2"->F, VI. 153., Dec. 4. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



447 



have left Savage some legacy, however trifling. 

 But though Mrs. Oldfield made a will in July, 

 1730, and added a codicil three months later, 

 during which time she was believed to be dying, 

 no legacy, no gift, even of a ring, appears to 

 Savage. A note to Cibhers Lives declares that 

 the statements as to her fondness for Savage and 

 her annuity "were equally ill grounded;" and 

 that " there was no foundation for them." It is 

 indeed impossible to avoid tlie conclusion that the 

 whole story was an invention, the object of which 

 was simoly to conceal the original falsehood in the 

 Life of i 727. 



The charge solemnly preferred by Johnson 

 against Mrs. Brett, that she endeavoured to pre- 

 vent Savage's receiving a pardon, and employed 

 every means " to take away his life," must cer- 

 tainly, if true, strengthen the arguments against 

 the truth of his story. The spectacle of a mother 

 endeavouring to have her own son consigned to 

 the hangman, could not have been endured by any 

 one. It must have defeated its own purpose. 

 Mrs. Brett, therefore, could only have proceeded 

 by directly asserting that he was an impostor; of 

 which, in fact, her conduct would be a strong 

 evidence. But if she were doing this at the very 

 time when her nephew, Tyrconnel, was endea- 

 vouring to procure his release, the patronage 

 of Tyrconnel — the only point in Savage's favour 

 — would be more easily explained. He must 

 then have been in direct opposition to his aunt ; 

 and, in taking up the cause of her greatest 

 enemy, must have been willing to insult her be- 

 yond hope of reconciliation. In such a case his 

 patronage of Savage could prove nothing but 

 the depth of his hatred towards her. But I 

 have not a doubt tLat the story is wholly false. 

 Though personally unwilling to purchase peace 

 by yielding to Savage's extortion, she was proba- 

 bly now aware that the steps taken by Tyrconnel 

 could alone shield her from public execration or 

 incessant persecution ; and, therefore, did not in- 

 terfere. Johnson's statement is supported by no 

 proofs ; and most likely was derived from Savage. 

 Yet in Savage's " Congratulatory Poem to Mrs. 

 Brett upon His Majesty's most Gracious Pardon," 

 this accusation is not to be found : nor is there 

 any hint of it in his " Preface" to the Miscellanies 

 published three months later ; or, in fact, in any 

 of his numerous subsequent attacks upon her. 



Lord Tyrconnel's favour appears to have been 

 of short duration. It had certainly ceased in 

 1734; and it would be natural to expect that 

 Savage, now released from his obligation to " lay 

 aside his design of exposing the cruelty of his 

 mother," would have immediately published that 

 " copious narrative of her conduct" which he had 

 long before threatened. It is not pretended that, 

 even during Tyrconnel's patronage, she had in 

 any way altered her conduct towards him. His 



irritation against her must, therefore, rather have 

 increased ; and to this would be added his open 

 enmity with Tyrconnel, whom he now insultingly 

 addressed as "ilight Honorable Brute and Booby." 

 We are told that the friends of Tyrconnel and his 

 mother " now allowed nothing to be forgotten, 

 that might make him either hateful or ridiculous." 

 Provocation,' indeed, was not wanting. According 

 to Savage's statements, Tyrconnel, after their 

 quarrel, sent hired bullies to beat him at a coffee- 

 house, and committed acts of "wanton cruelty," 

 such as " seizing what he had at his lodgings ; " 

 and we are told that their mutual accusations 

 were retorted for many years " with the utmost 

 degree of virulence and rage." 



Surely, under these circumstances, and when no 

 hope of extorting any farther favour could have 

 remained. Savage would not any longer have 

 remained silent. His claim to be the son of Mrs. 

 Brett had been denied, and no complete version 

 of his story, or any proofs of its truth, had ever 

 been put forth. This then was the time to vindi- 

 cate himself with the " copious narrative." Where 

 were the papers and "convincing original letters," 

 which he boasted of possessing in his letter to The 



Plain Dealet the letters of Lady Mason, which 



he had found in the boxes of his nurse ; or the 

 "letter" and "papers" of his godmother, Mrs. 

 Loyd, discovered by him "many years after her 

 decease?" He would hardly have suffered these 

 to be lost or destroyed. They taught him, when 

 a boy, the story of his birth, and therefore at 

 once revealed to him their value. They were his 

 title deeds to that maternal kindness which he 

 afi'ected to covet, and to that pecuniary aid for 

 which he was so clamorous. Through all the 

 poverty and vicissitudes of his earlier years, when 

 he was "without lodging" and "without meat," 

 and wi'h no home but such as "the fields or the 

 streets allowed him," he had carefully guarded and 

 preserved these precious documents, and was able 

 to produce them, if his own statements are to be 

 believed, in 1724, when twenty-six or twenty- 

 seven years of age. After this they would at all 

 events have been safe. They must, if published, 

 have established his story beyond doubt, and Cave 

 or Curll would gladly have paid for copies, — a fact 

 of no small importance to Savage. No such docu- 

 ments, however, were published ; nor have they, 

 or any copies of them, been found to this day, or 

 been seen, so far as is known, by any human being. 



Even if he had no longer these, an autobiogra- 

 phy would have been equally marketable. The only 

 existing accounts of his life were extremely meagre 

 and vague — names, dates, and places were want- 

 ing, and long periods left unaccounted for. A 

 plain outspoken narrative of his life could not 

 have failed to be deeply interesting, and to draw 

 public attention again to his case. But Savage 

 took no step ; and even in his few written words 



