Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/451

 n s. i. JUNE 4, mo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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usurped. It is quite possible that on the recent sad occasion a sturdy maintenance of the rights of jurisdiction was insisted upon, on some such lines as those narrated above. J. LINDSAY HILSON.

Public Library, Kelso.

GEORGE BUBB DODINGTON AND

HIS LITERARY CIRCLE. (See 10 S. xii. 461, 504; 11 S. i. 70.)

SOME very interesting particulars, in supple- ment of MB. W. P. COTJBTNEY'S valuable contribution on this subject, are to be found in one of the most recent publications of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, this being the ' Report on Manuscripts in Various Collections, Vol. VI.' The first eighty pages are occupied with patt ot the corre- spondence and other papers of Dodington, now in possession of Miss Eyre-Matcham, and including letters of interest from Henry Fox, Lord Bute, Horace Mann, Lord Talbot, the Irish Chief Baron (Wainwright) and Lord Chancellor (Bowes), James Ihomson of ' The Seasons, 5 Edward Young of ' The Night Thoughts, 1 and Richard Cumberland. The value of this portion of the Report is heightened by the admirable introduction supplied by Mrs. S. C. Lomas, who writes :

" On the whole, the letters present Dodington in a more pleasing aspect than that in which he is generally viewed. He probably sums up pretty correctly the opinion of his contemporaries when he says : ' It has always been my lot to be represented as an arrogant, self-sufficient, empty coxcomb, and in the same quarter of an

hour a deep, designing, dangerous spirit.'

Posterity has endorsed the former rather than the latter view. But that he could be a warm and steadfast friend is shown by his defence of Byng (in a speech called by Horace Walpole, who did not love Dodington, ' humane, pathetic, and bold ') and of Lord George Sackville after Minden. And many of the letters in this collec- tion prove the real affection felt for him by such men as Lord Halifax, and his kindness of heart and willingness to help others."

Among the many items of interest fur- nished in this Report from the literary, as apart from the political, point of view, is an account of a parody of 80 lines on Doding- ton's ' Epistle to the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole, 1 produced in 1726. This is endorsed "To Sir Robert Walpole, ridiculing Mr. Dodington's Epistle to him," and is headed ' An Epistle to Sir Robert W le, on behalf of the author of a preced- ing one.* It begins :

Rare gifted W le, didst thou condescend To read th' Epistle of thy scribling friend ;

and ends :

But since no art can make a counter pass, Or add the weight of gold to mimick brass, Let him no more debase a name like thine Nor stamp thy image on his worthless coin. Just praise to thee if e'er the Muses give, If e'er in equal verse thy actions live, POPE must improve or ADDISON revive.

Pp. 5-6.

A letter of 24 Oct., 1730, from Thomson to Dodington, previous to a Continental tour, and one of the following 14 November from Leonard Welsted, dated from " The Tower," and indicating some jealousy of the former poet, given on pp. 7-9, are well worth read- ing, as is a further epistle from Thomson, written from Rome 28 Nov., 1731, describing the disillusionment of travel, though in the earlier he had exclaimed: "Travelling has been long my fondest wish, for the very purpose you recommend the storing one's imagination with ideas of all-beautiful, all-great, and all-perfect Nature." On pp. 9- 10 is a summary of certain nattering " Odes to Mr. Dodington," approximately dated 1730, and entitled ' An imitation of Horace, to Mr Dodington, in acknowledgment of some favours received (Ad Martium Cen- sorinum, Ode 8, liber IV.)."

Dodington's idea of an English gentleman, given in a letter of 2 March, 1755, to a young man of eighteen about to enter upon the serious business of life, merits quotation :

" Give me leave to tell you that, in any sense* the character of an English gentleman is a serious character. It is not a family, an estate, or an employment that gives it ; 'tis not the Patent of the King ; it is the Patent of the People only that bestows it. A gentleman must love his country, and look a little into its constitution to know why he loves it ; and if called to mount on horseback in defence of it, or his friend or mistress, he must know how to do it, in a manner that may neither disgrace himself or disgust either of them. He must know how to defend himself, and must only iiot know how to offend. He must wear his sword, like his wit, only pointed against those who, by undeserved provocation, run wilfully upon it." P. 27.

His advice to the same correspondent ten months later, urging him to remain in Geneva until the next year, and to apply himself to acquiring thoroughly the French and Italian languages, and to the study of history the history of his own country above all others is to be noted because of the authors and their works which he recommends. Rapin Thoyras's ' Histoire de 1'Angleterre ' is the first mentioned ; " and there are many select pieces, on interesting periods and by men of great genius, such as are to be found in the works of the Abbs de Vert6t and St. Real in French, Guicciardini and Davila in Italian, and a more comprehensive work,.