L30/14/394/3

From Cardinal Valenti, Mantua to 2nd Baron Grantham [Aranjuez]. [Text in French]:

13 Apr 1777

From: 1777 To: 1777

Translation: You may say that however far away, I do not forget my friends and here is proof of it. The desire I have of news of you and of our dear Robinson provoked me into writing these few lines to assure you more and more of my constant friendship and of my gratitude for the favours with which you have overwhelmed me. Next I will tell you that I have received the cloth from Ireland which I have found to be very good. We have greatly praised the benevolent hand which gave it, not forgetting the one which has contributed more than a little to such a gift, and as with [?] Elias, I still have the poplins which you procured for me My Dear My Lord, there quality has been so much to the taste of several of my compatriots that it has taken their fancy to have suits made of it for next year, because it is no longer possible to have them for this summer. Not wanting to give you a new hindrance, I have addressed myself directly to the same Irish merchant you see from the letter which I enclose here expressly, under the Valenti seal, so that you might have the complaisance to read it, and it the case of it being to your taste, to give me the pleasure of sending it to its destination. I would not want to abuse your friendship my dear My Lord, nor to make a bargain under the pretence of [siccatore] [underlined in the text] for such multiple commissions, but if it is possible you should only do from your courtesy, which is what has made me so bold and also the desire I have to make known in this part of Italy, the beautiful products of your country, which I hold in great esteem. Your two beautiful porcelain vases are already in Rome and have been faithfully consigned to Mons Louis Valadier/Valadieu, as we agreed. I flatter myself that he will have written something to you about the commission with which you have charged him, but if he has not done it, you have only to give you my orders with the same liberty that I have used with you. They have sent from Genoa that they have not dispatched the two crystal bowls. In consequence I await your notification of my debt and the way in which it would please you most to be paid, either in Madrid or in Rome in the hands of the same Valadier when he has finished the work you ordered. This present will find you at Aranjuez, thus I wish you less cold weather than that which we have in lower Lombardy, where we are still confined to the fireplace. I do not speak of the diversions that you substituted for those of the theatre, which for you and your colleagues will be even more dispensable, but how many others will take to even more dangerous ones [diversions] still? Not but it is true that, when trying to reform an abuse, one falls unwillingly into a much bigger one. Our Duc de Grimaldi has finally arrived in Genoa and I hear by letter that he is very gay and contented. I am not surprised at it, rid as he is a of a burden that he carried in spite of himself for many years. My brother the Commander [of an order of knights] offers you his respects and Mr Robinson to whom I present my own again. Give a thousand compliments on my part to our dear Ambassador from Turin and also the Portuguese Ambassador who must surely be in a better humour since the great changes we have heard from the Court, you must no more about it than we others do, therefore I hope for some news from you. But what is the Abbe Pozzi doing? Is his head still dressed in a Spanish Mantilla? That he finds more to his taste than the grimace of the Archbishop of Tarbes. Give him my compliments but I am sure that he does not trouble himself about me. In good Italian I could call him Ansina di cavalle [in Italian].Be assured of my respect and the constant affection with which I will be all my life, your good friend and servant, Le Card Valenti.

item

Valadier,
Grimaldi,
Pozzi

Ireland, cloth