the Earl of Orford, which terminated the history of the Walpoles as a party, though for some time longer, under the younger Horace, they still aimed at a separate partizan existence. The elder Horace Walpole however, did not choose to connect himself with them; although he sometimes opposed Ministers, he remained on good terms with the Pelhams.

During the progress of the rebellion of 1745, he was at his seat at Wolterton. This was a handsome mansion in Norfolk, which he had built, and where he now spent the greater portion of his time, in performing the duties of a country gentleman. They are thus described by him in a letter written in the spring of 1745:

"As to politics," he says, "I can only tell you, that my thoughts as well as my situation are at a great distance from them, and my res rustica employs me entirely. Retired from the noise and nonsense of a public station, no man, I thank God, can have more reason than I have to be satisfied with the more solid and innocent pleasures of a private life. In this situation my mind is kept in a pleasing activity, very different from that which arises from the tumult of passions and the hurry of affairs. My house, of my own building, is not extremely large, nor little; it is neither to be envied nor despised. The disposition of the rooms is neither magnificent not contemptible, but convenient. The situation is upon an eminence that commands a most agreeable prospect of woods intermixed with fruitful fields, and so sheltered by thick and lofty trees in the cold quarters, as not to be exposed to the inclemency of the rigorous seasons. It is encompassed with a most delightful and innocent army of vegetable striplings of my own raising, which are already (though but of twenty years growth from the seed) with a becoming rivalship, stretching and swelling themselves into timber. They are all of noble and worthy extrac

tion, the names of their family are oaks, Spanish chesnut, and beech; and I believe none of their relations, in any country, can be more promising and hopeful than they are. They are so ranged and disciplined as to form, in some parts, most agreeable lines and walks, and openings in other places; from the right and left they discover spacious and delightful lawns. Before my house, on the south, a green carpet of the finest verdure gratifies the eye, and gradually leads it into a more extensive plain. On one side a lake of living water catches and fills the sight, from whence a most beautiful fluid glides with a serpentine and seemingly endless current, and loses itself in a wood on the other. My rural walks and contemplations amidst this wild, diversified, and engaging scene, afford me constantly new sources of health and pleasure, and make me lament the noisy, anxious, and tumultuous hours passed amidst the broils of faction, or vain attempts to serve an ungrateful public."

The late turn of events had evidently not pleased Mr. Walpole, or he would have expressed less enthusiasm respecting his Tusculum. It is somewhat extraordinary what an excellent country gentleman may be fashioned out of a disappointed statesman, and how zealously he sets about building a mansion and making plantations when he has no hope of a place, and despairs of a coronet. Mr. Walpole however, was neither quite hopeless, nor quite desperate. He was not so satisfied that his attempt "to serve an ungrateful public," had been fruitless, but that he would have been ready to offer his services, had an opportunity for their employment presented itself; and notwithstanding the attractions he discovered in these new sources of pleasure, they had not power to withdraw his attention from the important transactions of that eventful summer. His letters show what an

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intense interest he took in the progress of the Pretender, and the vast importance he attributed to the preservation of the Protestant succession; he seems, however, to have been assured of the ultimate success of George the II, and to have been equally satisfied that he was supported by the great body of the English people.

CHAPTER XI.

THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND AND THE YOUNG PRETENDER.

IN the family of George II was one son, destined to play a prominent role in a great drama that had his father's kingdom for its theatre; and then, after having received all the honours attendant upon success, he had committed to him, for the rest of his life the very subordinate part of "walking gentleman.” This was the younger brother of Frederick-William, born on the 15th of April, 1721, and, when six years of age, presented with the several titles of Baron Alderney, Viscount Trematon, Earl of Kennington, Marquis of Berkhampstead, and Duke of Cumberland; by the last of which he was afterwards known. If his education afforded no distinct promise of high intellect, he managed to assume that gravity which often passes for it with superficial observers. Anecdotes have been preserved of his early assumption of seriousness, which, at Court, was mistaken for wis dom, but anywhere else might have been pronounced dullness; yet this seriousness was rather in manner

than in occupation; for his occupations were often frivolous and not always respectable.

As he approached manhood, his inclinations developed themselves for every pursuit which afforded excitement. He became a patron of the turf, and both betted and gambled to a considerable extent: he became also conspicuous in those vices the object of which is the degradation of the other sex. In the annals of gallantry he earned for himself a distinguished name, and acquired so much knowledge of the worthless among women as effectually to prevent his belief in the existence of a better class.

George II does not appear to have discouraged the gallantries of his second son: it was an hereditary failing in the Brunswick-Lunenburg family, and therefore the King could scarcely help regarding it with a certain complaisance. He indeed looked upon the young Duke with considerable partiality. Though it was customary in his family for the father to detest his heir, this did not prevent his entertaining something like a parental feeling for the rest of his offspring. Prince Frederick was hated in the usual way, but Prince William was treated as his father's son. The family had established a reputation in warfare; even the worthy Bishop of Osnaburg, the grandfather of George II, had turned his crosier into a halbert, and earned name and fame in the German wars. The Bishop and his son had served with distinction in several campaigns; and the King had proved himself worthy of such lineage; in short, they