fitter for poetry than prose. It is for the dialogue that Walpole reserves his strength; and it is remarkable how, while conducting his mortal agents with all the art of a modern dramatist, he adheres to the sustained tone of chivalry, which marks the period of the action. This is not attained by patching his narrative or dialogue with glossarial terms or antique phraseology, but by taking care to exclude all that can awaken modern associations.

"We have only to add," says Sir Walter, "in conclusion to these desultory remarks, that if Horace Walpole, who led the way in this new species of literary composition, has been surpassed by some of his followers in diffuse brilliancy of description, and perhaps in the art of detaining the mind of the reader in a state of feverish and anxious suspense, through a protracted and complicated narrative, more will yet remain with him than the single merit of originality and invention. The applause due to chastity and precision of style,-to a happy combination of supernatural agency with human interest,-to a tone of feudal manners and language, sustained by characters strongly drawn and well discriminated, and to unity of action, producing scenes alternately of interest and of grandeur;-the applause, in fine, which cannot be denied to him who can excite the passions of fear and of pity, must be awarded to the author of the 'Castle of Otranto.'

"The next publication of Walpole was his Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third,' one of the most ingenious historical and antiquarian dissertations which has ever issued from the press. He has collected his facts with so much industry, and draws his arguments and inferences from them with so much ability, that if he has not convinced the public of the entire innocence of Richard, he has, at all events, diminished the number of his crimes, and has thrown a doubt over his whole history, as well as over the credibility of his accusers, which is generally favourable to his reputation.

"The remainder of the works of Walpole, published or printed in his lifetime, consist of minor, or, as he calls them, 'Fugitive Pieces.' Of these the most remarkable are his papers in 'The World' and other periodicals; 'A Letter from Xo Ho, a Chinese Philosopher, in London,' on the politics of the day; the 'Essay on Modern Gardening;' the pamphlet called 'A Counter-Address,' on the dismissal of Marshal Conway from his command of a regiment; the fanciful, but lively, Hieroglyphic Tales;' and

"The Reminiscences,' or Recollections of Court and Political Anecdotes; which last he wrote for the amusement of the Miss Berrys."

In 1798, Miss Berry edited the "Works of the Earl of Orford," in 5 vols. 4to. This publication contained, in addition to the Miscellaneous Works of the noble author, his Letters to Richard West, Esq.; to the Hon. Henry Seymour Conway; to Richard Bentley, Esq.; to the poet Gray; to John Chute, Esq.; to the Earl of Strafford; to the Countess Dowager of Ailesbury; and to Miss Hannah More.

In 1818, Horace Walpole's Letters to George Montagu, Esq., and to the Rev. C. Cole, 4to, were published by Messrs. Rodwell and Martin. In 1825, Horace Walpole's Letters to the Earl of Hertford, in 4to, were published by Mr. Knight. In 1833, Mr. Bentley published the First Series of Horace Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, edited by the late Lord Dover, in 3 vols. 8vo.

In 1840, Mr. Bentley published the Collective Edition of the Letters of Horace Walpole. This well-annotated Edition comprised all the Letters which had been published to that date, namely, those published in 1798; those to George Montagu, and Rev. C. Cole; those to the Earl of Hertford, and the First Series. of the Letters to Sir Horace Mann, to the death of George the Second, and a Series of Letters, then first published, to Miss Mary Berry.

The remaining Letters to Sir Horace Mann (permission to publish which had been previously withheld by the late Lord Holland) were published by Mr. Bentley in 1843; all the remaining Works in manuscript having been purchased by him of the present Duke of Grafton, as executor of the late Lord Waldegrave, for the sum of 8007.

There have also been published his memoirs of the last ten years of the reign of George the Second, and his memoirs of the reign of George the Third. The latter appeared in 1845. His correspondence with the Rev. Thomas Mann is now in course of publication.

"A friend of Mr. Walpole's has observed, that his epistolary talents have shown our language to be capable of all the grace and all the charms of the French of Madame de Sévigné;' and the remark is a true one, for he is undoubtedly the author who first

proved the aptitude of our language for that light and gay epistolary style, which was before supposed peculiarly to belong to our Gallic neighbours. There may be letters of a higher order in our literature than those of Walpole. Gray's letters, and perhaps Cowper's, may be taken as instances of this; but where shall we find such an union of taste, humour, and almost of dramatic power of description and narrative, as in the Correspondence of Walpole? where such happy touches upon the manners and characters of the times? Where can we find such graphic scenes, as the funeral of George the Second; as the party to Vauxhall with Lady Harrington; as the ball at Miss Chudleigh's, in the letters already published; or as some of the House of Commons' debates, and many of the anecdotes of society, in those now offered to the world? Walpole's style in letter-writing is occasionally quaint, and sometimes a little laboured; but for the most part he has contrived to throw into it a great appearance of ease, as if he wrote rapidly and without premeditation. This, however, was by no means the case, as he took great pains with his letters, and even collected and wrote down beforehand, anecdotes, with a view to their subsequent insertion. Some of these stories have been discovered among the papers at Strawberry Hill."

Nothing has brought more obloquy upon Horace Walpole than his ill-treatment of

"Chatterton, the marvellous boy,

The sleepless soul that perished in its pride."

But those who have investigated Walpole's conduct in this matter most carefully, Sir Walter Scott, Chalmers the compiler of the Biographical Dictionary, and Lord Dover, concur in acquitting him of all blame.

"It appears," says Lord Dover, "that in March, 1769, Walpole received a letter from Chatterton, enclosing a few specimens of the pretended poems of Rowley, and announcing his discovery of a series of ancient painters at Bristol. To this communication Walpole, naturally enough, returned a very civil answer. Shortly afterwards doubts arose in his mind as to the authenticity of the poems; these were confirmed by the opinions of some friends, to whom he showed them; and he then wrote an expression of these doubts to Chatterton. This appears to have excited the anger of Chatterton, who, after one or two short notes, wrote Walpole a

very impertinent one, in which he demanded his manuscripts. This last letter Walpole had intended to have answered with some sharpness, but did not do so: he only returned the specimens of the 4th of August, 1769; and thus concluded the intercourse between them, and, as Walpole observes, "I never saw him there before, or since." Subsequently to this transaction, Chatterton acquired other patrons more credulous than Walpole, and proceeded with his forgeries. In April, 1770, he came to London, and committed suicide in August of that year; a fate which befell him, it is to be feared, more in consequence of his own dissolute and profligate habits, than from any want of patronage. However this may be, Walpole clearly had nothing to say to it.

In addition to the accusation of crushing instead of fostering his genius, Walpole has also been charged with cruelty in not assisting him with money. Upon this he very truly says himself: "Chatterton was neither indigent nor distressed at the time of his correspondence with me. He was maintained by his mother, and lived with a lawyer. His only pleas to my assistance were disgust to his profession, inclination to poetry, and communication of some suspicious MSS. His distress was the consequence of quitting his master and coming to London, and of his other extravagances. He had depended on the impulse of the talents he felt for making impressions, and lifting him to wealth, honours, and fame. I have already said, that I should have been blameable to his mother and society, if I had seduced an apprentice from his master to marry him to the nine Muses; and I should have encouraged a propensity to forgery, which is not the talent most wanting culture in the present age."

1

Towards the latter end of his days, Horace Walpole was afflicted with fits of an hereditary gout which a rigid temperance failed to remove. In 1791, by the death of his nephew, he succeeded to the title of Orford, at a period of his life when the pride of title, and the influence of increased fortune, had no charms for him, and the toils of additional greatness overbalanced the pleasures. He never took his seat in the House of Lords, and his unwillingness to adopt his title was shown in his endeavours to avoid making use of it in his signature. He not unfrequently signed himself "The Uncle of the late Earl of Orford." He died at Berkeley-square, on the 2nd of March, 1797, in the eightieth year of his age.

1 Memoir by Lord Dover.

A A

THE MARQUIS OF GRANBY.

THIS gallant soldier was one of the most popular men of his time, both with the army and his countrymen in general. The humble but certain testimony of his head being still the sign of the greater part of the public-houses which were opened in England during the last half of the eighteenth century, is proof enough of this, even if we did not learn it from the writings of his contemporaries.

He was born in 1721, and was the heir-apparent of John Manners, third duke of Rutland, by Bridget, daughter and heir of Sutton, second and last Lord Lexington. He was educated at Eton, and at Trinity College, Cambridge; and entered Parliament, at an early age, for the town of Grantham. In 1745 he raised a regiment of infantry, and accompanied the Duke of Cumberland into Scotland. He and his men were greatly distinguished by their good conduct and steady bravery at the battle of Culloden, and Granby received the special thanks of the Duke of Cumberland for his services throughout the campaign in the Highlands. On the 4th of May, 1755, he received a Major-General's commission; and in February, 1759, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and sent out to Germany as second in command to Lord George Sackville.

After the battle of Minden, he was highly complimented by Prince Ferdinand at the expense of Lord George; and on the disgrace of the latter officer, the Marquis was appointed to succeed him in his military command. It is well known that these two noblemen were never cordial friends; but the evidence which the Marquis gave on Lord George's trial, was highly honourable to himself, and generous to his rival. "He showed," says Lord Orford, in his memoirs of the reign of George the Second, an honourable and compassionate tenderness; so far from exaggerating the minutest circumstance, he palliated or suppressed whatever might load the prisoner, and seemed to study nothing but how to avoid appearing a party against him. So inseparable in his bosom were valour and good nature."

Granby had acquired the entire confidence of the men who served under him, and his own personal intrepidity in action made