The letter in which Mr. Walpole exculpates himself from the appearance of neglect contains traits of a moft affectionate heart. It begins thus My deareft Harry, how could you write me fuch a cold letter as I have just received from you, and beginning Dear fir! Can you be angry with me, for can I be in fault to you? Blameable in ten thousand other refpects, may not I almost fay I am perfect with regard to you? Since I was fifteen have not I loved you unalterably? Since I was capable of knowing your merit, has not my admiration been veneration? For what could fo much affection and esteem change? Has not your honour, your intereft, your fafety been ever my first objects? Oh, Harry! if you knew what I have felt and am feeling about you, would you charge me with neglect? If I have seen a perfon fince you went, to whom my first question has not been, What do you hear of the peace?" you would have reason to blame me. You fay I write very feldom : I will tell you what, I fhould almost be sorry to have you see the anxiety I have expreffed about you in letters to every body else. No: I must except lady A-, and there is not another on earth who loves you fo well and is fo attentive to whatever relates to you,' Vol. v. P. 73. In another epiftle, the following anecdote will amuse the reader: I will give you one inftance that will fum up the vanity of great men, learned men, and buildings altogether. I heard lately, that Dr. a very learned perfonage, had confented to let the tomb of Aylmer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, a very great perfonage, be removed for Wolfe's monument; that at first he had objected, but was wrought upon by being told that hight Aylmer was a knight templar, a very wicked fet of people as his lordship had heard, though he knew nothing of them, as they are not mentioned by Longinus. I own I thought this a made ftory, and wrote to his lordship, expreffing my concern that one of the finest and most ancient monuments in the abbey fhould be removed, and begging, if it was removed, that he would bestow it on me, who would erect and preferve it here. After a fortnight's deliberation, the bishop fent me an anfwer, civil indeed, and commending my zeal for antiquity! but avowing the ftory under his own hand. He faid, that at firft they had taken Pembroke's tomb for a knight templar's. Obferve, that not only the man who fhows the tombs names it every day, but that there is a draught of it at large in Dart's Weftminfter: that upon difcovering whofe it was, he had been very unwilling to confent to the removal, and at last had obliged Wilton to engage to fet it up within ten feet of where it ftands at prefent. His lordfhip concluded with congratulating me on publishing learned authors at my prefs. I don't wonder that a man who thinks Lucan a learned author, fhould miftake a tomb in his own cathedral. If I had a mind to be angry, I could complain with reafon; as having paid forty pounds for ground for my mother's tomb, that the chapter of Westminster fell their church over and over again; the ancient monuments tumble upon one's head thro' their neglect, as one of them did, and killed a man at lady Elizabeth Percy's funeral; and they erect new waxen dolls of queen Elizabeth, &c. to draw vifits and money from the mob. I hope all this history is applicable to fome part or other of my letter; but letters you will have, and fo I send you one, very like ftories that you tell your daughter: There was a king, and he had three daughters, and they all went to fee the tombs; and the youngeft, who was in love with Aylmer de Valence, &c.' Vol. v. p. 78. your own The minor politics, the arrival of the queen, the coronation, &c. are detailed in a very lively manner. The firft impreffion made by the appearance and behaviour of the queen feems to have been favourable; and it must gratify her to ex-amine, at such a distance of time, a picture fo pleafing and a likeness so flattering. The feceffion and the penfion of Mr. Pitt appear to have roufed Mr. Walpole's indignation; but, in the ftruggle between Mr. Wilkes and the miniftry, he only fmiles at the exceffes of each party, without feeling apparently any interest for either. His affectionate regards feem to have been concentred in the reputation and fuccefs of general. Conway; and his eager friendly warmth when that gentleman was difmiffed from all his employments, in confequence of a vote in parliament, is highly creditable to his feelings. After these contests Mr. Walpole vifited Paris; and his accounts of the manners and fashions of that capital are highly pleasant and entertaining. One paffage, as the editor obferves, is ftriking and almost prophetic. The dauphin will probably hold out very few days. His death, that is, the near profpect of it, fills the philofophers with the greatest joy, as it was feared he would endeavour the restoration of the jefuits. You will think the fentiments of the philofophers very odd state-news-but do you know who the philofophers are, or what the term means here; In the first place, it comprehends almost every body; and in the next, means men, who avowing war against popery, aim, many of them, at a fubverfion of all religion, and still many more, at the destruction of regal power, I How do you know this? you will fay; you, who have been but fix weeks in France, three of which you have been confined to your chamber. True: but in the firft period I went every where, and heard nothing else; in the latter, I have been extremely vifited, and have had long and explicit converfations with many, who think as I tell you, and with a few of the other fide, who are no less persuaded that there are such intentions. In particular, I had two officers here t'other night, neither of them young, whom I had difficulty to keep from a ferious quarrel, and who, in the heat of the difpute, informed me of much more than I could have learnt with great pains.' Vol. v. P. 123. The correspondence which follows confifts of lively badinage, the news of the moment, and various minute circumftances relating to France. The American war again led Mr. Walpole into the field of politics. He, even in the beginning, feemed to dread the confequences, anxioufly to wifh for peace, and do the little in his power for the promotion of it. It is pleafing to view, in our author's defcription, the early dawn of fome of the political conftellations which now fhine fo brightly; and it is honourable to his difcernment, that his auguries have been generally confirmed by experience. The latest public events of his life were the revolution and exceffes in France. His fentiments concerning these are already known. On the whole, we may confider this part of the correfpondence as a faithful portrait of Mr. Walpole's life and opinions. In every inftance, he fpeaks without referve; without the cold caution of little minds, or the diftant calculations of political schemers. Had the prefent edition of Mr. Walpole's works nothing more to boast, this correfpondence would render it exceedingly valuable. The epiftles to Mr. Bentley, the fon of the commentator, are lively and entertaining. That gentleman defigned many of the ornaments of Strawberry-Hill; and to him were directed, with peculiar propriety, the obfervations which our author made on different fpots and manfions in tours through the internal parts of the ifland. Mr. Walpole's description of feveral houses we shall fubjoin. This morning we have been to Penshurst-but, oh! how fallen! The park feems to have never answered its character: at prefent it is forlorn; and instead of Sachariffa's cypher carved on the beeches, I fhould `fooner have expected to have found the milk-woman's fcore. Over the gate is an infcription, purporting the manor to have been a boon from Edward VI. to fir William Sydney. The apartments are the grandest I have seen in any of thefe old palaces, but furnished in a tawdry modern taste. There are loads of portraits; but most of them seem christened by chance, like the children at a foundling-hofpital. There is a portrait of Languet, the friend of fir Philip Sydney; and divers of himself and all his great kindred, particularly his fifter-in-law with a vaft lute, and Sachariffa, charmingly handfome. But there are really four very great curiofities, I believe as old portraits as any extant in England: they are, Fitzallen, archbishop of Canterbury, Humphry Stafford the firft duke of Buckingham, T. Wentworth, and John Foxle; all four with the dates of their commiffions as conftables of Queenborough-castle, from whence I fuppose they were brought. The laft is actually receiving his inveftiture from Edward the third, as Wentworth is in the drefs of Richard the third's time. They are really not very ill done. There are fix more, only heads; and we have found fince we came home, that Penshurst belonged for a time to that duke of Buckingham. There are fome good tombs in the church, and a very Vandal one, called fir Stephen of Penchefter. When we had seen Penfhurst, we borrowed faddles, and, beftriding the horses of our post-chaise, set out for Hever to vifit a tomb of fir Thomas Bullen earl of Wiltshire, partly with a view to talk of it in Anna Bullen's walk at Strawberryhill. But the measure of our woes was not full; we could not find our way, and were forced to return; and again loft ourselves in coming from Penfhurft, having been directed to what they called a better road than the execrable one we had gone. • Since dinner we have been to lord Weftmorland's at Mereworth, which is fo perfect in a Palladian taste, that I must own it has recovered me a little from Gothic. It is better fituated than I had expected from the bad reputation it bears, and has fome prospect, though it is in a moat, and mightily befprinkled with fmall ponds. The design, you know, is taken from the Villa del Capra by Vicenza, but on a larger fcale; yet, though it has coft an hun-. dred thousand pounds, it is ftill only a fine villa: the finishing of in and outside has been exceedingly expenfive. A wood that runs up a hill behind the houfe is broke like an Albano landscape with an octagon temple and a triumphal arch; but then there are fome difinal clipt hedges, and a pyramid, which by a most unnatural copulation is at once a grotto and a greenhouse. Does it not put you in mind of the propofal for your drawing a garden-feat, Chinese on one fide and Gothic on the other? The chimneys, which are collected to a centre, fpoil the dome of the houfe, and the hall is a dark well. The gallery is eighty-two feet long, hung with green velvet and pictures; among which is a fine Rembrandt, and a pretty La Hire. The ceilings are painted, and there is a fine bed of filk and gold tapestry. The attic is good, and the wings extremely pretty, with porticos formed on the ftyle of the house. The eart has built a new church, with a steeple which feems defigned for the latitude of Cheapfide, and is fo tall, that the poor church curtfies under it, like Mary Rich in a vast high-crown hat: it has a round portico like St. Clement's, with vaft Doric pillars fupporting a thin shelf. The infide is the most abominable piece of tawdriness that ever was feen, ftuffed with pillars painted in imitation of verd antique, as all the fides are like Siena marble: but the' greatest abfurdity is a Doric frieze, between the triglyphs of which is the Jehovah, the I. H. S. and the dove. There is a little chapel with Nevil tombs, particularly of the firft Fane earl of Weftmorland, and of the founder of the old church, and the heart of a knight who was killed in the wars. On the Fane tomb is a pedigree of brafs in relief, and a genealogy of virtues to answer it. There is an entire window of painted-glafs arms, chiefly modern, in the chapel, and another over the high altar.' Vol. v. p. 267. On our way we faw Kiveton, an ugly neglected feat of the duke of Leeds, with noble apartments and several good portraitsOh! portraits!-I went to Welbeck.-It is impoffible to defcribe the bales of Cavendishes, Harleys, Hollefes, Veres, and Ogles : every chamber is tapestried with them; nay, and with ten thousand other fat morfels; all their histories infcribed; all their arms, crefts, devices, fculptured on chimneys of various English marbles in ancient forms (and, to fay truth, most of them ugly). Then fuch a Gothic ball, with pendent fret work in imitation of the old, and with a chimney-piece extremely like mine in the library! fuch water-colour pictures! fuch hiftoric fragments! In short, fuch and fo much of every thing I like, that my party thought they should never get me away again. There is Prior's portrait, and the column and Varelft's flower on which he wrote; and the authorefs duchefs of Newcastle in a theatric habit, which she generally wore, and, confequently, looking as mad as the prefent duchefs; and dukes of the fame name, looking as foolish as the prefent duke: and lady Mary Wortley, drawn as an authorefs, with rather better pretenfions; and cabinets and glaffes wainscoted with the Greandale oak, which was fo large, that an old fteward wifely cut a way through it to make a triumphal paffage for his lord and lady on their wedding, and only killed it!--But it is impoffible to tell you half what there is. The poor woman who is juft dead, paffed her whole widowhood, except in doing ten thousand right and just things, in collecting and monumenting the portraits and reliques of all the great families from which the defcended, and which centred in her. The duke and duchefs of Portland are expected there to-morrow, and we faw dozens of cabinets and coffers with the feals not yet taken off. What treasures to revel over! The horfeman duke's manege is converted into a lofty stable, and there is still a grove or two of magnificent oaks that have escaped all these great families, though the laft lord Oxford cut down above an hundred thousand pounds worth. The place has little pretty, diftinct from all thefe reverend circumftances.' Vol. v. P. 273. The letters to Mr. Bentley contain alfo fome of the minor politics of the day. They derive their chief merit (and it is no trifling one) from the lively naïve manner of the writer. The following political anecdotes deferve notice: the letter is dated Nov. 16, 1755. - The new oppofition attacked the addrefs.--Who are the new oppofition? Why, the old oppofition: Pitt and the Grenvilles ; indeed, with Legge inftead of fir George Lyttelton. Judge how entertaining it was to me, to hear Lyttelton anfwer Grenville, and Pitt Lyttelton! The debate long and uninterrupted as it was, was |