The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford Volume I Part 22

(291) John Frederick, Esq. afterwards Sir John Frederick, Bart. by the death of his cousin, Sir Thomas. He was a commissioner of customs, and member of parliament for West Looe.-D.

(292) Francis Seymour Conway, first Earl and Marquis of Hertford, amba.s.sador at Paris, lord chamberlain of the household, etc.-D.

(293) Henry Seymour Conway, afterwards secretary of state, and a field marshal in the army.-D.

(294) Joseph Damer, Esq. created in 1753 Baron Milton, in Ireland, and by George III. an English peer, by the same t.i.tle, and eventually Earl of Dorchester.-D.

(295) Francis Greville, eighth Lord Brooke; created in 1746 Earl Brooke, and in 1759 Earl of Warwick.-D.

(296) Mr. Brand of the Hoo, in Hertfordshire, one of the original members of the society of Dilettanti.--D.

(297) If this antic.i.p.ation of Walpole's was ever realized, "the pretty sum" was eventually lost on the spot where it had been gained. Vanneschi, having in 1753 undertaken the management of the opera-house on his own account, continued it until 1756, when his differences with Mingotti, which excited almost as much of the public attention as the rivalries of Handel and Bononcini or of Faustina and Cuzzoni, completely prejudiced the public against him, and eventually ended in making him a bankrupt, a prisoner in the Fleet, and at last a fugitive.-E.

(298) She was kept by Lord Middles.e.x.

187 Letter 41 To Sir Horace Mann.

Downing Street, Nov. 12, 1741.

Nothing is equal to my uneasiness about you. I hear or think of nothing but Spanish embarkations for Tuscany: before you receive this, perhaps, they will be at Leghorn. Then, your brother tells me you have received none of my letters. He knows I have never failed writing once a week, if not twice. We have had no letters from You this post. I shall not have the least respite from anxiety, till I hear about you, and what you design to do. it is immpossible but the great duke must lose Tuscany; and I suppose it is as certain, (I speak on probabilities, for, upon honour, I know nothing of the matter,) that as soon as there is a peace, we shall acknowledge Don Philip, and then you may return to Florence again. In the mean while I will ask Sir R. if it is possible to get your appointments continued, while you stay in readiness at Bologna, Rome, Lucca, or where you choose. I talk at random; but as I think so much of you, I am trying to find out something that may be of service to you. I write in infinite hurry, and am called away, so scarce know what I say. Lord Conway and his family are this instant come to town, and have sent for me.

It is Admiral Vernon's birthday, (299) and the city-shops are full of favours, the streets of marrowbones and cleavers, and the night will be full of mobbing, bonfires, and lights.

The opera does not succeed; Amorevoli has not sung yet; here is a letter to his wife; mind, while he is ill, he sends to the Chiaretta! The dances are infamous and ordinary. Lord Chesterfield was told that the Viscontina said she was but four-and-twenty: he answered, "I suppose she means four-and-twenty stone!"

There is a mad parson goes about; he called to a sentinel the other day in the Park; "Did you ever see the Leviathan?"

"No." "Well, he is as like Sir. R. W. as ever two devils were like one another."

Never was such unwholesome weather! I have a great cold, and have not been well this fortnight: even immortal majesty has had a looseness.

The Duke of Ancaster (300) and Lord James Cavendish (301) are dead.

This is all the news I know: I would I had time to write more; but I know you will excuse me now. If I wrote more, it would be still about the Italian expedition, I am so disturbed about it.

Yours, ever.

(299) Admiral Vernon was now in the height of his popularity, in consequence of his successful attack upon Porto-Bello, in November, 1739, and the great gallantry he had shown upon that occasion. His determined and violen't opposition, as a member of parliament, to the measures of the government, a.s.sisted in rendering him the idol of the mob, which he continued for many years.-D. [The admiral was actually elected for Rochester, Ipswich, and Penryn: he'was also set up for the City of London, where he was beaten by two thousand votes; and in Westminster, where he was beaten by four hundred. After the affair of Porto-Bello, he took Chagre, and continued in the service till 1748; when several matters which had pa.s.sed between him and the lords of the admiralty being laid before the king, be was struck off the list of flag officers. He died in 1757. A handsome monument was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey.]

(300) Peregrine Bertie, second Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, great chamberlain of England, and chief justice in Eyre, north of Trent. The report of his death was premature. His grace survived till the 1st of January.-E.

(301) The second son of William, second Duke of Devonshire. He was colonel of a regiment of foot-guards, and member for Malton.-E.

189 Letter 42 To Sir Horace Mann.

Downing Street, Nov. 23, 1741.

Your letter has comforted me much, if it can be called comfort to have one's uncertainty fluctuate to the better side. You make me hope that the Spaniards design on Lombardy ; my pa.s.sion for Tuscany, and anxiety for you, make me eager to believe it; but alas! while I am in the belief of this, they may be in the act of conquest in Florence, and poor you retiring politically! How delightful is Mr. Chute for cleaving unto you like Ruth! "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge!" As to the merchants of Leghorn and their concerns, Sir R. thinks you are mistaken, and that if the Spaniards come thither, they will by no means be safe. I own I write to you under a great dilemma; I flatter myself, all is well with you; but if not, how disagreeable to have one's letters fall into strange hands. I write, however.

A brother Of Mine, (302) Edward by name, has lately had a call to matrimony: the virgins name was Howe. (303) He had agreed to take her with no fortune, she him with his four children. The father of him, to get rid of his importunities, at last acquiesced. The very moment he had obtained this consent, he repented; and, instead of flying on the wings of love to notify it, he went to his fair One, owned his father had mollified, but hoped she would be so good as to excuse him.

You cannot imagine what an entertaining fourth act of the opera we had the other night. Lord Vane, (304) in the middle of the pit, making love to my lady. The Duke of Newcastle (305) has lately given him three-score thousand pounds, to consent to cut off the entail of the Newcastle estate. The fool immediately wrote to his wife, to beg she would return to him from Lord Berkeley; that he had got so much money, and now they might live comfortably: but she will not live comfortably: she is at Lord Berkeley's house, whither go divers after her. Lady Townshend told me an admirable history; it is of our friend Lady Pomfret. Somebody that belonged to the Prince of Wales said, they were going to Court; it was objected that they ought to say, going to Carlton House; that the only Court is where the king resides.

Lady P. with her paltry air of significant learning and absurdity, said, "Oh Lord! is there no Court in England, but the king's? sure, there are many more! There is the Court of Chancery, the Court of Exchequer, the Court of King's Bench, etc." Don't you love her? Lord Lincoln does her dauhter: he is come over, and met her the other night: he turned pale, spoke to her several times in the evening, but not long, and sighed to me at going away. He came over all alive; and not only his uncle-duke, but even majesty is fallen in love with him. He talked to the king at his levee, without being spoken to. That was always thought high treason; but I don't know how the gruff gentleman liked it; and then he had been told that Lord Lincoln designed to have made the campaicn, if we had gone to war; in short, he says, Lord Lincoln (306) is the handsomest man in England

I believe I told you that Vernon's birthday pa.s.sed quietly, but it was not designed to be pacific; for at twelve at night, eight gentlemen, dressed like sailors, and masked, went round Covent Garden with a drum, beating up for a volunteer mob, but it did not take; and they retired to a great supper that was prepared for them at the Bedford Head, and ordered by Whitehead (307) the author of Manners. It has been written into the country that Sir R. has had two fits of an apoplexy, and cannot live till Christmas; but I think he is recovered to be as well as ever. To-morrow se'nnight is the Day! (308) It is critical. You shall hear faithfully.

The opera takes: Monticelli (309) pleases almost equal to Farinelli: Amorevoli is much liked; but the poor, fine Viscontina scarce at all. (310)I carry the two former to-night to my Lady Townshend's.

Lord Coventry (311) has had his son thrown out by the party: he went to Carlton House; the prince asked him about the election. "Sir," said he, "the Tories have betrayed me, as they will you, the first time you have occasion for them." The merchants have pet.i.tioned the King for more guardships. My lord president, (312) referred them to the Admiralty; but they bluntly refused to go, and said they would have redress from the King himself.

I am called down to dinner, and cannot write more now. I will thank dear Mr. Chute and the Grifona next post. I hope she and you liked your things. Good night, my dearest child! Your brother and I sit upon your affairs every morning.

Yours ever.

(302) Second son of Sir Robert Walpole. He was clerk of the pells, and afterwards knight of the Bath. [Sir Edward died unmarried, in 1784, leaving three natural daughters; Laura, married to the Hon. and Rev. Frederick Keppel, afterwards Bishop of Exeter; maria, married, first to the Earl of Waldegrave, and, secondly to the Duke of Gloucester; and Charlotte, married to the Earl of Dysart.]

(303) Eldest sister of the Lord Viscount Howe. She was soon after this married to a relation of her own name. [John Howe, Esq. of Hanslop, Bucks.]

(304) William, second Viscount Vane, in Ireland. His "lady" was the too-celebrated Lady Vane, first married to Lord William Hamilton, and secondly to Lord Vane; who has given her own extraordinary and disreputable adventures to the world, in Smollett's novel of "Peregrine Pickle," under the t.i.tle of "Memoirs of a Lady of Quality." She is also immortalized in different ways, by Johnson, in his ,Vanity of Human Wishes," and by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in one of his Odes.-D. [She was the daughter of Mr. Hawes, a South Sea director, and died in 1788. Lord Vane died in 1789. Boswell distinctly states, that the lady mnentioned in Johnson's couplet "was not the celebrated Lady Vane, whose Memoirs were given to the public by Dr. Smollett, but Ann Vane, who was mistress to Frederick Prince of Wales, and died in 1736, not long before Johnson settled in London." See Boswell's Johnson, vol. i. p. 226, ed. 1835.]

(305) Uncle of Lord Vane, whose father, Lord Barnard, had married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Gilbert Holles, Earl of Clare, and sister and coheir of John Duke of Newcastle.

(306) Henry Clinton, ninth Earl of Lincoln, succeeded as Duke of Newcastle in 1768, on the death of his uncle, the minister.

(307) Paul Whitehead, a satirical poet of bad character, was the son of a tailor, who lived in Castle-yard, Holborn. He wrote several abusive poems, now forgotten, ent.i.tled "The State Dances," "Manners," "The Gymnasiad," etc. In "Manners,"

having attacked some members of the House of Lords, that a.s.sembly summoned Dodsley, the publisher, before them, (Whitehead having absconded,) and subsequently imprisoned him. In politics, Whitehead was a follower of Bubb Dodington; in private life be was the friend and companion of the profligate Sir Francis Dashwood, Wilkes, Churchill, etc. and, like them, was a member of the h.e.l.l-fire Club, which held its orgies at Mednam Abbey, in Bucks. The estimation in which he was held even by his friends may be judged of by the lines in which Churchill has d.a.m.ned him to everlasting fame:

"May I (can worse disgrace on mankind fall?) Be born a Whitehead and baptized a Paul."

Paul Whitehead died in 1774.-D. [The proceedings in the House of Lords against the author of "Manners" which took place in February, 1739, was, in the opinion of Dr. Johnson, "intended rather to intimidate Pope, than to punish Whitehead."]

(308) The day the parliament was to meet.

(309) His voice was clear, sweet, and free from defects of every kind. He was a chaste performer, and never hazarded any difficulty which he was not certain of executing with the utmost precision. He was, moreover, an excellent actor, so that nothing but the recent remembrance of the gigantic talents of Farinelli, and the grand and majestic style of Senesino, could have lefl an English audience any thing to wish.-E.

(310) Amorevoli was an admirable tenor. "I have heard,"

says Dr. Burney, "better voices of his pitch, but never, on the stage, more taste and expression. The Visconti had a shrill flexible voice, and pleased more in rapid songs than those that required high colouring and pathos."-E.

(311) William, fifth Earl of Coventry. He died in 1751.-D.

(312) Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, a man of moderate abilities, but who had filled many great offices. He died in 1743, when his t.i.tles extinguished.-D.

191 Letter 43 To Sir Horace Mann.

Nov. 26, 1741.

I don't write you a very long letter, because you will see the inclosed to Mr. Chute. I forgot to thank you last post for the songs, and your design on the Maltese cats.

It is terrible to be in this uncertainty about you! We have not the least news about the Spaniards, more than what you told us, of a few vessels being seen off Leghorn. I send about the post, and ask Sir R. a thousand times a-day.