At twelve we made the tour of the farm in eight chaises and calashes, horsemen, and footmen, setting out like a picture of Wouvermans'. My lot fell in the lap of Mrs. Anne Pitt, which I could have excused, as she was not at all in the style of the uay-romantic, but political. We had a magnificent dinner, cloaked in the modesty of earthenware; French horns and hautboys on the lawn. We walked to the Belvidere on the summit of the hill, where a theatrical storm only served to heighten the beauty of the landscape, a rainbow on a dark cloud falling precisely behind the tower of a neighbouring church, between another tower and the building at Claremont. Monsieur de Nivernois, who had been absorbed all day, and lagging behind, translating my verses, was delivered of his version, and of some more lines which he wrote on Miss Pelham in the Belvidere, while we drank tea and coffee. From thence we passed into the wood, and the ladies formed a circle on chairs before the mouth of the cave, which was overhung to a vast height with woodbines, lilacs, and liburnums, and dignified by the tall shapely cypresses. On the descent of the hill were placed the French horns; the abigails, servants, and neighbours wandering below by the river; in short, it was Parnassus, as Watteau would have painted it. Here we had a rural syllabub, and part of the company returned to town; but were replaced by Giardini and Onofrio, who, with Nivernois on the violin, and lord Pembroke on the bass, accompanied Miss Pelham, lady Rockingham, and the duchess of Grafton, who sang. This little concert lasted till past ten; then there were minuets, and as we had seven couple left, it concluded with a country dance. I blush again, for I danced, but was kept in countenance by Nivernois, who has one wrinkle more than I have. A quarter after twelve, they sat down to supper, and I came home by a charming moonlight. I am going to dine in town, and to a great ball with fire-works 6 Felice Giardini, the celebrated violinist, born at Turin in 1716, and a pupil of Somis, one of Corelli's best scholars, arrived in London in 1750, when he appears to have created almost as great a sensation as Paganini in our own days. He resided in this country until 1784, when he went to Naples, under the patronage of sir W. Hamilton. In 1789 he returned to England; but his reputation was no longer what it had been, and he then went to Moscow, where he died at the age of eighty, in poverty and wretchedness. [Ed.] at Miss Chudleigh's, but I return hither on Sunday, to bid adieu to this abominable Arcadian life; for really when one is not young, one ought to do nothing but s'ennuyer; I will try, but I always go about it awkwardly. Adieu! Yours ever. P. S. I enclose a copy of both the English and French verses. A Madame de Boufflers. Fit braver le Nord et les glaces; Répétons sons nom mille fois, Sur tous les cœurs Boufflers aura des droits, A l'amour prêteront leur voix. A Madame D'Usson. Ne feignez point, Iris, de ne pas nous entendre; Et dans un langage plus tendre Paris vous l'a répété mille fois. C'est de nos cœurs l'expression sincère, En tout climat, Iris, à toute heure, en tous lieux, Vous apprendrez combien ils savent plaire. TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY, Arlington-street, May 21, 1763. You have now seen the celebrated madame de Boufflers. I dare say you could in that short time perceive that she is agreeable; but I dare say, too, that you will agree with me that vivacity is by no means the partage of the French-bating the étourderie of the mousquetaires and of a high-dried petit-maître or 7 Afterwards duchess of Kingston. [Or.] two, they appear to me more lifeless than Germans. I cannot comprehend how they came by the character of a lively people. Charles Townshend has more sal volatile in him than the whole nation. Their king is taciturnity itself; Mirepoix was a walking mummy; Nivernois has about as much life as a sick favourite child; and monsieur Dusson is a good humoured country gentleman, who has been drunk the day before, and is upon his good behaviour. If I have the gout the next year, and am thoroughly humbled by it again, I will go to Paris, that I may be upon a level with them at present, I am trop fou to keep them company. Mind, I do not insist that, to have spirits, a nation should be as frantic as poor *** as absurd as the duchess of Queensbury,' or as dashing as the Virgin Chudleigh. Oh, that you had been at her ball t'other night! History could never describe it and keep its countenance. The queen's real birthday, you know, is not kept: this maid of honour kept it-nay, while the court is in mourning, expected people to be out of mourning; the queen's family really was so, lady Northumberland having desired leave for them. A scaffold was erected in Hyde-park for fireworks. To show the illuminations without to more advantage, the company were received in an apartment totally dark, where they remained for two hours-If they gave rise to any more birthdays, who could help it? The fire-works were fine, and succeeded well. On each side of the court were two large scaffolds for the Virgin's trades-people. When the fireworks ceased, a large scene was lighted in the court, representing their majesties; on each side of which were six obelisks, painted with emblems, and illuminated; mottos beneath in Latin and English:-1. For the prince of Wales, a ship, Multorum spes. 2. For the princess dowager, a bird of Paradise, and two little ones, Meos ad sidera tollo. People smiled. 3. Duke of York, a temple, Virtuti et honori. 4. Princess Augusta, a bird of Paradise, Non habet parem-unluckily this was translated, I have no peer. People laughed out, considering where this was exhibited. 5. The three younger 1 Lady Catherine Hyde, second daughter of Henry Hyde, earl of Clarendon and Rochester, and wife of Charles Douglas, duke of Dover and Queensbury. She was the princes, an orange-tree, Promittit et dat. 6. The two younger princesses, the flower crown-imperial. I forget the Latin: the translation was silly enough, "Bashful in youth, graceful in age." The lady of the house made many apologies for the poorness of the performance, which she said was only oil-paper, painted by one of her servants; but it really was fine and pretty. The duke of Kingston was in a frock comme chez lui. Behind the house was a cenotaph for the princess Elizabeth, a kind of illuminated cradle; the motto, "All the honours the dead can receive." This burying-ground was a strange codicil to a festival; and, what was more strange, about one in the morning, this sarcophagus burst out into crackers and guns. The marof Anspach began the ball with the Virgin. The supper was most sumptuous. grave You ask, when I propose to be at Park-place. I ask, shall not you come to the duke of Richmond's masquerade, which is the 2d of June? I cannot well be with you till towards the end of that month. The enclosed is a letter which I wish you to read attentively, to give me your opinion upon it, and return it. It is from a sensible friend of mine in Scotland, who has lately corresponded with me on the enclosed subjects, which I little understand; but I promised to communicate his ideas to George Grenville, if he would state them. Are they practicable? I wish much that something could be done for those brave soldiers and sai-. lors, who will all come to the gallows, unless some timely provision can be made for them. The former part of his letter relates to a grievance he complains of, that many men who have not served, are admitted into garrisons, and then into our hospitals, which were designed for meritorious sufferers. Adieu! Yours ever. 2 TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. Arlington-street, Saturday evening. No, indeed I cannot consent to your being a dirty 2 As this letter is not to be found, no further light can be thrown on its contents. [Or.] Philander.' Pink and white, and white and pink! and both as greasy as if you had gnawed a leg of a fowl on the stairs of the Hay-market, with a *** from the Cardigan's Head! For heaven's sake don't produce a tight rose-coloured thigh, unless you intend to prevent my lord *** 's return from Harrowgate. Write, the moment you receive this, to your tailor to get you a sober purple domino, as I have done, and it will make you a couple of summer waistcoats. In the next place, have your ideas a little more correct about us of times past. We did not furnish our cottages with chairs of ten guineas a-piece. Ebony for a farm-house! So, two hundred years hence some man of taste will build a hamlet in the style of George the Third, and beg his cousin Tom Hearne to get him some chairs for it, of mahogany gilt, and covered with blue damask. Adieu! I have not a minute's time more. Yours, &c. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Huntingdon, May 30, 1763. As you interest yourself about Kimbolton, I begin my journal of two days here. But I must set out with owning, that I believe I am the first man that ever went sixty miles to an auction. As I came for ebony, I have been up to my chin in ebony; there is literally nothing but ebony in the house; all the other goods, if there were any, and I trust my lady Conyers did not sleep upon ebony mattresses, are taken away. There are two tables and eighteen chairs, all made by the Hallet of two hundred years ago. These I intend to have; for mind, the auction does not begin till Thursday. There are more plebeian chairs of the same materials, but I have left commission for only the true black blood. Thence I went to Kimbolton,' and asked to see the house. A kind footman, who in his zeal 1 At the masquerade given by the duke of Richmond on the 6th of June, 1763, at his house in Privy-garden. [Or.] 2 Mr. Conway was at this time fitting up a little building at Park-place, called the Cottage, for which he had consulted Mr. Walpole on the propriety of ebony chairs. [Or.] 1 Kimbolton castle, the seat of the duke of Manchester. [Ed.] |