The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford Volume I Part 26

(389) George Bubb Dodington had lately resigned his post of one of the lords of the treasury, and gone again into opposition. [In Walpole's copy of the celebrated Diary of this versatile politician, he had written a "Brief account of George Bubb Doddington, Lord Melcombe," which the n.o.ble editor of the "Memoires" has inserted. It describes him, "as his Diary shows, vain, fickle, ambitious, and corrupt,' and very lethargic; but gives him credit for great wit and readiness." c.u.mberland, in his Memoirs, thus paints him:-"Dodington, lolling in his chair, in perfect apathy and self-command, dozing, and even snoring, at intervals, in his lethargic way, broke out every now and then into gleams and flashes of wit and humour." In 1761, he was created Lord Melcombe, and died in the following year.]

(390) Frances, daughter of Sir Robert Worseley, and first wife of John Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl of Granville.

207 Letter 50 To Sir Horace Mann.

London, Jan. 7, 1741-2, O. S.

I must answer for your brother a paragraph that he showed me in one of your letters: "Mr. W.'s letters are full of wit; don't they adore him in England?" Not at all-and I don't wonder at them: for if I have any wit in my letters, which I do not at all take for granted, it is ten to one that I have none out of my letters. A thousand people can write, that cannot talk; and besides, you know, (or I conclude so, from the little one hears stirring,) that numbers of the English have wit, who don't care to produce it. Then, as to adoring; YOU now See Only my letters, and you may be sure I take care not to write you word of any of my bad qualities, which other people must see in the gross; and that may be a great hindrance to their adoration. Oh! there are a thousand other reasons I could give you, why I am not the least in fas.h.i.+on. I came over in an ill season: it is a million to one that n.o.body thinks a declining old minister's son has wit. At any time, men in opposition have always most; but now, it would be absurd for a courtier to have even common sense. There is not a Mr. Stuart, or a Mr. Stewart, whose names begin but with the first letters of Stanhope,(391) that has not a better chance than I, for being liked. I can a.s.sure you, even those of the same party would be fools, not to pretend to think me one. Sir Robert has showed no partiality for me;(392) and do you think they would commend where he does not? even supposing they had no envy, which by the way, I am far from saying they have not. Then. my dear child, I am the coolest man of my party, and if I am ever warm, it is by contagion; and where violence pa.s.ses for parts, what will indifference be called? But how could you think of such a question '! I don't want money, consequently Do old women pay me for my wit; I have a very flimsy const.i.tution, consequently the young women won't taste my wit, and it is a long while before wit makes its own way in the world; especially, as I never prove it, by a.s.suring people that I have it by me. Indeed, if I were disposed to brag, I could quote two or three half-pay officers, and an old aunt or two, who laugh prodigiously at every thing I say; but till they are allowed judges, I will not brag of such authorities.

If you have a mind to know who is adored and has wit, there is old Churchill has as much G.o.d-d-n-ye wit as ever-except that he has lost two teeth. There are half a dozen Scotchmen who vote against the Court, and are cried up by the Opposition for wit, to keep them steady. They are forced to cry up their parts, for it would be too barefaced to commend their honesty. Then Mr. Nugent has had a great deal of wit till within this week; but he is so busy and so witty, that even his own party grow tired of him.

His plump wife, who talks of nothing else, says he entertained her all the way on the road with repeating his speeches.

I did not go into the country, last week, as I intended, the weather was so bad; but I shall go on Sunday for three or four days, and perhaps shall not be able to write to you that week.

You are in an agitation, I suppose, about politics: both sides are trafficking deeply for votes during the holidays. It is allowed, I think, that we shall have a majority of twenty-six: Sir R. says more; but now, upon a pinch, he brags like any bridegroom.

The Westminster election pa.s.sed without any disturbance, in favour of Lord Perceive-all (394) and Mr. Perceive-nothing, as my uncle calls them. Lord Chesterfield was vaunting to Lord Lovel, that they should have carried it, if they had set up two broomsticks. "So I see," replied Lovel. But it seems we have not done with it yet: if we get the majority, this will be declared a void election too, for my Lord Chancellor (395) has found out, that the person who made the return, had no right to make it: it was the High Bailiff's clerk, the High Bailiff himself being in custody of the sergeant-at-arms. it makes a great noise, and they talk of making subscriptions for a Pet.i.tion.

Lord Stafford (396) is come over. He told me some good stories of the Primate.(397)

Last night I had a good deal of company to hear Monticelli and Amorevoli, particularly the three beauty-Fitzroys, Lady Euston, Lady Conway, and Lady Caroline.(398) Sir R. liked the singers extremely: he had not heard them before, I forgot to tell you all our beauties there was Miss Hervey,(399) my lord's daughter, a fine, black girl, but as masculine as her father should be;(400) and jenny Conway, handsomer Still,(401) though changed with illness, than even the Fitzroys. I made the music for my Lord Hervey, who is too ill to go to operas: yet, with a coffin-face, is as full of his little dirty politics as ever. He will not be well enough to go to the House till the majority is certain somewhere, but lives shut up with my Lord Chesterfield and Mr. Pultney-a triumvirate, who hate one another more than any body they could proscribe, had they the power. I dropped in at my Lord Hervey's, the other night, knowing my lady had company: it was soon after our defeats. My lord, who has always professed particularly to me, turned his back on me, and retired for an hour into a whisper with young Hammond,(402) at the end of the room. Not being at all amazed at one whose heart I knew so well, I stayed on, to see more of this behaviour; indeed, to rise myself to it. At last he came up to me, and begged this music. which I gave him, and would often again, to see how many times I shall be ill and well with him within this month.

Yesterday came news that his brother, Captain William Hervey, has taken a Caracca s.h.i.+p, worth full two hundred thousand pounds. He was afterwards separated from it by a storm, for two or three days, and was afraid of losing it, having but five-and-twenty men to thirty-six Spaniards; but he has brought it home safe. I forgot to tell you, that upon losing the first question, Lord Hervey kept away for a week; on our carrying the next great one, he wrote to Sir Robert, how much he desired to see him, "not upon any business, but Lord Hervey longs to see Sir Robert Walpole."

Lady Sundon(402) is dead, and Lady M- disappointed: she, who is full as politic as my Lord Hervey, had made herself an absolute servant to Lady Sundon, but I don't hear that she has left her even her old clothes. Lord Sundon is in great grief: I am surprised, for she has had fits of madness ever since her ambition met such a check by the death of the Queen.(404) She had great power with her, though the Queen pretended to despise her; but had unluckily told her, or fallen into her power by some secret.(405) I was saying to Lady Pomfret, to be sure she is dead very rich!" She replied, with some warmth, She never took money." When I came home, I mentioned this to Sir R. "No,"

said he, "but she took jewels; Lord Pomfret's place of master of the horse to the Queen was bought of her for a pair of diamond earrings, of fourteen hundred pounds value." One day that she wore them at a visit at old Marlboro's, as soon as she was gone, the d.u.c.h.ess said to Lady Mary Wortley,(406) "How can that woman have the impudence to go about in that bribe?"-,, Madam," said Lady Mary, "how would you have people know where wine is to be sold, unless there is a sign hung out!" Sir R. told me, that in the enthusiasm of her vanity, Lady Sundon had proposed to him to unite with her, and govern the kingdom together: he bowed, begged her patronage, but said he thought n.o.body fit to govern the kingdom, but the King and Queen.-Another day.

Friday morning. I was forced to leave off last night, as I found it would be impossible to send away this letter finished in any time. It will be enormously long, but I have prepared you for it. When I consider the beginning of my letter, it looks as if I were entirely of your opinion about the agreeableness of them. I believe you will never commend them again, when you see how they increase upon your hands. I have seen letters of two or three sheets, written from merchants at Bengal and Canton to their wives: but then they contain the history of a twelvemonth: I grow voluminous from week to week. I can plead in excuse nothing but the true reason; you desired it; and I remember how I used to wish for such letters, when I was in Italy. My Lady Pomfret carries this humanity still farther, and because people were civil to her in Italy, she makes it a rule to visit all strangers in general. She has been to visit a Spanish Count (407) and his wife, though she cannot open her lips in their language. They fled from Spain, he and his brother having offended the Queen, (408) by their attachments to the Prince of Asturias; his brother ventured back to bring off this woman, who was engaged to him. Lord Harrington (409) has procured them a pension of six hundred a-year. They live chiefly with Lord Carteret and his daughter,(410) who speak Spanish. But to proceed from where I left off last night, like the Princess Dinarzade in the Arabian Nights, for you will want to know what happened one day.

Sir Robert was at dinner with Lady Sundon, who hated the Bishop of London, as much as she loved the Church. "Well," said she to Sir R., "how does your pope do!"-"Madam," replied he, "he is my pope, and shall be my Pope; every body has some pope or other; don't you know that you are one! They call you Pope Joan." She flew into a pa.s.sion, and desired he would not fix any names on her; that they were not so easily got rid of.

We had a little ball the other night at Mrs. Boothby's, and by dancing, did not perceive an earthquake, which frightened all the undancing part of the town.

We had a civility from his Royal Highness,(411) who sent for Monticelli the night he was engaged here, but, on hearing it, said he would send for him some other night. If I did not live so near St. James's, I would find out some politics in this-should not one?

Sir William Stanhope (412) has had a hint from the same Highness, that his company is not quite agreeable: whenever he met any body at Carlton House whom he did not know, he said, "Your humble servant, Mr. or Mrs. Hamilton."

I have this morning sent aboard the St. Quintin a box for you, with your secretary-not in it.

Old Weston of Exeter is dead. Dr. Clarke, the Dean, Dr.

Willes, the decipherer, and Dr. Gilbert of Llandaff, are candidates to succeed him.(413) Sir R. is for Willes, who, he says, knows so many secrets, that he might insist upon being archbishop.

My dear Mr. Chute! how concerned I am that he took all that trouble to no purpose. I will not write to him this post, for as you show him my letters, this here will sufficiently employ any one's patience-but I have done. I long to hear that the Dominichini is safe. Good night.

Yours, ever.

(391) The name of Lord Chesterfield.

(392) On the subject of Sir Robert's alleged want of partiality for his son, the following pa.s.sage occurs in the anecdotes prefixed to Lord Wharncliffe's edition of the works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu:-"Those ironical lines, where Pope says that Sir Robert Had never made a friend in private life, And was, besides, a tyrant to his wife,' are well understood, as conveying a sly allusion to his good-humoured unconcern about some things which more strait-laced husbands do not take so coolly. In a word, Horace Walpole was generally supposed to be the son of Carr Lord Hervey, and Sir Robert not to be ignorant of it. One striking circ.u.mstance was visible to the naked eye; no beings in human shape could resemble each other less than the two pa.s.sing for father and son; and while their reverse of personal likeness provoked a malicious whisper, Sir Robert's marked neglect of Horace in his infancy tended to confirm it. Sir Robert took scarcely any notice of him till his proficiency in Eton school, when a lad of some standing, drew his attention, and proved that, whether he had or had not a right to the name he went by, he was likely to do it Honour."

Vol. i. 1). 33.-E.

(393) General Charles Churchill. (Whose character has been so inimitably sketched, at about the same period when this letter was written, by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in his poem of', Isabella, or the Morning:"-

"The General, one of those brave old commanders, Who served through all our glorious wars in Flanders.

Frank and good-natur'd, of an honest heart, Loving to act the steady friendly part; None led through youth a gayer life than he, Cheerful in converse, smart in repartee; But with old age, its Vices Come along, And in narration he's extremely long; Exact in circ.u.mstance, and nice in dates, He each minute particular relates.

If you name one of marlbro's ten campaigns, He gives you its whole history for your pains, And Blenheim's field becomes by his reciting, As long in telling as it was in fighting.

His old desire to please is still express'd, His hat's well c.o.c.k'd, his periwig's well dress'd.

He rolls his stockings still, white gloves he wears, And in the boxes with the beaux appears.

His eyes through wrinkled corners cast their rays, Still he looks cheerful, still soft things he says, And still remembering that he once was young, He strains his crippled knees, and struts along."-D.)

(394) Vide an account of the erection of Lord Perceval and one Edwin, in that Lord's History of the House of Ivery.

(395) Philip Yorke, Lord, and afterwards Earl of Hardwicke, for twenty years Lord Chancellor of England.-D.

(396) William mathias Howard, Earl of Stafford.

(397) The Primate of Lorrain, eldest son of Prince Craon, was famous for his wit and vices of all kinds.

(398) Lady Dorothy Boyle, eldest daughter of Lord Burlington; Isabella, wife of Francis Lord Conway, and Caroline, afterwards married to Lord Petersham, were the daughter-in-law and daughters of Charles Fitzroy, Duke of grafton, lord chamberlain.

(399) Lepel, eldest daughter of John Lord Hervey, afterwards married to Mr. Phipps. (Constantine Phipps, in 1767 created Lord Mulgrave.]

(400) The effeminacy of Lord Hervey formed a continual subject for the satire of his opponents. Pope's bitter lines on him- are well remembered. The old d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough, too, in her "Opinions," describes him as having "certainly parts and wit; but he is the most wretched profligate man that ever was born, besides ridiculous; a painted face, and not a tooth in his head."

on which the editor of that curious little book, Lord Hailes, remarks, "Lord Hervey, having felt some attacks of the epilepsy, entered upon and persisted in a very strict regimen, and thus stopped the progress and prevented the effects of that dreadful disease. His daily food was a small quant.i.ty of a.s.ses' milk and a flour biscuit. Once a week he indulged himself with eating an apple; he used emetics daily.

Mr. Pope and he were once friends; but they quarrelled, and persecuted each other with virulent satire. Pope, knowing the abstemious regimen which Lord Hervey observed, was so ungenerous as to call him "mere cheese-curd of a.s.ses' milk!" Lord Hervey used paint to soften his ghastly appearance. Mr. Pope must have known this also; and therefore it was unpardonable in him to introduce it into his "celebrated portrait." It ought to be remembered, that Lord Hervey is very differently described by Dr. Middleton; who, in his dedication to him of "The History of the Life of Tully," praises him for his strong good sense, patriotism, temperance, and information.-E.

(401) Jane, only daughter of Francis, the first Lord Conway, by his second wife, Mrs. Bodens. (She died unmarried, May 5, 1749.-D.)

(402) Author of some Love Elegies, and a favourite of Lord Chesterfield. He died this year. [Hammond was equerry to the Prince of Wales, and member for Truro. He died in June, 1742, at Stowe, the seat of Lord Cobham, in his thirty.second year. Miss Dashwood long survived him, and died unmarried in 1779. " The character," says Johnson, "which her lover gave her was, indeed, not likely to attract courts.h.i.+p."]

(402) Wife of William Clayton, Lord Sundon, woman of the bedchamber and mistress of the robes to Queen Caroline. [She had been the friend and correspondent of Sarah d.u.c.h.ess of'

Marlborough; who, on the accession of George I , through Baron Bothmar's influence, procured for her friend the place of lady of the bedchamber to the Princess with whom she grew as great a favourite as her colleague, Mrs. Howard, with the Prince; and eventually, on the Princess becoming Queen, exercised an influence over her, of which even sir Robert Walpole was jealous.]

(404) Queen Caroline, died November 1737.-D.

(405) This is now known to have been a rupture, with which the Queen was afflicted, and which she had the weakness to wish, and the courage to be able, to conceal.-E.

(406) The celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, oldest daughter of Evelyn, first Duke of Kingston, and wife of Wortley Montagu, Esq.-D.

(407) Marquis de Sabernego: he returned to Spain after the death of Philip V.

(408) The Princess of Parma, second wife of Philip V. King of Spain, and consequently stepmother to the Prince of Asturias, son of that King, by his first wife, a princess of Savoy.-D.

(409) William Stanhope, created Lord Harrington in 1729, and Earl of the same in 1741. He held various high offices, and was, at the time this was written, secretary of state.-D.

(410) Frances, youngest daughter of Lord Carteret, afterwards married to the Marquis of Tweedale. (in 1748. The marquis was an extraordinary lord of session, and the last person who held a similar appointment.]

(411) Frederick Prince of Wales.-D.