Page images
PDF
EPUB

to be a duchess in the court that cut off her father's head, and imagining it would please her. I have chosen to sit in my father's little dressing-room, and am now by his scrutoire, where, in the height of his fortune, he used to receive the accounts of his farmers, and deceive himself, or us, with the thoughts of his economy. How wise a man at once, and how weak! For what has he built Houghton? for his grandson to annihilate, or for his son to mourn over. If lord Burleigh could rise and view his representative driving the Hatfield stage, he would feel as I feel now. Poor little Strawberry! at least it will not be stripped to pieces by a descendant! You will find all these fine meditations dictated by pride, not by philosophy. Pray consider through how many mediums philosophy must pass, before it is purified

how often must it weep, how often burn!"

My mind was extremely prepared for all this gloom by parting with Mr. Conway yesterday morning; moral reflections or common places are the livery one likes to wear, when one has just had a real misfortune. He is going to Germany: I was glad to dress myself up in transitory Houghton, in lieu of very sensible concern. To-morrow I shall be distracted with thoughts, at least images, of very different complexion. I go to Lynn, and am to be elected on Friday. I shall return hither on Saturday, again alone, to expect Burleighides on Sunday, whom I left at Newmarket. I must once in my life see him on his grandfather's throne.

[ocr errors]

Epping, Monday night, thirty first.—No, I have not seen him he loitered on the road, and I was kept at Lynn till yesterday morning. It is plain I never knew for how many trades I was formed, when at this time of day I can begin electioneering, and succeed in my new vocation. Think of me, the subject of a mob, who was scarce ever before in a mob, addressing them in the town-hall, riding at the head of two thousand people through privy council about her conduct, she boldly replied, that she had done so that “it might not become food for fishes." She survived her father nine years, and died, aged 36, in 1544, and was buried at St. Dunstan's church, Canterbury; the box containing her father's head, being placed on her coffin. [Ed.]

[blocks in formation]

such a town as Lynn, dining with above two hundred of them amid bumpers, huzzas, songs, and tobacco, and finishing with country dancing at a ball and sixpenny whisk! I have borne it all cheerfully; nay, have sat hours in conversation, the thing upon earth that I hate; have been to hear misses play on the harpsichord, and to see an alderman's copies of Rubens and Carlo Marat. Yet to do the folks justice, they are sensible, and reasonable, and civilized; their very language is polished since I lived among them. I attribute this to their more frequent intercourse with the world and the capital, by the help of good roads and post-chaises, which, if they have abridged the king's dominions, have at least tamed his subjects. Well, how comfortable it will be to-morrow, to see my parroquet, to play at loo, and not be obliged to talk seriously! The Heraclitus of the beginning of this letter will be overjoyed on finishing it to sign himself your old friend,

66

DEMOCRITUS.

P.S. I forgot to tell you that my ancient aunt Hammond came over to Lynn to see me; not from any affection, but curiosity. The first thing she said to me, though we have not met these sixteen years, was, "Child, you have done a thing to-day that your father never did in all his life; you sat as they carried you, he always stood the whole time." Madam," said I, "when I am placed in a chair, I conclude I am to sit in it; besides, as I cannot imitate my father in great things, I am not at all ambitious of mimicking him in little ones." I am sure she proposes to tell her remarks to my uncle Horace's ghost, the instant they meet.

To THE HON. H. S. CONWAY.

Arlington-street, April 10, 1761.

IF Prince Ferdinand had studied how to please me, I don't know any method he could have lighted upon so likely to gain my heart, as being beaten out of the field before you joined him.'

1 Prince Ferdinand, after having caused a field of battle to be marked out near Homburg, was compelled by the want of subsistence in a place already exhausted both by friends and foes, to forego the advantages of a battle in so

I delight in a hero that is driven so far that nobody can follow him. He is as well at Paderborn, as where I have long wished the king of Prussia, the other world. You may frown if you please at my imprudence, you who are gone with all the dispo sition in the world to be well with your commander; the peace is in a manner made, and the anger of generals will not be worth sixpence these ten years. We peaceable folks are now to govern the world, and you warriors must in your turn tremble at our subjects, the mob, as we have done before your hussars and court-martials.

I am glad you had so pleasant a passage.2 My lord Lyttelton would say, that lady M**** C****, like Venus, smiled over the waves, et mare præstabat eunti. In truth, when she could tame me, she must have had little trouble with the ocean. Tell me how many burgomasters she has subdued, or how many would have fallen in love with her if they had not fallen asleep? Come, has she saved two-pence by her charms? Have they abated a farthing of their impositions for her being handsomer than any thing in the seven provinces? Does she know how political her journey is thought? Nay, my lady Ailesbury, you are not out of the scrape; you are both reckoned des marechales de Guebriant, going to fetch, and consequently govern, the young queen. There are more jealousies about your voyage, than the duke of Newcastle would feel if Dr. Shaw had prescribed a little ipecacuanha to my lord Bute.

I am sorry I must adjourn my mirth, to give lady Ailesbury a pang poor sir Harry Bellendine is dead; he made a great dinner at Almac's for the house of Drummond, drank very hard, caught a violent fever, and died in a very few days. Perhaps you will have heard this before; I shall wish so; I do not like, even innocently, to be the cause of sorrow.

favourable a situation, and to retreat. The rear was covered by the hereditary prince, who, being attacked by a superior number of the enemy, his men were broken and dispersed, about 3,000 of them taken prisoners, and he himself only escaped through the intrepidity of two of his officers. [Ed.] 2 From Harwich to Helvoetsluys. [Or.]

3 The marechale de Guebriant was sent to the king of Poland with the eharacter of ambassadress by Louis XIII. to accompany the princess Marie de Gonzague, who had been married by proxy to the king of Poland at Paris. [Or.]

4 Uncle to the countess of Ailesbury. [Or.]

I do not at all lament lord Granby's5 leaving the army, and your immediate succession. There are persons in the world who would gladly ease you of this burden. As you are only to take the vice-royalty of a coop, and that for a few weeks, I shall but smile if you are terribly distressed. Don't let lady Ailesbury proceed to Brunswick: you might have had a wife who would not have thought it so terrible to fall into the hands [arms] of hussars; but as I don't take that to be your countess's turn, leave her with the Dutch, who are not so boisterous as Cossacks or chancellors of the exchequer.

My love, my duty, my jealousy, to lady M ** *, if she is not sailed before you receive this—if she is, I shall deliver them myself. Good night! I write immediately on the receipt of your letter; but you see I have nothing yet new to tell you. Yours ever.

To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq.

Arlington-street, April 16, 1761.

You are a very mule; one offers you a handsome stall and manger in Berkeley-square, and you will not accept it. I have chosen your coat, a claret colour, to suit the complexion of the country you are going to visit; but I have fixed nothing about the lace. Barrett had none of gauze, but what were as broad as the Irish Channel. Your tailor found a very reputable one at another place, but I would not determine rashly; it will be two or three and twenty shillings the yard; you might have a very substantial real lace, which would wear like your buffet, for twenty. The second order of gauzes are frippery, none above twelve shillings, and those tarnished, for the species is out of fashion. You will have time to sit in judgment upon these important points; for Hamilton, your secretary, told me at the opera two nights ago, that he had taken a house near Bushy, and hoped to be in my neighbourhood for four months.

I was last night at your plump countess's, who is so shrunk, hat she does not seem to be composed of above a dozen hassocs.

5 The marquis of Granby was sworn in a member of the Privy Council as Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, 1st May, 1761. [Ed.]

Lord Guilford rejoiced mightily over your preferment. The duchess of Argyle was playing there, not knowing that the great Pam was just dead, to wit, her brother-in-law. He was abroad in the morning, was seized with a palpitation after dinner, and was dead before the surgeon could arrive. There's the crown of Scotland, too, fallen upon my lord Bute's head! Poor lord Edgecumbe1 is still alive, and may be so for some days; the physicians, who no longer ago than Friday se'nuight persisted that he had no dropsy, in order to prevent his having Ward,2 on Monday last proposed that Ward should be called in, and at length they owned they thought the mortification begun. is not clear it is yet; at times he is in his senses, and entirely so, composed, clear, and most rational; talks of his death, and but yesterday, after such a conversation with his brother, asked for a pencil to amuse himself with drawing. What parts, genius, and agreeableness thrown away at a hazard table, and not permitted the chance of being saved by the villany of physicians !

It

You will be pleased with the Anacreontic, written by lord Middlesex upon sir Harry Bellendine: I have not seen any thing so antique for ages; it has all the fire, poetry, and simplicity of Horace.

Ye sons of Bacchus, come and join
In solemn dirge, while tapers shine
Around the grape-embossed shrine
Of honest Henry Bellendine.

Pour the rich juice of Bourdeaux's wine,
Mix'd with your falling tears of brine,
In full libation o'er the shrine

Of honest Harry Bellendine.

Richard Edgecumbe, second lord, died 10th May, 1761, and was succeeded by his brother George, who on the 6th August in the same year, married Emma, only child of Dr. John Gilbert, archbishop of York. His lordship was created in 1781, Viscount Mount Edgecumbe and Valletort, county Devon, and in 1789, Earl of Mount Edgecumbe. [Ed.]

2 Dr. Joshua Ward, a celebrated empiric of the day, and the inventor of 'Ward's Drops,' first introduced by sir Thomas Robinson, in 1732, on which occasion sir C. H. Williams addressed to him his poem, commencing,

"Say knight, for learning most renowned,

What is this wondrous drop."

The Doctor died at Whitehall, 21st December, 1761. [Ed.

« PreviousContinue »