has in general a bad effect on the complexion of one's works. The engravings look, as you say, better than I had expected, yet not altogether so well as I could wish. I rejoice in the good dispositions of our court, and in the propriety of their application to you: the work is a thing so much to be wished; has so near a connexion with the turn of your studies and of your curiosity; and might find such ample materials among your hoards and in your head; that it will be a sin if you let it drop and come to nothing, or worse than nothing, for want of your assistance.* The historical part should be in the manner of Henault, a mere abridgment,† a series of

* See a note from Lord Bute, in the Letters to and from Ministers, inviting Mr. Walpole to turn his thoughts to a work of this kind; and Mr. Walpole's answer, offering to point out and collect materials, and take any trouble in aiding, supervising, and directing the whole plan.

† This method Mr. Walpole had already adopted before he received his friend's letter; for a large memorandum-book of his is extant, with this title-page:

COLLECTIONS

FOR A

HISTORY

OF

THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, HABITS, FASHIONS, CEREMONIES, &c. &c. &c.

OF

ENGLAND,

BEGUN

FEBRUARY 21, 1762.

BY

MR. HORACE WALPOLE.

Co'l tempo, Tutto.

The heads of the subjects he meant to treat are there arranged alphabetically, and several pages of blank paper left between each, intended to have been filled up with matter relative to the objects in question, as it occurred to him.-We have only to regret, that though a number of curious scattered notes remain among Lord Orford's papers, evidently intended for this work, its farther arrangement was never pursued; as in the hands of an eminent antiquary, diligent, accurate, and lively, as Mr. Walpole, it must have proved a most entertaining as well as a curious work.

facts selected with judgment, that may serve as a clue to lead the mind along in the midst of those ruins and

The notes, or heads of chapters, in his memorandum-book, are as follows:

Coats of Arms.
Arms and Armour.

Armies.

Books.

Buildings.

Burials.

Coaches.

Coins.

Crusadoes.
Customs.

Deer.

Domain.

Embassadors.

Exchequer.
Fashions.

Fools.

Forests.

Games.

When first used.

Battle Axes. Coats of Mail. Habergeons. Hauberks.
Shields, their forms.

How raised and paid, and fleets. Admiral of western
coast. My seal of R. Clitherol.

What books were in libraries before printing. Pay of copyists. Vide catalogue of books at Canterbury at end of

Dart.

Brick only for chimneys. No glass. Sudley Castle glazed
with beryl. Old London of chesnut. Licenses for em-
battling.

Soul-shot. Paid at interments. Vide Spelman's Posthuma.
When first used. Saddles. Anne of Bohemia. First side-
saddles. Chairs. Litter. Chariot. Vide Life of De
Critz.

Easterlings. Copper tokens.

What, Saxons, Normans, Poitevins, &c. introduced. Curfeu.
When brought into England.

To inquire what the domain of the crown at different

periods.

What their pay and privileges.
Vide Madox.

See Account of Harrison prefixed to Hollingshed's Chro-
nicle. Wimples. Crispin pins. Love-locks. Colours
of their mistress. Picked horns.

Vide Anecdotes of Painting, in Holbein. Henry VIIIth's fool, a print of him.

Statutes of. New Forest. Inquiry how many in the crown. Manner of Hunting. Picture at Wroxton of Prince Henry and Lord Harrington in hunting habits. Chevy Chase, how founded.

May games. At cards. Tables. Dice. Numbers of small dice found under floor of Inner Temple-hall.

Havering in the Bower.When built. Jointure-house of what queens. When de

Habits.

Heralds.

Holidays.

Hops.

Hours.

Kings.

Knights.

The Marches.

Masks and Masking.

Mumming.

Mathematics.

Marriage.

Meals.

New Year's Gifts.

stroyed.

See Peck's Account of them. Figures in Speed's Maps.
When first wigs. Tom Derry. Lord Holland. Account
of Fashions in Harrison's Treatise before Hollingshed's
Chronicle. Hollar's habits. Coats and waistcoats. Vide
MS. of Lord Sandwich.

How made. Ceremonies at creation of knights of Bath.
See the plate in Dugdale's Warwickshire. Knight's

What the ceremonies attending it.

See bills of fare of Henry IV. in Bishop Lyttelton's book and in Dugdale.

scattered monuments of art, that time has spared. This would be sufficient, and better than Montfaucon's more diffuse narrative. Such a work (I have heard) Mr. Burke is now employed about, which though not intended for

Night Caps.

Ordeal.

Pleshy.

Parks.

Poets Laureate.
Provisions.

Portraits.

Ruffs.
Seals.

Stage.

Tenures.

Tombs.

Tournaments.
Tapestries.

Vineyards.

Wards.

Wills.

Embroidered with black. My head of Henry, Duke of
Richmond. Oliver Cromwell's in Mrs. Kennon's sale.

Trials.

When built. Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, apprehended there. When demolished.

King's proveditors. Forestalling of markets.

Busts of Henry I. and Queen, at the west end of the Ca-
thedral of Rochester. Catherine of Valois, queen of
Henry V. in the long gallery at Lambeth, and Archbishop
Chichele. Among Harleian MSS. No. 1498-2. Henry
VII. receiving a book from Islip. Item, No. 1499-3.
1766-3. Lydgate. 1892-26. 2278-3. Henry VI. when
a child. Ib. 4, 5, 6, No. 2358-14-15. No. 4826. Lyd-
gate. No. 1319. No. 1349-3. Edward III. and all his
children. Mr. Onslow, Black Prince, and another of
sons of Edward III. My miniature of Henry, Duke of
Richmond, son of Henry VIII. Portrait of Richard de
Gainsborough, mason, in second volume of Letheuillier's
Hist. Henry VI. and House of Parliament, engraven by
Pyne. Edward IV. &c. before Catalogue of Royal and
Noble Authors. Jane Shore, at Eton.

When first used. Succeeded by falling band.
Often cut on reverses of cameos and intaglios. Often good
at the same period that our coins bad.
Mysteries. Farces. Pantomimes. Morrice-dancers. In-
terludes. Pageants.

Vide Blount's Jocular Tenures. Peerages annexed to cas-
tles and lands. Arundel and Berkeley Castles.
Their fashions in different ages. When statues on them
first. When brasses. Roman columns about time of
Queen Elizabeth. Knights Templars, cross-legged.

At Bayeux. In a room near the House of Commons, with
a crusade of Richard I.

Several houses anciently called the Vineyard and the
Vine. Mr. Chute's in Hampshire. Mr. Talbot's near
in St. James's Park ; qu. how

Dorking. The Vineyard
old ? Vide Barnaby's Journal.

Court of wards and liveries.

Legacies. How many witnesses. When they could not write, made the sign of the cross. Bequeathing their clothes, beds, &c. &c. Cups and covers, their plate.

Then follows the subsequent list of authors to be consulted :

Fleetwood's Chronicum

manufactories and

mo

this purpose might be applied perhaps to this use. Then at the end of each reign should come a dissertation explanatory of the plates, and pointing out the turn of thought, the customs, ceremonials, arms, dresses, luxury, and private life, with the improvement or decline of the arts during that period. This you must do yourself, beside taking upon you the superintendance, direction, and choice of materials. As to the expense, that must be the King's own entirely, and he must give the book to foreign ministers and people of note; for it is obvious no private man can undertake such a thing without a subscription, and no gentleman will care for such an expedient; and a gentleman it should be, because he must have easy access to archives, cabinets, and collections, of all sorts. I protest I do not think it impossible but they may give in to such a scheme: they approve the design, they wish to encourage the arts and to be magnificent, and they have no Versailles or Herculaneum.

I hope to see you toward the end of March. If you bestow a line on me, pray tell me whether the Baronne de la Peyriere is gone to her castle of Viry; and whether Fingal be discovered or shrewdly suspected to be a forgery. Adieu! I am yours ever.

LETTER XV.

Sunday, December 30, 1764.

I HAVE received the Castle of Otranto, and return you my thanks for it. It engages our attention here,* makes some of us cry a little, and all in general afraid to go to-bed o'nights. We take it for a translation, and should believe it to be a true story, if it were not for St. Nicholas.

When your pen was in your hand you might have been a little more communicative: for, though disposed enough to believe the opposition rather consumptive, I am entirely ignorant of all the symptoms. Your canonical book I have been reading with great satisfaction. He speaketh as one having authority. If Englishmen have any feeling left, methinks they must feel now; and if the ministry have any feeling (whom nobody will suspect of insensibility) they must cut off the author's ears, for it is in all the forms a most wicked libel. Is the old man and the lawyer put on, or is it real? or has some real lawyer furnished a good part of the materials, and another person employed them? This I guess; for there is an uncouthness of diction in the beginning, which is not supported throughout though it now and then occurs again, as if the writer was weary of supporting the character he had assumed, when the subject had warmed him beyond dissimulation.*

Rousseau's Letterst I am reading heavily, heavily ! He justifies himself, till he convinces me that he deserved to be burnt, at least that his book did. I am not got through him, and you never will. Voltaire I detest, and have not seen his book: I shall in good time. You surprise me, when you talk of going‡ in February. Pray, does all the minority go too? I hope you have a reason. Desperare de republica is a deadly sin in politics.

Adieu! I will not take my leave of you; for (you perceive) this letter means to beg another, when you can spare a little.