Nov 20, 2014 - Sale 2367

Sale 2367 - Lot 290

Price Realized: $ 3,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
"THE SECRET EXPEDITION . . . AGAINST ROCHFORT . . . HAS TAKEN . . . AIX" WALPOLE, HORACE. Autograph Letter Signed, "HWalpole," to George Selwyn ("Dear Sir"), expressing disappointment that he was unable to meet, expressing anxiety caused by his cousin's involvement in a secret attack upon Rochefort, and arranging to meet. 1 1/2 pages, 8vo, with integral blank; date correction noted in another hand at upper right of first page, minor bleed-through, scattered faint foxing. "Strawberry Hill" [London], "Thursday" [6 October 1757]
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"It was impossible for me to get to town on Monday night; and I was as sorry to find you are gone on Tuesday. . . . [A]n account is come that the secret expedition, which now appears was against Rochfort, has taken the little Isle of Aix which lies just before it. As this is all we know yet, and as the enterprise is of so desperate a nature, you may imagine what pain I am in for Mr Conway, and how little I can think of amusing myself, unless I hear he is safe. If I am so happy as to know that before Monday, I shall certainly set out . . . ."
Henry Seymour Conway (1721-1795) was Walpole's cousin, and a deputy to commander Mordaunt in a secret expedition to capture the French port of Rochefort during the Seven Years' War. Conway returned safely to England soon after the writing of this letter, where he was greeted by an uproar of critics blaming him for the expedition's failure.
Published in the Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, vol. XXX.