The Walpole Beauty

[From a packet of letters, written in the middle of the eighteenth century by Lady Fanny Armine to her cousin, Lady Desmond, in Ireland, I have strung together one of the strangest of true stories —the history of Maria Walpole, niece of the famous Horace Walpole and illegitimate daughter of his brother, Sir Edward Walpole. The letters are a pot-pourri of town and family gossip, and in gathering the references to Maria Walpole into coherence, I am compelled to omit much that is characteristic and interesting.]

July, 1757.
WHY, Kitty, my dear, what signifies your reproaches? I wish I may never be more guilty than I am this day. I laid out a part of your money in a made-up mantua and a petticoat of Rat de St. Maur, and for the hat, ’t was the exact copy of the lovely Gunning’s — Maria Coventry. And though I won’t flatter you, child, by saying your bloom equals hers (for I can’t tell what hers may be under the white lead she lays on so thick), yet I will say that your Irish eyes may ambuscade to the full as well beneath it, though they won’t shoot an earl flying, like hers, because you have captured your baronet already!
But ’t is news you would have — news, says you, of all the gay doings of the town.
And how is her Gunning Grace of Hamilton, you ask, and do the folk still climb on chairs at Court to stare at her? Vastly in beauty, child. She was in a suit of fine blue satin at the last Birthnight, sprigged all over with white, and the petticoat robings broidered in the manner of a trimming wove in the satin. A hoop of the richest damask, trimmed with gold and silver. These cost fourteen guineas a hoop, my dear. Who shall say the ladies of the present age don’t understand refinements? Her Grace had diamonds plastered on wherever they would stick, and all the people of quality run mad to have a stare at so much beauty, set off with as much glare as Vauxhall on a fête night, and she as demure as a cat after chickens.
But ’t is always the way with these sudden-come-ups, they never have the easy carriage that comes from breeding, and’t is too much to expect she should be a topping courtier.
You must know Horry Walpole was there, in gray and silver brocade, as fine and finical a gentleman as ever, and most genteelly lean; and says I to him, ‘What think you, Mr. Walpole, of our two coquet Irish beauties? Do they put out all the fire of our English charmers?’
So he drew himself up and took a pinch of rappee (can’t you see him, Kitty, my girl?), and says he, —
‘Madam, to a lady that is herself all beauty and need envy none, I may say we have a beauty to be produced shortly to the town that will flutter all the world excepting only the lady I have the honor to address.’
And, Lord! the bow he made me, with his hat to his heart!
‘La, man,’ says I, ‘who is she? But sure I know. ’T is the Duchess of Queensbury reduced a good half in size and with a new complexion.’
But Horry shook his ambrosial curls.
‘No, madam, ’pon honor! A little
girl with the vivacity of sixteen and browm eyes, brown hair — in fact, a brown beauty.’
And then it flashed on me and I says, —
‘Good God! — Maria! But sure she can’t be presented. ’T is impossible!’ And could have bit my silly tongue out when ’t was said.
He shrugged his shoulders like a Frenchman — ’t is the last grace he picked up in Paris, and turned from me to the new lady errant, Miss Chester, who models herself on the famous Miss Chudleigh. But nothing could equal the horrid indecency of Miss Chudleigh’s habit at the masquerade at Vauxhall t’other day! She was Iphigenia in a Greek undress, and says Horry, —
‘Sure, never was a more convenient thing — the victim is prepared for the priest to inspect the entrails without more ado.’
I thought we should have died laughing. ’T is only a woman of breeding knows exactly where certainty should stop and imagination take its place.
But, Kitty child, who do you guess is the new beauty? I give you one, I give you two, I give you three! And if ’t was three hundred, you’d be never the wiser. Why, Maria Walpole, you little blockhead! Maria, the daughter of Sir Edward Walpole, Horry’s brother. What think you of that? But Sir Edward never was married, says you. True for you, Kitty, but don’t you know the story? No, to be sure. There’s no scandal in Ireland, for St. Patrick banished it along with the snakes and their poison, because the island that has so many misfortunes would have died of another.
Well, take your sampler like a good little girl and hearken to the history of the lovely Maria that’s to blow out the Gunning candles. Let me present to your la’ship Sir Edward Walpole, brother to the Baron of Strawberry Hill. A flourish and a sliding bow and you know one another! Sir Edward, who resembles not Horry in his love for the twittle-twattle of the town, is a passable performer on the bass-viol, and a hermit — the Hermit of Pall Mall. But the rules of that Hermitage are not too severe, child. ’T is known there were relaxations. And notably one.
The Hermit some years since was lodged in Pall Mall, and in the lower floors was lodged a dealer in clothes, with prentices to fetch and carry.
Lord! says Kitty, what’s this to the purpose? Attend, Madam. The curtain rises!
’T is an old story: the virtuous prentice — and the unvirtuous. There was one of them — Dorothy Clement, a rustic beauty, straw hat tied under the roguish chin, little tucked-up gown of flowered stuff, handkerchief crossed over the bosom, ruffled elbows. ’T is so pretty a dress, that I protest I marvel women of quality don’t use it! However, this demure damsel looked up at Sir Edward under the hat, and he peeped under the brim, and when he left the house and returned to his own, what should happen but the trembling beauty runs to him, one fine day, for protection, swearing her family and master have all cast her off because ’t was noted the gentleman had an eye for a charming face.
Well, child, ’t is known hermits do not marry. ’T is too much to ask of their Holinesses. But he set a chair at the foot of his table for the damsel and bid her share his pulse and crusts; and so ’t was done, and whether in town or country, the Hermitess kept him company till she died. Sure the Walpoles are not too fastidious in their women, excepting only Horry of Strawberry Hill, who has all the finicals of the others rolled up in his lean body.
Well, Kitty, there were four children: — a boy, — nothing to the purpose, — and Laura, Maria, and Charlotte. And the poor lasses, not having a rag of legitimacy to cover ’em, must needs fall back on good behavior and good looks. I saw Laura, a pretty girl, in the garden at Englefield some years since, when I was airing in Lady Pomfret’s coach; and as we looked, the little hoyden Maria comes running up in muslin and blue ribbons, all health and youth and blooming cheeks and brown curls and eyes — a perfect Hebe. And ’t is she — the milliner’s brat —that’s to borrow the Car of Love and set the world afire. But she can’t be presented, Kitty; for our high and mighty Royals frown on vice, and not a single creature with the bar sinister can creep into court, however many may creep out. And that’s that!
And now I end with compliments and curtsies to your la’ship, and the glad tidings that one of the virgin choir of Twickenham, those Muses to which Mr. Horace Walpole is Apollo, has writ an Ode so full of purling streams and warbling birds, that Apollo says he will provide a side-saddle for Pegasus, and no male shall ever bestride him again.

September, 1758.
O la, la, la! Was you ever at the Bath, child? Here am I just returned, where was great company, and all the wits and belles, and Miss Biddy Green, the great City fortune, run off with Harry Howe, and her father flourishing his gouty stick in the Pump Room and swearing a wicked aristocracy should have none of his honest guineas. But he’ll soften when he sees her presented at court, with feathers stuck in her poll and all the city dames green with spite. ’T is the way of the world.
But to business. The town is talking with hundred-woman power on the marriage that Laura, — by courtesy called Walpole, — the Hermit’s eldest daughter, makes to-morrow. ’T will astound you, Lady Desmond your Honor, as much as it did your humble servant. For Miss Laura honors the Church, no less, with her illegitimate hand, and no less a dignitary than a Canon of Windsor! Is not this to be a receiver of stolen goods? Does not his Reverence compound a felony in taking such a bride? What say you? ’T is Canon Keppel, brother to Lord Albemarle; and mark you, Kitty — the Honorable Mrs. Keppel has the right to be presented where Miss Laura might knock at the door in vain! We come up in the world, child, but the Walpoles had always that secret.
’T will set the other charming daughters dreaming of bride cake. All the world talks of Maria, a shining beauty indeed. Horry Walpole is enchanted at Miss Laura’s match — sure, an illegitimate Walpole, if niece to the Baron of Strawberry is worth a dozen of your Cavendishes and Somersets! I laughed like a rogue in my sleeve when says Horry to me at my drum, —
‘Colonel Yorke is to be married to one or both of the Miss Crasteyns, great city fortunes — nieces to the rich grocer. They have two hundred and sixty thousand pounds apiece. Nothing comes amiss to the digestion of that family — a marchioness or a grocer.’
Says I, flirting my fan, —
‘’T is gross feeding, sure, Mr. Walpole. Now, had it been a royal illegitimate.’
He looked daggers, and took a pinch of snuff with an air. Never was a man with more family pride, though he affects to scorn it.
What think you of this latest news of Lady Coventry? The people are not yet weary of gazing upon the Gunning, and stared somewhat upon her last Sunday was se’night in the Park. Would you believe it, Kitty, that she complained to the King, and His Majesty, not to be outdone in wisdom, offers a guard for her ladyship’s beauty. On this she ventures into the Park and, pretending fright, desires the assistance of the officer, who orders twelve sergeants to march abreast before her and a sergeant and twelve men behind her; and in this pomp did the silly little fool walk all the evening, with more mob about her than ever, her blockhead husband on one side and my Lord Pembroke on the other! I’m sure I can’t tell you anything to better this, so good-night, dear sister, with all affectionate esteem.

April, 1759.
Great news, your la’ship. I am but just returned from a royal progress to visit the Baron of Strawberry Hill. Strawberry was in prodigious beauty — flowers, cascades, and grottoes all displayed to advantage in a sunshine that equaled June. The company, her Gunning Grace of Hamilton, the Duchess of Richmond, and your humble servant.
Says Mr. Horace, leaning on his amber cane and surveying us as we sat in the shell on the terrace, —
‘Strawberry Hill is grown a perfect Paphos. ’T is the land of beauties, and if Paris himself stood where I do, he could never adjudge the golden apple.'
He writ to George Montagu after, who showed the letter about town, —
‘There never was so pretty a sight as to see the three sitting. A thousand years hence, when I begin to grow old, if that can ever be, I shall talk of that event and tell the young people how much handsomer the women of my time were than they are now.’
There’s a compliment like a freshplucked rose from the Lord of Strawberry. It reads pretty, don’t it, child? Horry was in vast wit — ’t was like the Northern Lights hurtling about us — made us blink! The Duchess of Richmond pretending she could not recall her marriage-day, says Horry, —
‘Record it thus, Madam. This day thousand years I was married!’
’T was not till a week later I discovered this to be a bon mot of Madame de Sévigné. His jewels are polished very fine, but ’t is not always in the Strawberry mine they are dug. But to our news — What will your Honor pay me for a penn’orth?
’T is of our beauty, Maria — ahem! Walpole. The pretty angler has caught her fish — a big fish, a gold fish, even a golden-hearted fish, for ’t is Lord Waldegrave! A belted earl, a Knight of the Garter, no less, for the pretty milliner’s daughter. You don’t believe it, Kitty? Yet you must, for’t is true, and sure, if beauty can shed a lustre over puddled blood, she has it. Lord Villiers, chief of the macaronis, said, yesterday was a week, —
‘Of all the beauties Aliss Walpole reigns supreme—if one could forget the little accident of birth! Her face, bloom, eyes, teeth, hair, and person are all perfection’s self, and Nature broke the mould when she made this paragon, for I know none like her.’
’T is true, but’t is so awkward with these folk that can’t be presented nor can’t meet this one nor that. Still, I have had her much to my routs and drums, where’t is such an olla podrida that it matters not who comes. But Lady Waldegrave may go where she will; and certainly the bridegroom has nothing to object on the score of birth, for he comes from James the Second by the left hand, and for aught I know a left-hand milliner is as good these Republican days. Anyhow, ’t is so, and Horry, who would have all think him above such thoughts, is most demurely conceited that a Walpole — ahem! — should grace the British peerage. Remains now only Charlotte, and I dare swear she will carry her charms to no worse market than Maria, though not so great a Venus.
I went yesterday evening to the Bluestocking Circle at. Mrs. Montagu’s fine house. I am not become learned, Kitty, but ’t was to hear the lionesses roar, and because I knew the Lord of Strawberry would be there and was wishful to hear his exultations. Lord preserve us, child, what a frightening place! We were ushered into the Chinese Room lined with painted Pekin paper, and noble Chinese vases, and there were all the lions, male and female, in a circle — the Circle of the Universe. All the great ladies of the Bluestocking Court were there; the vastly learned Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Delany over from Ireland, the Swan of Lichfield Miss Anna Seward, Mrs. Chapone, and other lionesses and cubesses. My dear, they sat in a half-moon, and behind them another half-moon of grave ecclesiastics and savants, and Horry at the head of them, in brown and gold brocade. ’T was not sprightly, Kitty. ’T is true these women are good and learned, and some of them well enough in looks; but ’t is so pretentious, so serious, — I lack a word! — so censorious of all that does not pull a long face, that, when Mrs. Montagu rose to meet us with the shade of Shakespeare in attendance (for no lower footman would serve so majestic a lady), I had a desire to seize her two hands and gallop round the room with her that I could scarce restrain. But sure she and the company had died of it!
I expected great information from such an assemblage, but ’t was but a snip-snap of talk — remarks passed from one to another, but served as it were on massy plate — long words, and too many of ’em. Dull, my dear, dull! And so ’t will always be when people aim to be clever. They do these things better in France, where they have no fear of laughter and the women sparkle without a visible machinery. ’T was all standing on the mind’s tip-toe here. And when the refreshments were served I made for Horry —

But Bluestockingism is nourished on tea as wit on wine.
‘So, Mr. Walpole,’ says I, ‘what is this news I hear of Miss Maria? My felicitations to the bridegroom on the possession of so many charms.’
And Horry with his bow, —
‘I thank your ladyship’s partiality and good heart. For character and credit, Lord Waldegrave is the first match in England, and for beauty, Maria — excepting only the lady I address. The family is well pleased, though ’t is no more than her deserts, and ’t was to be expected my father’s grandchild would ally herself with credit.
’T is when Horry Walpole gives himself these demure airs that I am tempted to be wicked, Kitty. For what signifies talking? The girl is a beauty, but Nancy Parsons and Kitty Fisher are beauties, too, and if the court and peerage are opened to women of no birth, why what’s left for women of quality? ’T is certain the next generation of the peerage bids fair to be extreme ill-born, and the result may be surprising. But I held my tongue, for I have a kindness for Horry and his niece, though I laugh at ’em.
I thought Mr. Walpole looked ill, and doubted whether I might hope to see him at my Tuesday rout. Says he, —
'’T is the gout, Madam, that ungallant disorder, and had I a mind to brag, I could boast of a little rheumatism too; but I scorn to set value on such trifles, and since your ladyship does me the honor to bespeak my company, I will come if ’t were in my coffin and pair. May I hope your ladyship will favor us at Maria’s nuptials. Sure the Graces were ever attended by Venus on occasions of ceremony.’
He would have said more, but the Queen of the Blues swam up, protesting and vowing she had never seen such a goddess as Miss Maria Walpole; that were she to marry the Emperor of the world, ’t would be vastly below the merit of such glowing charms. And so forth. ’T is a lady that paints all her roses red and plasters her lilies white, and whether ’t, is malice I can’t tell, but believe ’t is possible to blast by praise as well as censure, by setting the good sense of one half the world and the envy of the olher against the victim. So she shrugged and simpered and worked
every muscle of her face, in hopes to be bid to the wedding; but Mr. Walpole only bowed very grave and precise, and turned away, and I with him. And no more circles for me, my dear; and here I conclude, and my next shall be the epithalamium.

18th May, 1759.
Kitty, child, when you was married, did you look about you from under your hat? — did you take a sly peep at the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, and wonder which was the bridegroom ? I did, but I ’ll never tell which he proved to be! Well, Maria was married two days since, and Horry Walpole favored me to-day with a glimpse of the letter he writ to his friend Mann on the occasion. ’T was very obliging; but you know all he writes is writ with one eye on the paper and one on posterity, so ’t is no wonder if he squints a little by times. However, here’s to our letter.
‘The original day was not once put off — lawyers and milliners all canonically ready. They were married in Fall Mall just before dinner, and we all dined there, and the Earl and the new Countess got into their post-chaise at eight and went to Navcstock alone. On Sunday she is to be presented and to make my Lady Coventry distracted. Maria was in a white and silver nightgown, with a hat very much pulled over her face. What one could see of it was handsomer than ever. A cold maiden blush gave her the sweetest delicacy in the world.’
So far our doting uncle, Kitty; but ’t is indeed a fair creature. 1 saw the long soft brown eyes lifted once and flash such a look at the bridegroom I dare to swear Lord Waldegrave wished away then the twenty years between them. Poor Lady Coventry, indeed! Her race is run, her thread is spun, her goose is cooked, and any other trope you please; for what signifies all the white lead at the ’pothecary’s compared to the warm brown of Maria’s complexion and her long eyelashes!
Lady Elizabeth Keppel had a gown worthy of the Roman Empress she looks, with that beak nose and nutcracker chin. ’T was a black velvet petticoat, embroidered in chenille, the pattern a great gold wicker basket filled to spilling over with ramping flowers that climbed and grew all about her person. A design for a banqueting hall rather than a woman; or indeed a committee of Bluestockings might have wore it to advantage. She had winkers of lace to her head, and her hoop covered so many acres that one could but approach at an awful distance and confidences were impossible — a sure reason why the modish ladies will soon drop the hoop.
I saluted the bride after the ceremony and says I, —
‘ Maria, my love, I attend your presentation on Sunday, and I bring my smelling bottle for Lady Coventry. ’T is already said her guards will now be transferred to your ladyship, together with a detachment from each ship of the Fleet, to secure so much beauty.’
She has the sweetest little dimple in either cheek, and twenty Cupids hide under her lashes.
‘I have no wish, Madam, to dethrone my Lady Coventry, if even ’t were possible,’ says she. ‘That lady has occupied the throne so long, that t is hers by right, and the English people never weary of an old favorite.’
’T was two-edged, Kitty, as you see, and I will report it to the other lovely Maria, and ’twill be pretty to see the rapiers flash between the two. ’T is not only the men carry dress swords, child. But I thought Miss Maria a downy nestling, with never a thought of repartee, till now. ’T is born in us, child. It begins with our first word and is our last earthly sigh.

May, 1759.
Well, was you at the presentation, Lady Desmond, for I did not see your la’ship.
Says you, ‘How was that possible with the Irish Sea between us? So out with the news!’
The company was numerous and magnificent, and Horry Walpole in his wedding garment of a white brocade with purple and green flowers. ’T was a trifle juvenile for his looks, but I blame him not; for my Lady Townshend would choose for him though he protested that, however young he might be in spirits, his bloom was a little past. I could sec he was quaking for his nuptialities — lest Maria should not be in full beauty.
T’other Maria — Coventry — in golden flowers on a silver ground — looked like the Queen of Sheba; and were not our Monarch anything but a Solomon, I would not say but — A full stop to all naughtiness! But I must tell you her last faux pas, for you know, child, she’s as stupid as she’s pretty. She told the King lately that she was surfeited with sights. There was but one left she could long to see. What, think you, it was? — why, a coronation!
The old man took it with good humor; but Queen Bess had made a divorce between her lovely head and shoulders for less.
Well, into the midst of this prodigious assemblage, with Uncle Horry quaking inwardly and making as though Walpole nieces were presented every day, comes t he fair Waldegrave, gliding like a swan, perfectly easy and genteel, in a silver gauze with knots of silver ribbon and diamonds not so bright as her eyes. I dare swear not a man there but. envied my Lord Waldegrave, and many might envy the beauty her husband, a good plain man, grave and handsome. But the bride! She swam up to His Majesty, like Venus floating on clouds, and her curtsey and handkissing perfect. Who shall talk of blood in future, when a milliner’s daughter can thus distinguish herself in the finest company in Europe ? ’T is true ’t is mixed with the Walpole vintage; but when all’s said and done, who were the Walpoles? If you get behind the coarse, drinking Squire Western of a father, you stumble up against Lord Mayors and what not! So t is a world s wonder, and there I leave it.
As for Maria Coventry — do but figure her! I saw her pale under her rouge when the bride entered, and her eyes shot sparks of fire, like an angry goddess. Could they have destroyed, we had seen her rival a heap of ashes like the princess of the Arabian Nights. I tendered her my smelling-bottle, out she dashed it from her, and then, smiling in the prettiest manner in the world, says to my Lord Hardwicke, —
”T is said women are jealous of each other’s good looks, my lord, but ’t is not so with me. I am vastly pleased with my Lady Waldegravc’s appearance. ’T is far beyond what was to be expected of her parentage. She looks vastly agreeable, and I hope she will favor me with her company.’
’T was cleverer than I supposed her, and sure enough she did nothing but court the bride, and now the two beauties go about to all the sights and routs together and are the top figures in town, and all the world feasts its eyes upon two such works of nature —and Art it must be added, so far as Maria Coventry is concerned; for she is two inches deep in white lead, and the doctors have warned her ’t will be the death of her.
Kitty, I found my first gray hair yesterday. ’T is my swan-song. I am done with the beaux and the toasts and the fripperies. When I spoke to Harry Conway at the Court, his eyes were so fixed on Lady Waldegrave that he heard me not till I had spoke three times. Get thee to a nunnery, Fanny! I shall now insensibly drop into a spectatress. What care I! To ninety-nine women life ends with their looks, but I will be the hundredth, and laugh till 1 die!

Four years later.
Why, Kitty, your appetite for news grows by what it feeds on. Sure you are the horse-leech’s true daughter, crying, ‘Give, give!’ You say I told you not of Charlotte Walpole’s marriage. Sure, I did. Maria married her sister well — to young Lord Huntingtower, my Lord Dysart’s son. ’T is a girl of good sense. She loved him not, nor yet pretended to, but says she to Maria, —
‘ If I was nineteen I would not marry him. I would refuse point-blank. But I am two-and-twenty, and though t is true some people say 1 am handsome, ’t is not all who think so. I believe the truth is, I am like to be large and heavy and go off soon. T is dangerous to refuse so good a match. Therefore tell him, sister, I accept.’
And ’t was done. I had this from Maria herself, who took it. for an instance of commendable good sense; but I know not — somehow I would have a girl less of a Jew with her charms. Anyhow, stout or no, she will be my Lady Countess Dysart when his father dies; and now sure, there are no more worlds left for the Walpole girls to conquer. Their doting Uncle Horry could never predict such success, 1 he eldest girl’s husband is now Bishop ol Exeter.
Poor Maria Coventry is dead — the most lovely woman in England, setting aside only t’other Maria. ’T was from usage of white lead, Kitty, and tell that to all the little fools you know! It devoured her skin, and she grew so hideous that at the last she would not permit the doctors to see her ruined face, but would put out her hand between the curtains to have her pulse took. She was but twenty-seven.
Sure, I am Death’s herald, for I must tell you, too, my Lord Waldegrave is dead, and the beauty a widow after but four years’ marriage. I saw her but yesterday, full of sensibility and lovely as Sigismonda in Hogarth’s picture. She had her young daughter, Lady Elizabeth, in her lap, the curly head against her bosom, the chubby cheek resting on a little hand against the mother’s breast.. Sure never was anything so moving as the two — exact to the picture Mr. Reynolds painted.
She has a great tenderness for his memory, and well she may, when the position he raised her to is considered. ’T is like a discrowned queen, for her jointure is small, and she is now no more consequence to his party, so his death has struck away her worldly glory at a blow. Indeed, I pitied her, and wiped away her floods of tears with tenderness that, was unaffected. But for such a young woman, I won’t believe the scene is closed. What — are there no Marquises, no Dukes for such perfection?
But ’t is brutal to talk so when she is crying her line eyes out. I wipe my naughty pen and bid you adieu.

Two days later.
I attended Mrs. Minerva Montagu’s reception, and there encountered the Great Cham of Literature, Dr. Johnson, rolling into the saloon like Behemoth. Lady Waldegrave’s bereavement was spoke of and says he, —
‘I know not, Madam, why these afflictions should startle us. Such beauty invokes ill fortune, lest a human being suppose herself superior to the dictates of Providence.’
‘Certainly she is the first woman in England for beauty,’ says I, very nettled; ‘but ’t is to be thought she had chose a little less beauty and rather more good fortune, had she been consulted. ’T is hard she should be punished for what she could not help!’
‘ Let her solace herself with her needleworks, Madam. A man cannot hem a pocket-handkerchief and so he runs mad. To be occupied on small occasions is one of the great felicities of the female train and makes bereavement more bearable.’
’T is a bear roaring his ignorance of the world, my dear. But he has a kind of horse sense (if the female train would but let him be) that makes him endurable and even palatable at times.

1764.
Kitty, my dear, have you forgot that, when my Lord Waldegrave died, I writ, ‘Are there no dukes to pursue the lovely widow?’ Give honor to the prophet! She refused the Duke of Portland, that all the fair were hunting with stratagems worthy of the Mohawks. She refused this, that, and t’other. And the town said, ‘Pray who is the milliner’s daughter, to turn up her nose at the first matches in England? Has she designs on the King of Prussia, — for our own young monarch is wed to his Charlotte, — or is it the Sultan, or Elis Holiness the Pope that will content her ladyship?’
No answer. But, Kitty, ’t is me to smell a rat at a considerable distance, and I kept my nostrils open! Our handsome young King has a handsome young brother, — His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, — and this gentleman has cast the sheep’s eye, the eye of passion, upon our lovely widow! What think you of this? That it cannot be? Then what of the King Cophetua and other historic examples? I would have you know that in the tender passion there’s nothing that cannot be. It laughs at obstacles and rides triumphant on the crest of the impossible. I knew it long since, but’t is over the town like wildfire now.
Meeting my Lady Sarah Bunbury yesterday, says she, —
‘Lady Fanny, sure you know the Duke of Gloucester is desperately in love with my Lady Waldegrave. Now don’t mask your little cunning face with ignorance, but tell me what’s known. What have you heard from Horry Walpole?’
‘Nothing, your la’ship,’ says I, very demure.
Well,’ says she, ‘’t is reported the King has forbid him to speak to his fair widow, and she is gone out of town. He has given her two pearl bracelets worth five hundred pound. That’s not for nothing surely. But for what?’
‘Indeed, ’t is an ambiguous gift, Madam,’ says I, whimsically; ‘and may mean much or little. Give me leave to ask whether’t is Pursuit or Attainment as your la’ship reads it?’
But she tossed her head, the little gossip, and off she went.
I can tell you thus much, Kitty: the Walpoles are main frightened. It may be a cast-back to the principles of the milliner mother. And there was never the difference between her and Sir Edward Walpole that there is between Maria and a Prince of the Blood. Her birth is impossible. My Lady Mary Coke asking me if the mother were not a washerwoman, says I, ‘ I really cannot determine the lady’s profession.’ But, spitfire as she is, ’t is too true Maria is playing with fire, and there should be nothing between him and her mother’s daughter. She is indeed more indiscreet than becomes her. His chaise is eternally at her door, and, as my Lady Mary says, she is lucky that anyone else countenances her at all. If they do, ’t is as much from curiosity as any nobler emotion. Indeed I fear her reputation ’s cracked past repair. Meeting Horry Walpole last night at the French Embassador’s, he was plagued with staring crowds, and he made off after braving it a while. I hear the King is highly offended and the Queen yet more. She has a great notion of birth, and though poor, the Mecklenburg family has as good quarterings as any Royals in Europe. For my part, Kitty, I know not. Yet, if we seek for pedigree in horse and dog, ’t is to be supposed worth something in Adam’s breed also. And this ill-behavior in Maria confirms me.
Yet I have visited the fair sinner, for I love her well. She can’t help neither her birth nor her beauty, but sure her kind heart is all her ow n. She wept and would reveal nothing, but asked me to be so much her friend as to think the best of her. ’T is pity her tears were wasted on a mere woman. The drops beaded on her lashes like rain on a rose. Well, God mend all! say I. Sure none of us have a clear conscience and if anyone was to come up behind us and whisper, ' I know when, how, and who!’ ’t is certain there are few women but would die of terror. Yet I did not think Maria a rake — though a Prince’s.

1770.
Kitty, Kitty, ’t is all come out! But I may say the town knew it after the masquerade in Soho, when His Royal Highness appeared as Edward the Fourth and Maria as Elizabeth Woodville, the pretty widow he made his Queen. You ’ll allow ’t was a delicate way to let the cat. out of the bag. It could not longer be kept within it, for the lady’s sake, for there is to be a little new claimant one day to the Crown, if all the elder stem should fail. They were married four years ago, Kitty! Sure never was an amazing secret, better kept! And I will say she hath borne much for the Prince’s sake and with good sense. But think of it! Maria No-name — the milliner’s base-born daughter — to be Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, Princess of Great Britain! Was ever human fate so surprising? ’T was a secret even from her father and uncle, by the Duke’s command; but she has now writ her father so pretty a letter that ’t is the town’s talk, Horry Walpole having shewed it about. But Horry — have you forgot his pride, hid always under a nonchalance as if ’t was nothing? I was at Gloucester House, where she received en princesse, two nights ago; and to see Horry kiss her hand and hear him address her with, — ‘Madam, your Royal Highness,’ at every word, — sure no wit of Congreve’s could ever equal the comedy! But if looks were all, she should be Queen of England — a shining beauty indeed! She wore a robe in the French taste, of gold tissue, her hair lightly powdered, with a bandeau of diamonds and the Duke’s miniature in diamonds on her breast. He, looking very ill at ease, as I must own, stood beside her. The King and our little Mecklenburger Queen are distracted, the royal ire withers all before it; but it can’t be undone, though they will pass a Marriage Act to make such escapades impossible in the future.
But the Walpole triumph! ’T is now proved in the face of all the world that a Walpole illegitimate is better than a German Royalty, for he might have married where he would. No doubt but Horry Walpole always thought so, yet ’t is not always we see our family pride so bolstered.
Meagre as a skeleton, he looked t he genteelest phantom you can conceive, in pure velvet and steel embroideries. For my part, I am well content and wish Her Royal Highness joy without grimace. ’T is true I laugh at Horry Walpole, for in this town we laugh at everything, from the Almighty to Kitty Fisher; but I have a kindness for him and for Maria, and had sooner they triumphed than another. ’T is not so with the town. O Kilty, the jealousy and malice! ’T would take fifty letters to tell you the talk, from the Court down.
Well, Her Royal Highness gave me her hand to kiss, very gracious. She will not let her dignity draggle in the mud, like others I could name. But whether she would have been more easy with Portland or another, I will not determine. The Fates alone know, and sure they can’t be women, they keep their secrets so well!