Adeline Horsey Recollections. I made the acquaintance of the Count Montemolin (age 29) in 1848, when he was staying with the Due (age 33) and Duchesse de Nemours (age 25) at Orléans House, Twickenham. He was a very distinguished-looking man, but his good looks were marred by the hereditary defect of the Bourbon Eye, peculiar to the family.

The Count (age 29) was a beautiful dancer, and we danced together a great deal at the numerous balls where we met, and after Montemolin had made my father's acquaintance he used often to visit us at Upper Grosvenor Street.

We had many tastes in common; the Count (age 29) was passionately fond of music, so we sang together in French and Spanish, and thus gradually friendship became love, at least on his part. I, myself, was dazzled by the romance of the affair, and by the rank of my would-be suitor, for I do not think any girl in my position could have been quite unmoved if a Prince of the Blood selected her for his wife instead of one of the Royalties he could have chosen.

The Count (age 31) proposed to me in February '49, but I quite appreciated the difficulties that beset such a marriage, and, after the Count's declaration, I hesitated to definitely consent to become his wife. He apparently was greatly distressed, and sent me the following letter:

Mademoiselle, - I am taking the liberty of writing to you to open my heart, but under the greatest secrecy, as without that I shall be completely lost. I was the most unhappy man in the world after what you said to me at the last ball. How could you believe me capable of deceiving you ! I should never have any peace of mind were I to do so. I did not dare to speak to you again, and nevertheless I sought by every means to meet you, because I could not live without at least seeing you, and also because I hoped for the chance of speaking to you and proving to you that I am a man of honour, and not such a one as people would have you believe. But your kind and gracious manner on Thursday last has dispelled all my fears.

Now, I am going to tell you what you must have felt for a long time; it is that I love you. You alone can make my happiness; any other marriage is impossible for me.

I hope you will grant me the happiness of marrying you one day, because I dare think you too love me. But above all things I desire your happiness, and if I thought you would ever become unhappy with me, I would rather suffer alone, although the greatest and most terrible sacrifice I could make would be to renounce your love. I should, however, wish before you decide definitely that you would grant me a secret interview in the presence of your father, in order that I can say certain things to you. I trust that you will grant me this interview, as it will decide my future happiness.

I beg you again to maintain the greatest reserve in the matter. It must be a secret from everybody, even from my own family, Nobody except your father must know anything about it; for if they did, believe me, I should be completely lost.

I will call at your house at three o'clock in the afternoon, and if you cannot be alone then with your father, you can send me word by him to the following address when it will be convenient to you.

M. LE COMTE DE MONTEMOLIN,.

Travellers Club [Map], Pall Mall.

I shall be there until two o'clock exactly. I am, with the deepest respect and attachment,.

Your devoted,.

Le Comte de Montemolin.

My father and I therefore saw the Count, who successfully overcame our doubts about the wisdom of his marriage to an Englishwoman in view of the political situation in Spain. Montemolin was so much in love that he easily waived every obstacle my father placed in the way, and at last it was settled that we were to be formally engaged, subject to certain conditions which my father insisted on the Count complying with.

Letters of Horace Walpole. 04 Mar 1749. Strawberry Hill. To Horace Mann 1st Baronet (age 42).

I have been so shut up in the House of Commons for this last fortnight or three weeks, that I have not had time to write you a line: we have not had such a session since the famous beginning of last Parliament. I am come hither for a day or two of rest and air, and find the additional pleasure of great beauty in my improvements: I could talk to you through the whole sheet, and with much more satisfaction, upon this head; but I shall postpone my own amusement to yours, for I am sure you want much more to know what has been doing in Parliament than at Strawberry Hill. You will conclude that we have been fighting over the peace; but we have not. It is laid before Parliament, but will not be taken up; the Opposition foresee that a vote of approbation would pass, and therefore will not begin upon it, as they wish to reserve it for censure in the next reign-or perhaps the next reign does not care to censure now what he must hereafter maintain-and the ministry do not seem to think their treaty so perfect as not to be liable to blame, should it come to be canvassed. We have been then upon several other matters: but first I should tell you, that from the utmost tranquillity and impotence of a minority, there is at once started up so formidable an Opposition as to divide 137 against 203.(1) The minority is headed by the Prince, who has continued opposing, though very unsuccessfully, ever since the removal of Lord Granville (age 58), and the desertion of the patriots. He stayed till the Pelhams had brought off every man of parts in his train, and then began to form his party. Lord Granville (age 58) has never come into it, for fear of breaking with the King; and seems now to be patching up again with his old enemies. If Lord Bath has dealt with the Prince, it has been underhand. His ministry has had at the head of it poor Lord Baltimore (age 49), a very good-natured, weak, honest man; and Dr. Lee, a civilian, who was of Lord Granville's admiralty, and is still much attached to him. He is a grave man, and a good speaker, but of no very bright parts, and, from his way of life and profession, much ignorant of, and unfit for, a ministry. You will wonder what new resources the Prince has discovered-why, he has found them all in Lord Egmont (age 38), whom you have heard of under the name of Lord Perceval; but his father, an Irish Earl, is lately dead. As he is likely to make a very considerable figure in our history, I shall give you a more particular account of him. He has always earnestly studied our history and constitution and antiquities, with very ambitious views; and practised speaking early in the Irish Parliament. Indeed, this turn is his whole fund, for though he is between thirty and forty, he knows nothing of the world, and is always unpleasantly dragging the conversation to political dissertations. When very young, as he has told me himself, he dabbled in writing Craftsmen and penny-papers; but the first event that made him known, was his carrying the Westminster election at the end of my father's ministry,-which he amply described in the history of his own family, a genealogical work called "The History of the House of Yvery,"(2) a work which cost him three thousand pounds, as the heralds informed Mr. Chute and me, when we went to their office on your business; and which was so ridiculous, that he has since tried to suppress all the copies. It concluded with the description of the Westminster election, in these or some such words, "And here let us leave this young nobleman struggling for the dying liberties of his country!" When the change in the ministry happened, and Lord Bath was so abused by the remnant of the patriots, Lord Egmont published his celebrated pamphlet, called "Faction Detected," a work which the Pitts and Lytteltons have never forgiven him; and which, though he continued voting and sometimes speaking with the Pelhams, made him quite unpopular during all the last Parliament. When the new elections approached, he stood on his own bottom at Weobly in Herefordshire; but his election being contested, be applied for Mr. Pelham's support, who carried it for him in the House of Commons. This will always be a material blot in his life; for he had no sooner secured his seat, than he openly attached himself to the Prince, and has since been made a lord of his bedchamber. At the opening of this session, he published an extreme good pamphlet, which has made infinite noise, called "An Examination of the Principles and Conduct of the two Brothers," (the Pelhams,) and as Dr. Lee has been laid up with the gout, Egmont has taken the lead in the Opposition, and has made as great a figure as perhaps was ever made in so short a time. He is very bold and resolved, master of vast knowledge, and speaks at once with fire and method. His words are not picked and chosen like Pitt's, but his language is useful, clear, and strong. He has already by his parts and resolution mastered his great unpopularity, so far as to be heard with the utmost attention, though I believe nobody had ever more various difficulties to combat. All the old corps hate him on my father and Mr. Pelham's (age 54) account; the new part of the ministry on their own. The Tories have not quite forgiven his having left them in the last Parliament: besides that, they are now governed by one Prowse, a cold, plausible fellow. and a great well-wisher to Mr. Pelham (age 54). Lord Strange (age 33),(3) a busy Lord of a party by himself, yet voting generally with the Tories, continually clashes with Lord Egmont; and besides all this, there is a faction in the Prince's family, headed by Nugent, who are for moderate measures.

(1) Upon the last clause of the Mutiny-bill, an amendment to render half pay officers subject to the act, only in case of actual war, insurrection, rebellion, or invasion, was rejected by 203 to 137.-E.

(2) Compiled principally for Lord Egmont by Anderson, the genealogist. It was printed, but not published, in 1742. "Some," says Boswell, in his Life of Johnson, "have affected to laugh at the History of the House of Very: it would be well if many others would transmit their pedigrees to posterity, with the same accuracy and generous zeal with which the noble Lord who compiled that work has honoured and perpetuated his ancestry. Family histories, like, the imagines majorum of the ancients, excite to virtue." Vol. viii. p. 188.-E.

(3) James, Lord Strange (age 33), eldest son of Edward Stanley, eleventh Earl of Derby (age 59). In 1762 he was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and died during his father's life-time, in 1771. He always called himself Lord Strange; though the title, which was a barony in fee, had in fact descended to the Duke of Atholl, as heir general of James, seventh Earl of Derby. D.

Letters of Horace Walpole. 27 Jul 1752. There are great civil wars in the neighbourhood of Strawberry Hill: Princess Emily (age 41), who succeeded my brother in the rangership of Richmond Park, has imitated her brother William's (age 31) unpopularity, and disobliged the whole country, by refusal of tickets and liberties, that had always been allowed. They are at law with her, and have printed in the Evening Post a strong Memorial, which she had refused to receive-.³²² The High Sheriff of Surrey, to whom she had denied a ticket, but on better thought had sent one, refused it, and said he had taken his part. Lord Brooke (age 32)³²³ who had applied for one, was told he could not have one-and to add to the affront, it was signified. that the Princess had refused one to my Lord Chancellor-your old nobility don't understand such comparisons! But the most remarkable event happened to her about three weeks ago. One Mr. Bird, a rich gentleman near the park, was applied to by the late Queen for a piece of ground that lay convenient for a walk she was making: he replied, it was not proper for him to pretend to make a Queen a present; but if she would do what she pleased with the ground, he would be content with the acknowledgment of a key and two bucks a-year. This was religiously observed till the era of her Royal Highness's reign; the bucks were denied, and he himself once shut out, on pretence it was fence-month (the breeding-time, when tickets used to be excluded, keys never.) The Princess soon after was going through his grounds to town; she found a padlock on his gate; she ordered it to be broke open: Mr. Shaw, her deputy, begged a respite, till he could go for the key. He found Mr. Bird at home-"Lord, Sir! here is a strange mistake; the Princess is at the gate, and it is padlocked!" "Mistake! no mistake at all - I made the road: the ground is my own property: her Royal Highness has thought fit to break the agreement which her Royal Mother made with me: nobody goes through my grounds but those I choose should. Translate this to your Florentinese; try if you can make them conceive how pleasant it is to treat blood royal thus!

There are dissensions of more consequence in the same neighbourhood. The tutorhood at Kew is split into factions: the Bishop of Norwich (age 50) and Lord Harcourt (age 38) openly at war with Stone (age 49) and Scott, who are supported by Cresset (age 38), and countenanced by the Princess and Murray-so my Lord Bolinbroke dead, will govern, which he never could living! It is believed that the Bishop (age 50) will be banished into the rich bishopric of Durham, which is just vacant-how pleasant to be punished, after teaching the boys a year, with as much as he could have got if he had taught them twenty! Will they ever expect a peaceable prelate, if untractableness is thus punished?

Note 322. The memorial will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for this year. In December the park was opened by the King's order.-E.

Note 323. Francis Greville, Earl Brooke (age 32).

Letters of Horace Walpole. I now entirely credit all that my Lord Leicester and his family have said against Lady Mary Coke and her family¹; and am convinced that it is impossible to marry any thing of the blood of Campbell, without having all her relations in arms to procure a separation immediately. Pray, what have I done? have I come home drunk to my wife within these four first days? or have I sat up gaming all night, and not come home at all to her, after her lady-mother had been persuaded that I was the soberest young nobleman in England, and had the greatest aversion to play'! Have I kept my bride awake all night with railing at her father, when all the world had allowed him to be one of the bravest officers in Europe? In short, in short, I have a mind to take COUNSEL, even of the wisest lawyer now living in matrimonial cases, my Lord Coke * * * If, like other Norfolk husbands, I must entertain the town with a formal parting, at least it shall be in my own way: my wife shall neither 'run to Italy after lovers and books³⁰⁶, nor keep a dormitory in her dressing-room at Whitehall for Westminster schoolboys, your Frederick Campbells, and such like.³⁰⁷ nor 'yet shall she reside at her mother's house, but shall absolutely set out for Strawberry Hill in two or three days, as soon as her room can be well aired; for, to give her her due, I don't think her to blame, but flatter myself she is quite contented with the easy footing we live upon; separate beds, dining in her dressing-room when she is out of humour, and a little toad-eater that I had got for her, and whose pockets and bosom I have never examined, to see if' she brought any billets-doux from Tommy Lyttelton or any of her fellows. I shall follow her myself in less than a fortnight; and if her family don't give me any more trouble,-why, who knows but at your return you may find your daughter with qualms and in a sack? If you should happen to want to know any more particulars, she is quite well, has walked in the park every morning, or has the chariot, as she chooses; and, in short, one would think that I or she were much older than we really are, for I grow excessively fond of her.³⁰⁸

Note 305. Now first published.

Note 306. Alluding to the wife of his eldest brother, Lord Walpole, Margaret Rolle, who had separated Herself from her husband, and resided in Italy.-E.

Note 307. Lady Townshend.-E.

Note 308. All this letter refers to Ann Seymour Conway, then three years old, who had been left with her nurse at Mr. Walpole's, during an absence of her father and mother in Ireland.-E.

Note 1. Mary Campbell had married Edward Coke son of Thomas William Coke 1st Earl of Leicester.