The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford Volume I Part 58

"Stare upon the strange man's face, As one she ne'er had known!"(916)

I wonder I forgot to tell you that Doddington had owned a match of seventeen years' standing with Mrs. Behan, to whom the one you mention is sister.

I have this moment received yours of March 10th, and thank you much for the silver medal, which has already taken its place in my museum.

I feel almost out of pain for your situation, as by the motion of the fleets this way, I should think the expedition to Italy abandoned. We and you have had great escapes, but we have still occasion for all Providence!

I am very sorry for the young Sposa Panciatici, and wish all the other parents joy of the increase of their families. Mr.

Whithed is en bon train; but the recruits he is raising will scarce thrive fast enough to be of service this war. My best loves to him and Mr. Chute. I except you three out of my want of public spirit. The other day, when the Jacobites and patriots were carrying every thing to ruin, and had made me warmer than I love to be, one of them said to me, "Why don't you love your country?" I replied, "I should love my country exceedingly,'If it were not for my countrymen." Adieu!

(911) Chaplain to the late Lord Waldegrave; after whose death he acted as minister at Paris, till the war, when he returned, and was made a dean in Ireland.

(912) He was called by the seamen "Foul-weather Jack."

(913) Motto of a medal of Charles the Second.

(914) Eldest daughter of Thomas, Earl of Pomfret.

(915) lady Pomfret had translated Froissart.

(916) Verses in Congreve's Doris.

366 Letter 135 To Sir Horace Mann.

April 2, 1744.

I am afraid our correspondence will be extremely disjointed, and the length of time before you get my letters will make you very impatient, when all the world will be full of events; but I flatter myself that you will hear every thing sooner than by my letters; I mean, that whatever happens will be on the Continent; for the danger from Dunkirk seems blown over. We declared war on Sat.u.r.day: that is all I know, for every body has been out of town for the Easter holidays. To-morrow the Houses meet again: the King goes, and is to make a speech.

The Dutch seem extremely in earnest, and I think we seem to put all our strength in their preparations.

The town is persuaded that Lord Clinton (916) is gone to Paris to make peace - he is certainly gone thither, n.o.body knows why. He has gone thither every year -all his life, when he was in the Opposition; but, to be sure, this is a very strange time to take that journey. Lord Stafford, who came hither just before the intended invasion, (no doubt for the defence of the Protestant religion, especially as his father-in-law, Bulkeley,(917), was colonel of one of the embarked regiments,) is gone to carry his sister to be married to a Count de Rohan,(918) and then returns, having a sign manual for leaving his wife there.

We shall not be surprised to hear that the Electorate(919) has got a new master; shall you? Our dear nephew of Prussia will probably take it, to keep it safe for us.

I had written thus far on Monday, and then my lord came from New Park: and I had no time the rest of the day to finish it.

We have made very loyal addresses to the King on his speech, which I suppose they send you. There is not the least news, but that my Lord Carteret's wedding has been deferred on Lady Sophia's falling dangerously ill of a scarlet fever; but they say it is to be next Sat.u.r.day. She is to have sixteen hundred pounds a-year jointure, four hundred pounds pin-money, and two thousand of jewels. Carteret says, he does not intend to marry the mother and the whole family. What do you think my lady intends? Adieu! my dear Sir! Pray for peace.

(916) Hugh Fortescue, afterwards Earl of Clinton and Knight of the Bath. Not long after he received that order he went into Opposition, and left off his riband and star for one day, but thought better of it, and put them on the next. He was created Lord Fortescue and Earl of Clinton in 1746, and died in 1751.)

(917) Mr. Bulkeley, an Irish Roman Catholic, married the widow Cantillon, mother of the Countess of Stafford. He rose high in the French army, and had the cordon bleu: his sister was second wife of the first Duke of Berwick.

(918)Afterwards Duke of Rohan Chabot.-D.

(919) Of Hanover.-D.

367 Letter 136 To Sir Horace Mann.

London, April 15, 1744.

I could tell you a great deal of news, but it would not be what you would expect. It is not of battles, sieges, and declarations of war; nor of invasions, insurrections, and addresses. It is the G.o.d of love, not he of war, who reigns in the newspapers. The town has made up a list of six and thirty weddings, which I shall not catalogue to you; for you would know, them no more than you do Antilochum, fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cloanthum.

But the chief entertainment has been the nuptials of our great Quixote and the fair Sophia. On the point of matrimony she fell ill of a scarlet fever, and was given over, while he had the gout, but heroically sent her word, that if she was well, he would be so. They corresponded every day, and he used to plague the cabinet council with reading her letters to them.

Last night they were married; and as all he does must have a particular air in it, they supped at Lord Pomfret's: at twelve, Lady Granville, his mother, and all his family went to bed, but the porter: then my lord went home, and waited for her in the lodge: she came alone in a hackney-chair, met him in the hall, and was led up the back stairs to bed. What is ridiculously lucky is, that Lord Lincoln goes into waiting, to-day, and will be to present her! On Tuesday she stands G.o.dmother with the King to Lady Dysart's(920) child, her new grand-daughter. I am impatient to see the whole m'enage; it will be admirable. There is a wild young Venetian amba.s.sadress(921) come, who is reckoned very pretty. I don't think so; she is foolish and childish to a degree. She said, "Lord! the old secretary is going to be married!" hey told her he was but fifty-four. "But fifty-four! why," said she, "my husband is but two-and-forty, and I think him the oldest man in the world." Did I tell you that Lord Holderness(922) goes to Venice with the compliments of accommodation, and leaves Sir James Grey resident there?

The invasion from Dunkirk seems laid aside. We talk little of our fleets - Sir John Norris has resigned -. Lestock is coming home, and sent before him great complaints of Matthews; so that affair must be cleared up. the King talks much of going abroad, which will not be very prudent. The campaign is not opened yet, but I suppose will disclose at once with great 'eclat in several quarters.

I this instant receive your letter of March 31st, with the simple Demetrius, for which, however, I thank you. I hope by this time you have received all my letters, and are at peace about the invasion; which we think so much over, that the Opposition are now breaking out about the Dutch troops, and call it the worst measure ever taken. Those terms so generally dealt to every measure successively, will at least soften the Hanoverian history.

Adieu! I have nothing more to tell you: I flatter myself you content yourself with news; I cannot write sentences nor sentiments. My best love to the Chutes, and now and then let my friends the Prince and Princess and Florentines know that I shall never forget their goodness to me. What is become of Prince Beauvau?

(920) Lady Grace Carteret, eldest daughter of Lord Carteret.

She was married in 1729 to Lionel Tollemache, third Earl of Dysart; by whom she had fifteen children.-E.

(921) Wife of Signor Capello.

(922) Robert Darcy, Earl of Holderness, amba.s.sador at Venice and the Hague, and afterwards secretary of state.

369 Letter 137 To Sir Horace Mann.

London, May 8, 1744.

I begin to breathe a little at ease; we have done with the Parliament for this year: it rises on Sat.u.r.day. We have had but one material day lately, last Thursday. The Opposition had brought in a bill to make it treason to correspond with the young Pretenders:(923) the Lords added a clause, after a long debate, to make it a forfeiture of estates, as it is for dealing with the father. We sat till one in the morning, and then carried it by 255 to 106. It was the best debate I ever heard.(924) The King goes to Kensington to-morrow, and not abroad. We hear of great quarrels between Marshal Wade and Duc d'Aremberg. The French King is at Valenciennes with Monsieur de Noailles, who is now looked upon as first minister. He is the least dangerous for us of all. It is affirmed that Cardinal Tencin is disgraced, who was the very worst for us. If he is, we shall at least have no invasion this summer. Successors of ministers seldom take up the schemes of their predecessors; especially such as by failing caused their ruin, which, I believe, was Tencin's case at Dunkirk.

For a week we heard of the affair at Villafranca in a worse light than was true: it certainly turns out ill for both sides. Though the French have had such a b.l.o.o.d.y loss, I cannot but think they will carry their point, and force their pa.s.sage into Italy.

We have no domestic news, but Lord Lovel's being created Earl of Leicester, on an old promise which my father had obtained for him. Earl Berkeley(925) is married to Miss Drax, a very pretty maid of honour to the Princess; and the Viscount Fitzwilliam(926) to Sir Matthew Decker's eldest daughter , but these are people I am sure you don't know.

There is to be a great ball tomorrow at the d.u.c.h.ess of Richmond's for my Lady Carteret: the Prince is to be there.

Carteret's court to pay her the highest honours, which she receives with the highest state. I have seen her but once, and found her just what I expected, tr'es grande dame; full of herself, and yet not with an air of happiness. She looks ill and is grown lean, but is still the finest figure in the world. The mother is not so exalted as I expected- I fancy Carteret has kept his resolution, and does not marry her too.

My Lord does not talk of' going out of town yet; I don't propose to be at Houghton till August. Adieu!

(923) Charles Edward, and Henry his brother, afterwards the Cardinal of York.-D.

(924) The Honourable Philip Yorke, in his MS. Parliamentary Journal, says, "it was a warm and long d(.-bate, in which I think as much violence and dislike to the proposition was shown by the opposers, as in any which had arisen during the whole winter. I thought neither Mr. Pelham's nor Pitt's performances equal on this occasion to what they are on most others. Many of the Prince's friends were absent; for what reason I cannot learn. This was the parting blow of the session; for the King came and dismissed us on the 12th, and the Parliament broke up with a good deal of ill-humour and discontent on the part of the Opposition, and little expectation in those who knew the interior of the court, and the unconnected state of the alliance abroad, that much would be done in the ensuing campaign to allay it, or infuse a better temper into the nation."-E.

(925) Augustus. fourth Earl Berkeley, Knight of the Thistle.

He married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Drax, Esq, of Charborough, in Dorsetshire; and died in 1755.-D.

(926) Richard, sixth Viscount Fitzwilliam in Ireland, married Catherine, daughter and heiress of Sir Matthew Decker, Bart., and died in 1776.-E.

370 Letter 138 To Sir Horace Mann.