Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/248

 202 NOTES AND QUERIES, p* a vi. SEPT. is, 1900. order to see the house, in company with her daughters and George Selwyn. Selwyn certainly visited Strawberry Hill at this time. In his letter to the Miss Berrys of 23 June Horace Walpple writes: " Mr. Selwyn dined here on Saturday [20 June]." That Lady Os.sory also was at Strawberry Hill on 20 June, 1789, is evident from the following. In his letter to Miss Berry of 30 June, 1789 (which fell on Tuesday), Wai- pole writes as follows :— "Were there any such thing as sympathy at the distance of two hundred miles, you would have been in a mightier panic than I was ; for, on Satur- day sennight, going to open the glass case in the Tribune my foot caught in the carpet, and I fell with my whole weight («i weight y a) against the corner of the marble altar, on my side, and bruised the muscles so badly that for two days 1 could not move without screaming." The Saturday sennight mentioned above was Saturday, 20 June. From the following letter of this year to Lady Ossory, dated merely "Monday evening" (No. 2,462 in Cunning- ham's edition, vol. ix. p. 176), it will be clear that Lady Ossory was at Strawberry Hill when Horace Walpole's serious fall occurred : "The coach did not deliver your Ladyship's most obliging note till four o'clock this afternoon, when the post had been gone out three hours, so I could only thank you by to-morrow morning's coach, or you would be set out for Ampthill. I did, I own, hurt myself pretty much, Madam, but it was a mere muscular bruise. I sent for the apothecary as soon as you were gone, but with my gouticity he would not venture to bleed me As I did not break a rib, I have only lost the two that are gone to York- shire," Jtc. This fall, as we have seen, happened on Saturday, 20 June, 1789. It is therefore clear that Lady Ossory and Selwyn both visited Strawberry Hill on that day. As the note to Lady Ossory under discussion was written before Wednesday, 17 June, 1789, it may be placed between No. 2,466 (13 June, 1789) and No. 2,467 (23 June, 1789) in vol. ix. of Cunningham's edition. [Letter 2,462 (Cunningham's edition, vol. ix. p. 176), dated " Monday evening " and already quoted, is placed by Cunningham between letters of February and March, 1789. From the references to Horace Walpole's fall (on 20 June, 1789), and to Lady Ossory's presence on the occasion of that fall, it appears that this note was written on Monday, 22 June, 1789. It should therefore be placed imme- diately before letter No. 2,467 (elated 23 June, 1789) in vol. ix. of Cunningham's edition.] 3. "If it is possible that Madame d'Andelot should know that there is such an antediluvian as I remaining, why would not your ladyship be so good as to say that Struldbruga are dispensed with from making visite? if I must, I must: so the first dark night, I will order my coffin and pair, and appear to " I want to ask when your ladyship will do me the honour to dine in my burying ground : but till 1 have been at the Princess's to-night, I do not know when I shall be at liberty to take up my bed and walk, &c. Itappearsfrorathisquotationthatthe Madame d'Andelot here mentioned was at this time in England, and that Horace Wai pole intended to visit her. This could not have been the case in 1777 (the date assigned to this note), as from Walpole's letter to Lady Ossory of 15 November, 1781 (Cunningham's edition, vol. viii. p. 110), it is evident that Walpole was only then for the first time aware of the existence of Madame d'Andelot (or, more pro- Pffty; D'Andlau). He speaks of her as " an old Madame Dandelot, who was exiled in the last reign," and who had just been appointed Lady-in-Waiting to Madame Elisabeth, sister of Louis XVI. If, therefore, Horace Walpole was not aware of her existence till 1781, it is impossible that he should have contemplated calling upon her in 1777. In the passage quoted above Horace Wal- pole expresses his intention of visiting " the Princess"—that is, the Princess Amelia, daughter of George II. She lived till 31 October, 1786. The above note must therefore have been written between 1781, when Horace Walpole becameawareof Madame d'Andlau's existence and 1786, the year of the princess's death. 4. "Tuesday night.—I was excessively mortified. Madam, when I found I had kept your ladyship so inconveniently from going to Lady Ravensworth. Indeed, by Lord Palnierston's staying, I had con- cluded you were not going out, and having seen so little of you this year, I was glad to indulce myself. Although it is impossible to assign a definite date to the short note which is represented by the above quotation, it is clear, from the mention of Lady Ossory's mother, Lady Ravensworth, that it was not written in the year 1777, as is concluded by Vernon Smith and Cunningham. Lord Ravensworth, Lady Ossory's father, died in January. 1784 Horace Walpole alludes to his death in his letter to Lady Ossory of 6 February, 1784 (Cunningham s edition, vol. viii. p. 459) : " I am very sorry. Madam, to have occasion so soon to return your ladyship's kind condolence on my brothers death. It is more difficult to speak on your loss. your ladyship, I hope, will have a consolation that I could not receive: I do not mean in point of fortune but in reality you will instead of losing a parent, I trust, recover one! That I most heartily hope will happen both for your sake and hers!"