you have left your sword behind you. If you take it ill, I have given my nephew, who brings your sword, a letter of attorney to fight you for me; I shall certainly not see you: my lady Waldegrave goes to town on Friday, but I remain here. You lose lady Anne Connolly2 and her forty daughters, who all dine here to-day upon a few loaves and three small fishes. I should have been glad if you would have breakfasted here on Friday on your way; but, as I lie in bed rather longer than the lark, I fear our hours will not suit one another. Adieu! Yours ever. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Strawberry-hill, October 2, 1760. I ANNOUNCE my lady Huntingtower1 to you. I hope you will approve the match, a little more than I suppose my lord Dysart will, as he does not yet know, though they have been married these two hours, that, at ten o'clock this morning, his son espoused my niece Charlotte at St. James's church. The moment my lord Dysart is dead, I will carry you to see Hamhouse; it is pleasant to call cousins with a charming prospect over against one. Now you want to know the detail: there was none. It is not the style of our court to have long negotiations; we don't fatigue the town with exhibiting the betrothed for six months together in public places. Vidit, venit, vicit ;—the young lord has liked her some time; on Saturday se'nnight he came to my brother, and made his demand. The princess did not know him by sight, and did not dislike him, when she did; she consented, and they were to be married this morning. My lord Dysart is such a that nobody will pity him; he has kept his son till six and twenty, and would never make the least settlement on him: "Sure," said the young man, "if he will do nothing for me, I may please myself; he cannot hinder me of ten thousand pounds a-year, and sixty thousand that are in the —— 1 At Strawberry-hill. [Or.] 2 Sister of William, earl of Strafford. [Or.] 1 Daughter of sir Edward Walpole, and sister to lady Waldegrave and to Mrs. Keppel. [Or.] Charlotte, third daughter of sir Edward Walpole. [Ed.] 2 Lionel Talmache, earl of Dysart. [Ed.] funds, all entailed on me"-a reversion one does not wonder the bride did not refuse, as there is present possession, too, of a very handsome person; the only thing his father has ever given him. His grandfather, lord Granville, has always told him to choose a gentlewoman, and please himself; yet I should think the ladies Townshend and Cooper would cackle a little. I wish you could have come here this October for more reasons than one. The Teddingtonian history is grown woefully bad. Mark Antony, though no boy, persists in losing the world two or three times over for every gypsy that he takes for a Cleopatra. I have laughed, been scolded, represented, begged, and at last spoken very roundly-all with equal success; at present we do not meet. I must convince him of ill usage, before I can make good usage of any service. All I have done is forgot, because I will not be enamoured of Hannah Cleopatra, too. You shall know the whole history when I see you; you may trust me for still being kind to him; but that he must not as yet suspect; they are bent on going to London, that she may visit and be visited, while he puts on his red velvet and ermine, and goes about begging in robes. Poor Mr. Chute has had another very severe fit of the gout; I left him in bed, but, by not hearing he is worse, trust on Saturday to find him mended. Adieu ! Yours ever. P.S. I have kept a copy of my last memorial, which you, who know all the circumstances, will not think a whit too harsh. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Strawberry-hill, October 14, 1760. If you should see in the newspapers, that I have offered to raise a regiment at Twickenham, am going with the expedition, and have actually kissed hands, don't believe it; though I own, the two first would not be more surprising than the last. I will tell you how the calamity befel me, though you will laugh instead of pitying me. Last Friday morning, I was very tranquilly writing my Anecdotes of Painting—I heard the bell at the gate ring— I called out, as usual, “Not at home;" but Harry, who thought it would be treason to tell a lie, when he saw red live , ries, owned I was, and came running up: "Sir, the prince of Wales is at the door, and says he is come on purpose to make you a visit!" There was I, in the utmost confusion, undressed, in my slippers, and with my hair about my ears; there was no help, insanum vatem aspiciet—and down I went to receive him. Him was the duke of York. Behold my breeding of the old court; at the foot of the stairs I kneeled down, and kissed his hand. I beg your uncle Algernon Sidney's pardon, but I could not let the second prince of the blood kiss my hand first. He was, as he always is, extremely good-humoured; and I, as I am not always, extremely respectful. He staid two hours, nobody with him but Morrison; I showed him all my castle, the pictures of the pretender's sons, and that type of the reformation, Harry the eighth's moulded into a weight to the clock he gave Anne Boleyn. But observe my luck; he would have the sanctum sanctorum in the library opened; about a month ago I removed the MSS. in another place. All this is very well; but now for consequences; what was I to do next? I have not been in a court these ten years, consequently have never kissed hands in the next reign. Could I let a duke of York visit me, and never go to thank him? I know if I was a great poet, I might be so brutal, and tell the world in rhyme that rudeness is virtue; or, if I was a patriot, I might, after laughing at kings and princes for twenty years, catch at the first opening of favour and beg a place. In truth, I can do neither; yet I could not be shocking; I determined to go to Leicestershire-house, and comforted myself that it was not much less meritorious to go there for nothing, than to stay quite away; yet I believe I must make a pilgrimage to saint Liberty of Geneva, before I am perfectly purified, especially as I am dipped even at St. James's. Lord Hertford, at my request, begged my lady Yarmouth to get an order for my lady Henry to go through the park, and the countess said so many civil things about me and my suit, and granted it so expeditiously, that I shall be forced to visit her, even before she lives here next door to my lady Suffolk. My servants are transported; Harry expects to see me first minister, like my father, and reckons upon a place in the Custom-house. Louis, who drinks like a German, thinks himself qualified for a page of the back stairs— but these are not all my troubles. As I never dress in summer, I had nothing upon earth but a frock, unless I went in black, like a poet, and pretended that a cousin was dead, one of the muses. Then I was in panics lest I should call my lord Bute, your royal highness. I was not indeed in much pain at the conjectures the duke of Newcastle would make on such an apparition, even if he should suspect that a new opposition was on foot, and that I was to write some letters to the Whigs. Well, but after all, do you know that my calamity has not befallen me yet? I could not determine to bounce over head and ears into the drawing-room at once, without one soul knowing why I came thither. I went to London on Saturday night, and lord Hertford was to carry me the next morning; in the mean time, I wrote to Morrison, explaining my gratitude to one brother, and my unacquaintance with t'other, and how afraid I was that it would be thought officious and forward, if I was presented now, and begging he would advise me what to do; and all this upon my bended knee, as if Schutz had stood over me and dictated every syllable. The answer was by order from the duke of York, that he smiled at my distress, wished to put me to no inconvenience, but desired, that as the acquaintance had begun without restraint, it might continue without ceremony. Now was I in more perplexity than ever! I could not go directly, and yet it was not fit it should be said I thought it an inconvenience to wait on the prince of Wales. At present, it is decided by a jury of court matrons, that is, courtiers, that I must write to my lord Bute and explain the whole and why I desire to come now-don't fear; I will take care they shall understand how little I come for. In the mean time, you see it is my fault if I am not a favourite, but, alas! I am not heavy enough to be tossed in a blanket, like Doddington; I should never come down again; I cannot be driven in a royal curricle to wells and waters; I can't make love now to my cotemporary Charlotte Dives; I cannot quit Mufti and my parroquet for sir William Irby,' and the prattle of a drawing-room, nor Mrs. Clive for ' Created in 1761, baron Boston, of Boston, county of Lincoln. He had been successively page of honour to George I. and George II.; equerry to Frederick prince of Wales, on his first arrival in England; and chamberlain to Augusta, princess of Wales. He married, 26th August, 1746, Albinia, eldest daughter of Henry Selwyn, esq.; and died 30th March, 1775; he was succeeded by his son Frederick, father of George, the present and third lord. [Ed.} Ælia Lælia Chudleigh; in short, I could give up nothing but an earldom of Eglington, and yet I foresee, that this phantom of the reversion of a reversion will make me plagued; I shall have lord Egmont whisper me again; and every tall woman and strong man, that comes to town, will make interest with me to get the duke of York to come and see them. Oh! dreadful, dreadful! It is plain I never was a patriot, for I don't find my virtue a bit staggered by this first glimpse of court sunshine. Mr. Conway has pressed to command the new Quixotism on foot, and has been refused; I sing a very comfortable Te Deum for it. Kingsley, Craufurd, and Keppel are the generals, and commodore Keppel the admiral. The mob are sure of being pleased; they will get a conquest, or a court-martial. A very unpleasant thing has happened to the Keppels; the youngest brother, who had run in debt at Gibraltar, and was fetched away to be sent to Germany, gave them the slip at the first port they touched at in Spain, surrendered himself to the Spanish governor, has changed his religion, and sent for a, that had been taken from him at Gibraltar; naturam expellas furcá. There's the true blood of Charles the second sacrificing every thing for popery and a — Lord Bolingbroke, on hearing the name of lady Coventry at Newmarket, affected to burst into tears, and left the room, not to hide his crying, but his not crying. Draper has handsomely offered to go on the expedition, and goes. Ned Finch, t'other day, on the conquest of Montreal, wished the king joy of having lost no subjects, but those that perished in the rabbits. Fitzroy asked him if he thought they crossed the great American lakes in such little boats as one goes in to Vauxhall? he replied, "Yes, Mr. Pitt said the rabbits"— it was in the falls, the rapids. I like lord John almost as well as Fred. Montague; and I like your letter better than lord John; the application of Miss Falkener was charming. Good night! Yours ever. P.S. If I had been told in June that I should have the gout, and kiss hands before November, I don't think I should have given much credit to the prophet. |