furnished the tea-tables here with fresh tattle for this last fortnight. I was one of the first informed of her adventure by Lady Gage, who was told that morning by a priest, that she had desired him to marry her the next day to Beard, who sings in the farces at Drury Lane.' He refused her that good office, and immediately told Lady Gage, who (having been unfortunate in her friends) was frighted at this affair and asked my advice. I told her honestly, that since the lady was capable of such amours, I did not doubt if this was broke off she would bestow her person and fortune on some hackney-coachman or chairman; and that I really saw no method of saving her from ruin, and her family from dishonour, but by poisoning her; and offered to be at the expense of the arsenic, and even to administer it with my own hands, if she would invite her to drink tea with her that evening. But on her not approving that method, she sent to Lady Montacute, Mrs. Dunch, and all the relations within the reach of messengers. They carried Lady Harriet to Twickenham; though I told them it was a bad air for girls. She is since returned to London, and some people believe her to be married; others, that he is too much intimidated by Mr. Waldegrave's threats to dare to go through the ceremony; but the secret is now public, and in what manner it will conclude I know not. Her relations have certainly no reason to be amazed at her constitution; but are violently surprised at the mixture of 1 John Beard, a well-known operatic singer and manager. Lady Henrietta Herbert, who was a daughter of the Earl of Waldegrave, had been singularly unfortunate in her first marriage to Lord Edward Herbert, who died four months after their marriage, and seven months before the birth of their daughter. Lady Henrietta had been four years a widow when she married Beard, and was still only twenty-two years of age. Their marriage was publicly announced in the London Evening Post on the 15th of January following. Lord Wharncliffe speaks of Beard as "an indifferent character," but this appears to be a mistake. His contemporaries mention him with respect. Miss Hawkins, daughter of Sir John Hawkins, speaks in the highest terms of Beard, and mentions "his many virtues." She must have known him well, for she tells us that "Mr. Beard, the very respectable oratorio singer, was one of my father's early acquaintance; and having married a lady of very high rank, was his near neighbour, residing very handsomely at Hampton." Anecdotes, &c., collected by Letitia Matilda Hawkins, 1822, i. 13.-T. 2 Probably one of the lady's brothers.-T. devotion that forces her to have recourse to the Church in her necessities; which has not been the road taken by the matrons of her family. Such examples are very detrimental to our whole sex; and are apt to influence the other into a belief that we are unfit to manage either liberty or money. These melancholy reflections make me incapable of a lively conclusion to my letter; you must accept of a very sincere one in the assurance that I am, dear madam, Inviolably yours, &c. TO THE COUNTESS OF POMFRET. [January, 1739.] AMIDST the shining gallantries of the French court, I know not how you will receive a stupid letter from these regions of dulness, where even our ridiculous actions (which are very frequent, I confess) have a certain air of formality that hinders them from being risible, at the same time that they are absurd. I think Lady Anne Lumley's' marriage may be reckoned into this number, who is going to espouse with great gravity a younger brother of Sir Thomas Frankland's. There are great struggles and many candidates for her place. Lady Anne Montagu, daughter to Lord Halifax, is one of them; and Lady Charlotte Rich, Lady Betty Herbert, and the incomparable Lady Bateman, are her competitors. I saw Mrs. Bridgeman' the other day, who is much 1 Sister of the then Earl of Scarbrough. She married in February, 1739, Frederick Frankland, Esq., of Roehampton, Surrey, M.P. for Thirsk, and was succeeded in her place of lady of the bedchamber to the Princesses Amelia and Caroline by the Lady Anne Montagu, mentioned in the text. The story of Lady Anne Frankland is a tragic one. She appears to have been as unhappy in her marriage as in her "court afflictions and resentments." Her husband took an almost insane dislike to her three weeks only after their marriage, laying no fault to her charge, but only declaring that she was his aversion, and threatening if she did not leave him to kill her or himself. The lady, after begging in vain to be allowed to remain under his roof, accordingly parted with him, receiving back her fortune, with an allowance from her husband of six hundred pounds a year, and a thousand pounds to buy a house. Poor Lady Anne survived this trouble but a twelvemonth.-T. 2 A daughter of Sir Orlando Bridgeman.-T. pleased with a letter she has had the honour to receive from your ladyship; she broke out, "Really Lady Pomfret writes finely!" I very readily joined in her opinion; she continued, "Oh, so neat, no interlineations, and such proper distances!" This manner of praising your style made me reflect on the necessity of attention to trifles, if one would please in general-a rule terribly neglected by me formerly; yet it is certain that some men are as much struck with the careless twist of a tippet, as others are by a pair of fine eyes. Lady Vane is returned hither in company with Lord Berkeley, and went with him in public to Cranford, where they remain as happy as love and youth can make them. I am told that though she does not pique herself upon fidelity to any one man (which is but a narrow way of thinking), she boasts that she has always been true to her nation, and, notwithstanding foreign attacks, has always reserved her charms for the use of her own countrymen. I forget you are at Paris, and 'tis not polite to trouble you with such long scrawls as might perhaps be supportable at Monts; but you must give me leave to add, that I am, with a true sense of your merit, for ever yours, in the largest extent of that expression. TO THE COUNTESS OF POMFRET. 1738. [March, 1739.] I AM SO well acquainted with the lady you mention, that I am not surprised at any proof of her want of judgment; 1 See note on letter to Lady Pomfret, antè, p. 29. The lady's liaison with Lord Berkeley appears nearly three years later to have been still matter of public scandal; for Horace Walpole, in a letter to Mann, of November 23, 1741, thus alludes to it: "You cannot imagine what an entertaining fourth act of the opera we had the other night. Lord Vane in the middle of the pit making love to my lady [his wife]. The Duke of Newcastle has lately given him three score thousand pounds to consent to cut off the entail of the Newcastle estate. The fool immediately wrote to his wife to beg she would return to him from Lord Berkeley, that he had got so much money and now they might live comfortably; but she will not live comfortably. She is at Lord Berkeley's house, whither go divers after her." Neither of Lady Vane's husbands appears to have been famous for good sense.-T. she is one of those who has passed upon the world vivacity in the place of understanding; for me, who think with Boileau, "Rien n'est beau que le vrai, le vrai seul est aimable," I have always thought those geniuses much inferior to the plain sense of a cookmaid, who can make a good pudding and keep the kitchen in good order. Here is no news to be sent you from this place, which has been for this fortnight and still continues overwhelmed with politics, and which are of so mysterious a nature, one ought to have some of the gifts of Lilly or Partridge' to be able to write about them; and I leave all those dissertations to those distinguished mortals who are endowed with the talent of divination; though I am at present the only one of my sex who seems to be of that opinion, the ladies having shown their zeal and appetite for knowledge in a most glorious manner. At the last warm debate in the House of Lords, it was unanimously resolved there should be no crowd of unnecessary auditors; consequently the fair sex were excluded, and the gallery destined to the sole use of the House of Commons. Notwithstanding which determination, a tribe of dames resolved to show on this occasion that neither men nor laws could resist them. These heroines were Lady Huntingdon,2 the Duchess of Queensberry, the Duchess of Ancaster, Lady Westmoreland, Lady Cobham, Lady Charlotte Edwin, Lady Archibald Hamilton and her daughter, Mrs. Scott, and Mrs. Pendarves, and Lady Frances Saunderson. I am thus particular in their names, since I look upon them to be the boldest assertors, and most resigned sufferers for liberty, I ever read of. They presented themselves at the door at nine o'clock in the morning, where Sir William Saunderson respectfully informed them the Chancellor had made an order against their admittance. The Duchess of Queensberry, as head of the squadron, pished at the ill-breeding of a mere lawyer, and desired him to let them upstairs privately. After some modest refusals, he swore by G-- he would not let them in. 1 [Prophetic almanack makers.] 2 Lady Huntingdon, the same who afterwards became the head, the Countess Matilda, of the Whitfieldian Methodists.-W. Her grace, with a noble warmth, answered, by G- they would come in in spite of the Chancellor and the whole House. This being reported, the Peers resolved to starve them out; an order was made that the doors should not be opened till they had raised their siege. These Amazons now showed themselves qualified for the duty even of foot soldiers; they stood there till five in the afternoon, without either sustenance or evacuation, every now and then playing volleys of thumps, kicks, and raps against the door, with so much violence that the speakers in the House were scarce heard. When the Lords were not to be conquered by this, the two duchesses (very well apprised of the use of stratagems in war) commanded a dead silence of half an hour; and the Chancellor, who thought this a certain proof of their absence (the Commons also being very impatient to enter), gave order for the opening of the door; upon which they all rushed in, pushed aside their competitors, and placed themselves in the front rows of the gallery. They stayed there till after eleven, when the House rose; and during the debate gave applause, and showed marks of dislike, not only by smiles and winks (which have always been allowed in these cases), but by noisy laughs and apparent contempts; which is supposed the true reason why poor Lord Hervey spoke miserably. I beg your pardon, dear madam, 1 The debate referred to was on the conduct of the Spanish government, and took place on Thursday, March 1, 1739. Mrs. Pendarves, afterwards Mrs. Delany, gives the following account of the matter: "Lady Westmoreland. .. and the Duchess of Queensberry, Mrs. Fortescue and myself, set forward for Westminster, and got up to the gallery door without any difficulty. There were thirteen ladies more that came with the same intention. To tell you all the particulars of our provocations, the insults of the doorkeepers and our unshaken intrepidity, would flourish out more paper than a single frank would contain; but we bore the buffets of a stinking crowd from half an hour after ten till five in the afternoon without moving an inch from our places, only see-sawing about as the motion of the multitude forced us. At last, our committee resolved to adjourn to the coffee-house of the Court of Request, where debates began how we were to proceed? It was agreed amongst us to address Sir Charles Dalton [gentleman usher of the Black Rod] for admittance. The address was presented, and an answer returned that whilst one lady remained in the passage to the gallery the door should not be opened for the members of the House of Commons, so we generously gave them the liberty of taking their places. As soon as the door was opened they all rushed in, and we fol |