HISTORY OF THE

[ADDITIONAL NOTES.

lvi #

who are supposed to be “ hov’ring o’er” with “ purple wings displayed,” they are invoked to descend,and take part in the Ceremonial. Sir Robert Walpole himself is thus introduced :

“ See, Britain! see thy Walpole shine from far,

His azure Ribbon and his radiant Star:

A Star that, with auspicious beams, shall guideThy vessel safe thro’ Fortune’s roughest tide.”

Alluding to Sir Robert Walpole’s having surrendered the Order of the Bath for the Garter, the Poetsays,

“ One glory shed, a brighter is display’d,

And the charm’d Muses shelter in the shade.”

And to his being only a Commoner when Elected:

“ Custom the Garter long confin’d to few,

And gave to birth, exalted virtue’s due :

Walpole has thrown the proud inclosure down,

And high Desert embraces fair Renown.

Tho’ rivall’d, let the Peerage smiling see(Smiling injustice to their own decree)

This proud reward of Majesty bestow’d,

On worth like that whence first the Peerage flow’d.”

Order being made, in Sir Robert Walpole’s case, the reward of Civil services, is

“ Proud Chiefs, alone in fields of slaughter fam’d,

Of old this azure bloom of glory claim’d;

As when stern Ajax pour’d a purple flood,

The violet rose, fair daughter of his blood.

Now rival Wisdom dares the wreath divide,

And both Minervas rise in equal pride,

Proclaiming loud, a Monarch fills the throne,

Who shines illustrious not in wars alone.”

The fact of thehappily noticed:

P. 287. Earl Temple. —Some remarkable Letters respecting Earl Temple’s application for theGarter, in September 1758, and his brother-in-law, Mr. Pitt’s conduct in consequence of King Georgethe Second’s refusal to confer it upon that Nobleman, are printed in the “ Correspondence of the Earlof Chatham,” vol. I. pp. 360 to 364, 433 to 439.

P. 291. The Election of the Dukes of Richmond and Devonshire, and of the Earl of Shelburne,is particularly noticed in Wraxall’s Memoirs of his Own Time, vol. II. pp. 195, 196.

P. 304. Marquess of Wellington. —Letters from the Marquess of Wellington, on the subjectof his Election, will be found in His Grace’s Dispatches, vol. X. pp. 370, 371 ; and see the Historyof the Order of the Bath, pp. 121 et seq.