The Letter Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer Stanhope v. I. by A. M. W. Stirling (compiler)

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Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

[Illustration: THE VISCOUNTESS ANSON]

THE LETTER-BAG OF LADY ELIZABETH SPENCER-STANHOPE

COMPILED FROM THE CANNON HALL PAPERS, 1806-1873
BY A. M. W. STIRLING

TWO VOLUMES: VOLUME ONE

"_TON_ IS INDEED A CAMELEON WHOSE HUE CHANGES WITH EVERY RAY OF LIGHT."
_ALMACK'S_

TO CHARLES G. STIRLING
THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

PREFACE

The following papers, which extend over a space of nearly seventy years
during a most interesting period of our National History, may be said to
form a sequel and a conclusion to two previous publications, _Coke of
Norfolk and his Friends_, which appeared in 1906, and _Annals of a
Yorkshire House_, which appeared in 1911. They are, however, more
essentially a continuation of the latter, in which the Cannon Hall
muniments and anecdotes were brought down to the years 1805-6, from which
date the narrative is resumed in the present volume.

In that first series of Papers which was published in the Annals, the bulk
of the correspondence centred round the personality of Walter Spencer-
Stanhope, M.P., who lived from 1749 to 1821. In the present series, the
correspondence is principally addressed to or written by John Spencer-
Stanhope, his son, who lived from 1787 to 1873. Other letters, doubtless,
there were in plenty, to and from other members of the family, but only
those have survived which found their way back to the old Yorkshire house
whence so many of them had originally set forth with their messages of
love and home tidings, and which were there preserved, eventually, by the
grandmother of the present writer, Lady Elizabeth, wife of John Stanhope
and daughter of the celebrated 'Coke of Norfolk.'

The following book, therefore, is appropriately termed the "Letter-bag" of
the lady to whom its existence is due, although her personal contribution
to its contents does not commence before the year 1822, when she first
became a member of the family circle of its correspondents. In it, in
brief, is represented the social existence of two generations and the
current gossip of over half-a-century, as first set forth by their nimble
pens in all the freshness of novelty. Thus it is an ever-shifting scene to
which we are introduced. We become one with the daily life of a bygone
century, with a family party absorbed in a happy, busy existence. We
mingle with the gay throng at the routs and assemblies which they
frequented. We meet the "very fine" beaux at whom they mocked, and the
"raging belles" whom they envied. Then the scene changes, and we are out
on the ocean with Cuthbert Collingwood, in our ears rings a clash of arms
long since hushed, a roar of cannon which has been silent throughout the
passing of a century, while we gauge with a grim realisation the iron that
entered into the soul of a strong man battling for his country's gain.
Then the black curtain of death shrouds that scene, and we are back once
more in the gay world of _ton_, with its petty gossip and its petty
aims.... Later, other figures move across the boards; Wellington, as the
ball-giver, the gallant _chevalier des dames_; Napoleon, in his _bonnet de
nuit_, a mysterious, saturnine figure; his subordinates, who shared his
greed without the dignity of its magnitude; next, in strange contrast,
Coke of Norfolk, the peaceful English squire, seen thus for the first
time--not as a public character, a world-wide benefactor--but in the
intimacy of his domestic life, as "Majesty," the butt of his daughter's
playful sallies, as the beloved father, the tender grandfather, a
gracious, benevolent presence. We read the romance of his daughter, that
pretty, prim courtship of a bygone day; we see her home life as a young
wife, the coming of another race of merry children; by and by, we follow
the fortunes of graceful "little Madam" with her brilliant eyes, and see
the advent of yet another lover of a later day. So the scenes shift, the
figures come and go, the great things and the small of life intermingle.
And as we read, by almost imperceptible stages, the Georgian has merged
into the Victorian, and the young generation of one age has faded into the
older generation of the next, till we are left confronted with the
knowledge, albeit difficult of credence, that both have vanished into the
mists of the Unknown.

Meanwhile, one aspect of this glimpse into the past requires but little
insistence. Among these two generations of Stanhopes a high standard of
education prevailed. This, coupled with the opportunities which they
possessed of mingling with the best-known people of their day, both in
England and France, makes it obvious that records written by such writers,
with all the happy abandon of a complete sympathy between scribe and
recipient, have a value which transcends any more laboured enumeration of
historical data. The worth of their correspondence lies in the fact that
it presents, artlessly and candidly, the outlook of a contemporary family,
of good position and more than average intelligence, upon events ordinary
and extraordinary, under four sovereigns. And while many books have been
edited describing the sayings and doings of Royal personages and political
leaders during that period, few have yet been published which present them
in the intimate guise in which they jostle each other throughout the
following pages, and fewer still which give any adequate picture of the
social life as lived during these years by the less notable bulk of the
community.

Yet more, the writers of these letters are no mere puppets of ancient
history, who move in a world unreal to us and shadowy. Their remarks to us
are instinct with the freshness--the actuality--of to-day. Whether as
happy, noisy schoolboys and girls, or as men and women of the fashionable
world bent on pursuit of pleasure or of learning, to us they are
emphatically alive. Almost we can hear and echo the laughter of that merry
home-circle; their jests are our own, differently phrased, their joys and
sorrows knit our hearts to them across the century. They lived at a date
so near our own that it has all the charm of similarity--with a
difference; and it is just this likeness and unlikeness which lend such
piquancy to their experiences.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

CHAPTER
I. LETTERS RELATING TO THE WORLD OF _TON_, 1805-1806
II. LETTERS OF AN EXILE, 1805-1810
III. _ON DITS_ FROM LONDON, YORKSHIRE AND RAMSGATE, 1806-1807
IV. _ON DITS_ FROM GROSVENOR SQUARE AND CANNON HALL, 1808-1810
V. ANECDOTES FROM A PRISONER OF NAPOLEON, 1810-1812
VI. LETTERS FROM AN ESCAPED PRISONER, 1812-1813
VII. LETTERS FROM ENGLAND AND FRANCE, 1811-1821

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE VISCOUNTESS ANSON _Frontispiece_
_From a miniature by Cosway_

SILHOUETTES OF MRS SPENCER-STANHOPE AND HER DAUGHTERS MARIANNE AND ANNE

SILHOUETTES OF ISABELLA, FRANCES, AND MARIA SPENCER-STANHOPE

MRS TRIMMER

"THE YOUNG ROSCIUS"

CARICATURE OF SIR LUMLEY SKEFFINGTON

MADAME CATALANI

SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, BT.
_From a picture painted while he was a prisoner in the Tower_

PASSPORT GIVEN BY NAPOLEON IST TO JOHN SPENCER-STANHOPE

EDWARD COLLINGWOOD

SIR RICHARD CARR GLYN, BT.

PRINT OF GEORGE III. WHEN MAD

THE MARCHIONESS CONYNGHAM

QUEEN CAROLINE, BY HARLOWE

WALTER SPENCER-STANHOPE, AETAT. 70
_From an ivory bust_

"In town what numbers into fame advance,
Conscious of merit in the coxcombs' dance,
The Op'ra, Almack's, park, assembly, play,
Those dear destroyers of the tedious day,
That wheel of fops, that saunter of the town,
Call it diversion, and the pill goes down."
_Young_

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

For the enlightenment of those readers who have not read the previous
volumes of which the present is the continuation, it may be well to
recapitulate briefly the material with which these dealt.

In 1565 a branch of the Stanhopes came from Lancashire into Yorkshire, and
eventually settled at Horsforth, Low Hall, near Calverley Bridge, in the
latter county. During the period of the Civil Wars, a branch of the family
of Spencer migrated from the borders of Wales into Yorkshire, and in the
reign of Charles II. one of them purchased the house and land at that date
constituting the estate of Cannon Hall. In 1748 Walter Stanhope of
Horsforth united the two families by his marriage with Ann Spencer of
Cannon Hall, and their son Walter, eventually inheriting both properties
from his respective uncles, bore the name of Spencer-Stanhope.

Walter Spencer-Stanhope was for thirty-nine years a member of the House of
Commons, during which time he represented respectively Haslemere,
Carlisle, and Hull. In 1787 he married Mary Winifred Pulleine, who
inherited the estates of Roddam and Dissington in Northumberland, in trust
for her third and fourth sons. By her he had fifteen children, but his
eldest son and first-born child, owing to an accident at birth, was
rendered _non compos_, and his second son, John, was therefore in the
position of his heir.

Mrs Stanhope, an exemplary and affectionate mother, appears occasionally
to have become confused with the number of her progeny and to have been
fearful of forgetting the order of their rapid entrance into the world or
of certain events which formed a sequel to their arrival. She therefore
compiled a list of such incidents, which is here subjoined, since the
reader may find it useful for occasional reference.

_The Family of Walter Spencer-Stanhope of Cannon Hall._

Walter Spencer Spencer-Stanhope, his first-born, came into the world
about eight o'clock in the morning of the 26th of August, 1784, & was
christened in Horsforth Chapel the 25th of September following, his
Sponsors were Edward Collingwood, John Ashton Shuttleworth, Esqre., &
Mrs Lawson of Chirton. He was inoculated by Baron Dimsdale the 13th of
February, 1787, and had about 30 small-Pox. He had the measles very
favourably in November 1790.

Marianne, our next-born, came into the world in Grosvenor Square on
the 23rd of May, 1786, about 7 o'clock in the morning, was baptised
there on the 20th June following. Her Sponsors were Sir Richard Carr
Glyn, Mrs Stanhope, and Mrs Greame his mother and aunt. She was
inoculated by Baron Dimsdale the 13th of February 1787, and was very
full. She had the measles in Grosvenor Square very favourably in March
1806. [1]

John, his third child, came into the world in Grosvenor Square on the
27th of May, 1787, between 6 & 8 o'clock in the morning. He had
private Baptism in his house that Evening & public Baptism on June
25th, 1787, or thereabouts. His Sponsors were the Earl of
Chesterfield, Sir Mathew White Ridley and Lady Glyn. He was inoculated
the 12th February, 1788, by Baron Dimsdale and had the disorder
favourably. He had the Measles and Whooping-cough at Sunbury. [2]

Anne, his 4th child, was born September 7th, 1788, between 6 & 8 in
the Morning at Cannon Hall, was christened at Cawthorne Church,
November 2nd, 1788, having received private Baptism about a Fortnight
after she was born. She was inoculated by Baron Dimsdale on or about
24th of April, 1789, and had the Disorder very favourably. Her
Sponsors were the Countess of Burford, Mrs Marriott & Mr Pulleine. [3]

Catherine, his fifth Child, was born between 6 & 8 o'clock on the
morning of September, 1789, at Cannon Hall; was christened at the
beginning of November following, having received private Baptism 3
weeks before. Her Sponsors were Mrs Bigge, Mrs Anne Shafto & Colonel
Glyn, She was inoculated by Baron Dimsdale, the beginning of April,
1790, and had the Disorder very favourably. She died 20th of November,
1795, of a Complaint in the Throat or Lungs, and was buried at
Cawthorne Church.

Elizabeth, our next Child, was born on the 5th of November 1790, about
1 o'clock in the afternoon, had first private Baptism & was afterwards
christened at Cawthorne Church on the 11th of December following. The
Sponsors were Mrs Ord, of Morpeth, Mrs Pulleine & Mr John Collingwood.
She was inoculated by Baron Dimsdale in March 1791 & had the disorder
very favourably. Died April 15th, 1801, of obstruction, in Grosvenor
Square, and was buried in St James's Chapel, Hampstead Road.

Edward, our seventh Child, was born on the 30th October, 1791 at 1/2
past twelve at noon, was christened at Cannon Hall in December. The
Sponsors were Mr Collingwood, Mr Fawkes of Farnley & Mr Glyn. He was
inoculated by Baron Dimsdale April 1st, 1792 & had the Disorder very
favourably. Had the measles in 1806. [4]

William, our eighth Child was born at 1/2 past four o'clock on the 4th
of January 1793, was christened on the 5th of February following, at
Cawthorne Church. His Sponsors were Admiral Roddam, Mr Carr Ibbotson
and Mrs Beaumont. He was inoculated by Baron Dimsdale the 24th of
March, 1793, & had the Disorder very favourably. He had the Measles at
Sunbury School May 1802. Went to Sea in the Ocean to join Lord
Collingwood off Cadiz, March, 1806. [5]

Thomas Henry, our ninth Child, was born at 1/2 past one in the morning
the 14th of May 1794, was christened the 9th of June following in
Grosvenor Square. His Sponsors were Lady Carr Glyn, Collingwood Roddam
Esqre., & Ashton Shuttleworth Esqre. He was inoculated by Baron
Dimsdale in April 1795 & had the Disorder very favourably. Had the
Measles at Sunbury 1802. Died April the 3rd, 1808, after a long and
painful illness. Was buried with Eliza in St James's Chapel in
Hampstead Road.

Charles, our tenth Child, born on the 14th October, 1795, christened
at Cawthorne, Sponsors Colonel Beaumont, James Shuttleworth Esqre., &
Mrs Elizabeth Roddam. Was inoculated in the spring, 1796, by Baron
Dimsdale. [6]

Isabella, our eleventh Child, was born on the 20th of October 1797, at
one in the morning, christened at Cawthorne Church the 8th of December
following. Sponsors, Mrs Roddam, Mrs Smith of Dorsetshire & Mr Smyth
of Heath. Was inoculated in Autumn 1798 by Mr Greaves of Clayton. [7]

Philip, our twelfth Child, was born January 25th, 1799, at one in the
morning; was christened by Mr Phipps February, 1799. The Sponsors were
Mr Edwyn Stanhope, the Rev. John Smith, Westminster & Lady Augusta
Lowther. Was inoculated with the Cow-pox May 1800 by Mr Knight. Had
the Measles at Putney in the Autumn, 1806. [8]

Frances Mary, our thirteenth Child was born on the 27th of June, 1800,
at 1/2 past twelve at Noon in Grosvenor Square & was christened there
by the Rev. Mr Armstrong on the 26th of July following. The Sponsors
were Samuel Thornton Esqre, Mrs Greame of Bridlington & Mrs Marriott
of Horsmonden, Kent. Inoculated with the Cow-pox by Mr Greaves in the
Autumn of 1800. [9]

Maria Alicia, our fourteenth Child, was born at Cannon Hall the 4th of
September 1802, 1/2 before seven in the Morning & was christened at
Cannon Hall by the Rev. Goodair on 22nd of October following. The
Sponsors were the Rev. D. Marriott, Mrs Henry Pulleine of Carlton &
Mrs Morland of Court Lodge, Kent. Inoculated with the Cow-pox by Mr
Whittle in Grosvenor Square the Spring following. [10]

Hugh, our fifteenth Child, [11] was born September 30th, 1804, about
five in the Morning & was christened at Cawthorne Church by the Rev.
Mr Goodair the 1st of November following. The Sponsors were Edward
Collingwood Esqre., Mr Smith of Dorsetshire & Lady Elizabeth Lowther
of Swillington. The four youngest had the measles at Ramsgate.

As will be seen by this comprehensive list, of the fifteen children of
Walter Spencer-Stanhope and his wife, three only failed to attain
maturity. The tale of their brief lives has no part in the following
correspondence, and might be dismissed without comment, save that the
mention of them serves to bring yet nearer to us that mother whose
powerful brain, warm heart and tireless pen bound to her the affections of
her children with a devotion seldom surpassed.

Of Henry Stanhope, destined to die after much suffering, many letters, not
inserted here, remain eloquent of the manner in which, throughout his long
illness, his mother denied herself to all her acquaintance and never left
his side. Of little Catherine Stanhope, who expired at the age of five,
two pathetic mementoes exist. One is a large marquise ring which never
left the mother's finger till she, too, was laid in the grave; the other a
silken tress like spun sunshine, golden still as on that day in a dead
century when, viewing it through her tears, Mrs Stanhope labelled it
tenderly--"_My dear little Catherine's hair, cut off the morning I lost
her, November 20th, 1795._" Of little Elizabeth a more curious and
harrowing reminiscence has survived.

_Grosvenor Square, Saturday, April the 28th, the day on which the
remains of my dear child were deposited in the vault at Mrs
Armstrong's Chapel between six and seven in the morning, attended by
her dear, afflicted father._

So little Elizabeth, in the spring-time of her life, passed to her grave
at a strangely early hour on that April morning; and her mother, in the
hushed house, took up the thread of life once more with pious submission
and the iron will for which she was remarkable.

At the date at which this book opens, many years had gone by since that
storm of sorrow had fallen upon her, suddenly, like a bolt from the blue.
All unsuspected, indeed, another grief, the death of her little son, was
approaching; but for the present contentment reigned.

[Illustration: MARIANNE]

[Illustration: MRS. SPENCER-STANHOPE AND HER FIVE DAUGHTERS]

[Illustration: ANNE]

[Illustration: ISABELLA]

[Illustration: FRANCES]

[Illustration: MARIA]

After celebrating the Christmas festivities, as usual, in Yorkshire, early
in January, 1805, she journeyed with her husband and family back to their
house in London, No. 28 Grosvenor Square, a building since much altered,
but still standing at the corner of Upper Grosvenor Street. [12] There she
was occupied introducing into society her clever eldest daughter Marianne,
aged nineteen, and preparing for the _debut_ of her second daughter, Anne;
and thence with the dawning of that year destined to be momentous in
English history, she wrote to her son John, his father's heir-
presumptive, a youth of eighteen, who had just gone to Christ Church:

The New Year smiles upon us, and, thank God, finds us all well, except
Henry, and he gains strength. May you see many happy ones and may the
commencing year prove as happy to you as I have every reason to
believe the last was.... You are really, my dear John, the most
_gallant_ son I ever heard of to make such very flattering
speeches.... It is vastly gratifying to a mother to have a son desire
to hear from her so frequently, and such a request must always be
attended to with pleasure.

How assiduously the writer fulfilled her promise is testified by those
packets of letters, dim with the dust and blight of a vanished century,
but in which her reward is likewise attested. "I do not believe," she
affirms proudly, "that there is a man at either of the Universities who
writes so often to his mother as you do, and let me beg you will continue
to do so, for the hearing from you is one of the chief pleasures of my
life." Moreover, that family of eight sons and five daughters, who, at
this date, shared her attention, in their relations to each other were
singularly united. Throughout their lives, indeed, the tie of blood
remained to them of paramount importance, although, as often happens, this
fact bred in them a somewhat hypercritical view of the world which lay
without that charmed circle. Graphic and lively as it will be seen are
their writings, their wit was at times so keen-edged that it is said to
have caused considerable alarm to the dandies and belles of their
generation, who suffered from the too vivacious criticism of their young
contemporaries. This was more particularly so in the case of Marianne, the
eldest daughter, afterwards the anonymous author of the satirical novel
_Almack's_. Brilliant and full of humour as is her correspondence, it
shows her to have been what family tradition reports, rich in talent and
accomplishments, gifted with imagination and keenly observant of her
surroundings, but withal cynical of speech and critical of temperament--a
woman, perhaps, more to be feared than loved.

Her brother John, the recipient of most of the following letters, was, on
the contrary, a youth of exceptional amiability, and unalterably popular
with all whom he encountered. Intellectual from his earliest childhood, in
later life he was a profound classical scholar. A seven months' child,
however, the constitutional delicacy which was a constant handicap to him
throughout his existence had been further accentuated by an unlucky
accident. When at Westminster, a fall resulting from a push given to him
by Ralph Nevill, Lord Abergavenny's son, had broken his collar-bone, and
with the Spartan treatment to which children were then subjected, this
injury received no attention. But what he lacked in physical strength was
supplied by dauntless grit and mental energy, so that, although in the
future debarred by his health from taking any active part in political
life, he early attained, as we shall see, to no mean fame as a traveller
and an explorer, while he was regarded as one of the savants of his
generation.

During 1805, when he was yet a freshman at Christ Church, his younger
brothers and sisters were likewise variously employed with their
education, the boys at the celebrated schools of Sunbury and Westminster,
the girls in the seclusion of a large school-room in the rambling house in
Grosvenor Square. And that the learning for which they all strove was of a
comprehensive nature, moreover, that those of their party who had already
entered the gay world never disdained to share such labours, is shown in a
letter written many years afterwards to John by his brother Charles, in
which the writer complains sarcastically--

You have no idea how happy, year by year, as of yore, the little ones
seem--(for they will always be called so, though now Frances is as big
as me and amazingly handsome). Yet still they have not one moment of
time to themselves. They cram and stuff with accomplishments
incessantly, and they prison me in my room & won't allow me to pry
into the haunts of the Muses. Marianne and Anne have been learning to
paint for these last two years, and make (_I_ think) but slow
progress. Marianne never will have done (I wish I could be so
industrious). She is now beginning to learn the harp. They are both
learning to sing from some great star, which is only money and time
thrown away; & Isabella, Frances and Maria learn to dance of one of
the most celebrated Opera dancers. Isabella learns a new instrument
something like a guitar, called a harp-lute. Marianne and Anne, having
learnt French, German, Latin and Italian, are now at a loss to find
something left to know, and talk of learning Russian. They will be
dyed blue-stocking up to their very chins.

Allowing for the exaggeration of a schoolboy, the letter throws an
interesting light on the standard of education aimed at by those who,
despite the imputation to the contrary, had no pretension to belong to the
recognised blue-stocking coteries of their day. And the father of that
busy, happy circle, in the seriousness of his own life and aims, presented
the same contrast to many of his contemporaries which was reflected in his
family.

Fourteen years senior to his wife, and at this date in his fifty-seventh
year, Walter Stanhope had been M.P. respectively for his different
constituencies since 1775. A keen politician, he was punctilious in his
attendance at the House.

Nevertheless, as shown in a former volume, although a man of ability and
of intense earnestness of purpose, his devotion to his political labours
never wholly counteracted a certain lethargy of temperament which,
throughout his life, limited achievement. Thus, although in his youth
undoubtedly gifted with a lively fancy, or with what his generation termed
sensibility, this very trait seems at variance with the sum of his later
career. True, that under stress of emotion he could rise to heights of
impassioned oratory which provoked by its very evidence of latent power;
but the tenor of his existence was scarcely in accordance with these brief
flashes of genius, and the fulfilment of his prime belied its promise. The
record of his life remains one which commands respect rather than
admiration. Level-headed, sober in judgment and conduct, even while
possessed of a wit which was rare and a discernment at times profound, his
days flowed on in an undeviating adherence to duty which makes little
appeal to the imagination. As a churchman, as a parent, as a landowner, as
a politician he fulfilled each avocation with credit. As a man of the
world he could toy with but remain unmastered by the foibles of his age.
While a Fox and a Pitt rose to heights and sank to depths which Stanhope
never touched; while a Wilberforce was imbued with religious fervour as
with a permeating flame, Stanhope, to his contemporaries, presented
something of an anomaly. As in his early years he had been a Macaroni who
eschewed the exaggerations of his sect, so throughout life he could gamble
without being a gamester, could drink without being a toper, be a
politician without party acumen, and a man of profoundly religious
feelings devoid of fanaticism. But since he who himself is swayed by the
intensity of his convictions is he who in turn sways his fellows, possibly
the very restraint which saved Stanhope from folly debarred him from fame.
[13]

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