2 3 about a week after us, and the day before yesterday we were surprised with the laughing and laughter-promoting Jemmy1; and now the scene begins to thicken here, since the Lord of Ashendon and his fair lady come tomorrow, and Lady Blandford and Miss Wyndham have agreed to lay aside their hoops next Tuesday morning, and by the assistance of post-chaises intend to be at Stowe before the evening. For my own part, I have been engaged ever since I came here in endeavouring to carry our new Turnpike Act into execution, but have met with almost as many difficulties, and as much opposition to the mending of our ways in the country, as to the reforming our manners in town; however, I don't think the one quite so desperate as the other, but hope that with the assistance of a dry summer it may succeed whereas our political affairs seem as if they would not be much bettered by this summer's campaign. Menin, you know, is taken, and Ypres is supposed to be so by this time. Ostend, Aeth, Mons, and Tournay come next, which, I suppose, will be glory enough for the British arms for this year. 'Tis said that the Dutch and English have solicited Prince Charles of Lorraine to command our army in Flanders, but that he declines it because he is already at the head of an army of twice the number, consisting of troops more aguerried and somewhat more obedient to him than per 1 James Grenville. 2 A Dutch lady named D'Jong. She was now the widow of Sir William Wyndham, having been his second wife, and by whom he left no issue. The first husband of this lady was William, Marquess of Blandford. 3 Miss Wyndham, daughter of Sir William Wyndham, by his first wife, Lady Katherine Seymour, daughter of Charles, Duke of Somerset. She was afterwards married to Mr. George Grenville. haps he may expect to find the English, Dutch, and Hanoverians. T is still a most problematical question whether the King will go, or no, and every letter brings different accounts. Pope is dead at last, or at least all that is mortal of him. He has left 2007. to Gilly West2 after the death of Mrs. Blount3, to whom he has given 2000l. for her life, and then it goes to her sister. His His papers he has left to be published at the discretion of Lord Bolingbroke; and, when published, they are to be the property of Mr. Warburton, to whom, and Mr. Spence3, of Oxford, he has given his library. I am very glad to hear that you are likely to lose Jemmy Berenger, as the change is likely to be so much to his advantage. I heartily wish it may, because I believe he very well deserves it should. I am desired to inquire after another cousin of ours, which is Captain West. A sister of his, who is married to Mr. Dayrell, 1 Pope died on the 30th of May, 1744. Speaking of Pope's will, Lady Mary Wortley Montague says, "On the whole it appears to me more reasonable, and less vain, than I expected from him." 2 Gilbert West, see ante, page 15, note. 3 Mrs. Martha Blount, the well-known friend of Pope; described in the will as the youngest daughter of Mrs. Martha Blount, of Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square. + Afterwards Bishop of Gloucester. 66 5 The Rev. Joseph Spence became known to Pope from being the author of an Essay on Pope's Odyssey, &c., in 1727, with the criticism in which," says Dr. Johnson, "Pope was so little offended, that he sought the acquaintance of the writer, who lived with him from that time in great familiarity, attended him in his last hours, and compiled memorials of his conversations. The regard of Pope recommended him to the great and powerful, and he obtained very valuable preferments in the church." Spence was accidentally drowned in his garden at Byfleet, in Surrey, in 1768. A son of Dr. West, by Maria, eldest sister of Lord Cobham; he was afterwards an Admiral, and was with Byng at Minorca. of this neighbourhood, complains that they have not heard of him a great while, and that Mrs. West neglects to send them the accounts she receives. Whenever, therefore, you write to Hetty, you will do a kind thing in telling her what you hear of him. I find that the taking of the Northumberland' is thought a great loss by everybody, but we are quite ignorant of the particulars of the capture, the circumstances of which are very differently related. I see by your letter to Hetty that you are ready to sail. I don't know how to wish you to continue in the disagreeable place where you now are, but I hope when you do sail that it will not be very far, and consequently that we may meet before winter, and pass it together. At all events, let me know what is to become of you as soon as you can, and love me always as well as I do, which is the best wish I can make for my own honour and happiness. Adieu, my dear Tom. I shall leave this place in a week at furthest, and therefore beg that you will direct your letters for me at my mother's, in Clifford Street, where I will give you notice of all my motions. Hetty does not write to you by this post because I told her I would. Everybody here talks of you, and loves you, and she not the least. 1 On the 4th of June, the Northumberland, a new ship of 70 guns and 480 men, commanded by Captain Watson, cruising in the Channel, fell in with three French men-of-war. The Northumberland sustained a very unequal conflict for three hours with amazing activity and resolution, till unfortunately Captain Watson was mortally wounded: she then struck her colours by order of the master, who was therefore afterwards sentenced by a court martial to spend the remainder of his life in the Marshalsea prison. The French carried the Northumberland in great triumph into Brest, where Captain Watson died.-Campbell's Lives of the Admirals, 1812, vol. iv. p. 487. MR. GEORGE GRENVILLE TO CAPT. THOMAS GRENVILLE. Stowe, October 22, 1744. DEAR TOMMY,Though we had but little hopes of poor Jemmy Berenger's safety, from what we read in the newspapers, yet the certainty of his ill fortune, which we received last night by the account sent by you to Harry', could not help affecting us all extremely. Poor lad! His ill genius continued constant, and persecuted him to the last. ruin. He has never left your ship but to his The first time he missed an opportunity, in some degree, of making his fortune, and the last, of saving his life. May this victim (and indeed it is a great one, considering the habitudes we had with him, and how well he deserved) atone at least for your safety. A blow so near one cannot but make one tremble for what is nearer; and yet methinks this sort of accident is not usual; and when I talk this language my love and low spirits speak rather than my judgment. My mother, I hear, bears this loss very indifferently. This was an aggravation that I was much afraid of, and for that reason Hetty and I agreed, before we received your account, that it would be very proper for her to go up to London, and be with her. Accordingly, she set out the day before yesterday, and is with her before now; so that she has just missed your letter to her, which came last night, together with that from Harry, and which I imagine contains the same unfortunate story: 1 He was on board the Victory, of 110 guns, Admiral Sir John Balchen's ship, which, with 900 men, was lost off the island of Alderney. Henry Grenville, fourth son of Richard Grenville, Esq., of Wotton, by Hester Temple. 2 be that as it will, I have taken care of it, and will send it to her by to-morrow's post. I expect to hear from her the day after to-morrow: if my mother is very bad, I will go up to town directly; if not, I shall stay here ten days longer, and make a visit to Mr. Waller', and to Marble Hill, in my way to London, where I shall be about the 7th or 8th of next month. This was my purpose upon a supposition that you would pass this winter in London, and that you would not be able to get there before that time; but I see by your letter to Harry that there is a talk of your going to the Mediterranean. I hope 't is without foundation, and need not say how great a disappointment it would be to me; since, though I could not comply with the letter of your last kind request to me, the reasons of which I will tell you more fully when I see you, yet I reckoned with the greatest joy upon fulfilling the spirit of it. If this report of sending a new fleet into the Mediterranean should be true, and that your ship is to be one of it, I imagine will at least be permitted to go to town for some little time to settle your prize affairs; in which case I beg you will send me word immediately when it will be, and I will certainly meet you there, and put off my visits to another time. Everything wears a melancholy face. The miserable situation of the public you see in every newspaper, and it seems to me very difficult to tell exactly the means of redressing it; and even those which are the likeliest methods, we are not the masters to make use of: however, we shall try by this winter whether the experience of the past may not add some weight to the reasons so often urged, and whether the public calamity, in which all are involved alike, may not in you 'At Hall Baru, near Beaconsfield. |