Since I began this, I receive yours of April 2d, full of uneasiness for your brother's quicksilver and its effects. I did not mention it to you, because, though it put him back, his physicians were persuaded that he would not suffer, and he has not. As to reasoning with them, my dear child, it is impossible: I am more ignorant in physic than a child of six years old; if it were not for reverence for Dr. Cocchi, and out of grat.i.tude to Dr. Pringle, who has been of such service to your brother, I should say, I am as ignorant as a physician. I am really so sensible of the good your brother has received from this doctor, that I myself am arrived so far towards being ill, that I now know, if I was to be ill, who should be my physician. The weather has been so wet and cold that your brother has received very little benefit from it: he talked to me again this morning of riding but I don't yet think him able; if you had seen him as I saw him the day I wrote my first letter to you, you would be as happy as I am now: without that I fear you would be shocked to see how he is emaciated; but his eyes, his spirits, his attention, give me great hopes, though I absolutely think it a tedious astigmatic case. Adieu! my dear child; be in better spirits, and don't expect either sudden amendment or worse change.

(673) Daughter of the Earl of Hopton.-E.

(674) Whom Mr. Walpole recommended to Sir H. Mann, to whom Sir William, who was a Jacobite, behaved very impertinently.

319 Letter 180 To George Montagu, Esq.

Arlington Street, April 20, 1756.

Your steward called on me just as I was going to keep my Newmarket at Strawberry Hill; he promised to leave me the direction to the statuary, but as I have not heard from him, I wish you would send it me

The cold and the wet have driven me back to London, empty London! where we are more afraid of the deluge than of the invasion. The French are said to be sailed for Minorca, which I hold to be a good omen of their not coming hither; for if they took England, Port Mahon, I should think, would scarcely hold out.

Pray don't die, like a country body, because it is a fashion for gentlefolks to die in London; it li's the bon ton now to die; one can't show one's face without being a death's-head.

Mrs. Bethel and I are come strangely into fashion; but true critics in mode object to our having underjaws, and maintain that we are not dead comme il faut. The young Lady Exeter(675) died almost suddenly, and has handsomely confirmed her father's will, by leaving her money to her lord only for his life, and then to Thomas Townshend.(676) Sir William Lowther has made a charming will, and been as generous at his death as he was in his short life; he has left thirteen legacies of five thousand pounds each to friends; of which you know by sight, Reynolds,(677) Mrs. Brudenel's son, (678) and young Turner. He has given seventeen hundred pounds a-year; that is, I suppose, seventeen hundred Pounds, to old Mrs. Lowther.(679) What an odd circ.u.mstance! a woman pa.s.sing an hundred years to receive a legacy from a man of twenty-seven; after her it goes to Lord George Cavendish. Six hundred pounds per year he gives to another Mrs. Lowther, to be divided afterwards between Lord Frederick and Lord John. Lord Charles, his uncle, is residuary legatee. But what do you think of young Mr. James Lowther, who not of age becomes master of one or two and forty thousand pounds a-year? England will become a heptarchy, the property of six or seven people! The Duke of Bedford is fallen to be not above the fourth rich man in the island.

Poor Lord Digby(680) is like to escape happily at last, after being cut for the stone, and bearing the preparation and execution with such heroism, that waking with the noise of the surgeons, he asked if that was to be the day? "Yes."--"How soon will they be ready?"--"Not for some time."--"Then let me sleep till they are?" He was cut by a new instrument of Hawkins, which reduces an age of torture to but one minute.

The Duke had appeared in form on the causeway in Hyde Park with my lady Coventry: it is the new office, where all lovers are entered. How happy she must be with Billy and Bully!(681) I hope she will not mistake, and call the former by the nickname of the latter. At a great supper t'other night at Lord Hertford's, if she was not the best-humoured creature in the world, I should have made her angry: she said in a very vulgar accent, if she drank any more, she should be muckibus. "Lord!"

said Lady Mary c.o.ke, "what is that?"-"Oh! it is Irish for sentimental."

There is a new Morocco amba.s.sador, who declares for Lady Caroline Petersham, preferably to Lady Coventry. Lady Caroline Fox says he is the best bred of all the foreign ministers, and at one dinner said more obliging things than Mirepoix did during his whole emba.s.sy. He is so fashionable, that George Selwyn says he is sure my lady Winchelsea will ogle him instead of Haslang.

I shall send you soon the fruits of my last party to Strawberry; d.i.c.k Edgc.u.mbe, George Selwyn, and Williams were with me: we composed a coat of arms for the two clubs at White's, which is actually engraving from a very pretty painting of Edgc.u.mbe, whom Mr. Chute, as Strawberry king at arms, has appointed our chief herald painter; here is the blazon:

Vert (for card-table,) between three -parolis proper on a chevron table (for hazard-table) two rouleaus in saltire between two dice proper: in a canton, sable, a white ball (for election) argent.

Supporters. An old knave of clubs on the dexter; a young knave on the sinister side; both accoutred proper.

Crest. Issuing out of an earl's coronet (Lord Darlington) an arm shaking a dice-box, all proper.

Motto. (Alluding to the crest,) Cogit amor nummi. The arms encircled by a claret bottle ticket, by way of order.

By the time I hope to see you at Strawberry Hill, there will be a second volume of the Horatiana ready for the press; or a full and true account of the b.l.o.o.d.y civil wars of the house of Walpole, being a narrative of the unhappy differences between Horatio and Horace Walpoles; in short, the old wretch, who aspires to be one of the heptarchy, and who I think will live as long as old Mrs. Lowther, has accomplished such a scene of abominable avarice and dirt, that I, notwithstanding my desire to veil the miscarriages of my race, have been obliged to drag him and all his doings into light-but I won't antic.i.p.ate.

Adieu!

(675)Daughter and heir of horatio, son of the first Viscount Townshend.

(676) The Honourable Thomas Townshend, second son of Charles second Viscount Townshend, member for the University of Cambridge.-E.

(677) Francis Reynolds, of strangeways, Esq.-E.

(678) George Brudenel, Esq. afterwards member for Rutlandshire, and equerry to George the Second.-E.

(679) Hannah, youngest daughter of alderman Lowther. She had been maid of honour to Queens Mary and Anne, and died in 1757, at the age of one hundred and three.-E.

(680) Edward sixth Lord Digby. he died in the following year.-E.

(681) The Duke of c.u.mberland and Lord Bolingbroke.-E.

321 Letter 181 To George Montagu, Esq.

May 12.

Don't imagine I write to you for any thing but form; there is nothing like news, except the Prussian victories, which you see in the papers: by next courier we expect he will send us at least a leg or an arm of the Empress Queen.

Our domestic politics are far from settled. The King is gone to Kensington, and when any ministry can be formed, it is to be sent after him. The Parliament draggles on, till any two of the factions can unite. I have not got my tickets yet, but will certainly reserve what you want. Adieu!

322 Letter 182 To Sir Horace Mann.

Strawberry Hill, May 16, 1756.

You will hear with great satisfaction that your brother rides out every day, and bears it pretty well. I sent to him yesterday morning, and my Swiss boy told me with great joy at his return, that he saw your brother's servants cutting a plate of bread and b.u.t.ter for him, big enough, said he, for you, Sir, and Mr. Bentley, and Mr. Muntz--who is a Swiss painter that I keep in the house--you perceive I deal much in Swiss. I saw your brother this morning myself; he does not mend so fast as I wish, but I still attribute it to the weather. I mentioned to him Dr. Cocchi's desire of seeing his case and regimen in writing by Dr. Pringle, but I found he did not care for it; and you may imagine I would not press it. I sifted Dr. Pringle himself, but he would not give me a positive answer: I fear he still thinks that it is not totally an asthma. If you had seen him so much worse, as I have, you would be tolerably comforted now. Lord Malpas(682) saw him to-day for the first time, and told me alone that he found him much better than he expected.

His spirits and attention to every thing are just as good as ever, which was far from being the case three months ago.

I read the necessary part of your letter to Sir George Lyttelton, who thinks himself much obliged, and leaves the vases entirely to your taste, and will be fully content with the five jesses you name.

We have nothing new; the Parliament rises the 25th: all our attention is pointed to Minorca, of which you must be much better and sooner informed than we can. Great dissatisfactions arise about the defenceless state in which it was left; it is said, some account arrived from Commodore Edgc.u.mbe(683) the night before last, but it is kept very secret, which at least specifies the denomination of it. I hope to find Mr. Conway in town to-morrow night, whither he is just returned from Ireland; he has pacified that country to the standard of his own tranquillity.

I have read the poem you mention, the Pucelle, and am by no means popular, for I by no means like it-it is as tiresome as if it was really a heroic poem. The four first cantos are by much the best, and throughout there are many vivacities; but so absurd, perplexed a story is intolerable; the humour often missed, and even the parts that give most offence, I think very harmless.

P. S. We are to declare war this week; I suppose, in order to make peace, as we cannot make peace till we have made war.

(682) George, eldest son of George third Earl of Cholmondeley, by Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Walpole: he died before his father and was father of George the fourth earl.

(683) George, second son of Richard Lord Edgec.u.mbe, succeeded his brother in the t.i.tle, and was by George III. created Viscount Mount Edgcc.u.mbe.

323 Letter 183 To George Montagu, Esq.

Arlington Street, May 19, 1756.

Nothing will be more agreeable to me than to see you at Strawberry Hill; the weather does not seem to be of my mind, and will not invite you. I believe the French have taken the sun. Among other captures, I hear the King has taken another English mistress. a Mrs. Pope, who took her degrees in gallantry some years ago. She went to Versailles with the famous Mrs. quon: the King took notice of them; he was told that they were not so rigid as all other English women are- -mind, I don't give you any part of this history for authentic; you know we can have no news from France but what we run. I have rambled so that I forgot what I intended to say; if ever we can have spring, it must be soon; I propose to expect you any day you please after Sunday se'nnight, the 30th: let me know your resolution, and pray tell me in what magazine is the Strawberry ballad? I should have proposed an earlier day to you, but next week the Prince of Na.s.sau is to breakfast at Strawberry Hill, and I know your aversion to clashing with grandeur.

As I have already told you one mob story of a king, I will tell you another: they say, that the night the Hanover troops were voted, he sent Schutz(684) for his German cook, and said, "Get me a very good supper; get me all de varieties; I don't mind expense."

I tremble lest his Hanoverians should be encamped at Hounslow; Strawberry would become an inn; all the Misses would breakfast there, to go and see the camp!

My Lord Denbigh,(685) is going to marry a fortune, I forget her name; my Lord Gower asked him how long the honeymoon would last? He replied, "Don't tell me of the honeymoon; it is harvest moon with me." Adieu!

(684) Augustus Schutz, a German, master of the robes to the King, and his favourite attendant.-E.

(685) Basil sixth Earl of Denbigh. In the following year he married Mary, daughter and coheiress of Sir John Bruce Cotton.-E.