and with all the difadvantageous incumbrances of quality, parts, and honour, as mere a gardener, loi

terer,

made a lasting impreffion upon the Duchefs of Portland's noble and generous heart.

"Mrs. A. Robinfon had one fifter, a very pretty, accomplished woman, who married Dr. Arbuthnot's brother. After the death of Mr. Robinson, Lord P. took a house near Fulham, in the neighbourhood of his own villa at Parfon's Green, where he fettled Mrs. Robinson and her mother. They never lived under the same roof, till the Earl, being feized with a violent fit of illness, folicited her to attend him at Mount Bevis, near Southampton; which fhe refufed with firmnefs, but upon condition that, though ftill denied to take his name, fhe might be permitted to wear her wedding ring; to which, finding her inexorable, he at length confented.

"His haughty fpirit was ftill reluctant to the making a decla ration, that would have done juftice to fo worthy a character as the perfon to whom he was now united; and indeed his uncontrollable temper, and high opinion of his own actions, made him a very awful husband, ill-fuited to Lady P.'s good fense, amiable temper, and delicate fentiments. She was a Roman Catholic, but never gave offence to thofe of a contrary opinion, though very ftrict in what she thought her duty. Her excellent principles and fortitude of mind fupported her through many fevere trials in her conjugal ftate. But at laft he prevailed on himself to do her juftice, inftigated, it is fuppofed, by his bad ftate of health, which obliged him to feek another climate, and she abfolutely refused to go with him unlefs he declared his marriage. Her attendance upon him in his illucfs nearly coft her her life.

"He appointed a day for all his nearest relations to meet him at the apartment over the gateway of St. James's Palace, belonging to Mr. Pointz, who was married to Lord Peterborough's niece, and at that time preceptor to Prince William, afterwards Duke of Cumberland. Lord P. alfo appointed Lady P. to be there at the fame time. When they were all affembled, he began a moft cloquent oration, enumerating all the virtues and perfections

of Mrs. A. Robinson, and the rectitude of her conduct during his

long

terer, and labourer, as he who never had Titles, or from whom they are taken. I have an eye in the last

of

long acquaintance with her, for which he acknowledged his great obligations and fincere attachment, declaring he was determined to do her that juftice which he ought to have done long ago; which was, presenting her to all his family as his wife. He spoke this harangue with fo much energy, and in parts fo pathetically, that Lady P. not being apprised of his intentions, was fo affected, that she fainted away in the midft of the company.

"After Lord P.'s death, fhe lived a very retired life, chiefly at Mount Bevis, and was feldom prevailed on to leave that habitation, but by the Duchefs of Portland, who was always happy to have her company at Bulftrode, when fhe could obtain it, and often visited her at her own houfe.

"Among Lord P.'s papers fhe found his Memoirs, written by himself; in which he declared he had been guilty of fuch actions as would have reflected very much upon his character *. For which reason fhe burnt them. This, however, contributed to complete the excellency of her principles, though it did not fail giving offence to the curious inquirers after anecdotes of fo remarkable a character as that of the Earl of Peterborough.

"Mrs. Anastasia Robinfon quitted the Theatre in 1724. The arrival of Cuzzoni in England feems to have diminifhed the importance of this moft amiable perfon on the Stage, as well as that of the Duraftanti. Anterior to that period, they feem alternately to have performed the principal female parts; but now they were degraded to fecond and third parts. Whether this diminution of theatrical honour accelerated Mrs. Robinfon's retreat from the Stage, and her enjoyment of honours of a more folid kind; or whether the quitted the Stage in confequence of an affront she had received from Sene fino, and for which he underwent a fevere chastisement, is now not easy to determine †.

"Mrs.

Lady B. who had feen these Memoirs, fays, he boafted in them, that he had committed three capital crimes before he was twenty. W.

Mr. Walpole fays, that he well remembers this quarrel, at the time, to have been an animated topic of converfation. It was faid, that Mrs, Robinson had been offended by Senefino, at a public rehearsal of an Opera, for which Lord Peterborough publicly and violently caned him behind the scenes.

of these glorious appellations to the ftyle of a Lord degraded or attainted: methinks they give him a better title than they deprive him of, in calling him Labourer: Agricultura, fays Tully, proxima Sapientia, which is more than can be faid, by moft modern Nobility, of Grace or Right Honourable, which are often proxima Stultitia. The Great Turk, you know, is often a Gardener, or of a meaner trade: and are there not (my Lord) fome circumstances in which you would resemble the Great Turk! The two Paradifes are not ill connected, of Gardens and Gallantry; and fome there are (not to name my Lord B.) who pretend they are both to be had, even in this life, without turning Muffelmen.

We have as little politics here within a few miles of the Court (nay perhaps at the Court) as you at Southampton; and our Minifters, I dare fay, have lefs to do. Our weekly histories are only full of the feafts given to the Queen and royal Family by their fervants, and the long and laborious walks her Majefty takes every morning. Yet if the graver Historians hereafter shall be filent of this year's events, the amorous and anecdotical may make pofterity fome amends,

"Mrs. Anaftafia Robinson fung in the Opera of Arminio; in Handel's Amadis of Gaul, fhe was the original finger of the air, Gioio venite in fen, and of O caro mio tefor; in Rinaldo, she did the part of Almirena; when Amadigi was performed for her benefit, a new additional feene, compofed by Mr. Handel, was introduced; in Handel's Julius Cafar, fhe was one of the original performers, in which the fung, Non ha di che temere.”

BURNEY'S Hiflory of Mufic, vol. iv.

amends, by being furnished with the gallantries of the Great at home; and 'tis fome comfort, that if the Men of the next age do not read of us, the Women may.

From the time you have been absent, I've not been to wait on a certain great man*, through modefty, through idleness, and through respect. But for my comfort I fancy, that any great man will as foon forget one that does him no harm, as he can one that has done him any good. Believe me, my Lord, yours.

LETTER X.

FROM THE EARL OF PETERBOROW.

I MUST confefs †, that in going to Lord Cobham's, I was not led by curiofity. I went thither to see what I had feen, and what I was fure to like.

I had the idea of thofe Gardens fo fixed in my imagination by many defcriptions, that nothing furprized me; Immenfity and Van Brugh appear in the whole, and in every part. Your joining in your letter animal

* Probably Sir Robert Walpole.

+ The eafe and pleasantry of this Letter, fo far preferable to the ftudied paragraphs of Pope, is a proof of what was faid above, of the fuperiority of many of his Correfpondent's Letters to his own. The fame may be faid of Letters 12, 13, 14.

WARTON

animal and vegetable beauty, makes me ufe this expreffion: I confefs the ftately Sachariffa at Stow, but am content with my little Amoret *.

I thought you indeed more knowing upon the fubject, and wonder at your miftake why will you imagine women infenfible to Praife, much lefs to yours? I have feen them more than once turn from their Lover to their Flatterer. I am fure the Farmerefs at Bevis in her highest mortifications, in the middle of her Lent*, would feel emotions of vanity, if fhe knew you gave her the character of a reasonable woman.

You have been guilty again of another mistake, which hindered me fhewing your letter to a friend; when you join two ladies in the fame compliment, though you gave to both the beauty of Venus and the wit of Minerva, you would please neither.

If you had put me into the Dunciad, I could not have been more difpofed to criticife your letter. What, Sir, do you bring it in as a reproach, or as a thing uncommon to a Court, to be without politics? With politics indeed the Richlieus and fuch folk

Alluding to Waller's Sachariffa and Amoret.

have

His little Amoret was Bevis Mount, overlooking Itchin Ferry, and the Southampton River, where Pope fpent many days, and where a walk is ftill called by his name. It was purchased by W. Sotheby, Efq. when it became again the abode of the Mufes, and is now in poffeffion of Mr. Horne. On the terrace, that commands a view of the fea, the woods of Netley Abbey, &c. there is a Cenotaph, with an appropriate infeription to Lord Peterborough.

* The Countess of Peterborough, a Roman Catholic.

WARBURTON.