George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life Part 8

(100) See note (98).

1774, July 23, Chesterfield Street.--I received yesterday a reprieve from Gloucester, and Harris's sanction for my staying here a week longer; so that the meeting, and the report of Mr. Guise and Mr.

Burrow's declaring themselves both as candidates upon separate interests, but secretly a.s.sisting one another, were, as Richard the 3rd calls it, a weak device of the enemy. I found myself greatly relieved, and sat down and wrote a letter to the Mayor and Corporation, which I may cite as a modele de vrai persiflage. I went and dined with Lord Ferrars and Lady Townshend;(101) she has received all her arrears, so we have now the pleasure of continuing our hostilities les pieds chauds.

Poor Lord Th.o.m.ond died the evening before last of an apoplexy, with which he was seized the night before. I thought, as well as himself, that he was very near his end, and imagined that it would be this.

But the news struck me, for not an hour before he was taken ill he pa.s.sed by March's door as he was going to take an airing in Hyde Park, with Clever in the chariot. I was sitting upon the steps, with the little girl(103) on my lap, which diverted him, and he made me a very pleasant bow, and that was my last view of him. I had had an acquaintance with him of above thirty years, but for some time past I had seen him only occasionally. He was a sensible honest man, and when he was in spirits, and with his intimate friends, I think a very agreeable companion, but had too much reserve to make a friends.h.i.+p with, and not altogether the character that suits me.

White's begins to crumble away very fast, and would be a melancholy scene to those who remained if they cared for any one person but themselves. Williams gave a dinner to talk him over, which I suppose was done with the voix larmoyante, et voila tout. Lord Monson a creve aussi, and Tommy Alston, who has left a will in favour of his b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, which will occasion lawsuits.

I have made an agreement to meet Varcy to-morrow at Knowles; from thence we go to Tunbridge; so I shall live on Monday on the Pantiles, and on Tuesday return here. I dine to-day with the Ess.e.x's at March's; we supped last night at Lady Harrington's, the consequence of which is to eat a turtle on Tuesday at an alehouse on the Ranelaugh Road, which she has seized from Lord Barrington. I called at Lady Mary's first, and found her tres triste.

Lady Holland was thought to be dying yesterday, for Lord Beauchamp was to have dined there, and at three o'clock a note came from Ste(104) to desire him not to come. The late Lord Holland's servants, preserving their friends.h.i.+p for my thief whom I dismissed, were so good, when their Lord died, to send for him to sit up with the corpse, as the only piece of preferment which was then vacant in the family. But they afterwards promoted him to be outrider to the hea.r.s.e. Alice told me of it, and said that it was a comfort and little relief to the poor man for the present; and Mr. More, the attorney, to whom I mentioned it, said that they intended to throw him into the same thing--that was the phrase--when Lady Holland died. I beg you to reflect on these circ.u.mstances; they are dignes de Moliere et Le Sage. How my poor old friend would have laughed, if he could have known to what hands he was committed before his interment!

The night before last Meynell lost between 2 and 3,000; what the rest did I don't know. They abuse both you and me about the tie,(105) and Hare says, it was the d.a.m.ned[e]st thing to do at this time in the world. I told them, as Lord Cowper said in his speech to the Condemned Lords in the year 16--, "Happy had it been for all your Lords.h.i.+ps had you lain under so indulgent a restraint." It is difficult for me to say which was the kindest thing you ever did by me, but I am sure that this was one of the wisest which I ever did by myself; and so remember that I do by this renew the lease for one month more, and it shall be as if it had been originally for two months instead of one. To this I subscribe, and to the same forfeit on my side. I received a consideration ample enough if the lease had been for a year.

(102) Anne, daughter of Sir William Montgomery, and second wife of George, first Viscount Townshend.

(103) Maria f.a.gniani, Selwyn's adopted daughter. This is the first mention of her in this correspondence.

(104) Stephen Fox, second Baron Holland.

(105) A self-mposed restriction on gambling. The ingenious and rather childish character of this pledge is described in a letter of December 1775.

1774, July 26, Tuesday night? Almack's.--Lady Holland, as you will see by the papers, died on Sunday morning between 7 and 8. I saw Lady Louisa and Mrs. Meillor coming in Lady Louisa's chariot between 10 and 11, which announced to me the close of that melancholy history; I mean, as far as regards my two very old friends. The loss of the latter, I must own, I feel much the more sensibly of the two; serrer les files, comme Von dit a Varnee, n'est pas a.s.sez; la perte ne laissera pas de reparoitre, in that I had counted upon a resource in the one more than in the other.

I went for a minute to see Ste(106) and Lady Mary, and then I set out for the Duke of Dorset's at Knowles (Knowle Park), where I met Varcy, and where I dined; and after dinner Varcy and I went to Tunbridge. We saw Penthurst (sic) yesterday morning, and dined with his Honour Brudenell, who gave us, that is, Varcy, Mr. and Mrs.

Meynell, and Sir J. Seabright, an excellent dinner. We were at a private ball at night, and this morning early I set out for London.

Tunbridge is, in my opinion, for a little time in the summer, with a family, and for people who do not find a great deal of occupation at their country houses, one of the prettiest places in the world. The houses are so many bijouzs made up for the occasion, so near the place, so agreste, and the whole an air of such simplicity, that I am delighted with it, as much as when my amus.e.m.e.nts were, as they were formerly, at the Rooms and upon the Pantiles, which are now to me detestable.

I was pressed much to stay there to-day to dine with Meynell upon a haunch of venison, but I had solemnly engaged myself to Lady Harrington, and to her party at Spring Garden, on the road to Ranelagh. We had a very good turtle. Our company were, Lord and Lady Harrington, Lady Harriot,(107) Lady A., Maria Ord, Mrs. Boothby, Richard(108) from his quarters at Hampton Court, Crags, Lord Barrington, Barker, Langlois, and myself.

March went yesterday to Newmarket, and left a letter behind for me, to excuse him to the party; he returns on Thursday. Here is not one single soul in this house, but I came here to write to you plus a mon aise. Lady Mary Howard was at Tunbridge, and asked much after you; Lady Powis, the Duke of Leeds, hardly anybody besides that I knew. Gen. Smith came there yesterday, and I believe was in hopes of making up a hazard table; at last Lord Killy (Kelly?) said that I might have one if I pleased.

Charles and Ste, &c., are gone for the present to Red Rice. I was in hopes of seeing Storer to-day, but this d.a.m.ned turtle party has kept me so late that I doubt if I shall see him to-night. I met him on the road, as I was going to Knowles, on his return from Tunbridge, and he then told me that he should set out for Castle Howard to-morrow, and would have set out to-day, but that I begged that I might see him first.

They can find no will of Lord Th.o.m.ond's as yet; so his poor nephew will by his procrastination be the loser of a considerable estate; for he certainly intended to have made him his heir, and the attorney had left with him a will to be filled up. But we are never sure of doing anything but what we have but one minute for doing; what we think we may do any day, we put off so many days that we do not do it all.

This reflection, and the experience which I have had in other families of the consequences of these delays, determined me to lose no time in settling, for my dear Mie Mie, that which may be the only thing done for her, and only because we-may do it any day in the week. But I thank G.o.d I've secured, as much as anything of that nature can be secured, what will be, I hope, a very comfortable resource for her. I am egregiously deceived if it will not. As for other things,' I must hope for the best. It makes me very serious when I think of it, because my affection and anxiety about her are beyond conception.

I shall not think of setting out for Gloucester, unless there is some new occurrence, till next week. I have had no fresh alarm. The lawyers are going on furiously and sanguinely against the d.u.c.h.ess of Kingston,(109) who is, they say, at Calais. Feilding also complains of her; so elle s'est bromllee avec la justice au pied de la lettre.

n.o.body doubts of her felony; the only debate in conversation is, whether she can have the benefit of her clergy. Some think she will turn Papist. All expect some untimely death. C'est un execrable personage que celui que (sic) fait mon voisin.

James has cut out work enough for himself in Hertfords.h.i.+re; il s'en repentira, ou je me trompe fort. Adieu; my best compliments to Lady Carlisle and Lady Julia, and my love to the little ones. I long to see the boy excessively. I hear of your returning to London in September; pray let me hear your motions very particularly, and if you bring up the children. I am ever most truly and affectionately yours.

(106) Second Lord Holland.

(107) Lady Henrietta Stanhope, daughter of second Earl of Harrington. She married Lord Foley in 1776, and died 1781.

(108) Fitzpatrick in this correspondence is usually spoken of as Richard.

(109) Elizabeth Chudleigh, d.u.c.h.ess of Kingston (1720-1788). The celebrated public trial of the d.u.c.h.ess of Kingston for bigamy took place in Westminster Hall, April, 1776. It was proved that she had privately married Augustus, second son of Lord Hervey, but the marriage was not owned. She lived publicly with the Duke of Kingston and finally married him during Mr. Hervey's life, but at the death of the Duke, who left her all his disposable property, proceedings were inst.i.tuted against her and she was found guilty. She afterwards went to St. Petersburg, where she gave an entertainment for the Empress Catherine said to be more splendid than had ever been seen in Russia. She bought an estate near St. Petersburg, calling it by her maiden name of Chudleigh, where she intended to manufacture brandy, but found herself so coldly treated by the English amba.s.sador and Russian n.o.bility that she removed to France, where she became involved in a lawsuit regarding the purchase of Another estate. The chagrin at loss of the case caused her death.

[1774,] July 30, Sat.u.r.day night, Almack's.--I write my letter from hence, from the habitude of making this place my bureau, not that there is anybody here, or that there was the least probability of my finding anybody here. The last post night I was obliged to have an amanuensis, as you will know to-morrow morning when the post comes in. I had got a small particle of s.h.i.+ning sand in my eye that during the whole day, but particularly at night, gave me most exquisite pain, and prevented me from writing to you, which, next to receiving your letters, is one of my great pleasures. So this was un grand evenement pour moi, par une pet.i.te cause. While the writer was writing, Hare came in, and he said that he would finish the letter for me, but what they both wrote G.o.d knows.

Storer I suppose set out yesterday for Castle H(oward), and I take for granted will be with you before this letter. March has been out of town ever since Monday till to-day. He has been at a Mr. Darell's in Cambridges.h.i.+re, who has a wife I believe with a black eye and low forward [forehead]. I guessed as much by his stay, and young Thomas who came up with him to town told me it was so.

I supped last night at Lady Hertford's with the two Fitzroys, Miss Floyd, and Lord F. Cavendish;(110) and to-day, Lady Hertford, Miss Floyd, and Lord Frederick and I dined at Colonel Kane's, who is settled in the Stable Yard, and in a d.a.m.ned good house, plate, windows cut down to the floor, elbowing his Majesty with an enormous bow window. The dog is monstrously well nipped; he obtrudes his civilities upon me, malgre que j'en ai, and will in time force me not to abuse him. He would help me to-day to some venison, and how he contrived it, I don't know, but for want of the Graces he cut one of my fingers to the bone, that I might as well have dined at a cut-fingered ordinary.

I am diverted with your threats that I shall have short letters, because you are plagued with Northumberland disputes. You say that you have every post letters to write, and so you will have them to write for some time, for the Devil take me if I believe that you have wrote or will write one of them. A good ronfle for that, an't please your Honour, with about twenty sheets of paper spread about upon the table, and on each of them the beginning of a letter.

You know me very well also in thinking that my heart fails me as the time of my going to Gloucester approaches. I made a very stout resistance a fortnight ago, notwithstanding Harris's importunate summons, and now he plainly confesses in a letter which I received from him to-day, that my coming down upon that pretended meeting would have been nugatory, as he calls it. The Devil take them; I have wished him and his Corporation in Newgate a thousand times. But there will be no trifling after the end of this next week. The a.s.sizes begin on Monday sevennight. Then the Judges will be met, a terrible show, for I shall be obliged to dine with them, and be in more danger from their infernal cooks than any of the criminals who are to be tried, excepting those who will be so unfortunate as to have our jurisconsult for their advocate.

I would not advise you to be unhappy about Caroline's(111) want of erudition; a very little science will do at present, and much cannot be poured into the neck of so small a vessel at once. I agree with you that it is not to be wished that she should be a savante, and she will know what others know. I have no doubt there is time enough for her to read, and little Morpeth(112) to walk.

There is, I grant you, more reason to fear for Hare. Boothby(113) a.s.sures me that as yet no prejudice has been done to his fortune. I have my doubts of that, but am clear that he runs constant risk of being very uneasy. But there is no talking to him; he has imbibed so much of Charles's ton of qu'importe, que cela peut mener a l'hopital.

Lady Holland(114) will be removed on Monday, and my thief one of her outriders. All Lord Holland's servants, since he had that house at Kingsgate, have been professed smugglers, and John, as I am informed, was employed in vending for them some of their contraband goods, for which he was to be allowed a profit. He sold the goods, and never accounted with his princ.i.p.als for a farthing; and so now they place him to sit up with the corps[e] of the family, and to act as one of their undertakers, that they may be in part reimbursed.

This is the dessous des cartes, qui est veritablement comique, et singulier. Ste, &c., will be here about the end of the week.

I hear that the night that Charles sat up at White's, which was that preceding the night of Lady Holland's death, he planned out a kind of itinerant trade, which was going from horse race to horse race, and so, by knowing the value and speed of all the horses in England, to acquire a certain fortune.

I learned from Bore to-day, that Sir G. M'Cartney is a debtor to the family as well as myself, and his debt is to the amount of five thousand pounds, which I am afraid he will find it difficult to raise.

Blaquiere and George Howard are to have two Red Ribbands on Wednesday. There is no end to the honours of your family. I have entrusted Lady Carlisle's picture, I mean your grandmother's, to Linnell, to be framed and cleaned, and then it will be sent to Castle Howard. March I hear goes to Huntingdon next Tuesday.

I think that I shall set out on Thursday next, or if my heart fails me, not till Sat.u.r.day. I shall then be time enough to meet these Judges, who do not begin to poison and hang till Monday. Lady Mary has promised to make me a present of the little antique ring which you gave to Lord Holland.

Did I tell you that I saw Lord Ilchester?(115) He shewed me a letter which he had received from Ste on his mother's death, and some trifling things which had belonged to Lord H(olland). Lord Ilchester was extremely pleased with this mark of his affection, and indeed the letter was a very kind and well-bred letter as any I ever read.

I find Lord Th.o.m.ond most excessively blamed in having neglected to make his will, so that he has died at last en mauvaise odeur with his White's friends. I cannot but think, as he was so remarkably methodical, that he intended, by making no will, that the estate should go where the law directs, especially as the second son of his brother has besides so ample a fortune.

Williams has been giving a different account of the public money left in Lord Holland's hands from any which I ever before heard. He, Walters, Offley, and March dined at White's. I called in there after dinner. Williams said that a calculation is made of what the interest of that money will amount to from this time to the settlement of the account; and that it is to be made capital, and is part of what is due to the public. I protest I don't understand him, nor do I conceive what the residue of the personal estate will amount to; but not to much, as the opinion of the family is. The reports, and belief of those who are not in the secret, are out of all credibility.

Lady Holland's second will, or codicil, will not be opened till the family returns to town. Everybody is inquisitive to know if you and Foley are safe. Il est merveilleux l'interet que tout le monde prend a tout ceci, aussi bien qu'au manage de notre Prince, dont je ne saurois pour dire des nouvelles. Meynell, Panton, and James are in Hertfords.h.i.+re, and the highty-tighty man at Port Hill in the d.a.m.nest (sic) fright in the world about the small-pox. I hope the poor devil will get over it.

Adieu, my dear lord. If I was prevented from writing by last post, cette fois-ci je m'en suis bein venge. . . .

I see your porter every morning in the grove, as he returns from Islington, where he is drinking the waters; he looks a little better, but not much. They have lent him a horse to ride there, and he says that he finds the air where he is to agree better with him than that of the country.

Pray tell Shepardson that I ask after her, and my compliments to Mr.

Willoughby, if you see him. I have demonstrated to Sir G. Metham that I [am] originally a Yorks.h.i.+re man, and that my name is Salveyne; and he says that the best Yorks.h.i.+re blood does at this time run through my veins, and so I hope it will for some time before the circulation of it is stopped.

(110) A distinguished soldier, afterwards Field-Marshal (1738-1803).