The inscription under the queen's portrait is correctly given by M. W. B.; except that, in the sixth line, the word "invidia" occurs after "hæret," and the "et" is omitted.
Touching this same portrait, and the selfish, silly, sight-loving Englishman, M. Serrure writeth as follows:
"Les Anglais, si avides de tout voir quand ils sont en pays étranger, et si curieux de tout ce qui appartient à leur histoire, ne manquent jamais d'aller visiter l'Église de St. André. Leur admiration pour ce monument, sans doute plus intéressant sous le rapport du souvenir qui s'y rattache, que sous celui de l'art, va si loin, que plus d'une fois on a prétendu, non-seulement que le Portrait est un de ceux qui retrace le plus fidèlement les traits de la malheureuse Marie Stuart, mais qu'on a été jusqu'à l'attribuer au pinceau de Van Dyck. Aussi bon nombre d'amateurs d'outre-mer l'ont-ils fait copier dans les derniers temps."
W. M. R. E.
RIGBY CORRESPONDENCE.
(Vol. vii., p. 203.)
I am a little surprised at the slight knowledge K. K. seems to have of Mr. Rigby—nor do I quite understand his statement: he says he possesses sixty-seven letters of Mr. Rigby to his own grandfather, and that his object is to discover, what he calls, the counterpart of the correspondence: and then he talks of this counter-correspondent, as if he knew no more of him than that he was an M. P., and "seems" to have done so and so. Now this counter-correspondent must have been his grandfather: and it would surely have simplified the inquiry if he had stated at once the name of his grandfather, whose letters he is anxious to recover. Mr. Rigby was one of the busiest politicians of the busy times in which he lived. He did not, as K. K. supposes, reside altogether in England. He was chief secretary to the Duke of Bedford when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, from 1757 to 1761; in which period he obtained the lucrative sinecure of Master of the Rolls in Ireland, which he enjoyed for upwards of twenty years; during which he was a prominent figure in English and Irish politics, and was long the leader of the Bedford party in the English House of Commons. His correspondence would be likely to be, with any one he confided in, important; and with any body, very amusing: for, though a deep politician, he was of a gay, frank, jovial, and gossiping disposition. It was he who, when some questions were carried against him in the Irish parliament, and that some of his English friends wrote to ask him whether he would not resign on such an affront, concealed his political feelings under the jolly bon-vivant style of answering: "What care I about their affronts! there is nothing in the world I like half so well as woodcock-shooting and claret-drinking, and here I have both in perfection: why should I resign?" He died in 1788; and was succeeded in his estate at Mirtley, in Essex, by Lieut.-Col. Hale Rigby (who, I think, but am not sure, assumed the name of Rigby for the estate), and who had an only daughter who married the late Lord Rivers; and whose son is now, I presume, the representative of Mr. Rigby—the owner of Mirtley—and probably, if they be in existence, the possessor of the "counter-correspondence" that K. K. inquires after. I have been thus particular in answering, as far as I can, K. K.'s Query, because I believe that any confidential correspondence of Mr. Rigby must be very interesting, and I am glad to suggest where K. K. may look for the "counterpart;" but, whether they be obtained or not, I am inclined to believe that Mr. Rigby's own letters would be worth publication, if, as I have already hinted, his correspondent was really in either his private or political confidence.
C.
A considerable number of this gentleman's letters were addressed to his friend and patron, John, fourth Duke of Bedford, and are among the MSS. at Woburn Abbey. A selection of the most interesting are printed in the Bedford Correspondence, three vols. 8vo.