"She suffered more unjustly by declining to fee her fon, the Prince of Wales, to whom the fent her blefling and forgiveness-but conceiving the extreme diftrefs it would lay on the King, fhould he thus be forced to forgive fo impenitent a fon, or to banish him again if once recalled, the heroically preferred a meritorious hufband to a worthless child. "The Queen's greatest error was too high an opinion of her own address and art: the imagined that all who did not dare to contradict her were impofed upon; and the had the additional weaknets of thinking that the could play off many perfons without being difcovered. That mistaken humour, and at other times her hazarding very offenfive truths, made her many enemies: and her duplicity in fomenting jealoufies between the mi nifters, that each might be more dependent on herfelf, was no found wildom. It was the Queen who blew into a flame the ill-blood between Sir Robert Walpole and his brother-inlaw Lord Townshend. Yet though the difliked fome of the cabinet, the never let her own prejudices difturb the King's affairs, p:ovided the obnoxious paid no court to the mistress. Lord Ilay was the only man, who, by managing Scotland for Sir Robert Walpole, was maintained by him in fpite of his attachment to Lady Suffolk. "The Queen's great fecret was her own rupture, which till her laft illness nobody knew but the King, her Gernan nurfe Mrs. Mailborne, and one other perfon. To prevent all fufpicion, her Majesty would frequently ftand fome minutes in her fhift talking to her ladies; and though labouring with fo dangerous a complaint, the made it fo invariable a rule never to refuse a defire of the King, that every morning at Richmond the walked feveral miles with him; and more than once, when the had the gout in her foot, the dipped her whole leg in cold water to be ready to attend him. The pain, her bulk, and the exercife, threw her into fuch fits of perspiration as vented the gout-but thofe exertions haftened the crifis of her dittemper. It was great fhrewdness in Sir Robert Walpole, who, before her distemper broke out, difcovered her fecret. On my mother's death, who was of the Queen's age, her Majesty afked Sir Robert many phyfical queftions-but he remarked, that the of tenett reverted to a rupture, which had not been the illness of his wife. When he came home, he faid to me, Now, Horace, I know by poffeffion of what fecret Lady Sundon has pre'ferved fuch an afcendant over the 'Queen.' He was in the right. How Lady Sundon had wormed herself into that mystery was never known. As Sir Robert maintained his influence over the clergy by Gibson Bishop of London, he often met with troublefome obftructions from Lady Sundon, who efpoufed, as I have faid, the heterodox clergy; and Sir Robert could never shake her credit. "Yet the Queen was conftant in her protection of Sir Robert, and the day before fhe died gave a strong mark of her conviction that he was the firmeft fupport the King had. As they two alone were ftanding by the Queen's bed, the pathetically recommended, not the minifter to the fovereign, but the mafter to the fervant. Sir Robert was alarmed, and feared the recom mendation would leave a fatal impreflion-but a fhort time after the King reading with Sir Robert fome intercepted letters from Germany, which faid, that now the Queen was gone Sir Robert would have no protection: On the contrary,' faid the King, you know the recommended me to you. This marked the notice he had taken of the expreffion; and it was the only notice he ever took of it: nay, his Majefty's grief was fo exceffive and fo fincere, that his kindness to his minifter feemed to increase for the Queen's fake." Vol. iv. p. 305. "While the Queen dreffed, prayers nfed to be redde in the outward room, where hung a naked Venus. Mrs. Selwyn, bedchamber-woman in waiting, was one day ordered to bid the chaplain, Dr. Madox (afterwards Bishop of Worcester), begin the fervice. He faid archly, And a very proper altar-piece is here, Madam!' Queen Anne had the fame cuftom; and once ordering the door to be thut while the thifted, the chaplain ftopped. The Queen fent to alk why he did not proceed? He replied, He would not whistle the word of God through the key-hole'." CHARAC CHARACTERS OF THE DUCHESSES OF HAM. "I HAVE done with royal perfonages. Shall I add a codicil on fome remarkable characters that I remember? As I amwriting for young ladies, I have dwelt chiefly on heroines of your own fex. They too fhall compofe my laft chapter. Enter the Duchelles of Marl borough and Buckingham. lence ftop there; nor ftop till it had totally estranged and worn out the patience of the poor Queen, her miftrefs. The Duchefs was often feen to give her Majefty her fan and gloves, and turn away her own head, as if the Queen had offensive smells. Incapable of due refpect to fuperiors, it was no wonder the treated her children and inferiors with fupercilious contempt. Her eldest daughter and the were long at variance, and never reconciled. When the younger Duchefs expofed herself by placing a monument and filly epitaph, of her own compolition and bad spelling, to Congreve in Weftminster-abbey, her mother, quoting the words, faid, I know not what pleasure the might have in his company, but I am fure it was no honour. With her youngeft daughter, the Duchefs of Montagu, old Sarah agreed as ill. I wonder,' faid the Duke of Marlborough to them, that you cannot agree, you are "Thofe two women were confiderable perfonages in their day. The first, her own beauty, the fuperior talents of her husband in war, and the caprice of a feeble princefs, raised to the highest pitch of power; and the prodigious wealth bequeathed to her by her lord, and accumulated in concert with her, gave her weight in a free country. The other, proud of royal though illegitimate birth, was from the vanity of that birth fo zealoufly attached to her expelled brother the Pretender, that the never ceafed labouring to effect his restoration:fo like!' Of her grand-daughter, and as the oppofition to the houfe of Brunfwic was compofed partly of principled Jacobites, of Tories, who either knew not what their own principles were, or diffembled them to themfelves; and of Whigs, who, from hatred of the minister, both acted in concert with the Jacobites, and rejoiced in their affiftance; two women of fuch wealth, rank, and enmity to the court, were fure of great attention from all the difcontented. "The beauty of the Duchefs of Marlborough had always been of the fcornful, and imperious kind, and her features and air announced nothing that her temper did not confirm. Both together, her beauty and temper, enflaved her heroic ford. One of her principal charms was a prodigious abundance of fine fair hair. One day. at her toilet, in anger to him, the cut off thofe commanding treffes, and flung them in his face, Nor did her info. the Duchefs of Manchetter, daughter of the Duchefs of Montagu, the affected to be fond. One day the faid to her, Duchefs of Manchefter, you are a good creature, and I love you mightily-bat you have a mother!" And the has a mother!' answered the Manchester, who was all spirit, juf tice, and honour, and could not fupprefs fudden truth. "One of old Marlborough's capital mortifications fprung from a grand daughter. The most beautiful of her four charming daughters, Lady: Sumderland, left two fons †, the fecond Duke of Marlborough, and John Spencer, who became her heir, and Anne Lady Bateman, and Lady Diana Spencer, whom I have mentioned, and who became Duchefs of Bedford. The Duke and his brother, to humour their grandmother, were in oppofition, though the eldeft the never loved. He had good fenfe, infinite generofity, "Lady Sunderland was a great politician; and having, like her mother, a moft beautiful head of hair, uled while combing it at her toilet to receive men' whofe votes or intereft fhe wished to influence.' "She had an elder fon who died young, while only Earl of Sunderland. He had parts, and all the ambition of his parents and of his family (which his younger brothers had not); but George 11. had conceived fuch an aversion to his father, that he would not employ him. The young Earl at laft afked Sir Robert Walpole for an enfigncy in the guards. The minifter, aftonished at fo humble à request from a man of fuch confequence, expreffed his furprise-'I ask it,' faid the young lord, to afcertain whether it is determined that I fhall never have any thing.' He died foon after at Paris.” and and not more economy than was to be come tip to the Billingsgate with expected from a young man of warm which he was animated herself, the paffions and fuch vaft expectations. appeared in the court of juftice, and He was modeft and diffident too, but with fome wit, and infinite abuse, could not digeft total dependence on a treated the laughing public with capriciousand avaricious grandmother. the spectacle of a woman who had His fifter, Lady Bateman, had the in- held the reins of empire metamor. triguing fpirit of her father and grand- phofed into the widow Blackacre. father, Earls of Sunderland. She was Her grandfon in his fuit demanded a connected with Henry Fox, the firft fword fet with diamonds given to his Lord Holland, and both had great in grandfire by the Emperor. I refluence over the Duke of Marlbo-tained it,' faid the beldame, left he rough. What an object would it be 'fhould pick out the diamonds and to Fox to convert to the court fo great pawn them.’ a fubject as the Duke! Nor was it much lefs important to his fifter to give him a wife, who, with no reafons for expectation of fuch fhining fortune, fhould owe the obligation to her! Lady Bateman ftruck the first stroke, and perfuaded her brother to marry a handfome young lady, who un luckily was daughter of Lord Trevor, who frad been a bitter enemy of his grandfather the victorious Duke. The grandam's rage exceeded all bounds. Having a portrait of Lady Bateman, the blackened the face, and wrote on it,Now her outfide is as black as her • infide.' The Duke the turned out of the little lodge in Windfor park; and then pretending that the new Duchefs and her female coutins, eight Trevors, had ftripped the houfe and garden, the had a puppet-how made with waxen figures, reprefenting the Trevors tearing up the fhrubs, and the Duchefs carrying off the chicken coop under her arm. Her fury did but increase when Mr. Fox prevailed on the Duke to go over to the court. With her coarfe, intemperate homour she said, • That was the fox that had stolen her goofe. Repeated injuries at laft drove the Duke to go to law with her. Fearing that even no lawyer would "I will repeat but one more inftance of her infolent afperity, which produced an admirable reply of the famous Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Lady Sundon had received a pair of diamond ear-rings as a bribe for procuring a confiderable poft in Queen Caroline's family for a certain peer; and, decked with thofe jewels, paid a visit to the old Duchefs; who, as foon as the was gone, faid, What an impudent crea ture, to come hither with her bribe in her ear!'—' Madam,' replied Lady Mary Wortley, who was prefent, how fhould people know where wine is fold, tinlefs a bush is hung out?” "The Duchefs of Buckingham was as much elated by owing her birth to James II. as the Marlborough was by the favour of his daughter. Lady Dorchester, the mother of the former, endeavoured to curb that pride, and, one fhould have thought, took an effectual method, though one few mo thers would have practifed: You need not be fo vain,' faid the old profligate; for you are not the King's daughter, but Colonel Gra'ham's. Graham was a fashionable man of thofe days, and noted for dry humour. His legitimate daughter the Countess of Berkshire was extremely like to the Duchefs of Buckingham: "Lady Dorchefter is well known for her wit, and for faying that the wondered for what James chose his mistreffes: We are none of us handfome,' Laid the; and if we have wit, he has not enough to find it out.'-But I do not know whether it is as public, that her ftyle was grofs and fhamelefs. Meetng the Duchefs of Portimouth and Lady Orkney, the favourite of King Wilam, at the drawing-room of George the First, God!' faid fhe, who would have thought that we three whores fhould have met here? Having after the King's abdication married Sir David Collyer, by whom the had two fons, the faid to them, If any body should call you fons of a whore, you inust bear it ; for you are fo: but if they call you bastards, fight till you die; for you are an honeft man's fons.' Sufan Lady Bellafis, another of King James's mistreffes, had wit too and no beauty. Mrs. Godfrey had neither. Grammont has recorded why the was chofen." • Well! 1 Well! well!' faid Graham, kings are all-powerful, and one must not 'complain; but certainly the fame 'man begot these two women.' To difcredit the wit of both parents, the Duchefs never ceafed labouring to reftore the houfe of Stuart, and to mark her filial devotion to it. Frequent were her journies to the continent for that purpofe. She always ftopped at Paris, vifited the church where lay the unburied body of James, and wept over it. A poor Benedictine of the convent, obferving her filial piety, took notice to her Grace that the velvet pall that covered the coffin was become thread - bare- and fo it remained! "Finding all her efforts fruitless, and perhaps aware that her plots were not undiscovered by Sir Robert Walpole, who was remarkable for his intelligence, the made an artful double, and refolved to try what might be done through him himself. I forget how the contracted an acquaintance with him.-I do remember that more than once he received letters from the Pretender himself, which probably were tranfmitted through her. Sír Robert always carried them to George II. who endorfed and returned them. That negotiation not fucceeding, the Duchefs made a more home puh. Learning his extreme fondness for his daughter (afterwards Lady Mary Churchill), the fent for Sir Robert, and asked him if he recollected what had not been thought too great a reward to Lord Clarendon for reftoring the royal family? He affected not to underftand her- Was not he allow ed,' urged the zealous Duchefs, 'to match his daughter to the Duke of York?' Sir Robert fmiled, and left her. "Sir Robert being forced from court, the Duchefs thought the moment favourable, and took a new journey to Rome; but confcious of the danger The might run of difcovery, fhe made over her eftate to the famous Mr. Pulteney (afterwards Earl of Bath), and left the deed in his cuftody. What was her afton fhment, when on her return the re-demanded the inftrument! —It was miflaid—He could not find it --He never could find it! The Duchefs grew clamorous. At laft his friend Lord Mansfield told him plainly, he could never fhow his face unless he fatisfied the Duchefs. Lord Bath did then fign a release to her of her eftate. The tranfaction was recorded in print by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, in a pamphlet that had great vogue, called A Congratulatory Letter, with many other anecdotes of the fame perfonage, and was not lefs acute than Sir Charles's Odes on the fame hero. The Duchefs dying not long after Sir Robert's entrance into the Houfe of Lords, Lord Oxford, one of her executors, told him there, that the Duchefs had ftruck Lord Bath out of her will, and made him, Sir Robert, one of her trustees in his room. Then,' faid Sir Robert laughing, I fee, my Lord, that I have got Lord Bath's place before he has got mine. Sir Robert had artfully prevented the laft. Before he quitted the King, he perfuaded his Majefty to infift as a preliminary to the change, that Mr. Pulteney fhould go into the Houfe of Peers, his great credit lying in the other houfe; and I remember my father's action when he returned from court and told me what he had done- I have turned the key of the closet on him'-making that motion with his hand. Pulteney had jumped at the proffered earldom, but faw his error when too late; and was fo enraged at his own overfight, that, when he went to take the oaths in the Houfe of Lords, he dafhed his patent on the floor, and vowed he would never take it up- -But he had kiffed the King's hand for it, and it was too late to recede. "But though Madam of Bucking. ham could not effect a coronation to her will, fhe indulged her pompous mind with fuch puppet-fhows as were appropriate to her rank. She had made a funeral for her husband as fplendid as that of the great Marlborough: fhe renewed that pageant for her only fon, a weak lad who died under age; and for herself; and prepared and decorated waxen dolls of him and of herself to be exhibited in glafs cafes in Weftminfter-abbey. It was for the proceffion at her fon's burial that fhe wrote to old Sarah of Marlborough to borrow the triumphal "I am not quite certain that, writing by memory at the distance of fifty years, I place that journey exactly at the right period, nor whether it did not take place before Sir Robert's fall. Nothing material depends on the precife period." VOL. II.-No. V. car that had tranfported the corpfe of the Duke. It carried my Lord "Marlborough,' replied the other, and fhall never be used for any body elfe. I have confulted the undertaker,' replied the Buckingham, and he tells me I may have a finer for twenty pounds.' "One of the laft acts of Buckingham's life was marrying a grandfon fhe had to a daughter of Lord Hervey. That intriguing man, fore, as I have faid, at his difgrace, caft his eyes every where to revenge or exalt himfelf. Profeffions or recantations of any principles coft him nothing: at leaft the confecrated day which was appointed for his first interview with the Duchefs made it prefumed, that to obtain her wealth, with her grandfon for his daughter, he must have fworn fealty to the houfe of Stuart. It was on the martyrdom of her grandfather: the received him in the great drawingroom of Buckingham-house, feated in a chair of ftate in deep mourning, attended by her women in like weeds, in memory of the royal martyr. "It will be a proper clofe to the hiftory of those curious ladies to mention the anecdote of Pope relative to them. Having drawn his famous character of Atoffa, he communicated it to each Duchefs, pretending it was levelled at the other. The Buckingham believed him: the Marlborough had more fenfe, and knew herselfand gave him a thousand pounds to fupprefs it- -And yet he left the copy behind him! EXTRACT. OF THE PRIMITIVE GRECIAN ARCHI TECTURE. "AFTER having, in our volume of Ionian Antiquities, prefented the public with fpecimens of the elegant, luxuriant, and in fome inftances fanciful, architecture of the Afiatic Greeks, we now offer to their confideration a few examples of the more chafte and fevere ftyle, which prevailed in Greece itfelf and its European colonies; where a greater degree of rigour, both in private manners and public difcipline, maintained for a longer time the ge nuine fimplicity of ancient tafte. This ftyle of architecture is commonly called Doric, but might more properly be called Gracian, as being the only ftyle employed, either in Greece, or its European colonies, prior to the Ma cedonian |