my lord trudged in like pilgrims with vast staffs in their hands; and she was so heated, that you would have thought her pilgrimage had been, like Pantagruel's voyage, to the Oracle of the Bottle! Lady Sophia was in a Spanish dress-so was Lord Lincoln; not, to be sure, by design, but so it happened. When the King came in, the Faussans (474) were there, and danced an entr'ee. At the masquerade the King sat by Mrs. Selwyn, and with tears told her, that "the Whigs should find he loved them, as he had the poor man that was gone!"

He had sworn that he would not speak to the Prince at their meeting, but was prevailed on.

I received your letter by Holland, and the paper about the Spaniards. By this time you will conceive that I can speak of nothing to any purpose, for Sir R. does not meddle in the least with business.

As to the Sibyl, I have not mentioned it to him; I still am for the other. Except that, he will not care, I believe, to buy more pictures, having now so many more than he has room for at Houghton; and he will have but a small house in town when we leave this. But you must thank the dear Chutes for their new offers; the obligations are too great, but I am most sensible to their goodness, and, were I not so excessively tired now, would write to them. I cannot add a word more, but to think of the Princess:(475) "Comment! vous avez donc des enfans!" You see how nature sometimes breaks out in spite of religion and prudery, grandeur and pride, delicacy and 'epuis.e.m.e.nts! Good night!

Yours ever.

(460) See an account of this meeting in Lord Egmonfs "Faction Detected." [To this meeting at the Fountain tavern Sir Charles Hanbury Williams alludes in his Ode against the Earl of Bath, called the Statesman-

"Then enlarge on his cunning and wit: Say, how he harangued at the Fountain; Say, how the old patriots were bit, And a mouse was produced by a mountain."]

(461) Daniel Finch, seventh Earl of Winchilsea and third Earl of Nottingham. He was made first lord of the admiralty upon the breaking up of Sir R. Walpole's government.-D.

(462) William, second Lord Talbot, eldest son of the lord chancellor of that name and t.i.tle.-D.

(463) The following is from the Secker MS.-"Feb. 12. Meeting at the Fountain tavern of above two hundred commoners and thirty-five Lords. Duke of Argyle spoke warmly for prosecuting Lord Orford, with hints of reflection on those who had accepted. Mr. Pulteney replied warmly. Lord Talbot drank to cleansing the Augean stable of the dung and grooms. Mr. Sandys and Mr. Gibbon there. Lord Carteret and Lord Winchilsea not. Lord Chancellor, in the evening, in private discourse to me, strong against taking in any Tories: owning no more than that some of them, perhaps, were not for the Pretender, or, at least, did not know they were for him; though, when I gave him the account first of my discourse with the Prince, he said, the main body of them were of the same principles with the Tories."-E.

(464) His mother was natural daughter of King James II.

(James, first Earl Waldegrave, appointed amba.s.sador to the court of France in 1730: died in 1741.-D.)

(465) banks's tragedy of "The Unhappy Favourite; or, the Earl of Ess.e.x," was first acted in 1682. The prologue and epilogue were written by Dryden. Speaking of this play, in the Tatler, Sir Richard Steele says, "there is in it not one good line, and yet it is a play which was never seen without drawing tears from some part of the audience; a remarkable instance, that the soul is not to be moved by words, but things; for the incidents in the drama are laid together so happily that the spectator makes the play for himself, by the force with which the circ.u.mstance has upon his imagination."-E.

(466) Thomas Lumley, third Earl of Scarborough.-D.

(467) "February 17. Prince of Wales went to St. James's. The agreement made at eleven the night before, and princ.i.p.ally by Mr.

Pultney; as Lord Wilmington told me. The King received him in the drawing-room: the Prince kissed his hand: he asked him how the Princess did: showed no other mark of regard. All the courtiers went the same day to Carlton House. The Bishop of Gloucester (Dr. Benson) and I went thither. The Prince and princess civil to us both." Secker MS.-E.

(468) Charles Spencer, second duke of Marlborough succeeded to that t.i.tle on the death of his aunt Henrietta, d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough, in 1733.-D.

(469) Sir George Lyttelton, afterwards created Lord Lyttelton.

Miss Fortescue was his first wife, and mother of Thomas, called the wicked Lord Lyttelton. She died in childbed and Lord Lyttelton honoured her Memory with the well-known Monody which was so unfeelingly parodied by Smollett.-D. [ Under the t.i.tle of an "Ode on the Death of My Grandmother.")

(470 Henry Bowes Howard, fourth Earl of Berks.h.i.+re. He succeeded, in 1745, as eleventh Earl of Suffolk, on the death, without issue, of henry, tenth earl. He died in 1757.-D.

(471) Lady Isabella Fitzroy, Youngest daughter of the Duke of grafton, and wife of Francis Seymour, Lord Conway of Hertford.

(472) Charles Lennox, master of the horse, and Sarah Cadogan, his d.u.c.h.ess. He died in the year following.

(473) The Countess of Pomfret.

(474) Two celebrated comic dancers.

(475) Princess Craon, so often mentioned in these letters.-D.

227 Letter 55 To Sir Horace Mann.

London, Feb. 25, 1742.

I am impatient to hear that you have received my first account of the change; as to be sure you are now for every post. This last week has not produced many new events. The Prince of Wales has got the measles,(476) so there has been but little incense offered up to him: his brother of Saxe-Gotha has got them too.

When the Princess went to St. James's, she fell at the King's feet and struggled to kiss his hand, and burst into tears. At the Norfolk masquerade she was vastly bejewelled; Frankz had lent her forty thousand pounds worth, and refused to be paid for the hire, only desiring that she would tell whose they were. All this is nothing, but to introduce one of Madame de Pomfret's ingenuities, who. being dressed like a pilgrim, told the Princess, that she had taken her for the Lady of Loreto.

But you will wish for politics now, more than for histories of masquerades, though this last has taken up people's thoughts full as much. The House met last Thursday and voted the army without a division: s.h.i.+ppen (477 alone, unchanged, Opposed it. They have since been busied on elections, turning out our friends and voting in their own.. almost without opposition. The chief affair has been the Denbighs.h.i.+re election, on the pet.i.tion of Sir Watkyn William . 'They have voted him into parliament and the high-sheriff into Newgate. Murray (478) was most eloquent: Lloyd,(479) the counsel on the other side, and no bad one, (for I go constantly, though I do not stay long, but "leave the dead to bury their dead," said that it was objected to the sheriff, that he was related to the sitting member; but, indeed, in that country (Wales) it would be difficult not to be related. Yesterday we had another hearing of the pet.i.tion of the Merchants, when Sir Robert G.o.dschall shone brighter than even his usual. There was a copy of a letter produced, the original having been lost: he asked whether the copy had been taken before the original was lost, or after!