The most extraordinary thing that had happened in Dr. Johnson’s day was the ‘warning’ to the noble peer generally spoken of as ‘the wicked Lord Lyttelton.’ The Doctor went on thus: ‘I heard it with my own ears from his uncle, Lord Westcote. I am so glad to have every evidence of the spiritual world that I am willing to believe it.’ Dr. Adams replied, ‘You have evidence enough — good evidence, which needs no support.’ Dr. Johnson growled2 out, ‘I like to have more!’
Thus the Doctor was willing to believe what it suited him to believe, even though he had the tale at third or fourth hand; for Lord Westcote was not with the wicked Lord Lyttelton at the time of his death, on November 27, 1779. Dr. Johnson’s observations were made on June 12, 1784.
To Lord Westcote’s narrative3 we shall return.
As a study in Russian scandal, and the growth and development of stories, this anecdote4 of Lord Lyttelton deserves attention. So first we must glance at the previous history of the hero. Thomas Lord Lyttelton was born, says Mr. Coulton (in the ‘Quarterly Review,’ No. 179, p. 111), on January 30, 1744.145 He was educated at Eton, where Dr. Barnard thought his boyish promise even superior to that of Charles James Fox. His sketches6 of scenery in Scotland reminded Mrs. Montagu of the vigour7 of Salvator Rosa, combined with the grace of Claude Lorraine! At the age of nineteen, already affianced to Miss Warburton, he went on the Grand Tour, and excelled the ordinary model of young debauchery abroad. Mr. James Boswell found a Circe at Siena, Lyttelton found Circes everywhere. He returned to England in 1765; and that learned lady, Mrs. Carter, the translator of Epictetus, ‘admired his talents and elegant manners, as much as she detested9 his vices10.’ In 1768 he entered the House of Commons, and, in his maiden11 speech, implored12 the Assembly to believe that America was more important than Mr. Wilkes (and Liberty). Unseated for bribery13 in January 1769, he vanished from the public view, more or less, for a season; at least he is rarely mentioned in memoirs14, and Coulton thinks that young Lyttelton was now engaged — in what does the reader suppose? In writing ‘The Letters of Junius’!146
145 The writer was not Croker, but Mr. Coulton, ‘a Kentish gentleman,’ says Lockhart, February 7, 1851, to his daughter Charlotte.
146 If Lyttelton went to Italy on being ejected from Parliament, as Mr. Rigg says he did in the ‘Dictionary of National Biography,’ Coulton’s theory will be hard to justify15.
He was clever enough; his rank was like that assumed as his own by Junius; his eloquence16 (as he proved later in the House of Lords) was vituperative17 enough; he shared some of Junius’s hatreds18, while he proclaimed, like Junius, that the country was going to the dogs. Just as Junius was ending his Letters, the prodigal19, Thomas Lyttelton, returned to his father’s house; and Chatham wrote to congratulate the parent (February 15, 1772). On May 12, 1772, Junius published his last letter in ‘The Public Advertiser;’ and on June 26 Mr. Lyttelton married a widow, a Mrs. Peach. He soon left his wife, and was abroad (with a barmaid) when his father died in 1773. In January 1774 he took his seat in the Lords. Though Fox thought him a bad man, his first speech was in favour of securing to authors a perpetual copyright in their own works. He repeated his arguments some months later; so authors, at least, have reason for judging him charitably.
Mr. Carlyle would have admired Lyttelton. His politics (at one juncture) were ‘The Dictatorship for Lord Chatham’! How does this agree with the sentiments of Junius? In 1767–69 Junius had exhausted20 on Chatham his considerable treasury21 of insult. He is ‘a lunatic brandishing22 a crutch,’ ‘so black a villain,’ ‘an abandoned profligate23,’ and he exhibits ‘THE UPSTART INSOLENCE24 OF A DICTATOR!’ This goes not well with Lyttelton’s sentiments in 1774. True, but by that date (iii. 305) Junius himself had discovered ‘that if this country can be saved, it must be saved by Lord Chatham’s spirit, by Lord Chatham’s abilities.’ Lyttelton and Junius are assuredly both of them ruffianly, scandal-loving, inconsistent, and patrician25 in the manner of Catiline. So far, the likeness26 is close.
About America Lyttelton wavered. On the whole, he recognised the need of fighting; and his main idea was that, as fight we must, we should organise27 our forces well, and fight with our heads as well as with our hands. He disdained28 the policy of the ostrich29. The Americans were in active rebellion; it could not be blinked. He praised Chatham while he opposed him. He was ‘fighting for his own hand.’ Ministers felt the advantage of his aid; they knew his unscrupulous versatility31, and in November 1775 bought Lyttelton with a lucrative32 sinecure33 — the post of Chief Justice of Eyre beyond the Trent. Coulton calls the place ‘honourable;’ we take another view. Lyttelton was bought and sold, but no one deemed Lyttelton a person of scrupulous30 conscience.
The public prospects34 darkened, folly35 was heaped on folly, blunder on blunder, defeat on defeat. On April 24, 1779, Horace Walpole says that Lord Lyttelton ‘has again turned against the Court on obtaining the Seals’147 November 25, 1779, saw Lyttelton go boldly into Opposition36. He reviewed the whole state of the empire. He poured out a torrent37 of invective38. As to his sinecure, he said, ‘Perhaps he might not keep it long.’ ‘The noble Lords smile at what I say!’
147 Is this a slip, or misprint, for ‘on NOT obtaining the Seals’?
They need not have smiled. He spoke1 on Thursday, November 25; on Saturday, November 27, the place in Eyre was vacant, and Lord Lyttelton was a dead man.
The reader will keep in mind these dates. On Thursday, November 25, 1779, the first day of the session, Lyttelton overflows39 in a volcanic40 speech against the Court. He announces that his place may soon be vacant. At midnight on November 27 he is dead.
On all this, and on the story of the ghostly ‘warning’ to Lord Lyttelton, delivered in the night of Wednesday, November 24, Coulton builds a political romance. In his view, Lyttelton, expelled from Parliament, lavished41 his genius and exuded42 his spleen in the ‘Letters of Junius.’ Taking his seat in the Lords, he fights for his own hand, is bought and muzzled44, wrenches45 off his muzzle43, blazes into a fierce attack on the wrongs which he is weary of witnessing, the hypocrisy46 which he is tired of sharing, makes his will, sets his house in order, plays one last practical joke by inventing the story of the ghostly warning, surrounds himself with dissolute company, and at midnight on November 27 deliberately47 fulfils his own prediction, and dies by his own hand. It is a tale creditable to Coulton’s fancy. A patrician of genius, a wit, a profligate, in fatigue48 and despair, closes his career with a fierce harangue49, a sacrilegious jest, a debauch8, and a draught50 of poison, leaving to Dr. Johnson a proof of ‘the spiritual world,’ and to mankind the double mystery of Junius and of the Ghost.
As to the identity of Junius, remembering the warning of Lord Beaconsfield, ‘If you wish to be a bore, take up the “Letters of Junius,”’ we shall drop that enigma51; but as to the alleged52 suicide of Lord Lyttelton, we think we can make that seem extremely improbable. Let us return to the course of events, as stated by Coulton and by contemporaries.
The warning of death in three days, says Coulton, occurred (place not given) on the night of November 24, 1779. He observes: ‘It is certain that, on the morning after that very day’ (November 25), ‘Lord Lyttelton had related, not to one person alone, but to several, and all of them people of credit, the particulars of a strange vision which he said had appeared to him the preceding night.’ On Thursday, the 25th, as we saw, he spoke in the Lords. On Friday, the 26th, he went down to his house at Epsom, Pitt Place, where his party, says Coulton, consisted of Mr. (later Lord) Fortescue, Captain (later Admiral) Wolsley, Mrs. Flood, and the Misses Amphlett. Now, the town had no kind of doubt concerning the nature of Lord Lyttelton’s relations with two, if not three, of the Misses Amphlett. His character was nearly as bad, where women were concerned, as that of Colonel Charteris. But Walpole, writing to Mann on November 28 (the day after Lord Lyttelton’s death), says: ‘Lord Lyttelton is dead suddenly. SUDDENLY, in this country, is always at first construed55 to mean BY A PISTOL . . . The story given out is, that he looked ill, AND HAD SAID HE SHOULD NOT LIVE THREE DAYS; that, however, he had gone to his house at Epsom . . . with a caravan56 of nymphs; and on Saturday night had retired57 before supper to take rhubarb, returned, supped heartily58, went into the next room again, and died in an instant.’
Nothing here of a dream or ghost. We only hear of a prophecy, by Lyttelton, of his death.
Writing to Mason on Monday, November 29, Walpole avers59 that Lord Lyttelton was ‘attended only by four virgins60, whom he had picked up in the Strand61.’ Here Horace, though writing from Berkeley Square, within two days of the fatal 27th, is wrong. Lord Lyttelton had the Misses Amphlett, Captain Wolsley, Mr. Fortescue, and Mrs. Flood with him. According to Walpole, he felt unwell on Saturday night (the 27th), ‘went to bed, rung his bell in ten minutes, and in one minute after the arrival of his servant expired!’ ‘He had said on Thursday that he should die in three days, HAD DREAMT SO, and felt that it would be so. On Saturday he said, “If I outlive today, I shall go on;” but enough of him.’
Walpole speaks of a DREAM, but he soon has other, if not better, information. Writing to Mason on December 11, he says that ghost stories from the north will now be welcome. ‘Lord Lyttelton’s vision has revived the taste; though it seems a little odd that an APPARITION62 should despair of getting access to his Lordship’s bed, in the shape of a young woman, without being forced to use the disguise of a robin64-redbreast.’ What was an apprehension65 or prophecy has become a dream, and the dream has become an apparition of a robin-redbreast and a young woman.
If this excite suspicion, let us hasten to add that we have undesigned evidence to Lord Lyttelton’s belief that he had beheld66 an APPARITION— evidence a day earlier than the day of his death. Mrs. Piozzi (then Mrs. Thrale), in her diary of Sunday, November 28, writes: ‘Yesterday a lady from Wales dropped in and said that she had been at Drury Lane on Friday night. “How,” I asked, “were you entertained?” “Very strangely indeed! Not with the play, though, but the discourse67 of a Captain Ascough, who averred68 that a friend of his, Lord Lyttelton, has SEEN A SPIRIT, who has warned him that he will die in three days. I have thought of nothing else since.”’
Next day, November 29, Mrs. Piozzi heard of Lord Lyttelton’s death.148
148 Notes and Queries69. Series V., vol. ii. p. 508. December 26,1874.
Here is proof absolute that the story, with apparition, if not with robin, was current THE DAY BEFORE LORD LYTTELTON’S DECEASE.
Of what did Lord Lyttelton die?
‘According to one of the papers,’ says Coulton, vaguely70, ‘the cause of death was disease of the heart.’ A brief ‘convulsion’ is distinctly mentioned, whence Coulton concludes that the disease was NOT cardiac. On December 7, Mason writes to Walpole from York: ‘Suppose Lord Lyttelton had recovered the breaking of his blood-vessel71!’
Was a broken blood-vessel the cause of death? or have we here, as is probable, a mere72 inference of Mason’s?
Coulton’s account is meant to lead up to his theory of suicide. Lord Lyttelton mentioned his apprehension of death ‘somewhat ostentatiously, we think.’ According to Coulton, at 10 P.M. on Saturday, Lord Lyttelton, looking at his watch, said: ‘Should I live two hours longer, I shall jockey the ghost.’ Coulton thinks that it would have been ‘more natural’ for him to await the fatal hour of midnight ‘in gay company’ than to go to bed before twelve. He finishes the tale thus: Lord Lyttelton was taking rhubarb in his bedroom; he sent his valet for a spoon, and the man, returning, found him ‘on the point of dissolution.’
‘His family maintained a guarded and perhaps judicious73 silence on the subject,’ yet Lord Westcote spoke of it to Dr. Johnson, and wrote an account of it, and so did Lord Lyttelton’s widow; while Wraxall, as we shall see, says that the Dowager Lady Lyttelton painted a picture of the ‘warning’ in 1780.
Harping74 on suicide, Coulton quotes Scott’s statement in ‘Letters on Demonology:’ ‘Of late it has been said, and PUBLISHED, that the unfortunate nobleman had determined75 to take poison.’ Sir Walter gives no authority, and Coulton admits that he knows of none. Gloomy but commonplace reflections in the so-called ‘Letters’ of Lyttelton do not even raise a presumption76 in favour of suicide, which, in these very Letters, Lyttelton says that he cannot defend by argument.149 That Lyttelton made his will ‘a few weeks before his death,’ providing for his fair victims, may be accounted for, as we shall see, by the threatening state of his health, without any notion of self-destruction. Walpole, in his three letters, only speaks of ‘a pistol’ as the common construction of ‘sudden death;’ and that remark occurs before he has heard any details. He rises from a mere statement of Lord Lyttelton’s, that he is ‘to die in three days,’ to a ‘dream’ containing that assurance, and thence to apparitions77 of a young woman and a robin-redbreast. The appearance of that bird, by the way, is, in the folk-lore of Surrey, an omen54 of death. Walpole was in a position to know all current gossip, and so was Mrs. Piozzi.
149 Coulton’s argument requires him to postulate78 the authenticity79 of many, at least, of these Letters, which were given to the world by the author of ‘Doctor Syntax.’
We now turn to a narrative nearly contemporary, that written out by Lord Westcote on February 13, 1780. Lord Westcote examined the eldest80 Miss Amphlett, Captain (later Admiral) Charles Wolsley, Mrs. Flood, Lord Lyttelton’s valet, Faulkner, and Stuckey, the servant in whose arms, so to speak, Lord Lyttelton died. Stuckey was questioned (note this) in the presence of Captain Wolsley and of MR. FORTESCUE. The late Lord Lyttelton permitted the Westcote narrative to be published in ‘Notes and Queries’ (November 21, 1874). The story, which so much pleased Dr. Johnson, runs thus:—
On Thursday, November 25, Mrs. Flood and the three Misses Amphlett were residing at Lord Lyttelton’s house in Hill Street, Berkeley Square. Who IS this Mrs. Flood? Frederick Flood (1741–1824) married LADY Julia Annesley in 1782. The wife of the more famous Flood suits the case no better: his wife was LADY F. M. Flood; she was a Beresford. (The ‘Dictionary of National Biography’ is responsible for these facts.) At all events, on November 25, at breakfast, in Hill Street, Lord Lyttelton told the young ladies and their chaperon that he had had an extraordinary DREAM.
He seemed to be in a room which a bird flew into; the bird changed into a woman in white, who told him he should die in three days.
He ‘did not much regard it, because he could in some measure account for it; for that a few days before he had been with Mrs. Dawson, when a robin-redbreast flew into her room.’ On the morning of Saturday he told the same ladies that he was very well, and believed he should ‘BILK THE GHOST.’ The dream has become an apparition! On that day — Saturday — he, with the ladies, Fortescue, and Wolsley, went to Pitt Place; he went to bed after eleven, ordered rolls for breakfast, and, in bed, ‘died without a groan,’ as his servant was disengaging him from his waistcoat. During dinner he had ‘a rising in his throat’ (a slight sickness), ‘a thing which had often happened to him before.’ His physician, Dr. Fothergill, vaguely attributed his death to the rupture81 of some vessel in his side, where he had felt a pain in summer.
From this version we may glean82 that Lord Lyttelton was not himself very certain whether his vision occurred when he was awake or asleep. He is made to speak of a ‘dream,’ and even to account for it in a probable way; but later he talks of ‘bilking the GHOST.’ The editor of ‘Notes and Queries’ now tries to annihilate83 this contemporary document by third-hand evidence, seventy years after date. In 1851 or 1852 the late Dowager Lady Lyttelton, Sarah, daughter of the second Earl Spencer, discussed the story with Mr. Fortescue, a son of the Mr. Fortescue who was at Pitt Place, and succeeded to the family title six years later, in 1785. The elder Mr. Fortescue, in brief, is said to have averred that he had heard nothing of the dream or prediction till ‘some days after;’ he, therefore, was inclined to disbelieve in it. We have demonstrated, however, that if Mr. Fortescue had heard nothing, yet the tale was all over the town before Lord Lyttelton died. Nay84, more, we have contemporary proof that Mr. Fortescue HAD heard of the affair! Lyttelton died at midnight on the Saturday, November 27. In her diary for the following Tuesday (November 30), Lady Mary Coke says that she has just heard the story of the ‘dream’ from Lady Bute, who had it from Mr. Ross, WHO HAD IT FROM MR. FORTESCUE!150 Mr. Fortescue, then, must have told the tale as early as the Monday after the fatal Saturday night. Yet in old age he seems to have persuaded himself that the tale came later to his knowledge. Some irrelevant85, late, and fourth-hand versions will be found in ‘Notes and Queries,’ but they merely illustrate86 the badness of such testimony87.
150 See The Letters and Journals of Lady Mary Coke, iii. 85. Note — She speaks of ‘a dream.’
One trifle of contemporary evidence may be added: Mrs. Delany, on December 9, 1779, wrote an account of the affair to her niece — here a bird turns into a woman.
In pursuit of evidence, it is a long way from 1780 to 1816. In November of that year, T. J. wrote from Pitt Place, Epsom, in ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine;’ but his letter is dated ‘January 6.’ T. J. has bought Pitt Place, and gives ‘a copy of a document in writing, left in the house’ (where Lyttelton died) ‘as an heirloom which may be depended on.’ This document begins, ‘Lord Lyttelton’s Dream and Death (see Admiral Wolsley’s account).’
But where IS Admiral Wolsley’s account? Is it in the archives of Sir Charles Wolseley of Wolseley? Or is THIS (the Pitt Place document) Admiral Wolsley’s account? The anonymous88 author says that he was one of the party at Pitt Place on November 27,1779, with ‘Lord Fortescue,’ ‘Lady Flood,’ and the two Misses Amphlett. Consequently this account is written after 1785, when Mr. Fortescue succeeded to his title. Lord Lyttelton, not long returned from Ireland, had been suffering from ‘suffocating89 fits’ in the last month. And THIS, not the purpose of suicide, was probably his reason for executing his will. ‘While in his house in Hill Street, Berkeley Square, he DREAMT three days before his death he saw a bird fluttering, and afterwards a woman appeared in white apparel, and said, “Prepare to meet your death in three days.” He was alarmed and called his servant. On the third day, while at breakfast with the above-named persons, he said, “I have jockeyed the ghost, as this is the third day.”’ Coulton places this incident at 10 P.M. on Saturday, and makes his lordship say, ‘In two hours I shall jockey the ghost.’ ‘The whole party set out for Pitt Place,’ which contradicts Coulton’s statement that they set out on Friday, but agrees with Lord Westcote’s. ‘They had not long arrived when he was seized with a usual fit. Soon recovered. Dined at five. To bed at eleven.’ Then we hear how he rebuked90 his servant for stirring his rhubarb ‘with a tooth-pick’ (a plausible91 touch), sent him for a spoon, and was ‘in a fit’ on the man’s return. ‘The pillow being high, his chin bore hard on his neck. Instead of relieving him, the man ran for help: on his return found him dead.’
This undated and unsigned document, by a person who professes92 to have been present, is not, perhaps, very accurate in dates. The phrase ‘dreamt’ is to be taken as the common-sense way of stating that Lord Lyttelton had a vision of some sort. His lordship, who spoke of ‘jockeying the GHOST,’ may have believed that he was awake at the time, not dreaming; but no person of self-respect, in these unpsychical days, could admit more than a dream. Perhaps this remark also applies to Walpole’s ‘he dreamed.’ The species of the bird is left in the vague.
Moving further from the event, to 1828, we find a book styled ‘Past Feelings Renovated,’ a reply to Dr. Hibbert’s ‘Philosophy of Apparitions.’ The anonymous author is ‘struck with the total inadequacy93 of Dr. Hibbert’s theory.’ Among his stories he quotes Wraxall’s ‘Memoirs.’ In 1783, Wraxall dined at Pitt Place, and visited ‘the bedroom where the casement94 window at which Lord Lyttelton asserted the DOVE appeared to flutter151 was pointed95 out to me.’ Now the Pitt Place document puts the vision ‘in Hill Street, Berkeley Square.’ So does Lord Westcote. Even a bird cannot be in two places at once, and the ‘Pitt Place Anonymous’ does seem to know what he is talking about. Of course Lord Lyttelton MAY have been at Pitt Place on November 24, and had his dream there. He MAY have run up to Hill Street on the 25th and delivered his speech, and MAY have returned to Pitt Place on the Friday or Saturday.152 But we have no evidence for this view; and the Pitt Place document places the vision in Hill Street. Wraxall adds that he has frequently seen a painting of bird, ghost, and Lord Lyttelton, which was executed by that nobleman’s stepmother in 1780. It was done ‘after the description given to her by the valet de chambre who attended him, to whom his master related all the circumstances.’
151 It was a ROBIN in 1779.
152 Coulton says Friday; the Anonymous says Saturday, with Lord Westcote.
Our author of 1828 next produces the narrative by Lord Lyttelton’s widow, Mrs. Peach, who was so soon deserted96. In 1828 she is ‘now alive, and resident in the south-west part of Warwickshire.’ According to Lady Lyttelton (who, of course, was not present), Lord Lyttelton had gone to bed, whether in Hill Street or Pitt Place we are not told. His candle was extinguished, when he heard ‘a noise resembling the fluttering of a bird at his chamber97 window. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw the figure of an unhappy female, whom he had seduced98 and deserted, and who, when deserted, had put a violent end to her own existence, standing99 in the aperture100 of the window from which the fluttering sound had proceeded. The form approached the foot of the bed: the room was preternaturally light; the objects in the chamber were distinctly visible. The figure pointed to a clock, and announced that Lord Lyttelton would expire AT THAT VERY HOUR (twelve o’clock) in the third day after the visitation.’
We greatly prefer, as a good old-fashioned ghost story, this version of Lady Lyttelton’s. There is no real bird, only a fluttering sound, as in the case of the Cock Lane Ghost, and many other examples. The room is ‘preternaturally light,’ as in Greek and Norse belief it should have been, and as it is in the best modern ghost stories. Moreover, we have the raison d’etre of the ghost: she had been a victim of the Chief Justice in Eyre. The touch about the clock is in good taste. We did not know all that before.
But, alas101! our author of 1828, after quoting the Pitt Place Anonymous, proceeds to tell, citing no named authority, that the ghost was that of Mrs. Amphlett, mother of the two Misses Amphlett, and of a third sister, in no way less distinguished102 than these by his lordship. Now a ghost cannot be the ghost of two different people. Moreover, Mrs. Amphlett lived (it is said) for years after. However, Mrs. Amphlett has the preference if she ‘died of grief at the precise time when the female vision appeared to his lordship,’ which makes it odd that her daughters should then have been revelling103 at Pitt Place under the chaperonage of Mrs. Flood. We are also informed (on no authority) that Lord Lyttelton ‘acknowledged’ the ghost to have been that of the injured mother of the three Misses Amphlett.
Let not the weary reader imagine that the catena of evidence ends here! His lordship’s own ghost did a separate stroke of business, though only in the commonplace character of a deathbed wraith104, or ‘veridical hallucination.’
Lord Lyttelton had a friend, we learn from ‘Past Feelings Renovated’ (1828), a friend named Miles Peter Andrews. ‘One night after Mr. Andrews had left Pitt Place and gone to Dartford,’ where he owned powder-mills, his bed-curtains were pulled open and Lord Lyttelton appeared before him in his robe de chambre and nightcap. Mr. Andrews reproached him for coming to Dartford Mills in such a guise63, at such a time of night, and, ‘turning to the other side of the bed, rang the bell, when Lord Lyttelton had disappeared.’ The house and garden were searched in vain; and about four in the afternoon a friend arrived at Dartford with tidings of his lordship’s death.
Here the reader with true common sense remarks that this second ghost, Lord Lyttelton’s own, does not appear in evidence till 1828, fifty years after date, and then in an anonymous book, on no authority. We have permitted to the reader this opportunity of exercising his acuteness, while laying a little trap for him. It is not in 1828 that Mr. Andrews’s story first appears. We first find it in December 1779 — that is, in the month following the alleged event. Mr. Andrews’s experience, and the vision of Lord Lyttelton, are both printed in ‘The Scots Magazine,’ December 1779, p. 650. The account is headed ‘A Dream,’ and yet the author avers that Lord Lyttelton was wide awake! This illustrates105 beautifully the fact on which we insist, that ‘dream’ is eighteenth-century English for ghost, vision, hallucination, or what you will.
‘Lord Lyttelton,’ says the contemporary ‘Scots Magazine,’ ‘started up from a midnight sleep on perceiving a bird fluttering near the bed-curtains, which vanished suddenly when a female spirit in white raiment presented herself’ and prophesied106 Lord Lyttelton’s death in three days. His death is attributed to convulsions while undressing.
The ‘dream’ of Mr. Andrews (according to ‘The Scots Magazine’ of December 1779)153 occurred at Dartford in Kent, on the night of November 27. It represented Lord Lyttelton drawing his bed-curtains, and saying, ‘It is all over,’ or some such words.
153 The magazine appeared at the end of December.
This Mr. Andrews had been a drysalter. He made a large fortune, owned the powder-mills at Dartford, sat in Parliament, wrote plays which had some success, and was thought a good fellow in raffish107 society. Indeed, the society was not always raffish. In ‘Notes and Queries’ (December 26, 1874) H. S. says that his mother, daughter of Sir George Prescott, often met Mr. Andrews at their house, Theobalds Park, Herts. He was extremely agreeable, and, if pressed, would tell his little anecdote of November 27, 1779.
This proof that the Andrews tale is contemporary has led us away from the description of the final scene, given in ‘Past Feelings Renovated,’ by the person who brought the news to Mr. Andrews. His version includes a trick played with the watches and clocks. All were set on half an hour; the valet secretly made the change in Lord Lyttelton’s own timepiece. His lordship thus went to bed, as he thought, at 11.30, really at eleven o’clock, as in the Pitt Place document. At about twelve o’clock, midnight, the valet rushed in among the guests, who were discussing the odd circumstances, and said that his master was at the point of death. Lord Lyttelton had kept looking at his watch, and at a quarter past twelve (by his chronometer108 and his valet’s) he remarked, ‘This mysterious lady is not a true prophetess, I find.’ The real hour was then a quarter to twelve. At about half-past twelve, by HIS watch, twelve by the real time, he asked for his physic. The valet went into the dressing-room to prepare it (to fetch a spoon by other versions), when he heard his master ‘breathing very hard.’ ‘I ran to him, and found him in the agonies of death.’
There is something rather plausible in this narrative, corresponding, as it does, with the Pitt Place document, in which the valet, finding his master in a fit, leaves him and seeks assistance, instead of lowering his head that he might breathe more easily. Like the other, this tale makes suicide a most improbable explanation of Lord Lyttelton’s death. The affair of the watches is dramatic, but not improbable in itself. A correspondent of ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’ (in 1815) only cites ‘a London paper’ as his authority. The writer of ‘Past Feelings Renovated’ (1828) adds that Mr. Andrews could never again be induced to sleep at Pitt Place, but, when visiting there, always lay at the Spread Eagle, in Epsom.
Let us now tabulate109 our results.
At Pitt Place, Epsom, or Hill Street, Berkeley Square, On November 24, Lord Lyttelton Dreamed of, or saw, A young woman and a robin. A bird which became a woman. A dove and a woman. Mrs. Amphlett (without a dove or robin). Some one else unknown.
In one variant110, a clock and a preternatural light are thrown in, with a sermon which it were superfluous111 to quote. In another we have the derangement112 of clocks and watches. Lord Lyttelton’s stepmother believed in the dove. Lady Lyttelton did without a dove, but admitted a fluttering sound.
For causes of death we have — heart disease (a newspaper), breaking of a blood-vessel (Mason), suicide (Coulton), and ‘a suffocating fit’ (Pitt Place document). The balance is in favour of a suffocating fit, and is against suicide. On the whole, if we follow the Pitt Place Anonymous (writing some time after the event, for he calls Mr. Fortescue ‘Lord Fortescue’), we may conclude that Lord Lyttelton had been ill for some time. The making of his will suggests a natural apprehension on his part, rather than a purpose of suicide. There was a lively impression of coming death on his mind, but how it was made — whether by a dream, an hallucination, or what not — there is no good evidence to show.
There is every reason to believe, on the Pitt Place evidence, combined with the making of his will, that Lord Lyttelton had really, for some time, suffered from alarming attacks of breathlessness, due to what cause physicians may conjecture113. Any one of these fits, probably, might cause death, if the obvious precaution of freeing the head and throat from encumbrances114 were neglected; and the Pitt Place document asserts that the frightened valet DID neglect it. Again, that persons under the strong conviction of approaching death will actually die is proved by many examples. Even Dr. Hibbert says that ‘no reasonable doubt can be placed on the authenticity of the narrative’ of Miss Lee’s death, ‘as it was drawn115 up by the Bishop116 of Gloucester’ (Dr. William Nicholson) ‘from the recital117 of the young lady’s father,’ Sir Charles Lee. Every one knows the tale. In a preternatural light, in a midnight chamber, Miss Lee saw a woman, who proclaimed herself Miss Lee’s dead mother, ‘and that by twelve o’clock of the day she should be with her.’ So Miss Lee died in her chair next day, on the stroke of noon, and Dr. Hibbert rather heartlessly calls this ‘a fortunate circumstance.’
The Rev5. Mr. Fison, in ‘Kamilaroi and Kurnai,’ gives, from his own experience, similar tales of death following alleged ghostly warnings, among Fijians and Australian blacks. Lord Lyttelton’s uneasiness and apprehension are conspicuous118 in all versions; his dreams had long been troubled, his health had caused him anxiety, the ‘warning’ (whatever it may have been) clinched119 the matter, and he died a perfectly120 natural death.
Mr. Coulton, omitting Walpole’s statement that he ‘looked ill,’ and never alluding121 to the Pitt Place description of his very alarming symptoms, but clinging fondly to his theory of Junius, perorates thus: ‘Not Dante, or Milton, or Shakespeare himself, could have struck forth122 a finer conception than Junius, in the pride of rank, wealth, and dignities, raised to the Council table of the sovereign he had so foully123 slandered124 — yet sick at heart and deeply stained with every profligacy125 — terminating his career by deliberate self-murder, with every accompaniment of audacious charlatanry126 that could conceal127 the crime.’
It is magnificent, it is worthy128 of Dante, or Shakespeare himself — but the conception is Mr. Coulton’s.
We do not think that we have provided what Dr. Johnson ‘liked,’ ‘evidence for the spiritual world.’ Nor have we any evidence explanatory of the precise nature of Lord Lyttelton’s hallucination. The problem of the authorship of the ‘Junius Letters’ is a malstrom into which we decline to be drawn.
But it is fair to observe that all the discrepancies129 in the story of the ‘warning’ are not more numerous, nor more at variance130 with each other, than remote hearsay131 reports of any ordinary occurrence are apt to be. And we think it is plain that, if Lord Lyttelton WAS Junius, Mr. Coulton had no right to allege53 that Junius went and hanged himself, or, in any other way, was guilty of self-murder.
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1
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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debauch
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| v.使堕落，放纵 | |
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detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bribery
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| n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿 | |
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memoirs
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| n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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vituperative
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| adj.谩骂的；斥责的 | |
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hatreds
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| n.仇恨，憎恶( hatred的名词复数 )；厌恶的事 | |
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prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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21
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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23
profligate
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| adj.行为不检的；n.放荡的人，浪子，肆意挥霍者 | |
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24
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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patrician
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| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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26
likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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organise
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| vt.组织，安排，筹办 | |
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disdained
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| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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ostrich
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| n.鸵鸟 | |
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scrupulous
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| adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的 | |
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versatility
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| n.多才多艺，多样性，多功能 | |
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32
lucrative
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| adj.赚钱的，可获利的 | |
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33
sinecure
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| n.闲差事，挂名职务 | |
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prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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38
invective
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| n.痛骂，恶意抨击 | |
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39
overflows
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| v.溢出，淹没( overflow的第三人称单数 )；充满；挤满了人；扩展出界，过度延伸 | |
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40
volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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41
lavished
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| v.过分给予，滥施( lavish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
exuded
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| v.缓慢流出，渗出，分泌出( exude的过去式和过去分词 )；流露出对（某物）的神态或感情 | |
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43
muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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44
muzzled
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| 给（狗等）戴口套( muzzle的过去式和过去分词 )； 使缄默，钳制…言论 | |
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45
wrenches
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| n.一拧( wrench的名词复数 )；（身体关节的）扭伤；扳手；（尤指离别的）悲痛v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的第三人称单数 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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46
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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47
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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48
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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49
harangue
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| n.慷慨冗长的训话，言辞激烈的讲话 | |
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50
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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51
enigma
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| n.谜，谜一样的人或事 | |
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52
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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53
allege
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| vt.宣称，申述，主张，断言 | |
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54
omen
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| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
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55
construed
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| v.解释（陈述、行为等）( construe的过去式和过去分词 )；翻译，作句法分析 | |
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56
caravan
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| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
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57
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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58
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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59
avers
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| v.断言( aver的第三人称单数 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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60
virgins
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| 处女，童男( virgin的名词复数 )； 童贞玛利亚（耶稣之母） | |
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61
strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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62
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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63
guise
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| n.外表，伪装的姿态 | |
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64
robin
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| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
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65
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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66
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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67
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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68
averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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69
queries
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| n.问题( query的名词复数 )；疑问；询问；问号v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的第三人称单数 )；询问 | |
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70
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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71
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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72
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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73
judicious
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| adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的 | |
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74
harping
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| n.反复述说 | |
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75
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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76
presumption
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| n.推测，可能性，冒昧，放肆，[法律]推定 | |
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77
apparitions
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| n.特异景象( apparition的名词复数 )；幽灵；鬼；（特异景象等的）出现 | |
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78
postulate
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| n.假定，基本条件；vt.要求，假定 | |
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79
authenticity
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| n.真实性 | |
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80
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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81
rupture
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| n.破裂；(关系的)决裂；v.(使)破裂 | |
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82
glean
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| v.收集(消息、资料、情报等) | |
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83
annihilate
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| v.使无效；毁灭；取消 | |
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84
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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85
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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86
illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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87
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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88
anonymous
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| adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的 | |
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89
suffocating
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| a.使人窒息的 | |
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90
rebuked
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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91
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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92
professes
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| 声称( profess的第三人称单数 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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93
inadequacy
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| n.无法胜任，信心不足 | |
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94
casement
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| n.竖铰链窗；窗扉 | |
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95
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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96
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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97
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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98
seduced
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| 诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷 | |
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99
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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100
aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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101
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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102
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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103
revelling
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| v.作乐( revel的现在分词 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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104
wraith
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| n.幽灵；骨瘦如柴的人 | |
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105
illustrates
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的第三人称单数 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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106
prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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107
raffish
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| adj.名誉不好的，无赖的，卑鄙的，艳俗的 | |
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108
chronometer
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| n.精密的计时器 | |
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109
tabulate
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| v.列表，排成表格式 | |
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110
variant
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| adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体 | |
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111
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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112
derangement
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| n.精神错乱 | |
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113
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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114
encumbrances
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| n.负担( encumbrance的名词复数 )；累赘；妨碍；阻碍 | |
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115
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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116
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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117
recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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118
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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119
clinched
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| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
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120
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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121
alluding
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| 提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
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122
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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123
foully
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| ad.卑鄙地 | |
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124
slandered
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| 造谣中伤( slander的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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125
profligacy
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| n.放荡，不检点，肆意挥霍 | |
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126
charlatanry
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| n.吹牛，骗子行为 | |
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127
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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128
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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129
discrepancies
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| n.差异，不符合（之处），不一致（之处）( discrepancy的名词复数 ) | |
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variance
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| n.矛盾，不同 | |
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hearsay
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| n.谣传，风闻 | |
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