mberlain,
carried to the Duchess a verbal message not to come to Court; whereupon
she sat down and wrote a letter for him to take to his Majesty. "The
Duchess of Queensberry," so ran her reply, "is surprised and well
pleased that the King hath given her so agreeable a command as to stay
from Court, where she never came for diversion, but to bestow a great
civility on the King and Queen; she hopes by such an unprecedented order
as this is, that the King will see as few as he wishes at his Court,
particularly such as are to think or speak truth. I dare not do
otherwise, and ought not, nor could have imagined that it would not have
been the very highest compliment that I could possibly pay the King to
endeavour to support truth and innocence in his house, particularly when
the King and Queen both told me that they had not read Mr. Gay's play. I
have certainly done right, then, to stand by my own words rather than
his Grace of Grafton's, who hath neither made use of truth, judgment,
nor honour, through this whole affair, either for himself or his
friends."[8] Stanhope read this, and begged the Duchess to reflect
before sending it. She consented to write another letter, did so, and
handed it to him. He chose the first. The Duke of Queensberry supported
his wife, and although the King pressed him to remain, resigned his
office of Admiral of Scotland--though Gay wrote to Swift,[9] "this he
would have done, if the Duchess had not met with this treatment, upon
account of ill-usage from the Ministers," and that this incident
"hastened him in what he had determined." The affair created an immense
sensation in Court circles. "The Duchess of Queensberry is still the
talk of the town. She is going to Scotland," Mrs. Pendarves wrote to
Mrs. Anne Granville, March 14th, 1729.... "My Lady Hervey told her the
other day that 'now she was banished, the Court had lost its chief
ornament,' the Duchess replied, 'I am entirely of your mind.' It is
thought my Lady Hervey spoke to her with a sneer, if so, her Grace's
answer was a very good one."[10]

One of the immediate results of the campaign was that the apartments
that had been granted to Gay in Whitehall, which belonged to the Crown,
had, by order, to be surrendered. On the other hand, two large editions,
amounting to 10,500 copies, of "Polly, An Opera: being the Second Part
of 'The Beggar's Opera.' Written by Mr. Gay. With the Songs and Basses
engraved on Copper-plates," were printed in 172