opposition, which is declared to be at an end. Enigma as all this may sound, the key would open it all to you in the twinkling of an administration. In the mean time, we have family reconciliations without end. The king and the duke of Cumberland have been shut up together day and night; lord Temple and George Grenville are sworn brothers: well, but Mr. Pitt, where is he? In the clouds, for aught I know, in one of which he may descend like the kings of Bantam, and take quiet possession of the throne again. As a thorough-bass to these squabbles, we have had an insurrection and a siege. Bedford-house, though garriosned by horse and foot guards, was on the point of being taken. The besieged are in their turn triumphant; and, if any body now was to publish Droit le Duc, I do not think the House of Lords would censure his book. Indeed the regents may do what they please, and turn out whom they will; I see nothing to resist them. Lord Bute will not easily be tempted to rebel when the last struggle has cost him so dear. I am sorry for some of my friends, to whom I wished more fortune. For myself, I am but just where I should have been had they succeeded. It is satisfaction enough to me to be delivered from politics, which you know I have long detested. When I was tranquil enough to write Castles of Otranto in the midst of grave nonsense and foolish councils of war, I am not likely to disturb myself with the diversions of the court where I am not connected with a soul. As it has proved to be the interest of the present ministers, however contrary to their former views, to lower the crown, they will scarce be in a hurry to aggrandize it again. That will satisfy you, and I you know am satisfied if I have any thing to laugh at—'tis a lucky age for a man who is so easily contented. 2 On the 14th May 1765, the Spitalfields weavers, to the number of 8,000, marched from Moorfields to St. James's, with a black flag flying before them, with a view of presenting to his majesty a petition shewing the distress entailed upon them by the importation of foreign silks. The king being at Richmond, they returned without presenting it; but, on his majesty's going to the House of Peers on the following day, he was followed by a large concourse of them. These disturbances continued on the 16th and 17th of the month. On the last day they presented themselves before the duke of Bedford's house in Bloomsbury-square, and threatened considerable damage, but were eventually dispersed by the soldiery. [Ed.] The poor Chute has had another relapse, but is out of bed again. I am thinking of my journey to France, but, as Mr. Conway has a mind I should wait for him, I don't know whether it will take place before the autumn. I will by no means release you from your promise of making me a visit here before I go. Poor Mr. Bentley, I doubt, is under the greatest difficulties of any body. His poem, which he modestly delivered over to immortality, must be cut and turned, for lord Halifax and lord Bute cannot sit in the same canto together; then the horns and hoofs that he had bestowed on lord Temple must be pared away, and beams of glory distributed over his whole person. 'Tis a dangerous thing to write political panegyrics or satires; it draws the unhappy bard into a thousand scrapes and contradictions. The edifices and inscriptions at Stowe should be a lesson not to erect monuments to the living. I will not place an ossuarium in my garden for my cat, before her bones are ready to be placed in it. I hold contradictions to be as essential to the definition of a political man, as any visible or featherless quality can be to man in general. Good night! Yours ever. 28th. I shall send this by the coach, so whatever comes with it is only to make bundle. Here are some lines that came into my head yesterday in the post-chaise, as I was reading in the Annual Register an account of a fountain-tree in one of the Canary Islands, which never dies, and supplies the inhabitants with water. I don't warrant the longevity, though the hypostatic union of a fountain may eternize the tree. In climes adust, where rivers never flow, And from the dropping branches streams supplies. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Strawberry-hill, June 10, 1765. I AM just come out of the garden in the most oriental of all evenings, and from breathing odours beyond those of Araby. The acacias, which the Arabians have the sense to worship, are covered with blossoms, the honeysuckles dangle from every tree in festoons, the seringas are thickets of sweets, and the new-cut hay in the field tempers the balmy gales with simple freshness, while a thousand sky-rockets launched into the air at Ranelagh or Marybone illuminate the scene, and give it an air of Haroun Alraschid's paradise. I was not quite so content by daylight; some foreigners dined here, and, though they admired our verdure, it mortified me by its brownness-we have not had a drop of rain this month to cool the tip of our daisies. My company was lady Lyttleton, lady Schaub, a madame de Juliac from the Pyreneans, very handsome, not a girl, and of lady Schaub's mould; the comte de Caraman, nephew of madame de Mirepoix, a monsieur de Clausonnette, and general Schouallow,' the favourite of the late czarina; absolute favourite for a dozen years, without making an enemy. In truth, he is very amicable, humble, and modest. Had he been ambitious, he might have mounted the throne: as he was not, you may imagine they have plucked his plumes a good deal. There is a little air of melancholy about him, and, if I am not mistaken, some secret wishes for the fall of the present empress, which, if it were civil to suppose, I could heartily join with him in hoping for. As we have still liberty enough left to dazzle a Russian, he seems charmed with England, and perhaps liked even this place the more as belonging to the son of one that, like himself, had been prime minister. If he has no more ambition left than I have, he must taste the felicity of being a private man. What has lord Bute gained, but the knowledge of how many ungrateful sycophants favour and power can create? If you have received the parcel that I consigned to Richard 1 The comte de Schouwaloff. Walpole says in a note to one of madame du Deffand's letters, "Il fut favori et l'on croit mari de la Czarine Elizabeth "de Russie, et pendant douze ans de faveur ne fit point un ennemi.” [Ed.] Brown for you, you will have found an explanation of my long silence. Thank you for being alarmed for my health. The day after to-morrow I go to Park-place for four or five days, and soon after to Goodwood. My French journey is still in suspense; lord Hertford talks of coming over for a fortnight; perhaps I may go back with him; but I have determined nothing yet, till I see farther into the present chase, that somehow or other I may take my leave of politics for ever; for can any thing be so wearisome as politics on the account of others? Good night; shall I not see you here? Yours ever. TO THE RIGHT HON. LADY HERVEY. Strawberry-hill, June 11, 1765. I AM almost as much ashamed, madam, to plead the true cause of my faults towards your ladyship, as to have been guilty of any neglect. It is scandalous, at my age, to have been carried backwards and forwards to balls and suppers and parties by very young people, as I was all last week. My resolutions of growing old and staid are admirable: I wake with a sober plan, and intend to pass the day with my friends-then comes the duke of Richmond, and hurries me down to Whitehall to dinner-then the duchess of Grafton sends for me to loo in Upper Grosvenorstreet-before I can get thither, I am begged to step to Kensington, to give Mrs. Anne Pitt my opinion about a bow windowafter the loo, I am to march back to Whitehall to supper-and after that, am to walk with miss Pelham on the terrass till two in the morning, because it is moonlight and her chair is not come. All this does not help my morning laziness; and, by the time I have breakfasted, fed my birds and my squirrels, and dressed, there is an auction ready. In short, madam, this was my life last week, and is I think every week, with the addition of forty episodes. Yet, ridiculous as it is, I send it your ladyship, because I had rather you should laugh at me than be angry. I cannot offend you in intention, but I fear my sins of omission are equal to many a good Christian's. Pray forgive me. I really will begin to be between forty and fifty by the time I am fourscore: and I truly believe I shall bring my resolutions within compass; for I have not chalked out any particular business that will take me above forty years more; so that, if I do not get acquainted with the grandchildren of all the present age, I shall lead a quiet sober life yet before I die. As Mr. Bateman's is the kingdom of flowers, I must not wish to send you any; else, madam, I could load waggons with acacias, honeysuckles, and seringas. Madame de Juliac, who dined here yesterday, owned that the climate and odours equalled Languedoc. I fear the want of rain made the turf put her in mind of it, too. Monsieur de Caraman entered into the gothic spirit of the place, and really seemed pleased, which was more than I expected; for, between you and me, madam, our friends the French have seldom eyes for any thing they have not been used to see all their lives. I beg my warmest compliments to your host and lord Ilchester. I wish your ladyship all pleasure and health, and am, notwithstanding my idleness, 1 Your most faithful and devoted humble servant. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, Saturday night. I MUST scrawl a line to you, though with the utmost difficulty, for I am in my bed; but I see they have foolishly put it into the Chronicle that I am dangerously ill; and as I know you take in that paper, and are one of the very, very few, of whose tenderness and friendship I have not the smallest doubt, I give myself pain, rather than let you feel a moment's, unnecessarily. It is true, I have had a terrible attack of the gout in my stomach, head, and both feet, but have truly never been in danger any more than one must be in such a situation. My head and stomach 1 Stephen Fox, son of sir Stephen Fox, one of the lords of the treasury after the restoration of Charles II., was created, 14th May 1741, lord Ilchester, of Ilchester, county Somerset, and baron Strangways, county Dorset. His lordship was subsequently created, 3d January 1746-7, lord Ilchester and Stavordale, baron of Redlynch, county Somerset, and on the 5th June 1756, he was elevated to an earldom as earl of Ilchester. [Ed.] |