To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, October 25, 1760. WAS ever so agreeable a man as king George the second, to die the very day it was necessary to save me from a ridicule ? I was to have kissed hands to-morrow but you will not care a farthing about that now; so I must tell you all I know of departed majesty. He went to bed well last night, rose at six this morning as usual, looked, I suppose, if all his money was in his purse, and called for his chocolate. A little after seven, he went into the water-closet; the German valet de chambre heard a noise, listened, heard something like a groan, ran in, and found the hero of Oudenarde and Dettingen on the floor, with a gash on his right temple, by falling against the corner of a bureau. He tried to speak, could not, and expired. Princess Emily was called, found him dead, and wrote to the prince. I know not a syllable, but am come to see and hear as much as I can. I fear you will cry and roar all night, but one could not keep it from you. For my part, like a new courtier, I comfort myself, considering what a gracious prince comes next. Behold my luck. I wrote to lord Bute, thrust in all the unexpecteds, want of ambition, disinterestedness, &c. that I could amass, gilded with as much duty, affection, zeal, &c. as possible. I received a very gracious sensible answer, and was to have been presented to-morrow, and the talk of the few people, that are in town, for a week. Now I shall be lost in the crowd, shall be as well there as I desire to be, have done what was right, they know I want nothing, may be civil to me very cheaply, and I can go and see the puppet-show for this next month at my ease: but perhaps, you will think all this a piece of art; to be sure I have timed my court as luckily as possible, and contrived to be the last person in England that made interest with the successor. You see virtue and philosophy always prone to know the world and their own interest. However, I am not so abandoned a patriot yet, as to desert my friends immediately; you shall hear now and then the events of this new reign-if I am not made secretary of state-If I am, I shall certainly take care to let you know it. I had already begun to think that the lawyers for once talked sense, when they said the king never dies. He probably got his death, as he liked to have done two years ago, by viewing the troops for the expedition, from the wall of Kensington garden. My lady Suffolk told me about a month ago that he had often told her, speaking of the dampness of Kensington, that he would never die there. For my part, my man Harry will always be a favourite; he tells me all the amusing news; he first told me of the late prince of Wales's death, and to-day of the king's. Thank you, Mr. Chute is as well as can be expected-in this national affliction. Sir Robert Brown has left every thing to my lady-ay, every thing; I believe his very avarice. Lord Huntingtower wrote to offer his father eight thousand pounds of Charlotte's fortune, if he would give them one thousand a-year in present, and settle a jointure on her. The earl returned this truly laconic, for being so unnatural, an answer. Lord Huntingtower, I answer your letter as soon as I receive it; I wish you joy; I hear your wife is very accomplished. Yours, Dysart." I believe my lady Huntingtower must contrive to make it convenient for me, that my lord Dysart should die— and then he will. I expect to be a very respectable personage in time, and to have my tomb set forth like the lady Margaret Douglas, that I had four earls to my nephews, though I never was one myself. Adieu! I must go govern the nation. Yours ever. TO THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. MY DEAR LORD, Arlington-street, October 26, 1760. I beg your pardon for so long a silence in the late reign; I knew nothing worth telling you; and the great eveut of this morning you will certainly hear before it comes to you by so sober and regular a personage as the postman. The few circumstances known yet are, that the king went well to-bed last night; rose well at six this morning; went to the water-closet a little after seven; had a fit, fell against a bureau, and gashed his right temple: the valet-de-chambre heard a noise and a groan, and ran in the king tried to speak, but died instantly. I should hope this would draw you southward: such scenes are worth looking at, even by people who regard them with such indifference as your lordship or I. I say no more, for what will mix in a letter with the death of a king! I am my lady's and your lordship's most faithful servant. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, Tuesday, Oct. 28. THE new reign dates with great propriety and decency; the civilest letter to princess Emily; the greatest kindness to the duke; the utmost respect to the dead body. No changes to be made but those absolutely necessary, as the household, &c.— and what some will think the most unnecessary, in the representative of power. There are but two new cabinet counsellers named; the duke of York, and lord Bute, so it must be one of them. The princess does not remove to St. James's, so I don't believe it will be she. To-day, England kissed hands, so did I, and it is more comfortable to kiss hands with all England, than to have all England ask why one kisses hands. Well! my virtue is safe: I had a gracious reception, and yet I am almost as impatient to return to Strawberry, as I was to leave it on the news. There is great dignity and grace in the king's manner. I don't say this, like my dear Madame de Sevigné, because he was civil to me, but the part is well acted. If they do as well behind the scenes, as upon the stage, it will be a very complete reign. Hollinshed, or Baker', would think it begins well, that is, begins ill; it has rained without intermission, and yesterday there came a cargo of bad news, all which, you know, are similar omens to a man, who writes history upon the information of the clouds. Berlin is taken by the Prussians2, the hereditary prince beaten by the French. Poor lord Downe has had three wounds. He and your brother's Billy Pitt are prisoners. Authors of the 'Chronicles' which bear their names. [Ed.] 2 The Russians and Austrians obtained possession of Berlin while Frederic was employed in watching the great Austrian army. They were however soon driven out of it. [Ed.] Johnny Waldegrave was shot through the hat and through the coat; and would have been shot through the body, if he had had any. Irish Johnson is wounded in the hand; Ned Harvey somewhere; and prince Ferdinand mortally in his reputation for sending this wild detachment. Mr. Pitt has another reign to set to rights. The duke of Cumberland has taken lord Sandwich's, in Pall-mall; lord Chesterfield has offered his house to princess Emily; and if they live at Hampton-court, as I suppose his court will, I may as well offer Strawberry for a royal nursery; for at best it will become a cake-house; 'tis such a convenient airing for the maids of honour. If I was not forced in conscience to own to you, that my own curiosity is exhausted, I would ask you, if you would not come and look at this new world; but a new world only re-acted by old players is not much worth seeing; I shall return on Saturday. The parliament is prorogued till the day it was to have met: the will is not opened; what can I tell you more? Would it be news that all is hopes and fears, and that great lords look as if they dreaded wanting bread? would this be news? believe me, it all grows stale soon. I had not seen such a sight these three and thirty years I came eagerly to town; I laughed for three days: I am tired already. Good night! Yours ever. P.S. I smiled to myself last night. Out of excess of attention, which costs me nothing, when I mean it should cost nobody else any thing, I went last night to Kensington to inquire after princess Emily and lady Yarmouth: nobody knew me, they asked my name. When they heard it, they did not seem ever to have heard it before, even in that house. I waited half an hour in a lodge with a footman of lady Yarmouth's; I would not have waited so long in her room a week ago; now it only diverted me. Even moralizing is entertaining, when one laughs at the same time: but I pity those who don't moralize till they cry. 3 Madame de Walmoden, Countess of Yarmouth, mistress of George the Second. [Ed.] To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, October 31, 1760. WHEN you have changed the cypher of George the second into that of George the third, and have read the addresses, and have shifted a few lords and grooms of the bed-chamber, you are master of the history of the new reign, which is indeed but a new lease of the old one. The Favourite took it up in a high style; but having, like my lord Granville, forgot to ensure either house of parliament, or the mob, the third house of parliament, he drove all the rest to unite. They have united, and have notified their resolution of governing as before: not but the duke of Newcastle cried for his old master, desponded for himself, protested he would retire, consulted every body whose interest it was to advise him to stay, and has accepted to-day, thrusting the dregs of his ridiculous life into a young court, which will at least be saved from the imputation of childishness, by being governed by folly of seventy years growth. 1 The young king has all the appearance of being amiable. There is great grace to temper much dignity and extreme goodnature, which breaks out on all occasions. Even the household is not settled yet. The greatest difficulty is the master of the horse. Lord Huntingdon is so by all precedent; lord Gower, 1 I believe, will be so. Poor lord Rochford is undone : nobody is unreasonable to save him. The duke of Cumberland has taken Schomberg-house in Pall-mall; princess Emily is dealing for sir Richard Lyttleton's in Cavendish-square. People imagined the duke of Devonshire had lent her Burlington-house; I don't know why, unless they supposed she was to succeed my lady Burlington in every thing. A week has finished my curiosity fully; I return to Strawberry to-morrow, and I fear, go next week to Houghton, to make an appearance of civility to Lynn,2 whose favour I never asked, nor care if I have or not; but I don't know how to refuse this attention to lord Orford, who begs it. 1 The Right Hon. Granville Leveson, Earl Gower, was appointed, 25th November 1760, keeper of the Great Wardrobe, in the room of sir Thomas Robinson, and was succeeded as master of the horse by Francis, earl of Huntingdon. [Ed.] 2 For which place he was a member. [Ed.] |