391 Letter 150 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, Oct 19, 1744.
I have received two or three letters from you since I wrote to you last, and all contribute to give me fears for your situation at Florence. How absurdly all the Queen's ban haughtinesses are dictated to her by her ministers, or by her own Austriacity! She lost all Silesia because she would not lose a small piece of it, and she is going to lose Tuscany for want of a neutrality, because she would not accept one for Naples, even after all prospect of conquering it was vanished. Every thing goes ill! the King of Sardinia beaten; and to-day we hear of Coni lost! You will see in the papers too, that the Victory, our finest ship, is lost, with Sir John Balchen and nine hundred men.(975) The expense alone of the ship is computed at above two hundred thousand pounds. We have nothing good but a flying report of a victory of Prince Charles over the Prussian, who, it 'Is said, has lost ten thousand men, and both his legs by a cannon-ball. I have no notion of his losing them, but by breaking them in over-hurry to run away. However, it comes from a Jew, who had the first news of the passage of the Rhine.(976) But, my dear child, how will this comfort me, if you are not to remain in peace at Florence! I tremble as I write!
Yesterday morning carried off those two old beldamss, Sarah of Marlborough and the (.countess Granville;(977) so now Uguccioni's(978) epithalamium must be new-tricked out in titles, for my Lady Carteret is Countess! Poor Bistino! I wish my Lady Pomfret may leave off her translation of Froissart to English the eight hundred and forty heroics! When I know the particulars of old Marlborough's will, you shall.
My Lord Walpole has promised me a letter for young Gardiner; who, by the way, has pushed his fortune en vrai b`atard, without being so, for it never was pretended that he was my brother's - he protests he is not; but the youth has profited of his mother's gallantries.
I have not seen Admiral Matthews yet, but I take him to be very mad. He walks in the Park with a cockade of three /colours: the Duke desired a gentleman to ask him the meaning, and all the answer he would give was, "The Treaty of Worms! the treaty of Worms!" I design to see him, thank him for my packet, and inquire after the cases.
it is a most terrible loss for his parents, Lord Beauchamp's(979) death: if they were out of the question, one could not be sorry for such a mortification to the pride of old Somerset. He has written the most shocking letter imaginable to poor Lord Hertford, telling him that it is a judgment upon him for all his undutifulness, and that he must always look upon himself. as the cause of' his son's death. Lord Hertford is as good a man as lives, and has always been most unreasonably ill-used by that old tyrant. The title of' Somerset will revert to Sir Edward Seymour, whose line has been most unjustly deprived of it from the first creation. The Protector when only Earl of Hertford, married a great heiress, and had a Lord Beauchamp, who was about twenty when his mother died. His father then married an Anne Stanhope, with whom he was In love, and not only procured an act of parliament to deprive Lord Beauchamp of' his honours and to settle the title of Somerset, which he was going to have, on the children of' this second match, but took from him even his mother's fortune. From him descended Sir Edward Seymour, the Speaker, who, on King William's landing, when he said to him, "Sir Edward, I think you are of the Duke of Somerset's family!" replied, "No, Sir: he is of mine."
Lord Lincoln was married last Tuesday, and Lord Middlesex will be very soon. Have you heard the gentle manner of the French King's dismissing Madame de Chateauroux? In the very circle, the Bishop of Soissons(980) told her, that, as the scandal the King had given with her was public, his Majesty thought his repentance ought to be so too, and that he therefore forbade her the court; and then turning to the monarch, asked him if that was not his pleasure, who replied, Yes. They have taken away her pension too, and turned out even laundresses that she had recommended for the future Dauphiness. A-propos to the Chateauroux: there is a Hanoverian come over, who was so ingenuous as to tell Master Louis,(981) how like he is to M. Walmoden. You conceive that "nous autres souvereins nous n'aimons pas qu'on se m`eprenne aux gens:" we don't love that our Fitzroys should be scandalized with any mortal resemblance.
I must tell you a good piece of discretion of a Scotch soldier, whom Mr. Selwyn met on Bexley Heath walking back to the army. He had met with a single glove at Higham, which had been left there last year in an inn by an officer now in Flanders: this the fellow was carrying in hopes of a little money; but, for fear he should lose the glove, wore it all the way.
Thank you for General Braitwitz's deux potences.(982) I hope
that one of them, at least will rid us of the Prussian.
Adieu! my dear child: all my wishes are employed about
Florence.
(975) The Victory, of a hundred and ten brass guns, was lost, between the 4th and 5th of October, near Alderney.-E.