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Donkey milk knowledge archive · Historical source
The Duchess of Marlborough’s “Opinions” (1788): Lord Hervey and his asses’ milk diet
In 1788 extracts from the notes of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, were published. In a footnote the editor explains that Lord Hervey, because of his epilepsy, lived on nothing but asses’ milk and biscuit every day – and that Pope mocked him for it.
- Author
- Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (1660–1744); anonymous editor, attributed to Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes (1726–1792)
- Work
- The Opinions of Sarah Duchess-Dowager of Marlborough. Published from original MSS., 1788
- Passage
- Section “Lord Hervey” (dated 1737), pp. 42–43, with the editor’s footnote on p. 43
- Time & place
- 1788 (the Duchess’s notes 1736/37–1741/42) · no place of printing; Edinburgh according to the library catalogue
- Type of source
- Memoir extracts with editor’s notes
In the original words
What the original says
His daily food was a small quantity of asses milk and a flour biscuit: once a-week he indulged himself with eating an apple: he used emetics daily.
His daily food [according to the editor] was a small quantity of asses’ milk and a flour biscuit; once a week he treated himself to an apple; he took emetics daily.
Pope, knowing the abstemious regimen which Lord Hervey observed, was so ungenerous as to call him “a mere cheese-curd of asses milk.”
Pope, who knew the abstemious regimen Lord Hervey followed, was so ungenerous as to call him “a mere cheese-curd of asses’ milk”.
He has certainly parts and wit, but is the most wretched, profligate man that ever was born, besides ridiculous; a painted face, and not a tooth in his head
He certainly has ability and wit, but is the most wretched, profligate man ever born, ridiculous besides: a painted face and not a tooth in his head.
English rendering: our own translation by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, following the sense of the text.
A look at the original
What the passage looks like
Page 43 of “The Opinions of Sarah Duchess-Dowager of Marlborough” (1788): in the footnote below, the editor describes Lord Hervey’s diet of asses’ milk and biscuit.
The page comes from a freely accessible digitised copy. Click to open the passage at the library.
Boston Public Library, Digitalisat via Internet Archive; Vorlage gemeinfrei
Background
Who, when, what kind of text
Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, was one of the most powerful women at the English court around 1700 and a sharp observer of politics. In old age she wrote down her judgements of contemporaries. A small selection appeared in 1788, arranged alphabetically by subject and person. According to the preface, the manuscripts date from 1736/37 to 1741/42 and fell into the editor’s hands “by mere accident”.
The editor remained anonymous; the edition is attributed to the Scottish judge and historian Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes. In the preface he himself admits that he cannot prove authenticity by producing the originals, only by “internal evidence”. He added explanatory footnotes to many sections – including the passage on Lord Hervey.
Content
What the source reports about donkey milk
In the section “Lord Hervey” of 1737, the Duchess describes the courtier John Hervey as gifted and witty but profligate and ridiculous, with a “painted face” and no teeth. She herself does not mention asses’ milk.
The asses’ milk is in the editor’s footnote: after epileptic attacks, Hervey is said to have begun a strict regimen and so halted the progress of the disease. Every day he ate only a little asses’ milk and a flour biscuit, once a week an apple, and took emetics daily.
The editor links this to Pope’s mockery: Pope knew of the diet and therefore called Hervey “a mere cheese-curd of asses milk”. The editor considers this unfair, as he does Pope’s allusion to Hervey’s face paint.
At a glance
Figures & facts from the source
Timeline
Where this source stands in the history of donkey milk
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Fact check
Recorded or just told?
Pope called Lord Hervey “a mere cheese-curd of asses milk”.
That is how the editor quotes it in 1788, from memory. In the first printing of Pope’s “Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot” (1735) the line reads “that mere white Curd of Ass’s milk”, and Hervey is called “Paris” there, later “Sporus”. The gist is right, the wording is not.
Critical assessment
How reliable is this source?
Source value
The 1788 edition can be checked in full as a scan. The origin of the manuscripts, however, is unclear, as the editor himself admits. The information on asses’ milk does not come from the Duchess but from the footnote, written some 45 years after Hervey’s death.
A diet becomes an anecdote
The footnote explains Pope’s mockery of 1735 by a real way of life: asses’ milk as the meagre invalid diet of a sickly courtier. It shows how closely asses’ milk was associated with weakness and light invalid food in the 18th century.
Today’s assessment
Epilepsy is treated medically today; no effect of donkey milk on it has been shown. The diet described, with daily emetics, would be harmful by today’s knowledge. The passage is a historical anecdote, not a model.
Our assessment
Many people know Pope’s “Curd of Ass’s milk”; why Pope chose this particular image is explained only by this footnote of 1788. It links literature, court gossip and invalid diet – and shows how quotations changed their wording as they were retold, even in the 18th century.
References
Sources to check
- Primary sourceThe Opinions of Sarah Duchess-Dowager of Marlborough. Published from original MSS., [Edinburgh] 1788, p. 43 with the footnote on Lord Hervey; Boston Public Library scan in the Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/opinionsofsarahd00marl/page/n68/mode/1up - SupplementarySame volume, p. 42: beginning of the section “Lord Hervey”, dated 1737
https://archive.org/details/opinionsofsarahd00marl/page/n67/mode/1up
More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.