pile I have seen since I travelled in Fairyland. You ought to have delivered a princess imprisoned by enchanters in his club: she, in gratitude, should have fallen in love with you: your constancy should have been immaculate. The devil knows how it would have ended-I don't-And so I break off my romance. You need not beat the French any more this year: it cannot be ascribed to Mr. Pitt; and the mob won't thank you. If we are to have a warm campaign in parliament, I hope you will be sent for. Adieu! We take the field to-morrow se'nnight. Yours ever. P.S. You will be sorry to hear that Worksop is burned. My lady Waldegrave has got a daughter, and your brother an ague. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, November 7, 1761. You will rejoice to hear that your friend Mr. Amyand is going to marry the dowager lady Northampton; she has two thousand pounds a-year, and twenty thousand in money. Old Dunch is dead, and Mrs. Felton Harvey was given over last night, but is still alive. 2 Sir John Cust is speaker, and, bating his nose, the chair seems well filled. There are so many new faces in this parliament, that I am not at all acquainted with it. The enclosed print will divert you, especially the baroness in the right-hand corner-so ugly, and so satisfied: the Athenian head was intended for Stewart; but was so like, that Hogarth was forced to cut off the nose. Adieu ! Yours ever. 1 Mrs. Dunch, widow of Edmund Dunch, Esq., comptroller to the household of King George I. and M. P. for Wallingford, died at her house in Scotland Yard, 4th Nov. 1761, aged 89. [Ed.] 2 Died 8th Nov. 1761. She was the wife of the honourable Felton Hervey, ninth son of John Hervey, first Earl of Bristol, and mother of Felton Lionel Hervey, Esq., who married Selina, only daughter and heir of the late Sir John Elwell, Bart., by whom he had issue, 1. Selina Mary, married 24th Aug. 1813, to Sir Charles Knightley, Bart. 2. Colonel Sir Felton Hervey, Bart. 3. Sir Frederick Bathurst Hervey, Bart. 4. Leonel Charles. 5. A posthumous daughter, Elizabeth. [Ed.] To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, November 28, 1761. I AM much obliged for the notice of sir Compton's illness; if you could send me word of peace too, I should be completely satisfied on Mr. Conway's account. He has been in the late action, and escaped, at a time that I flattered myself the campaign was at an end. However, I trust it is now. You will have been concerned for young Courtney. The war, we hear, is to be transferred to these islands; most probably to yours. The black-rod, I hope, like a herald, is a sacred personage. There has been no authentic account of the coronation published; if there should be, I will send it. When I am at Strawberry, I believe I can make you a list of those that walked; but I have no memorandum in town. If Mr. Bentley's play is printed in Ireland, I depend on your sending me two copies. There has been a very private ball at court, consisting of not above twelve or thirteen couple; some of the lords of the bedchamber, most of the ladies, the maids of honour, the six strangers, lady Caroline Russell, lady Jane Stewart, lord Suffolk, lord Northampton, lord Mandeville, and lord Grey. Nobody sat by, but the princess, the duchess of Bedford, and lady Bute. They began before seven, danced till one, and parted without a supper. 3 Lady Sarah Lenox has refused lord Errol; the duke of Bedford is privy seal; lord Thomond, cofferer; lord George Cavendish, comptroller ;-George Pitt goes minister to Turin; and Mrs. Speed must go thither, as she is marrying the baron de Perrier, count Virry's son. Adieu! Commend me to your brother. Yours ever. Daughter of the duke of Bedford, married on the 23d August 1762, to George Spencer, fourth duke of Marlborough, who died in 1817; her Grace died 26th Nov. 1811. [Ed.] 2 Lady Jane Stewart, second daughter of the earl of Bute, married 1st Feb. 1768, George, earl Macartney, and died 28th Feb. 1826. [Ed.] 3 She subsequently married Sir T. C. Bunbury, Bart. [Ed.] TO THE COUNTESS OF AILESBURY. Arlington-street, Nov. 28, 1761. DEAR MADAM, You are so bad and so good, that I don't know how to treat you. You give me every mark of kindness but letting me hear from you. You send me charming drawings the moment I trouble you with a commission, and you give lady Cecilia ! commissions for trifles of my writing, in the most obliging manner. I have taken the latter off her hands. The Fugitive Pieces, and the Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, shall be conveyed to you directly. Lady Cecilia and I agree how we lament the charming suppers there, every time we pass the corner of Warwick-street! We have a little comfort for your sake and our own, in believing that the campaign is at an end, at least for this year-but they tell us, it is to recommence here, or in Ireland. You have nothing to do with that. Our politics, I think, will soon be as warm as our war. Charles Townshend2 is to be lieutenant-general to Mr. Pitt. The duke of Bedford is privy seal; lord Thomond, cofferer; lord George Cavendish, comptroller. Diversions, you know, madam, are never at high-water-mark before Christmas: yet operas flourish pretty well: those on Tuesdays are removed to Mondays, because the queen likes the 1 Lady Cecilia Johnston. [Or.] 2 The right honourable Charles Townshend, second son of Charles, third viscount Townshend. He was known by the name of "The Weathercoek,” on account of the versatility of his political conduct; and was the subject of Burke's splendid eulogium—“ Perhaps there never arose in this country a man of more pointed and finished wit, and, where his passions were not concerned, of more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment. He was the delight and ornament of this House, and the charm of every private society which he honored with his presence. There are many young members now present who never saw that prodigy Charles Townshend, nor of course know what a ferment he was able to excite in every thing, by the violent ebullition of his mixed virtues and failings, for failings he undoubtedly had, but none which were not owing to a noble cause, to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame, a passion which is the instinct of all great souls." [Ed.] burlettas, and the king cannot go on Tuesdays, his post-days. On those nights we have the middle front box, railed in, where lady Mary 3 and I sit in triste state like a lord mayor and lady mayoress. The night before last there was a private ball at court, which began at half an hour after six, lasted till one, and finished without a supper. The king danced the whole time with the queen, lady Augusta with her four younger brothers. The other performers were: the two duchesses of Ancaster and Hamilton, who danced little; lady Effingham and lady Egremont, who danced much; the six maids of honour; lady Susan Stewart, as attending lady Augusta; and lady Caroline Russel and lady Jane Stewart, the only women not of the family. Lady Northumberland is at Bath; lady Weymouth lies in; lady Bolingbroke was there in waiting, but in black gloves, so did not dance. The men, besides the royals, were lords March and Eglintoun, of the bed-chamber; lord Cantelupe, vice-chamberlain; lord Huntingdon; and four strangers, lord Mandeville, lord Northampton, lord Suffolk, and lord Grey. No sitters-by, but the princess, the duchess of Bedford, and lady Bute. If it had not been for this ball, I don't know how I should have furnished a decent letter. Pamphlets on Mr. Pitt are the whole conversation, and none of them worth sending cross the water: at least I, who am said to write some of them, think so ; by which you may perceive I am not much flattered with the imputation. There must be new personages at least, before I write on any side Mr. Pitt and the duke of Newcastle ! I should as soon think of informing the world that miss Chudleigh is no vestal. You will like better to see some words which Mr. Gray has writ, at miss Speed's request, to an old air of Geminiani: the thought is from the French. I. Thyrasis, when we parted, swore Ere the spring he would return, And the buds that deck the thorn? 3 Lady Mary Coke, sister of lady Strafford, and daughter and coheiress of John, second duke of Argyle. She was the widow of lord Coke, son of the earl of Leicester, who died in 1753. [Ed.] II. Idle notes! untimely green! Speak not always winter past. Adieu, madam, your most faithful servant. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, Dec. 8, 1761. I RETURN you the list of prints, and shall be glad you will bring me all, to which I have affixed this mark x. The rest I have; yet the expense of the whole list would not ruin me. Lord Farnham, who, I believe, departed this morning, brings you the list of the duke of Devonshire's pictures. I have been told that Mr. Bourk's history was of England, not of Ireland; I am glad it is the latter, for I am now in Mr. Hume's England, and would fain read no more. I not only know what has been written, but what would be written. Our story is so exhausted, that to make it new, they really make it Mr. Hume has exalted Edward the Second, and depressed Edward the Third. The next historian, I suppose, will make James the First a hero, and geld Charles the Second. new. Fingal' is come out; I have not yet got through it; not but it is very fine-yet I cannot at once compass an epic poem now. It tires me to death to read how many ways a warrior is like the moon, or the sun, or a rock, or a lion, or the ocean. Fingal is a brave collection of similes, and will serve all the boys at Eton and Westminster for these twenty years. I will trust you with a secret, but you must not disclose it; I should be ruined with my Scotch friends; in short, I cannot believe it genuine ; I cannot believe a regular poem of six books has been preserved, uncorrupted, by oral tradition, from times before Christianity 1 Fingal, an ancient epic poem, in six books, 8vo., translated from the Gaelic, by James Macpherson. Walpole's opinion as to the genuineness of these ossianic fragments is that of the generality of critics. |