George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life Part 9

(111) Eldest daughter of the Earl of Carlisle; married, 1789, John Campbell, who was created first Lord Cawdor; she died 1848.

(112) George, Lord Morpeth, afterwards sixth Earl of Carlisle (1773-1848). In this correspondence Selwyn often refers to him as George. Selwyn had a strong affection for him, and treated him with sympathy and tact.

(113) Sir Brooke Boothby (1743-1824). One of the fashionable young men of the period. He devoted himself particularly, however, to literary society, and published verses, and political and cla.s.sical works. He lived for a time in France, and was a friend of Rousseau.

(114) Lady Holland died on July 24th.

(115) Stephen Fox, first Earl of Ilchester (1704-1776), the elder brother of Henry, first Lord Holland.

The duties of a country gentleman and a Member of Parliament, the boredom of a visit to a const.i.tuency could not always be avoided by Selwyn. Thus the two following letters are written from Gloucestershire.

(1774,) Aug. 9, Tuesday, Gloucester.--I set out from London on Sat.u.r.day last, as intended, and came to Matson the next day to dinner. I found our learned Counsel in my garden; he dined with me, and lay at my house, and the next morning he came with me in my chaise to this place for the a.s.sizes. I have seen little of him since, being chiefly in the Grand Jury chamber, but I take it for granted that till this morning that he set out for London his hands were full of business, and the two men condemned were his clients, who were condemned only par provision till he had drawn up the case.

This town has been very full of the neighbouring gentlemen, and I suppose the approaching elections have been the cause of it. I am not personally menaced with any opposition, but have a great dread of one, because the contentions among those who live in the country and have nothing else to do but to quarrel, are so great, that without intending to hurt me, they will stir up trouble and opposition, which will be both hazardous and expensive. I am tormented to take a part in I know not what, and with I know not whom, and my difficulty is to keep off the solicitation of my friends, as they call themselves, who want a bustle, the expense of which is not to be defrayed by themselves.

I do a.s.sure you that it is a monstrous oppression of spirits which I feel, and which I would not feel for an hour if I had n.o.body's happiness to think of but my own, which would be much more secured by a total renunciation of Parliament, Ministers, and Boroughs than by pursuing the emoluments attached to those connections. However, as it is the last time that I shall ever have anything to do of this kind, I will endeavour to keep up my spirits as well as I can; but I must declare to you that it is an undertaking that is most grievous to me, that I am ashamed of, and that neither the established custom of the country [n]or the nature of our Government does by any means reconcile to me.

I have dinners of one sort or other till Tuesday, and then I purpose to set out for London, unless some unforeseen event prevents me.

Horry Walpole has a project of coming into this part of the world the end of this week, and, if he does, of coming to me on Sat.u.r.day.

I shall be glad to converse with anybody whose ideas are more intelligible than those of the persons I am now with. But I do not depend much upon seeing him.

The weather is very fine, and Matson in as great beauty as a place can be in, but the beauties of it make very little impression upon me. In short, there is nothing in this eccentric situation in which I am now that can afford me the least pleasure, and everything I love to see in the world is at a distance from me. All I do is so par maniere d'acquit, et de si mauvaise grace, that I am surprised at the civility with which I am treated.

I am in daily hopes of hearing from you. I am sorry that the children are to be left behind; that is, that their health, which is a valuable consideration, makes it prudential. I shall be happy when I see them again, but it is not in my power to fix the time any more than the means of my happiness. . . .

Storer has little to do than to sing, Se caro sei, and to write to me, and therefore pray make him write. Richard the Third is to be acted here to-night. I will go and see an act of it, pour me desennuyer.

(1774,) Aug. 13, Sat.u.r.day, Matson.--As you are one of the first persons who occupies my thoughts when I awake, so it shall be a rule with me hereafter, when I am to write to you, to make that my first business, and not defer, as I have these two last posts, writing till the evening, when it is more probable, at least in this place, to suffer some interruption. This looks like an apology for what I am sure needs none; it requires much more, that I seem to have established it as a rule to trouble you so often. I have not here the shallow pretence of telling you some little occurrence[s] which can hardly be interesting in the Parish of St. James's, but when they are confined to this spot. I can have no reason for pestering you with them, but par un esprit de bavardise, ou pour me rappeler plus souvent a votre souvenir; ce que votre amitie a rendu pour moi tres inutile.

I have this whole week been immersed in all the provincial business of a justice, a juryman, and a candidate; and yesterday was forced to open my trenches before the town as one who intended to humbug them for one seven years more.

J'ignore le destin qui le ciel me prepare, Mais il est temps enfin qu' larbe se declare.

I entertained the whole Corporation (of the City of Gloucester) yesterday at dinner, and afterwards made them a speech, which I am glad that n.o.body heard but themselves. However i'ai reussi, I do not mean in point of eloquence, but I carried my point; and if it was possible to judge from the event of one meeting only, I should think that there would be a peaceable election, and the expense not exceed many hundred pounds, and those given chiefly to the service of the city. But if [I] did not make my escape, and parry off all the proposals made to me by the people whose whole employment is to create disturbance, I should soon be drawn into a contest from which I should not escape but at the expense of thousands.

At night I heard that Mr. Walpole is here; I was then at Gloucester; so I hurried home, and have now some person to converse with who speaks my own language. He came yesterday from Lady Ailesbury's, and stays with me till Tuesday, and then I hope we shall return to London together. I am to have the satisfaction of another festival on Monday, on which day Mr. Walpole proposes to go and see Berkley and Thornbury Castles.

I have had the advantage of very fine weather, and should have had all the benefit of it if I was in any place but where my mind has so many disagreeable occupations, and my stomach so many things which it cannot digest. But it is chiefly their liquors, which are like so much gin. The civility which they shew me, I may say indeed the friendship which I have from some of these people, make me very sorry that I cannot prevail on myself to stay a little longer with them; but in regard to that, I can hardly save appearances, either by staying, or by forbearing while I do stay to shew them what a pain it is to me.

Your friend Mr. Howard, who is to be Duke of Norfolk, and who by his wife is in possession of a great estate in my neighbourhood, takes so much pains to recommend himself to my Corporation that we are at a loss to know the source of his generosity. I have no personal acquaintance with him, but as a member of the Corporation have a permission to send for what venison we want. He has some charming ruins of an abbey within a mile from hence, with which I intend to entertain Mr. Walpole, and if that is not enough, I must throw in the mazures of this old building, which, I believe, will not hold out this century.

Horry tells me that a scheme has been formed, of replacing Charles, but that Lord North will not hear of it. I should certainly myself have the same repugnance. But as I love Charles more than I do the other, I wish that, or anything which can put him once more in a way of establishment. I shall however not have any hopes of that, till he is less intoxicated than he is with the all sufficiency, as he imagines, of his parts. I think that, and his infinite contempt of the qu'en dira-t-on, upon every point which governs the rest of mankind, are the two and (sic) chief sources of all his misfortunes.

Ste, they tell me, has come to a resolution of selling Holland H(ouse) as soon as possible, and of rebuilding Winterslow. If Lady Holland had not died just as she did, I believe that I should have had him and Lady Mary here for some days, which I should have liked very well.

I have got a prize in Barbot's Lottery, as it may be Conty has told you. I left a man in London, when I came away, with a commission to see that justice was done me, and to send my pye, if I should have one, into Kent. Mine is a quatre perdrises (sic); so I have no reason to complain of Conty's Lotteries, for I have had a prize in both of them.

If you intend to buy a ticket in the State Lottery, I should be glad to have a share of it with Lady C(arlisle), Lord Morpeth, and little Caroline, that is, one ticket between us five. Three of my tenants joined for one in the Lottery two or three years since, and they got a 20,000 pound prize. I made a visit to one of them the other day, whose farm is not far off, and he had made it the prettiest in the world; and he has three children to share his 10,000, for one moiety of this ticket was his.

Pray make my very best compliments to Lady C. and Lady J.,(116) and give my hearty love to Caroline; and as for the little Marmot, tell him that if he treats his sister with great attention I shall love him excessively, but s'il fait le fier, because he is a Viscount and a Howard, I shall give him several spanks upon his dernere. Make Storer write to me, and make Ekins read Atterbury till he can say him by heart.

(116) Lady Juliana Howard was Lord Carlisle's youngest sister. She died unmarried.

By the end of August, Selwyn had escaped from Gloucester and was again among his friends and in his favourite haunts in London.

[1774,] Aug. 25, Thursday night, Almack's.--Here are the Duke of Roxb[urgh], Vernon, James, and Sir W. Draper at Whist; Boothby, Richard, and R. Fletcher at Quinze. I dined to-day at the Duke of Argyle's(117) at a quarter before four. He and the d.u.c.h.ess went to Richmond at six. The maccaroni dinner was at Mannin's. My eyes are still very painful to me at night, and I do not know what I shall do for them. I hear of no news; that of the d.u.c.h.ess of Leinster's(118) match is very equivoque; and extreme their drawing-room.

I (am) in constant expectation of being sent for again to Gloucester, and begin (sic) a canvas. I think if I prevent it, and an opposition, I shall be very vain of my conduct. There is nothing so flattering as the shewing people who thought that they could dupe you, that you know more of the matter than they do. I know too little to be active, but have prudence enough to take no steps while I am in the dark upon the suggestion of others who cannot possibly interest themselves for me. But I really think it will be a miracle if this is not a troublesome and expensive Election to me. However, I will not antic.i.p.ate the evil by groaning about it before it happens. . . .

The Duke of Newcastle is to bring Will Hanger into Parliament, but what is to pay for his chair to go down to the House the Lord knows; they tell me that there is absolutely not a shilling left.

(117) John, fifth Duke of Argyll (1723-1806). He had married for his second wife the d.u.c.h.ess of Hamilton, nee Gunning, the famous beauty.

(118) Lady Amelia Mary (1731-1814), daughter of Charles, second Duke of Richmond, as celebrated for her beauty and charm as her sisters, Lady Holland, Lady Louisa Connolly, and Lady Sarah Bunbury, The reference is evidently to her approaching second marriage to Mr.

Ogilvy.

The correspondence of 1775 begins with the frequent story of Charles Fox's debts. It has been well said of Carlisle, that each fresh instance of prodigality in Fox "affected his generous heart with anxiety for the character, the health, and the happiness of his friend before he found time to compute and lament its calamitous influence on his own fortunes."(119) Selwyn's solicitude for the welfare of his friend urged him, as we see in the following letter, to something like impatient expostulation on his forbearance and good nature.

(1775?) (Beginning wanting.) . . . Gregg wants me to dun Charles. He lost last night 800 pounds, as Brooks told me to-day. He receives money from More the Attorney. He forestalls all he is to receive, and unless the importunity begins with you, mine will avail nothing.

Besides, I fairly own that I cannot keep my temper. My ideas, education, and former experience, or inexperience, of these things, make me see some things in the most horrible light which you can conceive, and I am far from being singular. Pray write a letter to Charles, a tella fin que de raison; otherwise there will be no ability left, and then it will be to no purpose.

What management you choose to have with him is more than I can comprehend. I can conceive the intimacy between you. Your delicacy of temper, ten thousand nuances de sentiments. But I can never conceive that all feeling, all the principle, &c., should be of one side only. If you don't press it, he will not think it pressing, and will say so; that must depend upon what you choose to reveal. He may not think you want it, or may think that all mire in which he wallows is as indifferent to you as to him. Je me perds dans toutes ces reflections. My G.o.d, if they did not concern you, I should not care who were the objects of them.

(119) "The Early History of Charles James Fox," p. 460.

1775, Aug. 1, Tuesday afternoon, from your own house, below stairs.

--I came from Richmond this morning on purpose to meet Gregg here to dinner, and we have had our leg of mutton together; a poor epitome of Roman greatness. I believe, as Lord Grantham told me, few have so little philosophy as I have. You have a great deal, having a much more manly understanding. . . .

I have been misunderstood about Stavordale, because just what you tell me you approve of is what I meant to propose, or if I had any conception beyond it, it was from a sudden thought which I retract.

I have said a few words to Charles, but I do not find that he has more intercourse with him than you have. He says that there can be no doubt of the validity and payment of the debt, and there is no antic.i.p.ation of it. But it is not to be expected that Charles should think more of Stavordale's debt than his own. He lost in three nights last week 3,000, as he told me himself, and has lent Richard G.o.d knows what; the account, and friendship, and want of it, between them is as incomprehensible to me as all the rest of their history.

It is a mystery I shall never enquire into, when what concerns you is out of the question. I never heard of the same thing in all the first part of my life, and it shall be my own fault if I hear any more of it.

I rode over yesterday to Lord Besborough's at Roehampton, on purpose to see Lord Fitzwilliam,(120) and had a long discourse with him in the garden. He was excessively pleased with the account which I gave him of the present state of your affairs, together with your manner of expressing yourself about them. Every word which dropped from him discovered the real interest which he took in whatever concerned you, and his affection for you. He is a very valuable young man.

Hare went away without being certain that he was to go to Castle H.

He will excuse me if I don't rely upon his resolutions in parties of pleasure. But I should have been glad to have known for a certainty that he was to have set out. I believe March's money and mine helped to grease his wheels. March deserves to have lost his, because he was the seducer. I could not have lost mine if he had kept me to my obligation; but I will not resign my fetters any more. Welcome, my chains; welcome, Mr. Lowman, the keeper. I am glad it went no further.

(120) William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, second Earl Fitzwilliam ( 1748-1863). He began at Eton his lifelong friendship with Fox and Carlisle. In 1794 he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

(1775, Aug.?.)--I am just come from Almack's. Many are gone to the Thatched House,(121) to sup with the ladies, as they call it. These ladies are Lady Ess.e.x and Miss Amyas(?). Richard won last night 1,300 ostensible, besides what he pocketed to keep a corps de reserve unknown to Brooks. For Brooks lent him 2,300, and then laments the state of the house. He duns me for three hundred, of which I am determined to give him but two; as he knows so well where to get the other hundred, which is that Richard owes me, but seems determined that I shall not have. Charles is winning more, and the quinze table is now at its height. I have set down Brooks to be the completest composition of knave and fool that ever was, to which I may add liar. You say very true, that I have been in a bank, that I have lost my money, that I want to get it back; but it is as true that I shall make no attempt to get it back till my affairs are quite in another posture from what they are at present; so pray give me no flings about it, for I lay all the blame upon March, who should not have contributed to it.