THE DROPMORE PAPERS

(ADD. MSS. 58855-59494)

ROBERT A. H. SMITH

W I L L I A M W Y N D H A M , Baron Grenville (1759-1834), Prime Minister from 1806 to1807 and earlier, from 1791 to 1801, Foreign Secretary under Pitt the Younger, left onhis death over 300 portfolios of letters and papers and over 150 letter- and precis-books,the fruits of a public career of some fifty years. The Dropmore Papers, named afterGrenville's country home, were acquired by the Department of Manuscripts in 1970.The arrangement of this large collection had been started, apparently at various times,during Grenville's lifetime but remained uncompleted at his death and thereafter. Afew historians had used the papers when they were in the possession of the Fortescuefamily, but they were generally known only through the ten-volume Historical Manu-scripts Commission Report (1892-1927), almost entirely the work of one man, WalterFitzpatrick.^

J. Holland Rose once declared that he found *no striking phrase which glitters amidstthe leaden mass of [Grenville's] speeches and correspondence'.^ Grenville, a slow taciturnman, was rarely a witty or lively correspondent, but 'the leaden mass' remains both anunavoidable obstacle and an invaluable source for historians of Grenville's times. 'Fhisis partly because of Grenville's long public career, both in office and out, and theconsequent bulk and scope of material, and partly because the papers of several of hiscontemporaries, most notably those of Henry Dundas and William Pitt, have beendispersed. The Dropmore Papers supplement other collections in the Department ofManuscripts, such as the Holland House, Auckland, Rose, Wellesley, Liverpool, Fox,and Leeds papers, and, furthermore, join other Grenville family collections acquiredearlier, namely papers of his father George Grenville; of Earl Temple, Lord Grenville'suncle; and of George, Marquis of Buckingham, and Thomas, the politician and bibliophile.Lord Grenville's brothers;"^ as well as the first major Grenville collection to be acquiredby the Department (1883), the Stowe Manuscripts, the papers of the Dukes ofBuckingham.

The collection contains political and diplomatic papers, family, private, and estatematerial, general and semi-official papers and correspondence, and miscellaneousdocuments acquired by Grenville, or by others of his family, dating from 1625 to 1864.There is, however, practically nothing relating to his childhood or to the Eton andOxford stages of his life. The first nine volumes of the H.M.C. Report contained, for

75

the period from the seventeenth century to 1809, much diplomatic material, aconsiderable quantits of domestic political correspondence, and some semi-official,general, and miscellaneous documents; the standard of editing was high, judging froma study of Grenville's correspondence with the Marquis of Buckingham, Lord Wellesley,Lord Auckland, and Thomas Grenville. Many of the unpublished letters containedrnere social gossip, or bare accounts of illnesses and deaths or family matters. Letters toBuckingham when the latter was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1782-3, 1788) preservedin an entry book (Add. MS. 59407) were omitted presumably because most, if not all,had been published by Buckingham's son in his Courts and Cabinets of George III(London, 1853). ^ ^^^ errors were made; some letters were wrongly dated; a fewinteresting letters were omitted, including Tom Grenville's two letters of i and 5 August1806 concerning approaches to the Opposition (Add. MS. 58885, fols. 92-3, 94-5), andsome of the latter's correspondence of 1806-7 as First Lord of the Admiralty. TheAdmiralty material was probably overlooked because it was hidden among the generalcorrespondence for the period; it covers patronage, the purchase of stores, damagecaused by Spanish vessels off Gibraltar, the Buenos Aires expedition, the possiblecourt-martial of Admirals Popham and Stopford after its failure, and other topics, andis clearly closely related to documents now in the Huntington Library.''^ Material inother sections was overlooked: correspondence with Auckland for 1806-7 ^rid with Greyfor 1808 was also hidden in the general correspondence; the Grey material includedletters on opposition policy in December 1807/January 1808, and December 1808.^ Atleast three letters of Edmund Burke (Add. MSS. 59315, fols. 92-3: 8 June 1789; 59355,fols. 88, 89: 22, }2], Apr. 1789) the latter mentioning the Hastings trial, escaped notice,as did Grenville's letters to Burke. Nevertheless, from a survey of this limited sectionof the collection, the first nine volumes of the Report appear sound and contain a fairselection of tbe most important documents for their periods. Grenville's official andprivate correspondence with his brothers, witb the King, with statesmen like Pitt,Dundas, Wellesley, Auckland, Bedford, Windham, Fox, and Grey, with foreignambassadors like Starhemberg and Woron/ow, and with diplomats such as Lords Elgin,.\linto, Gowcr, and Bute, was well represented, and many of Grenville's political paperswere also published, covering a wide variety of subjects.

The tenth volume of the H.M.C. report was less satisfactory; it covered the period1810 to 1820, but was based to a disproportionate extent on Grenville's correspondencewith Auckland, who died in 1813, and with Grey and Tom Grenville. No letters ofGrey after 1813 were printed, although their regular correspondence continued up to1817, and the last letter from Grey is dated 1831. Omitted material included a'Memorandum made Ap 28 1814 of a Secret conversation between Lds Grey & Grenville— abt Pfrince] of W|ales] & Mrs. Fit/Herbert', concerning the difficulties likely to ariseon this subject (Add. MS. 58949, fols. 116-21). No use was made of Grenville'scorrespondence witb Lord Liverpool, with his nephews the Wynnes and the secondMarquis of Buckingham, or with members of the royal family, all of which containimportant material. The decision to end the series at 1820 meant that no material

76

relating to the Grenvilles* accession to the Government in 1822 or Grenville's subsequentrelations with the Government was reproduced. Correspondence with Canning,Robinson, Bathurst, Holland, Plunket, and others had to be omitted. Even the coverageof 1820 was incomplete, for interesting letters from Lord Elgin on the Naples Revolutionand on the course of reform in Germany were omitted (Add. MS. 59008, fols. 111-24,125-8: 6, 17, 18 July and 27 Nov. 1820). The shortcomings of the tenth volume mustnot be over emphasized. Few other H.M.C. reports cover the early nineteenth century.The conditions under which Fitzpatrick worked are not known. Fitzpatrick selected thematerial for this final volume but did not live to write an introduction; he may haveintended to cast some light on his reasons for his choice of material or even to publisha further volume. However, in the light of the high standards maintained in the earlierpublications the failings of volume ten still remain a mystery. Material for this laterperiod, especially for the period after Grenville's stroke in 1823, is not so abundant asfor earlier years, but it contains much worth publishing; further reference will be madebelow to material omitted from the tenth volume.

The H.M.C. was able to publish a proportion of Grenville's foreign papers relatingto the French Wars, to Holland, the Americas, and to the abolition of the Slave Trade;much was omitted: in addition to several Dropmore volumes concerning Britain'srelations with France, there are others relating to Austria, Russia, Prussia, Scandinavia,Italy, Spain, and Portugal (see Add. MSS. 59051-83). Other papers cover the militaryand naval campaigns, and provide information concerning the British forces during thewar (Add. MSS. 59279-85). Three volumes deal with the organization of the yeomanryand militia; the latter material relates chiefly to the organization and training of theseforces in Buckinghamshire, long the residence of, and a traditional sphere of interestfor the Grenville family (Add. MSS. 59291-3). Other volumes contain correspondencewith the War Office (1788-1809, n.d.: Add. MSS. 59286-90). Several series of papersindicate Grenville's interest in and work concerning finance and trade, the abolition ofthe Slave Trade, Church Reform and Roman Catholic affairs, and the colonies, mostnotably India and Canada. One of Grenville's major achievements was the framing andpassing of the Canada Act of 1791, and a number of documents refer to this matter(Add. MSS. 59230, 59231).

A series of 145 precis-books records in outline the correspondence of the ForeignOffice under Grenville and the Duke of Leeds for the period 1789 to 1801. Thesevolumes contain summaries of dispatches—and of some enclosures—sent to and receivedfrom Europe and America, including those relating to special missions such as that toVienna in 1793, and to peace negotiations with France. They throw further light onthe Foreign Ofi ce records of this period, earlier outlined in The Records of the ForeignOffice i782-ig3g (P.R.O. Handbook No. 13, London, 1969). James Bland Burges,appointed Under-secretary of State at the Foreign Office in August 1789, initiated ashort-lived series of precis-books covering six European countries and roughly spanningthe period from January to August 1790. The system was revived on Grenville becomingForeign Secretary in 1791. Grenville's correspondence with Burges offers no clues as

77

to why the system was revived or why the first series was abandoned. The new seriescovered the years 1791 to 1796 and included two separate sequences of in and outcorrespondence for individual countries. The surviving series is incomplete: it isdescribed as covering only France, Spain, and Prussia: the Prussian volume was in factdeposited later with the Chatham Papers. The precis-books for the period after Grenvilleleft office in iSoi form a more complete series, which suggests that some earlier volumeshud been removed at some stage.

It is now clear that Grenville transferred most of his precis-books to Dropmore. Itwas then the custom to treat such papers as private property, and most of the volumesat Dropmore and all those of the later series in the Public Record Office are labelled:'Lord Grenville. Private'. Those dating from 1789 to 1790 are inscribed 'Secretary'sOffice. l'\D.' It is not clear why a few volumes were left behind. They may have beenneeded urgently or they may have been overlooked. However, the Handbook describesthem as being in Burges's hand, while the Dropmore volumes are in several hands,including the latter's. It is possible, therefore, that Burges, who remained in office after1801, retained the books for which he had been solely responsible. Loose rough notesof \\ illiam Pitt found in Add. MS. 58178, 'Prussia 1790', make it just possible that hepassed the early volumes to Grenville. The former may possibly have had to superviseforeign affairs temporarily on the dismissal of the Duke of Leeds.

These Dropmore precis-books include, for the 1789-90 series, volumes for Holland,Prussia, and Russia, and many volumes—covering seventeen countries—for the laterseries, some of which cover the whole period from 1791 to 1801. They appear to fillmost of the gaps in the Public Record Office series. Two precis-books (Add. MSS.59220, 59221) belong to an earlier series, and perhaps represent Burges's first attemptto reorganize the I'oreign Office records, being general all-country precis-books for theold Northern and Southern sections of the department for August to December 1789.Two volumes for Austria 1797/Russia 1799 and for Holland 1799-1800 (Add. MSS.59227, 59228), are blank; another, for Italy 1798 (Add. MS. 59226), contains a fewcomments by Grenville dating from early 1809, recording his concern for Britain andthe perilous position of the British army then in Spain. Two further volumes concerningpeace negotiations at Paris and Lille (Add. MSS. 59131, 59132) were prepared ini8oi-2(?) from Foreign Office papers by H. W. W. Wynne, Grenville's nephew andsecretary, after the latter's retirement from office. Many of the later entries in theprecis-books were added by Wynne probably at this time, and Wynne also organizedthe removal of the precis-books, together with a quantity of Foreign Office papers, fromLondon to Dropmore. For convenience all the precis-books have been kept in a singleseries.'^ It appears that Fitzpatrick made no use of them.

Grenville's official and semi-official papers, other than those covering his work as aminister, relate largely to his duties as Auditor of the Exchequer, and as Chancellor ofOxford University, Governor of the Levant Company and of the London Charterhouse,and as High Steward of Bristol. Many of these papers are formal in content, largelyrelating to patronage, being correspondence with the Chief Clerks in the Audit Office,

78

the heads of Oxford colleges, and Deputy Governors of the Levant Company, togetherwith general correspondence with lesser officials relating mainly to patronage, duties,and salaries. On the other hand, they provide an outline history of the working of theseinstitutions and much incidental information about their functions, and show how, inthe case of the Audit Office and the Levant Company, mounting demands for governmentefficiency and for the abolition of archaic trade monopolies brought Grenville into closercommunication both with the institutions and the Government. Details are given ofthe reorganization of the Audit and of the winding up of the Levant Company in 1825,as part of a movement towards freer trade. Grenville's correspondence with JohnCartwright, the Levant Company's Consul General at Constantinople, and with GeorgeLiddell, the Company's Secretary, contains, moreover, much information concerningthe Greek War of Independence for the period 1821-3 (Add. MSS. 59265, 59266).

Other material, largely unpublished, covers Grenville's role as a local landowner inCornwall, Buckinghamshire, and elsewhere, and as a political and social leader in hisneighbourhood. Some reference has already been made to papers and correspondenceconcerning the Buckinghamshire yeomanry and militia. Another volume containsGrenville's election correspondence as M.P. for Buckinghamshire (1784-90), and,together with Grenville's correspondence with his brothers and nephews, and withcolleagues such as Scrope Bernard and W. H. Fremantle, provides valuable informationconcerning the Grenville interest in the county (Add. MS. 59315). Cornish correspond-ence, together with the Pitt family correspondence in this collection, provides somedetails respecting Cornish politics; correspondence relating to charities, particularlyBuckinghamshire charities (Add. MSS. 59424, 59425), indicates, along with a few lettersin the general correspondence on parochial and charity matters, another aspect oflandowners' responsibility in the nineteenth century. The bulk of the correspondenceand papers refer, however, to Grenville's property in Cornwall, Dorset, Buckinghamshire,and elsewhere: the Cornish property at Boconnoc had come to Grenville's wife Anneon the death of her brother Thomas Pitt, 2nd Lord Camelford, in 1804. Correspondencewith minor estate officials and local landowners supplements Grenville's long anddetailed correspondence with John Bowen, his steward in Cornwall (Add. MSS.59440-5). The Buckinghamshire correspondence (Add. MSS. 59446-51, 59456-67passim) consists of some correspondence with Bowen when the latter became stewardat Dropmore, with local farmers, with agents, and with attorneys, notably with Wilsonand Chisholm, Grenville's legal agents (Add. MSS. 59448, 59449). Both sets ofcorrespondence, together with miscellaneous papers concerning property scattered inLondon, Dorset, and elsewhere, contain estate deeds and accounts, details of landpurchases, mine explorations, property exchanges and improvements. An incompleteseries of Buckinghamshire house and farm account books exists for the period 1815 to1854, while other correspondence and papers cover the improvement of DropmoreHouse and its grounds. Grenville's correspondence with his bankers, Coutts & Co.,covers the years 1786 to 1832 and includes his personal correspondence with ThomasCoutts (Add. MSS. 59451-5)- A few references to Dropmore and the Grenville estates

79

after Grenville's death can also be found in letters from Thomas Grenville to LadyGrenville (see below), and further estate transactions are covered in Lord Grenville'scorrespondence with the latter (Add. MS. 58873).

Grenville was noted as a classical scholar, as a writer on economic affairs, and as acollector of books, but unlike his brothers he does not appear to have been an energeticpatron of the arts. His greatest service to history and literature was his encouragementof the efforts of his nephew, the Reverend George Neville, to decipher Samuel Pepys'sdiaries preserved at Cambridge. He deciphered some pages of the diaries himself, having,according to Samuel Rogers, 'tho' a slow man discovered the shorthand cyphers in PepysMemoirs after a fortnight's fagging at it' (Add. MS. 32566, fol. 99). Neville's letterson this subject end unfortunately in October 1818 or thereabouts with a reference tohis finding 'a young man (an Undergraduate of this University) who knows somethingof shorthand, and who is undertaking to write out Pepys diary for me' (Add. MS.58904, fols. 141-2: 24 Aug., Oct.[?] 1818). The man was John Smith, who, afterreputedly working for ten to twelve hours a day from 1819 to 1825, finally publishedthe diary in 1825.''

Like many of his aristocratic contemporaries, Grenville was keenly interested inhistory, science, and archaeology. He was a trustee of the British Museum, and, priorto the negotiations with the Government concerning the Elgin Marbles, Lord Elgindeposited five portfolios of drawings of Greek vases, architecture, and pottery atGrenville's London house. Thirty letters from Professor William Buckland, the Oxfordgeologist and later Dean of Westminster, indicate Grenville's interest in geology, and,as Chancellor of Oxford University, in the geological studies at Oxford. They also revealsomething of the progress of pre-Darwinian geology, for Buckland mentions many ofhis activities and travels over the period 1818-31. The geologist refers to meetings withHumboldt and Cuvier, to the deposit of African and Canadian geological specimens atthe British Museum, and to his lectures and writings. In one letter (20 Jan. 1822: Add.MS. 58995, fols. 87-9), Buckland outlines his work in the Kirkdale Cave in Yorkshireand the importance of the bones and teeth of mammals discovered there for the studyof the prediluvian world; his writings concerning this site were to make his name as ageologist. Buckland's deep involvement in his subject is manifest in his letters, and heclearly expected Grenville to share his interest and excitement, when, for instance, amammoth's head from Siberia was sent to him for study (ibid., fol. 82: 13 Nov. 1820).

Grenville was also known as a keen collector of maps. Ambassadors and agents abroadwere commissioned to obtain additions to his library. Only a few maps, however, werefound among the Dropmore Papers.^ They include an ink map of Smyrna and itshinterland by Major James Rennell the cartographer,^ a plan of the battle of Acre(1800),'^ a manuscript version, with two partly coloured prints, of a 'Sketch of theAction between the British and French Forces at Vimiera' (1808) by a W-M-,^^ and apublished 'Sketch of the Attack upon the French Position at Zambuiera by the Armyunder . . . Sir A. Wellesley . . .' (1808).^^ Little is known about an untitled, partlycoloured manuscript map of the concourse of the Meta, Arauca, and Orinoco rivers on

80

the Columbia-Venezuela border. ^ Military positions and fortifications are given, andthe map seems to relate to some stage of the Wars of Independence, although moreresearch is necessary before a firm date can be established. Grenville was interested inSouth America and its trade with Britain; an anonymous manuscript plan exists amonghis papers for the transfer of the Portuguese King to Brazil and the developing ofBritish interests there (Add. MS. 59285). Grenville sought to assist revolutionariescaptured and taken to Spain, and received from one, a priest called Don Jose Cortesde Madariaga, an account of his journey across South America in 1811.^* The SouthAmerican map most probably came also from the latter. Grenville's estate papers containseveral small- and large-scale plans of his estates in Buckinghamshire, while his Londonproperty papers include Robert Smirke's plan and estimate for Camelford House

Grenville acquired, through his wife, both the estates and the family papers of thePitts of Boconnoc, on the death of her brother, the 2nd Lord Camelford, in 1804.' Manyof the papers of Thomas 'Diamond' Pitt of Madras, and of his heirs, including corre-spondence of Thomas Pitt with Dr. Ayscough, the parliamentary agent of the Prince ofWales, and Anne Pitt's correspondence with Bolingbroke, Lord Chesterfield, Horace Wal-pole, and others, have been published by the H.M.C. There remain unpublished somepapers of Robert Pitt, Diamond Pitt's son, and the personal, political, and estate corre-spondence and papers of Thomas Pitt, ist Lord Camelford, Lord Grenville's brother-in-law. Further material relates to the career and political interests of the 2nd Lord Camel-ford, a violent, unstable man whose temperament and addiction to swordplay jeopardizedhis naval career and led to his early death in a duel. Grenville was in the unenviableposition of having to act in Camelford's interest, in trying to soothe the latter's superiors,supporting his harassed family, and trying to keep Camelford out of prison.

Other correspondence series largely omitted from the published volumes includecorrespondence with bishops, such as Bishop Moss of Oxford, Bishop Tomline ofLincoln, and Bishop Cleaver of St. Asaph, and correspondence with emigres, such asHendrik Fagel, the Duke of Orleans, the Count of Artois, and Sir Francis d'lvernois.Scattered throughout the collection are letters from well-known personalities; theseinclude the reformers Major John Cartwright, Thomas Attwood and William Cobbett,Tom Moore, Sir Joseph Banks, Robert Fulton the submarine inventor, Humphry Repton,John TrumbuU and Sir Thomas Lawrence the painters, John Flaxman the sculptor,Joseph Lancaster, Matthew Boulton, J. R. McCulloch, and Sir Humphrey Davy. Onesignature of interest is that of Richard Abbey of 'Pancrass Lane', the city merchantwho acted as guardian to John Keats. His signature appears among those of citymerchants and others on a petition of 1818 to Grenville as Auditor of the Exchequerto obtain an Exchequer post for an employee of a firm of London furriers (Add. MS.59278, fol. 60). Of an earlier date is a letter from Charles I to Prince Rupert, dated 3September 1644 and written at Boconnoc after Charles's victory over Essex at Lostwithiel:'God's Protection of a just Cause, was never more apparent then at this time . . . Goringis now hemming in the Rebels Horse, which broke from us . . .'.

81

Tbe letter, now Add. MS. 59438, fol. 59, calendared by the H.M.C. (2nd Report1871, p. 49) and printed in full in S. R. Gardiner (ed.). The Fortescue Papers (London,1871, p. 218), supplements other letters of Charles I to Prince Rupert already in theDepartment (for instance. Add. MS. 18983 passim). It was probably purchased byGrenville, presumably because of its links with Boconnoc, a much-loved home of theGrcnvillcs in C-ornwall, and at one time the seat of the Pitt family, his wife's ancestors.

Other miscellaneous material in the Dropmore Papers includes copies, in differenthands, of seventeenth-century letters, the majority from Thomas Wentworth, Earl ofStrafford, to his cousin Sir George Radcliffe (Add. MS. 59438, fols. 1-54). These letters,some of which were sold at Sotheby's in 1888, were first published—with others whichwere not copied —in 1810 by the Revd. T. D. Whitaker of Whalley, Lancashire, whenthey were in the possession of the Elmsall Family {The Life and Original Correspondenceof Sir George Radcliffe). These manuscript copies, however, almost certainly date frombefore 1810; some, in the hand of William Cleaver, Bishop of Chester, and a friend ofthe Grenville family, bear watermarks dated 1794; others, in two unknown hands, havewatermarks dated 1798 and 1799. These copies contain minor variations from Whitaker'stext, and bear endorsements not in Whitaker. It seems likely that the Dropmore copiesare more accurate versions of the originals (though this cannot be ascertained definitelyin the latter's absence), which were in circulation, in manuscript at least, before\\ hitaker's publication.

A few other individual items in tbis collection merit special attention. Grenville'scolonial papers contain a copy of'A Journal of Observations made on a journey inlandfrom Prince of Wales's Fort . . .' from December 1770 to June 1772 by Samuel Hearne,an official of the Hudson's Bay Company, whose Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort. . . to the Northern Oceun^ (London, 1795) was based on his travel journals for 1769-72.Published posthumously, this latter work originated in Hearne's desire to correct errorsin the texts of copies and extracts from his manuscript journals, circulating at the timeamong several 'learned and curious gentlemen'. Grenville and his brother the Marquisof Buckingham were clearly among these men. The original journal or journals havedisappeared and Buckingham's copy (Stowe MS. 307, fols. 67 ff.), and a transcript inthe Ottawa archives, were believed to be the sole surviving texts. Add. MS. 59237,apparently in the hand of Charles Goddard, one time secretary to Grenville, appearsidentical to the Stowe MS., save for some differences in punctuation; it is undated butwas probably copied out in the early 1790s when Goddard was employed by Grenville,most likely at about the same time as Stowe MS 307, which is dated 1791. Grenvillewas then closely involved with Canadian affairs and may well have had easy access toa copy of the journal. Other Canadian items of interest include an anonymous accountof 'Further Possible Advantages of a North-West Communication with the PacificOcean' (Add. MS. 59235, n.d. but after 1788) and the 'Original Memoir fronn CaptainSimcoe respecting the conquest of Canada from Fr'ance in 1760—with observations onthe present state of that Country' (Add. MS. 59236), given by Simcoe to Grenville in1790.

82

Another travel diary records the impressive feat of George Forster of the East IndiaCompany in travelling overland from Jumboo in Hindustan to Astrakhan in 1783-4(Add. MS. 59248). Grenville wrote on this work 'W. W. G. 1785. Given me by Mr.Forster'. It is a list of the places visited, with dates and distances and brief referencesto the topography. Forster's A Journey from Bengal to England (2 vols., London, 1798)is clearly based on the same source as Add. MS. 59248, but the entries are much fuller,and there are discrepancies in the dating and distances. Details given in the manuscriptwere omitted in the published Journey^ and one or two visits to places are mentioned inthe latter but not in the former. A section relating to Forster's stay in Kabul(August-October 1783) in the printed work bears little relation to the manuscript text;the former seems in places either corrupt or hastily revised, but the existence of anotherversion of Add. MS. 59248 in the Banks Papers (Add. MS. 33977, fols. 260-2) makesit clear that the two copiers could have been responsible for some discrepancies. Whileboth manuscripts are essentially the same, each omits some material found in the otherand both differ occasionally in layout and punctuation.

Several items in the collection relate to the French Wars, the background to muchof Grenville's public career. His nephew. Lord John Proby, saw service in Spain underSir John Moore, and a copy of a letter to his father Lord Carysfort, written at Corunnain January 1809 (Add. MS. 58893, fols. 95-6), gives a vivid picture of the British retreatbefore superior French forces:

I do not think that we have left behind less than 5000 men. We have been under the Necessityof destroying tiie greater part of our Ammunition from the total Failure of the Means ofConveyance, much of our Baggage and some of our Money has been abandoned from the samecause, and we have lost by Fatigue upwards of two thirds of the Horses of the Cavalry. Englishmenare not capable of bearing all at once the Fatigues which this Army has undergone. We havemarched constantly from 25 to 30 Miles a day frequently without Provisions up to our Kneesin Mud, without Shoes, and exposed to constant Rains.

Proby added, however, that 'Both Officers and Soldiers have given Way every whereexcept before the Enemy, they cannot boast of having driven an English Soldier a singleInch in Action'. He was to survive this retreat, unlike Moore, but letters like this maywell have confirmed the Grenvilles in their stubborn opposition to British action inSpain. Another relative. Lord Nugent, visited Paris in April 1814, before the HundredDays, and in a letter (Add. MS. 58900, fol. 27 ff.), describes the mood of the French:they now condemned Napoleon, whereas they had lauded him a few months earlier;they sought to forget the past, but had no sense of their humiliation and loss, and weresurprisingly unenthusiastic about the Restoration. Nugent observed Monsieur's firstreview of the national guard at the Tuileries:

If ever one is to expect a burst of spontaneous feeling, surely it must be at such a scene atsuch a moment—Not at all. The cries of Vive le Roy' seemed the mere mechanical effusions ofmouth hommagc and the Emperors of Austria and of Russia were received by them with asmuch attention as the representative and Brother of their restored monarch.

83

(-learly Napoleon's return would meet little opposition. In the meantime a distantrelative, midshipman George Sidney Smith of the Undaunted, had the honour of waitingupon Napoleon at Saint Rafael, to ferry him to this vessel prior to his journey to exileon Elba. A letter to his uncle. Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, and an extract from one tohis sister copied in the hand of Charles Douglas Smith, refer to the voyage (Add. MSS.58980, fol. 172; 59004, fols. 130 3: I June, 8 July 1814). Two sketches of Napoleonsupposedly sent to the Admiral are unfortunately missing. Napoleon was shown duerespect—a stage or jetty was erected for him at Saint Rafael, and Smith picked up thepebbles where Napoleon took what he believed to be his last steps on French soil—butSmith was hostile to 'Mr. Boney', refused to be his aide-de-camp, and ate with himonly once; this animosity arose from Smith having been imprisoned in France for anumber of years. His account of Napoleon is therefore disappointingly meagre,mentioning little beyond a picture of Napoleon at High Mass on his arrival at Elba 'onhis knees the whole time looking as meek as a lamb his hands joined and his eyes in theair', and a reference to his telling Smith that 'he cared little for Sidney at Acre as hefired very badly. I told him Sir Sidney said the same of him'.

Bonaparte himself later showed more civility as a host, when meeting yet anotherrelative of Grenville's, Viscount Ebrington, on Elba. A record of his two visits toNapoleon in December 1814 was published in 1823. Ebrington sent a manuscript copyto Grenville via Lord Holland in 1815; this is no longer in the collection but anothermanuscript version is preserved in the Holland House Papers (Add. MS. 51525).Frederick Douglas, son of Lord Glenbervie, also visited Napoleon on Elba. No accountof this interview seems to have been published, though a manuscript report may wellbe preserved in some other archive, but 'the substance [of the conversation], preservingthe principal words of each passage' survives in a letter to Grenville from BenjaminGarlike who, presumably, had seen a transcription. On this occasion Napoleon mocksthe Pope, brands Metternich a habitual liar, and stresses the 'faussete' of Czar Alexander.He displays a keen interest in foreign affairs and in the fate of the Bourbons, only todismiss such subjects as being no longer his concern with the words: 'je suis mort'.Douglas depicts him as being poor and slovenly in appearance, the French Governmentneglecting to pay his pension. The conversation appears genuine, although the accuracyof this version can only be tested by comparison with a full report, if one survives (Add.MS. 59018, fols. 207-10, Garlike to Grenville: 4 Feb. [1815]). Garlike certainly seemsto suggest that a version, printed or otherwise, was then in circulation (ibid., foL 207),

A small number of family letters refers to the Grenville family's fortunes afterGrenville's death. There are two volumes of letters from Thomas Grenville to LadyGrenville for the period 1807 to 1846, the year of Tom Grenville's death. Among muchdomestic and social trivia are references to Lady Grenville's financial problems and(Add. MS. 58903, fols. 3-4: 3 Feb. 1836) to an abortive scheme to publish Grenville'sspeeches, with a short memoir. Tom Grenville is shown to be a lover of travel, visitingdistant relatives and friends regularly until past his 90th birthday. He was an early ifunlucky patron of railways; in October 1838 he 'went from Worsley to see Liverpool

by Railroad and found the passage as easy and the sight as dazzling and disagreeableto the eyes as I expected; but I was obliged by the hour to return by a 2*' class, thedelays of which were bad enough, but the noise and clatter and roughness of what theycalled an old train were still much worse' (ibid., fol. 74). Worse was to follow inSeptember 1841, when Grenville travelled to Trentham:

I suppose that the height of my carriage makes it unfit for the Rail-Road, for tho' I saw itvery tightly strapped down, it oscillated so much as to be quite intolerable, and I saw thatMorgan on the box could scarcely keep himself within it. At the first station of Tring thereforeI quitted my own carriage and got into that of the Train, leaving my seat to Morgan.

The master of the unfortunate Morgan had further problems, for though his seatwas 'steady and comfortable' and his four companions were 'very gentlemanlike men',the hot weather had caused them to open 'every possible access to air' and the draughtwas such that 'in ten minutes I had a violent cold in my head, which still in somedegree hangs upon me' (ibid., fols. ioo-i).

Other late letters of Thomas Grenville, like Grenville a trustee of the British Museum,refer briefly to meetings with Panizzi, the Keeper of Printed Books. The Museum'sacquisition in 1847 of Thomas Grenville's magnificent library was largely due toGrenville's friendship with Panizzi, for Grenville's low opinion of his fellow trusteeshad meant that the fate of his library was long in doubt. Panizzi was informed of thefinal decision on 2 November 1845; a bitterly disappointed nephew, the Duke ofBuckingham, had been told a few days earlier, and Lady Grenville's copies of this letterand Thomas's reply to Buckingham's, the latter unfortunately not in the collection, arenow in Add. MS. 58904 (fols. 171-2, 173-4: 25, 29 Oct. 1845).'''

A few letters hint at the troubles which were soon to affect the Grenville family; in 1847the second Duke of Buckingham was declared a bankrupt, and his son was obliged toendeavour to recover the family fortunes. ^ In the most recent-dated letter in thecollection the latter told Lady Grenville that:

I can never forget that you were the first and I might almost add the only one of my familywho in 1847 came forward to give us substantial assistance, and that it was by your kindnesswith regard to your annuity that I was enabled to keep my dear Mother so comfortably atWotton through the first sad time of our troubles (Add. MS. 58904, fols. 185-6: 14 Mar. 1864).

The great sales of property, fittings, books, papers, and pictures that followed theBuckingham bankruptcy were not repeated at Dropmore. Lady Grenville had not thewealth, possessions, or pretensions of her nephews and great-nephews and faced nosuch dramatic change in her financial fortunes. She had no direct heirs to quarrel over,divide, or burn Lord Grenville's papers; they passed to her relatives, the Fortescues,after her death in 1864. This family was to retain the possession of the papers for overa century. Some material was disposed of Some Pitt material was sold to the BritishMuseum in 1859,^^ and the Fortescue State Papers, part of the Pitt property, werepresented to the Bodleian Library in 1872.^^ After Fitzpatrick's inspections, moreover,other researchers were to disturb Grenville's arrangements to some extent. However,

8s

the bulk of the collection was to remain little known and generally well kept in Grenville'sportfolios and books, well preserved in an isolation as gratifying to present-day archivistsand scholars as it was galling for past historians. It is as a consequence at once bothan important record of the career of a leading statesman of the past, and a major sourcefor the history of the period of the French Wars and their aftermath.

Synopsis of tbe Dropmore PapersA. Royal Correspondence {58855-72)

B. Family Correspondence {58873 905)

C. Special ofHcial correspondence (58906-9050)

D. General official correspondence {59051-410):Foreign and diplomatic correspondence and papers (59051-83)Precis-books (59084-228)F"oreign Office letters and papers (59229)Colonial correspondence and papers (59230-50)Correspondence and papers relating to Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, and

Orkneys {59251-63)Roman Catholic affairs (59264)Correspondence as Governor of the Levant Company (59265-7)Correspondence as Auditor of the Exchequer (59268-78)Military and naval letters and papers {59279-94)Finance, Commerce and Trade {59295-304)Miscellaneous political correspondence and papers (59305-53)General Correspondence {59354-410)

I',. Semi-official correspondence and papers {59411-25):Correspondence as Chancellor of Oxford {59411-9) ^Correspondence as High Steward of Bristol {59420)London (Charter House; Trinity House Deptford {59421-3)Miscellaneous charities {59424, 59425)

F. Miscellaneous correspondence and papers, chiefly literary {59426-39)

G. Estate correspondence, books, and papers (59440-78)

H. Papers of the Pitt family of Boconnoc {59479-94)

See also Dropmore charters. Add. Ch. 75794-808: miscellaneous appointments, property leases,and financial documents, 1788-1833.

86

1 Report on the manuscripts ofj. B. Eortescue, Esq.,preserved at Dropmore, ro vols., Historical Manu-scripts Commission (1892-1927). One workbased in part on the Dropmore archive isBradford Perkins, The Eirst Rapprochement:England and the United States i/gs-j8os (Phila-delphia, 1955).

2 J. Holland Rose, Life of William Pitt, 2 vols.(London, 1923), vol. i, p. 281.

3 Add. MSS. 42083-8, 57804-37 (Papers ofGeorge Grenville); 40177-733 (Letter-booksof the ist Marquis of Buckingham); 34472,41851-9, 42058 (Thomas Grenville Papers). TheDropmore Papers also supplement papers ofLord Grenville already in the Department ofManuscripts, for instance, Add. MSS. 36808-10,36813 (Grenvilbe-Bute), and 39841-2 (Grenville-Starhemberg letters). The Dropmore Papers infact include some of Pitt's papers. A large numberof letters to Pitt and his secretary containing sug-gestions for taxes, ciating from 1804 to 1806, weregiven to Grenville by the Bishop of Lincoln, Pitt'sbiographer (Add. MSS. 59318-20). The largestof all Grenville archives is the Stowe Collectionin the Huntington Library {c. 525,000 pieces).For Pitt see also John Ehrman, The Younger Pitt(London, 1969), and J. Holland Rose, op. cit.

4 The Stowe Collection holds 2,500 Admiraltypapers dating from this period: Jean Preston,'Collections of English Historical Manuscripts inthe Huntington Library', Archives, vi, (1963),p. 99. See also Hardin Craig jun., 'The FirstLord opens his mail. Thomas Grenville andhis personnel problems at the Admiralty1806-1807', Huntington Library Quarterly,xxxiii, no. 2 (1970), pp. 175-86. See also Add.MSS. 41851-9.

5 Add. MS. 58947, fols. 63-9, 71-5, 100-6,107-11.6 Add. MSS. 59084-228.7 For the history of the transcription and publica-

tion of the diary see R. C. Latham and W.Matthews (ed.). The Diary of Samuel Pepys, vol. i(London, 1973)- The Dropmore Papers make itclear that George Neville found Smith, and showthat it is possible that Smith began work in 1818,some months earlier than previously believed tobe the case.

8 A number were sold at the Sotheby DropmoreSale, held on 18-20 Mar. 1969.

9 Enclosed in a letter from Rennell to Grenville,27 Jan. 1810 (Add. MS. 58996, fol. 99).

10 Add. MS. 59032, fols. 29-30.11 Add. MS. 59283A, B. These documents were

enclosed in a letter from W. Wickham to Gren-ville, 5 Nov. 1808 (Add. MS. 59013, fols. 197-200). The colour prints appear to be early maplithographs, similar to a map auctioned atSotheby's, 13 July 1976, 491.

12 Add. MS. 59282B; enclosed in a letter fromWickham to Grenville, 14 Oct. 1808 (Add. MS.59013, fols. 195-6).

13 Add. MS. 59284.14 Add. MSS. 59285, 59079 (Madariaga); for

Madariaga also see Add. MS. 58913, fols. i i o -11: Grenville to Wellesley, 11 Jan. 1813; the'Diario y Observaciones) of his travels fromSanta Fe to Caracas was published by him inCaracas in 1811.

15 Add. MS. 59471.16 Add. MSS. 59479-94. Other Pitt family papers

were acquired in 1859 (Add. MSS. 22842-56).17 For the history of the Grenville Library, see also

Edward Miller, That Noble Cabinet, (London,i973)> PP- 163-6; Add. MS. 47458A (11 lettersof Thomas Grenville concerning the dispositionof his library 1838-46); and Add. MS. 45498V(letters of Thomas Grenville to Philip Bliss, etc.,concerning the library, 1842-7).

r8 For the later history of the Grenvilles see James J.Sack, The Decline of the Grenville Factionunder the First Duke of Buckingham andChandos 1817-1829', The Journal of BritishStudies, XV, no. i. (Nov. 1975), pp. 112-34;F. B. Heath, 'The Grenvilles in the Nineteenthcentury: the Emergence of Commercial Affilia-tions', Huntington Library Quarterly, xxv no. i(1961), pp. 29-49; David and Kileen Spring, 'TheFall of the Grenvilles, 1844-1848', HuntingtonLibrary Quarterly, xix, (Feb. 1956), pp. 165-90.

19 See note 16.20 Now Bodleian, Add. D.109-12. Sec F. Madan,

Summary Catalogue of Western MSS in theBodleian Library, vol. v (Oxford, 1905),PP- 544-5-