DEAR SIR, TO THE REV. MR, COLE. Strawberry-hill, September 25, 1764. The third week in October will be just as convenient to me as any other time, and as you choose it, more agreeable; because when you are so obliging to take the trouble of coming so far, I should not be easy if it laid you under any difficulty. Shall we therefore settle it for the 22d or 23d of October ? Your ever obliged humble servant. TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. Strawberry-hill, Oct. 5, 1764. IT is over with us! If I did not know your firmness, I would have prepared you by degrees; but you are a man, and can hear the worst at once. The duke of Cumberland1 is dead.' I have heard it but this instant. The duke of Newcastle was come to breakfast with me, and had pulled out a letter from lord Frederick, with a hopeless account of the poor duke of Devonshire. Ere I could read it, colonel Schutz called at the door and told my servant this fatal news! I know no more-it must be at Newmarket, and very sudden; for the duke of Newcastle had a letter from Hodgson, dated on Monday, 1 William duke of Cumberland, son of George II. [Or.] 2 This report proved to be unfounded. The duke of Cumberland, the hero of Culloden, was suddenly seriously indisposed at Newmarket, when this letter was written, from the breaking out of the wound which he received at the battle of Dettingen; but his demise did not take place until the 31st October in the following year. On the morning of that day, he was at Court; in the afternoon, he dined with lord Albemarle, and drank tea with the princess of Brunswick at St. James's; from whence he came to his own house, in Upper Grosvenor-street, to be present at a council. Just as the lord Chancellor and the duke of Newcastle arrived, he complained of a pain in his shoulder, and of being cold and shivering; and, desiring to be laid or a couch, which was done, he said to lord Albemarle, "It is all over." Sir Charles Wintringham, the King's physician, was immediately summoned, but his efforts to save him were ineffectual, and he expired without the slightest struggle in about twenty minutes from the commencement of his attack. [Ed.] on which said the duke was perfectly well, and his gout gone:yes, to be sure, into his head. Princess Amelia had endeavoured to prevent his going to Newmarket, having perceived great alteration in his speech, as the duke of Newcastle had.Well! it will not be.-Every thing fights against this country! Mr. Pitt must save it himself-or, what I do not know whether he will not like as well, share in overturning its liberty-if they will admit him; which I question now if they will be fools enough to do. You see I write in despair. I am for the whole, but perfectly tranquil. We have acted with honour, and have nothing to reproach ourselves with. We cannot combat fate. We shall be left almost alone; but I think you will no more go with the torrent than I will. Could I have foreseen this tide of ill-fortune, I would have done just as I have done; and my conduct shall show I am satisfied I have done right. For the rest, come what come may, I am perfectly prepared! and, while there is a free spot of earth upon the globe, that shall be my country. I am sorry it will not be this, but to-morrow I shall be able to laugh as usual. What signifies what happens when one is seven-and-forty, as I am to-day? "They tell me 'tis my birthday"-but I will not go on with Antony, and say " and I'll keep it With double pomp of sadness," No; when they can smile who ruin a great country, sure those who would have saved it may indulge themselves in that cheerfulness which conscious integrity bestows. I think I shall come to you next week; and, since we have no longer any plan of operations to settle, we will look over the map of Europe, and fix upon a pleasant corner for our exile-for, take notice, I do not design to fall upon my dagger, in hopes that some Mr. Addison a thousand years hence may write a dull tragedy about me. I will write my own story a little more cheerfully than he would; but I fear now I must not print it at my own press. Adieu! You were a philosopher before you had any occasion to be so: pray continue so; you have ample occasion! Yours ever. TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. Strawberry-hill, October 13, 1764. 2 LORD John Cavendish has been so kind as to send me word of the duke of Devonshire's' legacy to you. You cannot doubt of the great joy this gives me; and yet it serves to aggravate the loss of so worthy a man! And when I feel it thus, I am sensible how much more it will add to your concern, instead of diminishing it. Yet do not wholly reflect on your misfortune. You might despise the acquisition of five thousand pounds simply; but, when that sum is a public testimonial to your virtue, and bequeathed by a man so virtuous, it is a million. Measure it with the riches of those who have basely injured you, and it is still more! Why it is glory; it is conscious innocence; it is satisfaction-it is affluence without guilt-Oh! the comfortable sound! It is a good name in the history of these corrupt days. There it will exist, when the wealth of your and their country's enemies will be wasted, or will be an indelible blemish on their descendants. My heart is full, and yet I will say no more. My best loves to all your opulent family. Who says virtue is not rewarded in this world? It is rewarded by virtue, and it is persecuted by the bad. Can greater honour be paid to it? DEAR SIR, TO THE REV. MR. COLE. Yours ever. Strawberry-hill, October 27, 1764. Though I am much concerned at not seeing you, I am more so at not hearing from you, as I fear your sore throat has 1 William fourth duke of Devonshire. During his administration in Ireland, Mr. Conway had been secretary of state there. [Or.] He died at Spa, 2d October 1764. [Ed.] 2 The legacy was contained in a codicil written in the duke's own hand, as follows:-"I give to general Conway five thousand pounds, as a testimony of my friendship for him, and of my sense of his honourable conduct and friendship for me." [Ed.] proved more troublesome than you apprehended. Pray write me one line to tell me how you are. I will not trouble you with more now, but to enclose a sheet, by which I hope you will approve the manner in which I have obeyed you. Yours most faithfully. TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY. Strawberry-hill, October 29, 1764. I AM glad you mentioned it: I would not have had you appear without your close mourning for the duke of Devonshire upon any account. I was once going to tell you of it, knowing your inaccuracy in such matters; but thought it still impossible you should be ignorant how necessary it is. Lord Strafford, who has a legacy of only £200, wrote to consult lady Suffolk. She told him, for such a sum, which only implies a ring, it was sometimes not done; but yet advised him to mourn. In your case, it is indispensable; nor can you see any of his family without it. Besides, it is much better on such an occasion to over, than under do. I answer this paragraph first, because I am so earnest not to have you blamed. Besides wishing to see you all, I have wanted exceedingly to come to you, having much to say to you; but I am confined here, that is, Mr. Chute is: he was seized with the gout last Wednesday se'nnight, the day he came hither to meet George Montagu, and this is the first day he has been out of his bedchamber. I must therefore put off our meeting till Saturday, when you shall certainly find me in town. *, We have a report here, but the authority bitter bad, that lord March is going to be married to ****. I don't believe it the less for our knowing nothing of it; for unless their daughter were breeding, and it were to save her character, neither * * * nor * * would disclose a tittle about it. Yet in charity they should advertise it, that parents and relations, if it is so, may lock up all knives, ropes, laudanum, and rivers, lest it should occasion a violent mortality among his fair admirers. * I am charmed with an answer I have just read in the papers of a poor man in Bedlam, who was ill-used by an apprentice because he would not tell him why he was confined there. The unhappy creature said at last, "Because God has deprived me of a blessing which you never enjoyed." There never was any thing finer or more moving! Your sensibility will not be quite so much affected by a story I heard t'other day of sir Fletcher Norton.' He has a mother-yes, a mother: perhaps you thought, that, like that tender urchin Love, duris in cotibus illum Ismarus, aut Rhodope, aut extremi Garamantes, Well, Mrs. Rhodope lives in a mighty shabby hovel at Preston, which the dutiful and affectionate sir Fletcher began to think not suitable to the dignity of one who has the honour of being his parent. He cheapened a better, in which were two pictures which the proprietor valued at three-score pounds. The attorney insisted on having them for nothing as fixtures-the landlord refused, the bargain was broken off, and the dowager madam Norton remains in her original hut. I could tell another story which you would not dislike; but as it might hurt the person concerned, if it was known, I shall not send it by the post; but will tell it you when I see you. Adieu! Yours most cordially. TO THE REV. MR. COLE. DEAR SIR, I am heartily concerned for my disappointment, and more for the cause of it. Take care of yourself, and by no means venture catching cold. I shall be equally glad to see you on Tuesday, but I beg you not to come even then, if your throat is not perfectly cured. Yours most sincerely. 1 Son of Thomas Norton, esq., of Grantley. He was appointed solicitorgeneral, 14th December 1761, received the honour of knighthood in 1762, and was raised to the attorney-generalship in 1763. In 1769, upon the resignation of sir John Cust, he was elected speaker of the House of Commons, and upon his retirement was created lord Grantley, baron of Markenfield, in the county of York, by patent dated 9th April 1782. [Ed.] |