APPENDIX.

509

The following letter is taken from the Coxe Manuscripts, vol. xv. p. 123. It is referred to by the Duchess, in her Account of her Conduct.

THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH TO THE QUEEN.

I have said something in answer to the letters I had the honour to receive last from your Majesty in one of these very long papers, and there remains nothing to observe more, but that your Majesty seems very much determined to have no more correspondence with me than as I am the Duke of Marlborough’s wife, and your groom of the stole. I assure your Majesty I will obey that command, and never so much as presume, as long as I live, to name my cousin Abigail, if you will be pleased to write me word in a very short letter that you have read this history, which is as short as I could make it, and that you continue still of the same opinion you were as to all your unjust usage of me. You will know all I have writ is exactly the truth, and I must desire that you will be pleased to do this before you receive the holy sacrament; and my reason for it is this: everybody considers that as the most serious and important thing they have to do in the world; and in order to prepare themselves for it in such a manner as the greatness of the mistery requires, they are directed to take a strict account of their lives, and to be sorry for any wrong 510thing they have done, and to resolve never more to do the same; and I know your Majesty on that occasion always observes the great rule of examining yourselfe, and, justly considering what a sacred work you are going about, constantly makes use of that opportunity to search and try your wayes, and take a solemn view of your actions. Now, upon the head of examination which I find in “The Whole Duty of Man,” I observe there are these that follow Neglecting lovingly to admonish a friend; forsaking his friendship for a slight or no cause; unthankfulness to those that admonish, or being angry with them for it; neglecting to make what satisfaction we can for any injuries we have done him. And we are directed, in the same place, to read this catalogue carefully over, upon days of humiliation, and to ask our own hearts as we go along, Am I guilty or not of this? And when we are guilty, to confesse it, particularly to repent of it, and to make what amends we can, as the nature of the fault requires.

This rule is what I would beg your Majesty would be pleased to observe upon the four articles which I have now written exactly as they stand in that book, and upon the first to ask your own heart seriously whether you have ever told me of any fault but that of believing, as all the world does, that you have an intimacy with Mrs. Masham; and whether those shocking things you complain I have said, were any more than desiring you to love me better than her, and not to take away your confidence from me after more than twenty-five years’ service and professions of friendship.

Upon the second, whether you have not forsaken my friendship upon slight or no faults?

Upon the third, whether you have ever taken well any kind advice that I have endeavoured to give you, but have been always angry at me for it?

Upon the fourth, whether you have attempted ever, by the least kind word, to make me any amends upon all 511the just representations I have made of the wrong done me in the business of my office, in Mrs. Masham’s using my lodgings, and all that you have said upon those occasions?

I beg your Majesty will be pleased to weigh these things attentively, not only with reference to friendship, but also to morality and religion; and that if ever I have said anything to you, of the truth of which you are not convinced, you will be so favourable to let me know what it is.

In the warning before the Communion, in the Common Prayer Book, we are enjoined so to search and examine our consciences that we may come holy and cleane to such a heavenly feast, and to reconcile ourselves, and make restitution to those that we have done the least injury to; and if we have given any reall cause of complaint, to acknowledge our fault, in order to regain the friendship of those we have used ill, and not to think it a disparagement to speak first, since ’tis no more than our duty; and I have read somewhere, that God himself does not forgive the injurys that are done to us, till we are satisfied and intercede for those that did them, who are afterwards obliged to make suitable returns by all offices of Christian love and friendship. The Scripture itself does explain this matter in these words:—First be reconciled to thy brother, and then offer thy gift. The meaning can be no other but that if at any time we are going to receive, and remember that we have used any one ill, we should first endeavour to make satisfaction, it being but reasonable and just that whoever has done wrong should confess and acknowledge it, and to the utmost of his power make reparation for it. To this purpose I beg leave to transcribe a passage in Dr. Taylor. “He that comes to the holy sacrament must, before his coming, so repent of his injurys as to make actual restitution, for it is not fit for him to receive benefit from Christ’s death, as long as by him his brother feels an injury; there is no repentance unless the penitent, 512as much as he can, makes that to be undone which is done amiss, and therefore because the action can never be undone, at least undoe the mischiefe. Doe justice and judgement. That’s repentance. Put thy neighbour, if thou canst, into the same state of good from whence by thy fault hee was removed,—at least, make that it should be no worse. Doe no new injury, and cut off the old. Restore him to his fame and his lost advantages.”

And I beg leave to quote one other passage of the same author.

“Examine thyself in the particulars of thy relation, especially where thou governest and takest accounts of others, and exactest their faults, and art not so obnoxious to them as they are to thee; for princes and masters think more things are lawful to them towards their inferiors than indeed there are.”

Upon the whole, it appears by the authority of this great man, that the first steps towards a reconcilliation should always be made by those that did the injury, and not by those that received it. On the first part, there should be shown some effects of repentance—some returns of kindness and friendship, and then it will be the duty of the other to remember it no more. This is as far as any one can go in this matter by the rules of justice. If anything I have written now, or at any time, appears to bee too familiar from a subject to a sovereign, I hope your Majesty will think it less wrong, if you consider its coming from Mrs. Freeman to Mrs. Morley, which names you so long obliged me to use that it is not easy for me now quite to forget them; and I still hope I have a better character in the world than Mrs. Masham tells your Majesty of inveteracy and malice, as I mentioned before, for I do not comprehend that one can be properly said to have malice or inveteracy for a viper, because one endeavours to hinder it from doing mischief: for I think when I know there is such an one, and do not acquaint you with it, I should fail in my duty, 513and I can’t see how that can be called being malicious. But since you make so ill returns for all the information which I have given you, which I know to be right from the dear-bought experience of that ungrateful woman, I will never mention her more, after I have had what I desire at the beginning of this, that you will say upon your word and honour that you have read these papers in the manner desired, and that you are not changed, though I wish you may not repent it and alter your opinion of this wretch, as you did of Mr. Harley, when it is too late: and I do assure your Majesty that I have not the least design of recovering what you say is so impossible (your kindness) in the letter of the twenty-sixth of October. What I have endeavoured is only with a view of your own safety and honour, and the preservation of the whole. I have but one request more, and then I have done for ever, upon the conditions I have written, and that is, that you will not burn my narratives, but lay them somewhere that you may see them a second time; because I know, sometime or other, before you die, if you are not now, you will be sensible how much you have wronged both yourself and me; but after you have read these papers and performed what Dr. Taylor recommends, whatever you write I will obey.

If I continue in your service, I will come to you noe oftener than just the business of my office requires, nor never speake to you one single word of anything else. And if I retire with the Duke of Marlborough, you may yet be surer that I will come no oftner than other subjects in that circumstance do.

5141711.

A statement written by the Duchess of Marlborough relating to her removal from St. James’s; respecting which many curious anecdotes had been circulated. Taken from the Coxe MS., vol. xv. p. 143.

I have given some account in a former paper of what the Queen said, when she desired Lord Marlborough’s things should be removed out of St. James’s, and of the way I took to make Mrs. Cowper tell the Queen that her lodgings were part of my grant, that, for her own case as well as mine, she might get for herself some rooms in St. James’s, before they were all disposed of; and I think I have observed in that paper, how much civiller her Majesty’s answer was upon this occasion than in the message the Duke of Shrewsbury reported to Mr. Craggs, when she ordered my lodgings to be cleared; which confirms me in my opinion that his grace did not speak to the Queen in the manner that he ought to have done, though he pretended to think her Majesty was in the wrong. But the answer I received from Mrs. Cowper was to this effect.

After I had desired her to acquaint the Queen with what I have said, she came to me the next morning and told me that her Majesty having been spoken to, was pleased to say, I would have you tell the Duchess of Marlborough, that I do know your lodgings are in her grant, and I will be sure to give you some others before I go out of town. It did not appear by this that the Queen was angry, as indeed she had no reason to be; and to show that Mrs. Cowper had no thoughts of that, she sent me a very civil message, a day or two before she went to Windsor, that she had often put the Queen in mind of giving her some lodgings, and her Majesty had always said she would do it, one day after the other, but it was to be hoped she would name them the 515next day, being the last she should stay in town, and as soon as it was done, I should certainly have notice.

After this had passed, which I thought very void of offence, the next thing I heard was that my Lord Oxford having offered her Majesty a warrant to sign for money to go on with the building at Woodstock, she had refused it, saying, that she would not build a house for one that had pulled down and gutted hers, and taken away even the slabs out of the chymneys, and had lately sent a message by Mrs. Cowper, which she had reason to be angry at. This last is as I have mentioned it just now; and the other ground of offence is still more extraordinary, because her Majesty went herself through all those that were my rooms just before she left the town, and must therefore see with her own eyes that there was no one chymney piece, floor, or wainscote touched, but every thing in good order, and every room mended, and nothing removed but glasses and brass locks of my own bringing, and which I never heard that anybody left for those that came after them; nay, the very pannels over the doors and chimneys were whole, the pictures having been only hung upon the wainscote; yet her Majesty suffered my Lord Oxford to send Lord Marlborough word that he would endeavour to serve him, and get over this great offence as soon as he could, but that at present the Queen was inexorable. This he said to a friend of Lord Marlborough’s, desiring he might be acquainted with it, making at the same time great professions, and wishing to hear of some good success, which he said would set all things right, and declaring how well he could live with Lord Marlborough; and when the person he spoke to represented the diffycultys Lord Marlborough was under, and complained of the libels that came out against him, My Lord Oxford replyed, that he must not mind them, and that he himself was called rogue every day in print, and knew who did it, yet he should live fairly with that person; adding, that the Examiner himself had been upon him 516lately; which was so very ridiculous that it made me laugh, since it is certain that all the lyes in that paper are set about by himself. Now, whether he invented these last for the pleasure of telling them, and hurting me with Lord Marlborough, or for a pretence to get off from his promise of finishing Blenheim, I can’t tell; but this I am sure of, that before he found out that excuse, he had lost the best season for the work, for this answer was given in the beginning of July, and if they had actually ordered money then, the winter would have come on so fast before stones and materials could have been got, that little or nothing could have been done. But as it was natural for me to endeavour to clear myself, when I know such a message had been sent to Lord Marlborough, and such lyes were made about myself, I made my servant write in my name to the housekeeper of St. James’s, and desire he would examine all the lodgings, and send word in what condition he found them, that I might know whether my servants had observed my orders, which were to remove nothing but what is usual, and called by all people furniture. Upon this the housekeeper took with him the servant I sent with the letter, and after he had gone through all the lodgings, he sent me word that they were in very good order, and that the report of my having taken anything out of them that did not belong to me, was false and scandalous. Having received this account, I desired Mr. Craggs, who had been with me at St. Albans, where I then was, to go to the Lord Chamberlain, who was the proper officer to apply to upon such occasions, and to give him an account of what had been reported, and to desire that he would send somebody to examine the lodgings; but my Lord Chamberlain not being in town, Mr. Craggs went of himself to my Lord Oxford, and told him what misrepresentations had been made to her Majesty about the lodgings; to which he answered, that there could be none, since the Queen had viewed them herself, and had been much displeased at the taking away 517the brass locks, which she believed were mostly her own; but as to the message by Mrs. Cowper, he knew nothing of it, only he understood it was something that had disturbed her Majesty. Mr. Craggs told him there was no message from me to the Queen, but only a discourse, that was very natural with Mrs. Cowper, and necessary to her getting some lodgings for herself, since those she had were in my grant, as her Majesty was pleased to say she knew they were; who made a very civil answer upon the subject of my conversation with Mrs. Cowper. It was some comfort, however, to find that all the outcry that was made about the chymnies and getting the lodgings were let fall, and ended only in her Majesty being angry at my taking away brass locks, which she only thought were mostly her own, and therefore was in some doubt whether they were not mine; but when so much disagreeable noise had been made about this matter, I thought it would be right to have the housekeeper of St. James’s sign a paper to the same effect with what he had said; upon which I sent him such a one, which I desired him to sign for the justification of my servants, who had orders to remove nothing but furniture, and if he had any difficulty in doing it, I desired him to ask my Lord Chamberlain if he might not sign to what was the truth; and if it were not true, then he had but to show where my servants had done wrong, and I would punish them for it. The housekeeper at first was unwilling to give anything under his hand, notwithstanding what he had declared by word of mouth, and the message he had sent to me; but he was afraid, I suppose, of being put out of his place: yet upon my sending him the paper I mentioned just now, which was all true, and nothing but the fact, he signed it at last, though it was directly contrary to what my Lord of Oxford reported from the Queen, in which he said, there could not possibly be any mistake, since her Majesty had been in the lodgings herself; but, in the conclusion, his lordship was so good as to say he was sorry anything should happen to 518put the Queen out of humour, and the best way was to say no more of it, for he had prevailed with her Majesty to sign a warrant for twenty thousand pounds to go on with Blenheim, and he would order weekly payments forthwith; but the same person that writ me this account, added, that his lordship’s airs and grimaces upon this occasion were hard to represent, and that it was pretty difficult to make anything out of what he had said, or to guess what was the occasion of this quick turn, and so far I agree with him; yet if I had not taken so much pains to expose his lyes....

Soon after my Lord Oxford had made a merit to my Lord Marlborough of his having prevailed with the Queen to continue money for the building, I received a letter from abroad, dated the 26th of July, by which it appeared there was no hope that the French would give such a peace as even so bold a villain as my Lord Oxford durst accept, and therefore ’tis probable he ordered this money to delude Lord Marlborough, so far as to make him continue in the service for the sake of having that great work finished, since his lordship would have too many difficulties, when no peace could be had, to fall out quite with Lord Marlborough; and besides that, a whole year is lost.

I hear the money is to be paid in such little sums, if at all, that it looks like a design rather to keep still some hold of Lord Marlborough, rather than to do him any good; and for what concerns the Queen’s part in this whole affair, there is nothing surer than that Lord Oxford and Mrs. Masham did first persuade her Majesty to stop the warrant, and afterwards instruct her in those fine reasons which she gave for doing it, for she has no invention of her own, as I have often told you; but then she makes up that defect by thorough industry, in getting by heart any lesson that is given to her; and though she would not therefore, of herself, have told all these storys about gutting of the lodgings, and pulling down the marble chymney pieces, nor ever intended to have stopt any money upon it, yet as soon as she heard 519Mrs. Masham say it was wrong in me to presume to remove anything, she would not fail to echo to that, and to say that truly she believed the brass locks were mostly her own; and if by chance she had heard my Lord Oxford or Mrs. Masham say that I had taken anything else out of the lodgings which she knew to be still there, she would be so far from doing me justice, that she would have said anything they would have put into her mouth, to make that falsehood be believed; nor is it in her nature to make any reparation for injuries of this kind, nor to be sorry or ashamed for what she has done wrong at any time, but, on the contrary, to hate the persons she has prejudiced, especially if they endeavour to vindicate themselves, and by that, to put her in the wrong, or those that govern her.

Character of Queen Anne written by the Duchess, and inscribed on the statue at Blenheim.^[412]

Queen Anne had a person very graceful and majestic; she was religious without affectation, and always meant well. Though she believed that King James had followed such counsells as endangered the religion and laws of her country, it was a great affliction to her to be forced to act against him even for security. Her journey to Nottingham was never concerted, but occasioned by the sudden great apprehensions she was under when the King returned from Salisbury.

That she was free from ambition, appeared from her easiness in letting King William be placed before her in the succession; which she thought more for her honour than to dispute who should wear first that crown that was taken from her father. That she was free from pride, appeared from her never insisting upon any one circumstance of grandeur more than when her family was established by 520King Charles the Second; though after the Revolution she was presumptive heir to the crown, and after the death of her sister was in the place of a Prince of Wales. Upon her accession to the throne the Civil List was not encreased, although that revenue, from accidents, and from avoiding too rigorous exactions, (as the Lord Treasurer Godolphin often said,) did not, one year with another, produce more than five hundred thousand pounds. Yet she paid many pensions granted in former reigns, which have since been thrown upon the publick. When a war was found necessary to secure Europe from the power of France, she contributed, for the ease of the people, in one year, out of her own revenue, a hundred thousand pounds. She gave likewise the first fruits to augment the provisions of the poorer clergy. For her own privy purse she allowed but twenty thousand pounds a year, (till a very few years before she died, when it was encreased to six and twenty thousand pounds,) which is much to her honour, because that is subject to no account. She was as frugal in another office, (which was likewise her private concern,) that of the robes, for in nine years she spent only thirty-two thousand and fifty pounds, including the coronation expense, as appears by the records in the Exchequer, where the accounts were passed.

She had never any expense of ostentation or vanity; but never refused charity when there was the least reason for it. She always paid the greatest respect imaginable to King William and Queen Mary. She was extremely well bred, and treated her chief ladies and servants as if they had been her equals. To all who approached her, her behaviour, decent and dignified, shewed condescension without art or manners, and maintained subordination without servility.

Sarah Marlborough.

1738.

521

Papers relating to Blenheim. Description of the Buildings and Gardens at Woodstock.

LORD GODOLPHIN TO THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.^[413]

Woodstock, Sept. 25th, 1706.

Before I left Windsor, I writ to you so fully for two or three posts together, that I shall have nothing left to say from hence but of what belongs to this place.

The garden is already very fine, and in perfect shape; the turf all laid, and the first coat of the gravel; the greens high and thriving, and the hedges pretty well grown.

The building is so far advanced, that one may see perfectly how it will be when it is done. The side where you intend to live is the most forward part. My Lady Marlborough is extremely prying into, and has really not only found a great many errors, but very well mended such of them as could not stay for your decision. I am apt to think she has made Mr. Vanburgh a little^[414] ... but you will find both ease and comfort from it.

Lady Harriot and Wiligo have walked all about the garden this evening. I hope, when we do so again, we shall have the happiness of your company.

SIR J. VANBURGH TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.^[415]

(Extract.)

June 11, 1709.

Madam,—As to the main concern of the whole, madam, which is as to the expense of all, I will, as I writ your grace yesterday, prepare in a very little time a paper to lay before you that I hope will give you a great deal of 522ease upon that subject, notwithstanding there is 134,000l. already paid. But I beg leave to set your grace right in one thing which I find you are misinformed in. The estimate given in was between ninety and a hundred thousand, and it was only for the house and two office wings next the great court; for the back courts, garden walls, court walls, bridges, gardens, plantations, and avenues were not in it, which I suppose nobody could imagine would come to less than as much more. Then there happened one great disappointment; the freestone in the park quarry not proving good, which, if it had been, would have saved fifty per cent. in that article. And besides this, the house was (since the estimate) resolved to be raised about six feet higher in the principal parts of it. And yet, after all, I don’t question but to see your grace satisfied at last; for though the expense should something exceed my hopes, I am most fully assured it will fall vastly short of the least of your fears. And I believe, when the whole is done, both the Queen, yourself, and everybody (except your personal enemys) will easilyer forgive me laying out fifty thousand pounds too much, than if I had laid out a hundred thousand too little.

I am your Grace’s most humble

And obedient servant,

J. Vanburgh.

SIR JOHN VANBURGH TO THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.^[416]

Oxford, Oct. 3, 1710.

My Lord Duke,—By last post I gave your grace an account from Blenheim, in what condition the building was, how near a close of this year’s work, and how happy it was that after being carried up in so very dry a season, it was like to be covered before any wet fell upon it to soak the 523walls. My intention was to stay there till I saw it effectually done; the great arch of the bridge likewise compleated and safe covered, and the centers struck from under it. But this morning Joynes and Robart told me they had read a letter from the Duchess of Marlborough to put a stop at once to all sorts of work till your grace came over, not suffering one man to be employed a day longer. I told them there was nothing more now to do in effect but just what was necessary towards covering and securing the work, which would be done in a week or ten days, and that there was so absolute a necessity for it, that to leave off without it would expose the whole summer’s work to unspeakable mischiefs: that there was likewise another reason not to discharge all the people thus at one stroke together, which was, that though the principal workmen that work by the great, such as masons, carpenters, &c., would perhaps have regard to the promises made them that they should lose nothing, and so not be disorderly; yet the labourers, carters, and other country people, who used to be regularly paid, but were now in arrear, finding themselves disbanded in so surprising a manner without a farthing, would certainly conclude their money lost, and finding themselves distressed by what they owed to the people where they lodged, &c., and numbers of them having their familys and homes at great distances in other countys, ’twas very much to be feared such a general meeting might happen, that the building might feel the effects of it; which I told them I the more apprehended, knowing there were people not far off who would be glad to put ’em upon it; and that they themselves, as well I, had for some days past observed ’em grown very insolent, and in appearance kept from meeting, only by the assurances we gave them from one day to another that money was coming. But all I had to say was cut short by Mr. Joynes’s shewing me a postscript my Lady Duchess had added to her letter, forbidding any regard to whatever I might say or do.

524Your grace won’t blame me if, ashamed to continue there any longer on such a foot, as well as seeing it was not in my power to do your grace any farther service, I immediately came away.

I send this letter from hence, not to lose a post, that your grace may have as early information as I can give you of this matter; which I am little otherwise concerned at, than as I fear it must give you some uneasyness. I shall be very glad to hear no mischief does happen on this method of proceeding; but ’tis certain so small a sum as six or seven hundred pounds to have paid off the poor labourers, &c., would have prevented it; and I had prevailed with the undertakers not to give over till the whole work was covered safe.

I shall, notwithstanding all this cruel usage from the Duchess of Marlborough, receive, and with pleasure obey, any commands your grace may please to lay upon me; being with the defference I ever was,

Your Grace’s most humble

And most obedient servant,

J. Vanburgh.

SIR JOHN VANBURGH TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.^[417]

Extract from a Letter, dated Blenheim, July 27, 1716.

And I hope you will, in almost every article of the estimate for finishing this great design, find the expense less than is there allowed. Even that frightful bridge will, I believe, at last be kindlier looked upon, if it be found (instead of twelve thousand pounds more) not to cost above three; and I will venture my whole prophetic skill in this one point, that if I lived to see that extravagant project compleat, I shall have the satisfaction to see your grace 525fonder of it than of any part whatsoever of the house, gardens, or park. I don’t speak of the magnificence of it, but of the agreeableness, which I do assure you, madam, has had the first place in my thoughts and contrivance about it: which I have said little of hitherto, because I know it won’t be understood till ’tis seen, and then everybody will say, ’twas the best money laid out in the whole design. And if at last there is a house found in that bridge, your grace will go and live in it.

A Letter respecting a Suit in Chancery, which one Gardiner had commenced against her.

(This probably relates to the expenses of Blenheim. Supplied by W. Upcott, Esq.)

Marlborough-house, the 9th of July, 1712.

Sir,—I thank you for your letter which I received yesterday, which makes me have a mind to tell you what perhaps you may not have heard concerning Gardiner, who has acted, I think, with as much folly as knavery. You must have heard, I don’t doubt, that he began his suit in chancery with a charge upon me of nothing but lies, which I am told the law allows of, as a thing of custom. I was always pressing to have it come to a conclusion; but a thousand tricks were plaid for him to delay it; and at last, when they could hold out no longer, he begun a suit at common law. The court would not suffer a suit for the same in two courts, so he was obliged to make his election which court he would choose, and he chose the Exchequer. I thank you for your civil offer of being ready to do me any service; but my cause is so good and so strongly attested, that I have no occasion for anything more than I have already. But I have a curiosity to know whether Gardiner did subpœna you to be a witness, because I have 526never yet known him tell the truth in anything, and what he has lately done seems very extraordinary. In the first place, he made an excuse to my lawyer for having delayed the hearing, but said it should come on in Mic. Term, and yet, immediately after that, surprised him with a notice of trial for to-morrow. Some of my witnesses being nearly eighty miles off, it was a very difficult thing for me to bring them on so short a notice. However, I did compass it; but while the master was striking a special jury, Gardiner countermanded it. However the master finished it; and Gardiner’s reason for countermanding it was, because he said his witnesses had disappointed him. I don’t care what they do. And what he will do next I cannot guess; but I think he must pay considerable costs, not having given notice time enough to prevent my witnesses coming to London; for he countermanded the trial last Monday night, which was to be on Friday following, and Dr. Farrar came to London on Tuesday.

I am, Sir,

Your humble servant,

S. Marlborough.

Correspondence relative to the destruction of the old Manor of Woodstocke.

SIR JOHN VANBURGH TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.^[418]

Thursday, June the 9th, 1709.

Madam,—Whilst I was last at Blenheim I set men on to take down the ruins at the old manor, as was directed; but bid them take down the chapell last, because I was preparing a little picture of what had been in general proposed to be done with the descent from the avenue to the bridge, and the rest of the ground on that side, which I 527feared was not perfectly understood by any explanation I had been able to make of it by words. This picture is now done, and if your grace will give me leave, I should be glad to wait upon you with it, either this morning, or some time before the post goes out to-night; for if you should be of opinion to suspend any part of what they are now executing, I doubt the order would be too late if deffered till Saturday.

I hope your grace will not be angry with me for giving you this one (and last) moment’s trouble more about this unlucky thing, since I have no design by it to press or teaze you with a word; but only in silent paint to lay before and explain to you what I fear I have not done by other means, and so resign it to your owne judgment and determination, without your ever hearing one word more about it from

Your Grace’s

Most obedient humble servant,

J. Vanburgh.

SIR J. VANBURGH TO LORD GODOLPHIN.^[419]

(Extract.)

Your Lordship will, I hope, pardon me if I take this occasion to mention one word of the old mannor.

I have heard your Lordship has been told there has been three thousand pounds laid out upon it; but upon examining into that account, I find I was not mistaken in what I believed the charge had been, which does not yet amount to eleven hundred pounds, nor did there want above two more to complete all that was intended to be done, and the planting and levelling included. And I believe it will be found that this was by one thousand pounds the cheapest way that could be 528thought on to manage that hill, so as not to be a fault in the approach. I am very doubtful whether your Lordship (or indeed my Lord Duke) has yet rightly taken the design of forming that side of the valley, where several irregular things are to have such a regard to one another, that I much fear the effects of so quick a sentence as has happened to pass upon the remains of the manour. I have, however, taken a good deal of it down, but before ’tis gone too far, I will desire your Lordship will give yourself the trouble of looking upon a picture I have made of it, which will at one view explain the whole design, much better than a thousand words. I’ll wait upon your Lordship with it as soon as I come to town, and hope in the mean time it won’t be possible that the pains I take in this particular, should be thought to proceed only from a desire of procuring myself an agreeable lodging. I do assure your Lordship that I have acted in this whole business upon a much more generous principle, and am much discouraged to find I can be suspected of so poor a contrivance for so worthless a thing; but I hope the close of this work will set me right in the opinion of those that have been pleased to employ me in it.

I am

Your Lordship’s, &c.

J. Vanburgh.

(Endorsed thus by the Duchess.)

Nov. 9.

All that Sir J. V. says in this letter is false. The manour house had cost me three thousand pounds, and was ordered to be pulled down, and the materialls made use of for things that were necessary to be done. The picture he sent to prevent this was false. My Lord Treasurer went to Blenheim to see the trick: ... and it is now ordered to be pulled down.

529

Reasons offered for preserving some part of the Old Manor, by Sir J. Vanburgh.^[420]

June 11, 1709.

There is, perhaps, no one thing which the most polite part of manhood have more universally agreed in, than the vallue they have ever set upon the remains of distant times: nor amongst the several kinds of those antiquitys are there any so much regarded as those of buildings; some for their magnificence and curious workmanship; and others as they move more lovely and pleasing reflections (than history without their aid can do) on the persons who have inherited them, on the remarkable things which have been transacted in them, or the extraordinary occasions of erecting them. As I believe it cannot be doubted, but if travellers many ages hence shall be shewn the very house in which so great a man dwelt, as they will then read the Duke of Marlborough in story; and that they shall be told it was not only his favourite habitation, but was erected for him by the bounty of the Queen, and with the approbation of the people, as a monument of the greatest services and honours that any subject had ever done his country—I believe, though they may not find art enough in the builder to make them admire the beauty of the fabric, they will find wonder enough in the story to make ’em pleased with the sight of it.

I hope I may be forgiven if I make some slight application of what I say of Blenheim, to the small remain of Woodstock manor. It can’t indeed be said it was erected upon so noble or so justifiable an occasion; but it was raised by one of the bravest and most warlike of the English kings; and though it has not been famed as a monument of his arms, it has been tenderly regarded as the 530scene of his affections. Nor amongst the multitude of people who came daily to view what is raising to the memory of the great Battle of Blenheim, are there any that do not run eagerly to see what ancient remains may be found of Rosamond’s Bower. It may, perhaps, be worth some little refection upon what may be said, if the very footsteps of it are no more to be found.

But if the historical argument stands in need of assistance, there is still much to be said upon other considerations.

That part of the park which is seen from the north front of the new building has little variety of objects, nor does the country beyond it afford any of value. It therefore stands in need of all the helps that can be given, which are only five; buildings and plantations—those indeed, rightly disposed, will supply all the wants of nature in that place: and the most agreeable disposition is to mix them, which this old manour gives so happy an occasion for, that were the enclosure filled with trees, principally fine yews and hollys, promiscuously set to grow up in a wild thicket, so that all the building left, which is only the habitable part, and the chapel, might appear in two risings amongst them, it would make one of the most agreeable objects that the best of landskip painters cou’d invent. And if, on the contrary, this building is taken away, there remains nothing but an irregular, ragged, and ungovernable hill, the deformitys of which are not to be cured but at a vast expense; and that at last will only remove an ill object, and not produce a good one. Whereas, to finish the present wall for the inclosures, to form the slopes and make the plantation, (which is all that is now wanting to complete the design,) wou’d not cost two hundred pounds.

I take the liberty to offer this paper, with a picture to explain what I endeavour to describe, that if the present direction for destroying the building shou’d hereafter happen to be repented of, I may not be blamed for neglecting 531to set in the truest light I cou’d, a thing that seemed to me at least so very materiall.

J. Vanburgh.

Remarks upon this Letter by the Duchess.

The enclosed paper^[421] was wrote by Mr. Robard, who lived always at Blenheim, and, as I have said, was taken into Mr. Bolter’s place. He wrote these directions from the Duke of Marlborough’s own mouth. And when he was gone, for fear of any contest, I suppose, in which he must disobey my Lord Marlborough’s orders, or disoblige Sir John Vanburgh, he brought it to me, and I wrote what you see under the instructions, which anybody would have thought might have put an end to all manner of expense upon that place. The occasion of the Duke of Marlborough’s giving these orders was as follows:—

Sir John Vanburgh having a great desire to employ his fancy in fitting up this extraordinary place, had laid out above two thousand pounds upon it, which may yet be seen in the books of accounts; and without being at all seen in the house, excepting in one article for the lead, which I believe is a good deal more than a thousand pounds of the money. Mr. Traverse, who calls himself the superintendent and chief of Blenheim works, let this thing go on (I will not call it a whim because there has been such a struggle about it) till it was a habitation; and then he came and complained of the great expense of it to me, desiring me to stop it; and Sir John having another house in the park where he lived, and where he had made some expense, Mr. Traverse was unwilling to think he designed this other for his own use, and very prudently wrote to my Lord Marlborough into Flanders, to ask for this old manour for himself, he having no place for the dispatch of his great business 532in carrying on these great works. The Duke of Marlborough made no answer, but when he came into England, I remember upon a representation that these ruins must come down, because they were not in themselves a very agreeable sight, but they happened to stand very near the middle of the front of this very fine castle of Blenheim, and is in the way of the prospect down the great avenue, for which a bridge of so vast an expense is made to go into. Upon this the Duke of Marlborough went down to Blenheim, and there was a great consultation held, whether these ruins should stand or fall; and I remember the late Earl of Godolphin said, that could no more be a dispute than whether a man that had a great wen upon his cheek would not have it cut off if he could. And upon hearing all people’s opinion, and the Duke of Marlborough seeing the thing himself, he gave this paper of directions, which prevented anything more from being done upon the ruins; but it had not the intended effect of pulling them down.

In August third, 1716, when I was at the Bath, Mr. Robart wrote to me that Sir John Vanburgh had ordered some walling about the old manour to plant some fruit-trees upon, which he would pay for. This, I suppose, was to save himself, because of the orders he had to do nothing there; and by the advance of what is done at that place, I believe it must have been begun a good while before I had this notice of it. I am sure it was upon the nineteenth of June, which was never mentioned by Sir John either to Lord Marlborough or to me. I thought this a little odd, but I had so great a mind to comply with Sir John, (if it were possible,) that I took no notice of this, nor wrote any to Mr. Robart concerning it, only that I was sure the Duke of Marlborough would never let Sir John pay for anything in his park, and I heard no more of it till I came here; only that I observed that several officers and 533people that had come by Blenheim to the Bath, when they talked of this place, and of the workmen that were employed about it, could hardly keep from laughing.

Since Sir John went to London, the Duke of Marlborough and I, taking the air, went to see these works, where there is a wall begun; I wish my park or some of my gardens had such another; the first having none but what you may kick down with your foot, nor the fine garden but what must be pulled down again, being done with a stone that the undertakers must know would not hold; but it was not their business to finish, but rather to intail work. If one may judge of the expense of this place by the manner of doing things at Blenheim, there is a foundation laid for a good round sum. There is a wall to be carried round a great piece of ground, and a good length of it done, with a walk ten feet broad that is to go on the outside of this wall on the garden side, which must have another wall to enclose it. There are to be fruit-trees set, but the earth not being proper for that, it is to be laid I know not how many feet deep with stone, and then as much earth brought to be put upon that, to secure good fruit. And there is one great hole that I saw in the park that must be filled up again, already occasioned by making mortar for that part of the wall that is already done. What I have wrote, I saw myself, and upon my commending the fancy of it, the man was so pleased at my liking it, who lives in the house, and has some care of the works about the causeway, that he told me with great pleasure the whole design.

534

Correspondence between the Duchess of Marlborough and Sir John Vanburgh on the subject of a Marriage between the Lady Harriot Godolphin and the Duke of Newcastle.

SIR JOHN VANBURGH TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.^[422]

January 16, 1714.

Madam,—Sir Samuel Garth mentioning something yesterday of Lord Clare with relation to my Lady Harriot, made me reflect that your grace might possibly think (by my never saying anything to you of that matter since you did me the honour of hinting it to me) I had either forgot or neglected it: but I have done neither. ’Tis true, that partly by company being in the way, and partly by his illness when I was most with him, I have not yet had an opportunity of sounding him to the purpose. What I have yet done, therefore, has only been this,—I have brought into discourse the characters of several women, that I might have a natural occasion to bring in hers, which I have then dwelt a little upon, and, in the best manner I could, distinguished her from the others. This I have taken three or four occasions to do, without the least appearance of having any view in it, thinking the rightest thing I could do would be to possess him with a good impression of her before I hinted at anything more. I can give your grace no further accounts of the effect of it, than that he seemed to allow of the merit I gave her; though I must own he once expressed it with something joined which I did not like, though it showed he was convinced of those fine qualifications I had mentioned; and that was a sort of wish (expressed in a very gentle manner) that her bodily perfections had been up to those I described of her mind and understanding. I 535said to that, that though I did not believe she would ever have a beautiful face, I could plainly see it would prove a very agreeable one, which I thought was infinitely more valuable; especially since I saw one thing in her, which would contribute much to the making it so, which was, that we call a good countenance, than which I ever thought no one expression in a face was more engaging. I said further, that her shape and figure in general would be perfectly well; and that I would pawne all my skill, (which had used to be a good deal employed in these kind of observations,) that in two years time no woman in town would be better liked. He did not in the least contradict what I said, but allowed I might very probably be right.

Your grace may depend upon me that I will neglect nothing I can do in this thing, for I am truly and sincerely of opinion that if I coud be an instrument in bringing it about, I shoud do my Lord Clare as great a piece of service as my Lady Harriott.

I am your Grace’s

Most humble and obedient Servant,

J. Vanburgh.

SIR J. VANBURGH TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.^[423]

Whitehall, Nov. 6, 1716.

Madam,—When I came to town from Blenheim, I received a letter from the Duke of Newcastle out of Sussex, that he wou’d in a day or two be at Claremont, and wanted very much to talk with me. But I, having engaged to Mr. Walpole to follow him into Norfolk, cou’d not stay to see him then. At my return from Mr. Walpole’s, which was Friday last, I found another letter from the Duke, that he was at Claremont, and deferred returning back to Sussex till he could see me; so I went down to him yesterday.

536He told me the business he had with me was to know if anything more had passed on the subject he writ to me at Scarborough, relating to Lady H., and what discourse might have happened with your grace upon it at Blenheim. I told him you had not mentioned one word of it to me. He said that was mighty strange, for you had talked with Mr. Walters upon it at the Bath, and writ to him since, in such a manner as had put him upon endeavouring to bring about a direct negotiation. He then told me, that before he cou’d come to a resolution of embarking in any treaty, he had waited for an opportunity of discoursing with me once more upon the qualities and conditions of Lady H. For that, as I knew his whole views in marriage, and that he had hopes of some other satisfaction in it than many people troubled themselves about, I might judge what a terrible disappointment he should be under, if he found himself tied for life to a woman not capable of being a usefull and faithful friend, as well as an agreeable companion. That what I had often said to him of Lady H., in that respect, had left a strong impression with him; but it being of so high a consequence to him not to be deceived in this great point, on which the happiness of his life wou’d turn, he had desired to discourse with me again upon it, in the most serious manner, being of opinion (as he was pleased to say) that I cou’d give him a righter character of her than any other friend or acquaintance he had in the world: and that he was fully persuaded, that whatever good wishes I might have for her, or regards to my Lord Marlborough and his family, I wou’d be content with doing her justice, without exceeding in her character, so as to lead him into an opinion now, which, by a disappointment hereafter, (should he marry her) wou’d make him the unhappiest man in the world.

He then desired to know, in particular, what account I might have heard of her behaviour at the Bath; and what new observations I might myself have made of her at Blenheim; 537both as to her person, behaviour, sense, temper, and many other very new inquiries. It wou’d be too long to repeat to your grace what my answers were to him. It will be sufficient to acquaint you, that I think I have left him a disposition to prefer her to all other women.

When he had done with me on these personal considerations, he called Mr. Walters (who was there) into the room, and acquainted him with what had passed with your grace through me at several times, and then spoke his sentiments as to fortune, which Mr. Walters intends to give your grace an account of; so I need not.

And now, madam, your grace must give me leave to end my letter by telling you, that if the Duke of Newcastle was surprised to find you had said so much to Mr. Walters at the Bath, and nothing to me on the subject at Blenheim, I was no less surprised than he, after the honour you had done me of opening your first thoughts of it to me, and giving me leave to make several steps about it to his friends and relations, as well as to take such a part with himself as you seemed to think might probably the most contribute towards disposing his inclinations the way you wished them.

I don’t say this, madam, to court being further employed in this matter, for matchmaking is a damned trade, and I never was fond of meddling with other people’s affairs. But as in this, on your own motion, and at your own desire, I had taken a good deal of very hearty pains to serve you, and I think with a view of good success, I cannot but wonder (though not be sorry) you should not think it right to continue your commands upon

Your obedient, humble Servant,

J. Vanburgh.

538

LETTER FROM THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH TO SIR JOHN VANBURGH.^[424]

Woodstock, Thursday night.

I am sure nobody can be more surprised at anything than I am with your letter of the sixth of this month, in which you seem to think I have proceeded in a very extraordinary manner concerning Mr. Walter. I will therefore go back to the very beginning of the negotiation, that you or anybody else may be able to judge whether there is any ground for the reproaches which you have made me.

Some time after I came from Antwerp, having a great mind to dispose of Lady Hariot well, and knowing that you had opportunity of speaking to the Duke of Newcastle, I desired your help in that affair, if you found he would marry, and were persuaded, as I was, that he could not find a young woman in all respects that was more likely to make him happy than she is, for I never imagined that you would endeavour to serve me upon any other account. This you engaged in very readily, and I thought myself much obliged to you for it, and I shall always be thankful for any good offices upon that subject, though ’tis no more than justice and speaking the truth. After the conversation, you may remember that I allowed you to say that you knew my mind in this concern, and you said you would speak to Mr. Walpole; but we agreed that you should manage it in such a manner as not to give the Duke of Newcastle the uneasiness of sending any message to me, in case he did not like the proposal. Some time after this, you came to me, and gave me an account of your conversation with Mr. Walpole, in which there were some civil things said as to the alliance, but at the same time you said, what they expected for her fortune was forty thousand pounds; and from that time till you wrote to me from Scarborough, 539I never spoke to anybody of this matter, nor so much as thought of it; for I concluded that the Duke of Newcastle or his friends thought that great demand the most effectual way of putting an end to my proposal, since Lady Harriot is not a citizen nor a monster, and I never heard of such a fortune in any other case, unless now and then, when it happens that there is but one child. After this I had the most considerable offer made me that is in this country, and, considering all things, I believe, as to wealth, as great a match as the Duke of Newcastle, and in a very valuable family; but to show that money is not the chief point, this match was refused, where I could have had my own conditions; and I had not then the least imagination that I should hear any more of what I am now writing of. But when I was at the Bath, you gave me an account of a letter you had from the Duke of Newcastle, which lookt as if he wanted to hear something more from you concerning Lady Harriot: and upon that I writ to you, that I was not so much at liberty as I had been to give her a portion when I first proposed this match, having many other children that were so unhappy as to want my help; but that I still liked it so well that there was nobody who I could imagine had power with the Duke of Marlborough that I would not endeavour to make them use it in compassing this thing, which I thought so very agreeable; and some other reasons I gave, which ought to induce my Lord Marlborough to come into it; which you approved of entirely in your answer to this letter, and concluded by giving me an expectation of hearing from you when you had heard from the Duke of Newcastle, or rather when you had seen him, for you repeated something of his having desired you to cast an eye upon some of his houses in your way home; but from that time till your letter of the sixth of November, though you were here some days, you never writ a word of this matter, nor mentioned it to me. And I think it was your turn to speak, after what I had written; 540and not at all reasonable for you to find fault with what passed between Mr. Walter and me at the Bath. I never saw him in my life before I was there; but upon his giving me an occasion, it was not very unnatural, and not unreasonable, I think, in me to own how much I wished an alliance with the Duke of Newcastle. He professed a great value and respect for him, seemed to think this match, as you did, as good for him as for anybody else; and since you left Blenheim, he writes to me upon that subject, but not what you mention of letting me know the Duke of Newcastle’s sentiments as to the fortune; but he said something civil from the Duke of Newcastle, and deferred the rest till we met in town, thinking it was better to speak than to write of such matters.

This letter I answered in my usual way, professing all the satisfaction imaginable in the thing, if it should happen to succeed, (which, by the way, I have not thought a great while that it will). I have now given a very true relation of this whole proceeding, and if any third person will say that I have done anything wrong to you in it, I shall be very sorry for it, and very ready to ask your pardon; but at present I have the ease and satisfaction to believe that there is no sort of cause for your complaint against

Your most humble Servant,

S. Marlborough.

I have two letters of yours concerning the building of this place, which I will not trouble you to answer after so long a letter as this; besides, after the tryal which I made when you were last here, ’tis plain that we can never agree upon that matter.

Upon the receiving that very insolent letter upon the eighth of the same month, ’tis easy to imagine that I wished to have had the civility I expressed in this letter back again, and was very sorry I had fouled my fingers in writing to such a fellow.

541

Explanatory Letter from Sir John Vanburgh, concerning his disagreement with the Duchess of Marlborough.^[425]

The Duke of Marlborough being pleased, some time since, to let me know by the Duke of Newcastle he took notice he had never once seen me since he came from Blenheim, I was surprised to find he was not acquainted with the cause why I had not continued to wait on him as I used to do; and I writ him a letter upon it, in which I did not trouble him with particulars, but said I wou’d beg the favour of your lordship, when you came to town, to speak to him on that occasion.

And since your lordship gave me leave to take this liberty with you, I will make the trouble as little as I can, both to yourself and to the Duke of Marlborough, by as short an account as possible of what has happened since his grace’s return to England, in two things I have had the honour to be employed in for his service, purely by his own and my Lady Duchess’s commands, without my applying or seeking for either, or ever having made any advantage by them. I mean, the building of Blenheim, and the match with the Duke of Newcastle.

As to the former, as soon as the Duke of Marlborough arrived in England, I received his commands to attend him at Blenheim, where he was pleased to tell me, that when the government took care to discharge him from the claim of the workmen for the debt in the Queen’s time, he intended to finish the building at his own expense. And, accordingly, from that time forwards he was pleased to give me his orders as occasion required, in things preparatory to it; till, at last, the affair of the debt being adjusted with the Treasury, and owned to be the Queen’s, he gave me directions to set people actually to work, after having considered an estimate he ordered me to prepare of the charge, to 542finish the house, offices, bridges, and out-walls of courts and gardens, which amounted to fifty-four thousand pounds.

I spared for no pains or industry to lower the prices of materials and workmanship, on the reasonablest considerations of sure and ready payment, which before (as experiments show) was precarious. I made no step without the Duke’s knowledge while he was well; and I made none without the Duchess’s after he fell ill; and was so far, I thought, from being in her ill opinion, that even the last time I waited on her and my Lord Duke at Blenheim, (which was last autumn,) she showed no sort of dissatisfaction on anything I had done, and was pleased to express herself to Mr. Hawkesmore (who saw her after I had taken my leave) in the most favourable and obliging manner of me; and to enjoin him to repeat to me what she had said to him.

Thus I left the Duke and Duchess at Blenheim. But a small time after I arrived in London, Brigadier Richards showed me a packet he had received from her grace, in which (without any new matter having happened) she had given herself the trouble, in twenty or thirty sides of paper, to draw up a charge against me, beginning from the time this building was first ordered by the Queen, and concluding upon the whole, that I had brought the Duke of Marlborough into this unhappy difficulty, either to leave the thing unfinished, and by consequence useless to him and his posterity; or, by finishing it, to distress his fortune, and deprive his grandchildren of the provision he inclined to make for them.

To this heavy charge I know I need trouble the Duke of Marlborough with nothing more in my own justification than to beg he will just please to recollect that I never did anything without his approbation; and that I never had the misfortune to be once found fault with by him in my life.

543As to the Duchess, I took the liberty, in a letter I sent to her on this occasion, to say, “that finding she was weary of my service, (unless my Lord Duke recovered enough to take things again into his own direction,) I would do as I saw she desired, never trouble her more.”

I thought after this I could not wait on the Duke when she was present; and that if I endeavoured to do it at any other time, she would not like it. There has been no other reason whatever why I have not continued to pay my constant duty to him.

The other service I have mentioned, which her grace thought proper to lay her commands upon me, was the doing what might be in my power towards inclining the Duke of Newcastle to prefer my Lady Harriot Godolphin to all other women who were likely to be offered him. Her grace was pleased to tell me, on the breaking of this matter, I was the first body she had ever mentioned it to; and she gave me commission to open it to the Duke of Newcastle’s relations, as well as to himself, which I accordingly did, and gave her from time to time an account of what passed, and how the disposition moved towards what she so much desired.

Her grace did not seem inclined to think of giving such a fortune as should be any great inducement to the Duke’s prefering this match to others which might probably be offered; but she laid a very great and very just stress on the extraordinary qualifications and personal merits of my Lady Harriot, which she was pleased to say she thought might be more in my power to possess him rightly of than any other body she knew; and did not doubt but I would have that regard for the Duke of Marlborough, and the advantage of his family, as to take this part upon me, and spare no pains to make it successful.

This thing her grace desired I should do was so much with my own inclination, and what I was to say of the personal character of my Lady Harriot so truly my own 544opinion of her, that I had no sort of difficulty in resolving to use all the credit I had with the Duke of Newcastle to prefer the match to all others.

His grace received the first intimation with all the regard to the alliance that was due to it, and the hopes of having a posterity descended from the Duke of Marlborough had an extraordinary weight with him; but I found he had thoughts about marriage not very usual with men of great quality and fortune, especially so young as he was. He had made more observations on the bad education of the ladies of the court and towne than any one would have expected, and owned he shou’d think of marriage with much more pleasure than he did, if he cou’d find a woman (fit for him to marry) that had such a turn of understanding, temper, and behaviour, as might make her a usefull friend, as well as an agreeable companion; but of such a one he seemed almost to despair.

I was very glad to find him in this sentiment; agreed entirely with him in it, and upon that foundation endeavoured, for two years together, to convince him the Lady Harriot Godolphin was, happily, the very sort of woman he so much desired, and thought so difficult to find.

The latter end of last summer he writ to me to Scarborough, to tell me he was come to an absolute resolution of marrying somewhere before the winter was over, and desired to know if I had anything new to say to him about my Lady Harriot.

Upon this I writ to the Duchess of Marlborough at the Bath, and several letters past between her grace and me on this fresh occasion, in which she thought fit to express her extreme satisfaction to find a thing revived she so much desired, though for some time past had retained but little hopes of.

Not long after, I waited on her and the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim; but not happening to be any time alone with her, and being to see the Duke of Newcastle 545before there you’d be anything new to speak upon, I did not wonder she said nothing to me of that matter. But when I came to London, I was much surprised to find the cause of it.

I met with two letters from the Duke of Newcastle, expressing a great earnestness to see me. I went immediately to him to Claremont, where he told me his impatience to see me had been to know what I might have further to say of Lady Harriot; what I had learnt of her conduct and behaviour at the Bath; what I might have observed of her at Blenheim; and, in short, that if I knew anything that could reasonably abate of the extraordinary impression I had given him of her, I would have that regard to the greatest concern of his life not to hide it from him, for that if he marryed her, his happiness would be entirely determined by her answering, or not answering, the character he had received of her from me, and upon which he solely depended. That he had therefore forborne making any step (though prest to it by Mr. Walters) that cou’d any way engage him, till he saw me again, and once for all received a confirmation of the character, so agreeable to his wishes, I had given him of my Lady Harriot.

As I had nothing to say to him on this occasion but what was still to her advantage, he came to an absolute resolution of treating: and asking me what the Duchess of Marlborough had said to me at Blenheim about the fortune, the letter at Scarborough having (amongst other things) been on that subject, I told him she had not said a word to me of it, or anything relating to the matter in general.

The Duke seemed much surprised to hear me say so, and told me he took it for granted she had let me know what lately passed through Mr. Walters, whom she had accidentally fallen acquainted with at the Bath, and engaged him in this affair. That he had even pressed him to enter into a direct treaty, but that he had made pretences 546to decline it, being undetermined till he had once more had an opportunity of talking the whole matter over with me, especially on what related personally to my Lady Harriot, having resolved to make that his decisive point.

I told him it was very extraordinary the Duchess of Marlborough, after two years employing me, and finding I had succeeded in the very point she judged me fittest to serve her in, and by which point almost alone she hoped to bring this match about, shou’d drop me in so very short a manner; and that I cou’d conceive no cause good or bad for it, unless she was going to dismiss me from meddling any more in the building, and so judged it not proper to employ me any further in this other part of her service.

The Duke seemed inclined to hope I might be mistaken in that thought, and so desired I wou’d continue to act in this concern with her; upon which (calling Mr. Walters into the room) he was pleased to relate all that had passed through me from the beginning, with the Duchess of Marlborough, Lord Townsend, Mr. Walpole, &c., and ended in desiring we wou’d both join in bringing the matter to a conclusion, he being now determined to treat; and that we wou’d both write to the Duchess of Marlborough the next post.

I writ accordingly, and in the close of my letter mentioned the surprise I had been in to find she had not been pleased to continue her commands to me in a thing I had taken so much pains to serve her, and not without success.

But when I came to London, I heard of the charge her grace had thought fit to send up against me about the building, and so found I had not been mistaken in what I had told the Duke of Newcastle I apprehended might be the cause of her dropping me in so very easy a manner in what related to him.

547

The following Remarks were added by the Duchess to the above Letter.

Upon this false assertion of what the Duchess of Marlborough had said to Mr. Hawkesmoor, she met him at Mr. Richards’ at Black Heath, and told him what Sir John Vanburgh had said as to the Duchess of Marlborough’s message by him, upon which Mr. Hawkesmoor protested, as he had never seen her after Sir John went away, he never said any such thing to him; and that it had given him a great deal of trouble very often to see the unreasonable proceedings of Sir John.

What he repeats out of his own letter is quite different, as may be seen.

My Lady Harriot Godolphin had twenty-two thousand pounds to her portion, procured by the Duchess of Marlborough.

FROM THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.^[426]

Friday.

Sir,—I beg pardon for troubling you with this, but I am in a very odd distress; too much ready money. I have now 105,000l. dead, and shall have fifty more next weeke: if you can imploy it any way, it will be a very great favor to me.

I hope you will forgive my reminding you of Mr. Sewell’s memorial for a majority; if any vouchers are wanting for his character, I believe Mr. Selwin will give him a very good one. I am, with great truth,

Your most obliged

And obedient servant,

Marlborough.

548

LORD CONINGSBY TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.^[427]

December 11, 1712.

The shortest day of the year dates this letter, and to me the most melancholy, because it is the first after I heard of thirty-nine’s (Marlborough’s) leaving the kingdom (under God) he had saved. I who have not a friend left, now he is gone, (yourself excepted,) have this only comfort, that I am sure his greatest enemies on the side of the water where he now is, will be much kinder to him than many of the pretended friends he left behind him have been for some years past. They have, however, their full reward, and being true Irishmen, by cutting the bough they stood upon themselves, have fallen from the very top of the tree, and have broke their own necks by their senseless politics of breaking his power, who alone had acquired by his merits interest enough to support theirs. Though I know more of this than any man now alive, yet I shall never make any other use of it but to beg that you, during his absence, will never trust to anything they, or any one they can influence, shall either say or do, since, to my certain knowledge, they were ever enemies to you and yours; and so thirty-nine (Marlborough) knows I have told him long; and if I had been so happy to have been credited, others had travelled, and not dear thirty-nine (Marlborough.) But past time is not to be recalled. God preserve him wherever he goes.

It is time to return my thanks for the paper I have received about the chaplain, and to assure you that now thirty-nine (Marlborough) is gone, there is nobody behind him in this kingdom more heartily concerned for the happiness of you and yours, &c.

549

LORD CONINGSBY TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.^[428] Letters of Lord Coningsby to the Duchess of Marlborough, after the death of the Duke. (Referred to in vol. ii.)

Hampton Court in Hertfordshire, Oct. 14, 1720.

I received with the greatest pleasure imaginable your grace’s commands, as I shall ever do to the last moment of my life, and obey them with a readiness as becomes one to do, who, with all his faults, has not those fashionable ones of fickleness and insincerity, which the dear Duchess of Marlborough has, to my knowledge, so often met with in this false world.

I am sure your grace is overjoyed to hear the Duke is so well, and the more so because it is truth beyond contradiction, that as we owe our liberties to him, so he, under God, owes his life to the care and tenderness of the best of wives.

My dearest girls order me to present their duty to your grace, and their services to Lady Dy and Lady Hun.

There is not upon the face of the earth anybody that is more than I am, and ever will be, &c.

LORD CONINGSBY TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.^[429]

Did I not know myself to be so entirely innocent as never to have had a single thought, that if you had known it would have given the least umbrage of offence to your grace, the usage I have lately met with would be to me insupportable; but since that is my case, I can, though with great uneasiness, bear it now, as I did once before, till the happy time will come when your grace will be convinced that I am incapable of being otherwise than your faithful 550servant; and that those who have persuaded you to believe the contrary are as great enemies to your grace, as I know they are to the true interest of their country. In the mean time, I beseech Heaven to let me learn by degrees to be without that agreeable conversation which I valued more than I can express. I can say no more, but conclude with assuring your grace, that, use me as you will, it is not in your power to make me otherwise than your grace’s, &c.

Saturday, Six o’Clock.

Letters between Mr. Scrope and the Duchess of Marlborough.^[430]

MR. SCROPE TO THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.

April 20, 1744.

Madam,—The letter which I had the honour to receive from your grace the 26th, hath given me great uneasiness, for I have always made it a rule not to intermeddle in family affairs, even of my relations and friends, and I should not have been so unguarded in what I presumed to mention to your grace about the Duke of Marlborough, had you not been pleased to hint what you inclined to do for his son, and had not my veneration for the name of a Duke of Marlborough, and my passion and desire to have it always flourish, and make a figure in the world, provoked me to say what I did, which I hope your grace will pardon. I know nothing of the Duke’s affairs, nor how or with whom he is entangled; but sincerely wish he had your prudence and discretion, for the sake of himself and family. I herewith return to your grace the book you pleased to send me, which I read with an aching heart.

I am, with the utmost duty and esteem,

Madam,

Your Grace’s most dutiful

and obedient humble servant,

J. Scrope.

551

THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH TO MR. SCROPE.^[431]

June 4, 1744.

Sir,—Your repeated civilities to me persuade me that you would willingly employ yourself to do me any reasonable service; and what I am now going to trouble you about is, I think, not unreasonable; at least I am told it is very customary, and almost a matter of form. I mean the prolongation of my term in Marlborough-house. I had it prolonged, I think, in the late king’s time, and am now desirous to prolong it again for as long as I can, paying what is usual upon such occasions. Some years ago I asked Sir Robert Walpole to add the term of years that was lapsed to my lease of Marlborough-house, and likewise to do another little favour for me: he answered me, that as to Marlborough-house he would do it, because he could do it himself, but that for the other he must ask it of the king. Somebody then advised me to wait a little, and they would be both done together; and I was fool enough to take that advice. However, I have still half the term left. The house was entirely built at the Duke of Marlborough’s expense, and moreover, I paid two thousand pounds to Sir Richard Beeling, for a pretended claim which he had upon part of the ground, so that I think I have as just a claim as any tenant of the crown can have. The late Lord Treasurer, I remember, granted a new term in a house upon crown land to Lord Sussex, an avowed enemy to the government, even when his first term was within a month of expiring, saying, it would be too great a hardship to take it from him. I am sure I am no enemy to the government, though possibly no friend to some in the administration, and therefore I hope that what would have been thought too hard in that case, will not be thought reasonable in mine. I am always sincere, and, for aught I know, some 552people may think me too much so; and I confess to you freely, that I take this opportunity, while Mr. Pelham is at the head of the Treasury, he being the only person in that station who, I believe, would oblige me, or to whom I would be obliged; and this I find, by the answer I have already mentioned from Sir Robert Walpole, is entirely in his power to do. He has been very civil to me, and the only one in employment who has been so for many years. I therefore desire you to mention this affair to him at a proper time, of which you are the best judge, and I put off my application till now, in order to be as little troublesome to him as possible, knowing that he has much less business in the summer. Your assistance and friendship in this matter will very much oblige

Your most faithful,

and most obliged,

humble servant,

S. Marlborough.

THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH TO MR. SCROPE.^[432]

June 7, 1744.

I am very much obliged to you for your application in my behalf to Mr. Pelham, and to him for his civil answer to it. I desire you will make him my compliments and acknowledgements. I would much rather have the lease under the exchequer seal only, and not trouble his Majesty about this affair; but as you desire me to ask advice of counsell thereupon, I have accordingly sent it to my lawyer for his opinion. I shall employ one Mr. Keys, who is used to matters of this kind, to attend this affair through the offices, and he will draw up my memorial in the proper form to be presented to the treasury. Mr. Keys informs me that the lease of the Duke of Richmond’s and the Montague’s 553houses in Whitehall, and many others, are only under the exchequer seal; so that I make no doubt but that the opinion of my counsell will agree with my own inclinations. As I cannot express, as I would do, my acknowledgements to you for the kindness you have shewn, and the trouble you have taken in this affair, I will only say that I am, with great esteem and truth,

Your most faithful,

humble servant,

S. Marlborough.

THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH TO MR. SCROPE.^[433]

September 11, 1744.

Sir,—’Tis a great while since I have troubled you with either thanks for the favours you have done me, or with any solicitations. The first, I believe, you don’t care for; and I know, you have so much business that I was willing to delay, as long as I could, giving Mr. Pelham or you any trouble concerning Windsor parke. You know the whole history about that matter, how Queen Caroline took the allowance away, which her Majesty sent me word she would do, if I would not let her buy something out of my estate at Wimbledon, which was settled upon my family. This I refused, but in a very respectful manner. After this she kept her word, and took the allowance away, which I have in my grant. And I am sure you know that I never gave any occasion for it by bringing any bills for what I did there on my own account. I certainly have as much right to this allowance in my grant as I have to any part of my own estate, and there is no person that has a grant from the crown, that has not an allowance more or less for taking care of his Majesty’s deer. I desire no favour, but only strict justice; and you will oblige me extremely if you will 554direct me in what manner I should proceed. I lost a considerable arrear, which his present Majesty did not think right to pay me, when King George the First died; saying, he was not obliged to pay his father’s debts. And since the Queen stopped the allowance, I have been at great expenses. I have a right by my grant to five hundred pounds a year for making hay, buying it when the year is bad, paying all tradesmen’s bills, keeping horses to carry the hay about to several lodges, and paying five keepers’ wages at fifteen pounds a year each, and some gate-keepers, mole-catchers, and other expenses that I cannot think of. But as kings’ parkes are not to be kept so low as private peoples’, because they call themselves king’s servants, I really believe that I am out of pocket upon this account, besides the disadvantage of paying ready money every year for what is done, and having only long arrears to sollicit for it. But I think, by your advice, this matter may be settled better, and that the treasury will either comply with my grant, or allow me to send the bills of what is paid upon his Majesty’s account. If they think anybody will do it honester or cheaper than I have done, I shall be very glad to quit the allowance, and I should have quitted the parke long ago, if I had not laid out a very great sum in building in the great parke, and likewise in the little parke, where John Spencer lives.

I have another small trouble at this time with Mr. Sandys the cofferer. The custom has ever been to serve venison for the royal family and the nobles; and the cofferer sends to know what venison the parks can furnish. My Lord Sandys, to shew his breeding, made a letter be sent to ask this question, I believe from some footman. I sent to the keepers to know what they could furnish without hurting the parke; the number was a very great one, but I have always chosen to send more by a great many than any other ranger ever did. However, his lordship was pleased to sent warrants for two more than the number, 555which I ordered the keepers to comply with. Since that, he has given out four warrants more above the number, which I forbade them to serve. For this year has been so bad for venison in all parkes but my own at Blenheim, that it has been seldom good. And Mr. Leg sent one of these warrants from the cofferer, who gave me a great deal of trouble, by being very impertinent in drawing warrants himself upon this park, signing only “Leg.” He certainly is a very great coxcomb; but I will say no more of that. The keepers send me word that it has been so bad a season this year, that I must buy a great deal of hay for the deer, or they will be starved this winter;—for though ’tis a great parke, it is full of roads; and there is nothing beautiful in it but clumps of trees, which, if Mr. Pelham does not prevent it, will be destroyed by the cheats of the surveyors, which in a great measure I have prevented for more than forty years.

Pray forgive me this long trouble, and be assured that you never obliged anybody in your life that is more sincerely, though I am insignificant,

Your friend and

humble servant,

S. Marlborough.

THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH TO MR. SCROPE.^[434]

September 17, 1744.

Sir,—I give you many thanks for your enquiring after my health to-day. I am a little better than I was yesterday, but in pain sometimes, and I have been able to hear some of the letters I told you of read to-day; and I hope I shall live long enough to assist the historians with all the information they can want of me; but it is not possible for me to live to see a history of between thirty and forty years finished. 556I shall be contented when I have done what lies in my power.

I cannot make up this letter without telling you something I have found in these papers, in the few I have heard read. My Lord Godolphin was prodigious careful to save all he could of the money of England, and to make the allies bear their proportion, according to the advantages they were to have, not to allow of anything that the parliament did not appropriate—and there were proper vouchers, and no douceurs. I have not found yet no more than so many crowns asked upon some occasions; now, one hears nothing but one hundred and fifty thousand pounds repeated over and over. That I suppose has been occasioned by the great success we have had, and that it was reasonable that one commander should have a great share himself, for his courage in standing all the fire, and for his wisdom in directing the whole matter. There is one letter of my Lord Godolphin’s that pleased me much, though of no great consequence, but it shewed his justice and humanity. There was some money returned from England, the value of which was more in that country than it was here, and Lord Godolphin writes to the Duke of Marlborough that the advantage of that gain should be to England, or given amongst the soldiers, and that the paymaster should not have it. Contrary to that notion, I have been told, and I believe it is true, that Mr. Hanbury Williams had a place made for him, quite unnecessary, with fifteen hundred a year salary, and that it is lately found out that he has cheated the government of forty thousand pounds. I am not sure that this last part is true, but I hope it is, for I am sure there is not a more infamous man in England than he is in every part of his character.

557

THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH TO MR. SCROPE.^[435]

September 20, 1744.

Sir,—Since I have heard from you, I have heard a great many things read which you seem to think would be of use in the history, and besides what I have mentioned before, of the great numbers writ in his own hand of my Lord Godolphin’s to the Duke of Marlborough, I have found a great number of books of the Duke of Marlborough’s letters, copied by Mr. Cardenoll; some of them to my Lord Godolphin, treasurer, Mr. St. John, Mr. Harley, and to a great number of others. My Lord Godolphin’s own letters shew that he was a very knowing minister in all foreign affairs; though you never heard, I believe, that he boasted of the great respect that the Princess abroad had for him, nor did he tell ever any of the lords of the cabinet counsell that they knew nothing, and that France trembled at his name. I need not say anything of my Lord Godolphin’s management and honesty in the treasury, for you know enough of that; but perhaps you do not know that he was so far from having pensions and grants, that if his elder brother had not died just before Mr. Harley turned him out, he must have been buried, as a great man in Plutarch’s Lives was, by the public or his friends; though he never spent anything himself, excepting in charity and generosities to any of his friends that happened to be poor; for he was not so ingenious as some people are in making places for insignificant people, and quartering them upon the crown; and by some of the letters I have heard read, I find the demands he consented should be paid in the war were sometimes so many livres, and I have not yet come to anything higher than crowns, neither of which amounted to any very great sum. I believe there are at least twenty great books, of Mr. Cardenoll’s copying, of the Duke of Marlborough’s letters to 558the minister at home, and to the Princes abroad; and, in short, to those in England that were at all useful to contribute anything to the good of the common cause. It is impossible to read what I have done lately, without being in vapours, as you call it; to think how these two men were discarded after serving so many years, when she was Princess, and assisting her when she was perfectly ignorant what was to be done in a higher station. My Lord Treasurer was taken leave of by a letter sent by a groom. That was because I suppose Mrs. Harley was ashamed to see him after all the expressions she had made to him, and for all his disinterested services. When Mr. Freeman was discharged, it was by a letter also; though he was so remarkable for having always a great deal of good temper, it put him into such a passion, that he flung the letter into the fire; but he soon recovered himself enough to write her an answer, a copy of which I can shew you whenever you care to read it. One would think that my Lord Sandys had been at the head of the councill upon these occasions. Mr. Freeman had nothing to do with the management of the money, but only the war for the security and grandeur of the Queen and England, and had gained more than twenty sieges and pitched battles. How this business will end by the great undertaking of C. and his partner D., I cannot pretend to say, but I could say something in behalf of Lord ——, if he had not taken the last grant for the pension, after he had taken all the money out of the treasury. I am sure you can’t suspect my being partial to him, and he really has some good qualities that made me love him extremely, as my Lord Marlborough and my Lord Godolphin did for many years, but I know they both thought he had not good judgment; and I thought he did not want it so much as to be persuaded by his friend C. to take the last pension, since his family was so vastly provided for. I thought he would have chosen rather to be his own master, and to have contributed what he could to secure his own 559great property, by endeavouring to recover our very good laws, and secure our once happy island.