The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-17 00:00:00

writes :

I gave my Lally Towlisliend an epitaph and design for a
tomb for her youngest son, killed (25th July, 1759) at
Ticonderoga ; neither were used.

The editor subjoins, in a style that makes us
smile :

Audrey Harrison,daughter of Edward Harrison of Balls,
in the county of Hertford, Esq. The monument was
erected in Westminster Abbey—with an epitaph—poor
enough. She was a wit, and was parted from her husband.
Walpole has preserved many of her clever sayings.—
CtrNSINOII AM.

The matter is irrelevant, and the affectation of
criticising the epitaph in Westminster Abbey
—" poor enough' " (!)—is droll. In two pages
further on Walpole; writes (page lxxiii.)—" As
" I would not disoblige even a coxcomb un-
" provoked," and the editor remarks:—
Odd enough, Warburton in a letter to Hurd, dated Nov.
16, 1766, calls Walpole "an insufferable coxcomb."
CUNNtNOHAM.

There is nothing " odd " in the remark of
Warburton; but it reads "oddly" that the
editor should write the vulgarism of " odd
enough" after having in the previous page
branded an epitaph as "poor enough."
There is often room for tasteful remark in
some of the points in Walpole's text. Walpole
alludes to Lord Oxford's sale of furniture,
virtu, and trumpery, particularising " head-
•' pieces and tail-pieces to Waller's works."
The editor subjoins :
Fenton's quarto edition of Waller was dedicated by
Fenton in verse to the Lady Margaret Cavendish
Ln .

Another daughter of the house of Harley was
immortalised as " Tanthe "in " head-piece "
to a poem of a different stamp from Fenton's
verses.

Mr. Cunningham sometimes prints notes
that should have been cancelled. When Wal-
pole refers to the second Earl of Albemarle,
the editor quotes Lord Dover, as follows:—
William-Anne Keppel, second Earl of Albemarle Died
1754]. An amiable prodigal, who filled various great
offices, through the favour of Lady Yarmouth, and died
insolvent. —Doyen.

The excessive flippancy of that note borders
on falsity of statement. The second Earl of
Albemarle was by DO means the om
person that would be inferred froi
ceding note. He behaved with great
at the battle of Dettingen; he mad

• ID

once ran uL
ontemptible
rom the pre-
At gallantry
de the cam-

paign with Marshal Wade, in 1741 ; ho was
wounded at the battle of Fontenoy ; and he
commanded the right wing at Culloden. If
" he died insolvent " (which is true), it should
in fairness be recollected that he held the ex-
pensive office of Ambassador to the Court of
France, and that he lived magnificently at
Park. Lord Dover's note on him is
ridiculous.

Walpole (April 29, 1742) alludes to the
Cobham cousins, and the annotation is as
follows :

Pitts, Grenvilles, Lytteltons, all related by marriage, or
female descent, to Lord Cobham. Dovaa. The boy
patriots, or Cobham cousins, as Sir Robert IValpole used to
call them.—CUNNINGHAM.

Mr. Cunningham so often quotes from the
" Peerage " that we are surprised at his laconic
mode of treating " the cousinhood " Their
threefold relationship should have been clearly
particularised.
At page 167 the " Lord Clare " of Gold-
smith's " Haunch of Venison " is thus de-
scribed :

FP Robert Nugent, afterwar.ls Baron Ntwent. Viscount
Clare, anti Earl Nugent, in the peerage of Ireland. He
was an occasional poet, and the solitary benefactor of Gold-
smith, who had made him immortal by his letter of thanks
for a haunch of venison. He died 13th October, 1788.
[See p. InB.l CUNNINGHAM.

Is it possible that Goldsmith had no other
"benefactor" during ? Whether intended
seriously or jocosely, the express►on is un-
happy; and we think that Mr. Cunningham's
note shows that Goldsmith of the two was the
real " benefactor." Lord Clare, we may remark,
was one of the three persons supposed to be
Romanists who sat in Parliament during the
reign of George 111. " Nugent, you'll die with
" the wafer in your mouth," said a man of the
world tauntingly to him. "You may be sure,"
said the Irish peer, with wit " racy of the soil,"
" it's the very last thing that I'll do."