which would have been prodigious news a month ago, is nothing to-day; it only takes its turn among the questions, "Who is to be groom of the bed-chamber?6 what is sir T. Robinson to have?" I have been to Leicester-fields to-day; the crowd was immoderate; I don't believe it will continue so. Good night! Yours ever. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, Thursday, 1760. As a codicil to my letter, I send you the bed-chamber. There are to be eighteen lords, and thirteen grooms; all the late king's remain, but your cousin Manchester, lord Falconberg, lord Essex, and lord Hyndford, replaced by the duke of Richmond, lord Weymouth, lord March, and lord Eglington; the last at the request of the duke of York. Instead of Clavering, Nassau, and general Campbell, who is promised something else, lord Northampton's brother and commodore Keppel are grooms. When it was offered to the duke of Richmond, he said he could not accept of it, unless something was done for colonel Keppel, for whom he has interested himself; that it would look like sacrificing Keppel to his own views. This is handsome; Keppel is to be equerry Princess Amelia goes every where, as she calls it; she was on Monday at lady Holderness's, and next Monday is to be at Bedford-house; but there is only the late king's set, and the court of Bedford; so she makes the houses of other people as triste as St. James's was. Good night! Not a word more of the king of Prussia: did you ever know a victory mind the wind so ? 6 Norborne Berkeley (afterwards lord Botetourt), George Pitt, created in 1776 baron Rivers of Strathfieldsaye, and William North were appointed grooms of the bed-chamber. [Ed.] 7 Sir Thomas Robinson was created a peer by the title of lord Grantham of Grantham in Lincolnshire, April 4th 1761. He gave up the seals of Secretary of State in 1755, and was made master of the Great Wardrobe with a pension of £2,000 a year on the Irish establishment for thirty-one years. [Ed.] new. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Strawberry-hill, Monday, November 24, 1760. UNLESS I were to send you journals, lists, catalogues, computations of the bodies, tides, swarms of people that go to court to present addresses, or to be presented, I can tell you nothing The day the king went to the house, I was three-quarters of an hour getting through Whitehall: there were subjects enough to set up half-a-dozen petty kings: the pretender would be proud to reign over the footmen only; and, indeed, unless he acquires some of them, he will have no subjects left; all their masters flock to St. James's. The palace is so thronged, that I will stay till some people are discontented. The first night the king went to the play, which was civilly on a Friday, not on the opera night, as he used to do, the whole audience sung God save the King in chorus. For the first act, the press was so great at the door, that no ladies could go to the boxes, and only the servants appeared there, who kept places: at the end of the second act, the whole mob broke in and seated themselves: yet all this zeal is not likely to last, though he so well deserves it. Seditious papers are again stuck up one t'other day in Westminster-hall declared against a Saxe-Gothan prinThe archbishop, who is never out of the drawing-room, has great hopes from the king's goodness, that he shall make something of him, that is something bad of him. On the address, Pitt and his zany Beckford quarrelled, on the latter's calling the campaign languid. What is become of our magnanimous ally and his victory, I know not. In eleven days, no courier has arrived from him; but I have been these two days perfectly indifferent about his magnanimity. I am come to put my Anecdotes of Painting into the press. You are one of the few that I expect will be entertained with it. It has warmed Gray's coldness so much, that he is violent about it; in truth, there is an infinite quantity of new and curious things about it; but as it is quite foreign from all popular topics, I don't suppose it will be much attended to. There is not a word of methodism in it, it says nothing of the disturbances in Ireland, it does not propose to keep all Canada, it neither flattered the king of Prus cess. sia nor prince Ferdinand; it does not say that the city of London are the wisest men in the world, it is silent about George Townshend, and does not abuse my lord George Sackville-how should it please? I want you to help me in a little affair, that regards it. I have found in a MS. that in the church of Beckley, or Becksley, in Sussex, there are portraits on glass in a window of Henry the Third and his queen. I have looked in the map, and find the first name between Bodiham and Rye, but I am not sure it is the place. I will be much obliged to you if you will write directly to your sir Whistler, and beg him to inform himself very exactly if there is any such thing in such a church near Bodiham. Pray state it minutely; because if there is, I will have them drawn for the frontispiece to my work. Did I tell you that the archbishop tried to hinder the Minor from being played at Drury-lane? for once the duke of Devonshire was firm, and would only let him correct some passages, and even of those the duke has restored some. One that the prelate effaced was, “You snub-nosed son of a bitch." Foote says he will take out a licence to preach Tam. Cant, against Tom Cant. The first volume of Voltaire's Peter the Great is arrived. I weep over it. It is as languid as the campaign; he is grown old. He boasts of the materials communicated to him by the czarina's order-but, alas! he need not be proud of them. They only serve to show how much worse he writes history with materials than without. Besides, it is evident how much that authority has cramped his genius. I had heard before, that when he sent the work to Petersburgh for imperial approbation, it was returned with orders to increase the panegyric. I wish he had acted like a very inferior author. Knyphausen once hinted to me, that I might have some authentic papers, if I was disposed to write the life of his master; but I did not care for what would lay me under such restrictions. It is not fair to use weapons against the persons that lend them; and I do not admire his master enough to commend any thing in him, but his military actions. Adieu! Yours ever. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, Dec. 11, 1760. I THANK you for the inquiries about the painted glass, and shall be glad if I prove to be in the right. 1 There is not much of news to tell you; and yet there is much dissatisfaction. The duke of Newcastle has threatened to resign on the appointment of lord Oxford and lord Bruce without his knowledge. His court rave about Tories, which you know comes with a singular grace from them, as the duke never preferred any. Murray, lord Gower, sir John Cotton, Jack Pitt, &c. &c. &c. were all firm Whigs. But it is unpardonable to put an end to all faction, when it is not for factious purposes. Lord Fitzmaurice," made aid-de-camp to the king, has disgusted the army. The duke of Richmond, whose brother has no more been put over others than the duke of Newcastle has preferred Tories, has presented a warm memorial in a warm manner, and has resigned the bed-chamber, not his regimentanother propriety. Propriety is so much in fashion, that Miss Chudleigh has called for the council-books of the subscription concert, and has struck off the name of Mrs. Naylor.3 I have some thoughts of remonstrating, that general Waldegrave is too lean for to be a groom of the bed-chamber. Mr. Chute has sold his house to Miss Speed for three thousand pounds, and has taken one for a year in Berkeley-square. This is a very brief letter; I fear this reign will soon furnish 1 The earl of Oxford and lord Bruce were appointed lords of the bedchamber. The latter, Thomas Bruce Brudenel, lord Bruce of Tottenham, was the youngest son of George third earl of Cardigan, by lady Elizabeth Bruce, daughter of Thomas, second earl of Ailesbury in the peerage of England, and third earl of Elgin, in Scotland, and succeeded to the title of lord Bruce on the death of Charles, earl of Ailesbury, 10th February, 1746-7, when the title of earl of Ailesbury became extinct. [Ed.] 2 William lord Viscount Fitzmaurice, afterwards the celebrated earl of Shelbourne, who was, on the death of the marquis of Rockingham, nominated prime minister, and on the 30th November 1784, created marquess of Lansdowne, was son of John first earl of Shelbourne, who was created a peer of England by the title of baron Wycombe, on the 20th May 1760, and died 10th May 1761. [Ed.] Mrs. Naylor was a noted procuress of the day, and Miss Chudley, the mistress, and afterwards the wife of the duke of Kingston. [Ed.] longer. When the last king could be beloved, a young man with a good heart has little chance of being so. Moreover, I have a maxim, that the extinction of party is the origin of faction. Good night! Yours ever. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, Jan. 22, 1761. I AM glad you are coming, and now the time is over, that you are coming so late, as I like to have you here in the spring. You will find no great novelty in the new reign. Lord Denbigh1 is made master of the harriers with two thousand a-year. Lord Temple asked it, and Newcastle and Hardwicke gave into it for fear of Denbigh's brutality in the house of lords. Does this differ from the style of George the second. The king designs to have a new motto; he will not have a French one, so the pretender may enjoy Dieu et mon droit in quiet. Princess Amelia is already sick of being familiar; she has been at Northumberland-house, but goes to nobody more. That party was larger, but still more formal than the rest, though the duke of York had invited himself and his commercetable. I played with madam * * * *, and we were mighty well together; so well, that two nights afterwards she commended me to Mr Conway and Mr. Fox; but calling me that Mr. Walpole, they did not guess who she meant. For my part, I thought it very well, that when I played with her, she did not call me that gentleman. As she went away, she thanked my lady Northumberland, like a parson's wife, for all her civilities. I was excessively amused on Tuesday night; there was a play at Holland-house, acted by children; not all children, for lady Sarah Lenox and lady Susan Strangways3 played the His 1 Basil Fielding, sixth earl of Denbigh, and fifth earl of Desmond. lordship died in 1800, and having survived his son William Robert, viscount Fielding, who died 8th August 1799, was succeeded by his grandson, the present earl. [Ed.] 2 Lady Sarah Lenox, daughter of Charles second duke of Richmond, was afterwards married to sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, bart. [Ed.] 3 Lady Susannah Sarah Strangeways, daughter of Stephen Fox, first earl of Ilchester, born 12th February 1743, died 9th August 1827, having married, 7th April 1764, William O'Brien, esq. [Ed.] |