Lord bless me! (dropping his "Yes, Sir, and I think you was Oxford, but I have forgot your "Oh! yes " and then I com forted him, and laid the ill-breeding on my footman's being a foreigner; but could not help saying, I really had taken his house for the sexton's. "Yes, Sir, it is not very good without, won't you please to walk in?" I did, and found the inside ten times worse, and a lean wife, suckling a child. He was making an Index to Homer, is going to publish the chief beauties, and I believe had just been reading some of the delicate civilities that pass between Agamemnon and Achilles, and that what my servant took for oaths, were only Greek compliments.1 Adieu! Yours ever. You see I have not a line more of paper. TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. Strawberry Hill, August 18, 1774. It is very hard, that because you do not get my letters, you will not let me receive yours, who do receive them. I have not had a line from you these five weeks. Of your honours and glories fame has told me; and for aught I know, you may be a veldt-marshal by this time, and despise such a poor cottager as me. Take notice, I shall disclaim you in my turn, if you are sent on a command against Dantzick, or to usurp a new district in Poland.3 I have seen no armies, kings, or empresses, and cannot send you such august gazettes; nor are they what I want to 1 The Rev. William Holwell, vicar of Thornbury, prebendary of Exeter, and some time chaplain to the King. He was distinguished by superior talents as a scholar, and a critical knowledge of the Greek language. His "Extracts from Mr. Pope's Translation, corresponding with the Beauties of Homer, selected from the Iliad," were published in 1776.-E. Alluding to the distinguished notice taken of General Conway by the King of Prussia. 3 The first dismemberment of Poland had taken place in the preceding year, by which a third of her territory was ceded to Russia, Austria, and Prussia.-E. hear of. I like to hear you are well and diverted; nay, have pimped towards the latter, by desiring Lady Ailesbury to send you Monsieur de Guisnes's invitation to a military fête at Metz.1 For my part, I wish you was returned to your plough. Your Sabine farm is in high beauty. I have lain there twice within this week, going to and from a visit to George Selwyn, near Gloucester: a tour as much to my taste as yours to you. For fortified towns I have seen ruined castles. Unluckily, in that of Berkeley I found a whole regiment of militia in garrison, and as many young officers as if the Countess was in possession, and ready to surrender at indiscretion. I endeavoured to comfort myself, by figuring that they were guarding Edward II. I have seen many other ancient sights without asking leave of the King of Prussia: it would not please me so much to write to him, as it once did to write for him.o They have found at least seventy thousand pounds of Lord Thomond's.3 George Howard has decked himself with a red riband, money, and honours! Charming things! and yet one may be very happy without them. The young Mr. Coke is returned from his travels in love with the Pretender's queen, who has permitted him to have her picture. What can I tell you more? Nothing. Indeed, if I only write to postmasters, my letter is long enough. Everybody's head but mine is full of elections. I had the satisfaction at Gloucester, where George Selwyn is canvassing, of reflecting on my own wisdom. "Suave mari magno turbantibus æquora ventis," &c. I am certainly the greatest philosopher in the world, without ever having thought of being so: always employed, and never busy; eager about trifles, and indifferent to everything serious. Well, if it is not phi To see the review of the French regiment of carabineers, then commanded by Monsieur de Guisnes. Alluding to the Letter to Rousseau in the name of the King of Prussia. 3 Percy Wyndham Obrien. He was the second son of Sir Charles Wyndham, chancellor of the exchequer to Queen Anne, and took the name of Obrien, pursuant to the will of his uncle, the Earl of Thomond in Ireland. • The Countess of Albany.-E. VOL. V. 2 B losophy, at least it is content. I am as pleased here with my own nutshell, as any monarch you have seen these two months astride his eagle-not but I was dissatisfied when I missed you at Park-place, and was peevish at your being in an Aulic chamber. Adieu! Yours ever. P. S. They tell us from Vienna, that the peace is made between Tisiphone and the Turk: is it true? TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. Strawberry Hill, Sept. 7, 1774. I DID not think you had been so like the rest of the world, as, when you pretended to be visiting armies, to go in search of gold and silver mines! The favours of courts and the smiles of emperors and kings, I see, have corrupted even you, and perverted you to a nabob. Have you brought away an ingot in the calf of your leg? What abomination have you committed? All the gazettes in Europe have sent you on different negotiations: instead of returning with a treaty in your pocket, you will only come back with bills of exchange. I don't envy your subterraneous travels, nor the hospitality of the Hungarians. Where did you find a spoonful of Latin about you? I have not attempted to speak Latin these thirty years, without perceiving I was talking Italian thickened with terminations in us and orum. I should have as little expected to find an Ovid in those regions; but I suppose the gentry of Presburg read him for a fashionable author, as our 'squires and their wives do the last collections of ballads that have been sung at Vauxhall and Marybone. I wish you may have brought away some sketches of Duke Albert's architecture. You know I deal in the works of royal authors, though I have never admired any of their own buildings, not excepting King Solomon's temple. Stanley and Edmondson in Hungary! What carried them thither? The chase of 1 Mr. Conway had gone to see the gold and silver mines of Cremnitz, in the neighbourhood of Grau in Hungary. Mr. Hans Stanley. mines, too? The first, perhaps, waddled thither obliquely, as a parrot would have done whose direction was to Naples. Well, I am glad you have been entertained, and seen such a variety of sights. You don't mind fatigues and hardships, and hospitality, the two extremes that to me poison travelling. I shall never see anything more, unless I meet with a ring that renders one invisible. It was but the other day that, being with George Selwyn at Gloucester, I went to view Berkeley Castle, knowing the Earl was to dine with the mayor of Gloucester. Alas! when I arrived, he had put off the party to enjoy his militia a day longer, and the house was full of officers. They might be in the Hungarian dress, for aught I knew; for I was so dismayed, that I would fain have persuaded the housekeeper that she could not show me the apartments; and when she opened the hall, and I saw it full of captains, I hid myself in a dark passage, and nothing could persuade me to enter, till they had the civility to quit the place. When I was forced at last to go over the castle, I ran through it without seeing any thing, as if I had been afraid of being detained prisoner. I have no news to send you: if I had any, I would not conclude, as all correspondents do, that Lady Ailesbury left nothing untold. Lady Powis is gone to hold mobs at Ludlow, where there is actual war, and where a knight, I forget his name, one of their friends, has been almost cut in two with a scythe. When you have seen all the other armies in Europe, you will be just in time for many election-battles—perhaps, for a war in America, whither more troops are going. Many of those already sent have deserted; and to be sure the prospect there is not smiling. Apropos, Lord Mahon,1 whom Lord Stanhope, his father, will not suffer to wear powder because wheat is so dear, was presented t'other day in coalblack hair and a white feather: they said "he had been tarred and feathered." 1 Charles Viscount Mahon, born on the 3rd of August 1753. In the following December, he married Lady Hester Pitt, eldest daughter of the Earl of Chatham. He succeeded his father, as third Earl Stanhope, in March 1786, and died in 1816.-E. In France you will find a new scene.1 The Chancellor is sent, a little before his time, to the devil. The old Parliament is expected back. I am sorry to say I shall not meet you there. It will be too late in the year for me to venture, especially as I now live in dread of my biennial gout, and should die of it in an hôtel garni, and forced to receive all comers-I, who you know lock myself up when I am ill as if I had the plague. I wish I could fill my sheet, in return for your five pages. The only thing you will care for knowing is, that I never saw Mrs. Damer better in her life, nor look so well. trust me, who am so apt to be frightened about her. You may you TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. Strawberry Hill, Sept. 27, 1774. I SHOULD be very ungrateful indeed if I thought of complaining of you, who are goodness itself to me: and when I did not receive letters from you, I concluded it happened from your eccentric positions. I am amazed, that, hurried as you have been, and your eyes and thoughts crowded with objects, have been able to find time to write me so many and such long letters, over and above all those to Lady Ailesbury, your daughter, brother, and other friends. Even Lord Strafford brags of your frequent remembrance. That your superabundance of royal beams would dazzle you, I never suspected. Even I enjoy for you the distinctions you have receivedthough I should hate such things for myself, as they are particularly troublesome to me, and I am particularly awkward under them, and as I abhor the King of Prussia, and, if I passed through Berlin, should have no joy like avoiding him like one of our countrymen, who changed horses at Paris, and asked what the name of that town was? All the other civilities you have received I am perfectly happy in. The Germans are certainly a civil, well-meaning people, and, I be 1 In consequence of the death of Louis XV. on the 10th of May.-E. |