that you told me was so pretty. It shall be performed, if they will take it. Mr. Robinson,' whom I begin to know a little, tells me that a great discovery has been lately made in Tuscany, of quantities of Etrurian vases. If they are dispersed and sold, and sold cheap, (for till I have taken an Acapulca ship, I shall be very penurious,) I should be glad of a few, if the forms are beautiful; for what they call the erudition, I am totally indifferent. A travelling college tutor may be struck with an uncouth fable, and fancy he unravels some point of mythology, that is not worth unravelling; I hate guessing at ugliness, and I know in general, that mysteries are built on the unskilfulness of the artists; the moment nations grew polished, they were always intelligible. Mr. Robinson tells me too, that the Duke of Marlborough has purchased most of Zanetti's gems at Venice. I remember one (you will say there is no end of my memory) which he has not bought. It was a couchant tiger, in alto relievo, and had been Prince Eugene's. I wish you would enquire about it, and know what he would have for it. Mr. Murray' was a good deal an acquaintance of mine in England, and I should think would oblige me about it, but I must know the price first. My Lady Pomfret has desired to be buried at Oxford. It is of a piece with her life. I dare say she had treasured up some idea of the Countess Matilda, that gave St. Peter his patrimony. How your ghost and mine will laugh at hers, when posterity begins to consecrate her learning! The Parliament does not meet till the nineteenth; by that time people will have formed some opinion-at present there is much gloom. I don't know whither it will be directed. I have abundance of conjectures, but events so seldom correspond to foresight, that I believe it is as well to act like other soothsayers, and not broach one's visions till they have been fulfilled. Good night. Zanetti P.S. I should be glad Mr. Murray would not name me. cheated my father outrageously; he will think we forgive, and have no objection to being cheated. 1 Thomas, afterwards the second Lord Grantham.-WALPOLE. 2 Resident at Venice; he was of the Isle of Man.-WALPOLE. Lady Pomfret had given her husband's collection of statues to the University of Oxford.-WAlpole. 4 Zanetti, a Venetian, had been employed by the Regent of France to buy pictures for him; and afterwards by Sir Robert Walpole.-WALPOLE. 771. TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. Arlington Street, Jan. 26, 1762. WE have had as many mails due from Ireland as you had from us. I have at last received a line from you; it tells me you are well, which I am always glad to hear; I cannot say you tell me much more. My health is so little subject to alteration, and so preserved by temperance, that it is not worth repetition; thank God you may conclude it is good, if I do not say the contrary. Here is nothing new but preparations for conquest, and approaches to bankruptcy; and the worst is, the former will advance the latter at least as much as impede it. You say the Irish will live and die with your cousin: I am glad they are so well disposed. I have lived long enough to doubt whether all, who like to live with one would be so ready to die with one. I know it is not pleasant to have the time arrived when one looks about to see whether they would or not; but you are in a country of more sanguine complexion, and where I believe the clergy do not deny the laity the cup. The Queen's brother arrived yesterday: your brother, Prince John, has been here about a week: I am to dine with him to-day at Lord Dacre's with the Chute. Our burlettas are gone out of fashion: do the Amicis come hither next year, or go to Gaudaloupe, as is said? I have been told that a Lady Kingsland at Dublin has a picture of Madame Grammont by Petitot: I don't know who Lady Kingsland is, whether rich or poor, but I know there is nothing I would not give for such a picture. I wish you would hunt it: and if the dame is above temptation, do try if you could obtain a copy in water colours, if there is anybody at Dublin could execute it. The Duchess of Portland has lately enriched me exceedingly; nine portraits of the court of Louis Quatorze! Lord Portland brought them over; they hung in the nursery at Bulstrode,' the children amused themselves with shooting at them. I have got them, but I will tell you no more, you don't deserve it; you write to 1 Nicholas Barnewall, third Viscount Kingsland, married Mary, daughter of Frances Jennings, sister to the celebrated Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, by George Count Hamilton; "by which marriage," says Walpole, "the pictures I saw at Tarvey, Lord Kingsland's house, came to him: I particularly recollect the portraits of Count Hamilton and his brother Anthony, and two of Madame Grammont; one taken in her youth, the other in advanced age."-WRIGHT. 2 The Bulstrode pictures are now (1857) at Welbeck.-CUNNINGHAM. me as if I were your godfather: "Honoured Sir, I am brave and well, my cousin George is well, we drink your health every night, and beg your blessing." This is the sum total of all your letters. I thought in a new country, and with your spirits and humour, you could have found something to tell me. I shall only ask you now when you return; but I declare I will not correspond with you: I don't write letters to divert myself, but in expectation of returns; in short, you are extremely in disgrace with me; I have measured my letters for some time, and for the future will answer you paragraph for paragraph. You yourself don't seem to find letter-writing so amusing as to pay itself. Adieu! 772. TO SIR HORACE MANN. Arlington Street, Jan. 29, 1762. I WISH you joy, sir minister; the Czarina [Elizabeth] is dead. As we conquered America in Germany, I hope we shall overrun Spain by this burial at Petersburg. Yet, don't let us plume ourselves too fast; nothing is so like a Queen as a King, nothing so like a predecessor as a successor. The favourites of the Prince Royal of Prussia, who had suffered so much for him, were wofully disappointed, when he became the present glorious Monarch; they found the English maxim true, that the King never dies; that is, the dignity and passions of the Crown never die. We were not much less defeated of our hopes on the decease of Philip V. The Grand Duke [Peter III.] has been proclaimed Czar at the army in Pomerania; he may love conquest like that army, or not know it is conquering, like his aunt. However, we cannot suffer more by this event. I would part with the Empress Queen, on no better a prospect. We have not yet taken the galleons, nor destroyed the Spanish fleet. Nor have they enslaved Portugal, nor you made a triumphant entry into Naples. My dear sir, you see how lucky you were not to go thither; you don't envy Sir James Grey,' do you? Pray don't make any categorical demands to Marshal Botta, and be obliged to retire to Leghorn, because they are not answered. We want allies; preserve us our friend the Great Duke of Tuscany. 'He had been appointed minister to Spain, but the war prevented his going.— WALPOLE. 2 Commander in Tuscany.-WALPOLE. I like your answer to Botta exceedingly, but I fear the Court of Vienna is shame-proof. The Apostolic and Religious Empress is not a whit a better Christian, not a jot less a woman, than the late Russian Empress, who gave such proofs of her being a woman. We have a mighty expedition on the point of sailing; the destination not disclosed. The German War loses ground daily; however, all is still in embryo. My subsequent letters are not likely to be so barren, and indecisive. I write more to prove there is nothing, than to tell you any thing. You were mistaken, I believe, about the Graftons; they do not remove from Turin, till George Pitt' arrives to occupy their house there. I am really anxious about the fate of my letter to the Duchess [of Grafton]; I should be hurt if it had miscarried; she would have reason to think me very ungrateful. I have given your letter to Mr. T[homas] Pitt; he has been very unfortunate since his arrival-has lost his favourite sister in childbed. Lord Tavistock, I hear, has written accounts of you that give me much pleasure. I am ashamed to tell you that we are again dipped into an egregious scene of folly. The reigning fashion is a ghost'—a ghost, that would not pass muster in the paltriest convent in the Apennine. It only knocks and scratches; does not pretend to appear or to speak. The clergy give it their benediction; and all the world, whether believers or infidels, go to hear it. I, in which number you may guess, go to-morrow; for it is as much the mode to visit the ghost as the Prince of Mecklenburg,' who is just arrived. I have not seen him yet, though I have left my name for him. But I will tell you who is come too-Lady Mary Wortley. I went last night to visit her; I give you my honour, and you who know her, would credit me without it, the following is a faithful description. I found her in a little miserable bedchamber of a ready-furnished house, with two tallow candles, and a bureau covered with pots and pans. On her head, in full of all accounts, she had an old black-laced hood, wrapped entirely round, so as to conceal all hair or want of hair. No handkerchief, but up to her chin a kind of horseman's ridingcoat, calling itself a pet-en-l'air, made of a dark green (green I 1 Appointed Minister to Turin: afterwards I ord Rivers.-WALPOLE. The famous Cock Lane Ghost.-CUNNINGHAM. • Prince Charles, brother of Queen Charlotte.-CUNNINGHAM. think it had been) brocade, with coloured and silver flowers, and lined with furs; boddice laced, a foul dimity petticoat sprig'd, velvet muffeteens on her arms, grey stockings and slippers. Her face less changed in twenty years than I could have imagined; I told her so, and she was not so tolerable twenty years ago that she needed have taken it for flattery, but she did, and literally gave me a box on the ear. She is very lively, all her senses perfect, her languages as imperfect as ever, her avarice greater. She entertained me at first with nothing but the dearness of provisions at Helvoet. With nothing but an Italian, a French, and a Prussian, all men servants, and something she calls an old secretary, but whose age till he appears will be doubtful; she receives all the world, who go to homage her as Queen Mother,' and crams them into this kennel. The Duchess of Hamilton, who came in just after me, was so astonished and diverted, that she could not speak to her for laughing. She says that she has left all her clothes at Venice. I really pity Lady Bute; what will the progress be of such a commencement! The King of France has avowed a natural son,' and given him the estate which came from Marshal Belleisle, with the title of Comte de Gisors. The mother I think is called Matignon or Maquignon. Madame Pompadour was the Bathsheba that introduced this Abishag. Adieu, my dear sir! 773. TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. Arlington Street, Feb. 2, 1762. I SCOLDED you in my last, but I shall forgive you if you return soon to England, as you talk of doing; for though you are an abominable correspondent, and only write to beg letters, you are good company, and I have a notion I shall still be glad to see you. Lady Mary Wortley is arrived; I have seen her; I think her avarice, her dirt, and her vivacity, are all increased. Her dress, like her languages, is a galimatias of several countries; the groundwork rags, and the embroidery nastiness. She needs no cap, no handkerchief, no gown, no petticoat, no shoes. An old black-laced hood represents the first; the fur of a horseman's coat, which replaces the third, serves for the second; a dimity petticoat is 1 She was mother of Lady Bute, wife of the Prime Minister.-WALPOLE, |