A » B » C » D » E
F » G » H » I » J
K » L » M » N » O
P » R » S » T
U » V » W » Z


Layoffs at Random House, Simon & Schuster
Moreover Technologies - Premier purveyor of real-time news and RSS feeds from across the Web

Citigroup Cuts Estimates and Price Target on Amazon.com (AMZN) Due To Flat Online Retail Growth
Ad - Get Info for Book Publishing from 14 search engines in 1.

Farewell To Okada In PortHarcourt
'Yes, Virginia, book publishing is NOT recession proof,' said Patricia Schroeder, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Publishers. 'It's sad day.' At Random House, the country's largest general trade publisher, the man who

Letters of Horace Walpole by Horace Walpole



H >> Horace Walpole >> Letters of Horace Walpole

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19


LETTERS

OF

HORACE WALPOLE


SELECTED AND EDITED BY

CHARLES DUKE YONGE, M.A.

AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF FRANCE UNDER THE BOURBONS," "A LIFE OF MARIE
ANTOINETTE," ETC., ETC.


WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS


VOLUME I


London

T. FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE

NEW YORK: G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS

MDCCCXC




CONTENTS.

1736-1764.


1. TO MONTAGU, _May_ 2, 1736.--Marriage of the Princess of Wales--Very
lively

2. TO THE SAME, _May_ 6, 1736.--Fondness for Old Stories--Reminiscences
of Eton, etc.

3. TO THE SAME, _March_ 20, 1737.--Wish to Travel--Superiority of French
Manners to English in their manner to Ladies

4. TO WEST, _April_ 21, 1739.--Theatres at Paris--St. Denis--Fondness of
the French for Show, and for Gambling--Singular Signs--The Army the only
Profession for Men of Gentle Birth--Splendour of the Public Buildings

5. TO THE SAME, 1739.--Magnificence of Versailles--The Chartreux Relics

6. TO THE SAME, _February_ 27, 1740.--The Carnival--The Florentines
Civil, Good-natured, and Fond of the English--A Curious Challenge

7. TO THE SAME, _June_ 14, 1740.--Herculaneum--Search should be made for
other Submerged Cities--Quotations from Statius

8. TO CONWAY, _July_ 5, 1740.--Danger of Malaria--Roman Catholic
Relics--"Admiral Hosier's Ghost"--Contest for the Popedom

9. TO THE SAME, _July_ 9, 1740

10. TO WEST, _Oct._ 2, 1740.--A Florentine Wedding--Addison's
Descriptions are Borrowed from Books--A Song of Bondelmonti's, with a
Latin Version by Gray, and an English One by the Writer

11. TO MANN, _Jan._ 22, 1742.--Debate on Pulteney's Motion for a
Committee on Papers Relating to the War--Speeches of Pulteney, Pitt, Sir
R. Walpole, Sir W. George, etc.--Smallness of the Ministerial Majority

12. TO THE SAME, _May_ 26, 1742.--Ranelagh Gardens Opened--Garrick, "A
Wine-merchant turned Player"--Defeat of the Indemnity Bill

13. TO THE SAME, _Dec._ 9, 1742.--Debate on Disbanding the Hanoverian
Troops--First Speech of Murray (afterwards Earl of Mansfield)--_Bon Mot_
of Lord Chesterfield

14. TO THE SAME, _Feb._ 24, 1743.--King Theodore--Handel Introduces
Oratorios

15. TO THE SAME, _July_ 4, 1743.--Battle of Dettingen--Death of Lord
Wilmington

16. TO THE SAME, _Sept._ 7, 1743.--French Actors at Clifden--A new Roman
Catholic Miracle--Lady Mary Wortley

17. TO THE SAME, _March_ 29, 1745.--Death of his Father--Matthews and
Lestock in the Mediterranean--Thomson's "Tancred and
Sigismunda"--Akenside's Odes--Conundrums in Fashion

18. TO THE SAME, _May_ 11, 1745.--Battle of Fontenoy--The Ballad of the
Prince of Wales

19. TO MONTAGU, _August_ 1, 1745.--M. De Grignan--Livy's Patavinity--The
Marechal De Belleisle--Whiston Prophecies the Destruction of the
World--The Duke of Newcastle

20. TO MANN, _Sept._ 6, 1745.--Invasion of Scotland by the Young
Pretender--Forces are said to be Preparing in France to join him

21. TO THE SAME, _Sept._ 20, 1745.--This and the following Letters give
a Lively Account of the Progress of the Rebellion till the Retreat from
Derby, after which no particular interest attaches to it

22. TO THE SAME, _Sept._ 27, 1745.--Defeat of Cope

23. TO THE SAME, _Oct._ 21, 1745.--General Wade is Marching to
Scotland--Violent Proclamation of the Pretender

24. TO THE SAME, _Nov._ 22, 1745.--Gallant Resistance of Carlisle--Mr.
Pitt attacks the Ministry

25. TO THE SAME, _Dec._ 9, 1745.--The Rebel Army has Retreated from
Derby--Expectation of a French Invasion

26. TO THE SAME, _April_ 25, 1746.--Battle of Culloden

27. TO THE SAME, _Aug._ 1, 1746.--Trial of the Rebel Lords Balmerino and
Kilmarnock

28. TO THE SAME, _Oct._ 14, 1746.--The Battle of Rancoux

29. TO CONWAY, _Oct._ 24, 1746.--On Conway's Verses--No Scotch_man_ is
capable of such Delicacy of Thought, though a Scotchwoman may
be--Akenside's, Armstrong's, and Glover's Poems

30. TO THE SAME, _June_ 8, 1747.--He has bought Strawberry Hill

31. TO THE SAME, _Aug._ 29, 1748.--His Mode of
Life--Planting--Prophecies of New Methods and New Discoveries in a
Future Generation

32. TO MANN, _May_ 3, 1749.--Rejoicings for the Peace--Masquerade at
Ranelagh--Meeting of the Prince's Party and the Jacobites--Prevalence of
Drinking and Gambling--Whitefield

33. TO THE SAME, _March_ 11, 1750.--Earthquake in London--General
Panic--Marriage of Casimir, King of Poland

34. TO THE SAME, _April_ 2, 1750.--General Panic--Sherlock's Pastoral
Letter--Predictions of more Earthquakes--A General Flight from
London--Epigrams by Chute and Walpole himself--French Translation of
Milton

35. TO THE SAME, _April_ 1, 1751.--Death of Walpole's Brother, and of
the Prince of Wales--Speech of the young Prince--Singular Sermon on His
Death

36. TO THE SAME, _June_ 18, 1751.--Changes in the Ministry and
Household--The Miss Gunnings--Extravagance in London--Lord Harcourt,
Governor of the Prince of Wales

37. TO THE SAME, _June_ 12, 1753.--Description of Strawberry Hill--Bill
to Prevent Clandestine Marriages

38. TO MONTAGU, _May_ 19, 1756.--No News from France but what is
Smuggled--The King's Delight at the Vote for the Hanover Troops--_Bon
Mot_ of Lord Denbigh

39. TO THE SAME, _Oct._ 17, 1756.--Victory of the King of Prussia at
Lowositz--Singular Race--Quarrel of the Pretender with the Pope

40. TO THE SAME, _Nov._ 4, 1756.--Ministerial Negotiations--Loss of
Minorca--Disaster in North America

41. TO THE EARL OF STRAFFORD, _July_ 4, 1757.--The King of Prussia's
Victories--Voltaire's "Universal History"

42. TO ZOUCH, _August_ 3, 1758.--His own "Royal and Noble Authors"

43. TO THE SAME, _Oct._ 21, 1758.--His "Royal and Noble Authors"--Lord
Clarendon--Sir R. Walpole and Lord Bolingbroke--The Duke of Leeds

44. TO MANN, _Oct._ 24, 1758.--Walpole's Monument to Sir Horace's
Brother--Attempted Assassination of the King of Portugal--Courtesy of
the Duc D'Aiguillon to his English Prisoners

45. TO ZOUCH, _Dec._ 9, 1758.--A New Edition of Lucan--Comparison of
"Pharsalea"--Criticism on the Poet, with the Aeneid--Helvetius's Work,
"De L'Esprit"

46. TO CONWAY, _Jan._ 19, 1759.--State of the House of Commons

47. TO DALRYMPLE, _Feb._ 25, 1759.--Robertson's "History of
Scotland"--Comparison of Ramsay and Reynolds as Portrait-Painters--Sir
David's "History of the Gowrie Conspiracy"

48. TO THE SAME, _July_ 11, 1759.--Writers of History: Goodall, Hume,
Robertson--Queen Christina

49. TO CONWAY, _Aug._ 14, 1759.--The Battle of Minden--Lord G. Sackville

50. TO MANN, _Sept._ 13, 1759.--Admiral Boscawen's Victory--Defeat of
the King of Prussia--Lord G. Sackville

51. TO MONTAGU, _Oct._ 21, 1759.--A Year of Triumphs

52. TO THE SAME, _Nov._ 8, 1759.--French Bankruptcy--French Epigram

53. TO THE SAME, _Jan._ 7, 1760.--He lives amongst Royalty--Commotions
in Ireland

54. TO THE SAME, _Jan._ 14, 1760.--Severity of the Weather--Scarcity in
Germany--A Party at Prince Edward's--Charles Townsend's Comments on La
Fontaine

55. TO MANN, _Feb._ 28, 1760.--Capture of Carrickfergus

56. TO DALRYMPLE, _April_ 4, 1760.--The Ballad of "Hardyknute"--Mr.
Home's "Siege of Aquileia"--"Tristram Shandy"--Bishop Warburton's Praise
of it

57. TO THE SAME, _June_ 20, 1760.--Erse Poetry--"The Dialogues of the
Dead"--"The Complete Angler"

58. TO MONTAGU, _Sept._ 1, 1760.--Visits in the Midland
Counties--Whichnovre--Sheffield--The new Art of
Plating--Chatsworth--Haddon Hall--Hardwicke--Apartments of Mary Queen of
Scots--Newstead--Althorp

59. TO THE SAME, _April_ 16, 1761.--Gentleman's Dress--Influence of Lord
Bute--Ode by Lord Middlesex--G. Selwyn's Quotation

60. TO THE SAME, _May_ 5, 1761.--Capture of Belleisle--Gray's
Poems--Hogarth's Vanity

61. TO THE SAME, _May_ 22, 1761.--Intended Marriage of the King--Battles
in Germany--Capture of Pondicherry--Burke

62. TO MANN, _Sept._ 10, 1761.--Arrival of the Princess of
Mecklenburgh--The Royal Wedding--The Queen's Appearance and Behaviour

63. TO THE COUNTESS OF AILESBURY, _Sept._ 27, 1761.--The Coronation and
subsequent Gaieties

64. TO THE SAME, _Nov._ 28, 1761.--A Court Ball--Pamphlets on Mr.
Pitt--A Song by Gray

65. TO MANN, _Jan._ 29, 1762.--Death of the Czarina Elizabeth--The
Cock-lane Ghost--Return to England of Lady Mary Wortley

66. TO ZOUCH, _March_ 20, 1762.--His own "Anecdotes of Painting"--His
Picture of the Wedding of Henry VII.--Burnet's Comparison of Tiberius
and Charles II.--Addison's "Travels"

67. TO MANN, _Aug._ 12, 1762.--Birth of the Prince of Wales--The
Czarina--Voltaire's Historical Criticisms--Immense Value of the
Treasures brought over in the _Hermione_

68. TO CONWAY, _Sept._ 9, 1762.--Negotiations for Peace--Christening of
the Prince of Wales

69. TO MANN, _Oct._ 3, 1762.--Treasures from the Havannah--The Royal
Visit to Eton--Death of Lady Mary--Concealment of Her Works--Voltaire's
"Universal History"

70. TO THE SAME, _April_ 30, 1763.--Resignation of Lord Bute--French
Visitors--Walpole and No. 45

71. TO MONTAGU, _May_ 17, 1763.--A Party at "Straberri"--Work of his
Printing Press--Epigrams--A Garden Party at Esher

72. TO CONWAY, _May_ 21, 1763.--General Character of the
French--Festivities on the Queen's Birthday

73. TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD, _Dec._ 29, 1763.--The ordinary way of Life
in England--Wilkes--C. Townshend--Count Lally--Lord Clive--Lord
Northington--Louis Le Bien Aime--The Drama in France

74. TO MONTAGU, _Jan._11, 1764.--A New Year's Party at Lady
Suffolk's--Lady Temple, Poetess Laureate to the Muses

75. TO MANN, _Jan._ 18, 1764.--Marriage of the Prince of Brunswick: His
Popularity

76. TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD, _Feb._ 6, 1764.--Gambling Quarrels--Mr.
Conway's Speech

77. TO THE SAME, _Feb._ 15, 1764.--Account of the Debate on the General
Warrant

78. TO MANN, _June_ 8, 1764.--Lord Clive--Mr. Hamilton, Ambassador to
Naples--Speech of Louis XV.

79. TO THE SAME, _Aug._ 13, 1764.--The King of Poland--Catherine of
Russia

80. TO THE EARL OF HERTFORD, _Oct._ 5, 1764.--Madame De Boufflers'
Writings--King James's Journal




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


I. HORACE WALPOLE

From an engraving after a sketch by Sir THOS. LAWRENCE, P.R.A.

II. SIR HORACE MANN

III. STRAWBERRY HILL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST

IV. GEORGE MONTAGU

V. THE LIBRARY, STRAWBERRY HILL

VI. HORACE WALPOLE

From a picture in the National Portrait Gallery, by NATHANIEL HONE, R.A.




INTRODUCTION.


It is creditable to our English nobility, and a feature in their
character that distinguishes them from their fellows of most other
nations, that, from the first revival of learning, the study of
literature has been extensively cultivated by men of high birth, even by
many who did not require literary fame to secure them a lasting
remembrance; and they have not contented themselves with showing their
appreciation of intellectual excellence by their patronage of humbler
scholars, but have themselves afforded examples to other labourers in
the hive, taking upon themselves the toils, and earning no small nor
undeserved share of the honours of authorship. The very earliest of our
poets, Chaucer, must have been a man of gentle birth, since he was
employed on embassies of importance, and was married to the daughter of
a French knight of distinction, and sister of the Duchess of Lancaster.
The long civil wars of the fifteenth century prevented his having any
immediate followers; but the sixteenth opened more propitiously. The
conqueror of Flodden was also "Surrey of the deathless lay";[1] and from
his time to the present day there is hardly a break in the long line of
authors who have shown their feeling that noble birth and high position
are no excuses for idleness, but that the highest rank gains additional
illustration when it is shown to be united with brilliant talents
worthily exercised. The earliest of our tragic poets was Sackville Earl
of Dorset. The preux chevalier of Elizabeth's Court, the accomplished
and high-minded Sidney, took up the lyre of Surrey: Lord St. Albans,
more generally known by his family name of Bacon, "took all learning for
his province"; and, though peaceful studies were again for a while
rudely interrupted by the "dark deeds of horrid war," the restoration of
peace was, as it had been before, a signal for the resumption of their
studies by many of the best-born of the land. Another Earl of Dorset
displayed his hereditary talent not less than his martial gallantry.
Lord Roscommon well deserved the praises which Dryden and Pope, after
his death, liberally bestowed. The great Lord Chancellor Clarendon
devoted his declining years to a work of a grander class, leaving us a
History which will endure as long as the language itself; while ladies
of the very highest rank, the Duchess of Newcastle and Lady Mary Wortley
Montague, vindicated the claims of their sex to share with their
brethren the honours of poetical fame.

[Footnote 1: "Lay of the Last Minstrel," vi. 14.]

Among this noble and accomplished brotherhood the author of these
letters is by general consent allowed to be entitled to no low place.
Horace Walpole, born in the autumn of 1717, was the youngest son of that
wise minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who, though, as Burke afterwards
described him, "not a genius of the first class," yet by his adoption
of, and resolute adherence to a policy of peace throughout the greater
part of his administration, in which he was fortunately assisted by the
concurrence of Fleury of France, contributed in no slight degree to the
permanent establishment of the present dynasty on the throne. He
received his education at the greatest of English schools, Eton, to
which throughout his life he preserved a warm attachment; and where he
gave a strong indication of his preference for peaceful studies and his
judicious appreciation of intellectual ability, by selecting as his most
intimate friend Thomas Gray, hereafter to achieve a poetical immortality
by the Bard and the Elegy. From Eton they both went to Cambridge, and,
when they quitted the University, in 1738, joined in a travelling tour
through France and Italy. They continued companions for something more
than two years; but at the end of that time they separated, and in the
spring of 1741 Gray returned to England. The cause of their parting was
never distinctly avowed; Walpole took the blame, if blame there was, on
himself; but, in fact, it probably lay in an innate difference of
disposition, and consequently of object. Walpole being fond of society,
and, from his position as the Minister's son, naturally courted by many
of the chief men in the different cities which they visited; while Gray
was of a reserved character shunning the notice of strangers, and fixing
his attention on more serious subjects than Walpole found attractive.

In the autumn of the same year Walpole himself returned home. He had
become a member of Parliament at the General Election in the summer, and
took his seat just in time to bear a part in the fierce contest which
terminated in the dissolution of his father's Ministry. His maiden
speech, almost the only one he ever made, was in defence of the
character and policy of his father, who was no longer in the House of
Commons to defend himself.[1] And the result of the conflict made no
slight impression on his mind; but gave a colour to all his political
views.

He began almost immediately to come forward as an author: not, however,
as--

Obliged by hunger and request of friends;

for in his circumstances he was independent, and even opulent; but
seeking to avenge his father by squibs on Mr. Pulteney (now Lord Bath),
as having been the leader of the attacks on him, and on the new Ministry
which had succeeded him. In one respect that age was a happy one for
ministers and all connected with them. Pensions and preferments were
distributed with a lavish hand; and, even while he was a schoolboy, he
had received more than one "patent place," as such were called, in the
Exchequer, to which before his father's resignation others were added,
which after a time raised his income to above L5,000 a year, a fortune
which in those times was exceeded by comparatively few, even of those
regarded as wealthy. So rich, indeed, was he, that before he was thirty
he was able to buy Strawberry Hill, "a small house near Twickenham," as
he describes it at first, but which he gradually enlarged and
embellished till it grew into something of a baronial castle on a small
scale, somewhat as, under the affectionate diligence of a greater man,
Abbotsford in the present century became one of the lions of the Tweed.

[Footnote 1: The speech was made March 23, 1742; but Sir Robert had
resigned office, and been created Earl of Orford in the February
preceding.]

From this time forth literary composition, with the acquisition of
antiques and curiosities for the decoration of "Strawberry" occupied the
greater part of his life. He erected a printing press, publishing not
only most of his own writings, but some also of other authors, such as
poems of Gray, with whom he kept up uninterrupted intercourse. But, in
fact, his own works were sufficiently numerous to keep his printers
fully employed. He was among the most voluminous writers of a voluminous
age. In the course of the next twenty years he published seven volumes
of memoirs of the last ten years of the reign of George II. and the
first ten of George III.; five volumes of a work entitled "Royal and
Noble Authors;" several more of "Anecdotes of Painting;" "The Mysterious
Mother," a tragedy; "The Castle of Otranto," a romance; and a small
volume to which he gave the name of "Historic Doubts on Richard III." Of
all these not one is devoid of merit. He more than once explains that
the "Memoirs" have no claim to the more respectable title of "History";
and he apologises for introducing anecdotes which might be thought
inconsistent with what Macaulay brands as "a vile phrase," the dignity
of history. He excuses this, which he looked on as a new feature in
historical composition, on the ground that, if trifles, "they are
trifles relating to considerable people; such as all curious people have
ever loved to read." "Such trifles," he says, "are valued, if relating
to any reign one hundred and fifty years ago; and, if his book should
live so long, these too might become acceptable." Readers of the present
day will not think such apology was needed. The value of his "trifles"
has been proved in a much shorter time; for there is no subsequent
historian of that period who has not been indebted to him for many
particulars of which no other trustworthy record existed. Walpole had in
a great degree a historical mind; and perhaps there are few works which
show a keener critical insight into the value of old traditions than the
"Historic Doubts," directed to establish, not, indeed, Richard's
innocence of the crimes charged against him, but the fact that, with
respect to many of them, his guilt has never been proved by any evidence
which is not open to the gravest impeachment. His "Royal and Noble
Authors," and his "Anecdotes of Painting" are full of entertainment, not
unmixed with instruction. "The Mysterious Mother" was never performed on
the stage, nor is it calculated for representation; since he himself
admits that the subject is disgusting. But dramas not intended for
representation, and which therefore should perhaps be more fitly called
dramatic poems, were a species of composition to which more than one
writer of reputation had lately begun to turn their attention; though
dramas not designed for the stage seem to most readers defective in
their very conception, as lacking the stimulus which the intention of
submitting them to the extemporaneous ocular judgement of the public can
alone impart. Among such works, however, "The Mysterious Mother" is
admitted to rank high for vigorous description and poetic imagery. A
greater popularity, which even at the present day has not wholly passed
away, since it is still occasionally reprinted, was achieved by "The
Castle of Otranto," which, as he explains it in one of his letters, owed
its origin to a dream. Novels had been a branch of literature which had
slumbered for several years after the death of Defoe, but which the
genius of Fielding and Smollett had again brought into fashion. But
their tales purported to be pictures of the manners of the day. This was
rather the forerunner of Mrs. Radcliffe's[1] weird tales of supernatural
mystery, which for a time so engrossed the public attention as to lead
that "wicked wag," Mr. George Coleman, to regard them as representatives
of the class, and to describe how--

A novel now is nothing more
Than an old castle and a creaking door;
A distant hovel;
Clanking of chains, a gallery, a light,
Old armour, and a phantom all in white,
And there's a novel.

[Footnote 1: "'The Castle of Otranto' was the father of that marvellous
series which once overstocked the circulating library, and closed with
Mrs. Radcliffe."--D'Israeli, "Curiosities of Literature," ii. 115.]

He had published it anonymously as a tale that had been found in the
library of an ancient family in the North of England; but it was not
indebted solely to the mystery of its authorship for its favourable
reception--since, after he acknowledged it as his own work in a second
edition, the sale did not fall off. And it deserved success, for, though
the day had passed when even the most credulous could place any faith in
swords that required a hundred men to lift, and helmets which could only
fit the champion whose single strength could wield such a weapon, the
style was lively and attractive, and the dialogue was eminently dramatic
and sparkling.

But the interest of all these works has passed away. The "Memoirs" have
served their turn as a guide and aid to more regular historians, and the
composition which still keeps its author's fame alive is his
Correspondence with some of his numerous friends, male and female, in
England or abroad, which he maintained with an assiduity which showed
how pleasurable he found the task, while the care with which he secured
the preservation of his letters, begging his correspondents to retain
them, in case at any future time he should desire their return, proves
that he anticipated the possibility that they might hereafter be found
interesting by other readers than to those to whom they were addressed.

But he did not suffer either his writings or the enrichment of
"Strawberry" with antiquarian treasures to engross the whole of his
attention. For the first thirty years and more of his public life he was
a zealous politician. And it is no slight proof how high was the
reputation for sagacity and soundness of judgement which he enjoyed,
that in the ministerial difficulties caused by Lord Chatham's illness,
he was consulted by the leaders of more than one section of the Whig
party, by Conway, the Duke of Bedford, the Duke of Grafton, Lord
Holland, and others; that his advice more than once influenced their
determinations; and that he himself drew more than one of the letters
which passed between them. Even the King himself was not ignorant of the
weight he had in their counsels, and, on one occasion at least,
condescended to avail himself of it for a solution of some of the
embarrassments with which their negotiations were beset.

But after a time his attendance in Parliament, which had never been very
regular, grew wearisome and distasteful to him. At the General Election
of 1768 he declined to offer himself again as a candidate for Lynn,
which he had represented for several years. And henceforth his mornings
were chiefly occupied with literature; the continuation of his Memoirs;
discussion of literary subjects with Gibbon, Voltaire, Mason, and
others, while his evenings were passed in the society of his friends, a
mode of enjoying his time in which he was eminently calculated to shine,
since abundant testimony has come down to us from many competent judges
of the charm of his conversation; the liveliness of his disposition
acting as a most attractive frame to the extent and variety of his
information.

Among his distractions were his visits to France, which for some time
were frequent. He had formed a somewhat singular intimacy with a blind
old lady, the Marquise du Deffand, a lady whose character in her youth
had been something less than doubtful, since she had been one of the
Regent Duc d'Orleans's numerous mistresses; but who had retained in her
old age much of the worldly acuteness and lively wit with which she had
borne her part in that clever, shameless society. Her _salon_ was now
the resort of many personages of the highest distinction, even of ladies
themselves of the most unstained reputation, such as the Duchesse de
Choiseul; and the rumours or opinions which he heard in their company
enabled him to enrich his letters to his friends at home with comments
on the conduct of the French Parliament, of Maupeon, Maurepas, Turgot,
and the King himself, which, in many instances, attest the shrewdness
with which he estimated the real bearing of the events which were taking
place, and anticipated the possible character of some of those which
were not unlikely to ensue.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19
Copyright (c) 2007. topknownbooks.com. All rights reserved.