When Mr. Walpole received the letters, (Nos. 3 and 4,) from Chatterton, demanding his manuscripts, he was preparing for a journey to Paris, and he either forgot Chatterton's request, or had delayed having them copied; he therefore deferred complying with the request of the writer of the letters, and proceeded on his journey, without deigning to answer his correspondent. "I protest," says Horace Walpole, "I do not remember which was the case; and yet, though in a case of so little importance, I would not utter a syllable of which I am not positively certain; nor will charge my memory with a tittle beyond what it retains." The case to Walpole was of very little importance, for to Paris he went, where he remained six weeks; and on his return, found the following letter on his table, which was termed singularly impertinent by the frivolous Walpole, but which has been also, by abler judges, designated as "dignified and spirited.” "I cannot reconcile your behaviour with the notions I once entertained of you. I think myself injured, Sir; and did you not know my circumstances, you would not dare to treat me thus. I have sent twice for a copy of the manuscripts :-no answer from you. An explanation or excuse for your silence would oblige "July 24th." "THOMAS CHATTERTON. The This is the "singularly impertinent" letter. Surely Mr. Walpole's singularly insolent treatment of Chatterton sufficiently apologized for its warmth. letter was so far from impertinent, that it was gentler than the haughty neglect deserved. If one of Mr. Walpole's aristocratical correspondents had sent him fifty letters, containing the most insignificant stuff, they would have all been answered in the most respectful, and, no doubt, servile manner. Mr. Walpole says, insolence to him. 66 My heart did not accuse me of I wrote an answer expostulating with him on his injustice, and renewing good advice; but upon second thoughts, reflecting that so wrongheaded a young man, of whom I knew nothing, and whom I had never seen, might be absurd enough to print my letter, I flung it into the fire;65 and wrapping up both his poems and letters, without taking a copy of either, for which I am now sorry, I returned all to him, and thought no more of him till a year and a half after." Mr. Walpole regretted that he did not take a copy of the poems sent him; it was his intention, but it was omitted, either from neglect or hurry. Surely this is an unparalleled acknowledgment of a mind boasting the desire of committing a breach of faith. One is really at a loss which to admire most, the premeditated intent of doing a mean action, or the cool 65 A copy of this letter appears in Walpole's Narrative. CAL indifference with which he relates what should tend to his shame and confusion. The letters and manuscripts were returned to Chatterton in a blank cover, on the 4th August, 1769. Chatterton never forgave the insult he received from Walpole. Young and ardent as he was, and unaccustomed to have to do with the cold realities of life, the repulse must have been bitter indeed. Had Walpole inflicted on him an injury, his more noble nature would have borne it in dignified silence; but an insult, by a sensitive mind, is never forgotten. Yet how many such are the suffering children of genius compelled to bear, from hard-hearted, weak-headed men, whom, in their inmost souls, they despise. The class of beings to which Walpole belonged, is not yet extinct ; the false friends; the good-advice-givers-men, who, like the priest in the fable, only bestow their blessing, because it costs them nothing;-who themselves write volumes of trash, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," to the unutterable joy of trunk liners and cheese venders; yet, who in their blindness, deem themselves "arbiters of taste and masters of opinion." The following stanza (from a copy of verses addressed to Miss M. R. and sent, by Chatterton, to the Town and Country Magazine, and printed in the number for January, 1770) has been brought forward by the friends of Mr. Walpole, as a proof that Chatterton altered his opinion with respect to Mr. Walpole's treat NO VIMU ment of him: most probably, however, it is only satire in disguise: "Yet when that bloom and dancing fire, In silver'd reverence shall expire, Age wrinkled and defac'd, To keep one lover's flame alive Requires the genius of a Clive, With Walpole's mental taste." CHATTERTON'S Miscellanies, p. 88. The following lines, never before published, are more expressive of his feelings: TO HORACE WALPOLE. "Walpole, I thought not I should ever see Who wrote Otranto? but I will not chide; Scorn I'll repay with scorn-and pride with pride ;— Who for thy fame were better friends than foes; Had I the gifts of wealth and luxury shared, By Rowley's side, when thou art dead and damned." T. C. I shall not now remark on the apology of Dr. Gregory, or on that of his "learned and respectable friend," for Mr. Walpole, but shall insert Mr. Walpole's own Narrative, that the reader may form a just conception of the transaction. This Vindication was printed at Strawberry Hill for private use, in 1779; and was reprinted in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1782, in separate portions. It is now presented to the reader entire. The following letters from Horace Walpole, respecting Chatterton, from the MSS. of the Rev. Mr. Cole,66 were written by Mr. W. before the Vindication appeared, and are inserted here in their chronological order. MS. COLE, VOL. XXIII. F. 103, B. "To the Rev. Mr. Cole, at Milton, near Cambridge, Strawberry Hill, June 19, 1777. "I thank you for your notices, dear Sir, and shall remember that on prince William. I did not see the 66 Mr. Cole received his education at Cambridge, where he formed an early intimacy with Horace Walpole, Gray, and Mason. In 1750 he was collated to the rectory of Hornsey, in the neighbourhood of London, which he held but a year; residing the chief part of his life at his parsonage of Milton, in Cambridgeshire. At his death, in 1782, he bequeathed his large collection of MSS. consisting of parochial surveys, historical anecdotes, &c. to the British Museum, with an injunction that they should not be opened till twenty years after his decease." |