VOLUME I

London

T. FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE

NEW YORK: G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS

MDCCCXC

CONTENTS.

1736-1764.

1. TO MONTAGU, May 2, 1736.—Marriage of the Princess of Wales—Very lively

2. TO THE SAME, May 6, 1736.—Fondness for Old Stories—Reminiscences of Eton, etc.

3. TO THE SAME, March 20, 1737.—Wish to Travel—Superiority of French Manners to English in their manner to Ladies

4. TO WEST, April 21, 1739.—Theatres at Paris—St. Denis—Fondness of the French for Show, and for Gambling—Singular Signs—The Army the only Profession for Men of Gentle Birth—Splendour of the Public Buildings

5. TO THE SAME, 1739.—Magnificence of Versailles—The Chartreux Relics

6. TO THE SAME, February 27, 1740.—The Carnival—The Florentines Civil, Good-natured, and Fond of the English—A Curious Challenge

7. TO THE SAME, June 14, 1740.—Herculaneum—Search should be made for other Submerged Cities—Quotations from Statius

8. TO CONWAY, July 5, 1740.—Danger of Malaria—Roman Catholic Relics—"Admiral Hosier's Ghost"—Contest for the Popedom

9. TO THE SAME, July 9, 1740

10. TO WEST, Oct. 2, 1740.—A Florentine Wedding—Addison's Descriptions are Borrowed from Books—A Song of Bondelmonti's, with a Latin Version by Gray, and an English One by the Writer

11. TO MANN, Jan. 22, 1742.—Debate on Pulteney's Motion for a Committee on Papers Relating to the War—Speeches of Pulteney, Pitt, Sir R. Walpole, Sir W. George, etc.—Smallness of the Ministerial Majority

12. TO THE SAME, May 26, 1742.—Ranelagh Gardens Opened—Garrick, "A Wine-merchant turned Player"—Defeat of the Indemnity Bill

13. TO THE SAME, Dec. 9, 1742.—Debate on Disbanding the Hanoverian Troops—First Speech of Murray (afterwards Earl of Mansfield)—Bon Mot of Lord Chesterfield

14. TO THE SAME, Feb. 24, 1743.—King Theodore—Handel Introduces Oratorios

15. TO THE SAME, July 4, 1743.—Battle of Dettingen—Death of Lord Wilmington

16. TO THE SAME, Sept. 7, 1743.—French Actors at Clifden—A new Roman Catholic Miracle—Lady Mary Wortley

17. TO THE SAME, March 29, 1745.—Death of his Father—Matthews and Lestock in the Mediterranean—Thomson's "Tancred and Sigismunda"—Akenside's Odes—Conundrums in Fashion

18. TO THE SAME, May 11, 1745.—Battle of Fontenoy—The Ballad of the Prince of Wales

19. TO MONTAGU, August 1, 1745.—M. De Grignan—Livy's Patavinity—The Maréchal De Belleisle—Whiston Prophecies the Destruction of the World—The Duke of Newcastle

20. TO MANN, Sept. 6, 1745.—Invasion of Scotland by the Young Pretender—Forces are said to be Preparing in France to join him

21. TO THE SAME, Sept. 20, 1745.—This and the following Letters give a Lively Account of the Progress of the Rebellion till the Retreat from Derby, after which no particular interest attaches to it

22. TO THE SAME, Sept. 27, 1745.—Defeat of Cope

23. TO THE SAME, Oct. 21, 1745.—General Wade is Marching to Scotland—Violent Proclamation of the Pretender

24. TO THE SAME, Nov. 22, 1745.—Gallant Resistance of Carlisle—Mr. Pitt attacks the Ministry

25. TO THE SAME, Dec. 9, 1745.—The Rebel Army has Retreated from Derby—Expectation of a French Invasion

26. TO THE SAME, April 25, 1746.—Battle of Culloden

27. TO THE SAME, Aug. 1, 1746.—Trial of the Rebel Lords Balmerino and Kilmarnock

28. TO THE SAME, Oct. 14, 1746.—The Battle of Rancoux

29. TO CONWAY, Oct. 24, 1746.—On Conway's Verses—No Scotch_man_ is capable of such Delicacy of Thought, though a Scotchwoman may be—Akenside's, Armstrong's, and Glover's Poems

30. TO THE SAME, June 8, 1747.—He has bought Strawberry Hill

31. TO THE SAME, Aug. 29, 1748.—His Mode of Life—Planting—Prophecies of New Methods and New Discoveries in a Future Generation

32. TO MANN, May 3, 1749.—Rejoicings for the Peace—Masquerade at Ranelagh—Meeting of the Prince's Party and the Jacobites—Prevalence of Drinking and Gambling—Whitefield

33. TO THE SAME, March 11, 1750.—Earthquake in London—General Panic—Marriage of Casimir, King of Poland

34. TO THE SAME, April 2, 1750.—General Panic—Sherlock's Pastoral Letter—Predictions of more Earthquakes—A General Flight from London—Epigrams by Chute and Walpole himself—French Translation of Milton

35. TO THE SAME, April 1, 1751.—Death of Walpole's Brother, and of the Prince of Wales—Speech of the young Prince—Singular Sermon on His Death

36. TO THE SAME, June 18, 1751.—Changes in the Ministry and Household—The Miss Gunnings—Extravagance in London—Lord Harcourt, Governor of the Prince of Wales

37. TO THE SAME, June 12, 1753.—Description of Strawberry Hill—Bill to Prevent Clandestine Marriages

38. TO MONTAGU, May 19, 1756.—No News from France but what is Smuggled—The King's Delight at the Vote for the Hanover Troops—Bon Mot of Lord Denbigh

39. TO THE SAME, Oct. 17, 1756.—Victory of the King of Prussia at Lowositz—Singular Race—Quarrel of the Pretender with the Pope

40. TO THE SAME, Nov. 4, 1756.—Ministerial Negotiations—Loss of Minorca—Disaster in North America

41. TO THE EARL OF STRAFFORD, July 4, 1757.—The King of Prussia's Victories—Voltaire's "Universal History"

42. TO ZOUCH, August 3, 1758.—His own "Royal and Noble Authors"

43. TO THE SAME, Oct. 21, 1758.—His "Royal and Noble Authors"—Lord Clarendon—Sir R. Walpole and Lord Bolingbroke—The Duke of Leeds

44. TO MANN, Oct. 24, 1758.—Walpole's Monument to Sir Horace's Brother—Attempted Assassination of the King of Portugal—Courtesy of the Duc D'Aiguillon to his English Prisoners

45. TO ZOUCH, Dec. 9, 1758.—A New Edition of Lucan—Comparison of "Pharsalea"—Criticism on the Poet, with the Aeneid—Helvetius's Work, "De L'Esprit"

46. TO CONWAY, Jan. 19, 1759.—State of the House of Commons

47. TO DALRYMPLE, Feb. 25, 1759.—Robertson's "History of Scotland"—Comparison of Ramsay and Reynolds as Portrait-Painters—Sir David's "History of the Gowrie Conspiracy"

48. TO THE SAME, July 11, 1759.—Writers of History: Goodall, Hume, Robertson—Queen Christina

49. TO CONWAY, Aug. 14, 1759.—The Battle of Minden—Lord G. Sackville

50. TO MANN, Sept. 13, 1759.—Admiral Boscawen's Victory—Defeat of the King of Prussia—Lord G. Sackville

51. TO MONTAGU, Oct. 21, 1759.—A Year of Triumphs

52. TO THE SAME, Nov. 8, 1759.—French Bankruptcy—French Epigram

53. TO THE SAME, Jan. 7, 1760.—He lives amongst Royalty—Commotions in Ireland

54. TO THE SAME, Jan. 14, 1760.—Severity of the Weather—Scarcity in Germany—A Party at Prince Edward's—Charles Townsend's Comments on La Fontaine

55. TO MANN, Feb. 28, 1760.—Capture of Carrickfergus

56. TO DALRYMPLE, April 4, 1760.—The Ballad of "Hardyknute"—Mr. Home's "Siege of Aquileia"—"Tristram Shandy"—Bishop Warburton's Praise of it

57. TO THE SAME, June 20, 1760.—Erse Poetry—"The Dialogues of the Dead"—"The Complete Angler"

58. TO MONTAGU, Sept. 1, 1760.—Visits in the Midland Counties—Whichnovre—Sheffield—The new Art of Plating—Chatsworth—Haddon Hall—Hardwicke—Apartments of Mary Queen of Scots—Newstead—Althorp

59. TO THE SAME, April 16, 1761.—Gentleman's Dress—Influence of Lord Bute—Ode by Lord Middlesex—G. Selwyn's Quotation

60. TO THE SAME, May 5, 1761.—Capture of Belleisle—Gray's Poems—Hogarth's Vanity

61. TO THE SAME, May 22, 1761.—Intended Marriage of the King—Battles in Germany—Capture of Pondicherry—Burke

62. TO MANN, Sept. 10, 1761.—Arrival of the Princess of Mecklenburgh—The Royal Wedding—The Queen's Appearance and Behaviour

63. TO THE COUNTESS OF AILESBURY, Sept. 27, 1761.—The Coronation and subsequent Gaieties

64. TO THE SAME, Nov. 28, 1761.—A Court Ball—Pamphlets on Mr. Pitt—A Song by Gray

65. TO MANN, Jan. 29, 1762.—Death of the Czarina Elizabeth—The Cock-lane Ghost—Return to England of Lady Mary Wortley

66. TO ZOUCH, March 20, 1762.—His own "Anecdotes of Painting"—His Picture of the Wedding of Henry VII.—Burnet's Comparison of Tiberius and Charles II.—Addison's "Travels"

67. TO MANN, Aug. 12, 1762.—Birth of the Prince of Wales—The Czarina—Voltaire's Historical Criticisms—Immense Value of the Treasures brought over in the Hermione

68. TO CONWAY, Sept. 9, 1762.—Negotiations for Peace—Christening of the Prince of Wales

69. TO MANN, Oct. 3, 1762.—Treasures from the Havannah—The Royal Visit to Eton—Death of Lady Mary—Concealment of Her Works—Voltaire's "Universal History"

70. TO THE SAME, April 30, 1763.—Resignation of Lord Bute—French Visitors—Walpole and No. 45

71. TO MONTAGU, May 17, 1763.—A Party at "Straberri"—Work of his Printing Press—Epigrams—A Garden Party at Esher

72. TO CONWAY, May 21, 1763.—General Character of the French—Festivities on the Queen's Birthday

73. TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD, Dec. 29, 1763.—The ordinary way of Life in England—Wilkes—C. Townshend—Count Lally—Lord Clive—Lord Northington—Louis Le Bien Aimé—The Drama in France

74. TO MONTAGU, _Jan._11, 1764.—A New Year's Party at Lady Suffolk's—Lady Temple, Poetess Laureate to the Muses

75. TO MANN, Jan. 18, 1764.—Marriage of the Prince of Brunswick: His Popularity

76. TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD, Feb. 6, 1764.—Gambling Quarrels—Mr. Conway's Speech

77. TO THE SAME, Feb. 15, 1764.—Account of the Debate on the General Warrant

78. TO MANN, June 8, 1764.—Lord Clive—Mr. Hamilton, Ambassador to Naples—Speech of Louis XV.

79. TO THE SAME, Aug. 13, 1764.—The King of Poland—Catherine of Russia

80. TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD, Oct. 5, 1764.—Madame De Boufflers' Writings—King James's Journal

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

I. HORACE WALPOLE

From an engraving after a sketch by Sir THOS. LAWRENCE, P.R.A.

II. SIR HORACE MANN

III. STRAWBERRY HILL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST

IV. GEORGE MONTAGU

V. THE LIBRARY, STRAWBERRY HILL

VI. HORACE WALPOLE

From a picture in the National Portrait Gallery, by NATHANIEL HONE, R.A.

INTRODUCTION.

It is creditable to our English nobility, and a feature in their character that distinguishes them from their fellows of most other nations, that, from the first revival of learning, the study of literature has been extensively cultivated by men of high birth, even by many who did not require literary fame to secure them a lasting remembrance; and they have not contented themselves with showing their appreciation of intellectual excellence by their patronage of humbler scholars, but have themselves afforded examples to other labourers in the hive, taking upon themselves the toils, and earning no small nor undeserved share of the honours of authorship. The very earliest of our poets, Chaucer, must have been a man of gentle birth, since he was employed on embassies of importance, and was married to the daughter of a French knight of distinction, and sister of the Duchess of Lancaster. The long civil wars of the fifteenth century prevented his having any immediate followers; but the sixteenth opened more propitiously. The

conqueror of Flodden was also "Surrey of the deathless lay";[1] and from his time to the present day there is hardly a break in the long line of authors who have shown their feeling that noble birth and high position are no excuses for idleness, but that the highest rank gains additional illustration when it is shown to be united with brilliant talents worthily exercised. The earliest of our tragic poets was Sackville Earl of Dorset. The preux chevalier of Elizabeth's Court, the accomplished and high-minded Sidney, took up the lyre of Surrey: Lord St. Albans, more generally known by his family name of Bacon, "took all learning for his province"; and, though peaceful studies were again for a while rudely interrupted by the "dark deeds of horrid war," the restoration of peace was, as it had been before, a signal for the resumption of their studies by many of the best-born of the land. Another Earl of Dorset displayed his hereditary talent not less than his martial gallantry. Lord Roscommon well deserved the praises which Dryden and Pope, after

his death, liberally bestowed. The great Lord Chancellor Clarendon devoted his declining years to a work of a grander class, leaving us a History which will endure as long as the language itself; while ladies of the very highest rank, the Duchess of Newcastle and Lady Mary Wortley Montague, vindicated the claims of their sex to share with their brethren the honours of poetical fame.

[Footnote 1: "Lay of the Last Minstrel," vi. 14.]

Among this noble and accomplished brotherhood the author of these letters is by general consent allowed to be entitled to no low place. Horace Walpole, born in the autumn of 1717, was the youngest son of that wise minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who, though, as Burke afterwards described him, "not a genius of the first class," yet by his adoption of, and resolute adherence to a policy of peace throughout the greater part of his administration, in which he was fortunately assisted by the concurrence of Fleury of France, contributed in no slight degree to the permanent establishment of the present dynasty on the throne. He received his education at the greatest of English schools, Eton, to which throughout his life he preserved a warm attachment; and where he gave a strong indication of his preference for peaceful studies and his judicious appreciation of intellectual ability, by selecting as his most intimate friend Thomas Gray, hereafter to achieve a poetical immortality by the Bard and the Elegy. From Eton they both went to Cambridge, and,

when they quitted the University, in 1738, joined in a travelling tour through France and Italy. They continued companions for something more than two years; but at the end of that time they separated, and in the spring of 1741 Gray returned to England. The cause of their parting was never distinctly avowed; Walpole took the blame, if blame there was, on himself; but, in fact, it probably lay in an innate difference of disposition, and consequently of object. Walpole being fond of society, and, from his position as the Minister's son, naturally courted by many of the chief men in the different cities which they visited; while Gray was of a reserved character shunning the notice of strangers, and fixing his attention on more serious subjects than Walpole found attractive.

In the autumn of the same year Walpole himself returned home. He had become a member of Parliament at the General Election in the summer, and took his seat just in time to bear a part in the fierce contest which terminated in the dissolution of his father's Ministry. His maiden speech, almost the only one he ever made, was in defence of the character and policy of his father, who was no longer in the House of Commons to defend himself.[1] And the result of the conflict made no slight impression on his mind; but gave a colour to all his political views.

He began almost immediately to come forward as an author: not, however, as—

Obliged by hunger and request of friends;

for in his circumstances he was independent, and even opulent; but seeking to avenge his father by squibs on Mr. Pulteney (now Lord Bath), as having been the leader of the attacks on him, and on the new Ministry which had succeeded him. In one respect that age was a happy one for ministers and all connected with them. Pensions and preferments were distributed with a lavish hand; and, even while he was a schoolboy, he had received more than one "patent place," as such were called, in the Exchequer, to which before his father's resignation others were added, which after a time raised his income to above £5,000 a year, a fortune which in those times was exceeded by comparatively few, even of those regarded as wealthy. So rich, indeed, was he, that before he was thirty he was able to buy Strawberry Hill, "a small house near Twickenham," as he describes it at first, but which he gradually enlarged and embellished till it grew into something of a baronial castle on a small scale, somewhat as, under the affectionate diligence of a greater man,

Abbotsford in the present century became one of the lions of the Tweed.

[Footnote 1: The speech was made March 23, 1742; but Sir Robert had resigned office, and been created Earl of Orford in the February preceding.]

From this time forth literary composition, with the acquisition of antiques and curiosities for the decoration of "Strawberry" occupied the greater part of his life. He erected a printing press, publishing not only most of his own writings, but some also of other authors, such as poems of Gray, with whom he kept up uninterrupted intercourse. But, in fact, his own works were sufficiently numerous to keep his printers fully employed. He was among the most voluminous writers of a voluminous age. In the course of the next twenty years he published seven volumes of memoirs of the last ten years of the reign of George II. and the first ten of George III.; five volumes of a work entitled "Royal and Noble Authors;" several more of "Anecdotes of Painting;" "The Mysterious Mother," a tragedy; "The Castle of Otranto," a romance; and a small volume to which he gave the name of "Historic Doubts on Richard III." Of all these not one is devoid of merit. He more than once explains that the "Memoirs" have no claim to the more respectable title of "History";

and he apologises for introducing anecdotes which might be thought inconsistent with what Macaulay brands as "a vile phrase," the dignity of history. He excuses this, which he looked on as a new feature in historical composition, on the ground that, if trifles, "they are trifles relating to considerable people; such as all curious people have ever loved to read." "Such trifles," he says, "are valued, if relating to any reign one hundred and fifty years ago; and, if his book should live so long, these too might become acceptable." Readers of the present day will not think such apology was needed. The value of his "trifles" has been proved in a much shorter time; for there is no subsequent historian of that period who has not been indebted to him for many particulars of which no other trustworthy record existed. Walpole had in a great degree a historical mind; and perhaps there are few works which show a keener critical insight into the value of old traditions than the "Historic Doubts," directed to establish, not, indeed, Richard's

innocence of the crimes charged against him, but the fact that, with respect to many of them, his guilt has never been proved by any evidence which is not open to the gravest impeachment. His "Royal and Noble Authors," and his "Anecdotes of Painting" are full of entertainment, not unmixed with instruction. "The Mysterious Mother" was never performed on the stage, nor is it calculated for representation; since he himself admits that the subject is disgusting. But dramas not intended for representation, and which therefore should perhaps be more fitly called dramatic poems, were a species of composition to which more than one writer of reputation had lately begun to turn their attention; though dramas not designed for the stage seem to most readers defective in their very conception, as lacking the stimulus which the intention of submitting them to the extemporaneous ocular judgement of the public can alone impart. Among such works, however, "The Mysterious Mother" is admitted to rank high for vigorous description and poetic imagery. A