The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1
by
Horace Walpole
Part 15 out of 18
to go together to support the measures of the administration,
and that, as Mr. Hume did not act so, he was to write him a
letter, discharging him, In the conversation, Mr. Drax said,
that the Prince was to support the Pelhams, and that his
dismission was to be ascribed to Lord Granville. My brother
said, that he had nothing to say to the Prince, other than
that he would support all the measures he thought conducive to
the King's interests, but no others."-E.
(1159) The Marquis of Tweedale was one of the discontented
Whigs, during the administration of Sir Robert Walpole; on
whose removal he came to court, and was made secretary of
state, attaching himself to Lord Granville's faction, whose
youngest daughter, Frances, he afterwards married, He was
reckoned a good civilian, but was a very dull man.
461 Letter 192
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Jan. 17,1746.,
It is a very good symptom, I can tell you, that I write to you
seldom -. it is a fortnight since my last; and nothing
material has happened in this interval. The rebels are
intrenching and fortifying themselves in Scotland; and what a
despicable affair is a rebellion upon the defensive! General
Hawley is marched from Edinburgh, to put it quite out. I must
give you some idea of this man, who will give a mortal blow to
the pride of the Scotch nobility. He is called Lord chief
Justice; frequent and sudden executions are his passion. Last
winter he had intelligence of a spy to come from the French
army: the first notice our army had of his arrival, was by
seeing him dangle on a gallows in his mufti and boots. One of
the surgeons of the army begged the body of a soldier who was
hanged for desertion, to dissect: "Well," said Hawley, "but
then you shall give me the skeleton to hang up in the
guard-room." He is very brave and able; with no small bias to
the brutal. Two years ago, when he arrived at Ghent, the
magistrates, according to customs sent a gentleman, with the
offer of a sum Of money to engage his favour. He told the
gentleman, in great wrath, that the King his master paid him,
and that he should go tell the magistrates so; at the same
time dragging him to the head of the stairs, and kicking him
down. He then went to the town-hall; on their refusing him
entrance, he burst open the door with his foot, and seated
himself abruptly: told them how he had been affronted, was
persuaded they had no hand in it, and demanded to have the
gentleman given up to him, who never dared to appear in the
town while he stayed in it. Now I am telling you anecdotes of
him, you shall hear two more. When the Prince of Hesse, our
son-in-law, arrived at Brussels, and found Hawley did not wait
on him, the Prince sent to know if he expected the first
visit? He replied, "He always expected that inferior officers
should wait on their commanders; and not only that, but he
gave his Highness but half an hour to consider of it." The
Prince went to him. I believe I told you of Lord John
Drummond sending a drum to Wade to propose a cartel. Wade
returned a civil answer, which had the King's and council's
approbation. When the drummer arrived with it at Edinburgh,
Hawley opened it and threw it into the fire, would not let the
drummer go back, but made him write to Lord J. "That rebels
were not to be treated with." If you don't think that spirit
like this will do-do you see, I would not give a farthing for
your presumption.(1160)
The French invasion is laid aside; we are turning our hands to
war again upon the continent. The House of Commons is
something of which I can give YOU no description: Mr. Pitt,
the meteor of it, Is neither yet in place, nor his friends
out. Some Tories oppose: Mr. Pelham is distressed, and has
vast majorities. When the scene clears a little, I will tell
you more of it.
The two last letters I have had from you, are of December 21
and January 4. You was then still in uneasiness; by this time
I hope you have no other distresses than are naturally
incident to your miny-ness.
I never hear any thing of the Countess(1161) except just now,
that she is grown tired of sublunary affairs, and willing to
come to a composition with her lord: I believe that the price
will be two thousand a-year. The other day, his and her
lawyers were talking over the affair before her and several
other people: her counsel, in the heat of the dispute, said to
my lord's lawyers, "Sir, Sir, we shall be able to prove that
her ladyship was denied nuptial rights and conjugal enjoyments
for seven years." It was excellent! My lord must have had
matrimonial talents indeed, to have reached to Italy; besides,
you know, she made it a point after her son was born, not to
sleep with her husband.
Thank you for the little medal. I am glad I have nothing more
to tell you-you little expected that we should so soon recover
our tranquility. Adieu!
(1160) Glover, in his Memoirs, speaks of Hawley with great
contempt, and talks of "his beastly ignorance and negligence,"
which occasioned the loss of the battle of Falkirk.-D.
(1161) Lady Orford.
463 Letter 193
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Jan. 28, 1746.
Do they send you the gazettes as they used to do? If you have
them, you will find there an account of another battle lost in
Scotland. Our arms cannot succeed there. Hawley, of whom I
said so much to you in my last, has been as unsuccessful as
Cope, and by almost every circumstance the same, except that
Hawley had less want of skill and much more presumption. The
very same dragoons ran away at Falkirk, that ran away at
Preston Pans.(1162) Though we had seven thousand men, and the
rebels but five, we had scarce three regiments that behaved
well. General Huske and Brigadier Cholmondeley,(1163) my
lord's brother, shone extremely - the former beat the enemy's.
right wing; and the latter, by rallying two regiments,
prevented the pursuit. Our loss is trifling: for many of the
rebels fled as fast as the glorious dragoons- but we have lost
some good officers, particularly Sir Robert Monroe; and seven
pieces of cannon. A worse loss is apprehended, Stirling
Castle, which could hold out but ten days; and that term
expires to-morrow. The Duke is gone post to Edinburgh, where
he hoped to arrive to-night; if possible, to relieve Stirling.
Another battle will certainly be fought before you receive
this; I hope with the Hessians in it, who are every hour
expected to land in Scotland. With many other glories, the
English courage seems gone too! The great dependence is upon
the Duke; the soldiers adore him, and with reason: he has a
lion's courage, vast vigilance and activity, and, I am told,
great military genius. For my own particular, I am uneasy
that he is gone: Lord Bury and Mr. Conway, two of his
aides-de-camp, and brave as he, are gone with him. The ill
behaviour of the soldiers lays a double obligation on the
officers to set them examples of running on danger. The
ministry would have kept back Mr. Conway, as being in
Parliament; which when the Duke told him, he burst into tears,
and said nothing should hinder his going--and he is gone!
Judge, if I have not reason to be alarmed!
Some Of our prisoners in Scotland (the former Prisoners) are
returned. They had the Privilege of walking about the town,
where they were confined, upon their parole: the militia of
the country rose and set them at liberty. General Hawley is
so strict as to think they should be sent back; but nobody
here comprehends such refinement: they could not give their
word that the town should not be taken. There are two or
three others, who will lay the government under difficulties,
when we have got over the rebellion. They were come to
England on their parole; and when the executions begin, they
must in honour be given up--the question indeed will be, to
whom?
Adieu! my dear sir! I write you this short letter, rather
than be taxed with negligence on such an event; though, YOU
perceive, I know nothing but what you will se in the printed
papers.
P.S. The Hessians would not act, because we would not settle a
cartel with rebels!
(1162) "Hawley was never seen in the field during the battle;
and every thing would have gone to wreck, in a worse manner
than at Preston, if General Huske had not acted with judgment
and courage, and appeared every where." Culloden Papers, p.
267.-E.
(1163) The Hon. James Cholmondeley, second son of George,
second Earl of Cholmondeley. He served with distinction both
in Flanders and Scotland. In 1750, he became colonel of the
Inniskillen regiment of dragoons; and died in 1775.-D.
464 Letter 194
To Sir Horace MANN.
Arlington Street Feb. 7, 1746.
Till yesterday that I received your last of January 27, I was
very uneasy at finding you still remained under the same
anxiety about the rebellion, when it had so long ceased to be
formidable with us: but you have got all my letters, and are
out of your pain. Hawley's defeat (or at least what was
called so, for I am persuaded that the victory was ours as far
as there was any fighting, which indeed lay in a very small
compass, the great body of each army running away) will have
thrown you back into your terrors; but here is a letter to
calm you again. All Monday and Tuesday we were concluding
that the battle between the Duke and the rebels must be
fought, and nothing was talked of but the expectation of the
courier. He did arrive indeed on Wednesday morning, but with
no battle; for the moment the rebel army saw the Duke's, they
turned back with the utmost precipitation; spiked their
cannon, blew up their magazine, and left behind them their
wounded and our prisoners. They crossed the Forth, and in one
day fled four-and-thirty miles to Perth, where, as they have
strong intrenchments, some imagine they will wait to fight;
but their desertion is too great; the whole clan of the
macdonalds, one of their best has retired on the accidental
death of their chief. In short, it looks exceedingly like the
conclusion of this business, though the French have embarked
Fitzjames's regiment at Ostend for Scotland. The Duke's name
disperses armies, as the Pretender's raised them.
The French seem to be at the eve of taking Antwerp and
Brussels, the latter of which is actually besieged. In this
case I don't see how we can send an army abroad this summer,
for there will be no considerable towns in Flanders left in
the possession of the Empress-Queen.
The new regiments, of which I told you so much, have again
been in dispute: as their term was near expired, the ministry
proposed to continue them for four months longer. This was
last Friday, when, as we every hour expected the news of a
conclusive battle, which, if favourable, would render them
useless, Mr. Fox, the general against the new regiments,
begged it might only be postponed till the following
Wednesday, but 170 against 89 voted them that very day. On
the very Wednesday came the news of the flight of the rebels;
and two days before that, news from Chester of Lord Gower's
new regiment having mutinied, on hearing that they were to be
continued beyond the term for which they had listed.
At court all is confusion-. the King, at Lord Bath's
instigation, has absolutely refused to make Pitt secretary at
war.(1164) How this will end, I don't know, but I don't
believe in bloodshed: neither side is famous for being
incapable of yielding.
I wish you joy of having the Chutes again, though I am a
little sorry that their bravery was not rewarded by staying at
Rome till they could triumph in their turn: however, I don't
believe that at Florence you want opportunities of exulting.
That Monro you mention was made travelling physician by my
father's interest, who had great regard for the old
doctor.(1165) if he has any skill in quacking madmen, his art
may perhaps be of service now in the Pretender's court.
I beg my eagle may not come till it has the opportunity of a
man-of-war: we have lost so many merchantmen lately, that I
should never expect to receive it that way.
I can say nothing to your opinion of the young Pretender being
a cheat; nor, as the rebellion is near at end, do I see what
end it would answer to prove him original or spurious.
However, as you seem to dwell upon it, I will mention it again
to my uncle.
I hear that my sister-Countess is projecting her return, being
quite sick of England, where nobody visits her. She says
there is not one woman of sense in England. Her journey,
however, will have turned to account, and, I believe, end in
almost doubling her allowance. Adieu! my dear child; love the
Chutes for me as well as for yourself.
(1164) Lord Marchmont, in his Diary of Feb. 9, says, "My
brother told me, that on the ministry insisting on Mr. Pitt
being secretary at war, and the King having said he should not
be his secretary, Lord Bath had gone to the King and told him,
though he had resolved never to take a place, yet now, finding
his ministers would force a servant on him, rather than he
should be so used, he would undertake to get him his money.
The King said. the ministers had the Parliament; Lord Bath
said, his Majesty had it, and not they: and that hereupon the
King thanked him; and it was expected the ministers would all
be out."-E.
(1165) In 1743, Dr. John Monro was appointed, through the
influence of Sir Robert Walpole, to one of the Radcliffe
travelling fellowships. In 1752, he succeeded his father as
physician to Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals. In 1758, he
published "Remarks on Dr. Battie's Treatise on Madness," in
which he vindicated his father's treatment of that disorder.
He died in 1791.-E.
466 Letter 195
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Feb. 14, 1746.
By the relation I am going to make, you will think that I am
describing Turkish, not English revolutions; and will cast
your eye upwards to see if my letter is not dated from
Constantinople. Indeed, violent as the changes have been,
there has been no bloodshed; no Grand Vizier has had a cravat
made of a bowstring, no Janizaries have taken upon them to
alter the succession, no Grand Signior is deposed--only his
Sublime Highness's dignity has been a little impaired. Oh! I
forgot; I ought not to frighten you; you will interpret all
these fine allusions, and think on the rebellion--pho! we are
such considerable proficients in politics, that we can form
rebellions within rebellions, and turn a government
topsy-turvy at London, while we are engaged in a civil war in
Scotland. In short, I gave you a hint last week of an
insurrection in the closet, and of Lord Bath having prevented
Pitt from being secretary at war. The ministry gave up that
point; but finding that a change had been made in a scheme of
foreign politics, which they had laid before the King, and for
which he had thanked them; and perceiving some symptoms of a
resolution to dismiss them at the end of the session, they
came to a sudden determination not to do Lord Granville's
business by carrying the supplies, and then to be turned out:
so on Monday morning, to the astonishment of every body, the
two secretaries of state threw up the seals; and the next day
Mr. Pelham, with the rest of the Treasury, the Duke of Bedford
with the Admiralty, Lord Gower, privy seal, and Lord
Pembroke,' groom of the stole, gave up too - the Dukes of
Devonshire, Grafton, and Richmond, the Lord Chancellor,
Winnington, paymaster, and almost all the other great officers
and offices, declaring they would do the same. Lord Granville
immediately received both seals, one for himself, and the
other to give to whom he pleased. Lord Bath was named first
commissioner of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer;
Lord Carlisle, privy seal, and Lord Winchilsea reinstated in
the Admiralty. Thus far all went swimmingly; they had only
forgot one little point, which was, to secure a majority in
both Houses: in the Commons they unluckily found that they had
no better man to take the lead than poor Sir John Rushout, for
Sir John Barnard refused to be chancellor of the exchequer; so
did Lord Chief Justice Willes to be lord chancellor; and the
wildness of the scheme soon prevented others, who did not wish
ill to Lord Granville, or well to the Pelhams, from giving in
to it. Hop, the Dutch minister, did not a little increase the
confusion by declaring that he had immediately despatched a
courier to Holland, and did not doubt but the States would
directly send to accept the terms of France.
I should tell you too, that Lord Bath's being of the
enterprise contributed hugely to poison the success of it. In
short, his lordship, whose politics were never characterized
by steadiness, found that he had not courage enough to take
the Treasury. You may guess how ill laid his schemes were,
when be durst not indulge both his ambition and avarice! In
short, on Wednesday morning (pray mind, this was the very
Wednesday after the Monday on which the chance had happened,)
he went to the King, and told him he had tried the House of
Commons, and found it would not do!(1167) Bounce! went all
the project into shivers, like the vessels in Ben Jonson's
Alchymist, when they are on the brink of the philosopher's
stone. The poor King, who, from being fatigued with the Duke
of Newcastle, and sick of Pelham's timidity and compromises,
had given in to this mad hurly-burly of alterations, was
confounded with having floundered to no purpose, and to find
himself more than ever in the power of men he hated, shut
himself up in his closet, and refused to admit any more of the
persons who were pouring in upon him with white sticks, and
golden keys, and commissions, etc. At last he sent for
Winnington, and told him, he was the only honest man about
him, and he should have the honour of a reconciliation, and
sent him to Mr. Pelham to desire they would all return to
their employments.(1168)
Lord Granville is as jolly as ever; laughs and drinks, and
owns it was mad, and owns he -would do it again to-morrow. It
would not be quite so safe, indeed, to try it soon again, for
the triumphant party are not at all in the humour to be turned
out every time his lordship has drunk a bottle too much; and
that House of Commons that he could not make do for him, would
do to send him to the Tower till he was sober. This was the
very worst period he could have selected, when the fears of
men had made them throw themselves absolutely into all
measures of Government to secure the government itself; and
that temporary strength of Pelham has my Lord Granville
contrived to fix to him: and people will be glad to ascribe to
the Merit and virtue of the ministry, what they would be
ashamed to Own, but was really the effect of their own
apprehensions. It was a good idea Of somebody, when no man
would accept a place under the new system, that Granville and
Bath were met going about the streets, calling odd man! as the
hackney chairman do when they want a partner. This little
faction of Lord Granville goes by the name of the
Grandvillains.
There! who would think that I had written you an entire history
in the compass of three sides of paper?(1169) ***Vertot
would have composed a volume on this event. and entitled it,
the Revolutions of England. You will wonder at not having it
notified to you by Lord Granville himself, as is customary for
new secretaries of state: when they mentioned to him writing
to Italy, he said-"To Italy! no: before the courier can get
thither, I shall be out again." it absolutely makes one
laugh: as serious as the consequences might be, it is
impossible to hate a politician of such jovial good-humour. I
am told that he ordered the packet-boat to be stopped at
Harwich till Saturday, till he should have time to determine
what he would write to Holland. This will make the Dutch
receive the news of the double revolution at the same instant.
Duke and his name are pursuing the scattered rebels into their
very mountains, determined to root out sedition entirely. It
is believed, and we expect to hear, that the young Pretender
is embarked and gone. Wish the Chutes joy of the happy
conclusion of this affair!
Adieu! my dear child! After describing two revolutions, and
announcing the termination of a rebellion, it would be below
the dignity of my letter to talk of any thing of less moment.
Next post I may possibly descend out of my historical buskin,
and converse with you more familiarly--en attendant, gentle
reader, I am, your sincere well-wisher,
Horace Walpole, Historiographer
to the high and mighty Lord John, Earl Granville.
(1166) Henry Herbert, ninth Earl of Pembroke, an intelligent
lover of the arts, and an amateur architect of considerable
merit. Walpole says of him, in his account of Sculptors and
Architects, The soul of Inigo Jones, who had been patronised
by his ancestors, seemed still to hover over its favourite
Wilton, and to have assisted the Muses of Arts in the
education of this noble person. No man had a purer taste in
building than Earl Henry, of which he gave a few specimens:
besides his works at Wilton, the new Lodge in Windsor Park;
the Countess of Suffolk's house, at Marble Hill, Twickenham;
the Water-house, in Lord Orford's park at Houghton, are
incontestable proofs of Lord Pembroke's taste: it was more
than taste; it was passion for the utility and honour of his
country that engaged his lordship to promote and assiduously
overlook the construction of Westminster Bridge by the
ingenious M. Lahelye, a man that deserves more notice than
this slight encomium can bestow." He died in January
1750-1.-E.
(1167) "Feb. 13. Lord Bolingbroke told me, that Bath had
resigned, and all was now over. He approved of what had been
done, though he owned that Walpole'S faction had done what he
had wrote every King must expect who nurses up a faction by
governing by a party; and that it was a most indecent thing,
and must render the King contemptible. Lord Cobham told me,
that the King had yesterday sent Winnington to stop the
resignations; that he had offered Winnington the seat of
exchequer, after Bath had resigned it; but Winnington said it
would not do. At court I met Lord Granville, who is still
secretary, but declared to be ready to resign when the King
pleases." Marchmont Diary.-E.
(1168) In a letter to the Duke of Newcastle, of the 18th, Lord
Chesterfield says, " Your victory is complete: for God's sake
pursue it. Good policy still more than resentment, requires
that Granville and Bath should be marked-out,'and all their
people cut off. Every body now sees and knows that you have
the power; let them see and know too, that you will use it. A
general run ought to be made upon Bath by all your followers
and writers."-E.
(1169) The projectors of this ,attempt to remove the ministers
were overwhelmed with ridicule. Among other jeux d'esprit,
was "A History of the Long Administration," bound up like the
works printed for children, and sold for a penny; and of which
one would suspect Walpole to be the author. It concluded as
follows: "And thus endeth the second and last part of this
astonishing administration, which lasted forty-eight hours,
three quarters, seven minutes, and eleven seconds; which may
be truly called the most wise and most Honest of all
administrations, the minister having, to the astonishment of
all wise men, never transacted one rash thing, and, what is
more marvellous, left as much money in the treasury as he
found in it. This worthy history I have faithfully recorded
in this mighty volume, that it may be read with the valuable
works of our immortal countryman, Thomas Thumb, by our
children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, to the end
of the world:'-E.
469 Letter 196
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, March 6, 1746.
I know I have missed two or three posts, but you have lost
nothing: you perhaps expected that our mighty commotions did
not subside at once, and that you should still hear of
struggles and more shocks; but it all ended at once; with only
some removals and promotions which you saw in the Gazette. I
should have written, however, but I have been hurried with my
sister'S(1170) wedding; but all the ceremony of that too is
over now, and the dinners and the visits.
The rebellion has fetched breath; the dispersed clans have
reunited and marched to Inverness, from whence Lord Loudon was
forced to retreat, leaving a garrison in the castle, which has
since yielded without firing a gun. Their numbers are now
reckoned at seven thousand: old Lord lovat(1171) has carried
them a thousand Frasers. The French continually drop them a
ship or two: we took two, with the Duke of Berwick's brother
on board: it seems evident that they design to keep up our
disturbances as long as possible, to prevent our sending any
troops to Flanders. Upon the prospect of the rebellion being
at an end, the Hessians were ordered back, but luckily were
not gone; and now are quartered to prevent the rebels slipping
the Duke, (who is marching to them,) and returning into
England. This counter-order was given in the morning, and in
the evening came out the Gazette, and said the Hessians are to
go away. This doubling style in the ministry is grown so
characteristic, that the French are actually playing a farce,
in which harlequin enters, as an English courier, with two
bundles of despatches fastened to his belly and his back: they
ask him what the one is? "Eh! Ces sont mes ordres." and what
the other? "Mais elles sont mes contre-ordres."
We have been a little disturbed in some other of our politics,
by the news of the King of Sardinia having made his peace: I
think it comes out now that he absolutely had concluded one
with France, but that the haughty court of Spain rejected it:
what the Austrian pride had driven him to, the Spanish pride
drove him from. You will allow that our affairs are
critically bad, when all our hopes centre in that honest
monarch, the King of Prussia-but so it is: and I own I see
nothing that can restore us to being a great nation but his
interposition. Many schemes are framed, of making him
Stadtholder of Holland, or Duke of Burgundy in Flanders, in
lieu of the Silesias, or altogether, and that I think would
follow-but I don't know how far any of these have been carried
into propositions.
I see by your letters that our fomentations of the Corsican
rebellion have had no better success than the French tampering
in ours-for ours, I don't expect it will be quite at an end,
till it is made one of the conditions of peace, that they
shall give it no assistance.
The smallpox has been making great havoc in London; the new
Lord Rockingham,(1172) whom I believe you knew when only
Thomas Watson, is dead of it, and the title extinct. My Lady
Conway(1173) has had it, but escaped.
My brother is on the point of finishing all his affairs with
his countess; she is to have fifteen hundred per year; and her
mother gives her two thousand pounds. I suppose this will
send her back to you, added to her disappointments in
politics, in which it appears she has been tampering. Don't
you remember a very foolish knight, one Sir Bourchier
Wrey?(1174) Well, you do: the day Lord Bath was in the
Treasury, that one day! she wrote to Sir Bourchier at Exeter,
to tell him that now their friends were coming into power, and
it was a brave opportunity for him to Come Up and make his own
terms. He came, and is lodged in her house, and sends about
cards to invite people to come and see him at the Countess of
Orford's. There is a little fracas I hear in their domestic;
the Abb`e-Secretary has got one of the maids with child. I
have seen the dame herself but once these two months, when she
came into the Opera at the end of the first act, fierce as an
incensed turkey-cock, you know her look, and towing after her
Sir Francis Dashwood's new Wife,(1175) a poor forlorn
Presbyterian prude, whom he obliges to consort with her.
Adieu! for I think I have now told you all I know. I am very
sorry that you are so near losing the good Chutes, but I
cannot help having an eye to myself in their coming to
England.
(1170) Lady Maria Walpole, married to Charles Churchill, Esq.
(1171) Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, a man of parts, but of
infamous character. He had the folly, at the age of eighty,
to enter into the rebellion, upon a promise from the
Pretender, that he would make him Duke of Fraser. He was
taken, tried, and beheaded.-D.
)1172) Thomas Watson, third Earl of Rockingham, succeeded his
elder brother Lewis in the family honours in 1745, and died
himself in 1746. The earldom extinguished upon his death';
but the Barony of Rockingham devolved upon his kinsman, Thomas
Watson Wentworth, Earl of Malton, who was soon afterwards
created Marquis of Rockingham. ant`e, p. 458, letter 191.
(1173) Lady Isabella Fitzroy, daughter of Charles, Duke of
Grafton, and wife of Francis, Lord Conway, afterwards Earl of
Hertford.
(1174) Sir Bourchier Wrey of Tavistock, in Devonshire, the
fifth baronet of the family. He was member of parliament for
Barnstaple, and died in 1784.-D.
(1175) Widow of Sir Richard Ellis.
470 Letter 197
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, March 21, 1746.
I have no new triumphs of the Duke to send you: he has been
detained a great while at Aberdeen by the snows. The rebels
have gathered numbers again, and have taken Fort Augustus, and
are marching to Fort William. The Duke complains extremely of
the loyal Scotch: says he can get no intelligence, and reckons
himself more in an enemy's country, than when he was warring
with the French in Flanders. They profess the big professions
wherever he comes, but, before he is out of sight of any town,
beat up for volunteers for rebels. We see no prospect of his
return, for he must stay in Scotland while the rebellion
lasts; and the existence of that seems too intimately
connected with the being of Scotland, to expect it should soon
be annihilated.
We rejoice at the victories of the King of Sardinia, whom we
thought lost to our cause. To-day we are to vote subsidies to
the Electors of Cologne and Mentz. I don't know whether they
will be opposed by the Electoral Prince;(1176) but he has
lately erected a new opposition, by the councils of Lord Bath,
who has got him from Lord Granville: the latter and his
faction act with the court.
I have told you to the utmost extent of my political
knowledge; of private history there is nothing new. Don't
think, my dear child, that I hurry over my letters, or neglect
writing to you; I assure you I never do, when I have the least
grain to lap up in a letter: but consider how many chapters of
correspondence are extinct: Pope and poetry are dead!
Patriotism has kissed hands on accepting a place: the Ladies
O. and T.' have exhausted scandal both in their persons and
conversations: divinity and controversy are grown good
Christians, say their prayers and spare their neighbours; and
I think even self-murder is out of fashion. Now judge whether
a correspondent can furnish matter for the common intercourse
of the post.
Pray what luxurious debauch has Mr. Chute been guilty of, that
he is laid up with the gout? I mean, that he was, for I hope
his fit has not lasted till now. If you are ever so angry, I
must say, I flatter myself I shall see him before my eagle,
which I beg may repose itself still at Leghorn, for the French
privateers have taken such numbers of our merchantmen, that I
cannot think of suffering it to come that way. If you should
meet with a good opportunity of a man-of-war, let it come-or I
will postpone my impatience. Adieu!
P. S. I had sealed my letter, but break it open, to tell you
that an account is just arrived of two of our privateers
having met eight-and- twenty transports going with supplies to
the Brest fleet, and sunk ten, taken four, and driven the rest
on shore.
)1176) The prince of Wales.
471 Letter 198
To sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, March 28, 1746.
I don't at all recollect what was in those two letters of
mine, which I find you have lost: for your sake, as you must
be impatient for English news, I am sorry you grow subject to
these miscarriages but in general, I believe there is little
of consequence in my correspondence.
The Duke has not yet left Aberdeen, for want of his supplies;
but by a party which he sent out, and in which Mr. Conway was,
the rebels do not seem to have recovered their spirits, though
they have recruited their numbers; for eight hundred of them
fled on the first appearance of our detachment, and quitted an
advantageous post. As much as you know, and as much as you
have lately heard of Scotch finesse, you will yet be startled
at the refinements that nation have made upon their own
policy. Lord Fortrose,(1177) whose father was in the last
rebellion, and who has himself been restored to his fortune,
is in Parliament and in the army: he is with the Duke-his wife
and his clan with the rebels. The head of the mackintosh's is
acting just the same part. The clan of the Grants, always
esteemed the most Whig friendly tribe, have literally in all
the forms signed a neutrality with the rebels. The most
honest instance I have heard, is in the town of Forfar, there
they have chosen their magistrates; but at the same time
entered a memorandum in their town-book, that they shall not
execute their office "till it is decided which King is to
reign."
The Parliament is adjourned for the Easter holidays. Princess
Caroline is going to the Bath for a rheumatism. The countess,
whose return you seem so much to dread, has entertained the
town with an excellent vulgarism. She happened One night at
the Opera to sit by Peggy Banks,(1178) a celebrated beauty,
and asked her several questions about the singers and dancers,
which the other naturally answered, as one woman of fashion
answers another. The next morning Sir Bourchier Wrey sent
Miss Banks an opera-ticket, and my lady sent her a card, to
thank her for her civilities to her the night before, and that
she intended to wait on her very soon. Do but think of Sir B.
Wrey's paying a woman of fashion for being civil to my Lady
O.! Sure no apothecary's wife in a market-town could know less
of the world than these two people! The operas flourish more
than in any latter years; the composer is Gluck, a German: he
is to have a benefit, at which he is to play on a set of
drinking-glasses, which he modulates with water--I think I
have heard you speak of having seen some such thing.
You will see in the papers long accounts of a most shocking
murder, that has been committed by a lad(1179) on his
mistress, who was found dead in her bedchamber, with an
hundred wounds; her brains beaten out, stabbed, her face,
back, and breasts slashed in twenty places- one hears of
nothing else wherever one goes. But adieu! it is time to
finish a letter, when one is reduced for news to the
casualties of the week.
(1177) William Mackenzie, fifth Earl of Seaforth, the father
of Kenneth Lord Fortrose, had been engaged in the rebellion of
1715, and was attainted. He died in 1740. In consequence of
his attainder, his son never assumed the title of Seaforth,
but continued to be called Lord Fortrose, the second title of
the family. He was member of parliament in 1741 for the burghs
of Fortrose, etc., and in 1747 and 1754, for the county of
Ross, He died in 1762. His only son, Kenneth, was created
Viscount Fortrose, and Earl of Seaforth in Ireland.-D.
(1178_ Margaret, sister of John Hodgkinson Bank,.;, Esq.;
married, in 1757, to the Hon. Henry Grenville, fifth son of
the Countess Temple, who was appointed governor of Barbadoes
in 1746, and ambassador to the Ottoman Porte in 1761.-D.
(1179) One Henderson, hanged for murdering Mrs. Dalrymple.
473 Letter 199
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, April 15, 1746.
Your triumphs in Italy are in high fashion: till very lately,
Italy was scarce ever mentioned as part of the scene of war.
The apprehensions of your great King making his peace began to
alarm us and when we just believed it finished, we have
received nothing but torrents of good news. The King of
Sardinia(1180) has not only carried his own character and
success to the highest pitch, but seems to have given a turn
to the general face of the war, which has a much more
favourable aspect than was to be expected three months ago,
has made himself as considerable in the scale as the Prussian,
but with real valour, and as great abilities, and without the
infamy, of the other's politics.
The rebellion seems once more at its last gasp; the Duke is
marched, and the rebels fly before him, in the utmost want of
money. The famous Hazard sloop is taken, with two hundred men
and officers, and about eight thousand pounds in money, from
France. In the midst of such good news from thence, Mr.
Conway has got a regiment, for which, I am sure, you will take
part in my joy. In Flanders we propose to make another great
effort, with an army of above ninety thousand men; that is,
forty Dutch, above thirty Austrians, eighteen Hanoverians, the
Hessians, who are to return; and we propose twelve thousand
Saxons, but no English; though, if the rebellion is at all
suppressed in any time, I imagine some of our troops will go,
and the Duke command the whole: in the mean time, the army
will be under Prince Waldeck and Bathiani. You will wonder at
my running so glibly over eighteen thousand Hanoverians,
especially as they are all to be in our pay, but the nation's
digestion has been much facilitated by the pill given to Pitt,
of vice-treasurer of Ireland.(1181) Last Friday was the
debate on this subject, when we carried these troops by 255
against 122: Pitt, Lyttelton, three Grenvilles, and Lord
BarringTton, all voting roundly for them, though the eldest
Grenville, two years ago, had declared in the House, that he
would seal it with his blood that he never would give his vote
for a Hanoverian. Don't you shudder at such perjury? and this
in a republic, and where there is no religion that dispenses
with oaths! Pitt was the only one of this ominous band that
opened his - mouth,(1182) and it was to add impudence to
profligacy; but no criminal at the Place de Greve was ever so
racked as he was by Dr. Lee, a friend of Lord Granville, who
gave him the question both ordinary and extraordinary.
General Hawley has been tried (not in person, you may believe)
and condemned by a Scotch jury for murder, on hanging a spy.
What do you say to this? or what will you say when I tell you,
that Mr. Ratcliffe, who has been so long confined in the
Tower, and supposed the Pretender's youngest son, is not only
suffered to return to France, but was entertained at a great
dinner by the Duke of Richmond as a relation!(1183) The same
Duke has refused his beautiful Lady Emily to Lord
Kildare,(1184) the richest and the first peer of Ireland, on a
ridiculous notion of the King's evil being in the family--but
sure that ought to be no objection: a very little grain more
of pride and Stuartism might persuade all the royal bastards
that they have a faculty of curing that distemper.
The other day, an odd accidental discovery was made; some of
the Duke's baggage, which he did not want, was sent back from
Scotland, with a bill of the contents. Soon after, -.another
large parcel, but not specified in the bill, was brought to
the captain, directed like the rest. When they came to the
Custom-house here, it was observed, and they sent to Mr.
Poyntz,(1185) to know what they should do: be bade them open
it, suspecting some trick; but when they did, they found a
large crucifix, copes, rich vestments, beads, and heaps of
such like trumpery, consigned from the titulary primate of
Scotland, who is with the rebels: they imagine, with the
privity of some of the vessels, to be conveyed to somebody
here in town.
Now I am telling you odd events, I must relate one of the
strangest I ever heard. Last week, an elderly woman gave
information against her maid for coining, and the trial came
on at the Old Bailey. The mistress deposed, that having been
left a widow several years ago, with four children, and no
possibility of maintaining them, she had taken to coining:
that she used to buy old pewter-pots, out Of each of which she
made as many shillings, etc. as she could put off for three
pounds, and that by this practice she had bred up her
children, bound them out apprentices, and set herself up in a
little shop, by which she got a comfortable livelihood; that
she had now given over coining, and indicted her maid as
accomplice. The maid in her defence said, "That when her
mistress hired her, she told her that she did something up in
a garret into which she must never inquire: that all she knew
of the matter was, that her mistress had often given her
moulds to clean, which she did, as it was her duty: that,
indeed, she had sometimes seen pieces of pewter-pots cut, and
did suspect her mistress of coining; but that she never had
had, or put off; one single piece of bad money." The judge
asked the mistress if this was true; she answered, "Yes; and
that she believed her maid was as honest a creature as ever
lived; but that, knowing herself in her power, she never could
be at peace; that she knew,-by informing, she should secure
herself; and not doubting but the maid's real innocence would
appear, she concluded the poor girl would come to no harm."
The judge flew into the greatest rage; told her he wished he
could stretch the law to hang her, and feared he could not
bring off the maid for having concealed the crime; but,
however, the jury did bring her in not guilty. I think I
never heard a more particular instance of parts and villainy.
I inclose a letter for Stosch, which was left here with a
scrap of paper, with these words; "Mr. Natter is desired to
send the letters for Baron de Stosch, in Florence, by Mr. H.
W." I don't know who Mr. Natter(1186) is, nor who makes him
this request, but I desire Mr. Stosch will immediately put an
end to this method of correspondence; for I shall not risk my
letters to you by containing his, nor will I be post to such a
dirty fellow.
Your last was of March 22d, and you mention Madame Suares
illness; I hope she is better, and Mr. Chute's gout better. I
love to hear of my Florentine acquaintance, though they all
seem to have forgot me; especially the Princess, whom YOU
never mention. Does she never ask after me? Tell me a little
of the state of her state, her amours, devotions, and
appetite. I must transcribe a paragraph out of an old book of
letters,(1187) printed in 1660, which I met with-the other
day: "My thoughts upon the reading your letter made me stop in
Florence, and go no farther, than to consider the happiness of
them who live in that town, where the people come so near to
angels in knowledge, that they can counterfeit heaven well
enough to give their friends a taste of it in this life." I
agree to the happiness of living in Florence, but I am sure
knowledge was not one of its recommendations, which never was
any where it a lower ebb--I had forgot; I beg Dr. Cocchi's
pardon, who is much an exception; how does he do? Adieu!
P. S. Lord Malton, who is the nearest heir-male to the extinct
earldom of Rockingham, and has succeeded to a barony belonging
to it, is to have his own earldom erected into a marquisate,
with the title of Rockingham. Vernon, is struck off the list
of admirals.
(1180) Charles Emmanuel the Third, an able sovereign, and the
last of the House of Savoy who possessed any portion of that
talent for which the race had previously been so
celebrated.-.D.
(1181) On the death of Mr. Winnington, in the following month,
Mr. Pitt was appointed paymaster of the forces, and chosen of
the privy council.-E.
(1182) In a letter to the Duke of Cumberland, of the 17th, the
Duke of Newcastle says, "Mr. Pitt spoke so well, that the
premier told me he had the dignity of Sir William Wyndham, the
wit of Mr. Pulteney, and the knowledge and judgment of Sir
Robert Walpole: in short, he said all that was right for the
King, kind and respectful to the old corps, and resolute and
contemptuous of the Tory opposition."-E.
(1183) He was related to the Duke's mother by the Countess of
Newburgh, his mother.
(1184) Afterwards Duke of Leinster. he married Lady Emily in
the following February.-E.
(1185) Stephen Poyntz, treasurer, and formerly governor to the
Duke.
(1186) He was an engraver of seals.
(1187) A Collection of letters made by Sir Toby Matthews. [In
this Volume will be found an interesting account of the trial
of Sir Walter Raleigh.]
476 Letter 200
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, April 25, 1746.
You have bid me for some time send you good news-well! I think
I will. How good would you have it? must it be a total
victory over the rebels; with not only the Boy, that is here,
killed, but the other, that is not here, too; their whole army
put to the sword, besides -in infinite number of prisoners;
all the Jacobite estates in England confiscated, and all those
in Scotland--what would you have done with them?--or could you
be content with something much under this? how much will you
abate? will you compound for Lord John Drummond, taken by
accident? or for three Presbyterian parsons, who have very
poor livings, stoutly refusing to pay a large contribution to
the rebels? Come, I will deal as well with you as I can, and
for once, but not to make a practice of it, will let you have
a victory! My friend, Lord Bury,(1188) arrived this morning
from the Duke, though the news was got here before him; for,
with all our victory, it was not thought safe to send him
through the heart of Scotland; so he was shipped at Inverness,
within an hour after the Duke entered the town, kept beating
at sea five days, and then put on shore at North Berwick, from
whence he came post in less than three days to London; but
with a fever upon him, for which he had twice been blooded but
the day before the battle; but he is young, and high in
spirits, and I flatter myself will not suffer from this
kindness of the Duke: the King has immediately ordered him a
thousand pound, and I hear will make him his own aide-de-camp.
My dear Mr. Chute, I beg your pardon; I had forgot you have
the gout, and consequently not the same patience to wait for
the battle, with which I, knowing the particulars, postpone
it.
On the 16th, the Duke, by forced marches came up with the
rebels, a little on this side Inverness--by the way, the
battle is not christened yet; I only know that neither
Preston-Pans(1189) nor Falkirk(1190) are to be godfathers.
The rebels, who fled from him after their victory, and durst
not attack him, when so much exposed to them at his
passage(1191) of the Spey, now stood him, they seven thousand,
he ten. They broke through Barril's regiment, and killed Lord
Robert Kerr,(1192) a handsome young gentleman, who was cut to
pieces with above thirty wounds; but they were soon repulsed,
and fled; the whole engagement not lasting above a quarter of
an hour. The young Pretender escaped; Mr. Conway, says, he
hears, wounded: he certainly was in the rear. -They have lost
above a thousand men in the engagement and pursuit; and six
hundred were already taken; among which latter are their
French ambassador and Earl Kilmarnock.(1193) The Duke of
Perth and Lord ogilvie(1194) are said to be slain; Lord
Elcho(1195) was in a salivation, and not there. Except Lord
Robert Kerr, we lost nobody of note: Sir Robert Rich's eldest
son has lost his hand, and about a hundred and thirty private
men fell. The defeat is reckoned total, and the dispersion
general: and all their artillery is taken. It is a brave
young Duke! the town is all blazing round me, as I write, with
fireworks and illuminations - I have some inclination to wrap
up half-a-dozen skyrockets, to make you drink the Duke's
health. Mr. Doddington, on the first report, came out with a
very pretty illumination; so pretty, that I believe he had it
by him, ready for any occasion.
I now come to a more melancholy theme, though your joy will
still be pure, except from what part you take in a private
grief of mine. It is the death of Mr. Winnington,(1196) whom
you only knew as One Of the first men in England, from his
parts and from his employment. But I was familiarly
acquainted with him, loved and admired him, for he had great
good-nature, and a quickness of wit most peculiar to himself:
and for his public talents he has left nobody equal to him, as
before, nobody was superior to him but my father. The history
of his death is a cruel tragedy, but what, to indulge me who
am full of it, and want to vent the narration, you must hear.
He was not quite fifty, extremely temperate and regular, and
of a constitution remarkably strong, hale and healthy. A
little above a fortnight ago he was seized with an
inflammatory rheumatism, a common and known case, dangerous,
but scarce ever remembered to be fatal. He had a strong
aversion to all physicians, and lately had put himself into
the hands of one Thomson, a quack, whose foundation of method
could not be guessed, but by a general contradiction to all
received practice. This man was the oracle of Mrs.
Masham,(1197) sister, and what one ought to hope she did not
think of, coheiress to Mr. Winnington-. his other sister is as
mad in methodism as this in physic, and never saw him. This
ignorant wretch, supported by the influence of the sister,
soon made such progress in fatal absurdities, as purging,
bleeding, and starving him, and checking all perspiration,
that his friends Mr. Fox and Sir Charles Williams absolutely
insisted on calling in a physician. Whom could they call, but
Dr. Bloxholme, an intimate old friend of Mr. Winnington, and
to whose house he always went once a year? This doctor, grown
paralytic and indolent, gave in to every thing the quack
advised: Mrs. Masham all the while ranting and raving At
last, which at last came very speedily, they had reduced him
to a total dissolution, by a diabetes and a thrush; his
friends all the time distracted for him, but hindered from
assisting him; so far, that the night before he died, Thomson
gave him another purge, though he could not get it all down.
Mr. Fox by force brought Dr. Hulse, but it was too late: and
even then, when Thomson owned him lost, Mrs. Masham was
against trying Hulse's assistance. In short, madly, or
wickedly, they have murdered(1199) a man to whom nature would
have allotted a far longer period, and had given a decree of
abilities that were carrying that period to so great a height
of lustre, as perhaps would have excelled both ministers, who
in this country have owed their greatness to the greatness of
their merit.
Adieu! my dear Sir; excuse what I have written to indulge my
own concern, in consideration of what I have written to give
you JOY.
P. S. Thank you for Mr. Oxenden; but don't put yourself to any
great trouble, for I desired you before not to mind formal
letters much, which I am obliged to give: I write to you
separately, when I wish you to be particularly kind to my
recommendations.
(1188) George Keppel, eldest son of William Anne, Earl of
Albemarle, whom he succeeded in the title.
(1189/1190) @ Where the King's troops had been beaten by the
rebels. This was called the battle of Culloden.
(1191) the letter, relating that event, was one of those that
were lost.
(1192) Second son of the Marquis of Lothian.
(1193) William Boyd, fourth Earl of Kilmarnock in Scotland.
He was tried by the House of Lords for high treason, condemned
and beheaded on Tower Hill, August 18, 1746. (He was the
direct male ancestor of the present Earl of Errol. Johnson
says of him,
"Pitied by gentle minds, Kilmarnock died."-D.)
(1194) James, Lord Ogilvie, eldest son of David, third Earl of
Airlie. He had been attainted for the part he took in the
rebellion of 1715.-D.
(1195) David Lord Elcho, eldest son of James, fourth Earl of
Wemyss. He was attainted in 1746; but the family honours were
restored, as were those of Lord Airlie, by act of parliament,
in 1826.-D.
(1196) Thomas Winnington, paymaster of the forces.
(1197) Harriet, daughter of Salway Winnington, Esq. of
Stanford Court, in the county of Worcester: married to the
Hon. Samuel Masham, afterwards second Lord Masham. She died
in 1761.-D.
(1198) At the conclusion of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's
political Odes will be found an affectionate epitaph to the
memory of his deceased friend.-E.
(1199) There were several Pamphlets published on this case, on
both sides. @In May, Dr. Thomson published "The Case of Thomas
Winnington." Esq.;" to which Dr. J. Campbell published a
reply, entitled "A Letter to a friend in Town, occasioned by
the Case of the Right Hon. Thomas Winnington."]
478 Letter 201
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, May 16, 1746.
I have had nothing new to tell you since the victory, relative
to it, but that it has entirely put an end to the rebellion.
The number slain is generally believed much greater than is
given out. Old Tullybardine(1200) has surrendered himself;
the Lords Kilmarnoch, Balmerino,(1201) and Ogilvie(1202) are
prisoners, and coming up to their trials. The Pretender is
not openly taken, but many people think he is in their power;
however, I dare say he will be allowed to escape; and some
French ships are hovering about the coast to receive him. The
Duke is not yet returned, but we have amply prepared for his
reception, by settling on him immediately and for ever
twenty-five thousand pounds a-year, besides the fifteen which
he is to have on the King's death. It was imagined the Prince
would have opposed this, on the reflection that fifteen
thousand was thought enough for him, though heir of the Crown,
and abounding in issue but he has wisely reflected forwards,
and likes the precedent, as it will be easy to find victories
in his sons to reward, when once they have a precedent to
fight with.
You must live on domestic news, for our foreign is exceedingly
unwholesome. Antwerp is gone;(1203) and Bathiani with the
allied army retired under the cannon of Breda; the junction of
the Hanoverians cut off, and that of the Saxons put off. We
are now, I suppose, at the eve of a bad peace; though, as Cape
Breton must be a condition, I don't know who will dare to part
with it. Little Eolus (the Duke of Bedford) says they shall
not have it, that they shall have Woburn(1204) as soon-and I
suppose they will! much such positive patriot politics have
brought on all this ruin upon us! All Flanders is gone, and
all our money, and half our men, and half our navy, because we
would have no search. Well! but we ought to think on what we
have got too!--we have got Admiral Vernon's head on our signs,
and we are going to have Mr. Pitt at the head of our affairs.
Do you remember the physician in Moli`ere, who wishes the man
dead that he may have the greater honour from recovering him?
Mr. Pitt is paymaster; Sir W. Yonge vice-treasurer of Ireland:
Mr. Fox, secretary-at-war; Mr. Arundel,(1205) treasurer of the
chambers, in the room of Sir John Cotton, who is turned out;
Mr. Campbell (one of my father's admiralty) and Mr. Legge in
the treasury, and Lord Duncannon(1206) succeeds Legge in the
admiralty.
Your two last were of April 19th and 26th. I wrote one to Mr.
Chute, inclosed to you, with farther particulars of the
battle; and I hope you received @it. I am entirely against
your sending my eagle while there is any danger. Adieu! my
dear child! I wrote to-day, merely because I had not written
very lately; but you see I had little to say.
(1200) Elder brother of the Duke of Athol; he was outlawed for
the former rebellion.
(1201) Arthur Elphinstone, sixth Lord Balmerino in Scotland.
He was beheaded at the same time and place with Lord
Kilmarnock; and on the scaffold distinguished himself by his
boldness, fortitude, and even cheerfulness.-D.'
(1202) This was a mistake; it was not Lord Ogilvie, but Lord
Cromarty.
(1203) It was taken by the French.-D.
(1204) The seat of the Duke of Bedford.
(1205) The Hon. Richard Arundel, youngest son of John, second
Lord Arundel of Trerice. He had been master of the mint under
Sir Robert Walpole's administration.-D.
(1206) William Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, afterwards second
Earl of Besborough.-D.
479 Letter 202
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, May 22, 1746.
Dear George,
After all your goodness to me, don't be angry that I am glad I
am got into brave old London again: though my cats don't purr
like Goldwin, yet one of them has as good a heart as old
Reynolds, and the tranquillity of my own closet makes me some
amends for the loss of the library and toute la belle
compagnie celestine. I don't know whether that expression
will do for the azure ceilings; but I found it at my fingers'
ends, and so it slipped through my pen. We called at
Langley,(1207) but did not like it, nor the Grecian temple at
all; it is by no means gracious.
I forgot to take your orders about your poultry; the partlets
have not laid since I went, for little chanticleer
Is true to love, and all for recreation,
And does not mind the work of propagation.
But I trust you will come Yourself in a few days, and then you
may settle their route.
I am got deep into the Sidney papers, there are old wills full
of bequeathed ovoche and goblets with fair enamel, that will
delight you; and there is a little pamphlet of Sir Philip
Sidney's in defence of his uncle Leicester, that gives me a
much better opinion of his parts than his dolorous Arcadia,
though it almost recommended him to the crown of Poland; at
least I have never been able to discover what other great
merit he had. In this little tract he is very vehement in
clearing up the honour of his lineage; I don't think he could
have been warmer about his family, if he had been of the blood
of the Cues.(1208) I have diverted myself with reflecting how
it would have entertained the town a few years ago, if my
cousin Richard Hammond had wrote a treatise to clear up my
father's pedigree, when the Craftsman used to treat him so
roundly 'With being Nobody's son. Adieu! dear George!
Yours ever,
THE GRANDSON OF NOBODY.
(1207) A seat of the Duke of Marlborough.
(1208) Mr. Montagu used to call his own family the Cues.
480 Letter 203
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, June 5, 1746.
Dear George,
You may perhaps fancy that you are very happy in the country,
and that because you commend every thing you see, you like
every thing: you may fancy that London is a desert, and that
grass grows now where Troy stood; but it does not, except just
before my Lord Bath's door, whom nobody will visit. So far
from being empty, and dull, and dusty, the town is full of
people, full of water, for it has rained this week, and as gay
as a new German Prince must make any place. Why, it rains
princes: though some people are disappointed of the arrival of
the Pretender, yet the Duke is just coming and the Prince of
Hesse come. He is tall, lusty, and handsome; extremely like
Lord Elcho in person, and to Mr. Hussey,(1209) in what
entitles him more to his freedom in Ireland, than the
resemblance of the former does to Scotland. By seeing him
with the Prince of Wales, people think he looks stupid; but I
dare say in his own country he is reckoned very lively, for
though he don't speak much, he opens his mouth very often.
The King has given him a fine sword, and the Prince a ball.
He dined with the former the first day, and since with the
great officers. Monday he went to Ranelagh, and supped in the
house; Tuesday at the Opera he sat with his court in the box
on the stage next the Prince, and went into theirs to see the
last dance; and after it was over to the Venetian
ambassadress, who is the only woman he has yet noticed.
To-night there is a masquerade at Ranelagh for him, a play at
Covent Garden on Monday, and a Ridotto at the Haymarket; and
then he is to go. His amours are generally very humble, and
very frequent; for he does not much affect our daughter.(1210)
A little apt to be boisterous when he has drank. I have not
heard, but I hope he was not rampant last night with Lady
Middlesex, or Charlotte Dives.(1211) Men go to see him in the
morning, before he goes to see the lions.
The talk of peace is blown over; nine or ten battalions were
ordered for Flanders the day before yesterday, but they are
again countermanded; and the operations of this campaign again
likely to be confined within the precincts of Covent Garden,
where the army- surgeons give constant attendance. Major
Johnson commands (I can't call it) the corps de reserve in
Grosvenor Street. I wish you had seen the goddess of those
purlieus with him t'other night at Ranelagh; you would have
sworn it had been the divine Cucumber in person.
The fame of the Violetta(1212) increases daily; the
sister-Countesses of Burlington and Talbot exert all their
stores of sullen partiality in competition for her- the former
visits her, and is having her picture, and carries her to
Chiswick, and she sups at Lady Carlisle's, and lies--indeed I
have not heard where, but I know not at Leicester House, where
she is in great disgrace, for not going once or twice a week
to take lessons of Denoyer, as he(1213) bid her: you know,
that is politics in a court where dancing-masters are
ministers.
Adieu! dear George: my compliments to all at the farm. Your
cocks and hens would write to you, but they are dressing in
haste for the masquerade - mind, I don't say that Asheton is
doing any thing like that; but he is putting on an odd sort of
a black gown - but, as Di Bertie says on her message cards,
"mum for that." Yours ever.
(1209) Edward Hussey, afterwards Earl of Beaulieu. [He
married Isabella, widow of William, second Duke of Manchester,
the heroine of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's poem entitled
"Isabella; or, the Morning;" and died in 1802.]
(1210) The Princess Mary, who was married to the Prince of
Hesse Cassel, in 1740.-E.
(1211) Afterwards married to Samuel, second and last Lord
Masham, who died in 1776.-E.
(1212) Afterwards Mrs. Garrick.
(1213) The Prince of Wales; with whom the dancing-master was a
great favourite.
482 Letter 204
To sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, June 6, 1746.
It was a very unpleasant reason for my not hearing from you
last post, that you was ill; but I have had a letter from you
since of May 24th, that has made me easy again for your
health: if you was not losing the good Chutes, I should have
been quite satisfied; but that is a loss you will not easily
repair, though I were to recommend you Hobarts(1214) every
day. Sure you must have had flights of strange awkward
animals, if you can be so taken with him! I shall begin to
look about me, to see the merits of England: he was no
curiosity here; and yet heaven knows there are many better,
with whom I hope I shall never be acquainted. As I have
cautioned you more than once against minding my recommendatory
letters, (which one gives because one can't refuse them,)
unless I write to you separately, I have no scruple in giving
them. You are extremely good to give so much credit to my
bills at first sight; but don't put down Hobart to my account;
I used to call him the Clearcake; fat, fair, sweet, and seen
through in a moment. By what you tell me, I should conclude
the Countess was not returning; for Hobart is not a morsel
that she can afford to lose.
I am much obliged to you for the care you take in sending my
eagle by my commodore-cousin, but I hope it will not be till
after his expedition. I know the extent of his genius; he
would hoist it overboard on the prospect of an engagement, and
think he could buy me another at Hyde Park Corner with the
prize-money; like the Roman tar that told his crew, that if
they broke the antique Corinthian statues, they should find
new ones.
We have been making peace lately, but I think it is off again;
there is come an unpleasant sort of a letter, transmitted from
Van Hoey(1215) at Paris; it talks something of rebels not to
be treated as rebels, and of a Prince Charles that is
somebody's cousin and friend-but as nobody knows any thing of
this--why, I know nothing of it neither. There are battalions
ordered for Flanders, and countermanded, and a few less
ordered again - if I knew exactly what day this would reach
you, I could tell you more certainly, because the
determination for or against is only of every other day. The
Duke is coming: I don't find it certain, however, that the
Pretender is got off.
We are in the height of festivities for the Serenity of Hesse,
our son-in-law, who passes a few days here on his return to
Germany. If you recollect Lord Elcho, you have a perfect idea
of his person and parts. The great officers banquet him at
dinner; in the evenings; there are plays, operas, ridottos,
and masquerades.
You ask me to pity you for losing the Chutes - indeed I do;
and I pity them for losing you. They will often miss
Florence, and its tranquillity and happy air. Adieu! Comfort
yourself with what you do not lose.
(1214) The Hon. John Hobart, afterwards second Earl of
Buckinghamshire. Walpole had given him a letter of
introduction to Sir Horace Mann.-E.
(1215) The Dutch minister at Paris.
483 Letter 205
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, June 12th, 1746.
My dear George,
Don't commend me -. you don't know what hurt it will do me;
you will make me a pains-taking man, and I had rather be dull
Without any trouble. From partiality to me you won't allow my
letters to be letters. If you have a mind I should write you
news, don't make me think about it; I shall be so long turning
my periods, that what I tell you will cease to be news.
The Prince of Hesse had a most ridiculous tumble t'other night
at the Opera; they had not pegged up his box tight after the
ridotto, and down he came on all four; George Selwyn says he
carried it off with an unembarrassed countenance. He was to
go this morning; I don't know whether he did or not. The Duke
is expected to-night by all the tallow candles and fagots in
town.
Lady Carolina Fitzroy's match is settled to the content of all
parties; they are taking Lady Abergavenny's house in Brook
Street; the Fairy Cucumber houses all Lady Caroline's
out-pensioners; Mr. Montgomery(1216) is now on half pay with
her. Her Major Johnstone is chosen at White's, to the great
terror of the society.- When he was introduced, Sir Charles
Williams presented Dick Edgecumbe(1217) to him, and said, , I
have three favours to beg of you for Mr. Edgecumbe: the first
is that you would not lie with Mrs. Day; the second, that you
would not poison his cards; the third, that you would not kill
him;" the fool answered gravely, "Indeed I will not."
The Good has borrowed old Bowman's house in Kent, and is
retiring thither for six weeks: I tell her she has lived so
rakish a life, that she is obliged to go and take up. I hope
you don't know any more of it, and that Major Montagu is not
to cross the country to her. There--I think you can't commend
me for this letter; it shall not even have the merit of being
one. My compliments to all your contented family.
Yours ever.
P.S. I had forgot to tell you, that Lord Lonsdale had summoned
the peers to-day to address the King not to send the troops
abroad in the present conjuncture. I hear he made a fine
speech, and the Duke of Newcastle a very long one in answer,
and then they rose without a division.(1218) Lord Baltimore
is to bring the same motion into our House.(1219)
(1216) The Honourable Archibald Montgomerie. He succeeded his
brother as eleventh Earl of Eglinton, in 1769, and died in
1796.-E.
(1217) Richard Edgecumbe, second Lord Edgecumbe.
(1218) 'There was a debate," writes Mr. Pelham to Horatio
Walpole on the 12th, "in the House of Lords this day, upon a
motion of Lord Lonsdale, who would have addressed the King, to
defer the sending abroad any troops till it was more clear
that we are in no danger @ home; which he would by no means
allow to be the case at present. The Duke of Newcastle spoke
well for one that was determined to carry on the war.
Granville was present, but said nothing. flattered the Duke of
Newcastle when the debate was over, and gave a, strong
negative to the motion."-E.
(1219) Lord Baltimore made his motion in the House of Commons,
on the 18th; when it was negatived by the great majority of
103 against 12.-E.
484 Letter 206
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, June 17, 1746.
Dear George,
I wrote to you on Friday night as soon as I could after
receiving your letter, with a list of the regiments to go
abroad; one of which I hear since, is your brothers. I am
extremely sorry it is his fortune, as I know the distress it
will occasion in your family.
For the politics which you inquire after, and which may have
given motion to this step, I can give you no satisfactory . I
have heard that it is in consequence of an impertinent letter
sent over by Van Hoey in favour of the rebels, though at the
same time I hear we are making steps towards a peace. There
centre all my politics, all in peace. Whatever your
cousin(1220) may think, I am neither busy about what does
happen, nor making parties for what may. If he knew how happy
I am, his intriguing nature would envy my tranquillity more
than his suspicions can make him jealous of my practices. My
books, my virt`u, and my other follies and amusements take up
too much of my time to leave me much leisure to think of other
people's affairs; and of all affairs. those of the public are
least my concern. You will be sorry to hear of Augustus
Townshend's(1221) death. I lament it extremely, not much for
his sake, for I did not honour him, but for his poor sister
Molly's, whose little heart, that is all tenderness, and
gratitude, and friendship, will be broke with the shock. I
really dread it, considering how delicate her health is. My
Lady Townshend has a son with him. I went to tell it her.
Instead of thinking of her child's distress, she kept me half
an hour with a thousand histories of Lady Caroline Fitzroy and
Major Johnstone, and the new Paymaster's(1222) m`enage, and
twenty other things, nothing to me, nor to her, if only she
could drop the idea Of the pay of office.
The serene hessian is gone. Little Brooke is to be an earl.
I went to bespeak him a Lilliputian coronet at
Chenevix's.(1223) Adieu! dear George.
(1220) George
Dunk, Earl of Halifax.
(1221) Son of Viscount Townshend and Dorothy, sister of Sir
Robert Walpole. he was a captain in the service of the East
India Company, and died at Batavia, having at that time the
command of the Augusta.-E.
(1222) Mr. Pitt.
(1223) A celebrated toy-shop.
485 Letter 207
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, June 20, 1746.
We are impatient for letters from Italy, to confirm the news
of a victory over the French and Spaniards-(1224) The time is
critical, and every triumph or defeat material, as they may
raise or fall the terms of peace. The wonderful letters of
Van Hoey and M. d'Argenson in favour of the rebels, but which,
if the ministry have any spirit, must turn to their harm, you
will see in all the papers. They have rather put off the
negotiations, and caused the sending five thousand men this
week to Flanders. The Duke is not yet returned from Scotland,
nor is anything certainly known of the Pretender. I don't
find any period fixed for the trial of the Lords; yet the
Parliament sits on, doing nothing, few days having enough to
make a House. Old Marquis Tullibardine, with another set of
rebels are come, amongst whom is Lord Macleod, son of Lord
Cromarty,(1225) already in the Tower. Lady Cromarty went down
incog. to Woolwich to see her son pass by, without the power
of speaking to him: I never heard a more melancholy instance
of affection! Lord Elcho(1226) has written from Paris to Lord
Lincoln to solicit his pardon; but as he has distinguished
himself beyond all the rebel commanders by brutality and
insults and cruelty to our prisoners, I think he is likely to
remain where he is.
Jack Spenser,(1227) old Marlborough's grandson and heir, is
just dead, at the age of six or seven and thirty, and in
possession Of near 30,000 pounds a-year, merely because he
would not be abridged of those invaluable blessings of an
English subject, brandy, small-beer, and tobacco.
Your last letter was of May 31st. Since you have effectually
lost the good Chutes, I may be permitted to lay out all my
impatience for seeing them. There are no endeavours I shall
not use to show how much I love them for all their friendship
to you. You are very kind in telling me how much I am
honoured by their Highnesses Of Modena; but how can I return
it? would it be civil to send them a compliment through a
letter of yours? Do what you think properest for me.
I have nothing to say to Marquis Riccardi about his trumpery
gems, but what I have already said; that nobody here will buy
them together; that if he will think better, and let them be
sold by auction, he may do it most advantageously, for, with
all our distress, we have not at all lost the rage of expense;
but that for sending them to Lisbon, I will by no means do it,
as his impertinent sending them to me without my leave, shall
in no manner draw me into the risk of paying for them. That,
in short, if he will send any body to me with full authority
to receive them, and to give me the most ample discharge for
them, I will deliver them, and shall be happy so to get rid of
them. There they lie in a corner of my closet, and will
probably come to light at last with excellent antique mould
about them! Adieu.
(1224) The battle of Placentia, which took place on the 15th
of May.-E.
(1225) George Mackenzie, third Earl of Cromartie, and his
eldest son John, Lord Macleod. They had been deeply engaged
in the rebellion, were taken prisoners at Dunrobin Castle in
Sutherland, and from thence conveyed to the Tower. They were,
upon trial, found guilty of high treason; but their lives were
granted to them. Lord Macleod afterwards entered the Swedish
service. Lady Cromartie was Isabel, daughter of Sir William
Gordon, of Invergordon, Bart.-D.
(1226) Eldest son of the Earl of Wemyss.
(1227) Brother of Charles Spenser, Earl of Sunderland and Duke
of Marlborough.
486 Letter 208
To George Montagu, Esq.
Arlington Street, June 24, 1746.
Dear George,
You have got a very bad person to tell you news; for I hear
nothing before all the world has' talked it over, and done
with it. Till twelve o'clock last night I knew nothing of all
the kissing hands that had graced yesterday morning;
Arundel(1228) for treasurer of the chambers; Legge, and your
friend Walsh Campbell, for the treasury; Lord Duncannon for
the admiralty; and your cousin Halifax (who is succeeded by
his predecessor in the buck hounds) for chief justice in eyre,
in the room of Lord Jersey. They talk of new earls, Lord
Chancellor, Lord Gower, Lord Brooke, and Lord Clinton; but I
don't know that this will be, because it is not past.
Tidings are every minute expected of a great sea-fight; Martin
has got between the coast and the French fleet, which has
sailed from Brest. The victory in Italy is extremely big; but
as none of my friends are aide-de-camps there, I know nothing
of the particulars, except that the French and-Spaniards have
lost ten thousand men.
All the inns about town are crowded with rebel Prisoners, and
people are making parties of pleasure, which you know is the
English genius, to hear their trials. The Scotch, which you
know is the Scotch genius, are loud in censuring the Duke for
his severities in the highlands.
The great business of the town is Jack Spenser's will, who has
left Althorp and the Sunderland estate in reversion to Pitt;
after more obligations and more pretended friendship for his
brother, the Duke, than is conceivable. The Duke is in the
utmost uneasiness about it, having left the drawing of the
writings for the estate to his brother and his grandmother,
and without having any idea that himself was cut out of the
entail.
I have heard nothing of Augustus Townshend's will: my lady,
who you know hated him, came from the Opera t'other night, and
on pulling off her gloves, and finding her hands all black,
said immediately, "My hands are guilty, but my heart is free."
Another good thing she said, to the Duchess of Bedford,(1229)
who told her the Duke was windbound at Yarmouth, "Lord! he
will hate Norfolk as much as I do."
I wish, my dear George, you could meet with any man that could
copy the beauties in the castle: I did not care if it were
even in Indian ink. Will you inquire? Eckardt has done your
picture excellently well. What shall I do with the original?
Leave it with him till you come?
Lord Bath and Lord Sandys have had their pockets picked at
Cuper's Gardens. I fancy it was no bad scene, the avarice and
jealousy of their peeresses on their return. A terrible
disgrace happened to Earl Cholmondeley t'other night at
Ranelagh. You know all the history of his letters to borrow
money to pay for damask for his fine room at Richmond. As he
was going in, in the crowd, a woman offered him roses--"Right
damask, my lord!" he concluded she had been put upon it. I
was told, a-propos, a bon-mot on the scene in the Opera, where
there is a view of his new room, and the farmer comes dancing
out and shaking his purse. Somebody said there was a
tradesman had unexpectedly got his money.
I think I deal in bon-mots to-day. I'll tell you now another,
but don't print my letter in a new edition of Joe Miller's
jests. The Duke has given Brigadier Mordaunt the Pretender's
coach, on condition he rode up to London in it. "That I will,
Sir," said he, "and drive till it stops of its own accord at
the Cocoa Tree."
(1228) The Honourable Richard Arundel, second son to John,
Lord Arundel, of Trerice. He married, 1732, Lady Frances
Manners, daughter of John, second Duke of Rutland.-E.
(1229) Daughter of John, Earl Gower.
487 Letter 209
To George Montagu,
Arlington Street, July 3, 1746.
My dear George,
I wish extremely to accept your invitation, but I can't bring
myself to it. If I have the pleasure of meeting Lord
North(1230) oftener-at your house next winter, I do not know
but another summer I may have courage enough to make him a
visit; but I have no notion of going to any body's house, and
have the servants look on the arms of the chaise to find out
one's name, and learn one's face from the Saracen's head. You
did not tell me how long you stayed at Wroxton, and so I
direct this thither. I have wrote one to Windsor since you
left it.
The Dew earls have kissed hands, and kept their own titles.
The world reckon Earl Clinton obliged for his new honour to
Lord GranVille, though they made the Duke of Newcastle go in
to ask for it.
Yesterday Mr. Hussey's friends declared his marriage with her
grace of Manchester,(1231) and said he was gone down to
Englefield Green to take possession.
I can tell you another wedding more certain, and fifty times
more extraordinary; it is Lord Cooke with Lady Mary Campbell,
the Dowager of Argyle's youngest daughter. It is all agreed,
and was negotiated by the Countess of Gower and Leicester. I
don't know why they skipped over Lady Betty, who, if there
were any question of beauty, is, I think, as well as her
sister. They drew the girl in to give her consent, when they
first proposed it to her; but now la Belle n'aime pas trop le
Sieur L`eandre. She cries her eyes to scarlet. He has made
her four visits, and is so in love, that he writes to her
every other day. 'Tis a strange match. After offering him to
all the great lumps of gold in all the alleys of the city,
they fish out a woman of quality at last with a mere twelve
thousand pound. She objects his loving none of her sex but
the four queens in a pack of cards, but he promises to abandon
White's and both clubs for her sake.
A-propos to White's and cards, Dick Edgecumbe is shut up with
the itch. The ungenerous world ascribes it to Mrs. Day; but
he denies it; owning, however, that he is very well contented
to have it, as nobody will venture on her. Don't you like
being pleased to have the itch, as a new way to 'keep one's
mistress to one's self!
You will be in town to be sure for the eight-and-twentieth.
London will be as full as at a coronation. The whole form is
settled for the trials, and they are actually building
scaffolds in Westminster-hall.
I have not seen poor Miss Townshend yet; she is in town, and
better, but most unhappy.
(1230) Francis, Lord North and Grey; in 1752 created Earl of
Guilford. His lordship died in 1790, at the age of
eighty-six.-E.
(1231) Isabella, eldest daughter of John, Duke of Montagu,
married in 1723 to William, second Duke of Manchester, who
died in 1739. She married afterwards to Edward Hussey, Esq.
who was created Baron Beaulieu in 1762, and Earl Beaulieu in
1784.
488 Letter 210
To Sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, July 7, 1746.
I have been looking at the dates of my letters, and find that
I have not written you since the 20th of last month. As long
as it seems, I am not in fault; I now write merely lest you
should think me forgetful of you, and not because I have any
thing to say. Nothing great has happened; and for little
politics, I live a good deal out of the way of' them. I have
no manner of connexion with any ministry, or opposition to
ministry; and their merits and their faults are equally a
secret to me. The Parliament sitting, so long has worn itself
to a skeleton; and almost every body takes the opportunity of
shortening, their stay in the country, which I believe in
their hearts most are glad to do, by going down, and returning
for the trials, which are to be on the 28th of this month. I
am of the number; so don't expect to hear from me again till
that aera.
The Duke is still in Scotland, doing his family the only
service that has been done for them there since their
accession. He daily picks Up notable prisoners, and has
lately taken Lord Lovat, and Murray the secretary. There are
flying reports of the Boy being killed, but I think not
certain enough for the father(1232) to faint away again-I
blame myself for speaking lightly of the old man's distress;
but a swoon is so natural to his character, that one smiles at
it at first, without considering when it proceeds from
cowardice, and when from misery. I heard yesterday that we
are to expect a battle in Flanders soon: I expect it with all
the tranquillity that the love of one's country admits, when
one's heart is entirely out of the question, as, thank God!
mine is: not one of my friends will be in it. I -wish it may
be as magnificent a victory for us, as your giornata di San
Lazaro!
I am in great pain for my eagle, now the Brest fleet is
thought to be upon the coast of Spain: bi-it what do you mean
by him and his pedestal filling three cases? is he like the
Irishman's bird, in two places at once?
Adieu! my dear child; don't believe my love for you in the
least abridged, whenever my letters are scarce or short. I
never loved you better, and never had less to say, both which
I beg you will believe by my concluding, yours, etc.
P. S. Since I finished my letter, we hear that the French and
Spaniards have escaped from Placentia, not without some
connivance of your hero-king.(1233) Mons is taken.
(1232) James Stuart, called " The Old Pretender."-D.
(1233) The King of Sardinia.-D.
489 Letter 211
To sir Horace Mann.
Arlington Street, Aug. 1, 1746.
I am this moment come from the conclusion of the greatest and
most melancholy scene I ever yet saw! you will easily guess it
was the trials of the rebel Lords. As it was the most
interesting sight, it was the most solemn and fine:
a coronation is a puppet-show, and all the splendour of it
idle; but this sight at once feasted one's eyes and engaged
all one's passions. It began last Monday; three parts of
Westminster-hall were inclosed with galleries, and hung with
scarlet; and the whole ceremony was conducted with the most
awful solemnity and decency, except in the one point of
leaving the prisoners at the bar, amidst the idle curiosity of
some crowd, and even with the witnesses who had sworn against
them, while the Lords adjourned to their own House to consult.
No part of the royal family was there, which was a proper
regard to the unhappy men, who were become their victims. One
hundred and thirty-nine lords were present, and made a noble
sight on their benches, frequent and full. The
Chancellor(1234) was Lord High Steward; but though a most
comely personage with a fine voice, his behaviour was mean,
curiously searching for occasion to bow to the minister(1235)
that is no peer, and consequently applying to the other
ministers, in a manner for their orders; and not even ready at
the ceremonial. To the prisoners he was peevish; and instead
of keeping up to the humane dignity of the law of England,
whose character it is to point out favour to the criminal, he
crossed them, and almost scolded at any offer they made
towards defence. I had armed myself with all the resolution I
could, whit the thought of their crimes and of the danger
past, and was assisted by the sight of the Marquis
of Lothian(1236) in weepers for his son who fell at Culloden--
but the first appearance of the prisoners shocked me! their
behaviour melted me! Lord Kilmarnock and Lord Cromartie are
both past forty, but look younger. Lord Kilmarnock is tall
and slender, with an extreme fine person: his behaviour a most
just mixture between dignity and submission; if in any thing
to be reprehended, a little affected, and his hair too exactly
dressed for a man in his situation; but when I say this, it is
not to find fault with him but to show how little fault there
was to be found. Lord Cromartie is an indifferent figure,
appeared much dejected, and rather sullen: he dropped a few
tears the first day, and swooned as soon as he got back to his
cell. For Lord Balmerino, he is the most natural brave old
fellow I ever saw: the highest intrepidity, even to
indifference,. At the bar he behaved like a soldier and a
man; in the intervals of form, with carelessness and humour.
He pressed extremely to have his wife, his pretty Peggy,(1237)
with him in the tower. Lady Cromartie only sees her husband
through the grate, not choosing to be shut up with him, as she
thinks she can serve him better by her intercession without:
she is big with child and very handsome; so are their
daughters. When they were to be brought from the Tower in
separate coaches, there was some dispute in which the axe must
go--old Balmerino cried, "Come, come, put it with me." At the
bar, he plays with his fingers upon the axe, while he talks to
the gentleman-gaoler; and one day somebody coming up to
listen, he took up the blade and held it like a fan between
their faces. During the trial, a little boy was near him, but
not tall enough to see; he made room for the child and placed
him near himself.
When the trial began, the two earls pleaded guilty; Balmerino
not guilty, saying he could prove he was not at the taking of
the castle of Carlisle, as was laid in the Indictment. Then
the King's counsel opened, and Serjeant Skinner pronounced the
most absurd speech imaginable; and mentioned the Duke of
Perth, "who," said he, "I see by the papers is dead."(1238)
Then some witnesses were examined, whom afterwards the old
hero shook cordially by the hand. The Lords withdrew to their
House, and returning demanded, of the judges, whether one
point not being proved, though all the rest were, the
indictment was false? to which they unanimously answered in
the negative. Then the Lord High Steward asked the Peers
severally, whether Lord Balmerino @was guilty! All said,
"guilty upon honour," and then adjourned, the prisoner having
begged pardon for giving them so much trouble. While the
lords were withdrawn, the Solicitor-General Murray (brother of
the Pretender's minister)1239) officiously and insolently went
up to Lord Balmerino, and asked him, how he could give the
Lords so much trouble, when his solicitor had informed him
that his plea could be of no use to him? Balmerino asked the
bystanders who this person was! and being told, he said. "Oh,
Mr. Murray! I am extremely glad to see you; I have been with
several of your relations; the good lady, your mother, was of
great use to us at Perth." Are not you charmed with this
speech? how just it was! As he went away, he said, "They
call me Jacobite; I am no more a Jacobite than any that tried
me: but if the Great Mogul had set up his standard, I should
have followed it, for I could not starve." The worst of his
case is, that after the battle of Dumblain, having a company
in the Duke of Argyll's regiment, he deserted with it to the
rebels, and has since been pardoned. Lord Kilmarnock is a
Presbyterian, with four earldoms(1240) in him, but so poor
since Lord Wilmington's stopping a pension that my father had
given him, that he often wanted a dinner. Lord Cromartie was
receiver of the rents of the King's second son in Scotland,
which, it was understood, he should not account for; and by
that means had six hundred a-year from the Government: Lord
Elibank,(1241) a very prating, impertinent Jacobite, was bound
for him in nine thousand pounds, for which the Duke is
determined to sue him.
When the Peers were going to vote, Lord Foley(1242) withdrew,
as too well a wisher; Lord Moray,(1243) as nephew of Lord
Balmerino--and
Lord Stair--as, I believe, uncle to his great-grandfather.
Lord Windsor,(1244) very affectedly, said, "I am sorry I must
say, guilty upon my honour." Lord Stamford(1245) would not
answer to the name of Henry, having been christened Harry--
what a great way of thinking on such an occasion! I was
diverted too with old Norsa, the father of my brother's
concubine, an old Jew that kept a tavern; my brother, as
auditor of the exchequer, has a gallery along one whole side
of the court: I said, "I really feel for the prisoners!" old
Issachar replied, "Feel for them! pray, if they had succeeded,
what would have become of all us?" When my Lady Townshend
heard her husband vote, she said, "I always knew my Lord was
guilty, but I never thought he would own it upon his honour."
Lord Balmerino said, that one of his reasons for pleading not
guilty, was, that so many ladies might not be disappointed of
their show.
On Wednesday they were again brought to Westminster-hall, to
receive sentence; and being asked what they had to say, Lord
Kilmarnock, with a very fine voice, read a very fine speech,
confessing the extent of his crime, but offering his
principles as some alleviation, having his eldest son (his
second unluckily was with him,) in the Duke's army, fighting
for the liberties of his country at Culloden, where his
unhappy father was ? .n arms to destroy them. He insisted
much on his tenderness to the English prisoners, which some
deny, and say that he was the man who proposed their being put
to death, when General Stapleton urged that he was come to
fight, and not to butcher; and that if they acted any such
barbarity, he would leave them with all his men. He very
artfully mentioned Van Hoey's letter, and said how much he
should scorn to owe his life to such intercession. Lord
Cromartie spoke much shorter, and so low, that he was not
heard but by those who sat very near him; but they prefer his
speech to the other. He mentioned his misfortune in having
drawn in his eldest son, who is prisoner with him; and
concluded with saying, "If no part of this bitter cup must
pass from me, not mine, O God, but thy will be done!" If he
had pleaded not guilty, there was ready to be produced against
him a paper signed with his own hand, for putting to death the
English prisoners.
Lord leicester went up to the Duke of Newcastle, and said, "I
never heard so great an orator as Lord Kilmarnock; if I was
grace, I would pardon him, and make him paymaster."(1246)
That morning a paper had been sent to the lieutenant of the
Tower for the prisoners; he gave it to Lord Cornwallis,(1247)
the governor, who carried it to the House of Lords. It was a
plea for the prisoners, objecting that the late act for
regulating the trial of rebels did not take place till after
their crime was committed. The Lords very tenderly and
rightly sent this plea to them, of which, as you have seen,
the two Earls did not make use; but old Balmerino did, and
demanded council on it. The High Steward, almost in a
passion, told him, that when he had been offered council, he
did not accept it. Do but think on the ridicule of sending
them the plea, and then denying them council on it! The Duke
of Newcastle, who never lets slip an opportunity of being
absurd, took it up as a ministerial point, in defence of his
creature the Chancellor; but Lord Granville moved, according
to order, to adjourn to debate in the chamber of Parliament,
where the Duke of Bedford and many others spoke warmly for
their having council; and it was granted. I said their,
because the plea would have saved them all, and affected nine
rebels who had been hanged that very morning; particularly one
Morgan, a poetical lawyer. Lord Balmerino asked for Forester
and Wilbraham; the latter a very able lawyer in the House of
Commons, who, the Chancellor said privately, he was sure would
as soon be hanged as plead such a cause. But he came as
council to-day (the third day), when Lord Balmerino gave up
his plea as invalid, and submitted, without any speech. The
High Steward then made his, very long and very poor, with only
one or two good passages; and then pronounced sentence!
Great intercession is made for the two Earls: Duke
Hamilton,(1248) who has never been at court, designs to kiss
the King's hand, and ask Lord Kilmarnock's life. The King is
much inclined to some mercy; but the Duke, who has not so much
of Caesar after a victory, as in gaining it, is for the utmost
severity. It was lately proposed in the city to
present him with the freedom of some company; one of the
aldermen said aloud, "Then let it be of the Butchers!"(1249)
The Scotch and his Royal Highness are not at all guarded in
their expressions of each other. When he went to Edinburgh,
in his pursuit of the rebels, they would not admit his guards,
alleging that it was contrary to their privileges; but they
rode in, sword in hand; and the Duke, very justly incensed,
refused to see any of the magistrates. He came with the
utmost expedition to town, in order for Flanders; but found
that the court of Vienna had already sent Prince Charles
thither, without the least notification, at which both King
and Duke are greatly offended'. When the latter waited on his
brother, the Prince carried him into a room that hangs over
the Wall of St. James's Park, and stood there with his arm
about his neck, to charm the gazing mob
Murray, the Pretender's secretary, has made ample confessions:
the Earl of Traquair(1250 and Dr. Barry, a physician, are
apprehended, and more warrants are out; so much for rebels!
Your friend, Lord Sandwich, is instantly going ambassador to
Holland, to pray the Dutch to build more ships. I have
received yours of July 19th, but you see have no more room
left, only to say, that I conceive a good idea of my eagle,
though the sea] is a bad one. Adieu!
p S. I have not room to say any thing to the Tesi till next
post; but, unless she will sing gratis, would advise her to
drop this thought.
(1234) Philip Yorke, lord Hardwicke.
(1235 henry Pelham.
(1236) William ker, third marquis of Lothian. Lord Robert
Ker, who was killed at Culloden, was his second son.--D.
(1237) Margaret, lady Balmerino, daughter of Captain
chalmers.--D.
(1238) The duke of Perth, being a young man of delicate frame,
expired on his passage to France.--E.
(1239) Lord Dunbar.
(1240) Kilmarnock, Erroll, Linlithgow, and Calendar.--D.
(1241) Patrick Murray, fifth Lord Elibank.--D.
(1242) Thomas, second Lord Foley, of the first creation.--D.
(1243) James Stewart, ninth Earl of Moray. His mother was
jean Elphinstone, daughter of John, fourth Lord Balmerino.--D.
(1244) Robert Windsor, second viscount Windsor in Ireland. He
sat in Parliament as Lord Mountjoy of the isle of Wight. He
died in 1758, when His titles extinguished.--D.
(1245) Harry Grey, died in 1768.--D.
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