Hervey’s Memoirs as Autobiography

Abstract

Hervey's Memoirs as Autobiography* Robert Halsband A.PPLIED TO A LITERARY GENRE, "memoirs” is a fairly am­ biguous term; its meaning ranges from (at one extreme) a firstperson diary or journal to (at the other extreme) an impersonal historical chronicle or even an ordinary biography written in the third person. It need not even be a factual account; the memoirs popular in France at the end of the seventeenth century are some­ times a mixture of fact and fiction—the best-known are the memoirs of Comte de Gramont by his brother-in-law Anthony Hamilton, published in 1713. Hervey’s memoirs, the subject of this paper, fall under one definition of the term current since 1659—"a record of events, a history treating of matters from the personal knowledge of the writer or with reference to particular sources of informa­ tion” (OED). By separating the three main elements in Hervey— the historical, the biographical, and the autobiographical—we can see more clearly their limits and interrelation. Hervey modestly entitled his work not memoirs but Some Mate­ rials Towards Memoirs of the Reign of King George ll. Why did he bother to compile these "materials”? In 1730, when he was an M.P. supporting Sir Robert Walpole’s ministry, he was appointed Vice-Chamberlain of the King’s Household. This court post, even though its duties were shared by the Lord Chamberlain, was no sinecure. He (or the Lord Chamberlain) had to be in residence all year round to supervise such functions as receptions for ambas­ sadors and royal visitors, celebrations of birthdays and anniversa­ * Several passages of this essay have been extracted from my biography Lord Hervey: Eighteenth-Century Courtier, to be published in 1973. 183 Racism in the Eighteenth Century ries, balls, concerts, Drawing-Room assemblies (held twice a week during the London season), and Royal marriages and funerals. He also had the duty of assigning, repairing, and furnishing lodgings at Court. When the Court moved, as it frequently did, between the palaces at St. James’s, Kensington, Windsor, Richmond, Hampton, and Kew, he had to assign servants, transportation, and lodgings; and if disputes arose among attendants and servants as to their duties or perquisites he had to arbitrate. Although the Lord Cham­ berlain’s secretary and two clerks no doubt took on the routine tasks, the work was still continuous and confining, as Hervey often complained to his friends and family. While he occupied the post for ten years (giving it up when he was advanced to the far more elevated and profitable one of Lord Privy Seal) he was in the most favored position to gather "materials” for his memoirs. He was in close and frequent contact with the Royal family, and he had ac­ cess to the King and Queen in what he calls "their private and leisure hours.” He had no need to look through a keyhole, some­ one has said, because he was inside the room itself. He did not begin to write his memoirs at this time, but three or four years later—in 1733 or 1734. What was the reason? In the spring of 1733 he was called up to the House of Lords because the King wished to reward him for his loyalty, and Walpole wished to strengthen his supporters among the Lords, several of whom (notably Chesterfield) had defected to the Opposition because of the Excise Bill. Hervey confesses (in the memoirs) that his "pride and vanity were fed with the air of being called out of the whole House of Commons upon this occasion.” It must have seemed the portentously dazzling moment for him to gather his "mate­ rials.” Or it is possible that the publication in February 1734 of the second volume of Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time^ a work which Hervey discusses, stimulated him to begin his own, or spurred him on if he had already begun. Quite logically he begins his memoirs by explaining why he is well qualified to undertake such a work: "Boasting of intelligence and professing impartiality are such worn-out prefaces to writings of this kind, that I shall not trouble my readers nor myself with any...