surprising that the majority of the Council sympathised with St. John in that minister's attempts to get rid of one who, in the words of Lord Hardwicke, "was so humoursome, proud, and capricious that he was a ministry spoiler rather than a ministry maker." Up to 1710, Somerset was still powerful enough to secure the nomination of Parker to the Chief Justiceship.1 He imagined, according to Lord Dartmouth, that he could make Parker his tool; but the new Chief Justice speedily disabused him of this idea, and went over to St. John. The Sacheverell agitation, and the Jacobite intrigues of his fellow-councillors, were renewed sources of discontent to Somerset. Bitter recriminations were of daily occurrence between St. John and himself, and at length he even fell foul of the complaisant Harley. The dissolution of Parliament in 1710 was the signal for his final desertion of the Tories. He broke off the connection in a towering rage, which so blinded him to all sense of propriety that he treated the Queen, to whom he owed nothing but gratitude, with grave discourtesy. The occurrence is thus described by Lady Strafford in a letter to her sister: "The Duke of Somerset has left the Court in a pet, and it is concluded that he'll ne'er return as Master of the Horse more. The day the Parliament is dissolved, he came out of Council in such a passion that he cursed and swore at all his servants, and ordered them to put up all things at Kingseton (Kensington),2 and though his supper was ready he would not stay to "The Saturday morning he went out of Town, the Queen herself gave orders that the leading coach only should go out with her . . . . so the Duke of S. might be at liberty to take the best of the horse chariots and horses to travel with; but he continued to the last in a huff, and went out of Town in his own coach, and not through St. James Park, which as Master of the Horse he might do. They say he has been deceived by Mr. Harley. . . . He 1 In succession to Chief Justice Holt. 'Where he had apartments in his official capacity. ... has met the Junto, and they received him very cordially, and declared he will give all the interest he has in any place he has influence in to the Whigs." 1 The "Junto" was doubtless glad to welcome back its old adherent, even though he came not as a penitent but as a disappointed man. The Whigs in 1711 needed all the help they could obtain, to combat Harley and St. Johnthe latter now in direct communication with St. Germains, the former amazingly popular by reason of the murderous attack made upon him by Guiscard. In Parliament the Tories had a decided majority; Mrs. Masham had succeeded in ousting the Duchess of Marlborough from the post of Queen's favourite; and the prospects of the Hanoverian succession looked darker than at any time since the passing of the Act of Settlement. Thus Somerset's return to the Whig fold was a subject for jubilation. But, truth to tell, it was not so much for the Duke's own merits or influence as for those of his wife, that Sunderland, Somers, and Halifax gave him such cordial greeting. Of Somerset they could not be certain for any length of time; he might leave them in the lurch to-morrow, as he had done before. But the Duchess was a powerful and, above all, a loyal and disinterested ally. For her sake they were willing to forgive and forget, nay even to admit the Duke to all but their most intimate councils. At the accession of Queen Anne, the heiress of the Percies had been appointed first Lady of the Bedchamber. In this capacity she had greatly strengthened that friendship with the Queen which began at Syon in 1682. It was part of Anne's policy to keep about her two sets of favourites, the one to be used as a foil against the other. While the Duchess of Marlborough ostentatiously exercised her sway over Court affairs, she of Somerset was the repository of the Queen's continual complaints on the score of "Mrs. Freeman's arbitrary conduct"; and the quiet sympathy of one who had, apparently, little or nothing to gain in the 1 Strafford Papers, 1710. royal service, proved grateful to Anne's weak nature. When Marlborough's wife was forced into retirement by the intrigues of Harley's tool, Mrs. Masham, the latter discovered for the first time the great, though passive, influence exercised by the Duchess of Somerset. Here was a woman who asked no benefits for her husband or herself, but who patiently, and almost insensibly, undid the work of Harley and St. John and inspired the Queen with Hanoverian sympathies. "She was," writes Noble,1 "the determined enemy of the Tory party, and her attachment to the Whigs (afterwards) brought her into great estimation in the reign of George I." It was not long before Mrs. Masham and her friends realised that the success of their schemes depended in no small degree upon the removal of this dangerous obstacle. But at first the Queen would not hear of dismissing her friend in this manner. The Duchess of Somerset was promoted to the joint offices of Groom of the Stole and Mistress of the Robes, in succession to the Duchess of Marlborough,2 and she held them in spite of backstairs' cabals, evil reports, and cruel lampoons, for over three years. The Queen's personal goodwill she retained to the very last. Anne, when dying, told Lord Dartmouth that she proposed to leave a few of her jewels to the Queen of Sicily, "who was the only relation I ever heard her speak of with much tenderness; and the rest to the Duchess of Somerset, as the fittest person to wear them after her.” 3 Amongst those who reviled the Duchess most bitterly was Swift, who was then St. John's chief henchman and adviser. He wrote of her to Stella as "that damned Duchess of Somerset," and on one occasion he permitted himself to attack her good fame in a rhymed libel of an exceptionally provoking character. This was the famous "Windsor Prophecy," a parody on those vague predictions which were hawked about the streets in broadsides and almanacs. No one at all familiar with Court matters 2 In January 1711. 1 Biog. History, vol. iii. p. 437. 3 Burnet, vol. iv. p. 31. could fail to grasp the allusions in this precious piece of blackguardism, which ran as follows: "Pe Windsor Prophecie. And, dear Englond, if ought I understond, Their Conyngs mark thou; for I have been told And keep close to thee always that name Which backwards and forwards is almost the same; 2 Bury those Carrots under a Hill." 8 Thirty years had passed since the murder of Thomas Thynn by the agents of Count Köningsmarck; and the world had almost forgotten those scandalous and improbable tales which held Elizabeth Percy responsible for the crime. From 1681 to 1711, her life had been such as to merit the respect of all men, even of her political enemies; nor had one tittle of evidence been brought forward in support of the foul charge which Thynn's friends had levelled against her in the first heat of their anger. Yet, after the lapse of all these years, when the cruel story seemed buried in oblivion, the Duchess found herself suddenly confronted with it anew. Swift, searching among the graves of the past for some weapon with which to wound her, had unearthed this poisoned shaft, steeped it in venom anew, and savagely driven it home. His keen insight into human nature inspired him with the sneer at his victim's personal appearance. He knew that the phrase "Carrots from Northumberland" would sting deeply and lastingly, whereas the terrible accusation of murder might perhaps miss of its full effect in the opinion of 3 Mrs. Masham's maiden name was Abigail Hill. 1 Anne. 2 Masham. the new generation. The mock prophecy written, he was so pleased with its malignity that he had it printed for distribution among his associates of the "Brothers' Club" -hard-drinking Tories all, who toasted Abigail Masham, and damned "Northumberland Carrots" as vigorously as the Dean himself. He brought a copy of the verses with great pride to Mrs. Masham herself, imagining that that lady would be delighted with them. But the Queen's favourite was a shrewder politician than the great satirist. She foresaw that the very strength of the poison would prove its own antidote; and that Anne's womanly sympathies were almost certain to be enlisted on the side of the very person they sought to injure. Rather sulkily Swift admitted the justice of this reasoning, and hastened to stop the issue of his "Prophecy." He was too late. The printer, mistaking his orders, had already struck off a number of copies, and sent them to the members of the "Brothers' Club."1 Before nightfall the spiteful doggerel was the talk of all the coffee-houses. Some one sent the Duchess of Somerset a copy, and she hastened with it to the Queen's apartments, where (so the story goes) she threw herself upon her knees before Anne, her eyes streaming with tears, and prayed for vengeance upon her traducer. Up to that time, Swift had been looked upon as almost certain to succeed to the Bishopric of Hereford. The impassioned pleading of the Duchess is said to have deprived him of this dignity. A few days after the premature publication of the first lampoon 2 he wrote a sequel, in which he tells how 3 "angry Somerset her vengeance vows, Swift complaining of "venom" is as "Satan reproving sin." 1 Swift's Journal to Stella, in which the whole affair is described. 2 It was published in December 1711. 3 The hiatus was supposed to be filled with the word “slaughter'd.” |