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FROM CONWAY 14 MAY 1740 OS 61

sure. Monsieur Donep12 who is come to fetch her is called the Man here. I mention this only to introduce a stroke of Lady Town­ shend's.^ She asked a gentleman if that was the man that was to put it into the ;—she meant his leg.1^ But by the by nobody did for she was married only by contract14 and the Duke15 was proxy; all the lords and counsellors signed it; you understand me, I mean Privy ones.1^ You must have heard before this time that the of Argyle is turned out;16 and a furious fury he's in as you may imagine: he came to Court and had audiences of the and all sorts of things, but upon his refusing the command the King offered him which was that of one camp and insisting upon a general command he was turned out. This happening just at this juncture gives occasion to a ridiculous story. They say the King came to Sir Rob[ert] and said, 'Let me go to Hanover'; and he said no, he could not, and the King said Tray do,' and he said no; in short, after entreating a great while in vain, the King said, Til turn out the Duke of Argyle if you'll let me go,' so he said, 'Well, then you may, but 't stay long.' All this passing in the of a boy's asking to go to mictum is mighty foolish. The Duchess of Argyle17

12. August Moritz von Donop (ca 1694- procurator for his Serene , the 1762), Hessian army officer and diploma­ Princess Mary and the Duke of Cum­ tist (Genealog. hist. Nachrichten, 1763-4berlan, d both signed the contract in the 3d ser. ii. 509-10; Repertorium der diplo- Chapel Royal. After which his matischen Vertreter aller Lander, Vol. IIth, e Archbishop of Canterbury read his ed. Friedrich Hausmann, Zurich, 1950, pp. 's assent to the aforesaid con­ 181, 185, 187, 374). He had been expected in tract, which was in ' (Daily Adv. 10 since mid-March, but did not ar­ May). rive until 2 May (Common Sense, 15 15. William (1721-65), cr. March 1740 OS, which spells his name (1726) D. of Cumberland. 'Donness'; Daily Adv. 5 May). 15a. That is, all who had been sworn of 13. Etheldreda (or Audrey) Harrison the Privy Council. (ca 1708-88), m. (1723) Charles Town­ 16. Argyll's increasing opposition had shend, 3d Vet Townshend; HW's friend culminated in a violent attack on the and occasional correspondent. ministry during the debate on the state 13a. An allusion to an apocryphal ac­ of the nation 15 April 1740 OS; his count of the marriage of Henry VIII and speech was printed soon afterwards in Anne of Cleves, according to which the The Conduct of . . . the D-ke of Ar-le King's proxy symbolically consummated for the Four Last Years Reviewed, 1740, the match by putting his leg into bed pp. 33-57, and reprinted in Robert Camp­ with Anne. See post 20 Aug. 1775, n. 15. bell, Life of . . . John, Duke of Argyle, 14. 'His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, 1745. PP- 325-38. On the 25th he de­ one of his Majesty's principal secretaries manded a general command but instead of state, read the marriage contract be­ was dismissed from all his posts on or tween her the Princess about 30 April OS (BM Add. MSS 32693, Mary, and his the ff. 232, 249). of Hesse, which was in writing; his Royal 17. Jane Warburton (ca 1683-1767), m. Highness the Duke of Cumberland being (1717) John Campbell, 2d D. of ATgyll.