Volume Ii Part 11 (1/2)
[Footnote 1: Mr. Gulston now fully remunerated Mr. Cole in a valuable present of books.--WALPOLE.]
I am much more impatient to see Mr. Gray's print, than Mr.
What-d'ye-call-him's [Masters's] answer to my ”Historic Doubts.”[1] He may have made himself very angry; but I doubt whether he will make me at all so. I love antiquities; but I scarce ever knew an antiquary who knew how to write upon them. Their understandings seem as much in ruins as the things they describe. For the Antiquarian Society, I shall leave them in peace with Whittington and his Cat. As my contempt for them has not, however, made me disgusted with what they do not understand, antiquities, I have published two numbers of ”Miscellanies,” and they are very welcome to mumble them with their toothless gums. I want to send you these--not their gums, but my pieces, and a ”Grammont,”[2] of which I have printed only a hundred copies, and which will be extremely scarce, as twenty-five copies are gone to France. Tell me how I shall convey them safely.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Masters's pamphlet, printed at the expense of the Antiquarian Society in the second volume of the ”Archaeologia.”--WALPOLE.]
[Footnote 2: He had just published a small edition of Grammont's Memoirs, ”Augmentee de Notes et eclairciss.e.m.e.ns necessaires, par M.
Horace Walpole,” and had dedicated it to Mme. du Deffand.]
Another thing you must tell me, if you can, is, if you know anything ancient of the Freemasons. Governor Pownall,[1] a Whittingtonian, has a mind they should have been a corporation erected by the popes. As you see what a good creature I am, and return good for evil, I am engaged to pick up what I can for him, to support this system, in which I believe no more than in the pope: and the work is to appear in a volume of the Society's pieces. I am very willing to oblige him, and turn my cheek, that they may smite that, also. Lord help them! I am sorry they are such numskulls, that they almost make me think myself something; but there are great authors enough to bring me to my senses again. Posterity, I fear, will cla.s.s me with the writers of this age, or forget me with them, not rank me with any names that deserve remembrance. If I cannot survive the Milles's, the What-d'ye-call-him's [Masters's], and the compilers of catalogues of Topography, it would comfort me very little to confute them. I should be as little proud of success as if I had carried a contest for churchwarden.
[Footnote 1: Thomas Pownall, Esq., the antiquary, and a constant contributor to the ”Archaeologia.” Having been governor of South Carolina and other American colonies, he was always distinguished from his brother John, who was likewise an antiquary, by the t.i.tle of Governor.]
Not being able to return to Strawberry Hill, where all my books and papers are, and my printer lying fallow, I want some short bills to print. Have you anything you wish printed? I can either print a few to amuse ourselves, or, if very curious, and not too dry, could make a third number of ”Miscellaneous Antiquities.”
I am not in any eagerness to see Mr. What-d'ye-call-him's pamphlet against me; therefore pray give yourself no trouble to get it for me.
The specimens I have seen of his writing take off all edge from curiosity. A print of Mr. Gray will be a real present. Would it not be dreadful to be commended by an age that had not taste enough to admire his ”Odes”? Is not it too great a compliment to me to be abused, too? I am ashamed. Indeed our antiquaries ought to like me. I am but too much on a par with them. Does not Mr. Henshaw come to London? Is he a professor, or only a lover of engraving? If the former, and he were to settle in town, I would willingly lend him heads to copy. Adieu!
_POPULARITY OF LOUIS XVI--DEATH OF LORD HOLLAND--BRUCE'S ”TRAVELS.”_
TO SIR HORACE MANN.
STRAWBERRY HILL, _July_ 10, 1774.
The month is come round, and I have, besides, a letter of yours to answer; and yet if I were not as regular as a husband or a merchant in paying my just dues, I think I should not perform the function, for I certainly have no natural call to it at present. Nothing in yours requires a response, and I have nothing new to tell you. Yet, if one once breaks in upon punctuality, adieu to it! I will not give out, after a perseverance of three-and-thirty years; and so far I will not resemble a husband.
The whole blood royal of France is recovered from the small-pox. Both Choiseul and Broglie are recalled, and I have some idea that even the old Parliament will be so. The King is adored, and a most beautiful compliment has been paid to him: somebody wrote under the statue of Henri Quatre, _Resurrexit_.[1]
[Footnote 1: ”_Resurrexit._” A courtly picture-dealer, eager to make a market of the new sovereign's popularity, devised even a neater compliment to him, issuing a picture of the three sovereigns--Louis XII., Henri IV., and the young king--with an explanation that 4 and 12 made 16.]
Lord Holland is at last dead, and Lady Holland is at the point of death.
His sons would still be in good circ.u.mstances, if they were not _his_ sons; but he had so totally spoiled the two eldest, that they would think themselves bigots if they were to have common sense. The prevailing style is not to reform, though Lord Lyttelton [the bad Lord]
pretends to have set the example. Gaming, for the last month, has exceeded its own outdoings, though the town is very empty. It will be quite so to-morrow, for Newmarket begins, or rather the youth adjourn thither. After that they will have two or three months of repose; but if they are not severely blooded and blistered, there will be no alteration. Their pleasures are no more entertaining to others, than delightful to themselves; one is tired of asking every day, who has won or lost? and even the portentous sums they lose, cease to make impression. One of them has committed a murder, and intends to repeat it. He betted 1,500 that a man could live twelve hours under water; hired a desperate fellow, sunk him in a s.h.i.+p, by way of experiment, and both s.h.i.+p and man have not appeared since. Another man and s.h.i.+p are to be tried for their lives, instead of Mr. Blake, the a.s.sa.s.sin.
Christina, d.u.c.h.ess of Kingston, is arrived, in a great fright, I believe, for the Duke's nephews are going to prove her first marriage, and hope to set the Will aside. It is a pity her friends.h.i.+p with the Pope had not begun earlier; he might have given her a dispensation. If she loses her cause, the best thing he can do will be to give her the veil.
I am sorry all Europe will not furnish me with another paragraph. Africa is, indeed, coming into fas.h.i.+on. There is just returned a Mr. Bruce,[1]
who has lived three years in the Court of Abyssinia, and breakfasted every morning with the Maids of Honour on live oxen. Otaheite and Mr.
Banks are quite forgotten; but Mr. Blake, I suppose, will order a live sheep for supper at Almack's, and ask whom he shall help to a piece of the shoulder. Oh, yes; we shall have negro butchers, and French cooks will be laid aside. My Lady Townshend [Harrison], after the Rebellion, said, everybody was so bloodthirsty, that she did not dare to dine abroad, for fear of meeting with a rebel-pie--now one shall be asked to come and eat a bit of raw mutton. In truth, I do think we are ripe for any extravagance. I am not wise enough to wish the world reasonable--I only desire to have follies that are amusing, and am sorry Cervantes laughed chivalry out of fas.h.i.+on. Adieu!
[Footnote 1: When Bruce's ”Travels” were first published, his account of the strange incidents which had occurred to him was very generally disbelieved and ridiculed; ”Baron Munchausen” was even written in derision of them; but the discoveries of subsequent travellers have confirmed his narrative in almost every respect.]
_DISCONTENT IN AMERICA--MR. GRENVILLE'S ACT FOR THE TRIAL OF ELECTION PEt.i.tIONS--HIGHWAY ROBBERIES._
TO SIR HORACE MANN.
STRAWBERRY HILL, _Oct._ 6, 1774.