Source:
Private correspondence of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough: illustrative of the court and times of Queen Anne, volume 1, H. Colburn, London, 1838
Above: Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, engraving by Sir Godfrey Kneller.
Above: Queen Anne, engraving by Robert White.
The letter:
1709.
I am very thankful for the favour of dear Mrs. Morley's letter, and for the profession at the end of it, which deserves more acknowledgements than I can express; and if you shall dislike anything I am going to say in answer to it, I hope you will continue to forgive me, for since I wrote to you only as a friend, it is impossible for me to say the least word that I don't think. You are pleased to say that you doubt not but I wondered very much that you were so long without taking notice of my letter; indeed, I was in hopes either to have heard from you sooner, or that since you took so much time about it, that you would have been pleased to have given a more particular answer to several things that I mentioned, and especially that you would have convinced me that I was in the wrong as to what I said of the power that Abigail had with you. But since you pass that quite over, I can't help renewing my request that you will explain without the trouble of writing a long answer to this, what it is that prevails with you to oppose the advice of all your old servants and councils, — if it be not that woman, and those that apply to you by her. What is all this struggle to form an insignificant party, who have undertaken to carry her up to a great pitch of greatness, from which she will deserve to be thrown down in a fortnight with infamy? These men are the friends that you told me you had somewhere. Why did some people in your service ride lately about from her to Mr. Harley's, at London, and thence to ———, in the country, and so again to London, as if they rode post all the while, but about some great scheme, which I dare say would make the world merry if it were known? And I can't help taking notice that it was much about this time when Lord Haversham was introduced to you, so that I take it for granted that he was an undertaker in this good work, whom yourself have so often heard revile your government in the House of Lords. But it looks as if nobody were too scandalous to be countenanced, that would but apply to this new favourite, to whom, it is said, his Lordship would have gone directly from you, but that he unfortunately mistook the room and went to Mrs. Cowper. I can't imagine what your Majesty meant by the ill opinion which I have of you, unless it be that I have the misfortune to differ with you, which I must own I have done very much; for I always thought just as I do now, that those that persecuted you when Princess were not likely to serve you well when you were Queen, and that you might much more safely rely on men that were really for the Church and present government, than on others that only pretend to be for one, and are really against the other; and this was all I ever differed in. Though now, indeed, we differ about another thing, which is, that I think you are influenced by this favourite, to do things that are directly against your own interest and safety; and you seem to think that there is nothing of all this, and therefore I will take the liberty to tell you why I think it is so at present, and what it is that would make me think otherwise. I think the first, because every day shows that you don't hear my Lord Marlborough and Lord Godolphin as you used to do, and I can hardly believe that even now any men have more credit with you than they have; therefore who can it be but this woman, for you see nobody else. And to shew you that I am not alone of this opinion, if I should ask the first ordinary man that I met, what had caused so great a change in you, he would say that the reason was because you were grown very fond of Mrs. Masham, and were governed by those that govern her. And now because you pray to God to open my eyes, I will say how you may do that yourself, if you please; by living with your old faithful servants as you used to do, and hearkening to the advice of your faithful ministers and council, for this would open my eyes and everybody's else. And, indeed, I can't help thinking that it would be better to change your ministry quite, and to have another General and Treasurer, and to let Mrs. Masham's creatures govern as long as they can; or else to be informed and advised by those in your chief employments, and convince the world that this lady has no more to do than any other bed-chamber woman. And this I can't but think would be a better resolution than pursuing any other project, especially that of dividing the Whigs, which you may easily apprehend would be very dangerous at this time, since my Lord Marlborough, who you know is no warm friend of theirs, is so much against it. But Mr. Harley liked it, as the best means of giving him another opportunity to do mischief, and of setting up his handmaid, and of bringing all the worthless men in the kingdom into your service. I had almost forgot to tell you of a new book that is come out; the subject is ridiculous, and the book not well written, but that looks so much the worse, for it shews that the notion is extensively spread among all sorts of people. It is a dialogue between Madame Maintenon and Madam Masham, in which she thanks her for her good endeavours to serve the King of France here, and seems to have great hopes of her, from her promising beginnings and her friendship for Mr. Harley; and there is stuff not fit to be mentioned of passions between women, and a long account of that Lady's famous amour with Mr. Chudd, managed by Lady Newport. Some part of that I knew to be true, but I will not trouble you longer upon so disagreeable a subject.
The woman that has been put upon writing it, and the printer, have been in custody, and are now under prosecution. It has appeared that she kept correspondence with two of the favourite persons in the book, my Lord Peterborough and Mr. Harley, and I think it is to be suspected that she may have had some dealing with Mrs. Masham, who is called Hilaria. She says, "that she loved and understood letters, introduced, nay applauded, the ingenious, and did always her endeavour to make them taste of the royal bounty." This is in the book. The favourite characters are your Majesty, Mrs. Masham, my Lord Peterborough, and Mr. Harley; and I am sure everybody will allow that is very good attendance, in which I, and Lord Marlborough, and almost everybody I know are abused, except Mrs. Masham, Lord Peterborough, and Mr. Harley. Speaking of her, it begins thus: — "She had a soul fitted for grandeur, a capacious repository for the confidence of royal favour; she had the good fortune to be placed in the eye of favour, whence only her own merit, and sovereign's capacity of well judging merit, distinguished her; happy in a mistress deserving such a favourite, her mistress, in a favourite deserving to be such."
I think in this part she is made to take the place of your Majesty, and then it goes on, and gives an account in these following words: — "That Don something, who is Mr. Harley, made his applications with assiduity to Mrs. Masham, arising from the awful esteem he had of her thousand virtues, he felt the generous warmth in his own breast, and from thence adored them in hers. She could not be ungrateful;" (no, poor soul, not she!) "her fine sense and judgement did Mr. Harley justice; from mutual admiration they grew to mutual esteem and confidence; and your Majesty, who is called the Royal Olympia, permitted them to have a share in the sweets of her appropriated hours."
Now, since the people find, by woful experience, that desire to support your government, that delays every day happen in things of the greatest consequence; that this lady is your favourite, and that the Tories, in such simple books as they can get written and published, proclaim this great favourite to all the world; I hope you will no longer think it a crime in me what you have formerly imputed for one, that I believe your Majesty allowed her great liberties; or think I was the only person that discerned the private way of conversing with Mrs. Masham, since all that matter is now in print, and, notwithstanding the prosecution, I suppose sold at every shop.
Notes: Mrs. Freeman was Anne's nickname for Sarah and Mrs. Morley was her nickname for herself.
The erased words seem to be "the Duke of Somerset."
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