The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford Volume I Part 46

(751) Charles Philip of Neubourg, , Elector Palatine. He died December 31, 1742. He was succeeded by Charles Theodore, Prince of Sulzbach, descended from a younger branch of the house of Neubourg, and who, in his old age, became Elector of Bavaria.-D.

(752) Catherine Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, and wife of Charles Douglas, Duke of Queensberry; a famous beauty, celebrated by Prior in that pretty poem which begins, "Kitty, beautiful and young," and often mentioned in Swift and Pope's letters, She was forbid the Court for promoting subscriptions to the second part of the Beggar's Opera, when it had been prohibited from being acted. She and the duke erected the monument to Gay in Westminster Abbey. [And to which Pope supplied the epitaph, "the first eight lines of which," says Dr. Johnson, "have no grammar; the adjectives without substantives, and the epithets without a subject." The d.u.c.h.ess died in 1777, and her husband in the year following.]

(753) Walpole, in his Memoires, says that the duke's houses, gardens, table, and equipages swallowed immense treasures, and that the sums he owed were only exceeded by those he wasted.

He employed several physicians, without having had apparently much need of them. His gold plate appears to have been almost as dear to him as his health; for he usually kept it in p.a.w.n, except when he wished to display it on great occasions.

(754) Andrew Stone, at this time private secretary to the Duke of Newcastle. he subsequently filled the offices of under- secretary of state, sub-governor to Prince George, keeper of the state-paper office, and, on the marriage of George the third, treasurer to the Queen. he died in 1773.-E.

304 Letter 94 To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Jan. 13, 1743,

Your brother brought me two letters together this morning, and at the same time showed me yours to your father. How should I be ashamed, were I he, to receive such a letter! so dutiful, so humble, and yet so expressive of the straits to which he has let you be reduced! My dear child, it looks too much like the son of a minister, when I am no longer so; but I can't help repeating to you offers of any kind of service that you think I can do for you any way.

I am quite happy at your thinking Tuscany so secure from Spain, unless the wise head of Richcourt works against the season; but how can I ever be easy while a provincial Frenchman, Something half French, half German, instigated by a mad Englishwoman is to govern an Italian dominion?

I laughed much at the magnificent presents made by one of the first families in Florence to their young accouch'ee. Do but think if a Duke or d.u.c.h.ess of Somerset were to give a Lady Hertford fifty pounds and twenty yards of velvet for bringing an heir to the blood of Seymour!

It grieves me that my letters drop in so slowly to you: I have never missed writing, but when I have been absolutely too much out of order, or once or twice when I had no earthly thing to tell you. This winter is so quiet, that one must inquire much to know any thing. The parliament is met again, but we do not hear of any intended opposition to any thing. the tories have dropped the affair of the Hanoverians in the House of Lords, in compliment to Lord Gower. there is a second pamphlet on that subject which makes a great noise.(755) The ministry are much distressed on the ways and means for raising the money for this year: there is to be a lottery, but that will not supply a quarter of what they want. They have talked of a new duty on tea, to be paid by every housekeeper for all the persons in their families; but it will scarce be proposed.

Tea is so universal, that it would make a greater clamour than a duty on wine. Nothing is determined; the new folks do not s.h.i.+ne at expedients. Sir Robert's health is now drunk at all the clubs in the city; there they are for having him made a duke, and placed again at the head of the Treasury; but I believe nothing could prevail on him to return thither. He says he will keep the 12th of February,.-the day he resigned, with his family as long as he lives. They talk of Sandys being raised to the peerage, by way of getting rid of him; he is so dull they can scarce draw him on.(756)

The English troops in Flanders march to-day, whither we don't know, but "probably to Liege: from whence they imagine the Hanoverians are going into Juliers and Bergue.(757) The ministry have been greatly alarmed with the King of Sardinia's retreat, and suspected that it was a total one from the Queen's interest; but it seems he sent for Villettes and the Hungarian minister, and had their previous approbations of his deserting Chamberry, etc.

Vernon is not yet got to town, we are impatient for what will follow the arrival of this mad hero. Wentworth will certainly challenge him, but Vernon does not profess personal valour: he was once knocked down by a merchant, who then offered him satisfaction-but he was satisfied.

Lord Ess.e.x' is dead:(758) Lord Lincoln will have the bedchamber; Lord Berkeley of Stratton(759) (a disciple of Carteret's) the Pensioners; and Lord Carteret himself probably the riband.

As to my Lady Walpole's dormant t.i.tle,(760) it was in her family; but being in the King's power to give to which sister in equal claim he pleased, it was bestowed on Lord Clinton, who descended from the younger sister of Lady W.'s grandmother, or great grand-something. My Lady Clifford,(761) c.o.ke's mother, got her barony so, in preference to Lady Salisbury and Lady Sondes, her elder sisters, who had already t.i.tles for their children. It is called a t.i.tle in abeyance.

Sir Robert has just bid me tell you to send the Dominichin by the first safe conveyance to Matthews, who has had orders from Lord Winchilsea (762) to send it by the first man-of-war to England; or if you meet with a s.h.i.+p going to Port Mahon, then you must send it thither to Anstruther, and write to him that Lord Orford desires that he will take care of it, and send it by the first s.h.i.+p that comes directly home. He is so impatient for it, that he will have it thus; but I own I should not like to have my things tumbled out of one s.h.i.+p into another, and beg mine may stay till they can come at once.

Adieu!

(755) Ent.i.tled "The Case of the Hanover Forces in the Pay of Great Britain examined." It was written by Lord Chesterfield, and excited much attention.-E.

(756) In December he was created a peer, by the t.i.tle of Lord Sandys, Baron of Ombersley, and made cofferer of the household.-E.

(757) The British troops began their march from Flanders at the end of February, under the command of the Earl of Stair; but were so tardy in their movements, that it was the middle of May before they crossed the Rhine and fixed their station at Hochst, between Mayence and Frankfort.-E.

(758) William Capel, third Earl of Ess.e.x. [A lord of the bedchamber, knight of the garter, and captain of the yeomen of the guard.)

(759) John, fifth and last Lord Berkeley of Stratton. He died in 1773.-D.

(760) The barony of Clinton in fee descended to the daughters of Theophilus, Earl of Huntingdon, who died without male issue. One of those ladies died without children, by which means the t.i.tle lay between the families of Rolle and Fortescue. King George I. gave it to Hugh Fortescue, afterwards Created an earl; on whose death it descended to his only sister, a maiden lady, after whom, without issue, it devolved on Lady Orford.

(761) Lady Margaret Tufton, third daughter of Thomas, sixth Earl of Thanet. the barony of De Clifford had descended to Lord Thanet, from his mother, Lady Margaret Sackville, daughter of Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery. Upon Lord Thanet's death, the barony of De Clifford fell into abeyance between his five daughters. These were Lady Catherine, married to Edward Watson, Viscount Sondus; Lady Anne, married to James Cecil, Earl of Salisbury; Lady Margaret, before mentioned; Lady Mary, married first to Anthony Grey, Earl of Harold, and secondly to John Earl Gower; and Lady Isabella, married to Lord Na.s.sau Powlett.-D.

(762) First lord of the admiralty.-]).

306 Letter 95 To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Jan. 27, 1743.

I could not write you last Thursday, I was so much out of order with a cold; your brother came and found me in bed.

TO-night, that I can write, I have nothing to tell you; except that yesterday the welcome news (to the ministry) came of the accession of the Dutch to the King's measures. They are in great triumph; but till it Is clear what part his Prussian Uprightness is acting, other people take the liberty to be still in suspense. So they are about all our domestic matters too. It is a general stare! the alteration that must soon happen in the Treasury will put some end to the uncertainties of this winter. Mr. Pelham is universally named to the head of it; but Messrs. Prince,(263) Carteret, Pultney, and Companies must be a little considered. how they will like it: the latter the least.

You will wonder, perhaps be peevish, when I protest I have not another paragraph by me in the world. I want even common conversation; for I cannot persist, like the royal family, in asking people the same questions, "Do you love walking?" "Do you love music'!" "Was you at the opera?" "When do you go into the country!" I have nothing else to say: nothing happens; scarce the common episodes of a newspaper, of a man falling off a ladder and breaking his leg; or of a countryman cheated out of his leather pouch, with fifty s.h.i.+llings in it. We are in such a state of sameness, that I shall begin to wonder at the change of seasons, and talk of the spring as a strange accident. Lord Tyrawley, who has been fifteen years in Portugal, is of my opinion; he says he finds nothing but a fog, whist, and the House of Commons.

In this lamentable state, when I know not what to write even to you, what can I do about my serene Princess Grifoni? Alas!

I owe her two letters, and where to find a beau sentiment, I cannot tell! I believe I may have some by me in an old chest of draws, with some exploded red-heel shoes and full-bottom wigs; but they would come out so yellow and moth-eaten! Do bow to her, in every superlative degree in the language, that my eyes have been so bad, that as I wrote you word, over and over, I have not been able to write a line. That will move her, when she hears what melancholy descriptions I write, of my not being able to write-nay, indeed it will not be so ridiculous as you think; for it is ten times worse for the eyes to write in a language one don't much practise! I remember a tutor at Cambridge, who had been examining some lads in Latin, but in a little while excused himself, and said he must speak English, for his mouth was very sore.

I had a letter from you yesterday of January 7th, N. S. which has wonderfully excited my compa.s.sion for the necessities of the princely family,(764) and the s.h.i.+fts the old Lady' is put to for quadrille.(765)

I triumph much on my penetration about the honest Rucellai(766)-we little people, who have no honesty, virtue, nor shame, do so exult when a good neighbour, who was a pattern, turns out as bad as oneself! We are like the good woman in the Gospel, who chuckled so much on finding her lost bit; we have more joy on a saint's fall, than in ninety-nine devils, who were always de nous autres! I am a little pleased too, that Marquis BagneSi'(767) whom you know I always liked much, has behaved so well; and am more pleased to hear what a Beffana(768) the Electress(769) is-Pho! here am I sending you back your own paragraphs, cut and turned! it is so silly to think that you won't know them again! I will not spin myself any longer; it is better to make a short letter. I am going to the masquerade, and will fancy myself in via della Pergola.(770) Adieu! "Do you know me?"-"That man there with you, in the black domino, is Mr. Chute.,, Good night!

(763) Frederick, Prince of Wales.-D.

(764) Prince and Princess Craon.

(765) Madame Sarasin.

(766) Sir H. Mann says, in his letter of January 7, 1743, 11 I must be so just as to tell you, @my friend, the Senator Rucellai, is, as you always thought, a sad fellow. He has quite abandoned me for fear of offending."-D.

(767) "Apropos of duels, two of our young n.o.bles, Marquis BagneSi and Strozzi, have fought about a debt of' fifteen s.h.i.+llings; the latter, the creditor and the occasion of the fight, behaved ill."-Letter from Sir H. Mann, dated Jan. 7, 1743.-D.

(768) A Beffana was a puppet, which was carried about the town on the evening of the Epiphany. The word is derived from Epifania. It also means an ugly woman. The Electress happened to go out for the first time after an illness on the Epiphany, and said in joke to Prince Craon, that the "Beffane all went abroad on that day."-D.

(769) The Electress Palatine Dowager, the last of the House of Medici.

(770) A street at Florence, in which the Opera house stands.

308 Letter 96 To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Feb. 2, 1743.

Last night at the d.u.c.h.ess of Richmond's I saw Madame Goldsworthy: what a pert, little, unbred thing it is! The d.u.c.h.ess presented us to one another; but I cannot say that either of us stepped a foot beyond the first civilities. The good d.u.c.h.ess was for harbouring her and all her brood: how it happened to her I don't conceive, but the thing had decency enough to refuse it. She is going to live with her father at Plymouth-tant mieux!

The day before yesterday the lords had a great day: Earl Stanhope(771) moved for an address to his Britannic Majesty, in consideration of the heavy wars, taxes, etc. far exceeding all that ever were known, to exonerate his people of foreign troops, Hanoverians,) which are so expensive, and can In no light answer the ends for which they were hired. Lord Sandwich seconded: extremely well, I hear, for I was not there. Lord Carteret answered, but was under great concern.

Lord Bath spoke too, and would fain have persuaded that this measure was not Solely Of one minister, but that himself and all the council were equally concerned in it. The late Privy Seal(772) Spoke for an hour and a half, with the greatest applause, against the Hanoverians: and my Lord Chancellor extremely well for them. The division was, 90 for the Court, 35 against it The present Privy Seal(773) voted with the Opposition: so there will soon be another. Lord Halifax, the Prince's new Lord, was with the minority too; the other, Lord Darnley,(774) with the Court. After the division, Lord Scarborough, his Royal Highness's Treasurer, moved an address of approbation of the measure, which was carried by 78 to the former 35. Lord Orford was ill, and could not be there, but sent his proxy: he has got a great cold and slow fever, but does not keep his room. If Lord Gower loses the Privy Seal, (as it is taken for granted he does not design to keep it,) and Lord Bath refuses it, Lord Cholmondeley stands the fairest for it.

I will conclude abruptly, for you will be tired of my telling you that I have nothing to tell you-but so it is literally- oh! yes, you will want to know what the Duke of Argyle did-he was not there; he is every thing but superannuated. Adieu!

(771) Philip, second Earl Stanhope, born in 1714. He succeeded his father when he was only seven years old, and died in 1786. His character is thus sketched by his great- grandson, Viscount Mahon, in his History of England, vol. iii.

p. 242.-"He had great talents, but fitter for speculation than for practical objects of action. He made himself one of the best-Lalande used to say the best-mathematicians in England of his day, and was likewise deeply skilled in other branches of science and philosophy. The Greek language was as familiar to him as the English; he was said to know every line of Homer by heart. In public life, on the contrary, he was shy, ungainly, and embarra.s.sed. From his first onset in Parliament, he took part with vehemence against the administration of Sir Robert Walpole." Bishop Secker says, that Lord Stanhope "spoke a precomposed speech, which he held in his hand, with great tremblings and agitations, and hesitated frequently in the midst of great vehemence."-E.

(772) Lord Hervey.