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. Thyrsis, when we parted, swore Ere the spring he would return. And the bud that decks the thorn! II. Idle notes! untimely green! Adieu, Madam, your most faithful servant. 763. TO SIR DAVID DALRYMPLE Nov. 30, 1761. 2 I AM much obliged to you, Sir, for the specimen of letters 2 you have been so good as to send me. The composition is touching, and the printing very beautiful. I am still more pleased with the design of the work; nothing gives so just an idea of an age as genuine letters; nay, history waits for its last seal from them. I have an immense collection in my hands,' chiefly of the very time on which you are engaged; but they are not my own. If I had received your commands in summer when I was at Strawberry Hill, and at leisure, I might have picked you out something to your purpose; at present I have not time, from Parliament and business, to examine them: yet to show you, Sir, that I have great desire to oblige you and contribute to your work, I send you the following singular paper, which I have obtained from Dr. Charles Lyttelton, Dean of Exeter, whose name I will beg you to 1 Originally, "Dare not to reproach my love."-CUNNINGHAM. 2 "Memorials and Letters relating to the History of Britain in the reigns of James the First and Charles the First," published by Sir David Dalrymple in 1766, from the originals in the Advocates' Library.-CUNNINGHAM. 3 The Conway Papers, ante 179.-CUNNINGHAM. mention in testimony of his kindness, and as evidence for the authenticity of the letter, which he copied from the original in the hands of Bishop Tanner, in the year 1733. It is from Anne of Denmark, to the Marquis of Buckingham. 66 "ANNA R. 'My kind dogge, if I have any power or credit with you, let me have a trial of it at this time, in dealing sincerely and earnestly with the King, that Sir Walter Raleigh's life may not be called in question. If you do it, so that the success answer my expectation, assure yourself that I will take it extraordinarily kindly at your hands, and rest one that wisheth you well, and desires you to continue still as you have been, a true servant to your master." I have begun Mr. Hume's History, and got almost through the first volume. It is amusing to one who knows a little of his own country, but I fear would not teach much to a beginner; details are so much avoided by him, and the whole rather skimmed than elucidated. I cannot say I think it very carefully performed. Dr. Robertson's work I should expect would be more accurate. P. S. There has lately appeared, in four little volumes, a Chinese Tale, called Hau Kiou Choaan, not very entertaining from the incidents, but I think extremely so from the novelty of the manner and the genuine representation of their customs.' 764. 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 ×. 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 new. Mr. Hume has 1 This pleasing little novel, in which the manners of the Chinese are painted to the life, was a translation from the Chinese by Mr. Wilkinson, and revised for publication by Dr. Percy.-WRIGHT. VOL. III. H H The exalted Edward the Second, and depressed Edward the Third. next historian, I suppose, will make James the First a hero, and geld Charles the Second. 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 boys at Eton and collection of similes, and will serve all the 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 was introduced into the island. What! preserved unadulterated by savages dispersed among mountains, and so often driven from their dens, so wasted by wars civil and foreign! Has one man ever got all by heart? I doubt it; were parts preserved by some, other parts by others? Mighty lucky, that the tradition was never interrupted, nor any part lost— not a verse, not a measure, not the sense! luckier and luckier. I have been extremely qualified myself lately for this Scotch memory; we have had nothing but a coagulation of rains, fogs, and frosts, and though they have clouded all understanding, I suppose, if I had tried, I should have found that they thickened, and gave great consistence to my remembrance. You want news-I must make it, if I send it. To change the dullness of the scene I went to the play [at Drury Lane], where I had not been this winter. They are so crowded, that though I went before six, I got no better place than a fifth row, where I heard very ill, and was pent for five hours without a soul near me that I knew. It was Cymbeline, and appeared to me as long as if everybody in it went really to Italy in every act, and came back again. With a few pretty passages and a scene or two, it is so absurd and tiresome, that I am persuaded Garrick' The rest of this letter is lost. Garrick played Posthumus.-CUNNINGHAM. 765. TO SIR HORACE MANN. Strawberry Hill, Dec. 12, 1761. You may conclude, my dear sir, that when my letters do not arrive so frequently as you expect, there have been no great events. I never fail you at a new epoch; nay, nor let you lose any considerable links of the political chain. My details, indeed, must be more barren than they were twenty years ago, when I came fresh from talking with you of the dramatis personæ, and when your own acquaintance with them was recent. When I mention them now, I talk to you of Sevarambians,' of unknown nations; or must enter into more explanations than could be packed up in a letter. The new Opposition have not proceeded very briskly, considering the alertness of their leader: yet they have marked out a camp at the St. Alban's tavern, and in a council of war determined that the chief effort of the campaign should be exerted in behalf of a perpetual militia: a measure most unwelcome to many of the great lords, and not peculiarly agreeable to all concerned in that service; yet difficult to be denied now, lest the officers should disband, in a moment when we have so few regulars at home, and are threatened with an invasion, if such a thing can be put in practice. This plan has waited for the arrival from Germany of General George Townshend, the restorer of militia, who is not yet landed; but Lord Strange is to present the bill two days hence. In the mean time, there have passed scenes, which make this attempt more necessary to Mr. Pitt, and which yet may relax the ardour of his half-ally, Charles Townshend,' the Secretary at War, who is discontented with the precedence given to George Grenville, and has attended the assemblies at the St. Alban's. Last Wednesday the question of the war in Germany was agitated. The Court support it, for they don't know how to desert it, nor care to be taxed with abatement of vigour; yet the temper of the House of Commons, and the tone even of the advocates for that war, were evidently repugnant to the 4 1 There was a political French romance, called L'Histoire des Sevarambes.— WALPOLL. 2 In Pall Mall.-CUNNINGHAM. 3 Eldest son of Charles, Viscount Townshend, whom he succeeded in the title.WALPOLE. 4 James Stanley, Lord Strange, only son of the Earl of Derby.—WALPOLE. 5 Brother to the foregoing George Townshend.—Walpole. measure; still, as it was accorded unanimously, Mr. Pitt had rather matter of triumph. On Friday, his superiority declined strangely, his friends proposed calling for the memorials that have intervened between us and Spain on their late demands. He supported this proposition with great ability, but even his friends the Tories, who had been falling back to him, abandoned him on this motion, which was rejected with great spirit by the Administration; and on putting the question, his numbers were so trifling, that he could not venture a division. If the militia produces no confusion, he must wait for some calamitous moment. The Spanish war is still ambiguous. We do not think they intend it openly; but as any repugnance to it on our side will encourage their flippancies, it is scarce probable but it will arrive, even without the direct intention of either Court. This is the situation of the present minute: your own sagacity will tell you how soon it may be altered. What an assembly of English dames at Naples! The Duchess of Grafton is at Turin; but, I should think, would soon be at Florence, on her way to Rome. Don't forget to ask her if she received my answer and thanks for her present; I should be vexed if they had not reached her. The politics occasioned by Mr. Pitt are our only news. The Court, the town, the Theatres, produce no novelty. Mr. Conway will get a little into Gazettes, though not in a light worthy his name, as it will not be for action: Lord Granby is returning, and leaves the command to him. Lady Ailesbury passes the winter with him in quarters-I believe at Osnaburg. I have told your brother to let me know when a ship sails. I shall send you the fashionable pamphlets, and prints of the King and Queen. His is like, but not so handsome; the Queen's, rather improved in the features, but with less agreeableness in the countenance than she deserves: yet both are sufficient resemblances. Adieu! P.S. Pray, in the first person's pocket that is returning, send me a little box of pastils, such as they burn in churches; the very best you can get. I have a few left, black and in a pyramidal form, that are delicious. |