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P.S. My tower erects its battlements bravely; my Anecdotes of Painting thrive exceedingly thanks to the gout, that has pinned me to my chair: think of Ariel the sprite in a slit shoe!

TO THE COUNTESS OF AILESBURY,1

Whichnovre, August 23, 1760.

WELL, madam, if I had known whether I was coming, I would not have come alone! Mr. Conway and your ladyship should have come, too. Do you know, this is the individual manorhouse, where married ladies may have a flitch of bacon upon the easiest terms in the world? I should have expected that the owners would be ruined in satisfying the conditions of the obligation, and that the park would be stocked with hogs instead of deer.—On the contrary, it is thirty years since the flitch was claimed, and Mr. Offley was never so near losing one as when you and Mr. Conway were at Ragley. He so little expects the demand, that the flitch is only hung in effigie over the hall chimney, carved in wood. Are not you ashamed, madam, never to put in your claim? It is above a year and a day that you have been married, and I never once heard either of you mention a journey to Whichnovre. If you quarrelled at loo every night, you could not quit your pretensions with more indifference. I had a great mind to take my oath, as one of your witnesses, that you neither of you would, if you were at liberty, prefer any body else, ne fairer ne fouler, and I could easily get twenty persons to swear the same. Therefore, unless you will let the world be

1 Daughter of the duke of Argyle, first married to the earl of Ailesbury, and afterwards to the Hon. H. S. Conway. [Ed.]

2 Of Whichnovre near Litchfield. [Or.]

3 Whichnovre, Staffordshire, in the honor of Tutbury. Sir Philip de Somerville, 10 of Edward III., held the manor of Whichnovre, &c. of the earls of Lancaster, lords of the honor of Tutbury, upon two small fees, but also upon condition of his keeping ready "arrayed all times of the year but Lent, one Bacon-flyke hanging in his hall at Whichnovre, to be given to every man or woman, who demanded it a year and a day after marriage, upon their swearing they would not have changed for none other, fairer nor fouler, richer nor poorer, nor for no other descended of great lineage, sleeping nor waking, at no time," &c. [Ed.]

convinced, that all your apparent harmony is counterfeit, you must set out immediately for Mr. Offley's, or at least send me a letter of attorney to claim the flitch in your names; and I will send it up by the coach, to be left at the Blue Boar, or wherever you will have it delivered. But you had better come in person, you will see one of the prettiest spots in the world; it is a little paradise, and the more like the antique one, as, by all I have said, the married couple seems to be driven out of it. The house is very indifferent: behind is a pretty park; the situation, a brow of a hill, commanding sweet meadows, through which the Trent serpentizes in numberless windings and branches. The spires of the cathedral of Litchfield are in front at a distance, with variety of other steeples, seats, and farms, and the horizon bounded by rich hills covered with blue woods. If you love a prospect, or bacon, you will certainly come hither.

Wentworth-castle, Sunday night.

I had writ thus far yesterday, but had no opportunity of sending my letter. I arrived here' last night, and found only the duke of Devonshire, who went to Hardwicke this morning: they were down at the menagerie, and there was a clean little pullet, with which I thought his grace looked as if he should be glad to eat a slice of Whichnovre bacon. We follow him to Chatsworth to-morrow, and make our entry to the public dinner, to the disagreeableness of which I fear even lady M*****'s company will not reconcile me.

My Gothic building, which my lord Strafford has executed in the managerie, has a charming effect. There are two bridges built besides; but the new front is very little advanced. Adieu, madam!

To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq.

Arlington-street, September 1, 1760.

I WAS disappointed at your not being at home as I returned from my expedition; and now I fear it must be another year

The seat of the earl of Strafford. [Ed.]

2 One of his seats in Derbyshire. [Ed.]

before I see Greatworth, as I have two or three more engagements on my books for the residue of this season. I go next week to lord Waldegrave, and afterwards to George Selwyn, and shall return by Bath, which I have never yet seen. not you and the general come to Strawberry in October?

Will

Thank you for your lamentations on my gout, it was in proportion to my size, very slender-my feet are again as small as ever they were. When I had what I called big shoes, I could have danced a minuet on a silver penny.

My tour has been extremely agreeable. I set out with winning a good deal at loo at Ragley; the duke of Grafton was not so successful, and had some high words with Pam. I went from thence to Offley's at Whichnovre, the individual manor of the flitch of bacon, which has been growing rusty for these thirty years in his hall. I don't wonder; I have no notion that one could keep in good-humour with one's wife for a year and a day, unless one was to live on the very spot, which is one of the sweetest scenes I ever saw, It is the brink of a high hill; the Trent wriggles through at the foot; Litchfield and twenty other churches and mansions decorate the view. Mr. Anson has bought an estate close by, whence my lord used to cast many a wishful eye, though without the least pretensions even to a bit of lard.

I saw Litchfield cathedral, which has been rich, but my friend lord Brook and his soldiery treated poor St. Chadd3 with so little ceremony, that it is in a most naked condition. In a niche at the very summit they have crowded a statue of Charles the second, with a special pair of shoe-strings, big enough for a weathercock. As I went to Lord Strafford's I passed through Sheffield, which is one of the foulest towns in England in the most charming situation; there are two-and-twenty thousand inhabitants making knives and scissors; they remit eleven thousand pounds a-week to London. One man there has discovered the art of plating copper with silver; I bought a pair of candlesticks for two guineas that are quite pretty. Lord Strafford has

3 The patron saint of the town and cathedral. The latter was rebuilt by Roger de Clinton in 1148, and is one of the finest in England; but the imagery and carved work on the front were much injured in 1641. It is said the cross upon the west window was frequently aimed at by Cromwell's soldiery, who were anxious to knock it down. [Ed.]

erected the little Gothic building, which I got Mr. Bentley to draw; I took the idea from Chichester-cross. It stands on a high bank in the menagerie, between a pond and a vale, totally bowered over with oaks. I went with the Straffords to Chatsworth, and staid there four days; there were lady Mary Coke, lord Besborough and his daughters, lord Thomond, Mr. Boufoy, the duke, the old duchess, and two of his brothers. Would you believe that nothing was ever better humoured than the ancient grace? She staid every evening till it was dark in the skittleground, keeping the score; and one night, that the servants had a ball for lady Dorothy's birth-day, we fetched the fiddler into the drawing-room, and the dowager herself danced with us!

4

I never was more disappointed than at Chatsworth, which, ever since I was born, I have condemned. It is a glorious situation; the vale rich in corn and verdure, vast woods hang down the hills, which are green to the top, and the immense rocks only serve to dignify the prospect. The river runs before the door, and serpentizes more than you can conceive in the vale. The duke is widening it, and will make it the middle of his park; but I don't approve an idea they are going to execute, of a fine bridge with statues under a noble cliff. If they will have a bridge (which by the way will crowd the scene), it should be composed of rude fragments, such as the giant of the Peak would step upon, that he might not be wet-shod. The expense of the works now carrying on will amount to forty thousand pounds. A heavy quadrangle of stables is part of the plan, is very cumberous, and standing higher than the house, is ready to overwhelm it. The principal front of the house is beautiful, and executed with the neatness of wrought-plate: the inside is most sumptous, but did not please me; the heathen gods, goddesses, Christian virtues, and allegoric gentlefolks, are crowded into every room, as if Mrs. Holman had been in heaven and invited every body she saw. The great apartment is first; painted ceilings, inlaid floors, and unpainted wainscots make every room sombre. The tapestries are fine, but not fine enough, and there are few portraits. The chapel is charming. The great jet d'eau I like,

+ Daughter of John Hoskins, Esq., and widow of William, the third duke of Devonshire. [Or.]

5 Afterwards duchess of Portland. [Ed.]

nor would I remove it; whatever is magnificent of the kind in the time it was done, I would retain, else all gardens and houses wear a tiresome resemblance. I except that absurdity of a cascade tumbling down marble steps, which reduces the steps to be of no use at all.

I saw Haddon,6 an abandoned old castle of the Rutlands, in a romantic situation, but which never could have composed a tolerable dwelling. The duke sent lord John with me to Hardwicke, where I was again disappointed; but I will not take relations from others; they either don't see for themselves, or can't see for me. How I had been promised that I should be charmed with Hardwicke, and told that the Devonshires ought to have established there! never was I less charmed in my life. The house is not Gothic, but of that betweenity, that intervened when Gothic declined and Palladian was creeping in -rather, this is totally naked of either. It has vast chambersay, vast, such as the nobility of that time delighted in, and did not know how to furnish. The great apartment is exactly what it was when the queen of Scots was kept there. Her councilchamber, the council-chamber of a poor woman, who had only two secretaries, a gentleman-usher, an apothecary, a confessor, and three maids, is so outrageously spacious, that you would take it for king David's, who thought, contrary to all modern experience, that in the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom. At the upper end is the state, with a long table, covered with a sumptuous cloth, embroidered and embossed with gold,-at least what was gold; so are all the tables. Round the top of the chamber runs a monstrous frieze, ten or twelve feet deep, representing staghunting in miserable plastered relief. The next is her dressingroom, hung with patch-work on black velvet; then her state bed-chamber. The bed has been rich beyond description, and now hangs in costly golden tatters. The hangings, part of which they say her majesty worked, are composed of figures as large as life, sewed and embroidered on black velvet, white satin, &c. and represent the virtues that were necessary for her, or that she was forced to have; as patience and temperance, &c. The fire

6 It was anciently the seat of the Vernons, some of whom were members of Parliament for this country as early as Edward III. Sir George Vernon in Queen Elizabeth's time was styled "King of the Peak," and the property came into the Manners' family by his daughter marrying Thomas, son of the first earl of Rutland. [Ed.]

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