Wrottesley and Miss Meadows, maids of honour, go to receive the Princess at Helvoet; what lady I do not hear. Your cousin's Grace of Manchester, they say, is to be chamberlain, and Mr. [Andrew] Stone, treasurer; the Duchess of Ancaster1 and Lady Bolingbroke of her bed-chamber: these I do not know are certain, but hitherto all seems well chosen. Miss Molly Howe, one of the pretty Bishops, and a daughter of Lady Harry Beauclerc, are talked of for maids of honour." The great apartment at St. James's is enlarging, and to be furnished with the pictures from Kensington : this does not portend a new palace.

In the midst of all this novelty and hurry, my mind is very differently employed. They expect every minute the news of a battle between Soubise and the hereditary Prince. Mr. Conway, I believe, is in the latter army: judge if I can be thinking much of espousals and coronations! It is terrible to be forced to sit still, expecting such an event; in one's own room one is not obliged to be a hero; consequently, I tremble for one that is really a hero.

Mr. Hamilton, your secretary, has been to see me to-day; I am quite ashamed not to have prevented him. I will go to-morrow with all the speeches I can muster.

I am sorry neither you nor your brother are quite well, but shall be content if my Pythagorean sermons have any weight with you. You go to Ireland to make the rest of your life happy; don't go to fling the rest of it away. Good night!

Mr. Chute is gone to his Chutehood.

DEAR SIR:

732. TO GROSVENOR BEDFORD, ESQ.

Strawb. Sunday, July 19, 1761.] I WILL beg you to copy the following lines for me, and bring or send them, whichever is most convenient to you, to my house in Arlington Street on Tuesday morning. Pray don't mention them to any body.

Yours, &c. H. W.

I hope you did not suffer by all the trouble I gave you yesterday.

1 The Duchess of Ancaster was made Mistress of the Robes.-CUNNINGHAM.

2 The Maids of Honour were-Miss Bishop, Miss Wrottesley, Miss Beauclerk, Miss Keck, Miss Meadows, Miss Tryon.-CUNNINGHAM

Now first collected. The note and poem were first printed in the Quarterly Review for March, 1852, with a happy quotation from Swift's Rhapsody on Poetry, CUNNINGHAM.

THE GARLAND.1

In private life, where Virtues safely bloom,
What flow'rs diffuse their favourite perfume?
Devotion first the Garland's front commands,
Like some fair Lily borne by Angel hands.
Next, Filial Love submissive warmth displays,
Like Heliotropes, that court their parent rays.
Friendship, that yields its fragrance but to those
That near approach it, like the tender Rose,
As royal Amaranths, unchanging Truth;
And Violet-like, the bashful blush of youth.
Chaste Purity by no loose heat misled,
Like virgin Snowdrops in a winter bed.

Prudence, the Sensitive, whose leaves remove
When hands, too curious, would their texture prove.
Bounty, full-flush'd at once with fruit and flower,

As Citrons give and promise ev'ry hour.

Soft Pity last, whose dews promiscuous fall,

Like lavish Eglantines, refreshing all.

How blest a cottage where such Virtues dwell!

To Heaven ascends the salutary smell:

But should such virtues round imperial state
Their cordial gales in balmy clouds dilate;
Nations, a long-lost Paradise would own,
And Happiness reclaim her proper Throne.
Hate, Discord, War, and each foul ill would cease,
And laurel'd Conquest only lead to Peace.

"Ah! vain Idea!" cries the servile Bard,
Who lies for hire, and flatters for reward;
"Such I have sung of-such have never seen-
My Kings were visions and a dream my Queen.
Point out the charming Phantom."- -One there is
Un-nam'd-the world will own the Garland His:
Truth so exactly wove the wreath for one,

It must become his honest brow-or none.

733. TO THE COUNTESS OF AILESBURY.

Strawberry Hill, July 20, 1761.

I BLUSH, dear Madam, on observing that half my letters to your ladyship are prefaced with thanks for presents :-don't mistake; I am not ashamed of thanking you, but of having so many occasions for it. Monsieur Hop has sent me the piece of china: I admire it as much as possible, and intend to like him as much as ever I can; but hitherto I have not seen him, not having been in town since he arrived.

Could I have believed that the Hague would so easily compensate

1 "July 16, 1761. Wrote 'The Garland,' a poem on the King, and sent it to Lady Bute, but not in my own hand, nor with my name, nor did ever own it."- Walpole's Short Notes, i., lxxi.—CUNNINGHAM.

·

for England? nay, for Park-place! Adieu, all our agreeable suppers! Instead of Lady Cecilia's' French songs, we shall have Madame Welderen' quavering a confusion of d's and t's, b's and p's -Bourquoi sçais du blaire?'-Worse than that, I expect to meet all my relations at your house, and Sir Samson Gideon instead of Charles Townshend. You will laugh like Mrs. Tipkin when a Dutch Jew tells you that he bought at two and a half per cent. and sold at four. Come back, if you have any taste left: you had better be here talking robes, ermine, and tissue, jewels and tresses, as all the world does, than own you are so corrupted. Did you receive my notification of the new Queen? Her mother is dead, and she will not be here before the end of August.

My mind is much more at peace about Mr. Conway than it was. Nobody thinks there will be a battle, as the French did not attack them when both armies shifted camps; and since that, Soubise has entrenched himself up to the whiskers :-whiskers I think he has, I have been so afraid of him! Yet our hopes of meeting are still very distant: the peace does not advance; and if Europe has a stiver left in its pockets, the war will continue; though happily all parties have been so scratched, that they only sit and look anger at one another, like a dog and cat that don't care to begin again.

We are in danger of losing our sociable box at the Opera. The new Queen is very musical, and if Mr. Deputy Hodges and the City don't exert their veto, will probably go to the Haymarket. George Pitt, in imitation of the Adonises in Tanzai's retinue, has asked to be her Majesty's grand harper. Dieu sçait quelle raclerie il y aura! All the guitars are untuned; and if Miss Conway has a mind to be in fashion at her return, she must take some David or other to teach her the new twing twang, twing twing twang. As I am still desirous of being in fashion with your ladyship, and am, over and above, very grateful, I keep no company but my Lady Denbigh and Lady Blandford, and learn every evening, for two hours, to mash my English. Already I am tolerably fluent in saying she for he.

1 Lady Cecilia West, daughter of John Earl of Delawar, afterwards married to General James Johnston [vol. ii. p. 24].—WALPOLE.

Wife of the Count de Welderen, one of the lords of the States of Holland. -WRIGHT.

3 The first words of a favourite French air.-WALPOLE.

A character in Steele's comedy of The Tender Husband, or The Accomplished Fools.'-WALPOLE.

A mistake which these ladies, who were both Dutch women, constantly made.

BERRY.

VOL. III.

ΕΣ

Good night, Madam! I have no news to send you: one cannot announce a royal wedding and a coronation every post.

P.S. Pray, Madam, do the gnats bite your legs? Mine are swelled as big as one, which is saying a deal for me.

July 32.

I had writ this, and was not time enough for the mail, when I receive your charming note, and this magnificent victory!' Oh! my dear Madam, how I thank you, how I congratulate you, how I feel for you, how I have felt for you and for myself! But I bought it by two terrible hours to-day-I heard of the battle two hours before I could learn a word of Mr. Conway-I sent all round the world, and went half round it myself. I have cried and laughed, trembled and danced, as you bid me. If you had sent me as much old china as King Augustus gave two regiments for, I should not be half so much obliged to you as for your note. How could you think of me, when you had so much reason to think of nothing but yourself?— And then they say virtue is not rewarded in this world. I will preach at Paul's Cross, and quote you and Mr. Conway; no two persons were ever so good and so happy. In short, I am serious in the height of all my joy. God is very good to you, my dear Madam; I thank him for you; I thank him for myself: it is very unalloyed pleasure we taste at this moment!-Good night! My heart is so expanded, I could write to the last scrap of my paper; but I won't. Yours most entirely.

MY DEAR LORD:

734. TO THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.

Strawberry Hill, July 22, 1761.

I LOVE to be able to contribute to your satisfaction, and I think few things would make you happier than to hear that we have totally defeated the French combined armies, and that Mr. Conway is safe. The account came this morning: I had a short note from poor Lady Ailesbury, who was waked with the good news before she had heard there had been a battle. I don't pretend to send you

1 The battle of Kirckdenckirck, on the 15th and 16th of July, in which the allied army, under Prince Ferdinand, gained a great victory over the French, under the Prince of Soubise.—WRIGHT.

circumstances, no more than I do of the wedding and coronation, because you have relations and friends in town nearer and better informed. Indeed, only the blossom of victory is come yet. Fitzroy is expected, and another fuller courier after him. Lord Granby, to the mob's heart's content, has the chief honour of the dayrather, of the two days. The French behaved to the mob's content too, that is, shamefully and all this glory cheaply bought on our side. Lieutenant-colonel Keith killed, and Colonel Marlay and Harry Townshend wounded. If it produces a peace, I shall be happy for mankind-if not, shall content myself with the single but pure joy of Mr. Conway's being safe.

Well! my lord, when do you come? You don't like the question, but kings will be married and must be crowned-and if people will be earls, they must now and then give up castles and new fronts for processions and ermine. By the way, the number of peeresses that propose to excuse themselves makes great noise; especially as so many are breeding, or trying to breed, by commoners, that they cannot walk. I hear that my Lord Delawar, concluding all women would not dislike the ceremony, is negotiating his peerage in the city, and trying if any great fortune will give fifty thousand pounds for one day, as they often do for one night. I saw Miss *** this evening at my Lady Suffolk's, and fancy she does not think my Lord quite so ugly as she did two months ago. Adieu, my lord! This is a splendid year!

*

785. TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ.

Strawberry Hill, July. 22, 1761.

For my part, I believe Mademoiselle Scuderi drew the plan of this year. It is all royal marriages, coronations, and victories; they come tumbling so over one another from distant parts of the globe, that it looks just like the handywork of a lady romance writer, whom it costs nothing but a little false geography to make the Great Mogul in love with a Princess of Mecklenburg, and defeat two marshals of France as he rides post on an elephant to his nuptials. I don't know where I am. I had scarce found Mecklenburg Strelitz' with a magnifying-glass before I am whisked to Pondicherry —well,

1 The King had just announced his intention of demanding in marriage the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz.-WRIGHT.

? The news of the capture of Pondicherry had only arrived on the preceding day. -WRIGHT.