I certainly was given to understand, when I received the monody, that it was written by the public orator on the death of his son who fell at Waterloo: whereas it clearly appears by the obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine, that Ensign William Crowe, first battalion, 4th foot, son of the public orator at Oxford, was killed at the attack upon New Orleans Jan. 8, 1815.
I hasten to acknowledge my mistake, though I am glad that the two copies of verses found place in your columns.
Braybrooke.
Richard Oswald (Vol. viii., p. 442.)—Your Querist will find many letters to and from him in Franklin's Memoirs. He was for some years a merchant in the city of London. In 1759 he purchased the estate of Auchincruive, in the county of Ayr, and died there in 1783. No memoir of him has ever been published. He was for many years an intimate friend of Lord Shelbourne, who sent him to Paris in 1782, and again in 1783, to negotiate with Franklin, with whom he had been for some time acquainted. During the Seven Years' War he acted as commissary-general to the allied armies under the Duke of Brunswick, who said of him in the official despatches, that "England had sent him commissaries fit to be generals, and generals not fit to be commissaries."
J. H. E.
Grammont's Marriage (Vol. viii., p. 461.).—In one of the notes to Grammont, originally, I believe, introduced by Sir W. Scott in his edition, but which appears at p. 415. of Bohn's reprint, we are told on the authority of the Biographia Gallica, vol. i. p. 202.:
"The famous Count Grammont was thought to be the original of The Forced Marriage. This nobleman, during his stay at the court of England, had made love to Miss Hamilton, but was coming away from France without bringing matters to a proper conclusion. The young lady's brothers pursued him, and came up with him near Dover, in order to exchange some pistol shot with him. They called out, 'Count Grammont, have you forgot nothing at London?' 'Excuse me,' answered the Court guessing their errand, 'I forgot to marry your sister; so lead on, and let us finish that affair.'"
My object in this communication is to supply an omission in Mr. Steinman's very interesting Notes, who does not show, as he might have done, how the letters of M. de Comminges prove the truth of this story. For, from the passage quoted by Mr. Steinman from the letter to the king, dated Dec. 20-24, 1663, it is evident that the count was about on that day to leave England "without bringing matters to a proper conclusion;" while that he married the lady within a day or
two of that date may fairly be inferred from the announcement on Aug. 29-Sept. 8, 1664, that "Madame la Comtesse de Grammont accoucha hier au soir d'un fils." Mr. Steinman's omission was probably intentional; I have supplied it in the hope that the date and place of the marriage may now be ascertained, and for the purpose of expressing my hope that we shall soon be favoured by Mr. Steinman's return to this subject.
Horace Walpole, Jun.