every thing collected which had ever been ascribed to him but I believe I shall only recommend to my nephew to publish what is numbered vol. I. in the sheets now offered to your Lordship. Between the 'Rehearsal' and the Key' were once printed the 'Chances' and the 'Restoration:' but the intermediate sheets have been cancelled and consigned to the trunk-makers. And the same fate awaits the smaller pieces, collected into what is herewith numbered vol. II. They are only submitted to your Lordship in confidence, and I believe you will think them scarcely deserving republication. "I am now going for some weeks to Tunbridge Wells; and if, at my return, your Lordship will be pleased to honour me, for the editor's use, with any remarks on the foregoing subjects, it will exceedingly oblige, "My Lord, your Lordship's most devoted and most obedient subject, THO. DROMORE." HORACE Earl of ORFORD to Bishop PERCY. "Strawberry Hill, Sept. 18, 1792. "It was not, I assure your Lordship, from any idleness or want of attention to the intended publications, with specimens of which you was pleased to entrust me, that I did not contribute any hints or information: but I have formerly scribbled so much on the subjects in question, and have of late been so much involved, since my nephew's death, in much more disagreeable business, that I had not only exhausted what I knew, but have had no time to collect new materials, except one single article, which I will mention before I conclude this letter. "With regard to Sir Thomas Wyat's Despatches, I cannot satisfy your Lordship whether there are more than four in the Museum. It was from Mr. Gray's transcript that I published Sir Thomas's defence: at this distance of time I cannot recollect whether he copied the letters too. "Give me leave to set your Lordship right about my 'Miscellaneous Antiquities.' I never published but two numbers in the second (which you tell me you have, my Lord) is all I know or could recover relative to Sir Thomas, and consequently I never engaged to say more of him. The first number shall be at your Lordship's service when you come to town. "I am much obliged and gladly accept, my Lord, your kind offer of sending me, at your return to Dromore, a copy of the title page of the Countess of Northumberland's volume of prayers, of which I never heard before. My friend Lady Suffolk, her niece by marriage, has talked to me of her, having on that alliance visited her. She then lived in the house, now White's, at the upper end of St. James's Street, and was the last who kept up the ceremonious state of the old peerage: when she went out to visit, a footman bareheaded walked on each side of her coach, and a second coach with her women attended her. I think too that Lady Suffolk told me that her daughterin-law, the Duchess of Somerset, never sat down before her without her leave to do so. I suppose old Duke Charles had imbibed a good quantity of his stately pride in such a school. "Thank you much, my Lord, for taking the trouble to detail the account of Fuller's pictures of the escape of Charles the Second. I have some imperfect recollection of having heard that they are in Lord Clanbrassil's possession, and am glad they are so well preserved. Surely, my Lord, so entertaining and informing a letter was too generous to be in want of an apology. To make some sort of return, I can acquaint your Lordship, that in Dr. Harrington's very precious publication, called Nugæ Antique,' there is a sweet poem written by the Viscount Rochford (whom the Doctor by mistake calls Earl, and does not seem to know who he was) brother of Anne Boleyn. The composition is so easy, and so approaching to the refinement of modern poetry, that I found no difficulty of turning it, with few alterations, into the style of the present age, as may be seen by comparing them. This was done on its first appearance, and I had laid it aside, reserving it for a second edition of my 'Noble Authors,' if I should ever produce one, which now at my very advanced age is not mighty likely; and therefore, if your Lordship should think proper to add the original, as it deserves, to Lord Surrey's Poems, I should have no objection to your giving my version too; not that it would do me any honour, but as it would prove how a poet of taste, and with a good ear, could anticipate the elegance of a more polished age, though he could not work miracles, as some, who are no conjurors themselves, believe Rowley did, even though nobody knows that Rowley ever existed. I inclose the verses, and have the honour of being "Your Lordship's most respectful and most obedient humble servant, ORFORD. "P.S. I have made a mistake; for I this moment recollect that the ancient Countess of Northumberland was second wife and widow of the Lord Admiral Algernon, and consequently not mother-in-law, but grandmother-inlaw of the Duke of Somerset. "I am not sure that Lord Rochford's verses were in the first edition of the Nuga, which I have not here; I rather think not. I know the pages of the two editions are not the same." Verses [a little modernized, by HORACE WALPOLE] by G. BOLEYN, Viscount ROCHFORD, from Dr. Harrington's Nuga Antiquæ. Vol. ii. p. 252.* Awake, my Lute, perform the last Repeat the strain in sighs begun : My notes may pierce her heart as soon! No, no, my Lute, we must have done. Thro' that cold breast a flame shall run, Although my Lute and I have done. Sad in thy turn, the live-long hour Thy plaintive descant to the moon ; While thy fair face's fading flow'r Shall touch me not, for I have done. Then Juliet shall perhaps repent Of youth unprofitably spent, And sigh in vain o'er moments gone ; And finding beauty was but lent, Shall weep its scorn as I have done. * Edit. 1779, vol. iii. p. 286. Attributed to Sir Thomas Wyat, p. 74.— T. DROMORE. Then cease, my Lute; be this the last Here end my love as it begun : Be from my heart her name eras'd, As from thy strings when thou hast done! Earl of ORFORD to Bishop PERCY. "Strawberry Hill, July 26, 1795. "Lord Orford is much obliged to the Bishop of Dromore for his Lordship's present of the New Edition of Ancient Poetry, which Lord Orford is persuaded will give him great entertainment." Mrs. Piozzi to Bishop PERCY. [Undated.] "Mrs. Piozzi has the honour to inform the Bishop that Miss More and she can fix on no day when both are disengaged before next Monday, when the inhabitants of Streatham Park return to their old abode. This is a great disappointment to Mrs. Piozzi, who ever since his Lordship has honoured her with such kind attention has longed to make him a literary confession, but shall scarcely now find any opportunity-unless he would permit a morning visit some day about one o'clock; an indulgence she is ashamed to pretend to, except through Mrs. Percy's favour, to whom a thousand compliments. "The annexed work of Mr. Murphy's † will perhaps amuse the Bishop for half an hour-it is not yet published." 1793. Rev. SAMUEL HARPER to Bp. PERCY. "MY GOOD Lord, British Museum, Thursday, June 20, 1793. "I have, in obedience to your Lordship's commands, examined, as carefully and minutely as possible, the three several manuscripts described in your Lordship's letter, and have not the least doubt remaining in my mind as to the particular letters in question. "The two first lines of the song in Harl. MS. No. 293, fol. 52, run thus, Yt felle about the Lamas tide When hosbands wynnes their heaye,' and, in Cotton MS. Cleopatra C. iv. thus, * Mrs. Piozzi died May 2, 1821, aged 82. See a memoir of her in Gent. Mag. vol. XCI. i. 470; Literary Illustrations, vol. VII. 347, 357, 478. + Possibly his "Essay on the Life and Genius of Dr. Johnson," 1792. See Lit. Illustrations. vol. VII. p. 577. 'Yt fell abowght the lamasse tyde Whan husbonds wynnes ther haye.' In the Cotton MS. Caligula A. II. fol. 33, the first line of the poem seems to me indisputably to consist of these words, viz. 'Be douzty Artours dawes.' "I will, if possible, take an opportunity of paying my respects to your Lordship before you leave town, and, in the mean time, am your Lordship's most faithful and obedient servant, S. HARPER." VERNEY LOVETT, Esq. to Bp. PERCY. "MY LORD, Lismore, September 22, 1793. "To my frequently repeated inquiries for your Lordship, Mrs. Percy and family, I was at last made very happy, by Mr. Jessop's very pleasing information of your and their return to Ireland, in perfect health, which that all may long enjoy unimpaired, with a continuance of every blessing, must ever be the wish of my heart, grateful for received favours, and deeply impressed with the recollection of the many kindnesses I received from your Lordship, Mrs. Percy, and your young ladies, to whom I beg leave, with Mrs. Lovett's, my best respects. "I have long very anxiously waited your Lordship's return to Ireland, as well to indulge myself in the only opportunity in my power of showing my gratitude and respect, by transmitting to you anything curious that I think may be agreeable, such as I conceive the inclosed may be, which I received from my late father-in-law, to whom it was given by Mr. Power; but that I might have the satisfaction of knowing from your Lordship of your health, and that of Mrs. and the Misses Percy, which I was unwilling to trouble your Lordship with inquiries about during your stay in England, to which I had nothing worth the trouble of sending. I presume you saw there your Lordship's kinsman, my obliging friend, Mr. Cleiveland, and hope you left him well and happy, and more favoured by the smiles of fortune, equal to his merits, than when I last saw him at Worcester. "A very agreeable gentleman, and a kind friend of mine, Mr. George Hardinge, is at present in the South of Ireland, and proposes to revisit the North of Ireland, to *Chief Justice of the counties of Brecon, Glamorgan, and Radnor. Of this eminently-clever man see ample memoirs in vol. III. of Literary Illustrations. Mr. Justice Hardinge made two tours in Ireland in 1792 and 1793, of which he left a Journal, in Letters to a Friend. |