English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism; Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 18th century
for the fun of seeing a duel, endeavours to make Lord March resent. But
my Lord, who is 'very lively and agreeable,' laughs her out of
'this charming frolic with a great deal of humour.' 'At last,' says
Walpole,--and here we may surrender the story to him entirely,--'we
assembled in our booth, Lady Caroline in the front, with the vizor
of her hat erect, and looking gloriously jolly and handsome. She had
fetched my brother Orford from the next box, where he was enjoying
himself with his _petite partie_, to help us to mince chickens. We
minced seven chickens into a china dish, which Lady Caroline stewed over
a lamp, with three pats of butter and a flagon of water, stirring, and
rattling, and laughing, and we every minute expecting to have the dish
fly about our ears. She had brought Betty [Neale] the fruit girl, with
hampers of strawberries and cherries from Rogers's, and made her wait
upon us, and then made her sup by us at a little table. The conversation
was no less lively than the whole transaction. There was a Mr. O'Brien
arrived from Ireland, who would get the Duchess of Manchester from Mr.
Hussey if she were still at liberty. I took up the biggest hautboy in
the dish, and said to Lady Caroline, "Madam, Miss A he desires you would
eat this O'Brien strawberry;" she replied immediately.
"I won't, you hussey." You may imagine the laugh this reply occasioned.
After the tempest was a little calmed, the Pollard said, "Now, how
anybody would spoil this story that was to repeat it and say, I won't,
you jade!" In short, the whole air of our party was sufficient, as you
will easily imagine, to take up the whole attention of the garden; so
much so, that from eleven o'clock till half an hour after one we had
the whole concourse round our booth; at last they came into the little
gardens of each booth on the sides of ours, till Harry Vane took up a
bumper and was proceeding to treat them with still greater freedom. It
was three o'clock before we got home.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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