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Horace Walpole to George Montagu-Lady Wortley Montagu.

Hertford, and I, all in one hackney coach, and drove to the spot; it rained torrents, yet the lane was full of mob, and the house so full we could not get in; at last they discovered it was the Duke of York, and the company squeezed themselves into one another's pockets to make room for us. The house, which is borrowed, and to which the ghost has adjourned, is wretchedly small and miserable. When we opened the chamber, in which were fifty people, with no light but one tallow-candle at the end, we tumbled over the bed of the child to whom the ghost comes, and whom they are murdering by inches in such insufferable heat and stench. At the top of the room are ropes to dry clothes. I asked if we were to have rope-dancing between the acts? We had nothing; they told us, as they would at a puppet-show, that it would not come that night till seven in the morning, that is, when there are only 'prentices and old women. We stayed, however, till half an hour after one. The Methodists have promised them contributions; provisions are sent in like forage, and all the taverns and ale-houses in the neighborhood make fortunes. The most diverting part is to hear people wondering when it will be found out, as if there was any thing to find out; as if the actors would make their noises when they can be discovered. However, as this pantomime cannot last much longer, I hope Lady Fanny Shirley will set up a ghost of her own at Twickenham, and that you shall hear one. The Methodists, as Lord Aylesford assured Mr. Chute two nights ago at Lord Dacres', have attempted ghosts three times in Warwickshire.

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* The history of the Cock lane ghost, which for a considerable time kept all London in commotion, and which was finally exposed in an action for a conspiracy against the authors of the deception, is given in Dr. Mackay's Memoirs of Popular Delusions.-H.

Horace Walpole to George Montagu-Bon Mots. Quin and Bishop Warburton.

XXI.-BON MOTS.-QUIN AND BISHOP WARBURTON.

Horace Walpole to George Montagu.

ARLINGTON STREET, April 5th, 1765.

I sent two letters t'other day from your kin, and might as well have written then as now, for I have nothing to tell you. Mr. Chute has quitted his bed to-day for the first time for above five weeks, but is still swathed like a mummy. He was near relapsing, for old Mildmay, whose lungs, and memory, and tongue will never wear out, talked to him t'other night from eight till half an hour after ten on the Poor-Bill; but he has been more comfortable with Lord Dacre and me this evening.

I have read the siege of Calais, and dislike it extremely, though there are fine lines, but the conduct is woful. The outrageous applause it has received at Paris was certainly political, and intended to stir up their spirit and animosity · against us, their good, merciful, and forgiving allies. They will have no occasion for this ardor; they may smite one cheek and we shall turn t'other.

Though I have little to say, it is worth while to write, only to tell you two bon mots of Quin to that turn-coat hypocrite infidel, Bishop Warburton.* That saucy priest was haranguing

*This language may recall an incident related by Pope. The poet and Warburton in the course of a country ramble visited Oxford. It was suggested that the degree of D.D. should be conferred on the divine, and LL.D. on the poet. Through the envy and intrigue of one or two of its members, the University lost the opportunity of decorating with its honors two of the greatest geniuses of the age. The indignant bard, on retiring to Twickenham, consoled himself and his friend with the reflection, "We shall take our degrees together in fame, whatever we do at the University.”

The abuse of Walpole will be more than balanced by the well-known declaration of the great Lord Chatham, "that nothing of a private nature, since he had been in office, had given him so much pleasure as bringing Warburton

Horace Walpole to Lady Suffolk-Dinner with a French Parvenu.

at Bath in behalf of prerogative; Quin said: "Pray, my lord, spare me, you are not acquainted with my principles, I am a Republican; and perhaps I even think the execution of Charles the First might be justified." "Ay," said Warburton, "by what law?" Quin replied: "By all the laws he had left them." The bishop would have got off upon judgments, and bade the player remember that all the regicides came to violent ends; a lie, but no matter. "I would not advise your lordship," said Quin, “to make use of that inference, for if I am not mistaken, that was the case of the twelve apostles." There was great wit ad hominem in the latter reply, but I think the former equal to any thing I ever heard. It is the sum of the whole controversy couched in eight monosyllables, and comprehends at once the King's guilt and the justice of punishing it. The more one examines it the finer it proves. One can say nothing after it; so good night. Yours ever.

XXII. DINNER WITH A FRENCH PARVENU.

Horace Walpole to Lady Suffolk.

PARIS, Dec 5th, 1765-but does not set out till the 13th.

Since Paris has begun to fill in spite of Fontainebleau, I am much reconciled to it, and have seen several people I like. I am established in two or three societies where I sup every

on the bench." It must be admitted that Warburton frequently brought reproach upon the Christian character by the intemperance of his controversial writings and personal conversation; but that he was a sincere, zealous, learned, and able divine, is beyond dispute. Dr. Chalmers refers to him as a man who, beyond Grotius, Cudworth, Chillingworth, Stillingfleet, or Samuel Clarke, had conjoined acquired scholarship with original strength, a Goliath of sacred literature-capax, profundus, eximius homo et venerabundus.-H.

Horace Walpole to Lady Suffolk-Dinner with a French Parvenu.

night, though I have still resisted whist, and am more constant to my old flame loo during its absence than I doubt I have been to my other passions. There is a young Countess, d'Egmont, daughter of Marshal Richelieu, so pretty and pleasing that if I thought it would break anybody's heart in England, I would be in love with her. Nay, madam, I might be so within all the rules here. I am twenty years on the right side of red heels, which her father wears still, and he has still a wrinkle to come before he leaves them off.

The Dauphin is still alive, but kept so only by cordials; yet the Queen and Dauphiness have no doubt of his recovery, having the Bishop of Glandeve's word for it, who got a promise from a vision under its own hand and seal. The Dauphin has certainly behaved with great courage and tranquillity, but is so touched with the tenderness and affection of his family, that he now expresses a wish to live.

Yesterday I dined at La Borde's, the great banker of the court. Lord! madam, how little and poor all your houses in London will look after his! In the first place, you must have a garden half as long as the Mall, and then you must have fourteen windows, each as long as the other half, looking into it, and each window must consist of only eight panes of looking glass; you must have a first and second ante-chamber, and they must have nothing in them but dirty servants. Next must be the grand cabinet, hung with red damask, in gold frames, and covered with eight large and very bad pictures, that cost four thousand pounds. I cannot afford them you a farthing cheaper. Under these, to give an air of lightness, must be hung bas-reliefs in marble; then there must be immense armoires of tortoise shell and ormolu, inlaid with medals; and then you may go into

Horace Walpole to Lady Suffolk-Dinner with a French Parvenu.

the petit cabinet, and then into the great salle, and the gallery, and the billiard room, and the eating room; and all these must be hung with crystal lustres, and looking glasses from top to bottom; and then you must stuff them fuller than they will hold with granite tables and porphyry urns, and bronzes, and statues, and vases, and the Lord or the devil knows what. But for fear you should ruin yourself or the nation, the Duchess de Grammont must give you this and Madame de Marsan that; and if you have anybody that has any taste to advise you, your eating room must be hung with huge hunting pieces in frames of all colored gold, and at top of one of them you may have a setting dog, who having sprung a wooden partridge, it may be flying a yard off against the wainscot. To warm and light this palace it must cost you eight and twenty thousand livres a year in wood and candles. If you cannot afford that, you must stay till my Lord Clive returns with the rest of the Indies.

The mistress of this Arabian Nights' Entertainments is very pretty, and Sir Lawrence La Borde is so fond of her that he sits by her at dinner, and calls her Pug or Taw, or I forget what.

Lady Mary Chabot always charges me to mention her to your ladyship with particular attention. There are some to whom I could wish your ladyship would do me the same good office; but I have been too troublesome already, and will only mention Miss Hotham, Mr. Chetwynd, Lady Blandford, and St. James's Square.

Your ladyship's, &c.,

HORACE WAlpole.

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