LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE I. CATHERINE CLIVE. From the original by Davison, formerly at Strawberry II. ANNE LIDDELL (DUCHESS OF GRAFTON AND COUNTESS OF OSSORY). From 26 III. CATHERINE HYDE (DUCHESS OF QUEENSBERRY). From the original in the 202 collection of the Earl of Clarendon, at the Grove in Hertfordshire IV. THOMAS GRAY (in a Vandyke costume). From a drawing by Eckhardt, formerly at Strawberry Hill 465 I SHALL certainly execute your commissions cheerfully, punctually, and on the terms you desire: the Annual Registers, I mean the historic part, are incomparable. The Oratorios, as Mr. Morrice rightly advises, I will choose by proxy; for, as he and you know, I have not only very little music in me, but the company I keep are far from Handelians. Have you not felt a pang in your royal capacity? Seriously, it has been dreadful, but the danger is over. The King had one of the last of these strange and universally epidemic colds, which, however, have seldom been fatal: he had a violent-cough, and oppression on his breast, which he concealed, just as I had; but my life was of no consequence, and having no physicians in ordinary, I was cured in four nights by James's Powders, without bleeding. The King was blooded seven times, and had three blisters. Thank God, he is safe, and we have escaped a confusion beyond what was ever known, but on the accession of the Queen of Scots-nay, we have not even the successor born. Fazakerley,' who has lived long enough to remember nothing but the nonsense of the law, maintained, according to their wise tenets, that as the King never dies, the Duke of York must have been proclaimed King, and then been unproclaimed again on the Queen's delivery. We have not even Nicholas Fazakerley, Esq., an eminent Tory Lawyer, see vol. i. p. 130.— CUNNINGHAM. VOL. IV. B any standing law for the regency; but I need not paint to you all the difficulties there would have been in our situation. The new Administration begins tempestuously. My father was not more abused after twenty years than Lord Bute is in twenty days. Weekly papers swarm, and like other swarms of insects, sting. The cry you may be sure is on his Scot-hood. Lord Halifax' is made First Lord of the Admiralty, but will keep Ireland for some time, as it will not be necessary to appoint a new Lord-Lieutenant this twelvemonth. He is popular with the merchants, so that at least this promotion does not offend. Our great expedition were all well at Martinico, and had lost but sixteen men. Lord Albemarle carried thence nine thousand men. We are very sanguine, and reckon the Havannah ours; but we shall not know it at least before the end of next month. Spain lying in Portugal, as I smiled at your idea of our war with our war with France does in Germany. yet I do not think the peace advances. behave wofully. I don't know what spirit Count La Lippe,' who is still here, will transport to them from Westphalia: he is to command the Portuguese, and Lord Tyrawley the English. This is a diminutive letter, but you excuse duodecimos in summer. 797. TO SIR HORACE MANN. Strawberry Hill, July 1, 1762. 3 I NEVER attempt to tell you the first news of a battle in Germany, which must always reach you before it can arrive here and be sent to Florence. I scarcely ought to call it a battle, though it is a victory for us; but the French (to speak in Cibber's style) have outrun their usual outrunnings. Their camp was ill-guarded, and Prince Ferdinand surprised it. At first their cavalry made a decent show of advancing, but soon turned and fled. Stainville flung three thousand men into a wood to cover their retreat; they were all 1 George Montagu, third and last Earl of Halifax.-WALPOLE. 2 Comte de la Lippe had been born in England, his father and mother being here in the reign of George I.-WALPOLE. 3 Cibber, in the Preface to his 'Provoked Husband,' said, "Mrs. Oldfield had outdone her usual outdoings."-WALPOLE. Cibber's expression is, she "outdid her usual excellence." There is a line, however, attributed by Savage or Pope to Cibber, which runs thus: Her own outdoings to outdo. -A Collection of Pieces occasioned by the Dunciad, 8vo. 1732.-CUNNINGHAM. |