Part 28 (1/2)

(1790, Aug.? or Oct.?) Sat.u.r.day, Isleworth.--. . . Mr. C(ampbell) called upon me yesterday. He came to see my two pictures, which I had cleaned by Comyns, and are very pretty, as Mr. C. allows, but he will not a.s.sent to Comyns's opinion that they are Cuyp's, although much in his style. Comyns values them at what they cost me, which was 50 gs. or thereabouts. Mie Mie has them in her dressing-room, and is vastly pleased with them. We all dine to-day at the Castle.(283) Me la Comtesse Balbi(284) chooses to give a dinner there to all her friends, the Me'sdames Boufflers, the Comte de Boisgelin,(285) M. d'Haveri(?), &c. The Duke, Mie Mie, and I are invited, and the Duke intends to bring Mr. Grieve with him, and as a Member de la Chambre Ba.s.se he will pa.s.s muster, but he is most wretched at the lingo. They will a.s.semble in the evening at the Duke's, where I suppose that there will be tweedle dum, and tweedle dee, for the whole evening, till supper. George will not, after this, call our house a hermitage; if it is, it is a reform of a merry Order, in which neither St. Francis or St. Bruno have any share.

Lady Graham(286) has got her d.u.c.h.e very soon. A report was spread here yesterday that Prince Augustus(287) was dead, but it is contradicted in the papers of to-day. Mr. C(ampbell) is gone to town, but he and Mr. Grevil return to dinner.

I hope that Frederick liked my letter, and that in my letter to Gertrude there was some bad French for her to correct, and then I Shall hear from her again. I hope that William will be indulged in staying here a day or two with his sister, and that George will not fly away on his Pegasus to Oxford the instant he comes, although I know that the Muses are impatient to see him, and will set their caps at him the moment he comes. I hope that you approve of my choice of what the colour of his gown is to be. I think a light blue celeste, which Lord Stafford had, would be detestable, and scarlet is too glaring. No; it must be a good deep green. I want to know the name of his tutor. I hope that he will have a very good collection of books in his own room, a sufficient allowance, and a hamper of claret, en cas de besom. I think, if there are to be no hounds or horses, we may compound for all the rest. But these I believe the Dean will never suffer to be matriculated. . . .

I have some thought of going to pa.s.s a day in town when Warner comes, and if I do I will certainly go there by Fulham, to see the Dean. I have not heard one syllable about him a great while. You know, perhaps that Pyrome(?) is discharged, and relegue a ses terres. He (has) a mechante langue, and to keep himself in place he should cut it out.

(283) The Castle Inn, Hill Street, Richmond. It was for many years a fas.h.i.+onable resort as well as a noted posting house. Mrs. Forty, the wife of a subsequent proprietor, was the subject of Sheridan's toast at the Prince Regent's table--”Fair, Fat, and Forty.”

(284) Mme la Comtesse de Balbi (1753-1832), celebrated for her connection with the Comte de Provence, afterward Louis XVIII. At the epoch of the Revolution she retired to Coblentz with Monsieur.

Leaving him she came to England, where she remained until the First Consul permitted the emigres to return to their homes, but she was soon discovered to be engaged in royalist intrigues and exiled; her endeavours to obtain the royal favour at the Restoration were vain.

(285) Louis de Boisgelin de Kerdu, Chevalier of Malta (1750-1816), historian; brother of the Cardinal.

(286) Caroline, daughter of the fourth Duke of Manchester, married, in July, 1790, the Marquess of Graham, who succeeded his father as third Duke of Montrose in September of that year.

(287) Augustus, Duke of Suss.e.x, died 1843.

(1790,) Aug. 12, Thursday m(orning), 8 o'clock, Richmond.--I sit down now to write you with some satisfaction, because that I shall have to tell you, towards the end of my letter, that Caroline is perfectly well, but you must have patience; I have not seen her to-day; I shall finish my letter at Isleworth. At present, I only know that about 12 o'clock last night she eat plumb cake and drank wine and water in my parlour--she, Mr. Campbell, and Mie Mie, and who besides I have not yet asked. I was in bed when she came; it was an heure perdue, but not lost upon me, for I was not asleep, nor could sleep till I heard that those two girls were come home safe.

From what, in the name of G.o.d? you will say. From seeing that etourdi Lord Barrymore(288) play the fool in three or four different characters upon our Richmond Theatre. Well, but what did that signify? Nothing to me; let him expose himself on as many stages as he pleases, and wherever the phaeton can transport him, but he comes here, and a.s.sembles as many people ten miles around as can squeeze into the Booth. I had every fear that Mrs. Webb's nerves or mine could suggest: heat in the first place; I considered Car's situation; an alarm, what difficulty there might be of egress; but we provided, Mr. Campbell and I, against everything. Mrs. Vanheck, who has a most beautiful place at Roehampton, came and carried Mie Mie into her box. Places were separated in the pit; at first Lady C(aroline) was to have been there with Mrs. Woodhouse, etc.; but, I say, the egress was the point I wished for, and looked to. I got two places, by much interest and eloquence, in the hind row of the front box. A door opened into the lobby, and from the lobby you go directly into the street. So I shall hear, I suppose, to-day that all went au mieux.

I did not expect them to be clear of the House till near 12, so went into my room, and soon after to bed, but I slept well. For I had heard of them. They were all, I tell you, before 12 in my parlour, eating cake and chattering, and talking the whole farce over, comme a la grille du convent. I can at present tell you no more, but I was impatient to begin my letter a cette heure; j'ai en quelque facon satisfait a mon envie. I shall embark at eleven for Isleworth, and hope with a fair wind to land at Campbell-ford stairs in ten minutes after. From thence I will finish my letter. I shall there have the whole en detail. The Prince and the Duke of Q. were expected, but I heard from my servants nothing of them.

Il fait un lien beau tems; c'est quelque chose. It has come late, and to make us only a short visit I suppose, and to tell us that we shall have a better autumn than we have had a summer; no courtier cajoles one like a fine day. Yesterday was a fine day also, and I completed, as they call it, my seventy-first year. I dined at your sister's.(289) Mr. Campbell and Car and Mie Mie were to have been of the party; they had an apology to make, I had none. 71 is not an age to Barrymoriser. There were only Mr. Woodc.o.c.k and his wife. I met on my return their Majesties, que j'ai salues; and so ended my day.

(288) Richard Barry, seventh Earl of Barrymore (1769-1793). Lord Barrymore was brilliant, eccentric, and dissipated, and in his short life he managed to spend 300,000 pounds and enc.u.mber his estates. He gambled, owned racehorses and rode them, played cricket, and hunted.

He had a strong taste for the stage. At Wargrave-on-Thames he had a private theatre adjoining his house, and liked to make up companies with a mixture of amateurs and professionals. He is the prototype of many modern and aristocratic spendthrifts. He was killed by an accident when he seemed about to be giving up his wild career for a.

more useful life. He accepted a commission in the Berks.h.i.+re Militia and threw himself into his work with characteristic zest. When escorting some French prisoners near Dover, the gun which was in his carriage accidentally exploded and wounded him fatally. (See ”The Last Earls of Barrymore,” by J. R. Robinson, London, 1894.)

(289) Lady Louisa Leveson-Gower, married to Sir Archibald Macdonald in 1777. She died 1827.

(1790, Aug. 12,) one o'clock, Richmond.--I have been at Isleworth. I found Car very well, and at her painting, with the Italico Anglico artiste of Mr. Campbell's, and Mr. Lewis. Mr. C(ampbell) was gone to London. They were asked to dine to-day at Fulham Field, that is, I think, the name of the Attorney Gen(era)l's(290) place. I am not sure if she told me that they intended to go. Lord Barrymore danced the pas Russe with Delpini, and then performed Scaramouche in the pet.i.te piece. I asked how he danced; Mr. Lewis said very ill. How did he perform the other part? execrably bad. ”Do you think,” I said, ”that he would have known how to snuff the candles?” ”I rather think not,” says Mr. Lewis. Mie Mie is more satisfied with his talents; she thought him an excellent Escaramouche; ce seroit quelque chose au moins. But I am more disposed to think that Mr.

Lewis is in the right, and I hope, for the young n.o.bleman's own sake, that toutes les fois qu'il s'avise de se donner en spectacle, et faire de pareilles folies, il aura manque a sa vocation. Sa mere ne jouoit pas un beau role, mais elle y a mieux reussi.

But enough at present of this. No harm of any sort has come from it, but Mie Mie tells me that Mr. Campbell's anxiety the whole time was excessive. After all, she was not in the places which I had provided for the greater security, but went into those which were originally intended for her. The Prince was there, but not the Duke of York, or my friend the Duke of Q.

Now a d'autres choses. I have in my last fright forgot one where there were better grounds for it. The day I wrote to you last, as you know, I was at Isleworth. Coming from thence, and when I landed, the first thing I heard was that people with guns were in pursuit of a mad dog, that he had run into the Duke's garden. Mie Mie came the first naturally into my thoughts; she is there sometimes by herself reading. My impatience to get home, and uneasiness till I found that she was safe and in her room, n'est pas a concevoir. The dog bit several other dogs, a blue-coat boy, and two children, before he was destroyed. John St. John, who dined with me, had met him in a narrow lane, near Mrs. Boverie's, him and his pursuers. John had for his defence a stick, with a heavy handle. He struck him with this, and for the moment got clear of him; il l'a culbute. It is really dreadful; for ten days to come we shall be in a terror, not knowing what dogs may have been bitten. Some now may have le cerveau qui commence a se troubler.

John(291) has a legacy from Lord Guilford(292) of 200 pounds a year, the General(293) one of a thousand pounds; Mr. Keene has a hundred.

He has left in legacies about 16,000 pounds, as Mr. Williams tells me, but not much ready money besides. His estate was about 2 or 3,000 per annum. It is to be a Peer, I hear, who shall succeed him.

I will write no more to-day. I will send you the extract from Lady Sutherland's(294) letter in my next. The President has told me this morning that Mr. Neckar(295) a faille d'etre pendu. Il voulut tirer son epingle du jeu; il fut sur le point de partir; on ne pousse pas la Liberte a ce point en France; il n'avait pas demande permission a la Populace; ainsi, sans autre forme de proces, on voulut le conduire du Controle a la Lanterne. I am glad to hear that the brats are well. You set off, I understand, on Tuesday; so this will find you in your Chateau antique et romanesque. J'en respecte meme les murailles; tout y a un air si respectable.

I will write to my Lord in a few days, and when I hope to have seen the Dean, but from what his neighbour Mr. Woodc.o.c.k told me yesterday, I shall have nothing very comfortable to tell him touchant la sante de son bon precepteur, ni sur la mienne; elle exige un management et une regime que je n'ai pas encore observee avec la rigueur necessaire.

Now I expect a troupe of French people whom I met in a boat, as I came this morning from Isleworth--le M. de Choiseul, Me de Choiseul, &c. I have engaged myself to go with them to Mr. Ellis's, because it belonged to Mr. Pope. I said I must go home to finish mes depeches, but I expect them every minute. Je sers d'entreprete entre le M. de Choiseul et Me sa femme.