The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford Volume I Part 45

298 Letter 90 To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Dec. 2, 1742.,

You will wonder that it is above a fortnight Since I wrote to you; but I have had an inflammation in one of my eyes, and durst not meddle with a pen. I have had two letters from you of Nov. 6th and 13th, but I am in the utmost impatience for another, to hear you are quite recovered of your Trinculos and FuribOndos. You tell me you was in a fever; I cannot be easy till I hear from you again. I hope this will come much too late for a medicine, but it will always serve for sal volatile to give you spirits. Yesterday was appointed for considering the army; but Mr. Lyttelton stood up and moved for another Secret Committee, in the very words of last year; but the whole debate ran, not upon Robert Earl of Orford, but Robert Earl of Sandys:(737) he is the constant b.u.t.t of the party; indeed he bears it notably. After five hours' haranguing, we came to a division, and threw out the motion by a majority of sixty-seven, 253 against 186. The Prince had declared so openly for union and agreement in all measures, that, except the Nepotism,(738) all his servants but one were with us. I don't know whether they will attempt any thing else, but with these majorities we must have an easy winter. The union of the Whigs has saved this parliament. It is expected that Pitt and Lyttelton will be dismissed by the Prince. That faction and Waller are the only Whigs of any note that do not join with the Court. I do not count Doddington, who must now always be with the minority, for no majority will accept him.

It is believed that Lord Gower will retire, or be desired to do so. I suppose you have heard from Rome,(739) that Murray is made Solicitor-general, in the room of Sir John Strange, who has resigned for his health. This is the sum of politics; we can't expect any winter, (I hope no winter will be) like the last. By the crowds that come hither, one should not know that Sir Robert is out of place, only that now he is scarce abused.

De reste, the town is wondrous dull; operas unfrequented, plays not in fashion, amours as old as marriages-in short, nothing but whist! I have not yet learned to play, but I find that I wait in vain for its being left off.

I agree with you about not sending home the Dominichin in an English vessel; but what I mentioned to you of its coming in a Dutch vessel, if you find an opportunity, I think will be very safe, if you approve it; but manage that as you like. I shall hope for my statue at the same time; but till the conveyance is absolutely safe, I know you will not venture them. Now I mention my statue, I must beg you will send me a full bill of all my debts to you, which I am sure by this time must be infinite; I beg to know the particulars, that I may pay your brother. Adieu, my dear Sir; take care of yourself, and submit to popery and slavery rather than get colds with sea-heroes.(740)

(737) Samuel Sandys, chancellor of the Exchequer, in the room of Sir R. Walpole.

(738) Lord Cobham's nephews and cousins.-D.

(739) This alludes to the supposed Jacobite principles of Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield.-D.

(740) Sir H. Mann had complained, in one of his letters, of the labours he had gone through in doing the honours of Florence to some of Admiral Matthews's (il Furibondo) officers. The English fleet was now at Leghorn, upon the plea of defending the Tuscan territories, in case of their being attacked by the Spaniards.-D.

299 Letter 91 To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Dec. 9, 1742.

I shall have quite a partiality for the post of Holland; it brought me two letters last week, and two more yesterday, of November 20th and 27th; but I find you have your perpetual headaches-how can you say that you shall tire me with talking Of them? you may make me suffer by your pains, but I will hear and insist upon your always telling me of your health. Do you think I only correspond with you to know the posture of the Spaniards or the 'epuis.e.m.e.nts of the Princess! I am anxious, too, to know how poor Mr. Whithed does, and Mr. Chute's gout.

I shall look upon our sea captains with as much horror as the King of Naples can, if they bring gouts, fits, and headaches.

You will have had a letter from me by this time, to give up sending the Dominichin by a man-of-war, and to propose its coming in a Dutch ship. I believe that will be safe.

We have had another great day in the House on the army in Flanders, which the Opposition were for disbanding; but we carried 'it by a hundred and twenty.(741) Murray spoke for the first time, with the greatest applause; Pitt answered him with all his force and art of language, but on an ill-founded argument. In all appearances, they will be great rivals.

Shippen was in great rage at Murray's apostacy;(742) if any thing can really change his principles, possibly this compet.i.tion may. To-morrow we shall have a tougher battle on the sixteen thousand Hanoverians. Hanover is the word given out for this winter: there is a most bold pamphlet come out, said to be Lord Marchmont's,(743) which affirms that in every treaty made since the accession of this family, England has been sacrificed to the interest of Hanover, and consequently insinuates the incompatibility of the two. Lord Chesterfield says, "that if we have a mind effectually to prevent the Pretender from ever obtaining this crown, we should make him Elector of Hanover, for the people of England will never fetch another king from thence." Adieu! my dear child. I am sensible that I write you short letters, but I write you all I know. I don't know how it is, but the wonderful seems worn out. In this our day, we have no rabbit women-no elopements-no epic poems,(744) finer than Milton's-no contest about harlequins and Polly Peachems. Jansen (745) has won no more estates, and the d.u.c.h.ess of Queensberry is grown as tame as her neighbours. Whist has spread an universal opium over the whole nation; it makes courtiers and patriots sit down to the same pack of cards.

The only thing extraordinary, and which yet did not seem to surprise any body, was the Barberina's(746) being attacked by four men masqued, the other night, as she came out of the opera house, who would have forced her away, but she screamed, and the guard came. n.o.body knows who set them on, and I believe n.o.body inquired.

The Austrians in Flanders have separated from our troops a little out of humour, because it was impracticable for them to march without any preparatory provisions for their reception.

They will probably march in two months, if no peace prevents it. Adieu!

(741) Upon a motion, made by Sir William Yonge, that 534,763 pounds be granted for defraying the charge of 16,259 men, to be employed in Flanders. The numbers on the division were 280 against 160.-E.

(742) From Toryism.-D.

(743) Hugh Hume, third Earl of Marchmont.

(744) This alludes to the extravagant encomiums bestowed on Glover's Leonidas by the young patriots.

(745) H. Jansen, a celebrated gamester, who cheated the late Duke of Bedford of an immense sum: Pope hints at that affair in this line, "Or when a duke to Jansen punts at White's."

(746) A famous dancer.

301 Letter 92 To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Dec. 23, 1742.

I have had no letter from you this fortnight, and I have heard nothing this month: judge now how fit I am to write. I hope it is not another mark of growing old; but, I do a.s.sure you, my writing begins to leave me. Don't be frightened! I don't mean this as an introduction towards having done with you-I will write to you to the very stump of my pen, and as Pope says,

"Squeeze out the last dull droppings of my sense."

But I declare, it is hard to sit spinning out one's brains by the fireside, without having heard the least thing to set one's hand a-going. I am so put to it for something to say, that I would make a memorandum of the most improbable lie that could be invented by a viscountess-dowager; as the old d.u.c.h.ess of Rutland (747) does when she is told of some strange casualty, "Lucy, child, step into the next room and set that down."-"Lord, Madam!" says Lady Lucy,(748) "it can't be true!"-"Oh, no matter, child; it will do for news into the country next post." But do you conceive that the kingdom of the Dull is come upon earth-not with the forerunners and prognostics of other to-come kingdoms? No, no; the sun and the moon go on just as they used to do, without giving us any hints: we see no knights come prancing upon pale horses, or red horses; no stars, called wormwood, fall into the Thames, and turn a third part into wormwood; no locusts, like horses, with their hair as the hair of women-in short, no thousand things, each of which destroys a third part of mankind: the only token of this new kingdom is a woman riding on a beast, which is the mother of abominations, and the name in the forehead is whist: and the four-and-twenty elders, and the woman, and the whole town, do nothing but play with this beast. Scandal itself is dead, or confined to a pack of cards; for the only malicious whisper I have heard this fortnight, is of an intrigue between the Queen of hearts and the Knave of clubs. Y our friend Lady Sandwich (749) has got a son; if one may believe the belly she wore, it is a brave one. Lord Holderness(750) has lately given a magnificent repast to fifteen persons; there were three courses of ten, fifteen, and fifteen, and a sumptuous dessert: a great saloon illuminated, odours, and violins-and, who do you think were the invited?-the Visconti, Giuletta, the Galli, Amorevoli, Monticelli, Vanneschi and his wife, Weedemans the hautboy, the prompter, etc. The bouquet was given to the Guiletta, who is barely handsome. How can one love magnificence and low company at the same instant! We are making great parties for the Barberina and the Auretti, a charming French girl; and our schemes succeed so well, that the opera begins to fill surprisingly; for all those who don't love music, love noise and party, and will any night give half-a-guinea for the liberty of hissing-such is English harmony.

I have been in a round of dinners with Lord Stafford, and Bussy the French minister, who tells one stories of Capuchins, confessions, Henri Quatre, Louis XIV., Gascons, and the string which all Frenchmen go through, without any connexion or relation to the discourse. These very stories, which I have already heard four times, are only interrupted by English puns, which old Churchill translates out of jest-books into the mouth of my Lord Chesterfield, and into most execrable French.

Adieu! I have scribbled, and blotted, and made nothing out, and, in short, have nothing to say, so good night!

(747) Lady Lucinda Sherard, widow of John Manners, second Duke of Rutland. She died in 1751.-E.

(748) Lady Lucy Manners, married, in 1742, to William, second Duke of Montrose. She died in 1788.-E.

(749) Judith, sister of Lord Viscount Fane, wife of John Montagu, fifth Earl of Sandwich.-E.

(750) Robert d'Arcy, fourth Earl of Holderness; subsequently made secretary of State. Upon his death his earldom extinguished, and what remained of his estate, as well as the Barony of Conyers, descended to his only daughter, who was married to Francis...o...b..rne, fifth Duke of Leeds, in 1773.-D.

[From whom she was divorced in 1779. She afterwards married Captain John Byron, son of Admiral Byron, and father of the great poet.]

302 Letter 93 To Sir Horace Mann.

Arlington Street, Jan. 6, 1743.

You will wonder that you have not heard from me, but I have been too ill to write. I have been confined these ten days with a most violent cough, and they suspected an inflammation on my lungs; but I am come off with the loss of my eyes and my voice, both of which I am recovering, and would write to you to-day. I have received your long letter of December 11th, and return you a thousand thanks for giving up so much of your time; I wish I could make as long a letter for you, but we arc in a neutrality of news. The Elector Palatine (751) is dead; but I have not heard what alterations that will make. Lord Wilmington's death, which is reckoned hard upon, is likely to make more conversation here. He is going to Bath, but that is only to pa.s.s away the time until be dies.

The great Vernon is landed, but we have not been alarmed with any bonfires or illuminations; he has outlived all his popularity. There is nothing new but the separation of a Mr.

and Mrs. French, whom it is impossible you should know. She has been fashionable these two winters; her husband has commenced a suit in Doctors' Commons against her cat, and will, they say, recover considerable damages: but the lawyers are of opinion, that the kittens must inherit Mr. French's estate, as they were born in lawful wedlock.

The parliament meets again on Monday, but I don't hear of any fatigue that we are likely to have; in a little time, I suppose, we shall hear what campaigning we are to make.

I must tell you of an admirable reply of your acquaintance the d.u.c.h.ess of Queensberry:(752) old Lady Granville, Lord Carteret's mother, whom they call the Queen-Mother, from taking upon her to do the honours of her son's power, was pressing the d.u.c.h.ess to ask her for some place for herself or friends, and a.s.sured her that she would procure it, be it what it would. Could she have picked out a fitter person to be gracious to? The d.u.c.h.ess made her a most grave curtsey, and said, "Indeed, there was one thing she had set her heart on."-"Dear child, how you oblige me by asking, any thing! What is it? tell me." "Only that you would speak to my Lord Carteret to get me made lady of the bedchamber to the Queen of Hungary."

I come now to your letter, and am not at all pleased to find that the Princess absolutely intends to murder you with her cold rooms. I wish you could come on those cold nights and sit by my fireside; I have the prettiest warm little apartment, with all my baubles, and Patapans, and cats!

Patapan and I go to-morrow to New Park, to my lord, for the air, and come back with him on Monday.

What an infamous story that affair of Nomis is! and how different the ideas of honour among officers in your world and ours! Your history of cicisbeosm is more entertaining: I figure the distress of a parcel of lovers who have so many things to dread-the government in this world! purgatory in the next! inquisitions, villeggiaturas, convents, etc.

Lord Ess.e.x is extremely bad, and has not strength enough to go through the remedies that are necessary to his recovery. He now fancies that he does not exist, will not be persuaded to walk or talk, because, as he sometimes says, "How should he do any thing? he is not." You say, "How came I not to see Duc d'Aremberg?" I did once at the opera; but he went away soon after: and here it is not the way to visit foreigners, unless you are of the Court, or are particularly in a way of having them at your house: consequently Sir R. never saw him either-we are not of the Court! Next, as to Arlington Street: Sir R. is in a middling kind of house, which has long been his, and was let; he has taken a small one next to it for me, and they are laid together.

I come now to speak to you of the affair of the Duke of Newcastle; but absolutely, on considering it much myself, and on talking of it with your brother, we both are against your attempting any such thing. In the first place, I never heard a suspicion of the duke's taking presents, and should think he would rather be affronted: in the next place, my dear child, though you are fond of that coffee-pot, it would be thought nothing among such wardrobes as he has, of the finest wrought plate: why, he has- a set of gold plates that would make a figure on any sideboard in the Arabian Tales;(753) and as to Benvenuto cellini, if the duke could take it for his, people in England understand all work too well to be deceived.

Lastly, as there has been no talk of alterations in the foreign ministers, and as all changes seem at an end, why should you be apprehensive? As to Stone,(754) if any thing was done, to be sure it should be to him though I really can't advise even that. These are my sentiments sincerely: by no means think of the duke. Adieu!